Hunter's Bride and A Mother's Wish

by Marta Perry

  “I’m sorry for the way it happened. Sorry that it all came out that way. I certainly didn’t plan that. But Dalton put pressure on me to wrap this up quickly.”

  “So you put pressure on my father.”

  He’d never known her golden-brown eyes could look so scornful. He beat down the little voice that said she had every right.

  “I didn’t pressure him. I just opened the subject, and he agreed before I had a chance to give him the details.”

  “He didn’t understand.” She threw the words at him. “Thanks to our playacting, he agreed to something he never would have otherwise.”

  “You don’t know that. When he heard what Dalton is willing to pay, he’d have jumped at it, anyway.” He would, of course he would. Anyone would.

  “If you really believe that, let him off the hook.” Her words challenged him. “Start all over again and make your offer.”

  She was asking the impossible. “Chloe, I can’t do that, not now. You must realize that. Dalton wouldn’t forgive me if I let the deal slip between my fingers at this point.”

  “And that’s all that matters to you.”

  She was judging him again. He embraced anger. She had no right to judge him. She didn’t. No one did.

  “I’m doing what I was hired to do. If you don’t understand that, maybe you don’t belong at Dalton Resorts.”

  The instant the words were out of his mouth, he was appalled. He didn’t want to lose Chloe. He didn’t want to think about returning to Chicago without her.

  But the alternative seemed to be losing his dream, and he couldn’t do that, either. He couldn’t give up the goal that had sustained him all these years.

  Chloe went white but her gaze never wavered. “Maybe you’re right about that. Maybe I don’t belong there, any more than you belong here.”

  There didn’t seem to be anything left to say.

  “I’ll pack my things.” He moved past her to the door. “It will be better if I move to a hotel on the mainland.”

  She stepped aside, as if touching him might contaminate her. “Yes. That will be better.”

  He yanked open the screen door. “Please tell your father I’ll call him to arrange a meeting with an attorney to sign the papers.”

  Something inside cried to him to say something else, to mend this with Chloe no matter what the cost. He slammed it down hard. He couldn’t change now, not when he was on the verge of having everything he wanted.

  Then, why did that seem so hollow?

  By evening, her family’s sympathy had become intolerable. Chloe huddled in a rocker on the porch, feet pulled up, arms wrapped around her knees. If she’d ever doubted their love, she couldn’t doubt it now. The knowledge of her deception had rocked them. They had to be disappointed in her. But one and all, they’d rallied around.

  Daniel had suggested taking Luke for a nice long boat ride and marooning him. David wanted to call an attorney. Miranda thought if they just explained how they felt, surely Luke would understand. Theo had been at first disbelieving, then furious. His idol had shown his feet of clay, and Theo wasn’t going to find that easy to forgive.

  The bottom line, though, was that Daddy wouldn’t change his mind. Whatever it cost him, his path was clear. He’d given his word.

  It was her fault. Chloe leaned her forehead on her knees. When she was six and had done something wrong, she’d curled up in a ball in the futile hope that she could just disappear. It hadn’t worked then, and it didn’t work now.

  They were going to lose Angel Isle, and it was all her fault.

  Daniel’s truck pulled into the drive. A door slammed, and Gran marched toward her. The family had called in the big guns, she thought tiredly. But Gran was just someone else to whom she owed an apology.

  “Gran, I’m sorry.” She wouldn’t have thought she had any tears left to shed, but they welled in her eyes. “I deceived you. I’m so sorry.”

  Gran just stood for a moment, hands folded on the front of her flower-print dress. “You are a pretty sorry sight, Chloe Elizabeth.”

  Chloe planted her feet on the floor and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “As for deceiving me—” Gran sat down in the rocker next to her “—looks to me like the person you most deceived was yourself.”

  Gran had an uncanny knack for getting right to the thing you least wanted to talk about.

  “I guess that’s true,” she admitted. “I cared about Luke. I kidded myself into believing he cared about me. But he doesn’t. He just cares about getting where he’s always wanted to be.”

