“Yeah, sometimes.” She rolled her eyes, but a smile lit up her face. “He’s a good kid. I hope he’ll make friends here—he needs someone to play with. He had tons of friends at home, and all the cousins too.”
“Riley said there are markets this Friday night, on the main street,” Jacinda said. “It sounds like everyone goes—maybe he’d meet some kids there.”
“Oh, I love night markets. We should definitely go.” She nodded. “Now, speaking of cousins, I’ve got some photos to show you. I can’t believe how much you look like our cousin Mandy. And Justine. Hang on, let me find my phone.”
As she went to get her bag, she started talking about the family—who was who, and what they were like. The people she talked about were just names to Jacinda, having grown up far from her mother’s family, with so few visits back to New Zealand. But then, as they scrolled through the images on the phone, she recognized a few faces. And some of the ones she didn’t recognize had a look about them—the family resemblance that she’d never seen until now, apart from in her mom.
“You look like us,” Danielle insisted.
“I kind of do. It’s weird.”
She laughed. “Not weird. Just family.”
Jacinda looked at a photo of everyone posing on the farmhouse lawn. Behind them was the wide green countryside, and in front, laughing children were rolling on the grass. It was chaotic and idyllic at the same time.
“Do you think you’ll go back there?” she asked Danielle.
“I don’t know.” She leaned back against the sofa and sighed. “I spent my whole life there, married a guy from down the road, worked in the family business…it feels like it’s time for something else.”
“I know that feeling.” Jacinda’s tone was heartfelt.
“Why are you going back then?”
She stroked one of the black kittens—the boy—who had set off on a big adventure of his own across the rug. Why was she going back? Things with Liam had gotten really complicated, really fast…but after his walkout, maybe it wasn’t her who should be thinking about leaving. Anyway, she wasn’t going to share that story with Danielle. She didn’t know anything about the history between Jacinda and the Ward family, and Jacinda would rather it stayed that way.
“There’s just a lot going on back there, so…”
“I got the impression that was why you left the States in the first place.”
Oops. “Um…it was. I did plan to stay here longer, but…” She let the sentence trail off.
“I can’t even imagine what your life is like.” Danielle refilled her glass and passed the wine bottle over. “What about guys? You must meet some insanely hot men in your world.”
“Yeah. Insane, and hot.” She rolled her eyes and tipped the last of the wine into her glass.
“So you’re not rushing back for love,” Danielle laughed.
She snorted. “No. Other stuff.”
Hannah had texted during the day with an update. Todd wasn’t home from Austin yet, but he was still negotiating the tour. Lainey Kingsley had been unimpressed about the interview being cancelled again, but Hannah had promised to reschedule as soon as Cin was back—even though Jacinda couldn’t say when that would be. She’d been so tempted to tell Hannah about developments with Liam…but she knew Hannah would ask a bunch of questions she had no answer for. Like, how Jacinda felt. What it all meant. And what would happen next. She didn’t know. And he’d said it himself—he had no fucking idea what he was doing.
Except he did. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he was very, very good at it. A smoldering heat started up low in her belly as she remembered what an extremely hot complication he was, inked and muscular and hungry. Hungry for her, apparently…at the same time as he hated her for ruining everything.
She sighed and stroked the fuzzy black kitten as he wobbled closer, then picked him up and snuggled him close. He meowed, a tiny squeaky pronunciation that made them both laugh—and then rewarded her by peeing on her shirt.
“Hey!” She set him down carefully, and pulled the damp shirt away from her skin with a grimace. “At least it’s warm, I guess.”
“Men,” Danielle said, laughing again.
“Right? You show a little affection, and that’s how they repay you.”
Velvet came and picked him up by the scruff of the neck and carried him back to the cat bed, ignoring his protests as she dropped him in with his sisters. Then Jacinda went upstairs and grabbed a clean t-shirt. When she came back, Danielle had opened another bottle of wine, and was looking uncertain. Jacinda sat back down, wondering what was on her mind.
