by Amy Knupp
“I saw that,” Rachel said. “Even a kitchen-phobe like me knows you aren’t supposed to lick your fingers till you’re done.”
“This stuff is to-die-for. The girls are going to demolish these cupcakes at the dinner tomorrow. That looks good.”
“You know there’s a cupcake shop on the mainland about a mile from the hospital, don’t you?”
“Take a deep breath, honey. Enjoy the time away from work. Cupcakes are about the journey.”
“You’ve lost your mind. I need to be catching up on my reading,” Rachel said.
“Now, the bananas you mashed? Add those and the vanilla. Mush it all together and mix it with the hand mixer.”
Rachel used a spatula to dump the fruit into the bowl and then measured out the vanilla. “This looks like baby puke.”
She put the two beaters on the mixer, stuck them in the goop and switched the appliance on to Medium. The doorbell sounded over the noise of the mixer, and her mom sent her a questioning look and then, after licking her fingers clean, headed toward the living room to see who it was.
When the glop was thoroughly combined, Rachel turned off the mixer, not even remotely tempted to lick her own fingers. Then the visitor’s voice coming from the living room caused her heart to speed up without her permission.
Crap. What was Cale doing here? And why couldn’t she handle even the sound of his voice without getting all messed up inside?
Ignore, ignore, ignore. He’ll be gone momentarily.
Unless, of course, it was her he wanted to talk to, she amended, as their footsteps and chatter moved toward the kitchen.
“Rachel, look who’s here,” her mom said, cheery as can be.
“Hi, Cale,” she managed to say without taking her eyes from the eggs she cracked into the mixture.
“Hey, Rachel.” He leaned against the counter several feet from her. “How’s it going?”
“My mom’s putting me through a round of torture.”
Jackie resumed her spot on the other side of the sink and started spooning the sugar-nut topping into each section of the cupcake pan. “You’d enjoy it if you’d let yourself.”
“What are you making?” Cale asked, eyeing the baby-puke-with-eggs-on-top mixture.
“Banana-walnut cupcakes,” Rachel’s mom said. “With brown-sugar-walnut topping and a banana-cream filling. We’ll save one for you when they’re done.”
“Which, at this rate, should be early fall,” Rachel said.
“She’s always been such a go-getter, but slap an ounce of domesticity in front of her and she goes all tachycardic,” her mom said.
The baking had nothing to do with Rachel’s rapid heartbeat. More accurately, having her twin sister’s fiancé, whom she had frequent naughty dreams about, show up made Rachel go all tachycardic.
Cale laughed and Rachel threw the eggshells in the sink.
“I came by to see if you would go to a small get-together with me,” Cale said to Rachel. “Evan Drake is one of the guys I work with and he and his wife are taking their trawler yacht out in about half an hour. Sorry the invitation is so last-minute, but I hadn’t planned to go until my mom recently made a very emphatic point that I needed to go out and have fun more often.”
The two sides within her warred—the one that longed to spend the day with him and the one that acknowledged it was much smarter to stay home and read her medical journals. Or even bake.
“I’m kind of up to my elbows in torture right now,” she said. “And then I have a good twenty hours of reading to catch up on.”
“Oh, no,” her mom said authoritatively. “No, you don’t. I’ve got the cupcakes covered, and you can read later. You need to get out just as much as Cale does. Probably more.”
Rachel opened her mouth to argue but closed it without a word, not wanting to debate with her in front of Cale. After a glare at her mom, she set the mixer down and faced him. “I’m not much of a partygoer.”
“It’s not really a party. Think of it as a boat ride on the gulf.”
Rachel’s mom walked over to her and took the mixer from in front of her. “Out.”
“Now?” Rachel asked in disbelief. “You practically forced me in here an hour ago.”
“And now I’m forcing you out. Go with Cale. Get some fresh air. The journals will be there when you get back, I promise.”
