by Eve Gaddy
He shook his head. “No. My hope died a long time ago, just like she did.” Gripping his hands together, he said, “My sister is dead. She vanished without a trace more than twenty years ago. Do you really think she’d show up out of the blue in Aransas City?”
No, he honestly didn’t. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess the resemblance is just a coincidence. Look, I’m sorry I ever brought it up.”
“It’s all right.” Mark sucked in a breath, visibly trying to gain control of himself. “Like I said, it’s not your fault.” He got up and tossed his can in the trash. “Don’t forget about Sunday.”
“We’ll be there.” Jack walked him to the door. “Thanks again for the soup.” He wanted to say something but he couldn’t think what. So he didn’t say anything more, figuring he’d stuck his foot in it plenty already.
“No problem.”
Jack watched Mark leave and cursed himself silently. He’d screwed up three for three today. His son, his new colleague, and his best friend. Way to go, Jack. Thank God the day was almost over. Even he couldn’t manage to offend anyone else that night, especially since he intended to go straight to bed.
WHEN AVA ARRIVED AT WORK the next morning she found Jack Williams waiting outside her office door, leaning against the wall with a newspaper tucked under his arm.
“Hi. How’s your son?” she asked as she opened the door and he followed her inside.
“Better, thanks. He’s home today but I think it was just a twenty-four-hour bug. He should be able to go back to school tomorrow. And to work. Jared gave him a job here as a gofer after school.”
“That’s good. I’m glad he’s all right.” She took a sip of the coffee she’d brought with her from the lounge. “So, what can I do for you?”
Looking uncomfortable, he shifted. “Other way around. I wanted to pay your cleaning bill. And, uh—” He hesitated and she thought if he’d been wearing a collared shirt and tie he’d have been tugging on it. “I want to apologize for laughing.”
Willing to let bygones be bygones, she shrugged. “Oh, that. I guess it was kind of funny with all that oil going everywhere. Not that I thought so yesterday.”
“You had every right to be mad as hell at me. Which is why I don’t understand why you cleaned up the boat. You did, didn’t you?”
Ava waved a hand and leaned back against her desk. “Call it a goodwill gesture. You had more important things on your mind.”
“Yeah. When you’re a single parent you get used to juggling everything in your life. When the school called I didn’t have much choice except to go pick him up.”
So he wasn’t married after all. “Divorce is hard,” she said. “Especially when you have kids, I imagine. I don’t have any but that’s what I’ve heard.” She hadn’t found her divorce hard, either, but she knew most people did. You’d think she would have been more upset, especially considering Paul had left her for another woman, but she’d been more relieved than angry. And she hadn’t been tempted since.
“I’m not divorced. My wife died six years ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. But about that cleaning bill—”
“Don’t worry about it. The clothes are a loss, I’m afraid, but they weren’t expensive.”
“Still, the whole thing was my responsibility. Let me pay to replace them.”
Judging by the set of his jaw, he wasn’t going to give in on the issue, so she capitulated rather than continue arguing. Besides, he was right. He did owe her new clothes. But she’d take pity on him and not make him pay for the shoes too. She could see he hadn’t even thought about that. “All right. I’ll let you know when I find something to replace them. Is there anything else?”
“My friend is coming over this morning to help with the engine. With any luck, by this afternoon I can take you out on the bay.”
“That’s great.”
“I’ll give you a call when I know more.” He laid the folded newspaper down on her desk. “Thought you might like to look through the local paper. The Aransas Bay Port o’Call. Cole and I just recently moved here, too, and I’ve gotten a kick out of reading it. It gives you some information about the area, local activities and stuff like that. The gossip column is a hoot, even when you don’t know anyone.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.” Jack Williams was turning out to be a lot more thoughtful than she’d have believed yesterday.
He left shortly after that and Ava settled down to get some work done. At lunchtime she decided to try the Scarlet Parrot, a waterfront bar and grill that Jared had told her about. She took the paper with her to read because she’d be eating alone.
The hostess, a very pretty, obviously pregnant brunette, seated her. “New to town or just visiting?” she asked as she handed Ava a menu.
“New, actually. I’m a marine biologist at the new Coastal Research Institute.”
“Ah, Jared sent you then. Welcome to Aransas City.”
“Thanks. Yes, Jared says this is one of his favorite restaurants. I’m Ava Vincent.”