  “That’s him. What about you?”

  The question jerked her head up. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean you, Chloe Elizabeth Caldwell. Why are you sitting here feeling sorry for yourself? Why aren’t you doing something about this?”

  It was like a cold wave in her face. For a moment she just stared at Gran, and then she managed a smile. “That’s what I love about you, Gran. You get right to the point.”

  Gran sniffed. “No sense my reminding you I love you, is there? You already know that. What about this young man of yours? You love him?”

  “I do.” She took a shaky breath. “It seems like a pretty stupid move right now, but I do.”

  “Why?”

  The abrupt question took her aback. “Well, I…” I just do wasn’t a good enough answer. Gran wanted specifics. “Because he’s not really like this. At least, I don’t think he is, down inside. But he had a terrible life when he was young. He came up from nothing, and he had to fight for everything. He thinks getting this vice-presidency will prove he’s arrived. That’s been his goal for so long that he can’t see past it.”

  Gran gave a short nod. “’Bout what I figured. He’s lost, that’s what.”

  “Lost?” It was a new idea, and she considered it. “I guess you could look at it that way.” Although Luke certainly didn’t think he was lost.

  “It’s the truth.” Her expression softened. “Like you, Chloe-girl. Our Chloe was lost for a while. But then Luke brought you back, and you started to see what God wants for you, didn’t you?”

  For a moment, she’d thought what God wanted for her was a life with Luke. But she understood what Gran meant. If she hadn’t come back to the island with Luke, she might never have looked at what God’s will for her life was. She might never have seen that just having a job and a salary wasn’t enough. She had to contribute—had to be needed.

  “I guess so, but Luke isn’t like me. I’m not even sure what he believes. He had faith once, but it seems like it got buried under all his ambition.”

  “Lost,” Gran said again with certainty. “He’s lost, and you’ve got to rescue him.”

  “Me? Gran, he’s not going to listen to me.” He doesn’t care, her heart cried.

  “Chloe Elizabeth, you hear me now.” Gran looked at her sternly. “If he were drowning out there in the surf, you’d risk your life to save him, wouldn’t you?”

  Like the first Chloe. “Yes, but—”

  “No ‘buts’ about it. That young man of yours is drowning, and he doesn’t even know it—wanting things and success more than God’s plans for him. It’s up to you to straighten him out, you heah?”

  There was only one answer Gran expected when she asked that. “Yes, ma’am. But it’s not going to be easy.”

  “If it was easy, anybody could do it. It wouldn’t take Chloe Elizabeth Caldwell.”

  Gran clasped her hand firmly, then stood up. “Now I got to talk to that son of mine. Make sure he’s doing this because he thinks it’s right, not just because he knows it’s the opposite of what his brother would do.”

  Chloe just stared after her. That would never have occurred to her, but obviously Gran was considerably wiser. She knew more about people than Chloe would learn in a lifetime.

  And Gran thought Chloe could do this thing.

  Chloe forced herself to look at the possibility. How could she make Luke see he
was wrong?

  One thing was certain. She wouldn’t make the mistake again of trying to create a plan without taking it to the Lord. She closed her eyes, seeking the quiet place in her soul that she would feel in the chapel or on Angel Isle. Listening.

  A few minutes later she opened her eyes and found she was looking at the Spyhop, rocking gently at the dock. Angel Isle. The boat.

  An idea began to form in her mind. Is this it, Lord? Is this what I should be doing?

  A quiet sureness filled her soul. She knew what she had to do. She had to confront Luke with who he was, and she knew just where to do it.

  Whether he’d listen to her or not—well, that was up to him. She knew what God expected her to do, and that was enough.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Luke stood at the public dock in Caldwell Cove the next day, wondering if anything could be more futile than this effort. Why had he come? His meeting in the local attorney’s office to sign the preliminary agreements was set for less than three hours away. He wouldn’t believe he’d actually pulled this off until he had the agreements in hand.

  So why was he here?

