by Tawny Weber
She and Jack had gone their separate ways, just as she’d known they would, known they had to, but it didn’t make it any easier. She’d fallen in love with Jack in that tropical paradise and leaving him had been the hardest thing she’d ever done.
She’d gone straight home after her return to the States. To her parents’ house and then to visit her sisters, spilling her tale about a band of thieves and a brave, handsome Navy SEAL who saved her life and stole her heart. Then she’d returned to Boston to discover Kit was getting married. Brian had been offered a once in a lifetime chance to be a drummer for a popular rock band. She wouldn’t hold them back. They would have stayed if she’d asked, but she couldn’t do that. So, they were playing their final gig and planned to make it a good one. She’d never let her broken heart get in the way of a performance.
The song ended and the crowd burst into shouts and clapping that brought a smile to her lips. The first time she’d smiled in two months. She’d cried herself to sleep every night since her return and hadn’t been able to put on her favorite bras and panties without bursting into tears, but it felt good to be here. These were her people, her fans, family and friends.
As she looked out she saw her parents and two sisters sitting in the audience, smiling and lending their support. They were here for her, putting their lives on hold to be with her on this important night and Darci felt her heart swell. She realized now her luck to have such a caring family and her adventure in the Caribbean had helped her see that. It had changed her life. Changed her. And she would never forget it.
The band broke into the next song, one that her mother loved the most. A slow ballad that always made her cry.
“This one’s for you, Mum,” Darci said.
A tear slipped down her mother’s cheek. She’d cried when Darci came home, holding Darci tight while she told her what she’d been through.
So much of her life had been spent wandering, never sitting still long enough to enjoy the family she had. She spent so much of her time wondering what waited over the next horizon, that she missed the comforts of simply being home. She’d never given it much thought before and she owed her newfound view on life to the experience in the Caribbean. It had taught her life was too fragile. She would never take her family for granted again.
She still longed for adventure. Probably always would, but her needs were changing. She no longer searched the globe for what was missing in her life. She’d found it in Jack and she wasn’t fool enough to believe she’d find it again.
But he’d returned to California and she to Boston. She rolled with the changes in her life, even if it did leave her feeling a little out of sorts. Her band had been her life for so long, she didn’t know how to live without them. They satisfied her wanderlust. Without them, she felt a little lost.
She tried not to think about it too much, because it scared her. That life was all she knew. So where did that leave her? She loved a man who’d already forgotten about her, and she had no idea how to get over that.
Pushing the painful thoughts out of her mind, she focused on her music and her audience. A sad night for all. O’Malley’s pub was a beginning and an end for the band. She owed it to her audience to make it the best show ever.
Jack slipped unnoticed into a chair in the back corner of the very crowded Irish pub. Lucky he found somewhere to sit, considering the place was packed like a can of sardines. It didn’t take him long to figure out why.
His eyes were drawn to the stage, a small platform in the center of the pub, where the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen sang like an angel straight from Heaven. He couldn’t name all the instruments being played, but he knew the woman singing the haunting melody, her voice filling the room and wrapping around him.
Entranced, he watched her close her eyes and sway gently to the beat of the drum. Her hair fell in dark waves to her waist. Seeing her here, like this, would haunt him the rest of his days. She belonged on stage. The crowd loved her and when he glanced around he saw tears falling down many cheeks. All eyes were glued to her as she drew them into the melody.
The song ended. She blew a kiss to the audience, then briefly touched the Celtic necklace hanging around her neck. Cheering shook the rafters and Jack found himself clapping along with the rest of them. She was amazing. Sexy, beautiful and talented.
He’d come straight off the plane to O’Malley’s, prepared to offer her the adventure of a lifetime, but seeing her here, like this, in her element… Maybe he’d been wrong in thinking to ask her to leave. Clearly, this was where she belonged.
The band immediately broke into another song, this one more upbeat, yet still as haunting. The music seemed to touch a deep part of his soul, the part he kept hidden, and draw it out. But Jack wasn’t interested in the music; he wanted the singer. He couldn’t ask her to leave this life, it wouldn’t be fair, and no matter how he felt about her he would never intentionally hurt her. He’d been a fool for thinking she would give up everything for him. Now he saw how much she would be giving up.
Pushing back his chair, he moved to stand, but the next song stopped him. She began singing about two lovers that had crossed paths and gone their separate ways. A sad song, filled with emotion that drop-kicked him back into his chair.
When he looked up at the stage he saw tears in her eyes and watched, mesmerized, as she finished the song, took a bow and said goodbye to her fans with sadness in her smile and a tremble in her hand.
Then the crowd pulsed toward the band and the place turned into chaos. Jack stayed put, hidden in the shadows, watching the band mingle with the crowd. He’d only caught the tail end of the show, but the praise was well deserved. They were very good. It only reinforced his earlier thoughts. She deserved what he couldn’t give her.
Darci hugged her parents, then her sisters, and waved as they left the pub. They were going back to their hotel, since her apartment wasn’t big enough to house all of them. Sadness filled her heart as she watched them drive away.
