Barefoot in the Rain

by Roxanne St Claire

  Hustling down the hall, she went right to the front door, carefully peering out to the driveway.

  No strange cars, just hers and—

  Will was standing next to her car, on the passenger side, looking at something. She couldn’t see from this angle, so she walked around to the dining-room window and carefully separated the blinds, giving her a perfect shot of him in the driveway.

  He was looking at her phone; she’d left it in the console when she’d gotten out to say hello to him.

  What was he doing? Searching for texts from Miles Thayer?

  The thought was like a sharp spike across her heart.

  Carrying the phone, he rounded the car and headed toward the front door. On the way, he slowed his step and turned as a car came down the street. The same car, with the same telephoto lens.

  The driver’s window rolled down. “Hey, is Jocelyn Bloom in there?”

  Will ignored them, marching to the front door and unlocking it before letting himself inside. She was waiting when he walked in.

  He searched her face for a moment, then said, “They’ve been out there for a while.”

  “I know,” she said. “I’m taking Guy up to Barefoot Bay.”

  He held out her phone. “You left this in your car.” His eyes were wary, cold even. She took it from him, careful not to touch his hands and suffer the electrical shock. “I thought I’d get it so those assholes circling the house didn’t try to steal it from you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “William!” Guy came bounding out of the hallway. “Look what Missy found! All your old baby clothes.”

  Will shot her a dark look, but she interceded instantly. “Those are for my friend Lacey, Guy.” She reached to take the bundle from him. “They don’t belong to Will.”

  “But they did.” Guy managed to hold on to one little sleeper, waving it up like a baby-blue flag. “Can’t believe you were ever this small, son.”

  “They’re not mine, Guy.”

  “Then whose are they?” Guy asked, looking from one to the other, bewildered.

  Neither said a word.

  “They belong to a baby who’s no longer around,” Jocelyn said gently, taking the sleeper from him and putting a hand on his back. “Come on, Guy. You have to focus. We need to leave quickly.”

  He turned to look at Will. “This is the part where I go to the fancy hotel. You know, William? In the show? They always send the people off to a nice place. Will you be there?”

  “He’s going to California,” Jocelyn said, hating the ice in her voice but making no effort to warm it.

  Guy froze, his eyes wide with horror. “What?”

  “Just for a day,” Will said quickly. “You’ll be with Jocelyn.”

  That calmed him and he let her lead him back down the hall. “When are you leaving?” Guy called out.

  “Well,” he said. “I was going to leave now, but…”

  Jocelyn turned to look at him. “But what?”

  “I don’t want to go with…” He pointed toward the street.

  She gave Guy a nudge ahead then returned to the dining room. “I have this covered. We’ll be at Casa Blanca and Clay won’t let anyone on that property.”

  “I’ll follow you to Barefoot Bay and make sure—”

  “No!” She hadn’t meant for it to come out like a bark. “Just do me a huge favor and go.”

  “I am,” he said with sharp simplicity. “I am going to California, Jocelyn, and I’ll tell you why.”

  “I know why.”

  “No, you don’t.” He leaned a little closer, smelling fresh, like he’d just taken a shower. And washed off her and her admissions of love. “You think you know everything. You think you can control everything. You think—”

  “I get the idea.” She waved him to the door. “I don’t know anything, Will. I was certainly wrong about you.”

  He looked hard at her, brows drawn over pained eyes. “And I was wrong about you.”

  Ouch. She swallowed, closing her eyes to keep from reacting. “Do me a favor, Will. On your way out, pull my car into the garage, and then tell those reporters that you’re going to pick me up at the airport. Let them follow you there as a decoy.”

  “You think they’ll fall for that?”

  “Yes, if you’re convincing. Will you do that for me?”

  “Actually, I’ll do a lot more than that for you.”

  “Don’t,” she said quickly. “That’ll be all I need. That’ll be enough.”

