I crossed to my desk and eased into the chair. Papers littered the surface in front of me. I rubbed my temples. A vacation. I just needed a vacation. A breather from the everyday monotony of it all. Then I’d find the fun in all of this again. The thought sounded like a lie, even to me.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I stood to pull it out. My brother’s name flashed on the screen, and I winced. My finger hovered for a count of three before I hit accept. “Hey, Hunter. What’s up?”
“You need to come home.”
My blood turned to ice. “Dad?” My voice grew hoarse on the single word. Memories of the call I’d gotten from my hysterical mother, telling me that my father had suffered a stroke, flooded me.
“He’s okay. The same. But I need you to help out at the bar.”
I eased back in the chair, my gut souring. “I can float the bar some money to hire more permanent help.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Ford? This is your family’s legacy. The Catch has been run by a Hardy for generations. We don’t need your fancy Hollywood money, we need you. Or are you too good for your family now, too?”
I gripped the arm of my chair, the sleek metal frame biting into my palm. “You know that’s not why I left.”
Hunter blew out a long breath. “You were never going to be able to avoid this place forever. Mom and Dad miss you, and I can’t keep covering for your ass.”
“I see Mom and Dad plenty.” It was true. I regularly flew them out to LA or some other place they’d been dying to visit, but I hadn’t set foot on the island in years. Shit, it had been over a decade now, eleven years. At first, my parents hadn’t minded. They’d understood. And they’d gotten a kick out of seeing new and exciting places. But over the years, I’d seen the sadness, the disappointment.
“They need their sons. Both of us. I’ve been trying to run the bar and my construction business at the same time, and I just can’t do it anymore. They’re both suffering. It’s time for you to step up.”
A vise tightened around my rib cage. “I can’t.”
Hunter was silent for a few moments. “If you don’t come home, we’re going to have to sell.”
His words seemed to slice at my chest. I hadn’t seen the bar in what felt like forever, but somehow, the idea of losing it, letting go of something else that felt like it was a part of me, was more than I could take. “Okay.”
“Okay?” There was shock in my brother’s voice. Maybe he’d expected me to tell them to sell, but I couldn’t. Because he was right. The Catch was our family’s legacy. I wasn’t going to let them down because I couldn’t deal with the ghosts of my past.
“Yeah, okay. I need a couple of days to close up shop here and get a manager in place at my LA bars. But I’ll be there soon.”
Hunter cleared his throat. “Thanks, man.”
The words seemed to be dragged out of him. And didn’t that make me feel like an asshole? When had things gotten so strained with my brother that thanking me was akin to pulling teeth? “Thank you for all you’ve been doing. I’m sorry I haven’t been pulling my weight.”
“You covered all the medical bills, that helped a lot.”
I heard the unspoken words, “but you haven’t been here.” God, I was a selfish prick. Sure, I’d spent a month in Seattle with my parents when my dad was in the hospital and then a rehab clinic, but as soon as they’d returned to the island, I’d run straight back to LA like the coward I was. I couldn’t pull that this time. I’d just have to hope that I could get the bar back on its feet quickly.
“I won’t leave the hands-on stuff to you anymore, Hunt.” I’d get the pieces we needed in place before I came back to LA so there wasn’t such a heavy load on my brother’s shoulders.
“It’d be a nice change,” he grumbled.
Shit. I had a lot to make up for with my brother. “I’ll see you in a few days.”
“In a few days.”
Hunter hung up without a goodbye, and I let my phone clatter to my desk. A few days. Seventy-two hours to wrap up my life in LA. Four thousand, three hundred, and twenty minutes before I had to face a daily reminder of the cruelest truth. I’d killed the one person I should’ve protected above all others.
3
Bell
“Bell, you here?”
I glanced up at the clock on the wall. “Shit,” I mumbled to myself. It was already past eleven. I’d gotten lost in inventory hell and had made painfully little progress. Between running the orders, managing staff schedules, payroll, and working double shifts more often than I wanted to admit, I needed help. “Back here, Caelyn.” I made my way out of the stockroom and into the bar.
Caelyn grinned at me as she wound her hair into a topknot. “You have the angry-eyes thing going on. Inventory?”
I blew out a breath that sent my hair fluttering around my face. “Yes.”
“You know I would’ve come in early to help.”
I tossed her a rag and scooted a spray bottle across the counter. “I know, but we just can’t swing paying anyone for extra hours right now.”
Caelyn got to work wiping down tables in the central area of the restaurant while I started on the bar top. “Things still tight?”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. “Hunter says he’s working on getting us some help. Hopefully, that’ll come sooner rather than later.”
“I hope so, too, but you know you don’t have to pay me. I’ll help off the clock. I’m worried about you, Bell. You’re going to run yourself ragged trying to keep this place afloat.”
The concern in her eyes had warmth spreading through me. “Thanks, but I’ve got it handled.”
“Those dark circles under your eyes say otherwise.”
“Says the girl working two jobs and taking her siblings to every extracurricular activity known to man.” Caelyn stuck out her tongue and tossed her rag at me, but I caught it before it could get any nasty cleaning goop on me. “You’re lucky I have catlike reflexes.”
