It was a tissue of lies and half-truths—all of them impossible to deny.
It was her word against his, and she could offer not one shred of proof that he was lying. In fact, it was one of those stories that the more she denied it, the more questions she would raise in people’s minds.
David put his hand on JJ’s knee and squeezed gently. “Is Blount The Idiot?—the one who was careless enough to leave you by yourself?”
Lucas and Mary Cole exchanged glances. Obviously, there was more to this story than they had heard.
“That doesn’t prove he’s an idiot. You went off and left me alone.”
David picked up her left hand and displayed it for all to see. “Not until I had a ring on your finger.”
JJ snatched her hand back. “I cannot believe you said that. Neanderthal.”
This time David and Lucas traded looks. Very masculine looks.
“Do you honestly believe I’m property that you can stick a Taken sign on?” JJ demanded.
David captured her hand again. This time he brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed the knuckles. “I believe you wouldn’t have accepted the ring if you didn’t intend to live up to all it means.” His beautiful, clear brown eyes were sincere. At the same time, they assessed her reaction to see if she was going to let him skate.
One corner of JJ’s mouth twitched. “Good save.”
He turned her hand over and kissed the palm. “I thought so.”
“Well. All right!” Clearly delighted and a little bit wide-eyed at David’s loverly gesture, Mary Cole slapped the padded leather arms of her chair. “Let’s get back to the subject, shall we?”
“Right. What are we—what am I going to do? There’s just enough truth in what Blount is saying. If I attempt to refute it, I’ll only make the story juicier. The bank is holding off now, but they’re nervous. It won’t take much for them to pull our financing.”
“Wait.” David held up his hand. “Which part of the story is true?”
“I did promise him one hundred thousand dollars,” Lucas admitted, “once he and JJ were married.”
“And you did threaten to sell Caruthers if I didn’t marry,” JJ added.
“That’s what I thought. You know, Lucas,” David spoke in a quiet uninflected tone, “somebody ought to ream you a new one.”
“I know. This whole mess is my fault.”
That was so true everyone took a sip of their drink and avoided one another’s eyes. A profound quiet settled over the room.
“Since we’re dividing up the blame for this mess, I contributed too.” JJ broke the silence. “Blount doesn’t have anything to gain by spreading this tale. This is spite, pure and simple. I should have handled breaking up with him more considerately. I’ve been warned I walk over people. I’m trying to do better, but this lapse has come back to bite me.”
“Don’t be too down on yourself. And don’t take too much credit either. Blount’s not the kind of man it’s safe to turn your back on.” Mary Cole raised her eyes heavenward. “Blount Satterfield, Lucas? What were you thinking?”
“I admit Blount was a mistake. But I never expected JJ to pick him. He was there to offer her a range of choices.”
JJ blew out a breath. “Regardless of who’s to blame, we have the same problem. I can’t see what to do about it.”
Mary Cole set down her wine glass. “There’s only one thing you can do. The part of Blount’s story that makes the whole seem plausible is the ‘invisible husband.’ Make him visible, and the story collapses.” Mary Cole tilted her head, a strategic light in her intelligent blue eyes. “Until tonight, I couldn’t see how to accomplish that.” She grinned at David. “How long is your leave?”
“As of tomorrow, twenty-eight days.”
“That means you have to go back, when?”
JJ saw David hesitate. “January third.” She filled in. “Isn’t that what you told me?”
“And you didn’t know he was coming home?” Mary Cole asked JJ.
“The docs thought I needed more time to heal,” David fielded the question for JJ, “before I went back to full duty. Rather than hang around doing scut work, I decided to hang around my beautiful wife. A no-brainer, right?”
Mary Cole shook her head in wonder. “My pastor preached on Biblical miracles a few Sundays ago. He said miracles are natural events that happen at exactly the right moment. If this isn’t a perfect example, I don’t know what would be. You’re home over the Christmas holidays. There will be parties all over town for you to be seen at.”
Chapter 46
“MARY COLE, ARE YOU SUGGESTING THAT I SHOULD drag David around with me? He shouldn’t have to satisfy a bunch of gossips. If you’re right, wouldn’t it be enough to have a party here, maybe a couple of dinners?”
“JJ, I don’t think you realize how far this thing has gone—”
“Excuse me, Mary Cole,” David broke in. “JJ, can I speak to you in the other room?”
When David had pulled her into a powder room off the wide entryway, JJ held up a restraining hand. “Stop. I’m not going to ask you to socialize night after night with people you don’t know and have no interest in knowing.”
David stifled ire and made his voice flat and even. “Correct me if I’m wrong. This whole thing rests on the question of whether you really have a husband or not. As it happens, you do. You’re the one who doesn’t seem convinced. Maybe if you start believing, it will be easier to convince others.”
“It’s just that this isn’t any part of what you signed on for. And you don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for. Parties, dinners, events every night—sometimes two or three.”
Did he know what he was getting into? If he had the gist of what had been said in the family room, Mary Cole was suggesting his worst nightmare: hours and hours of unaccustomed, noisy surroundings in which he had to stay focused on what strangers were saying. And if he blundered because he wasn’t keeping up, he would be a discredit to JJ.
