by Stacy Eaton
“Rye, you’re going to believe her word over mine?” she cried.
“Hell, yeah, I am. What does she have to lose?”
“I’ll tell you what she has to lose.” She turned her evil eyes my way as I saw Roan take his phone out of his pocket and put it to his ear. “I’m going to bury her for defamation of character and ruining my wedding.”
“Bullshit.” Rye glanced at the pastor. “Sorry.” The pastor nodded at him.
“Daddy!” Autumn cried toward her father as he climbed the steps.
“Is this true? Are you pregnant?”
She was shaking her head, but then she dropped her chin, and I barely heard the yes.
“But it could be Rye’s, right?”
“No, sir, I’m sorry to say it’s not mine. Autumn and I haven’t had sex in six months. She wanted to wait and make our wedding night more special, and by the looks of the form-fitting dress, there is no way she is six months pregnant.”
“But, Daddy,” Autumn whined.
He held up his hand to silence her. “Don’t you say another word.” Her father turned to me, “Who is the bum that didn’t have the courage to come forward about my daughter?”
“His name is Tom.”
“Tom?” I heard a woman’s voice from the pews. “Is she talking about you? You bastard!” I didn’t turn around, but I definitely heard a slap.
Chaos began to reign around the church, and Roan, who was still on the phone, took my arm and pulled me out of the way. Rye was heading for the side door, and we followed. It was just after we walked out that Roan told the person he was talking to that he’d return the call in a few minutes.
In the back room where they had been waiting earlier, Rye was gathering some of his things and Roan let go of my hand and went to his brother. “You okay?”
“Man, I should have listened to my instincts. For weeks, I had the feeling something wasn’t right, but I chalked it up to the jitters.”
“Never ignore your instincts, bro. You know that.”
“I know, I know.”
“What are you going to do now?”
Rye inhaled sharply and then slowly let it out. “I’m going on vacation.”
“You mean, you’re going to go on your honeymoon alone?”
“Yeah, you got a problem with that? I paid for it. I have the tickets. I’m going. I could use a change of scenery.”
“Finley,” Robin called from behind me, and I went out to the hall to give the two brothers some privacy. “What the hell just happened?”
“I’m so sorry, Robin. I know you want me to resign, or you’ll fire me. I understand.”
She put her hand up. “What are you talking about? No, I don’t want to fire you, and don’t you dare leave. I need you here!”
“You do?”
“Yes. Is this what you were asking me about weeks ago?”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you say it was about Rye? I would have told you to tell him immediately.”
“But I didn’t want to get in the way of your business. I know how much business she gives you.”
Robin laughed, “Honey, I couldn’t care less about the business she gives me. Yeah, she really helped me get started, but my word of mouth is much bigger than hers now.”
Relief washed over me and then I felt a hand on my shoulder, “Finley.”
I turned to find Rye standing there. He pulled me in for a hug I never expected and then kissed my cheek. “You’re going to make a hell of a sister-in-law.”
“What?” I squeaked, and he winked at me and turned toward Robin.
“Robin, I know you all went through a lot of trouble for the party, so I think it should go on. I believe Roan and Finley might have a reason to celebrate, so let the champagne flow.”
Rye leaned down and kissed her cheek, shook Chris’s hand, and then began to walk away.
“Where are you going, Rye?” I called out to him.
He turned, “I have a date with a beach and a couple bottles of tequila.” He winked and then disappeared around the corner.
Roan placed his hand on my lower back, and I prepared myself for whatever might happen next. He had to be angry with me, right?
“Robin, let’s go tell everyone what’s going on,” Chris suggested, and he wheeled Robin away.
“I’m sorry,” I said to Roan.
He lifted my chin, “Don’t be. I understand why you didn’t say anything. I’m just glad I picked up on the clues.”
“Rye said we had a reason to celebrate. What is it?”
Roan grinned down at me and pulled his phone from his pocket. A moment later he turned the screen to me, “Does this look familiar?”
“My key!” I squealed as I grabbed his phone.
Chapter 32
Roan
All hell was breaking loose inside the church, and yet my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I had felt it vibrate through three calls already. I hoped that the person calling had a life-threatening emergency.
“Mr. Waterman, it’s Lucas Hawkswell from the Middletown Police Department. I’m sorry for calling so many times, but we have Howard Wallace on a traffic stop, and we think we found Ms. Parker’s key. I want to send you a picture of it and see if she can ID it.”
“Are you serious? That’s great. Send it over to me and give me a couple minutes.”
“No problem. We are detaining him right now. I spoke with the state police, and we got confirmation earlier today that the prints from the scene match his, so they asked us to detain him for questioning. I wanted to be able to give them a positive ID on this key when they got here.”
“That’s fantastic. I’m in the middle of a little family emergency right now, so I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
“Great, call me back on this number; it’s my cell.”
“You got it.” I hung up and directed my attention to my brother.
One part of me felt really awful for him, the other was rejoicing. I was a little surprised by his reaction, but that was Rye. He didn’t let things bother him or weigh him down. He took things in stride.