  He didn’t have to search hard for the answer. He knew why. Chloe had called him, Chloe had wanted to see him. And even though he didn’t think it would do any good, he had to see her again.

  Chloe’s face filled his mind, her green eyes dancing, her golden-brown hair curling against sun-kissed skin, her generous mouth smiling at him. He tried to push it away, to replace it with an image of the corner office that would soon be his. The task was more difficult than it should be.

  All right, he could deal with this. He’d spent his life setting goals and letting nothing keep him from achieving them. He didn’t intend to change now.

  The only reason Chloe intruded on his plans was that he didn’t like the breach between them. He cared about her, not just as his valued right hand but as…

  What? His mind stalled on that. He knew how to think of Chloe as his assistant. He wasn’t sure he knew how to relate to her as anything else. But things had changed since they’d come to the island, he couldn’t deny that.

  He wanted to mend things with her. That much was clear in his mind. Whether or not there could be anything else between them—he just didn’t know.

  He saw her face again—eyes filled with a sense of betrayal—and something clamped around his heart. Then he looked up and saw the Spyhop nosing into the dock with Chloe at the wheel.

  She tossed the rope to him, and he caught it automatically. His mind seemed empty of the words he wanted to say. He just looked at her, noting the dark smudges under her eyes and the determined set to her soft mouth.

  “Are you all right?” That wasn’t what he’d intended to say, but his heart took over.

  She shrugged, unsmiling. “I’ve been better.” She gestured to the boat. “Hop in. Let’s go for a ride.”

  “Can’t we just talk here?” He glanced at his watch.

  “You have plenty of time before your meeting.” Her voice was edgy. “Get on board. I want to make one last trip to Angel Isle before your meeting.”

  “Chloe, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Look, let’s go get a cup of coffee and talk.”

  She shook her head stubbornly. “Angel Isle.” She met his gaze evenly. “I think you owe me that.”

  Angel Isle was the last place he wanted to go today. But there was a determination about Chloe that was new to her, as if she’d done some growing up overnight. She wasn’t the team player, ready to go along with anything he wanted. If he wanted to talk to her, he’d have to do it her way.

  “All right.” He stepped lightly into the boat. “If it means that much to you.”

  She didn’t answer—just backed away from the dock so quickly he nearly fell into his seat. He clutched the railing with one hand and watched as she turned her face into the wind and the nose of the boat into the channel.

  She wasn’t looking at him. Eyes narrowed, she stared straight ahead.

  “Chloe, look, we have to talk.”

  She shook her head, gesturing toward her ears. “Can’t hear well enough here. Wait until we get to the island.”

  “We’ve talked before on the boat. Why not now?”

  She swung the boat in a wide semicircle around the end of the island. “You’re in a hurry to get to your meeting, remember?” She revved the motor. “So let’s just get there.”

  They passed the yacht club dock, and he wondered if Theo was working today. With a pang, he realized the kid who’d looked at him with so much admiration the other night probably wouldn’t speak to him now.

  Then Chloe turned the boat into Dolphin Sound, accelerating so that they rocketed across the waves. He clung grimly to the rail and wondered if she was trying to make him seasick. No looking for dolphins today—all he could do was hang on.

  Finally she eased in to the dock on Angel Isle, and he took a deep breath and waited for his stomach to catch up with him.

  “Trying to make me remember I’m a landlubber?” he asked, climbing onto the dock and making the ropes fast. He wouldn’t admit how much he wanted to feel firm ground under his feet.

  Chloe scrambled up beside him. “Just wanted you to have a taste of what the sound will be like once there’s a resort on Angel Isle—hotel launches rushing back and forth, pleasure boats crowding the water.”

  She pointed, and he saw the dolphins then, their crescent shapes moving through the waves. Funny, he almost felt he could identify them, the way Sammy had that first day.

  “Say goodbye.” Chloe’s tone was grim. “I don’t imagine they’ll hang around once the sound becomes jammed.”

