Orchids & Hurricane Kisses

by Stacy Eaton

  “Andre, it’s Amy. I was calling to tell you that Cammie is very sick. If she doesn’t get a heart soon, she’s not going to make it. I know you probably don’t care, but she’s your daughter, damn it. You need to go see her.”

  I hung up and wanted to throw the phone into the ocean. What a chicken! How could he desert his daughter? Rye wouldn’t have done that. In fact, I knew that if I had told him what was going on, he would have come home with me. He would have wanted to help. He’d said he loved me. That’s what you do when you love someone, you help them.

  I stared at the bottle in my other hand. I could open this. I could smash it on the rocks and retrieve the piece of paper and call him. He said I could do it anytime. He would help me with anything. Would he be willing to be here for me as I watched my daughter die? Would he be willing to hold me as I cried, stand me up when my legs would no longer hold me? Was it even fair to ask him to? Did he love me enough? Did I really love him?

  My heart ached as I realized that I did. I loved him, and I had been a fool for not sharing my life with him. I knew it wasn’t often that you found love, true love, and I’d let it slip through my fingers. I wanted Rye in my life. Maybe I needed Rye in my life. A wave crashed into the rocks, sending a cold spray over me that startled me, and the bottle slipped through my fingers. I watched it fall in slow motion to my feet. The glass shattered on impact, and shards of the clear material bounced over the rocks as the sand inside spilled down and around the hard stone. The small piece of paper that contained his number was lifted into the air, and I surged forward to grab it, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  The paper flew into the dark and swirling water, and I almost dove in after it. “No!” I cried as it was swallowed by a wave. “No!” Tears coursed down my cheeks, and then I heard a voice that I’d never thought I’d hear again.

  “Amy?”

  I turned so abruptly that I almost lost my balance. A hand snaked out and grabbed me at the last second and then I was in his arms.

  “Rye! Oh, my god! I thought I had lost you forever.”

  “I’m here, Amy. I’m here.”

  I pulled back and looked at his face. He had a bandage on his forehead, and his eye was slightly swollen and bruised. “What happened to you?”

  “I was in a little accident when I got home, and it made me realize that I couldn’t let you go. I had to be here for you. I know about your daughter, Camelia. I know she needs a heart.”

  “But how?”

  “Roan. It’s a long story. I’ll explain later. Are you okay? Is she okay?”

  I shook my head and then threw my arms around him again. “I can’t believe you are here. I was just thinking about what a fool I was to have let you go. I was going to call you, but then your number fell into the water.”

  “I’m here, Amy. I’m here.” He took hold of my face and kissed me, and I felt every ounce of love that he had for me. “I love you, Amy.”

  I was opening my mouth to tell him I loved him, too, when my cellphone began to ring, and I looked at the number. Panic gripped my chest as I saw it was the hospital, and just as I was putting it to my ear, his phone began to ring.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Mrs. Clandestino, we have a heart for your daughter.”

  Chapter 17

  Rye

  I was going to have a nasty bruise across my chest from the seatbelt, and the airbag had given me a black eye. Flying glass had sliced my forehead, but I was going to live.

  That was more than I could say for the backseat passenger of the car that had struck me. My understanding from the police and my nurse, Jason Hayes, was that it didn’t look good. To make matters worse, I knew the kid, or his family anyway.

  The oldest boy was nineteen. He’d been driving, and from what I gathered, he’d been drinking. The next boy was seventeen, he was friends with my nephew, Wade. The kid in the back was only thirteen and hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt.

  I had gone to school with their mother, Maggie. In fact, she had been my first girlfriend in middle school, my first kiss, my first crush, and now her son was hanging on by a thread because my ex-fiancée had been at my house, and I couldn’t stand being under the same roof with her.

  “You gonna live?” my brother’s voice reached me through the fog of exhaustion and pain.

  He clasped my hand and squeezed for a moment. In his eyes, I saw more emotions than I could even begin to fathom. We didn’t need to speak. I saw how shaken up he was by the last couple of days, and I was sorry I had put him through the wringer.

  “Yeah, I’ll live.”

  Finley popped out from behind him, and for a second, I froze, and then I blinked, and her face came into focus. For a moment, she looked a lot like Amy, but it was just the dark hair and green eyes. Their faces were very different.

  “Next time you decide to put your life on the line—twice—you’d better warn me. Do you have any idea how worked up this guy gets when he is worried about you?” Finley admonished me.

  “Yeah, I do. Sorry about that, Finley.”

  She put her hand on my leg. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

  “I saw Maggie and her husband in the waiting room,” Roan commented. “A nurse was talking to them in the corner.”

  “Yeah, their youngest son isn’t doing so well.”

  “Chad?” Roan winced. “Wade is going to be torn up about that. He was helping Chad with his strokes. Said the kid wanted to join the high school swim team when he was old enough.”

  “It’s a small world.”

  Roan crossed his arms over his chest and stared at the floor for a moment. “Smaller than you think, brother.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He glanced at Finley, and she nodded. “I told you that I found out that woman’s name, the one you were worried about, and you said you didn’t want to know. Is that still the case?”