It was over. The band had said their goodbyes and gone their separate ways. She’d agreed to stay and help close up. She didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment and think about the void inside her. It hurt too much.
Turning the closed sign over, she turned back around and saw him. Sitting alone at a table in the corner, his back propped against the wall. Her heart stopped beating for the barest of seconds. She blinked, thinking her imagination played tricks on her, but when she opened her eyes he was still there.
He rose from his chair and her knees went weak. Jack. In Boston. She could only stand there in silence and watch as he weaved his way toward her. He looked good. Tall, strong, healthy. His bruises had faded, leaving a clean-shaven, handsome face that revealed none of his thoughts. The cut across his eyebrow had healed, but bisected the brow, making him look dangerously sexy. He wore low-rise jeans and t-shirt that hugged everything that should absolutely be hugged. Not even her dreams could compare to the living, breathing Jack Taggart.
He stopped a foot away from her and his scent wrapped around her, tantalizing her senses. Heaven help her, she couldn’t face him right now. She was too vulnerable, her emotions raw. Two months had passed but the pain remained. As did her love. But he hadn’t shared that love, so what brought him here? Why tonight, with her life falling apart?
“Hi.” He grinned. “I caught the tail end of your performance.”
“How’d you like it?” Her voice went breathless, but not from her singing. She wanted him to pull her into his arms because there she’d forget all her troubles. But he only stood there, looking at her in the dim light of the pub, revealing nothing.
“You’re a talented woman.”
“Thanks, but this was our last performance.” Her chest tightened at the thought. What adventure would fill the void?
Jack seemed surprised by the news. “The band is breaking up?”
She nodded. “Kit’s getting married and Brian was offered a career opportunity with a reputable rock band.�
��
“I see.” Jack’s gaze studied her face. If he looked any harder, he would see how she struggled. He had a way of reading her like a book. That could be irritating and wonderful at the same time.
“So what are you going to do?”
The million-dollar question. She’d been asking herself that for two months. Write songs, for sure. After that? A mystery. She had the entire world in front of her. She could do anything she wanted: travel, sightsee, enjoy her freedom. But none of that sounded fun anymore if she did it alone.
Instead of answering, she moved to an empty table and motioned for him to sit. Much safer with a block of wood between them to keep her from reaching for him.
Paddy, the owner, came over and asked if they needed anything before he turned in for the night. Jack refused and Darci assured him she’d lock up before she left. She’d spent many a late night with the band, so it wasn’t that unusual for her to lock up. Paddy had been one of her first friends here in Boston and for an old coot he was as good as they came.
“How about a beer?” She stood. “I need a beer.”
“Sure,” Jack answered, even though he’d just told Paddy he didn’t want anything.
She tapped out two beers and handed one to Jack.
“Green beer.” He examined the contents of his glass.
“Did you expect anything less?” Darci sipped hers.
Jack grinned and took a hefty swallow. She would have to escort him to the door if he didn’t like it.
When he didn’t push the remaining beer away, Darci relaxed. He liked it. Good. She didn’t think she could live with a man who didn’t drink green beer.
“I’m sorry about your band.” Jack’s voice sounded compassionate.
Darci smiled, hoping he didn’t see the sadness in it. “Me too, but it’s okay. Brian has a great opportunity and Maxine deserves her time with Kit.”
“What about you?”
Darci shifted in her chair. “I’m fine.”
“Are you?”
No, she’d lost her lover. Her band.
Jack asked the right questions and she didn’t like it. She wasn’t ready to figure out her future, and certainly not with him. He’d walked away from her and that still hurt. She loved him and that hurt too. If he’d come here thinking they could hook up for the weekend, he had another think coming. No way could she handle that, so she decided to be blunt.
“What are you doing here, Jack?”
“I came to make good on my promise.”
“You flew from California to Boston to invite me to dinner?”
“I guess that blows my ‘I was in the neighborhood’ theory,” he said with a grin.
Darci smiled. “I guess it does. Are you serious? You really want me to go with you to California just for dinner?”
“If you’re up for the adventure.”
She’d go on any adventure with him. She’d been wondering what to do next. Then Jack showed up with an answer to her problems. A temporary answer, but she wasn’t complaining.
“Having dinner with you will be an adventure?” She sipped her beer.
“It is when you include the Demarco family. Donovan has four brothers and three sisters. All Catholic and all temperamental. I figured I’d take you to lunch first and let you adjust before sitting to dinner.”
Darci refused to read too much into that. Jack never broke a promise. He was an honorable man, she knew that, but it still had her off guard that he’d come. She’d never expected to see him again. And now she had the chance to go to California, meet his friends, and fill in the blanks as to who Jack Taggart really was.
Her curiosity got the better of her. She had to know where he lived, how he lived and what kind of friends he kept. She wanted to know him as something other than the man who’d saved her life in a tropical paradise. Besides, she had nowhere else to go at this particular time in her life. An adventure might be just what she needed.
“All right, Jack, it’s a date.”
