Just One Kiss: A Harbor Pointe Novel

by Courtney Walsh

  “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “Go find Jaden,” he said. “Please. Make sure he hears about this from you first.”

  He rushed to his truck, not daring to look back. On the porch stood the only good thing in his life, and he was running the other way.

  Because that good thing deserved life’s best things—and it was pretty obvious he wasn’t going to be able to give them to her.

  37

  The neighborhood felt stale in the thick summer heat. Josh sat in his truck, nearly a block away from his parents’ house. So far, there was no sign of life inside. His father was likely holed up as if nothing had happened and with no idea his mother had gone to Gus.

  He was completely unaware of what was coming.

  Josh had been sitting in the truck for nearly forty-five minutes when the first squad car pulled into the driveway. He sat up straighter in the seat, thinking of all the nights he’d hid from his father—and later, the nights he was caught up in the mess of the man’s anger.

  This terrible secret had been eating away at him all these years—a secret so impossibly painful he’d blocked some of it out—but the truth had always been there, just beneath the surface.

  Another squad car rolled up and parked in the street. An officer got out of the first car and walked toward the front door of his parents’ house.

  A few of the neighbors materialized on their porches, watching with morbid curiosity, the way small-town neighbors did. Josh’s stomach rolled over as his father pulled the front door open.

  He got out of his truck and shut the door, leaning against it with his arms crossed, watching in anticipation.

  His father let out a hearty laugh, then said something Josh couldn’t hear.

  His face heated.

  An unmarked cruiser pulled up. Gus.

  Carly’s dad exited his car and strolled to the door. He said something Josh couldn’t hear, then nodded at the deputy, who motioned for Jim to turn around.

  Josh’s father was visibly agitated, and possibly drunk. He swore, but the two deputies wrangled the large man in, cuffed his hands behind his back, then turned him around. They walked him over to the squad car parked in the driveway and pushed him into the back seat.

  One officer got in the driver’s seat and started the engine as Gus turned around and headed back toward his car. As he did, he spotted Josh, still frozen in the street.

  The older man held his gaze for a three-count, then continued on toward his vehicle.

  The squad car with Josh’s dad in the back pulled out into the street, slowly. Josh watched intently, eyes searching the back seat until they found his father—watching him through the glass. The car passed by slowly, and a shadow crept across his father’s face. He latched on to Josh’s gaze, and Josh forced himself not to look away.

  A chill ran down his spine, and he felt like an eight-year-old all over again, under the watchful eye of a monster—the monster who’d stolen everything from him.

  The image of Dylan’s face lying in the dirt next to the merry-go-round rushed back, taunting him.

  He needed air. He needed to escape. He needed to run.

  Later that night, Carly prepared dinner while Gloria rested upstairs. Jaden was on his way home, and she’d been struggling to figure out how to explain this situation to her son.

  Her nerves had been shot since leaving the cabin earlier. Josh wasn’t answering her calls or texts, and frankly, she was worried about him.

  He’d practically begged her for a second chance only a few weeks ago, and now he was pushing her to move away? It didn’t make sense. Surely he didn’t mean it.

  Her phone buzzed.

  Jim has officially been arrested.

  Her father’s text sent a shiver down her spine. Okay, so Jim knew Gloria had turned on him—what would come next?

  Maybe she should move away, and maybe she should take Josh’s mom with her.

  The back door popped open and Jaden walked in. “What did you do?”

  Carly turned away from the stovetop and stared at him dumbly. “What are you talking about?”

  “Did you tell Dad to go back to Chicago?”

  Carly wiped her hands on a kitchen towel. “No, and I don’t appreciate your tone.”

  He handed his phone to Carly. She glanced down and found a text from Josh.

  Hey, kid, I’m heading back to the city—work is calling. I’ll be back in a week for your appointment, and then we can figure out a time for you to come stay with me for a few weeks if your mom is cool with it.

  Carly’s heart dropped. He was leaving? In the middle of all of this? What was wrong with him?

  She thought about Gloria, likely terrified out of her mind. She needed her son.

  Was Josh so angry he couldn’t do the right thing?

  “So was it you? Did you push him to do this?”

  Carly glanced up and found Jaden’s eyes drilling into her. She shook her head. “Jaden, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

  “If it’s you telling me that Dad’s no good, I don’t want to hear it.”

  “No,” she said. “That’s not it at all. Your dad is actually very, very good.”

  She kept her promise to Josh. She told their son the truth about his grandparents, about the way his father grew up. She told him about all the times Josh would show up at the back door, bruised and bloody, the nights he would sleep in the shed so nobody ever found out.

  “Why didn’t you tell anyone?” Jaden asked.

  Carly’s mind spun back to a night it had gotten so scary she went to her father, and though she’d promised Josh, she knew keeping his secret was only hurting him and his mom.

  But Gus didn’t give her a chance to explain. It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to clamp down on Josh and everything that was wrong with him—Jim was, after all, well respected in their small community.

  Nobody would ever believe me. That’s what Josh had told her. And he was right. Nobody would’ve believed him. And if he didn’t tell someone who would get him out of there, wasn’t he risking making everything worse for everyone?

