by Lisa Dyson
* * *
AN HOUR OR SO later, Roxie stood with Hannah and Amber in the resort lobby as they waited to go out to the beach for Bree and Nick’s wedding. Bree had asked for a moment alone before coming to meet them.
“So you actually broke it off with Jim?” Amber asked Roxie.
“I did.”
“How’d he take it?”
Roxie pursed her lips and then said, “He took it better than I expected. He never even asked why I wanted to do that. Just said that it was probably for the best. Which leads me to wonder why it took me so long to break up with him in the first place!”
Amber raised her eyebrows. “And why did you break it off with him?”
“Because it just wasn’t working out with him being so far away, and it wasn’t like he was going out of his way to work on keeping our relationship alive. I wouldn’t hear from him for weeks at a time.” She refused to say aloud that her physical attraction to Pete had anything to do with her decision. Not that he’d pushed her to be with him. In fact, he still had a different woman on his arm every time they ran into each other.
Amber turned to Hannah, tilting her head as she asked, “Hannah, are you okay? You’ve been acting like something’s bothering you ever since we left DC.”
Hannah shrugged. “It’s probably nothing.”
“Spill it and we’ll decide,” Roxie told her.
“I had this strange experience at the airport. When I ran to the ladies’ room before we boarded, a guy I thought I knew was walking toward me.” She paused. “So I waved and said, ‘Hi, Ryan!’ He looked right at me but said, ‘I’m sorry. You must have me confused with someone else.’”
Amber pursed her lips. “So you thought it was somebody you knew, but it wasn’t. That’s what’s been eating at you?”
“No, it’s not that simple,” Hannah told them. “I’m sure it’s Ryan. I just don’t know why he wouldn’t admit it.”
“How do you know for sure?” Roxie asked. “We all have doppelgangers out there. This was probably his.”
“How do you know this guy Ryan anyway?” Amber asked.
“We went to high school together. We dated for about six months our senior year.” She took a breath and then visibly swallowed. “And then one day, he was supposed to pick me up for a movie, but he never showed up.”
“Some guys are really bad at breaking up,” Amber quipped. “He probably just didn’t want to face you.”
“Yeah, I know, but that wasn’t like Ryan at all,” Hannah said. “He’d never just disappear like he did.”
“What do you mean, disappear? You never saw him again?”
She shook her head. “Never. He stopped going to school, his phone was disconnected. I couldn’t even contact his parents, because they disappeared, too.”
“Maybe they’re all secret agents,” Roxie suggested in an eerie voice as she hummed a familiar movie tune.
“Or aliens called back to their home planet,” Amber added.
“I can see you’re not taking this very seriously at all. Remind me not to bring up my deepest thoughts with you guys ever again,” Hannah said on a sigh. She pointed across the lobby. “Here comes the bride. Let’s get this wedding started.”
* * *
NICK COULDN’T BELIEVE how lucky he was as he stood on the beach with Pete, watching his bride come toward him. She wore a simple white dress and bare feet. Instead of carrying flowers, she carried their daughter in her arms.
Little Emma Marie wore a dress that complemented her mother’s, and his heart was bursting with love for them.
A three-piece string ensemble was playing off to the side. Roxie, Hannah and Amber had already come up the aisle and stood off to the other side in pale green, pale blue and pale yellow dresses, respectively.
Bree’s dad had insisted on flying guests to the island, so there were more people in attendance than they’d originally expected. Nick’s mother sat alone in the front row on the left, while his relatives took up several rows behind her.
Bree’s stepmother was in the front row on the right holding Bree’s half brother, CL. To the left of her was an empty chair for Bree’s dad. In the second row were Bree’s maternal grandparents and her aunt, as well as several newly found cousins and aunts and uncles in the successive rows.
“You ready for this?” Pete whispered to him.
“Absolutely.”
Bree and her dad began walking down the aisle then. She stopped at her grandparents to grasp each of their hands, as well as her aunt’s. Then she turned to Nick’s mom, who held out her arms to take the baby. Nick’s vision blurred when Bree and his mom hugged. Then Bree’s dad kissed his daughter’s cheek and reached out to shake Nick’s hand before taking his seat.
Bree turned to face Nick then, and their eyes met. She took the few more steps to reach him, but the next thing he knew, she stumbled and was about to go down face-first when he caught her in his arms. The spectators gasped in unison.
After he helped her stand solidly on her feet again, she grinned with sparkling eyes and said, “I believe we’ve now come full circle.”
He grinned back. “And what a wonderful circle it is.”
“I love you,” she whispered.
“Not as much as I love you,” he responded.
* * * * *
Be sure to look for Lisa Dyson’s next
BUSINESS, BABIES & SECRETS story.
