“I had to.” Tears ran down her cheeks. She leaned her forehead on his chest. “When the shot sent you over, I couldn’t think of anything else but getting to you. Then, Lilly tried to run you over, and you disappeared. I thought you were dead. When I saw you bob back to the surface—”
“What happened?”
“I shot her with a flare gun.” She lifted her head. “Well, not her exactly, but her boat. I only meant to scare her, not set the boat on fire. What if I killed her?”
He tried to sit up, but nausea flooded through him. “Well, she tried to kill me. I believe in fair play. There’s a portable radio in the cabin. If you bring that to me, I can—” He caught sight of a larger boat coming their way. “Nevermind. Flag down that ship. It’s the coast guard. Use the horn in the cabin.”
Seconds later, the yacht’s horn blared. The other ship answered. Drake lay back with a sigh. Out of the water and knowing help was coming, the pain in his side burned fiercer than before. At the same time, knowing Amanda had jumped into water that filled her with fear in order to save him, warmed him more than the sun.
“I’m not a doctor, but I think the bullet went all the way through,” she said, returning to his side. “It looks like a deep graze, rather than a hole, but it is bleeding a lot.”
“Keep pressure on it. Help is coming.” He closed his eyes and let the darkness consume him.
When he opened them again, he found himself in a hospital bed, a tight bandage around his middle and beautiful Amanda sleeping in a chair next to his bed. He wanted her face to be the first thing he saw every morning when he woke.
She opened her eyes and blinked, looking like the cutest owl he’d ever seen. She wore her amazing, sexy bathing suit under a hospital gown. Her hair looked like red seaweed, coarse from the salt water. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“What happened after we were picked up?” He asked.
“Lilly’s dead. She didn’t burn, thank God, but hit her head and fell in the ocean. She probably drowned. How are you feeling?” She smoothed his hair from his face.
He closed his eyes at the sheer pleasure of her touch. “Fine. How long have we been here?”
“Only a few hours.” She smiled. “They said you can go home tomorrow. I don’t want that home to be on the boat, er, I mean yacht.”
He took her hand in his. “Where would I go?”
She raised her eyebrows. “To my place? I know you’re a lot of trouble, but—”
“Trouble? Woman, you have no idea.” He pulled her close and stared into the sea blue eyes he loved so much. “Thank you for saving me. Now, I have but one request.”
“Anything.” The husky tone of her voice stirred things better left unnoticed while he lay in the hospital.
“Kiss me.”
She pressed her lips to his. She tasted of salt and something sweet. A sideways glance showed a half-eaten Snickers Bar. He hadn’t known she liked chocolate. They had a lifetime to learn everything they needed to know about each other.
“I lied,” he said. “I have one more request.”
“Anything.”
“Marry me. Now. In the hospital chapel.”
“In this?” She plucked at the hospital gown.
“Yes.” He cupped her face. “You’re beautiful. I don’t want to sully our relationship by living with you before giving you my name. If I would have died today, my money would have been left to the state.”
“I’m not marrying you for your money.” She pulled free and slapped at his hands. “And don’t talk about dying. It’s not funny.”
“Please, marry me.”
She studied his face, her head cocked to one side, eyes narrowed, and she tied the gown tighter around her suit. “Can you walk?”
“You bet I can!” He raised the bed to save his sore side muscles, and then swung his legs over the side. “We’ll go together. The nurses will call the chaplain if we ask.”
“What if there isn’t one?” She hooked her arm through his.
“Then we’ll call one. One way or the other, I’m not leaving here tomorrow unless we’re married.”
“You’re a persistent, crazy person, you know that?” She kissed his cheek. “But, I love you. You’re my crazy person. Can I call my sisters?”
“Yes. We’ll need witnesses.” With him hobbling, one arm held close by his side, and the love of his life beside him, Drake led her to the hospital chapel where the best thing to ever happen to him would take place.
11
Amanda stood at the front of the chapel with Drake. On each side of them stood her sisters, both wearing the Samson Surf and Sandwich uniforms, plastic leis around everyone’s neck. She’d never seen a wedding so thrown together or more beautiful. She gazed into the face of the man she loved.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Bethie said. “You just met him.”
“Sometimes,” Cassie added. “Love hits you upside the head and kidnaps you. That’s how I want love to find me. Well, maybe not exactly, but suddenly.”
Drake chuckled. “I don’t know when Amanda fell in love with me, but I’m glad she did. I loved her almost immediately. From the moment she fell off the ladder and on top of me.”
“I fell in love the moment I realized that you care more for other people’s feelings than you do for your own.” Her face heated. “The kiss in the ocean helped a lot.”
“What kiss in the ocean?” Cassie glanced from her to Drake.
“That’s between us.” Amanda stared into Drake’s eyes as the pastor from the church down the street stepped in front of them. She mouthed the words, “I love you.”