  “I was scared,” she told her son. “I was scared of putting them in more danger. I was young, Jaden. I didn’t know how to help them—and then your father left. One time I tried to ask your grandma how she was and she pretended she didn’t understand what I meant. Glossed right over it, like I wasn’t making sense.”

  “So, what? Dad’s just running away?”

  “I think he’s trying to sort through quite a bit right now, Jay,” Carly said. “Let’s just try to be patient with him.”

  But inside, Carly’s head was spinning. How could Josh just leave? Again.

  Maybe it was time she realized that he’d never really changed at all.

  38

  The following morning, Carly woke up late, the smell of coffee tickling her nose. While she wished the night before had all been a terrible nightmare, it took only seconds to remember it wasn’t. It was real life. And her heart was unsteady because of it.

  She told herself to be strong—for Gloria, for Jaden. But she didn’t know how to stand up under the weight of her emotional turmoil.

  She loved Josh. She’d been vehemently denying it—even to herself—but saying goodbye to him had nearly done her in.

  Downstairs, she found Gloria standing at the stove, making pancakes and bacon. The smell wafted toward Carly’s nose, reminding her how long it had been since she’d had a proper breakfast.

  Josh’s mom looked up. “Oh, hon, you don’t look so good.”

  Carly pushed the hair out of her face and tied it back with the elastic from her wrist. “I feel even worse.” Her stomach growled as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

  “Did you see Josh?” Gloria asked. “Will he talk to me?”

  Carly didn’t want to be the one to break the news to her that her coward of a son wasn’t sticking around. He didn’t care enough about either of them to muddle his way through the
messy stuff.

  Carly didn’t know why she should stick around to muddle through it herself.

  “Gloria, I was thinking,” she said. “What if we leave Harbor Pointe?”

  The older woman’s brow furrowed as she turned her attention back to the pancakes. She flipped them, one by one, shaking her head. “I could never leave Harbor Pointe. It’s my home.”

  “I know.” Carly poured a dash of creamer into her coffee and stirred. “It’s my home too, but I wonder what a fresh start might look like—for both of us.”

  Gloria pressed the pancakes with the silver spatula. “So he won’t see me, then?”

  Carly took a sip of coffee and leaned against the counter, facing Gloria. “He’s going back to Chicago.”

  Gloria’s expression faltered for a split second, and she looked away. The bruises around her eyes had darkened into a deep purple. Her lip was visibly swollen and the Steri-strips above her eye were covered with dried blood. Carly wondered if she’d looked in the mirror at all this morning. Did she know how badly she needed a fresh start?

  Carly checked her phone, stupidly, it turned out, because Josh still hadn’t responded to her calls or texts. Did he know his father had been arrested? Did he know how badly his mother needed him?

  Did he know Carly loved him?

  She picked up a pancake, tore it in half and ate a bite and stood at the window overlooking the backyard. At her side, Gloria hummed, and Carly wondered if she felt free as a bird or terrified of what was in store.

  The sound of a small engine at the side of her house drew her attention.

  “Is Jaden up?” she asked Gloria.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a teenager in the house, but by my recollection, they don’t stir before eleven in the morning during the summer.” She smiled. “You’re eating, aren’t you?”

  “One second.” Carly walked through the kitchen and out the back door, the bright summer sun forcing her to squint.

  And sure enough, there in the yard, pushing her state-of-the-art lawn mower, was Josh. Not in Chicago. Right here.

  At the sight of her, he killed the engine.

  “What are you doing here?” She walked toward him.

  “Mowing your lawn,” he said simply, as if the answer was obvious.

  “What about Chicago?” she asked.

  His eyes dipped to her lips, then latched on to her gaze. “You’re not in Chicago.”

  She studied his face. “You didn’t go?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Why not?”

  He shrugged. “Realized everything I want is right here.”

  She pressed her lips together, unsure what else to say. “They arrested your dad.”

  He nodded. “I saw.”

  She wouldn’t make him talk about it—not if he didn’t want to. But she said a silent prayer that he would know he could if he needed to, that he knew he was safe with her—no matter what.

  “Your lawn isn’t going to mow itself.” He pulled the cord and the engine roared back to life. He gave her a wave, then pushed the mower to the other end of the yard.

  “I don’t care what you think, Joshua Dixon,” she said to herself. “You are a very good man.”

  Gus walked into the small office at the Harbor Pointe sheriff’s headquarters where Josh had been waiting in a creaky wooden chair next to the older man’s desk.

  He gave Josh a once-over. “Been quite a couple of days for you, young man.”

  To say the least.

  Josh knew Gus didn’t like him. Carly’s dad had made no bones about it. Convincing Carly to give him a second chance was one thing, but it would be nearly impossible to win over this man.

  Still, he had to try.

  The past few days’ events had shown him what was important—and he wasn’t about to lose them again—no matter how much easier it would be to run the other way.

  “You know this is going to be all over the news.” Gus turned off the small television overhead and sat in the chair behind the desk. “Could get ugly.”

