by Debbie Mason
“I’ll send an officer to the address with a photo of Helen to get a positive ID. Until then I don’t feel comfortable pulling the team off the marina.” His cousin lifted a flashlight and moved it over the charred remains of Tie the Knot. Several members of the disgruntled search party were doing the same. “We’ve seen nothing to indicate she’s been here.”
“What about radar that picks up heartbeats and breathing?” Connor asked, looking at the piles of debris.
“County applied for a FINDER device about six months ago. As far as I know, they haven’t received either approval or a unit.”
“Then we need the dogs.” He saw the frustration on his cousin’s face. “I get it, okay. There’s not a chance in hell we’re going to find her here. But for Arianna’s sake, she has to see us actively search the area, including the fenced-off area. She believes her grandmother’s—”
“I know you’re behind this, and I’m not letting you get away with it,” a man said, his angry voice loud enough that it drew Connor’s attention. He was also intimately familiar with that voice. It belonged to his father, who was waving a piece of paper in his uncle Daniel’s face, with Connor’s mother looking on.
“What now?” Connor muttered.
“You don’t know?”
“Know that our uncle is apparently dating my mother and my father is not only jealous but furious? Oh yeah, I got that.”
“It’s a little more than that now, Con. Uncle Sean got served with divorce papers an hour ago.”
“She didn’t?” He narrowed his eyes at his mother, who had a guilty look on her face. “She did. Dammit. Do me a favor and keep an eye on my car. If Arianna so much as opens the passenger door, call me,” he said to his cousin, and then headed over to where his father, mother, and uncle stood before they drew everyone’s attention, including the press. Across the road, a van with a local TV news station’s logo emblazoned on the side pulled alongside the curb. Byron Harte, owner of the Harmony Harbor Gazette, was already standing by the fence a few yards away, speaking to one of the volunteers.
“Dad, quiet down or you’ll find yourself the lead story on the morning news,” Connor said as he came up behind his father. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he wondered if that was exactly what his uncle Daniel had intended. Then again, no one could have predicted what had happened tonight.
“Listen to the lad. You’re making a bloody fool of yourself holding on to a woman who no longer wants you,” Daniel said.
His father responded with a low growl before lunging at his brother. Connor grabbed his dad around his waist, straining to hold him back. “You’re playing into his hand, Dad. Calm the hell down.” Where were his brothers when he freaking needed them?
As though Aidan had read his mind, he jogged over. “You two start something now, and I’m hauling you both to the station.”
“Me? It’s him who’s acting the lunatic,” Daniel said.
“Mom,” Connor gritted out, straining to contain his growling father. His mother blinked, looking like she was shocked by her husband’s reaction.
“He’s gone mad, he has. Put me down for one of those restraining—”
“All right, Uncle Daniel. Let’s go,” Aidan began, reaching for his uncle’s arm, when a cry went up from near the fence.
“I saw someone!” a woman yelled.
Beams of light swept over the fenced-in area. “It’s a woman,” several people cried out.
Connor strained to see through the gloom to where they were pointing. They were right. It was a woman. A woman wearing the same jacket he’d handed to Arianna not five minutes ago.
“I told you to keep an eye on my car,” he said to his cousin as he released his father to run to the fence.
“That’s Arianna?” Aidan asked at the same time a beam of light shone on her face. “Damn. How did she get in there?”
Connor wasn’t worried about that now. “Get the light out of her eyes! She can’t see where she’s stepping.” He scanned the area to see how she’d gotten past them and located a gap in the fence. She must have squeezed through. He couldn’t. “Arianna, get out of there now. It’s dangerous. We’re waiting for them to bring the dogs.”
“She’s here, Connor. I’m sure…” She cocked her head. “Glamma, is that you? Quiet. Everyone, quiet!” she shouted, and silence descended as the crowd strained to hear what she’d heard. Connor worried that maybe the stress of the night had gotten to her and this was nothing more than a woman’s desperate attempt to deal with an untenable situation. “Glamma, call out to me so I know where you are.” Arianna tried again, holding up a finger to silence the voices in the crowd.