Rachel stared at her mom for a handful of seconds. To refuse to go at this point would be beyond rude. She didn’t have that in her, and her mom knew that. Slowly, she pivoted around to Cale. “I guess I’m going on a boat ride.” She forced a smile.
“Good. Just put on a swimsuit and something over it. I’ve got everything else we’ll need.”
A swimsuit. Didn’t that just make everything a touch more fabulous? Her smile was still pasted in place as she nodded. “You got it.”
She’d kill her mother later.
* * *
CALE SUSPECTED INVITING Rachel to go with him to Evan and Selena Drake’s party was a mistake right after they got to the marina and walked up to the Drakes’ trawler yacht.
He hadn’t had a chance to warn Evan he was bringing someone. Although his friend had made it clear Cale was welcome to bring a guest, he realized a little heads-up would have proven wise in this particular circumstance when he caught Derek Severson and Evan, who’d both known Noelle, exchanging a wide-eyed look up on the flybridge as Cale and Rachel climbed aboard into the midst of eight or nine people on the roomy aft deck.
“Cale, you made it,” Selena said and took his hand. Macey Severson, Derek’s wife, looked subtly shell-shocked until he was able to introduce Rachel.
“Everyone, this is Dr. Rachel Culver—”
“Noelle’s sister,” Clay Marlow announced, as understanding obviously dawned on him.
Cale couldn’t imagine how Rachel felt to repeatedly have people direct that momentarily stunned expression at her.
She smiled just enough that no one else was likely able to tell she wanted to throw up from nerves, but Cale could see it. He put his arm around her waist, hoping to reassure her.
“Since this is a no-name-tags affair, pay close attention,” he told her in a mock-serious voice. “Up top is the captain, Evan Drake, the fire station’s former playboy until he got snapped up by Selena.” He gestured at Selena, who smiled warmly to welcome Rachel. “Derek Severson is up there with Evan.”
“Nice to meet you,” Derek called down, lifting his aviator shades so she could see his face.
“Derek, like the rest of these guys, is a firefighter, and he and his wife, Macey, own the Shell Shack bar. Do you know it?”
“I’ve heard of it,” Rachel said. “I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never been there.”
A round of exaggerated disbelief and phony outrage went up around them. “Island mainstay!” Evan called.
“Fire-department mainstay,” Clay added and everyone laughed. “Make sure Cale takes you there. Best bar on the island, by far.”
“It’s our food that makes us famous, right?” Macey, who was a lot of months pregnant, said.
“That and your Sandblaster,” Cale said. “It’s a triple-size drink with about a dozen types of alcohol in it. It’s feared and revered far beyond the island,” he explained to Rachel. “This is Clay Marlow and his wife, Andie. They have a daughter who’s...how old?”
“Seven going on sixteen,” Clay said. “She’s staying with my sister today.”
“She’d much rather be on a boat ride having all her daddy’s firefighter colleagues spoil her,” Andie, who had multiple intricate tattoos curling out from under her short sleeves, said.
“Nice to meet you all,” Rachel said stiffly. “I really like Cale’s idea of name tags. I’m used to having people’s names readily available on their medical charts.”
Everyone laughed and Cale squeezed her waist briefly, again to try to put her at ease.
“What kind of a doctor are you, Rachel?” Macey asked.
“Emergency medicine. I’m s
ure I’ll see some of you guys bringing in patients to the E.R.” Rachel nodded to the men.
“Not an ob-gyn,” Derek hollered to Macey, “so keep your legs crossed while we’re out on the gulf.”
“Baby’s not coming for two months, Mr. Impatient,” Macey said. “Two months, you hear that?”
“Unless baby has other plans and decides to come before that,” Selena said. “But we’ll cross our fingers she’ll stay put for a while.”
“I could get you through childbirth if I had to,” Rachel said confidently. “No worries.”
“Faith and Joe could have come after all, then,” Evan said.
“Joe is one of the captains at the department. His wife, Faith, is due in a couple of weeks,” Selena explained.
“I saw them the other day,” Clay said. “She’s ready to pop.”