Jack lived in Coronado, a charming little town surrounded by water. They had to cross a bridge over the San Diego Bay to get there, and even after the long flight Darci could hardly contain her excitement. She was in California with Jack, with her whole life ahead of her. Suddenly her predicament didn’t seem so horrible. But this was how she always reacted whenever she experienced something for the first time. Jack had offered her a chance to do something she loved. How could she not be excited?
They drove past cafes and restaurants with outdoor dining and a dozen shops she couldn’t wait to explore. There were parks and beaches and Darci loved it all. The sun shone full force, promising a hot day. Jack had the air conditioner on, but Darci asked to turn it off so she could roll her windows down. He obliged with a smile and turned down another street, this one leading away from downtown.
When they pulled into the driveway of a small, white cottage with red shutters, matching roof and a stone path leading to the front door, Darci couldn’t help but gape. She had expected Jack to live in an apartment or condo, a bachelor pad, not a cute little gingerbread house with its octagonal turret above a covered porch. Not what she expected to see on a California beach either, but it sat on the end of a narrow road with a sprinkling of other equally cute houses.
“This is yours?” She opened her door.
“Is that a compliment?” Jack came around to her side to open the door for her, but she was already out and trotting up the path.
Darci grinned over her shoulder and waited on the porch while Jack lifted her bags out of the back of his beat-up Chevy. The truck was a workhorse, not meant for vanity, but to pull his sailboat. It didn’t look shiny and new, but it ran like a luxury vehicle. He took care of the things he cared about and it made her hot all over.
A bag in each hand, Jack strode up the stone path toward her. “Not me, I know,” he said. “A friend of my mom’s was selling it because she didn’t want to put the time or money into restoring it and sold it to me cheap a few years ago. She made me promise to renovate, not tear down. I couldn’t let her down, so I spent the past five years restoring it.”
A man of his word. Someone could have easily made that promise and turned a profit within a year, but not Jack. Honorable through and through. Big, tough alpha male living in a red and white gingerbread house.
“Well,” she said, “it looks like you did a fine job. It’s adorable.”
Jack winced as he set one of her bags down and reached out to unlock the door. “Adorable isn’t exactly what I was going for.”
“Oh, well, how about masculine? It’s very masculine in a…cute, Victorian kind of way.”
Jack groaned and pushed the door open. Darci walked in, took a look around at the very non-Victorian interior and raised an eyebrow at Jack, who grinned sheepishly.
“The stipulation was for the exterior only. Mary didn’t think it fair to keep the rose and green décor.”
“Kind of her.” Darci wandered through the foyer into the living room. Not a very big room, with a dark green sofa in one corner and matching chairs in the other two. A loaded entertainment center occupied the remaining corner, creating a cozy, turn the lights down and cuddle on the couch atmosphere. For a man he was incredibly coordinated.
“Original wood floors,” Jack said, following her. “My favorite part of the house, besides the fact it’s on the water and I can dock my boat.”
The floors were beautiful and he didn’t cover them with rugs like in most Victorian homes. He’d done a good job restoring them and, she noticed, he had kept the original Victorian cornice trim on the walls and ceilings. A bit old fashioned and a bit Jack, a nice contrast.
“Come on, I’ll give you the two-cent tour.” Jack led her back into the foyer where a wooden staircase rose to the second floor.
“Head is to your right,” he said, passing the stairs and turning right into the kitchen. More cornice trim lined the straw colored walls. The appliances were modern, the kitchen small and quaint. She noticed a vase of
fresh cut flowers on the kitchen table. They stopped her dead in her tracks and for the first time she considered the fact that Jack may be involved with someone. He hadn’t promised her more than dinner and had mentioned a spare bedroom on the plane.
Jack followed her gaze. “My mom leaves fresh flowers from her garden every week. She must have dropped these off while I was in Boston.”
Darci let out a breath. Of course, his mom. Not a girlfriend or lover. Thank God. She didn’t think she could handle meeting Jack’s girlfriend.
“Your mom drops off flowers.” She stepped closer and nested her nose in the bouquet. “How sweet.”
“Yeah, well, don’t tell anyone.”
“Who would I tell?” she asked, thinking it incredibly sweet that Jack got flowers from his mom.
“Remember that when I take you to Demarco’s this afternoon. Want to freshen up before we have lunch?”
Darci turned to face him. He stood beside the fridge with one shoulder propped against it, looking so sexy that she suddenly wanted more than lunch. She liked who Jack was, on and off the island, and she needed to be close to him right now.
“I’d love a shower,” she said, watching Jack’s eyes darken when she licked her lips. They may have gone their separate ways, but the chemistry was still there.
“You can use the one upstairs.”
“Lead the way,” she said and followed him, with any luck, to his bed.
Damn. Wondering what color lace she wore beneath her shorts and tank for the past twelve hours was killing him. At this rate he’d be dead by sunset. Maybe lime green or purple? He’d really like to see her in purple.
Raking a hand through his hair, Jack trotted back down the stairs, trying to ignore the sounds of Darci’s shower. He had put her bags in the spare bedroom, not wanting to push her, and tried not to read too much into the disappointment in her eyes. He hadn’t called in a few favors to screw it up now, no matter how much he wanted to climb into that shower with her.