  I remembered the conversation I’d had with Autumn earlier and how when I’d left the house I had been hellbent on finding Amy again. “No, that’s not the case. What do you know about her?” I shifted on the hospital gurney to sit upright.

  “Did the woman ever say she knew me?”

  I tried to think back, but I was just too tired. “I don’t know. She mentioned your name once or twice, I think, but it was always in a conversation. I’d already said your name, so it didn’t raise any flags. Why, do you know her?”

  “Yes, I do. I started thinking about the name Amy Black, and then Clandestino, and then it started to click into place.” Finley pulled something out of her purse and handed it to me. I stared at the picture of Amy and my brother, huge smiles on their faces, arms slung around each other’s necks. “Her real name when I knew her was Ameleena Montenegro, but she always hated the big, fancy name. She must have told me a hundred times that she was going to legally change it to Amy Black. I found records that she did, but her passport was still in her married name, Amy Clandestino. She was married to Andre Clandestino, the photographer that I used to work with. Ameleena and I used to model together.”

  “Did you sleep with her?”

  “No, we kissed once, but then we laughed about it, and said it was like kissing a brother or sister. We ended by being good friends instead, and she had a huge crush on Andre. I guess they ended up getting married.”

  “And had a kid.”

  Finley and Roan glanced at one another, and Finley pulled her bottom lip under her teeth and worried it.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Ameleena’s daughter—”

  “You mean, Amy’s daughter,” I interrupted him.

  “Okay, Amy’s daughter has a heart condition. She’s really sick.”

  “How did you find that out?”

  “I tracked Amy down to the magazine that she worked for and found a link to an old fundraiser for her daughter, Camelia, to help with medical expenses. The article said she needed a heart transplant. I don’t know if she ever got one, but that article said she needed one.”

&
nbsp; “How old is her daughter?” Now I understood why Amy wanted to keep us just on the island, she had a daughter who was fighting for her life.

  “Camelia is ten,” Finley said. “Her mother calls her Cammie.”

  Things were making a lot more sense now, and I shifted to get off the gurney.

  “Whoa, where are you going?”

  “To find her.”

  “No, you’re going to stay right here, then go home and get a good night’s sleep, and then you can be a knight in shining armor tomorrow.”

  “I need to get to her.”

  Roan cocked a brow. “Do you know where she is?”

  “No, but I bet you do.”

  “And I’ll tell you tomorrow morning. You need some sleep, Rye. I’ll make arrangements for you to travel tomorrow. In fact, I’ll even come with you. We will go find her together.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “No, I want to, but first I want you to get some rest. If her daughter is as ill as she sounds, she is going to need you to be strong.”

  “Okay, then we go tomorrow.”

  The next morning, I woke sore as all get out and took a long, hot shower. I asked Finley if she would do me a favor and pop over to my house to make sure Autumn was packing, and she told me she’d love to. I suspected that she was secretly hoping that Autumn wasn’t so she could toss Autumn out on her ass.

  Roan came down the stairs a few minutes after I did, a small suitcase in his hand.

  “You know, you really don’t need to go with me.”

  “I know, but I want to.” He set it down and kissed Finley as he headed to the coffee pot.

  “After the last few days, Rye, I don’t think he’s going to let you out of his sight,” Finley said.

  Roan cracked a smile, and I grinned at Finley. “Yeah, I’m sure. My big brother is ultra-protective.”

  “Yes, he is,” Roan agreed as he filled his mug.

  Thirty minutes later, we were in the car and heading south. Roan figured that it would be easier to drive than to deal with the airports, luggage, rental cars, and the whole hassle of hurry-up-and-wait. We had about a six-hour trip, and we would arrive at about one in the afternoon. If we had flown, we wouldn’t have arrived until after four.

  The closer we got to Ocean City, the more anxious I became. What if she told me she didn’t want me there? What if we couldn’t find her? What if she didn’t want me around her daughter?

  “Stop fidgeting,” my brother muttered to me as we pulled into a gas station, and he picked up his phone. He dialed something and then put the phone to his ear. “Room 645, please.”

  “Who are you calling?”

  He held up his finger. “Yes, I’m looking for Amy Clandestino. Is she there?”

  “No, she went home for a little while. She should be back soon. Can I give her a message?” a woman’s voice replied.

  “No, thanks, I’ll talk with her later.” Roan hung up and then pulled back out on the roadway.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “I wanted to find out if she was at the hospital with her daughter or at home to save us some time.”

  “Good thinking.” On the way over the bridge to Ocean City, I followed a boat zipping along in the water and was transported back to our time on the water. I had to convince her that she needed me, that we needed to be together.

  We pulled down a side street a few minutes later, and I saw a woman disappear over the dune ahead toward the water. “Roan, I think that was her.”

  I jumped out of the car before the car had come to a complete stop and raced down the street. I climbed the stairs that led over the dune and found her walking over the sand toward an outreach of rocks. She’d pulled her hair into her collar, but I was almost positive by the swing of her hips that it was Amy. I began to follow.