Connor heard it then, a faint cry. “Aidan, call your dad and get everyone here five minutes ago.”
“On their way.”
“Arianna, did you hear that? Help is on the way. You need to get out of there—”
“No. I’m not leaving her under the—” She moved toward a pile of blackened debris.
“Lass, stop right where you are. Listen to me. I know what I’m talking about,” his uncle said, coming to stand beside Connor. “The building, your business, it had a basement, did it?”
She nodded and then looked around as if just remembering she was standing on what had once been Tie the Knot. Connor’s hands balled into fists as he silently prayed she held it together. For her own sake.
“Your granny must have fallen through the debris into the basement. You’re a step away from doing the same, lass. Don’t move.” He turned. “Aidan, you got wire cutters in that cruiser of yours?” His cousin nodded. “Bring them to me, then. The lass isn’t going to stay put for long, I can see it in her eyes.”
Connor could feel it in her stance. He held his breath, releasing it slowly when she sank to the ground.
“Glamma, help is coming. Hang on a little longer, okay? Glamma, talk to me.”
Aidan cut the padlock and pulled open the fence. “Everyone else, stay back.”
“I’m going in,” Connor said.
“I figured that. So am I.”
“If you are, you’ll both follow my lead.” His uncle moved the beam of light over the ground. Connor still hadn’t forgiven Daniel for what he’d pulled with his father, but he would be forever grateful that his expertise had saved Arianna from a fall. Within a couple yards of Arianna, Daniel stopped. “Okay, pay attention. Connor, stay to the right of the beam and make your way to the lass. Aidan, you move to the left of Connor.” Once they moved to follow his direction, Daniel said, “Arianna, call to your granny. Get your granny to call to you.”
“Glamma, we need to get a better idea of where you are. Call my name and keep calling.”
Arianna smiled as Connor knelt by her side. Helen’s voice was muffled, but she sounded strong. “I told you she was here.”
“You always did have an annoying habit of being right. In this instance, I’m really, really glad you were.” He drew her to his side and kissed her temple. “You did good, you stubborn woman.” Then he let her go to start removing the charred wood, chunks of bricks, and what looked like paneling. She reached out to help, and he gave her a look. “I think you’ve done enough for one night.”
His uncle crouched across from them, pointing out which piece to pull next. “Granny, can you hear me?”
“Granny,” they heard Helen clearly mutter. “I’m no granny.”
Daniel chuckled. “Helen, me love, it’s your favorite opponent, Danny Boy. Can you tuck yourself away? Pull something over your wee head so you don’t get a knock on the noggin when we pull the last of the bits away.”
“How in God’s name you managed to get all those people to support you, I’ll never know. You can’t even speak proper English.”
A wide smile lit up Arianna’s face as she leaned into Connor. “I told you there was nothing wrong with her.”
Chapter Seven
Arianna woke to whispering in her grandmother’s hospital room. Assuming the nurses were checking on Glamma, she pretended to
be asleep. It was easy to do. She felt like she could sleep for a week after the drama and trauma of last night. She imagined Glamma felt the same.
They’d treated her for exposure and minor scrapes and bruises. She’d been lucky not to land on concrete or metal when she fell into the storage area, landing instead on scraps of wood. But while physically she was all right, Arianna worried about her mental state. It wasn’t something they’d talked about yet. She’d wait until Glamma was released and in the comfort of her own home.
“Hi, Mrs. Fairchild. We didn’t wake you, did we?”
“Who are you? What are you doing in my room?” her grandmother asked, sounding confused.
Behind her still-closed eyes, Arianna imagined the look the nurses must be exchanging. They’d been in and out of the room all night, so Glamma should recognize them or, at the very least, realize they were nurses by their uniform. The talk couldn’t wait until they got home.
Arianna opened her eyes and then blinked in surprise before jumping out of the chair at the sight of a reporter and cameraman hovering over her grandmother. “Get out. Get out of here now!” she ordered, rushing to her grandmother’s side to tug the curtain around the bed. There’s nothing Glamma would hate more than people seeing her at less than her best.