  “I know.” Josh had already thought about that. Small-town gossip could be hard to stomach—it was the last thing he wanted for Jaden and Carly.

  “You won’t like what people have to say.”

  “No, sir, I don’t expect I will.” Josh surveyed Gus’s weathered face and found a fatherly concern knitting his brow. “And I don’t think people will like what I have to say either.”

  “Ran into Linda Martin yesterday.”

  Josh leaned back in his chair and met Gus’s eyes. “And?”

  “She told me about the office space you leased.”

  Josh thought about the space he’d found a week ago—a loft right above a coffee shop downtown and only a few blocks from the Harbor Pointe hospital. He’d stupidly imagined meeting Carly for lunch on the days she worked. In fact, he’d worked out a whole life for himself, and every inch of it involved her.

  A lot had changed since the day he signed that lease.

  But his desire for Carly remained.

  Still, he needed her father’s approval. It was important to him to do things the right way this time.

  “Seems like a pretty good spot.” Gus ran a hand over his bushy white mustache, and Josh couldn’t be sure, but he thought he might’ve even smiled.

  Gus was making this much more difficult than Josh had expected simply by being unpredictable. Because instead of being his usual brusque self, Carly’s dad was being kind, and Josh didn’t know how to accept kindness from him. He’d planned out his whole speech to convince Gus he was worthy—but Gus wasn’t giving him the cold shoulder, so Josh wasn’t sure where to begin.

  “You’re not here about your father, are you?” Gus eyed him.

  “Partly,” Josh said. “I want to make sure he’s behind bars.”

  Gus cackled. “Between me and Judge, that man is going to be locked down as long as we can legally keep him inside.”

  “I need to make sure he doesn’t hurt her again,” Josh said. “Because he will try.”

  “She filed a restraining order before the arrest. We can put a GPS tracker on him, monitor his whereabouts. If he comes within a certain distance of your mother, the tracker will alert us, and he’ll be arrested again.”

  “So she wears a tracker too?”

  “Or carries it with her, yes,” Gus said.

  “What about Carly and Jaden?”

  “Them too.” Gus leaned forward and looked at him across the desk. “We’re on the same page, son.”

  Josh nodded. “You think they’ll be okay?”

  “Are you going to stick around and make sure of it?” Gus’s forehead crinkled as one of his bushy eyebrows raised above the other.

  Josh cleared his throat. “That’s the other reason why I’m here, sir.”

  Gus leaned back in his chair, folding his hands across his belly. “I figured as much.”

  “And you’re not going to shut me down?”

  “I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

  Josh stood, circling around the chair. “I had this all worked out in the car on the way over here.” He glanced at Gus. “But you were a lot meaner the way I played it out in my head.”

  Gus gave a soft shrug. “If you want me to be meaner, I can.”

  A nervous laugh slipped out and Josh shook his head. “No, that’s okay.” He mustered his courage. “I came to tell you that I love your daughter.”

  After a beat, Gus said dryly, “I’m so surprised.”

  “I’d like your blessing, sir,” Josh said.

  “For what?”

  “To marry her.”

  Gus cocked his head to one side, taking him in. “You know that nothing about marriage and kids is easy.”

  “I understand that.”

  “So what happens when you want to take off?”

  It was a fair question, but an upsetting one. “I won’t.”

  “How do we know that for sure?”

  “I t
ried running once,” Josh said. “Biggest mistake of my life.”

  “And you’re a different man now?”

  Josh pondered the question a moment. “Yes, sir, I believe I am. Smarter. And I know what’s important. I know who I am now.” He met the man’s eyes. “And I know whose I am.”

  “That right?”

  Yeah, the last few days had worked him over. Letting go of everything he thought he was hadn’t been easy, but when all the rubble had been cleared away, one truth remained—God loved him as much today as he’d loved him a week ago. There was comfort in that.

  The awkward lull in the conversation sent Josh’s mind whirling. He wouldn’t leave again—he knew it. The only thing he wanted in the world was to love Carly for the rest of his life.

  “What are you thinking?” Josh asked.

  “I’m considering what you said,” Gus replied. “I think a few things need to happen before I can give you my blessing.”

  Josh wasn’t sure he wanted to know what those things were.

  “First, I think I owe you an apology.”

  “That’s . . . unexpected.” Josh relaxed a little.

  “I always liked you when you and Carly were kids,” he said. “You looked at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world.”

  “She is,” Josh said quietly.

  “But when she told me she was pregnant, I was shocked.” Gus ran a hand over his chin. “Did not see that coming.”

  “Yeah, you and me both.”

  He fidgeted with a pen, eyes on his desk. “I thought I’d failed. I must’ve done something wrong as a father. The girls needed a mother, and I was lousy at that.”

  Josh decided not to disagree. Not because he didn’t disagree, but because it sounded like Gus had things to get off his chest. Did he tell the old man that his daughter felt like a failure too? That they had that in common?

  “And when you left—I guess I took all that anger I felt toward myself and directed it at you.” Gus sighed. “I understand now why you did what you did, and I have to tell you, there was something honorable in your choice.”