He did okay one on one. As long as he knew the people and had background knowledge of the subject under discussion, he could handle a group. The person he could remember being had liked parties, enjoyed chatting with strangers—but he couldn’t let his mind go there.
“Let me worry about jumping into Wilmington’s social whirl. I already told you, this marriage will be as real as I can make it. A husband stands up for his wife. If you need me, then I want to be there.”
She laid her palm on his chest—right over his heart. “Do you mean that?”
“I did then and I do now.”
“Then, thank you.”
“All right.” He reached for the door. “Let’s tell Mary Cole her work is done, and go home.”
“Wait. I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak, but how did you happen to show up now?”
David had carefully prepared his story so that it would come out easily and seem reasonable. He didn’t know what else to add. “I had leave coming. Is it so hard to believe I would choose to spend it with you?”
“Well, no—but it wasn’t your plan when you left here.”
“After I saw the doc, it made sense to me.”
JJ’s eyes narrowed. “So he didn’t think you were ready to go back on duty either?”
“He was just being cautious.” Before she could ques tion him further, he drew her closer. He lifted her hair from her shoulder and nuzzled the scented skin of her neck. He had already learned her neck was her most vulnerable spot. Not necessarily what turned her on the most, but the place that got underneath her guard.
He couldn’t believe he’d gotten lucky enough to choose to kiss her there the night they met on the beach—it was just as if he’d known what he was doing.
He kissed the place just behind her earlobe. She softened against him, and he cupped her breast. “We have twenty-eight days together. What do you say we make the most of it?”
Chapter 47
THE NEXT MORNING, JJ FOUND DAVID ON THE DEC
K. The sun, risen just above the horizon, trimmed purple clouds in vermillion and laid streaks of beaten gold on a flat, calm, peach-tinted ocean.
Her bare toes curled away from the cold, damp boards of the deck. She hugged her robe tighter. “Chilly out here.” She took in the amount of skin exposed by David’s khaki shorts, T-shirt, and running shoes. “Aren’t you cold?”
“I’m already warmed up.”
She yawned. “What are you doing?”
“Stretching.”
“I can see that. Why?”
“Time for me to stop being lazy. Got to get back into running if I’m going to be fit for duty once my leave is up.”
“Okay.” Something about his casual tone belatedly registered. “You mean you haven’t been running until now?”
“The doc didn’t want me to until my face was healed enough.”
Thinking perhaps one cold foot would be better than two, JJ rested one bare foot on top of the other. “Well then, are you okay to now?”
David looked up from his stretching and laughed suddenly. Tenderly. “You look like a little girl.” He tilted her chin and dropped a gentle kiss on her lips. “Go inside now. Before your feet are frostbitten. I’ll be back in a half-hour or so.”
Dressed for work in a black skirt, black-and-white blouse, and red leather blazer, JJ looked up from filling her car coffee cup to see David, a towel around his middle, emerge from the guest bathroom.
Drops of water glistened on the backs of his shoulders. “Hey,” she said.
He jerked. “Oh. Hey.” He turned toward the guest bedroom where he had insisted on putting his things.
JJ followed him. He sat on the bed, staring at nothing, a pair of socks forgotten in his hands. He didn’t look in the mood for a chat, but he had insisted they act married. That meant they had to make plans together. “Today is Tuesday. Brinkley is supposed to go to the vet to get his stitches out. How do you want to handle that?”
He finally looked up, his eyes lightless. “Handle what?”
“His stitches. Do you want me to come back for him, or do you want to bring him to me, and I’ll take him to the vet, or what?”
“No need to pay for an office visit. I can remove them.”
“Okay. Good. Today is also my ballroom lesson. Would you like to meet me there?”
The dark, distant look slowly left his eyes. “Sure you trust me after last time?”
JJ chuckled. “We won’t go back to Lucas’s house, that’s for sure. I had to call an electrician to fix the sconce.” Feeling a little more sure of her ground, JJ asked, “Are you okay? You seem a little…”
“Sure. I’m fine.”
“Was the run okay?”
He shrugged. “Harder than I want to admit it was. You don’t do it every day, you pay.”
“Will you feel up to dancing?”
“I’m fine.” He gave her a lazy up-and-down perusal. “Would you like a demonstration of just how fine I am?”
A couple of days later, JJ smiled at the man behind her in the bathroom mirror. Marriage was something she could get used to. He liked watching her put on makeup, he said. She understood. She liked watching him shave.
“Did I tell you I talked to Elle today?” she asked. It was nice to talk with a woman who knew him and could tell her stories about David as a boy. Was she acting like a woman in love or what?
She hadn’t shared with Elle the vague disquiet she had felt the night before when she found a sheet of yellow notebook paper covered with numbers: 2x3, 2x4, 2x5… all the way through 9x2. He had written the multiplication tables. She considered mentioning it now but discarded the notion. She had already seen that if she asked anything about what he was doing or why, all she got were short answers. She was enjoying this intimate moment. Why spoil it?
“She and Harris doing okay?” David asked her.
JJ stroked on eyeliner. “They’re fine. We talked about Christmas. I want Riley to come here.”