“The primary is only three days away. Voters have a right to know if Mrs. Fairchild is bowing out of the race or not, don’t you think?”
Arianna moved between the curtain and the reporter. “What I think is my grandmother has a right to her privacy. I won’t tell you again. Get out. Both of you.”
“But if you could just give us—”
“When my grandmother is ready to release a statement or give an interview, it will be to the Harmony Harbor Gazette.” Arianna walked to the door and motioned for them to leave, pointedly ignoring the reporter when she said, “What do you think, Ms. Bell? Do you think your grandmother should remain in the race?”
Once they’d left the room, Arianna closed the door and then opened the privacy curtain. “I’m sorry, Glamma. I thought it was the nurses. Are you okay?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s over. No one will vote for an old lady who gets lost in the rain and has to be rescued by her opponent. He’s sure to win now. He’ll paint himself a hero, and everyone will forget what’s really at stake.”
Arianna’s eyes filled with tears. Her grandmother’s dream had been as unfairly stolen from her as Arianna’s had been from her. “It’s okay, Glamma. We’ll—”
Her grandmother raised a hand to her cheek, and then her eyes shot to Arianna. “Do you think the cameraman got any footage of me without my makeup on?”
“No. They weren’t here long enough—”
“They were so. I woke up to them standing over my bed. Go. Track them down and take his tape. Have them sign something.” She frantically waved Arianna off.
“I’ll go. Just promise me you’ll relax.”
“I won’t relax until I know I won’t end up on the news looking like an eighty-year-old corpse.”
Due to the crowded elevator stopping on every floor, dawdling visitors, and several people wanting to know about Glamma, all Arianna saw of the cameraman and reporter was the back end of their van leaving the parking lot. When she finally returned to Glamma’s floor twenty minutes later, she stopped by the nurse’s station to find out when her grandmother would be released.
“She’s ready whenever you are. Mr. Gallagher took care of everything.”
Of course he did, Arianna thought as she smiled her thanks at the nurse and walked to her grandmother’s room. Instead of cursing Connor for interfering in their lives as she normally did, this time she welcomed it, relieved she wouldn’t have to talk to her grandmother about her memory issues on her own. She smiled as she approached the open door and heard him talking to her grandmother, his voice soothing. He really was a sweet…Her eyes went wide as what he said, instead of how he said it, reached her ears.
“You don’t have to give up on your dreams, Helen. Just like Tie the Knot, Arianna can fulfill them for you. All you have to do is tell your voters to write Arianna’s name in place of yours on the ballot.”
* * *
Arianna smelled doughnuts as soon as she left her bedroom. She followed the mouth-watering scent down the hall to the entryway, where Connor had just closed the front door while juggling a box and a lush floral arrangement of autumn orchids, orange berries, salmon, and cream-colored roses framed by ferns. No matter how pleasing to the eye and nose both the bouquet and the doughnuts were, neither compared to the decadently handsome man holding them.
A man she wasn’t speaking to.
She lifted her chin and walked past him as if he didn’t exist. He laughed. She clenched her teeth. He had some nerve finding her snit amusing after what he’d pulled. She wanted to kick him out, but it would be a waste of energy. Her grandmother had decided she loved him like a long-lost grandson. A sure sign the woman was losing her marbles like everyone said.
“Come on. It’s been two days. You can’t still be mad at me.” He followed her into the kitchen. “I brought you your favorites—crullers and chocolate dip with sprinkles.”
Her traitorous stomach growled. She walked to the coffeepot and poured herself a cup with her good hand, pleased when she didn’t spill a single drop. Pressing her lips together, she turned. Only to discover he was right behind her.
She looked up. He smiled down at her and took her cup. “Thanks.”
He smelled as incredible as he looked, which may be why it took her a moment to react. When speech seemed beyond her, she drew a deep breath through her nose to illustrate to him just how ticked she was and belatedly realized what an idiotic idea that had been. Now his expensive cologne filled her senses. She was certain the perfumer must have overdosed that particular bottle with sex pheromones. It was the only explanation for why she had an almost uncontrollable desire to climb the man like he was a tree.