Caelyn smirked. “Maybe I’ll start calling you kitty cat instead of Bell.”
“Only if you want to be on bathroom duty all summer.”
Her mouth fell open. “You wouldn’t.”
I arched a brow at her. “Try me.”
Caelyn shook her head. “You are vicious, woman.”
“And don’t you forget it.”
We worked in a choreographed routine that spoke of all the hours, days, and years we’d been at this. Soon, the lunch rush was upon us. Hank was cooking up orders in the back, and Darlene had joined Caelyn on the floor. There were few restaurants that stayed open year-round, and The Catch had been a staple on Anchor forever. But things had picked up even more since Frank’s stroke. It was the island folks’ way of supporting one of their own when they knew we were struggling to keep our heads above water. But the tourist rush was around the corner, and that should take the pressure off for a while—as long as we could keep up with the demand.
“Bell.”
I turned at the familiar voice and grinned, rounding the bar and throwing my arms around the tall, muscled man. “Hunt, I missed your ugly mug. You’ve been working too hard lately.” If the man spent any more time on his construction sites, he was going to start breathing sawdust.
He leaned back. “You wound me. How will I ever go on when you insult me so?”
I let out a laugh and released him, slapping his chest. The action stung my palm, and I scowled at Hunter. “You’ve got too many muscles.” I swore he got more of them every time I saw him, and he was certainly never hurting for female company. But to me, he’d always be like the brother I’d never had. One who’d stepped in when the other male in my life had tucked tail and run.
He laughed. “Sorry?” The word was a question as he shook his head at me. “Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about something.”
I assessed the bar situation. I had drinks that needed refilling, and at least two groups that looked ready to place their orders. “Give me a few to get this u
nder control, and then I’ll find you. Are you grabbing lunch?”
Hunter nodded, his brown hair that was slightly shaggy on top, falling into his eyes with the motion. He inclined his head towards a booth along the wall. “The boys and I are all here.”
I glanced over to see his core construction crew flirting shamelessly with Caelyn as she took their drink orders. I grinned. “Okay, I’ll be over as soon as I’ve got this handled.”
“Sounds good.”
Hunter headed off to his table, and I refilled beers and sodas as I memorized an order from a couple visiting from Seattle. Apparently, tourist season was starting early this year. Praise the vacation gods. I poured a Guinness with practiced ease as a shadow fell over me.
“What can I get ya?” I asked as I pulled down the tap for another beer and glanced up. The air vanished from my lungs as though one of those vacuum seals had sucked it right out. There was zero oxygen left for my organs, and I couldn’t seem to get my lungs to reinflate so I could take in more.
Blue eyes I could never seem to forget seared me, nailing me to the spot. That same rogue piece of hair fell over his forehead. But the hair itself was darker, no longer quite as blond. And the man was darker, too. I could see it in his eyes, in the way he held himself. The sympathy that flared to life in my chest had fury following close behind. Anger at myself. At him. At the world.
Cool liquid ran over my hand, and the boy I used to know scowled. “Watch what you’re doing.”
I flipped up the tap, and that rage in my chest lit up, spreading throughout my body. “Watch what I’m doing?”
His scowl deepened. “Yeah, you’re wasting beer. Jesus, who has my brother been hiring, idiots?”
I reacted before I could think better of it. I took the dark beer in my hand and upended it right over Ford Hardy’s head.
4
Ford
“What the fuck?” I wiped the foaming liquid out of my eyes. Had my brother hired some chick with rage issues? What was he thinking? No wonder the bar was struggling.
The woman in front of me was fuming. Her cheeks had turned a pretty shade of pink, eyes blazing. She looked gorgeous. A little bit crazy, but stunning, nonetheless. I needed my head examined. It was the little crinkling of her nose that had me sucking in a sharp breath.
Those little wrinkles that appeared on the bridge and between her brows as green eyes filled with tears had memories slamming into me with the force of a freight train. She always used to cry when she got mad. She might be yelling her head off at the same time, but if she was truly furious, her eyes would fill as she struggled to get her words out. This wasn’t a stranger. This was the girl who’d been like a little sister to me for most of my life. “Trouble?”
I might as well have jammed a knife into her chest from the look on her face, the pain in her eyes. She said nothing, just turned on her heel and fled.
“Oh, shit.” A familiar voice cut through the noise of the crowd, but I couldn’t drag my gaze away from the open doorway Isabelle had disappeared through. She was here. Working for my family. And she was drop-dead gorgeous. Fuck.
A hand clapped me on my shoulder. “Let me get you a towel.”
I shrugged off the grip. “Seriously, Hunter? You couldn’t have warned me?”
My not-so-little brother ground his teeth together. “The last thing you needed was another excuse to bail.”
His shot hit true. Right in the gut. “Get me a damn towel.”
He rounded the bar and tossed me a rag from the pile of clean ones on a shelf. “Here. Give me a minute. I’ll be right back.”
Within sixty seconds, the towel was soaked. I made my way around the bar, careful to avoid dripping on paying customers, and grabbed two more bar rags, doing my best to get as much of the beer off me as possible.