Danielle cleared her throat as she refilled both their glasses. “So I can’t even imagine what your ‘other stuff’ might be, either,” she said, getting back to their conversation. “And I know you must be busy. But…is there any way you could stay a while longer? To be honest, I was going to ask for your help. School doesn’t start for a few more weeks, and I have to look for a job. I need someone to watch Sam while I go for interviews. Nana Mac said you were here for the summer, so I was kind of hoping…” Her voice faded, and she looked embarrassed to be asking.
Jacinda took a slow sip, thinking. Danielle needed her. Sam needed her. And Danielle was making a new start, just like she’d done herself a dozen times over.
How could she say no?
“Okay. I’ll stay a little longer.”
“Thank you! Oh God, that’s such a relief.” She shuffled over, trying not to spill any wine, and gave Jacinda a one-armed hug, a wayward curl tickling her face. “Thank you, seriously.”
Jacinda hugged her back. “You’re welcome. It’ll be fun.”
It would be. If she crossed paths with Liam again, he’d just have to deal with it, like she would. And he knew where the airport was.
Chapter Twenty
At the sound of a footstep on the deck, Liam tensed over the keyboard. Since the day Jacinda had walked down the alley—and then fallen down in the alley—he’d got into the habit of working at the kitchen table, instead of in the office space upstairs. Not because he was hoping to catch a glimpse of her again. It was just cooler downstairs. That was all.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, remembering the way his anger had boiled up on Sunday night, when she’d complained about her life—her seemingly charmed life. The way she’d melted into him, despite the things he’d said. And how something elemental and desperate had swept over him, bringing him to his knees, lost in the Jacinda madness that seemed to be growing stronger the longer she was here. Yesterday had gone by with no sign of her, which hadn’t exactly been a surprise. He had no idea where they’d go from here.
Actually, he did. They’d be going nowhere.
Another small sound came from outside, and he listened again, wondering whether to get up and investigate. It was probably one of the huge seagulls that touched down in the yard sometimes, looking for scraps of food around the beachside houses. With a shrug, he went back to work. It was the only thing distracting him at the moment. He’d taken on a volunteer project for a non-profit in California, building a website that would offer support for kids from Mexican families who’d grown up in the States, but whose parents were undocumented immigrants. The kids lived every day with the underlying fear that their parents could be caught and deported. He’d watched as the immigration issue became increasingly fraught, and although he couldn’t do much from so far away, it felt good to help in this small way at least.
Then he heard a bump in the living room, and the sound of something falling to the floor. Okay, not a seagull. Instantly, he was on his feet. As he went through the door, he dug deep for his most intimidating, aggressive voice, aiming to get the upper hand by scaring the crap out of the intruder.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
In the corner, a small figure was leaning over Ethan’s guitar, where it lay on the ground. The boy spun around, terror on his face.
“I’m sorry!” he squeaked, his eyes round with shock
and fear. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!”
Liam’s heart sank at the realization that he’d scared the crap out of a skinny kid who’d barely come up to his elbow. “Ah, shit. I mean, damn. Sorry, kid.”
The boy’s eyes darted to the door, then back at Liam. Obviously figuring that he was trapped, he started backing away.
“It’s okay, dude,” Liam said. “I thought you were a burglar or something.”
Trying to look reassuring, he took a step forward, but that seemed to push the kid into full panic mode. With a high-pitched cry, he twisted around and made a break for it, heading around the back of the sofa. But his foot caught on the guitar, still lying on the floor, and he tumbled down, disappearing between the sofa and the bookshelf.
Liam went over and looked down to where he was lying on the ground, one arm over his face as though that would make him invisible. He seemed to be in one piece.
“Are you finished freaking out now?”
One huge blue eye peeked out from behind his arm, but he didn’t move.
“Come on man, get up. It’s okay.”
Slowly, the kid got to his feet, his eyes wary. There was nothing to him—he looked like a collection of twigs flung together with a spiky mess of blond hair tossed on top. And he looked poised to run again. Some kind of damage control was needed.