“So—what about all the food?”
He shrugged, “Go enjoy it. God knows that Finley worked hard enough for her to sit back and enjoy it.”
“I doubt she’d do that, although I just got a call, they caught the guy who broke into her house.”
“That’s perfect. See? Now you guys have a reason to celebrate,” he slapped my shoulder, “and by the way, I think Finley’s pretty great, and you’re pretty damn lucky.”
“Why is that?”
“Because you’ve not only loved one great woman, but two. If only I could be so lucky.”
“Hey, you never know. You’re heading to the beach. Maybe you’ll find yourself a little beach bunny to snuggle up with and do some shots.”
“Sounds like the perfect way to rebound.” Rye hugged me tightly. “Thanks, man.”
“Anytime, bro.”
“I love you, Roan.”
“I love you, too, Rye.”
As Rye said goodbye to Finley, I overheard what he said to her. Finley looked a little surprised, but I was pretty determined to make her see reason. Yeah, I didn’t expect wedding bells to happen for us anytime soon, but I wasn’t letting this woman go—no way.
I absolutely loved the expression on her face when she saw the key. “Where did you get that picture?”
“The detective in Middletown just texted it over. State police matched his prints to the ones from your house and were looking for him. Middletown picked him up, and they found that on him.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever get it back.”
“But you will. They will have to hold it for a little while in evidence, but we’ll get it back from them.”
Finley’s eyes shone as she looked up at me. “Will you help me figure out what it goes to?”
“Absolutely,” I pulled her into my arms. “I’d love to help you figure out that mystery and maybe learn a litt
le more about your birth parents.”
“Are you mad at me for what happened today?”
“Are you kidding? I’m overjoyed that he’s not marrying her. He deserves better. He deserves what I have.”
“With Sherry?”
I paused, “With her, but also with what we are building. Even he could see that I care a lot for you.”
“Is that why he said that about being his sister-in-law?”
“Yeah, but don’t expect a ring anytime soon. We need to spend some time getting to know one another.”
She went up on tiptoe and kissed me. “I like that idea, Roan.”
“I like that idea, too.”
She sighed, “Well, I guess I should get back to Robin and figure out what we’re doing.”
“No, I think you are sick and need to go home to bed.”
“But I’m—”
I covered her lips with my fingertips, “You’re sick, and you need to be in bed where I can make you feel better.”
She nodded as understanding dawned on her. “Very sick.”
I wrapped my arm around her back, and we began to walk down the hallway. “Maybe we should stop by the banquet hall and grab some of that awesome food that you prepared for today, and a bottle or two of champagne.”
She laughed, “We could steal a dozen or so roses and cover the bed in rose petals; that would make me feel better.”
“Oh,” I kissed her temple and growled in her ear, “I love the way you think.”
The End
Want to know more about Finley and her past? Make sure to check out Orchids & Hurricane Kisses, book 3 of The Heart of the Family Series where Rye meets a woman who shows him what love really is, and Finley finds out more about her past.
Coming late Summer 2018
Sneak Peek: Orchids & Hurricane Kisses
I had a song stuck in my head from the moment I walked out of the church until I boarded the plane alone four hours later. It was about a guy who taped his fiancée’s picture to the seat beside him and proceeded to get drunk on the way to his honeymoon, alone. Ironic—not really.
I was going to need to bring my brother and his new girlfriend back a hell of a souvenir after saving my ass from marrying Autumn. Pregnant—she was freaking pregnant with another man’s baby and was going to marry me. What a bitch.
Damn, how close had I come to taking my vows and being bracketed with some other guy’s kid to raise? Talk about a close call!
Getting on this plane and getting as far away from Cricklewood Cove and Autumn were all I had been able to think about. My bags had already been packed, and I made a call to my friend who was my travel agent, told her what I needed, and she shifted my plane tickets and got me on the first one out of Dodge.
I couldn’t care less how many times I needed to change planes to reach my destination or if my luggage even made it there at all. All I wanted were flip-flops, a cold drink, or fifty, and the sound of the surf slamming against the sand.
Ironically, when I’d talked to Pam on the phone about my flight arrangements, she had told me that I might want to change my destination. There was a storm brewing in the waters east of the island, and they were predicting it could turn into a hurricane. I told her I didn’t care about a storm because I’d just left a shitstorm of epic proportions. What was the difference? Life on one hand, weather on the other—it truly was a tossup.
So here I was on a plane to a Caribbean island alone. I tried not to think about the whys of it, but they kept invading my mind. I had known there was a problem. Jesus, if I was honest with myself, I had known there was another man, and it hadn’t bothered me. How messed up was that?
I cracked open the first bottle of whiskey that the flight attendant had left for me. I’d asked for four. She’d given me two and said she’d be back to check on me in a little while. If she tried to flirt with me, I would know I was living that country song stuck in my head.