“Dearly Beloved…”
The End
Don’t miss these other Love in Paradise stories
Sunset Kisses
Deep Sea Love
SUDDENLY
A Red Hat Club Romantic Novella #2
By Cynthia Hickey
Copyright 2013
Written by: Cynthia Hickey
Published by: Winged Publications
Cover Design: Cynthia Hickey
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
No part of this book may be copied or distributed without the author’s consent.
1
“Mark and Luke Larson, please sit down.” For the hundredth time, Tina Johnson, fifth grade school teacher at Cooperville Elementary, questioned the school’s wisdom at putting twin boys in the same class.
After three weeks into the school year, she could care less whether or not the boys would have separation anxiety. They were a menace. “Please turn in your readers to page twenty-three for your twenty minutes of silent reading.” The rustle of pages, and whispered questions about what page because they didn’t listen, filled the room. Tina turned to her computer and searched for the email address of the Larson boys’ parents.
“Are you going to call our Dad?” One of the boys, she couldn’t tell which when they dressed the same, stood beside her desk, his big brown eyes brimming with tears.
“Yes, I am.” She turned her chair to face him.
“We’re sorry for tying Robbie’s shoelaces together. Please, don’t call him.”
“Why not?” Her heart melted at the distress on his face. What kind of father would cause this reaction on a child’s face?
“Dad is very sad, Ms. Johnson. If you call him, he’ll be sadder.”
“I’m sorry, Mark.” When he shook his head, she changed her statement to, “Luke, but your continued shenanigans with your brother has forced me to contact him.”
His shoulders slumped, and he shuffled back to his seat, leaving her heart torn in two. With a deep sigh, she turned back to her computer and sent an email requesting a meeting for that day after school. She received a reply within ten minutes agreeing to the meeting.
The students
managed to read until the end of their scheduled twenty minutes without further mishap. Tina raised the projector screen and pointed to a set of math problems on the board. She could have photocopied them, but she believed in the old school method on some things. Children learned through repetition, and writing their own words and problems helped with that. Soon, she was taking them through the first long division problem.
Mark Larson toyed with his pencil, rolling in between his fingers like he was a miniature distracted businessman. He was skilled enough at moving the pencil from one spot to the other using only the fingers on that hand that Tina soon found herself hypnotized. After several seconds of the students’ rising voices because of her inattention, she shook herself out of her trance.
She dimmed the lights in the room and turned on the overhead projector. While a favorite tool in teaching the children, the requirement of turning down the lights so the students could see what she’d written on the film, made her cringe. The Larson boys enjoyed pulling pranks under the cover of darkness. Hopefully, knowing that she had a meeting with their father later that day, would keep their pranks to a minimum.
By the end of the day her nerves were stretched thin. The sound of the buzzer signaling school was dismissed was as welcome to her ears as the ice cream truck had been to her as a child. She stood at the door of her room, and with a smile, sent the little darlings on their way until tomorrow.
Teaching was her passion. The thought of doing something else for a living was inconceivable. She’d find a way of getting through to the Larson boys if it was the last thing she did. The poor things needed something in their life, and she would make it her mission to find out what and help them achieve it.
She followed the last student out the door and headed to the bus loop to her assigned after school duty. Hopefully, no buses would be late leaving, thus making her tardy for her appointment. One bus called in a missing student. By the time the little girl was found coloring in a classroom, Tina was twenty minutes late. She sprinted for her room.
“I’m so sorry.” She scooted past the man and unlocked her door. “We had a missing student. Thank goodness, she was found, but I am horribly late.” She motioned for Mr. Larson to sit at one of the desks and she sat in one facing him. Oh. My. He looked like a grown up version of the twins, but much more handsome. And yes, he did look sad. She thrust out her hand. “I’m Tina Johnson.”
“David Larson. I’m sorry my boys have been misbehaving. What did they do today?”
“Where should I begin?” She gave him a shaky smile. “They tied a little girls shoelace together, flicked another child in the head with a rubber band, threw an eraser, you name it and unfortunately they’ve done it. I can’t get them to focus. They aren’t mean-spirited, just … rowdy.”
“Rowdy.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Yes. It’s as if they don’t want to be here, but cry when I say I need to contact you.”
Mr. Larson sighed. “I apologize for that. Their mother passed away over a year ago over the summer, and I’m afraid I’ve been a bit preoccupied with work. Their grandmother does her best, but … well, she has interests of her own that she often has to cancel. I can’t keep asking her to put aside her own interests.”
Tina was a first class witch with a B. There was no other name for her. These poor boys were hurting, and all she was concerned about were their playful antics. Sometimes, there were more important issues at hand than reading and writing. “I’m sorry. Perhaps I could be of some help?”
Oh, shut her mouth, now. What was she suggesting? “I have a children’s book club on Wednesdays after school. Maybe the boys would enjoy that, and if you sign a release form, I can take them home afterward. It isn’t much, but it will be one less afternoon their grandmother has to watch them until you get home. In fact, there are other clubs they can join that could occupy them for an hour and a half each day.”
*
She practically flat out told him he was a horrible father and that his children were undisciplined and unsupervised. Sure, the twins were, well, rambunctious, but no more than he had been at their age. He gritted his teeth and focused on the sweet smile and calm look in her blue eyes.