Liam held out a hand. “So I don’t know who you are, but I’m Liam,” he said casually.
The kid hesitated, then seemed to gather his courage, and went in for the handshake. “I’m Sam.”
His fingers were tiny, and kind of sticky. Liam shook his hand, then leaned against the sofa.
“Sam, huh? Where did you come from?”
His freckled face went red again, but he stayed where he was, still on edge. “Next door.”
“Next door…with Jacinda?”
He looked at the boy, studying his features, and for a second he was flung into an alternate reality, where Jacinda had hidden a secret and this scrappy kid was his nephew. Did the numbers add up? He was no good at guessing kids’ ages.
“Yes,” Sam said. “She’s my mum’s cousin.”
Ah. Okay. He shook his head, forcing himself back to the real world.
“My mum and dad split up, so we’ve come to stay for a while,” Sam continued. Then he frowned. “She said she was going back to America.”
Liam stood up again, a sudden tension in his guts. “Really?”
“Yes. Well, except first she said she didn’t have a ticket, and then she said she’d only stay one more night, and then Mum told me she was going to stay and help look after me for a while.” He grinned, his scare seemingly forgotten. “She’s undercover.”
Liam nodded, smiling, but inside he was reeling. Jesus, he had mental whiplash from being flung in one direction and then the other. She was leaving, she was staying…each one detonated a barrage of conflicting reactions. Trying to ignore the battle going on in his head, he turned and picked up the guitar. Making sure nothing was damaged, he checked the neck and the bridge, then ran a hand over the frets.
“It’s a cool guitar,” Sam said from behind him.
He set it back on the stand. “It is.”
“It’s really cool. I could see it through the window.”
The longing in his tone was obvious, but Liam ignored it. No way was some random kid going to mess with Ethan’s guitar. “Uh-huh.”
He shifted the stand farther back into the corner, then turned to look at Sam. He was practically vibrating on the spot, as though the guitar was a magnet and he was nothing but a skinny mass of metal filings.
“You know, Sam, it’s not a good idea to walk into strange people’s houses and start knocking things over.”
He went red. “I know.” Then he tipped his head to the side. “But you don’t look strange.”
Liam had to laugh. “We’re all strange in our own way. You’ll figure that out eventually.”
At that, Sam looked perplexed. “Okay…” His eyes went back to the guitar. “So can you show me how to play it?”
“No.”
“Please?”
“Seriously, no. This guitar isn’t for playing.”
His face fell, and Liam sighed. Why had he left the door open? From now on he’d go back to sitting upstairs with the doors closed. Too bad if it was hot.
“Ask Jacinda to teach you. She plays guitar.”
His shoulders drooped a little more. “She’s undercover, remember? She doesn’t have her guitar here.”
“Go play on the beach then. What are you…eight? You should be outside doing something healthy. Or…I don’t know, play on your iPad.”
“I’m nine. And I don’t have an iPad.”
Liam pressed his fingers to his forehead. He hadn’t come all the way back here to be a goddamn babysitter. And no one—no one—had played this guitar since the night Ethan died.
“And I don’t have anyone to play with either,” Sam added, in an almost-whisper.
Liam considered the small boy in front of him, currently doing a spectacularly good job of looking tragic. Shit. So his parents had split up, he was new here, and he had no friends. At nine, Liam had all the Sweet Breeze Bay kids to play with…including Jacinda, when she visited. And most of all, he’d had his brother. Playing, fighting, or play-fighting, there had never been a moment of loneliness.
That came later.
“Okay, fine,” he said, aware that the gruffness in his voice wasn’t from impatience this time. “But just one turn.”
Despite the reluctant tone of Liam’s agreement, Sam’s face was aglow with triumph. “Yesss! Can we play it really LOUD?”
It occurred to Liam that, given how things had turned out, Jacinda might not be thrilled about this arrangement. “You know what, let’s just be undercover ourselves,” he suggested.