“Poor Joe,” Evan said with a look of dread.
Rachel sidled closer to Cale as the jokes continued, and Cale assured himself the reason that made him happy was because it meant she trusted him. That was all.
As soon as Scott Pataki and his girlfriend, Mercedes Stone, arrived with Mercedes’s sister Charlie in tow, they set loose the moorings and headed out toward the Gulf of Mexico.
The women went down to the galley to set the food out, and they took Rachel with them. She went with a single unsure look at Cale before descending the flight of steps. Scott went with them to check out the cabin since he hadn’t been on the Fire and Ice Cream before.
Cale took a seat on one of the loungers on the deck, beer in hand, and told himself Rachel was an extremely competent woman and would hold her own just fine with the others.
Derek came down from the flybridge, leaving Evan to drive, and sat across from Cale, next to Clay.
“So,” Derek said, leaning forward and holding a beer between his knees. “You’re dating Rachel now?” The look on Derek’s face said so much more than his tone, which he kept casual and only marginally curious. The subtle wrinkle between his brows said he was trying to wrap his brain around the concept.
“No,” Cale said quickly. “She just moved back to the island and doesn’t know many people. We’re just friends.”
“She seems shy,” Clay said.
“A lot of people would, coming in to this crowd,” Evan said from above them.
“For all her confidence professionally,” Cale told them, “she’s not really comfortable socially. I don’t know why.”
“The opposite of Noelle, huh?” Derek said sympathetically.
“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Cale grinned and shook his head. “Hard to imagine they shared a womb.”
“Must be...awkward to hang out with her. She looks so much like Noelle.”
“I don’t know if awkward is the word. They’re different to me somehow, even though most people couldn’t tell the difference between them. But there are times when I see Rachel from a distance and...” He shook his head, remembering the effect the first time he’d seen her in the E.R. “Sometimes it’s a little haunting.”
Cale exhaled quietly in relief when the subject changed. Their fascination with the whole twin bit just made it more solid in his mind that he and Rachel could never be anything but friends. Not that he was looking to go beyond that, with her or anyone.
* * *
NOELLE WOULD HAVE loved this, Rachel thought two hours later, after they’d all stuffed themselves with barbecue pork sandwiches, potato salad, corn on the cob, fresh fruit, coleslaw and brownies. Her twin would have fit in perfectly with this group—and apparently had, based on some of the things the others had told her about her sister.
Strangely, though Rachel was far from the life of the party, she was beginning to really enjoy herself. She’d be loath to admit it to her mom, but all of Cale’s firefighter and paramedic buddies seemed like genuinely good guys, and their wives and girlfriends had mastered the art of making her feel welcome without fussing over her.
Rachel and the other women emerged from the cabin after putting away scarce leftovers and ascended to the largest deck, where there were a few lounge chairs, built-in benches, a cooler of drinks and a couple of small tables tucked in the corners holding beverage coasters and bowls of nuts and M&M’s. Two of the guys were on the top navigational deck, which she’d been told was called the flybridge, and the others, including Cale, were relaxing on the deck.
Rachel’s debut today had been rocky, most likely due to her own self-doubt. When she and Cale had arrived, she’d seen the looks from just about all of his friends, brief and disguised though they’d been. Cale hadn’t had to tell her that everyone here had been acquainted with her twin sister. However, they’d gotten over their initial shock at her similar appearance quickly.
Then there was the subsequent surprise for Cale’s friends when, after just a few minutes with Rachel, they figured out that, unlike Noelle, she didn’t like being the center of attention and had no crowd-entertainment skills to speak of. Again, everyone had adjusted their thinking and seemed to be okay with her sticking to the fringes of group conversations.
One-on-one, Rachel did better. Earlier, she and Andie had talked about Andie’s marine biology classes and her volunteer work at the sea-turtle rescue center on the island. And during lunch, she’d gotten involved in a discussion with Scott, a former paramedic, about some of the things he’d run into on emergency medical calls. Rachel had done ride-alongs with paramedics a few years back, but the stories Scott told were like nothing she’d experienced. It fascinated her to hear what sometimes went on before the EMS people even got the patient to her and the team at the hospital.