Maybe he had over-reacted. She did seem concerned and willing to go out of her way to help. “I would appreciate the help very much.”
“Wonderful. I’ll sign them up for the reading club, the art club, and the Lego club, although that one only lasts six weeks, but we’ll take things one step at a time.” She stood and offered her hand again. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you. I’m sure we’ll get the twins settled down eventually.”
He didn’t miss the fading of her smile, despite her valiant attempt to keep it in place. The boys ran her ragged, and she didn’t want to admit it. “I think I’ll speak to the principal about separating them. It won’t hurt them, and might actually be of some good.”
“I agree, but haven’t said anything because I thought you wanted them together.”
“I did, at first. But now, they’ve adjusted well enough, they can spend some time apart.” He gave her a nod, gathered the boys from the hall where they watched the meeting through the glass partition in the door, and headed for the front office.
“Is Mr. Green available?” He asked the school receptionist after telling the boys to sit in the reception area. They grumbled, but did as instructed.
The receptionist’s eyes widened. “Hello, Mark, Luke. Hold on, Mr. Larson, I’ll check for you. Please have a seat.”
Great. Even the office staff knew what a handful his boys were. David sat next to the twins, propped his elbow on the arm of the chair, and rested his chin in his hand. The boys stared at him as if he was an animal in a zoo.
“Hey, David.” Michael Green, the elementary school principal, exited his office. He extended his hand. “It’s been a long time.”
David stood. “Yes, it has. Do you have a minute?”
“For you, sure. Come on in. Boys, we’ll be right back.” He led David into his office, motioned him to a chair, and closed the door. After sitting behind his desk, he folded his hands. “What can I help you with? You aren’t having problems with Miss Johnson, are you? She’s one of our best.”
“No, she’s actually quite wonderful. Seems to go above and beyond what is needed.” David crossed his right ankle over his left knee. “I think it would be best if we separated the boys. Together, they’re quite a handful.”
“I thought you requested they be together.”
“That was right after … well, they needed it then.” David squirmed. “They seem to team up against Miss Johnson now, and in playing pranks on the other students. I’ve tried disciplining them, but this might be a better way of showing them we mean business.”
“How will you choose which boy leaves her class?” Michael twirled a pencil between his fingers.
“Luck of the draw, I suppose.”
“Well, think about it over the weekend. If, come Monday morning, you still want to change one of them to a different room, I’ll support your decision.” He stuck the pencil in a cup full of pens. “Hey, my wife just joined some group called The Red Hat Club. They like taking on little projects. I’ll see if they can do anything to help you, maybe a rotation of babysitters or something.”
“Thank you. I should have thought of that. My mother belongs to that group. They’re always up to something.” David stood. “Miss Johnson has suggested they attend after school activities in order to help my mother until I get home from work. I need to sign a release enabling her to bring the boys home.”
Michael’s eyes widened. “We don’t usually allow that type of thing here, but I understand your circumstances. Send me an email stating it is okay with you and we’ll be all set.”
“Thank you.” Now David had the unpleasant task of deciding which boy to transfer.
When he left the office, he was surprised to see Miss Johnson in the reception area speaking with the boys. She turned his way with a smile. “They�
�ve been sitting here like angels.”
“Worried about what I was speaking to Mr. Green about, no doubt.”
She frowned. “Either way, they should be praised for their self-control.”
“Good job, boys. Ready to go home?” David nodded at their teacher and ushered them outside and into the car.
“Do you think our teacher is pretty?” Mark asked, buckling his seatbelt across from him. “I heard our PE teacher say she was.”
David closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning the key in the ignition. “Yes, she’s very pretty.”
“Do you want to marry her?” Luke leaned across the back of the seat. “She’s single, you know?”
“I’m not marrying anyone.” For crying out loud, he had just met the woman.
“She might make us a good mother, you know, now that ours is … gone.” Luke sniffed.
“Don’t you like Grandma?” David peered into the rearview mirror.
“Sure, we do. But a mom is better.” Luke sat back and clicked his seatbelt into place. “It’s something to think about, Dad.”
Yes, it was, because whether he wanted to or not, David doubted he’d be able to think of anything other than the fact that his boys wanted a new Mom. They were as bad as their grandmother. Couldn’t anyone give him at least a year before trying to get him married again?
“Can we stop for burgers?”
“Yeah, we were good today.”
“No, you weren’t!”
“Yes, I was!”
The clamoring in the back seat drowned out the radio. David sighed. The last thing he wanted to feed the boys was more fast food, but his mother had Bingo. It would be just the three of them for dinner. “How about a sit-down meal at a restaurant?”
“Can we have whatever we want?” Luke asked.
“Sure, why not?” David turned into his favorite family restaurant and found a parking spot two spots from the door. “They serve almost everything here.”
He ushered the boys into the restaurant ahead of him where they were greeted by the hostess, a perky brunette with startlingly white teeth. “How many of you?”
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