  “All right,” he agreed. “Do this your way. But I just want you to know one thing.” He took her chin in his hand, holding too tight for her to wrench away, forcing her eyes onto him. “I know what I did wrong all those years ago. I know what I should have done and didn’t do. And now I know the consequences of that decision and”—he worked hard to keep his voice from cracking, the effort appearing more painful than if he’d actually cried—“I’m going to make that up to you.”

  By demanding she go back to California? By believing gossip rags and not her? “You don’t have to,” she managed to say.

  “But I’m going to. I’m going to do what I should have done back then.”

  He should have gone to California to chase his father’s dreams of wearing Dodger blue? But she didn’t have the heart to say that to him because, deep inside, she still loved Will Palmer. She always had and she always would.

  But love wasn’t enough. There had to be trust, too.

  “Good luck to you, then, Will. Hope you find what you’re looking for in California.”

  He rubbed his cheek, still unshaven, nodding to her. “I will. And I won’t come back until I do.”

  Then I’ll miss you. “Good-bye.”

  He went through the garage and pulled in the Toyota, closing the door. Then she saw him head out to the street to talk to the driver of the car with the photographer. After a few minutes, Will pulled out of his driveway and the media followed his truck.

  Jocelyn just leaned against the window and, like she had so many times in this house, she cried because she only wanted one man to love her, and he didn’t.

  Chapter 28

  Just as Jocelyn pulled out to the empty street, Guy grabbed her arm with a sudden whimper.

  “I forgot something!”

  “What?”

  “I…” He pressed his hands to his temples so hard he made dents. “I can’t remember, darn it.”

  She looked up and down the street, expecting more reporters to jump out of the bushes at any time. “Whatever you forgot, I can come back and get it.” Or someone could. “You need to stop worrying and relax.”

  He looked like he didn’t know the meaning of “relax,” leaning forward like he was about to jump out and run. “William is gone,” he said. “That’s what I forgot.”

  “William is on a quick business trip,” she assured him, forcing lightness into her voice when the statement made her feel anything but. “He’ll be back before you know it.”

  “Before the yard sale?”

  “Yes,” she lied. “Before the yard sale. Now put your seat belt on and let’s get to this amazing hotel. You’re going to love it.”

  She didn’t see another car except for the UPS truck until they got closer to town. No one honked, cut her off, or sidled up next to her when she hit the Fourway and stopped at the intersection of Center and Harbor.

  There, she spotted a sheriff’s car in the parking lot of the Super Min. God willing, that was Deputy Slade Garrison and she could tell him what was going on.

  As she pulled in, Guy grabbed her arm again. “I won’t go in there.”

  “I just want to…” Did he remember Charity? “Why not?”

  He shook his head hard. “No. I won’t go in there.”

  Charity had made it her mission to force him to resign from his position as the local deputy sheriff and had essentially threatened to ruin him for what he’d done to Jocelyn. How would she react if Jocelyn said she’d forgiven her father?

  Didn�
��t matter. Now wasn’t the time to worry about that; she had to talk to Slade and not sit here, out in the open.

  “Stay in the car,” she said, pulling into a spot along the side of the convenience store. “I’ll only be a minute.”

  He gave her a dubious look, his mouth drawn, his shoulders slumped.

  “Everything’s going to be fine, Guy,” she promised him.

  But his eyes filled. “I miss William already.”

  “So do I,” she admitted. “Give me one second, okay?”

  As she started to climb out she heard him mumble, “Christ, I hate that woman,” under his breath.

  She froze, then turned back to Guy. “You remember Charity?”

  “No,” he said quickly. “I just remember I hate her.”

  Everything pressed on her as hard and hot as the Florida sun. “Wait here, Guy,” she said, climbing out to rush into the Super Min.

  Slade was leaning on the counter, talking to Gloria Vail behind the cash register.

  “I have to talk to you, Deputy Garrison,” she said quickly. “Privately.” The deputy and Gloria shared a look that told Jocelyn Gloria knew everything that was going on. “Or not,” Jocelyn added with a nod. “Just let me tell you both.”