  He ought to be able to find something to say to that, but he couldn’t. It’s not my fault. That was what he wanted to say. “Look, we both know the hotel will bring prosperity. People will be glad we did it. The dolphins will adapt.”

  She just looked at him. Suddenly he was back waist-deep in the warm water of the marsh, looking at the triumph in Chloe’s face as the dolphin shuddered between them and then took off for the sea.

  He blinked, shaking his head, shaking away the image. But looking at Chloe today proved just as disturbing. The gold dolphin necklace he’d given her lay against her skin. For an instant his fingertips tingled, as if he were fastening the clasp against the delicate arch of her nape.

  He took a step back from her, and the dock moved gently under his feet. “Let’s take a walk,” he said abruptly. Maybe he’d be able to think more clearly if he wasn’t looking at her.

  She nodded, and he followed her off the dock and down to the stretch of beach. They fell into step with each other on the hard-packed sand. He frowned, trying to come up with the words that would make things right between them. It shouldn’t be this difficult to make peace with Chloe. He’d handled far more costly negotiations than this, without this terrifying sense that the wrong word would ruin everything.

  “They won’t, you know.” Chloe glanced out at the water.

  “Who won’t?”

  “The dolphins. They won’t adapt.”

  “Chloe—” He stopped, again gripped by that fear of saying the wrong thing. “You know you can’t stop progress. It’s going to come whether you want it or not.”

  Her glance flashed to him. “Not stop it, no. But progress doesn’t have to take away our island.”

  “Look, I know you love it here.” I feel closer to God on Angel Isle than anyplace else on earth. That gave him pause. “But are you sure you’re not being a little selfish? Don’t other people have the right to share the beauty?”

  The shadow in her eyes told him the shot had hit home.

  “The place as we know it won’t exist in ten years if the hotel goes in. That’s what you don’t understand. Angel Isle is too fragile. Other places can stand up to it, but not Angel Isle.”

  He’d agreed to let her help him find an alternative site, and then he’d gone back on his word. He’d had a good reason for that, hadn’t he?

&nbs
p; “Dalton didn’t give me a choice.” That sounded defensive even to him.

  “You always have a choice, Luke. It just depends how big a price you’re willing to pay.”

  They seemed to have cut through all the external arguments. It was as if they spoke to each other’s hearts.

  “You don’t know what you’re asking me.” He stopped, swinging to face her.

  She met his eyes. “I might be the one person who does know.”

  He knew, suddenly, what he was seeing in her eyes. Love. For him. It crashed over him like a wave, knocking him off his feet.

  “Chloe.” He took her hands, feeling her pulse beating rapidly against his fingers. “Chloe, I want—”

  What did he want? What was he willing to give up to have her? Everything?

  He drew her slowly toward him. This was bigger than ambition, bigger than the corner office. This was everything he’d ever wanted. “Chloe.” He said her name again softly as she moved into his arms—

  The sound ripped through the stillness. He spun.

  The Spyhop’s engine roared, and the boat shot away from the dock toward the open sound with Theo at the wheel.

  The meeting—without the boat, he’d never make the meeting. Chloe had invited him here. Chloe had betrayed him.

  Chloe stared blankly after the Spyhop. “Theo!” she shouted, even knowing how impossible it was for him to hear her. “What does that boy think he’s doing?”

  She swung to Luke, as if he might have an answer, and then she saw his face. He thought she had done this.

  “Luke, I didn’t.” Tears stung her eyes. Why now, of all times? Surely she’d been getting through to Luke. He’d looked at her as if…as if he loved her.

  He didn’t look that way now.

  “Congratulations, Chloe.” His fists clenched. “That was a move worthy of Dalton himself.”

  “You can’t believe I had anything to do with that. Theo’s come up with some crazy plan on his own.” Probably because Theo had been hurt to discover Luke wasn’t the hero he’d thought.

  “I’m afraid that’s giving your little brother a bit too much credit.” He looked at his watch, and his blue eyes darkened with fury. “Perfect timing. I miss the meeting, your father assumes I’ve backed out, and the deal is off.”