“What’d you do to piss that firecracker off?”
I looked up, my gaze meeting a face barely containing its laughter. The guy appeared as if he’d be more at home in LA, surfing in Venice before grabbing his acai bowl from some organic juice bar. But he had a burger and an empty beer in front of him. “Was that your beer that ended up on my head?”
His lips twitched. “I think it’s a pretty safe guess.”
“Guinness?”
“Yup.”
I grabbed a glass and poured him a beer. “On the house.”
“Thanks, man. I’m Crosby. You new?”
“More like old.” I glanced over my shoulder and caught sight of Isabelle wrapped in my brother’s arms as he rubbed a hand up and down her back. The couple of steps I took towards the open doorway were instinctive, some damn invisible pull. I could just catch their muted words.
“I’m sorry, Bell. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Ford’s gonna be back for a while to help out.” Hunter leaned forward and pressed his lips to her hair. When the hell did that happen? “I should’ve told you sooner, but I honestly wasn’t sure he’d show. He just texted and said he’d made it to the island, I didn’t think he’d come straight here.”
Isabelle shoved at his chest, creating just a bit of distance between them. “I deserved better than this. Especially from you. You know better than anyone what he put me through.” Her green eyes, sparking with anger, caught mine over Hunter’s shoulder. She didn’t look away. She opened herself to me. Let me see the true depth of her pain. It was raw and ragged, and it wrecked me in a heartbeat. Just like I knew it would.
It was why I’d stayed away for so long. Sure, it was all the memories this place held, but more than anything, it was her. I’d missed her like a lost limb, ghost pains and longing for something that no longer existed plaguing me daily. But I’d been behind the wheel that night, and there was no way she didn’t hate me for what happened. I’d known the second I came to in the emergency room and they’d told me that Violet was gone. I’d known Isabelle would hate me forever. But knowing and seeing it were two very different things. Seeing it might strike me down where I stood.
Isabelle slipped out of my brother’s hold. “I’m taking a break. You or your lap dog can cover for me.”
“Fuck.” Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long breath as he headed in my direction.
“What part of you thought it was a good plan to not warn either of us?”
He glared at me. “Don’t turn this around on me. There’s only one person who’s at fault here.” I felt the color drain from my face. “Jesus, Ford, not because of the accident. Because of how you acted after it. You don’t think it damn near killed that girl to lose her sister and you in one fell swoop?”
I ran a hand through my hair, and it came away sticky. “I didn’t have a choice. You know what her parents threatened.”
“I know between that and losing Vi, we just about lost you. But I also know that you could’ve contacted Bell later. You know I would’ve gotten a message to her in a heartbeat. But you just walked straight out of her life.”
“Bell?”
Hunter’s expression grew shuttered, a little pain of his own shining through. “Don’t call her Isabelle. And sure as hell don’t call her Trouble. She goes by Bell now. Everything else…it just brings back memories, I think.”
I rubbed a hand along my stubbled jaw. “How long has she been working here?”
“Since she graduated from college.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
Hunter pushed off the counter he leaned against. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that? You don’t get to have it both ways. You can’t refuse any mention of the island or the people you left behind and then act all wounded that you weren’t kept up-to-date. We were following your orders.”
My back teeth ground together. He was right, of course. Less than two hours on the island, and I was already losing it. It felt as if my skin were too tight for my body, every movement stiff and a little bit painful. And it was only going to get worse.
Hunter shook his head, moving on from my silence. “Are you staying with Mom and D
ad?”
“No. I got a rental on the bluff.”
He let out a low whistle. “Mr. Bigshot is back in town.” The statement could’ve been simply a brotherly jibe, but it held just a touch too much venom. “How long’s your lease?”
It was the same as asking the one question I didn’t want to answer. How long are you staying? “I’m confirmed through summer, but there’s an option to extend if I need to.” I wouldn’t need it. I would work my ass off to get the bar on its feet again so that I could leave this place behind and never look back. I’d return to LA and figure out what was next for me. There was one thing I was sure of, it wasn’t Anchor.
5
Bell
I pushed open the back door of The Catch, the slam of it against the brick wall a satisfying sound. I strode across the patio, scattered with tables but thankfully empty of customers, and headed straight for the beach. I had to keep moving. It was the only thing I knew for certain. I had to keep my body in motion, or the energy crackling through my veins would explode out of my skin, and I would lose it.
Lose it on a level that would mean I would frighten everyone around me. I pushed my legs to walk faster, my boots kicking up stones along the rocky shore. The ocean had always given me a sense of peace, but even the crashing of the waves and the smell of the salty sea air couldn’t calm me now.
I pressed on, picking up my pace even more. I kicked at a piece of driftwood in my path, sending it flying back to the sea. If only I could drop-kick Ford back to Los Angeles as easily. A trickle of guilt slid through me at the thought, quickly morphing back to anger. I didn’t have anything to feel guilty about. He was the one who ran away. The person who knew better than anyone the pain of losing Violet. I’d never understand why he’d made the decision to leave instead of letting us lean on each other. But the why no longer mattered. Only his actions did.
Reckless Memories Page 3