  The back door popped open and Charity stepped out. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  Absolutely nothing got by that woman. She was probably watching the store on closed circuit TVs in her office.

  “I’m fine, but the media has definitely found me. They’re at my old house, so I’m taking my father up to Barefoot Bay with me.”

  “You’re taking him?” Charity’s drawn-on brows shot up. “Why?”

  She swallowed. “So he’s protected.”

  The older woman choked, but Slade stepped into the conversation. “That’s smart, Jocelyn. Did you happen to see what kind of car they’re driving?”

  She described it to the best of her ability and answered a few more questions, painfully aware of Charity’s dark scowl of disapproval. When Slade stepped to the side to call another deputy, Charity came around the counter and took Jocelyn by the elbow.

  “Come with me,” she said harshly.

  “I can’t, Charity. I left him in the car.”

  “Let him rot!”

  Jocelyn freed herself from the other woman’s grip. “Please.”

  “Really, Aunt Charity,” Gloria said. “Slade has this covered.”

  Charity flattened her niece with a glare and took Jocelyn’s arm again. “This’ll take one minute. Get back here. Might change your life.”

  “My life is changed,” she said softly. “I want to forgive him, Charity.”

  “Oh, hell. C’mere.” She gave Jocelyn a nudge to the back door and, fueled by curiosity more than anything, Jocelyn followed.

  The office was tiny, cluttered, and smelled like the cardboard boxes of snack items stacked in the corner, but Charity seemed to know exactly what she wanted, going right to a filing cabinet to whip a drawer open.

  “You want to forgive him, huh?”

  “I want to move on.” She hated the cliché, but it worked for the moment. What did Charity have in that drawer?

  A thin manila file, it turned out, that Charity used to fan herself. “I’ve been keeping an eye on your old man.”

  “I know you have. At least until my mother died.”

  “And after.” Charity slammed her hands on her bony hips. “Someone had to watch the old prick.”

  Someone had: Will. But she stayed very still, waiting for Charity to explain.

  “After she died, he started to go downhill pretty fast,” Charity said.

  “I know.”

  She held out the file. “Or did he?” When Jocelyn didn’t move to take it, Charity snapped the folder like a whip. “Don’t you want to know?”

  Maybe she didn’t. “Whatever you have doesn’t matter, Charity, because so much time—”

  “It matters!” She shook the folder viciously. “You can’t let someone get away with abuse!”

  “The abuse is history.” She had to hold on to that belief. It had taken so long to get to this point and it had cost her so much. She wasn’t about to let this old busybody steal her forgiveness. Even if this old busybody nearly saved her life once. “Guy is suffering from dementia and doesn’t even remember what he did.”

  Charity threw the file on an already overcrowded desk with a dramatic sigh. “Of course he wants you to think that, Jocelyn! What if you press charges?”

  “I decided long ago I wouldn’t.”

  “Even after your mother died?” The question was loaded with implications.

  “Of brain cancer, Charity. He didn’t kill her.” Made her life a living hell, but didn’t end it.

  “Are you certain of that?”

  “Absolutely. I spoke to the doctors.”

  “It was sudden, though, wasn’t it?”

  Jocelyn’s gaze shifted to the file. She had no doubt her mother had died of natural causes—and possibly a broken heart. But Guy hadn’t killed her.

  “Just look at it, for crying out loud.”

  Very slowly, she reached for the file and opened it to see a single piece of paper with The Lee County Library System Serving Southwest Florida scrolled across the top.

  “That came courtesy of Marian Winstead.”

  “Marian the Librarian,” Jocelyn said softly, the locals’ nickname for Mimosa Key’s keen-eyed librarian popping into her head.

  “She doesn’t like to be called that,” Charity said. “As you may know, she’s my lifelong dear friend and quite trustworthy.”

  Jocelyn read a list of books, authors, and Dewey Decimal numbers.