“Here? To this house? That will never work. Riley hates sand. Even with shoes on, he can’t stand the way it feels to walk on it. If it gets in his shoes, he freaks.”
JJ did the other eye. “That’s what Elle told me. I’ll just have to find a solution.”
“Nah. He’ll be fine at their apartment in Charlottesville over the holidays. Whose party are we off to tonight?”
“Taylor Vaughan. She runs gossip central. After tonight, everyone will know you’re here and you’re real.”
The next evening, she decided to leave work a little early. When she arrived at the cottage, David was on the sofa, his laptop open. He blanked the screen before she could see what he was working on. It wasn’t the first time. Not that she wanted to know any SEAL secrets, but his caution seemed extreme. JJ tried not to let his shutting her out hurt, but it did.
He set the laptop aside and rose smiling. No matter how secretive he was, it was impossible to believe a man who smiled like that wasn’t glad to see her. She was making too much of it.
“Hey. You’re home early.” He circled her in his arms.
She lifted her face for his kiss.
He studied her face. “What’s the matter?”
“I finally had to fire Red today. It was hard.”
“When you lose a man, no matter why, you always wonder what else you should have done. But you did the right thing. You’ve got a right to expect simple loyalty.”
“I do. And I appreciate your showing me that.”
“But you still feel bad.”
“Yeah.”
“Come in the bedroom. Let me make you feel better.”
Chapter 48
THE SMOKY, VINEGARY AROMA COMING FROM THE TAKE-out bag of barbecue JJ had picked up on the way home was making her mouth water and her stomach growl. JJ shifted the barbecue to her other hand while she felt for her cottage key. She really should have a motion-sensor light installed for moments like this. By five-thirty these December evenings, full dark had arrived.
Finally she found the key and inserted it into the lock. For once, they didn’t have anywhere they had to be. A whole evening alone. With her husband. The thought was almost as yummy as the barbeque.
Warm air and silence greeted her once she had the door open. The only light in the great room came from the hood over the cooktop. Making as little sound as possible—though she wasn’t sure why—JJ put her bags and purse on the kitchen counter. She switched on a couple of lamps in the great room.
The door to the master bedroom was open. A quick glance told her David wasn’t in there. Still not sure why she was being so quiet, JJ went down the hall.
David and Brinkley were stretched out on the bed in the guest room. This wasn’t the first time she had found David doing what he called “napping,” but this time she was sure he wasn’t asleep. He was lying in exactly the too-still way Brinkley had when he had been in severe pain.
Brinkley raised his head when he saw her. He lifted his nose, caught a whiff of the barbeque, and jumped off the bed.
David opened his eyes. “Oh, hey. I must have nodded off.
JJ sat in the place Brinkley had vacated. “Are you sick?” She reached for his forehead.
He jerked his head away. “No, I’m fine. Fell asleep, that’s all.” He sat up.
“You ran today, didn’t you? Don’t give me that innocent look. You’ve got a headache again. You’re always worse when you run. Maybe you’re trying to do too much too soon.”
David patted her hip with the back of his hand. When she moved out of his way, he stood, his back to her. “Running doesn’t cause the headaches. I get them even if I don’t run.”
“Running makes them worse. You are not okay. You shouldn’t be running.”
“You don’t understand. I have to be able to run 1.5 miles in seven minutes.”
“But surely they don’t expect a man who has just come back from sick leave to be able to do that? Surely they have trainers, or whatever you call them, who will help.”
He ignored tha
t as he did most of her suggestions. “I’m going to get better. The docs have told me I’ve just got to give it time. That’s all.” He walked out of the bedroom.
JJ followed him into the great room, aware she was arguing with someone who had turned his back on her. She ought to shut up, but she couldn’t stand to see him putting himself through this day after day.
“You’re not improving, from what I can tell. I’m not real impressed with Navy doctors right this minute—if this is the best they can do for you. Let me make an appointment with a doctor in town. If we don’t like their answers, we’ll go somewhere else. We’ll find out who Bronwyn says is the best and go there.”
“It won’t matter what doctor I go to. They will say the same thing.”
“And what will that be?”
David hesitated. Suddenly all the clues, the bits and pieces JJ couldn’t quite make sense of, came together.
“You didn’t tell the doctor the symptoms you were having, did you?”
“We discussed it, sure.”
JJ had learned to recognize the answer that sounded like information but wasn’t. “Did you tell him at all?” Her eyes narrowed. “You didn’t. You lied. You told him you were fine.”
“I am.”
She disregarded that. “And he didn’t believe you, did he? You didn’t fool him.” She was on a roll now. His face was stony, giving nothing away, but she didn’t need him to admit it. She knew she was right. “You knew you couldn’t even do limited duty—not if it meant you had to run. You wouldn’t have taken personal leave otherwise. You’d just had thirty days. You wouldn’t have returned to North Carolina.”
JJ sank down on the sofa before her legs gave way. More to herself than him, she murmured, “I saw what I wanted to see. I believed you were so besotted that you chose to be with me.” She had thought he chose to use his leave because he wanted the time, as she did, to grow closer, to establish a real foundation for a real marriage.
Mary Margret Daughtridge SEALed Bundle Page 88