Women always flirted. I’d been pretty much ignoring it since I was twenty when I got bored with jumping from one girl to the next just to get lucky. Roan and I were twins, and he had taken advantage of our shared good looks by modeling. The idea of putting myself on display like that was whacked, and it was even stranger when I ran across a picture of him in a magazine or on a billboard and people thought it was me.
We were just different enough that we could fool people by looks, but not by our actions—except Finley, Roan’s new girlfriend—at least I hoped she was going to be. Finley had been able to tell the difference between the two of us the minute she had met us. That was the first thing that I had liked about her.
The second was the fact that she brought my brother back to life—not in the real oh-my-god-my-brother’s-dead-save-him kind of way, but in the way that he’d been partially living since his wife had passed away six years ago. There was a new spark in his eye and a spring in his step that his son Wade or I couldn’t have done for him.
The third reason that Finley was at the top of my list of favorite people was that she saved me from marrying Autumn. Had my brother not noticed that something was going on and that Finley knew what that something was, I would have been the fool to say I do to someone who did not deserve my respect, my name, or my money.
So, yeah, I really liked Finley, and as I poured the second whiskey into my plastic cup, I realized I was jealous as hell of her and my brother.
My brother had found two great women to love, and I had yet to find one. I had cared about Autumn, but I had lied to myself and convinced myself that I loved her, when I really hadn’t.
I gulped down the drink and glanced around for the flight attendant. I was going to need a few more bottles to make all this nonsense stop long enough for me to get to the island and acquire a bottle of tequila.
* * *
Nine hours and two planes later, I was in the taxi and on the way to the beachside resort. I was exhausted and a little tipsy, but that was fine. I planned on being a whole lot tipsy within an hour of arriving.
As the taxi pulled up under the front portico, I saw nothing but couples. Maybe I should have taken Pam’s advice and gone someplace else. Too late now, and honestly, I couldn’t care less about the other people. I had a date with the barkeep.
Luckily, my luggage had made it, and the valets handled them while I went inside to check in. I waited for one couple to move aside, and then I approached the front desk as a woman rushed forward and stepped into my path. I pulled to a quick stop so I didn’t slam into her while the clerk behind the counter looked just as surprised and gave me an apologetic smile.
“Ms. Black, I told you that I would let you know.”
“But that was two hours ago. Have you not heard anything yet?”
Her voice was a little huskier than I had expected, and I was curious to hear her speak again.
“I have not. Now, please step aside, Ms. Black, so that I can help—”
“Waterman, Rye Waterman.”
“Rye?” The woman turned to me, and I froze as I stared down into her very big and bright-green eyes. “As in short for Ryan?”
“No, Rye, as in R-Y-E.”
She started to chuckle and then she put her hand to her mouth and laughed harder. The clerk and I shared a look to see if the other person found anything funny with that.
“Why are you laughing?” I asked.
“Is that really your name?” she asked around a chuckle.
“Yes.”
She laughed again, wiping at the corner of her eye. “Your parents must not have liked you to have named you after bread,” she cackled.
I started to laugh but then sobered. “If you think that’s funny, they named my brother Roan.”
She stilled completely. “Roan? His name is Roan Waterman?”
I studied her and wondered if maybe she knew who he was. The way she’d said his name was as if she was asking if I was indeed related to the one and only Roan Waterman. She gave me the once over, up and down my body, and I realized that she must kno
w something about him.
“How do you know him?”
The woman threw her head back and howled with laughter. I glanced around the lobby and noticed everyone staring at us, well, her actually. I began to chuckle again, I couldn’t help it. Laughter was contagious, especially when the person was doing a full-on belly laugh.
“Do you know him?” I asked her again.
She threw herself forward, bending at the waist and putting her hands on her knees while she continued to laugh like a hyena. The clerk shrugged like he had no idea what had gotten into her while trying to remain composed himself.
“Ms. Black, do you mind?” the clerk leaned over the counter, trying to get her attention.
She was still laughing as I heard her say, “Rye and Roan,” in between great gasps of air. She kept at it for another minute, and I really wished that I knew why she was laughing. I could have used a good laugh as I stood there with my hands on my hips watching her dark-brown hair wave to and fro.
Finally, she started to get herself under control and stood, grabbing onto my arm to steady herself. She was wiping tears from her eyes, and I briefly wondered if she had been crying and not laughing, but then she opened her eyes, looked at me, and promptly started laughing again.
“I’m sorry,” she put her hands up. “I’m sorry,” she said between jagged laughter. One of her hands slapped against my chest, just over my heart and stayed there for a second, then she let her fingers drift over my pecs as she began to walk away, laughing almost hysterically as she went.
The clerk and I watched her until she was out of the room, and then I continued to stare at the door as I listened to her laughter fade. When I finally looked away, I glanced at my chest, expecting to see a handprint on my shirt. Why was the skin under the material tingling, then?
“I’m very sorry about that, Mr. Waterman.”
“That’s okay,” I told him once I’d finally snapped out of it and rubbed my chest absently.
The clerk glanced around. “Is Mrs. Waterman with you?”