  Elder Law: Financial and Legal Considerations for the Alzheimer’s Patient

  Alzheimer’s and the Law

  The Defense Rests: One Man’s Acquittal and Dementia

  “You’ll notice that all of those books were checked out in a five-month period by Alexander Bloom.”

  Alexander. Like the baby boy. She shook her head, wishing she could throw away all of these thoughts and just start over. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m not saying anything. I think that list says it all. Now, I’m not accusing him of anything that he’s not already guilty of.” She took a few steps farther. “It just makes a person wonder, doesn’t it? Just how convenient it is for him to ‘have Alzheimer’s.’ ” She air-quoted and lowered her voice to a new level of sarcastic.

  Jocelyn put down the file and met Charity’s gaze. “If you’re implying he’s faking the dementia to cover up for anything he did or didn’t do, you’re wrong.”

  “You’re letting him off the hook.” Charity’s nostrils flared at the thought. “Maybe you should take another look at those pictures I gave to Will Palmer. Count the bruises. Remember the pain. I was the one who put ice on you, you know. I was the one—”

  “I know!” She shot her hands up in apology the minute the shout came out of her mouth. “I know,” she repeated, softening her tone. “I just don’t want to live with all this hate anymore. He’s sick.”

  “Is he really? Are you absolutely certain of that, Jocelyn?”

  She closed her eyes, picturing Guy and all he didn’t know and couldn’t remember.

  I hate that woman.

  She could still hear the echo of Guy’s sly comment. “It’s a very hard disease to understand.”

  Charity leaned so close Jocelyn could count her oversized pores. “So’s abuse. I know. I had my own broken ribs to help me understand it. And I got the hell out of there, and took my Gracie with me. Which is more than I can say for your poor, pathetic dead mother.”

  She couldn’t take this. No matter what Charity had done for her, she couldn’t stand here and listen to her accuse Guy of being a fake or a murderer or whatever. He was what he was—and Jocelyn had decided to get past that regardless of what Charity wanted her to do. “I’ve made up my mind, Charity. Thank you for the information.”

  As she turned to the door, Charit
y’s hand landed on her arm. “Be a shame for that file to land in the hands of the wrong person.”

  Jocelyn froze and looked at her. “Yes, it would.”

  “You know, like the National Enquirer.”

  Jocelyn opened the door and stepped into the store without answering, nodding to Gloria and Slade. “Thanks again,” she said softly. “If you need me, I’ll be up at Lacey and Clay Walker’s house.”

  Outside, the sun smacked her, blinding after the dreary, miserable back office of the Super Min. But it couldn’t wash away the accusations and doubt. Maybe Guy had known he was forgetting things and needed to check up on his rights or insurance. Without Mom to help, and in the aftermath of her death, that would be a reasonable worry.

  Maybe he was scared all the stuff he had done would come to the surface.

  Maybe he—

  Was gone.

  Jocelyn stopped dead on the curb and stared at the empty front seat of the car and the wide-open passenger door.

  “Guy!” She ran around the car, turning in a full circle, sweat already dribbling down her back. “Guy!”

  She ran into the lot, looked up and down the intersection, over to the motel parking lot, everywhere, everywhere.

  Guy was gone.

  When Will landed in L.A., it was still light and fairly early, a blessing for a person who wanted to make a cross-country round trip in as little time as possible. If all went according to plan, he could be on a red-eye tonight, mission accomplished. If not, then his plan just sucked.

  But he had to do something. He had to help Jocelyn—this time. And it couldn’t be too little, too late. It had to work.

  Scott hadn’t been happy, of course, when Will had called him back to turn down the offer. But telling Jocelyn that he wasn’t taking the job wouldn’t have convinced her of anything; he had to show her he loved her. Plus, she’d have wallowed in guilt, assuming it was her decision to stay that had made his decision.

  Not true at all. She loved him, and he was never going to lose her again. But until he made up for the wrongs he’d been carrying around for fifteen years, he hadn’t earned her.

  Well, he was about to. He hoped. Unless this stunt was an exercise in futility.