And don’t forget her upcoming book in the
TALES FROM WHITTLER’S CREEK series.
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE SOLDIER’S FOREVER FAMILY by Gina Wilkins.
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The Soldier's Forever Family
by Gina Wilkins
CHAPTER ONE
DAWN WAS ADAM SCOTT’S favorite time of day at the South Carolina coastal resort where he both worked and lived. Suspended between darkness and light, the beach was quiet but for the sound of the waves breaking on the shore and the drumming of his feet on the wet sand. He ran every morning before beginning a long day of work. He passed the occasional beachcomber or fisherman, but they rarely exchanged more than civil nods. Folks out this early weren’t looking for conversation.
This was his time to clear his head, to organize his plans for the day. A chance to savor the solitude that was increasingly rare for him as his responsibilities at the resort had increased ove
r the past three years. He didn’t always go to bed alone, but he never invited anyone to join him on these morning runs. For this hour every morning, he had at least the illusion of complete freedom, no one making demands on his time or attention, no obvious reason he couldn’t just keep running if the mood struck him.
A small form appeared ahead, hunched on the sand, barely visible in the pale light from the pink-streaked purple sky. Adam squinted, trying to make out the shape. Was it a dog? No. A child. A young one, at that. What was the kid doing out alone at this time of day?
Estimating the boy to be four, maybe five, Adam approached slowly. He didn’t want to scare him. “Hey, buddy. Whatcha doing out here by yourself?”
Still crouched over a shallow tide pool, the boy looked up. Maybe it was a trick of shadows or the watery light of dawn, but there was something eerily familiar about this kid with his tumbled dark hair and smoky gray eyes. Perhaps Adam had seen him around the resort before? Clouds shifted overhead and the light brightened enough for him to see more clearly. No. He was sure they’d never met. But still there was something about this child...
“I’m not allowed to talk to strangers.” The boy didn’t look particularly concerned as he shared that rule.
“That’s a good policy, but I work for the resort,” Adam assured him, keeping his distance for now. “My name is Adam.”
The child frowned thoughtfully. “You could still be a bad guy.”
Adam was startled into a chuckle by the little guy’s logic. “Well, yeah, I guess that’s true. But I’m not.”
Apparently satisfied, the boy extended one hand. “Do you know what kind of shell this is?”
Glancing at the cylindrical shell on the outstretched palm, Adam nodded. “It’s a lettered olive. It belonged to a type of snail.”
“It’s cool. I want to find a starfish, too.”
“You find them here occasionally. So, where are your parents? Do they know you’re out by yourself?”
As if in answer, a woman’s anxious voice called out. “Simon? Simon! Where are you?”
The boy winced. “That’s my mom.”
A woman emerged, almost running, from the canopy of tropical trees that marked the edge of the main resort grounds. She wore a tank top and plaid cotton shorts with flip-flops, and her collar-length brown hair was disheveled, as though she’d just climbed out of bed. “Simon! You know better than to wander off like this. You scared me half to death.”
The voice was an echo from Adam’s past. He took a step back, his startled gaze locked on the woman’s anxious face. Her attention was focused on the boy, so she hadn’t spared Adam more than a quick glance. Would she recognize him when she looked more closely, or had she forgotten all about the man she’d known so briefly all those years ago?
Joanna looked so much the same that it was hard to believe it had been six years since he’d last seen her. Her hair was a few inches shorter than the style she’d worn before, but was still a glossy chestnut that complemented her green eyes. Her fair skin was smooth, her cheeks flushed with heightened emotion. Seeing her now affected him as strongly as when he’d met her on this very beach. He’d wanted her from the moment their paths had first crossed. Apparently, that physical reaction hadn’t changed in the ensuing years, though there was little to no chance the outcome would be the same this time.
He was aware that he’d changed a lot more than she had. When they’d met before, he’d been rail thin, brimming with impatient, brash energy. His dark hair had been cropped in a military cut. He was a healthier weight now, more muscle than sinew, tanned and generally relaxed. His last deployment had left physical traces in the carved lines around his eyes and mouth, in the scars hidden beneath his clothes, and in the strands of premature gray that peppered his hair, long enough now to brush his collar and usually mussed by the ocean breeze. He thought he looked more surfer than soldier these days. He wasn’t surprised she hadn’t immediately recognized him.
He couldn’t believe she was really here. He’d figured she’d long since moved on with her life, finding new places to visit on vacations. Six years was a long time.
“I’m sorry I scared you, Mom. I wanted to find shells before the other people come out. You were asleep.”
So she had at least one kid now. No doubt a husband waiting back in their suite. Adam told himself he was happy for her. Then wondered if he’d ever crossed her mind in the years since they’d parted.