“Cool,” Sam said. “Undercover brothers.”
He laughed. “Yeah, okay. Whatever.” He pushed aside his doubts and went to find an amp. Just one turn wouldn’t hurt. After that, the kid was someone else’s responsibility.
Chapter Twenty-One
Left shoulder, left arm. Right shoulder, right arm. All the way down her front. Both legs, front and back. Then a couple of pretzel-like twists to get every inch of her back. Jacinda squeezed a last dollop of sunscreen lotion onto her hand and slathered it on her face, then stood back and checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She was glossy with sun lotion, strands of hair sticking to her cheeks, but better safe than sorry. At least her tan had started to even out now.
She put a cover-up on over her bikini, gathered up her beach bag, and headed downstairs. As she went into the living room, Danielle came in from outside.
“Have you seen Sam?”
“Not for a while, sorry.”
She sighed. “He’s the master of disappearing at the wrong time.” She went back outside onto the deck and called his name, but there was no sign of him.
Then there was a knock at the door, and Jacinda went to open it. Riley was standing on the top step, with Tina and Kerry behind her. All three of them were wearing swimsuits and cotton cover-ups, flip-flops, and wide-brimmed hats.
“Hi!” Riley said. “Are you ready?”
Jacinda smiled. “Almost. We’re just tracking down a boy who’s gone AWOL.”
All three of them peered around her, into the house.
“Your cousins, right?” Tina said.
Jacinda stood back to let them in. “Come and meet Danielle. And Sam, if we can find him.”
They came through the house, colorful in their beachwear and fragrant with sunscreen, and found Danielle on the deck.
“Would you and Sam like to come to the beach with us?” Jacinda asked her, once everyone was introduced.
“Thanks, but we have to run some errands,” she said. “If this kid ever shows up.”
She turned and called, “Sam! We’re going out!”
“Do you think he went to the beach?” Jacinda asked.
“H
e’ll be in trouble if he did. He’s not allowed to go by himself. Plus I told him we weren’t going until I put sunscreen on him. He’s so pale, he burns in five minutes.”
Jacinda knew the dangers of the fierce southern sun all too well. “I hope he hasn’t gone far.”
Danielle sighed. “He’s probably just listening with his man ears.”
“Selective deafness?” Riley said.
She laughed. “You got it.” Then she yelled out again, putting maximum mother power into her voice. “Sam! Come here please!”
At that exact moment there was a rustling sound, and a section of the hedge suddenly sprang to life. Then Sam burst through into the yard. He stopped suddenly when he saw the team of women apparently waiting for him.
“Sorry, Mum,” he said. “I was just visiting Liam. You can get through the hedge just there!”
He looked elated to have discovered—rediscovered—the secret passageway. Jacinda knew Riley was looking at her, waiting for some reaction to Sam’s mention of Liam. But she could see Danielle’s maternal alarm bells ringing.
“Who’s Liam?” she asked him.
“He’s…um, the man next door? I went to see him yesterday too.”
Danielle frowned. “When did you do that?”
“While you were on your computer.”
“Sam, we talked about this,” she said. “We’re not in the country anymore. You can’t go off talking to strange people.”
“That’s what he said. But he’s not strange,” Sam protested. “He’s got a guitar.”
Jacinda had to laugh. Ownership of a guitar apparently outweighed any stranger danger. But however weird things had become between her and Liam, she knew Sam would be fine with him.
“Liam’s all right,” she reassured Danielle.
She could feel Riley’s eyes on her, but didn’t meet her gaze.
“He’s more than all right,” Tina said. “He’s hot. Like, oh em gee hot.”
“Oh…okay,” Danielle said. “Huh. Do you all know him?”
“Jacinda does,” Riley said.
Jacinda shot her a warning look. “Yes. Well, I did. I mean, I do.” Ack, why was she getting in a tangle over a simple question? “His family lived there for years until they moved to Australia. Kerry knows him too,” she added, trying to deflect some of the attention.
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