  She stood on the rocks, staring out over the ocean. As I approached, I saw her drop something. It wasn’t until a tiny wisp of paper floated up and toward the water that I realized it was the bottle I’d given her. She yelled as she tried to grab it, and the anguish in her voice tore at my heart.

  “Amy,” I called, and she turned so quickly that she almost fell back into the water. I grabbed a hold of her, and she threw herself into my arms. It was more than I could have asked for as I held her.

  “Rye! Oh, my god! I thought I had lost you forever.”

  “I’m here, Amy. I’m here.” I was so glad to hear her say that, and when she pulled back, her face went from surprised to worry as she asked what had happened.

  “I was in a little accident when I got home, and it made me realize that I couldn’t let you go. I had to be here for you. I know about your daughter, Camelia. I know she needs a heart.”

  “But how?”

  “Roan. It’s a long story. I’ll explain later. Are you okay? Is she okay?”

  She babbled for a moment and then I couldn’t wait any longer, I kissed her, and when I was done, I told her I loved her. I saw it in her eyes that she wanted to say it back, that she would have except her phone rang and then an alarmed look passed over her face as she answered.

  She was just saying hello when my phone rang, and I pulled it out to see that it was the police officer who’d investigated my accident. Crap, should I let it go to voicemail? No, I needed to take this.

  “Are you kidding?” Amy asked, and I wanted so badly to know what was going on with her, a look of shock coating her features as I answered my own phone.

  “Mr. Waterman, it’s Officer Menna. I wanted to let you know that you have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the accident.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “The driver of the other vehicle was intoxicated, he admitted to it, and his blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.”

  “How is his little brother?” I glanced up at Amy. Tears were running down her face, but there was a smile on her lips.

  “I just got word that they took him off the ventilator. I believe the family decided to donate his organs.”

  “At least something good will come out of it.”

  “Yeah, there is that. I’ll be in touch if I need anything else, Mr. Waterman.”

  “Thank you, Officer Menna.”

  As soon as I hung up, Amy threw herself at me. “They have a heart! Cammie has a heart!”

  Chills ran down my spine as I pulled back and looked at her. “Was that the hospital?”

  “Yes, they just said a young boy was taken off life support after being in a car accident, and they are preparing to procure the heart now. By tonight, Cammie will be in surgery getting a new heart.”

  I couldn’t help it, but I started to cry. I was so happy for her, and so sad for Maggie, and here I was right in the middle. Maybe there was another boy who had lost his life, but I had a feeling it was the same one. “Remind me to tell you a story later about a young boy.”

  Chapter 18

  Amy

  The words bounced off the inside of my brain. “What did you say?”

  “I said we have a heart for your daughter. A young boy is being taken off life support after being in a serious car crash last night. They are taking him off the ventilator now, and we already have a crew en route to procure the heart.”

  “You’re serious? She’s getting a new heart.”

  “Yes, by tonight, she will be in surgery getting a new heart.”

  My eyes were overflowing with tears running down my cheeks so fast that I could barely see straight, but what I did see was Rye right in front of me looking sad and serious.

  When he hung up, I threw myself into his arms again. “They have a heart! Cammie has a heart!”

  “Was that the hospital?”

  “Yes, they just said a boy was taken off life support after being in a car accident, and they are preparing to procure the heart now. By tonight, Cammie will be in surgery getting a new heart.”

  Suddenly, Rye started to cry, and he held my face as the tears streaked down his cheeks. “Remind me to tel
l you a story later about a young boy.”

  “Okay, but it has to wait. I have to get back to the hospital.”

  “We’ll take you.” Rye took my hand as we walked carefully over the rocks back to the sand.

  “Who is we?”

  “Roan is here.” He shot me a look. “You know you could have told me that you knew him.”

  “He told you that we didn’t sleep together, right?”

  “Yes, he did, but you could have told me. I would have believed you.”

  She grinned my way, and her phone began to ring again. “Joanne, they have a heart!”

  “I know, Dr. August just came in and told me. We didn’t tell Cammie yet, we wanted you to be here when she heard the news.”

  “I’m on my way,” I told her and hung up as we started across the sand.

  Up ahead was a duplicate of the man beside me, yet he was so different. When Roan and I had almost hooked up all those years ago, it had felt all wrong. Why did it feel so right with his twin?

  Roan was smiling as we approached. “Ameleena, I never thought I would see you again.” He pulled me in for a strong hug.

  I groaned as I stepped back. “Oh god, did you tell him my real name?”

  “Yes, Ms. Montenegro, he sure did,” Rye replied with a grin and then turned to Roan, “we need to get her to the hospital now. They have a heart for Cammie.”

  “They do?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then let’s go!”

  “Let me grab my bag out of my car,” I told them as we headed toward the street.

  As I hustled toward my car, I heard Rye say to his brother, “You’re not going to believe this.” I was too far away to hear the rest of what was said, but when I came back a moment later, Roan was shaking his head.

  “This world just gets smaller by the minute.”

  The three of us got into Roan’s Land Rover and off we went.