Holding her wind-tossed hair out of her face with one hand, Joanna spoke more calmly now that her first surge of panic had subsided. “You should have woken me. Or asked last night and I’d have gotten up early with you. Don’t ever come out again without telling me, understand?”
The boy sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”
Joanna nodded in satisfaction, and then turned to look up at Adam. He realized he was still gaping at her. Belatedly remembering he was now an employee here, he gave her a professional nod. “Good morning.”
He figured he’d leave it up to her to decide whether to acknowledge that they’d met before. Maybe she’d want to pretend that their vacation fling had never happened. Hell, maybe she didn’t even remember him. For all he knew, she’d made much more of an impression on him than he had on her.
Joanna’s green eyes widened, and her lips parted on a gasp of disbelief. “Adam?”
So she did remember. He cleared his throat before speaking, keeping his tone as even as possible. “Hello, Joanna. This is a surprise.”
“You could say that.” Her right hand fell on the boy’s shoulder. Her face had paled—though he couldn’t say whether it was from leftover concern for her son, shock at seeing him or a combination. “What are you doing here?”
“He works here,” Simon piped up. “Does that mean it’s okay to talk to him?”
Adam saw her fingers tighten on her son’s shoulder before she replied. “Yes. It’s okay. But you’re still not allowed to come outside without my permission.”
The boy pointed. “There’s a tide pool on the other side of that big rock. Can I go look in it?”
Without taking her gaze from Adam, Joanna nodded. “Stay where I can see you.”
It shouldn’t be this hard to think of something to say to her. Though meaningless small talk would never be Adam’s strong suit, he’d gotten better at it during his three years working at the resort. He made it a personal rule not to get intimately involved with guests, so he avoided that awkwardness. Still, this wasn’t the first time in his life he’d unexpectedly run into a woman he’d slept with, and he was usually able to manage a few polite words. Apparently, none of those other women had affected him in quite the same way Joanna had.
He settled for the mundane. “How have you been, Joanna?”
She moistened her lips, visibly nervous. Was she still on edge because of her son’s early disappearance? He couldn’t imagine why running into Adam again would elicit such a dramatic response. They’d had nothing more than a few days of fun. Laughed, danced, walked, swam, enjoyed each other in bed a few times. A few damned good times. But thinking about that wasn’t making this encounter any less awkward.
“I’m—um.” She pushed her blowing hair out of her face, and he could see that her hand wasn’t quite steady.
Seeing him again wasn’t a happy surprise for her, apparently. Was she worried he would make things uncomfortable with her husband? Okay, he could understand that. How could he let her know that he was willing to pretend their fling never happened?
Giving her his most impersonal smile, he took another step back. “As your son told you, I’m on staff here, so if you or your family need anything at all during your stay, just let us know.”
Her gaze darted from him to the boy and back again. She moistened her lips again. “Thank you.”
She’d changed little in appearance, but something was definitely
different about Joanna. The woman who’d drifted on occasion through his memories had been confident, animated, flirty. If there was, indeed, a husband waiting for her, he could understand why she wasn’t flirting now, but he couldn’t figure out why she seemed so stiff and nervous. The only explanation that made sense was that she was concerned he might interfere with her current relationship.
He made a sudden decision. “I’ve got a few vacation days built up.” More than a few, actually. Despite his employer’s encouragement, he hadn’t taken more than a handful of days off in the past three years. “I’m thinking about taking a week off. If I don’t run into you before I leave, it was nice seeing you again, Joanna.”
Though he’d have to scramble to make arrangements, maybe things would be easier for her. It was for a similar reason he’d slipped away after their long-ago weekend together, to save her—okay, to save them both—from awkward partings. At least this time he’d said goodbye.
He started to turn, but paused when Simon ran up to him again, another shell clutched in his hand. The boy gazed up at him eagerly, his steel-gray eyes squinting against the brightness of the rising sun. “Do you know what this one is?”
Man, there was just something about this kid’s eyes...
“That’s a banded tulip,” Adam said automatically. “Got a little chip out of it, but it’s still a nice shell for your collection.”
Simon repeated the name under his breath as if committing it to memory, then asked, “Will you help me look for a starfish?”
“Um—”
“It’s time for breakfast, Simon. We need to go back to the suite and get dressed for the day.”
The boy heaved a huge sigh but didn’t argue. Probably didn’t want to push his luck after sneaking out earlier. “Can we come back after breakfast?”
“Yes, we will.”
Simon held out both hands toward Adam, a shell displayed on each little palm. “Banded tulip. Lettered olive,” he recited slowly, nodding to each in turn. “Right?”