“Where’s my baby mama?” Derek asked the group when he noticed Macey wasn’t with the women.
“She’s resting,” Andie said. “Her ankles are a little swollen and she was roasting out here in the sun earlier.”
“I’ll go check on her,” Derek said, trying to hide his adorable overconcern as he headed down to the cabin.
“He’s even worse than Evan was,” Selena said, shooting a loving look up to her husband. “You might need to sit him down and have a talk, hon.”
Evan chuckled. “Already did, darlin’. The guy is hopeless. Can’t wait to see how he handles labor.”
“Not gonna be pretty,” Clay said.
As Selena, Andie, Mercedes and Rachel claimed the four lounge chairs, Mercedes’s sister Charlie climbed up to the flybridge and asked Evan to teach her to drive the boat. Rachel sat sideways on her chair and took the opportunity to soak in the view while the other women chatted.
Cale came over to her, looking concerned, as he had several times throughout lunch. “Would you like a refill on your wine yet?” he asked.
She glanced at her nearly empty glass and shook her head. “I’m okay. Actually, I’ll get myself a bottled water.”
“I’ve got it,” he said, heading to the cooler in the corner before she could get up. He came back over and handed it to her before settling on a bench seat off to the side.
The poor guy... He obviously hadn’t thought about what he was getting himself into when he’d invited Rachel to join him today. Instead of being able to enjoy himself and let loose, he seemed to feel obligated to make sure she was okay—and wasn’t understanding that she was, in fact, doing fine.
He’d been amazingly kind, making a point of sticking close to Rachel, engaging her in conversations with the others when he noticed she was uninvolved. He was again—or rather, still—the superconsiderate guy she’d started crushing on that very first night they’d met.
In other words, he was an awesome “date” and a perfect gentleman, just like Rachel knew he would be. It was easy to get carried away with thoughts of him instead of paying attention to the conversations around her. Then she had to reel herself in and remind herself of the fundamental reason her thoughts were pointless.
He’d loved Noelle.
Even if Rachel could somehow ever lay aside the guilt over her sister’s death and the cause of their argument that had
led to it that night, it was like some kind of algebraic law working against her. If A was attracted to B, and B was the opposite of C, then A would never be attracted to C.
“Are you doing okay, Rachel?” Selena asked, leaning forward in her chair. “Do you need sunscreen?”
Rachel realized she was still sitting on the edge of her lounge chair, staring at the scenery, while everyone else had shed their cute, trendy sundresses to don their swimsuits.
“I’m fine,” she said with what she hoped looked like an easy smile as she tried not to cringe yet again over her out-of-place tank-and-shorts combo. “Just taking it all in. It’s beautiful out here. In all the years growing up on the island, I’ve never seen it from this perspective. I’ve only kayaked in the bay.”
They were cruising along the gulf, parallel to the shore of the island but a few hundred yards out. The large hotels were visible, but the people on the beach were barely discernible dots of color. A pair of kite surfers bounced along the water’s surface on the north end of the island, their huge, arched kites patches of vivid color against the light blue sky.
“It’s easy to fall in love with,” Selena said. “It was kind of part of the package deal when I married Evan, but I’ve grown to love it out here. Our son, Christian, does, as well. Evan lets him sit on his lap and drive.”
The others joined in the conversation, recalling their first time out on the gulf or their favorite spots on the water, and Rachel settled back into her lounger, content to listen in.
Hoping to escape notice, she lifted her tank top over her head and worked her shorts off as surreptitiously as possible. When she glanced up, she caught Cale watching her. While Noelle would have loved the attention, it made Rachel wish for a big stadium blanket to cover herself.
Yet again, it seemed the only thing she and her sister had had in common beyond their looks was their feelings for this man.
* * *
CALE WAS SURE NOW—he shouldn’t have brought Rachel.