She managed an annoyed sound in her throat and turned back to the pot, pouring herself another cup. This time she spilled more than a drop. Frustrated, she slammed the pot back on the machine. A big hand appeared in her line of sight, offering her a cup.
“You drank out of it already,” she said grumpily.
“So. My lips were on yours the other day and yours were on mine. What’s the difference?”
“You are so annoying,” she said, sighing when seconds later his hand reappeared with sheets of paper towel.
As she cleaned up the spill, he reached around her to pour himself another cup. “If I knew all it took to get you to talk to me was to give you my cup of coffee, I would have done it two days ago.”
“It was my cup of coffee, not yours. And you’re in my space.” She edged around him and walked to the island where he’d left the doughnuts and flowers. No matter how mad she was at him, she couldn’t leave the bouquet to wither and die. It was exquisite and obviously expensive. “There’s a vase in the right-hand cupboard beside the stove.”
Eyeing the box of doughnuts, she turned on the tap. She’d already blown her vow never to speak to Connor again, so she didn’t see the point in denying herself some fried sugary goodness.
Connor nudged her aside with his hip, placing the vase under the running water. “Just so you know, the doughnuts are for you, but the flowers are for Glamma.”
“She’s not your grandmother,” Arianna said through clenched teeth as she hip-checked him because she couldn’t elbow him with her damaged arm. “Stop invading my space.”
“First, your grandmother insisted I call her Glamma, and second”—he gave her a light hip-check back—“you’re technically invading my space because I’m the one filling the vase.” He held it up like it was evidence, turned off the tap, and then placed the glass container on the counter. “You mind getting me a pair of scissors?” He looked at her. “On second thought, I’m not sure I trust you around me with anything sharp, so just point me in the right direction.”
“Proof you
’re as smart as everyone says you are.” She pointed at the row of drawers to the right of the sink. “Second from the top.”
He sighed. “Come on, give me a break. I was just trying to help. Helen was having a tough time facing the reality of the situation. She was depressed. All I did was make a suggestion that allowed her to hang on to her dream for a bit longer.”
“It was her dream to be mayor, not mine.”
“Honey, you’re not going to win, so stop worrying about it. My uncle is twenty points ahead of Delaney Davis, the current mayor’s communications officer, and she’s his closest opponent. Helen only started her write-in campaign two days ago.”
“Don’t honey me. And she may only have started her write-in campaign two days ago, two minutes after you suggested it, but thanks to you and your father, we have had more momentum than any of the other candidates, including your uncle.”
He winced. “Dad has gone a little overboard.”
“You think? He took out full-page ads in the Gazette.”
“Don’t forget the billboard. But you know why he’s—”
“Billboard?”
“You didn’t know about that, did you?”
“Do I look like I did?”
“Nope. You don’t sound like it either.” He grimaced. “Sorry. I shouldn’t tease you. But you’re getting yourself worked up over nothing. Two days isn’t enough time to change people’s minds. People like and admire you, and they feel bad for what happened to you and to Helen, but admiration and sympathy will take you only so far. It’s obvious to everyone that you don’t want the job.”
“That’s not true. I pounded the pavement, knocked on doors, and said exactly what Glamma told me to.” Because as much as she hated to admit it, Connor had been right. Helen had perked up at his suggestion to put Arianna’s name forward. Sometimes she seemed more excited and energized about Arianna running for mayor than she had been for herself. Arianna had a sneaking suspicion it was because, deep down, Helen had been worried about her ability to do the job with her memory blips.
Her grandmother no longer hid the fact she was having problems and talked about them openly. Arianna wished she wouldn’t. It would be easier to pretend they’d be okay. Especially now that they didn’t have to worry about the bank foreclosing on their home. Glamma’s incident, as she liked to call it, had given Connor grounds to prove mental incompetency and build a solid case against the bank. He’d also filed the insurance claim yesterday. There wouldn’t be much left once everything was paid off, but it would be enough to keep the creditors away, a roof over their heads, and food on the table.