“Nice to meet you, Ava. I’m Delilah Randolph. My husband Cam and I own the restaurant.” But instead of leaving, she said, “I don’t mean to be rude or nosy, but you look so familiar. Have you been in before?”
Ava laughed. “No. But you’re the second person in the past two days to tell me that. The other was a man and I thought he was giving me a line.”
Delilah laughed and placed a hand on her rounded belly. “I promise, I’m not trying to pick you up. But you look enough like a friend of ours to be his sister. He’s my husband’s brother-in-law, actually.”
Someone called her away then, leaving Ava sitting there, her heart pounding. No, it couldn’t be. Her brothers had lived in Dallas. Still, they could have moved.
Wait a minute. She remembered now, they’d had an uncle who lived here. She hadn’t thought about him in years. He was bound to have passed away by now. Even if he was still alive, though, that didn’t mean that any of the rest of the family would be in town. No, better to not get her hopes up. Or her fears.
After she gave the waitress her order she opened the paper, skimming it at first. She skipped over the gossip column, intending to read it later because Jack had recommended it.
Flipping through the articles, her gaze caught on a headline: Copper’s Cove Wild Bird Sanctuary Garners National Attention. She started to read the article, then glanced at the picture beneath the headline and her heart nearly stopped.
Holding her breath, she spread the paper out to take a more careful look. She barely glanced at the petite brunette. Her attention was all for the man standing beside the woman, smiling at her with obvious pride.
Oh, my God, it’s him. It’s Mark. Ava didn’t need to read the caption to be certain, she’d known who he was from the instant she’d set eyes on him. Seeing his picture had been like looking in the mirror.
CHAPTER FOUR
AVA QUICKLY SCANNED the caption under the picture: “Cat Kincaid, founder of Copper’s Cove Wild Bird sanctuary, and her husband, Mark, of Aransas City.”
Mark lived here, right here in the same town she did. With his wife and…children? Did he have children? His wife was clearly pregnant. Ava might have nieces and nephews.
“’Scuse me. Here’s your food, ma’am.”
Ava looked up. The young waitress held a plate and smacked her gum, clearly impatient with Ava for having the newspaper spread out over the table. She moved the paper aside, relieved when the girl set down the plate and left. She went back to the article to pore over it, letting her food grow cold. Cat had just accepted another donation that would, she was quoted as saying, allow them to hire a small paid staff to be supplemented by volunteers. She read that the sanctuary had opened several years before and that Mark, a Fish and Wildlife Service agent, had also had a hand in the creation of the sanctuary.
So Mark had achieved his career goal. He’d wanted to work with the FWS as long as she could remember. And he was doing it here, in Aransas City. Impossib
le, but true.
Ava barely remembered eating or paying or getting from the restaurant to the Institute. But when she opened the car door and the heat swamped her, she started feeling again, thinking again. She got out and went straight to the air-conditioned office.
“Can I borrow a phone book?”
“Sure. Here you go.” Raney Cooper, the receptionist, handed her the small book.
Ava reached for it, noticing her hand was shaking. She grabbed the book, pulling it to her chest and clenching both hands around it.
Raney paused and looked at her more closely. “Are you all right? You look a little pale. The stomach flu is going around, you know.”
“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” No doubt she looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Essentially, she had.
She walked quickly to her office and locked the door behind her. Opening the phone book, she leafed frantically to the K’s. There he was, listed with his wife: “Kincaid, Mark and Cat.” Letting out a shaky breath, she made a note of the address and phone number, then realized the line above Mark’s read Kincaid, Jason M.D.
It had to be Jay. Oh, lord, her little brother was here, too. And Jay was a doctor. How could that be? In her mind he was still seven years old.
There was no mention of Brian, her youngest brother, so she assumed he didn’t live in Aransas City, unless he was unlisted. But at least two of her three brothers did.
And now so did she. What was she going to do? She couldn’t avoid them, not in a town this size. Besides, she didn’t want to avoid them. Now that she knew where they were she wanted desperately to see them. She could feel tears burning behind her eyelids at the thought of her brothers being so close. After all this time, they were close enough to talk to, to touch…to hug.
Guilt crushed her in a viselike grip. It had been her choice not to contact them, her choice to let the relationship die. Would they even want to see her? After she’d disappeared from their lives so completely and for so long?
Her parents—they were a completely different matter. She wouldn’t cross the street to see her father. She’d run the other way rather than face him again, even after all these years. Her feelings about her mother were a little more complicated. Her mother had let her children down. Especially Ava. Lillian hadn’t been there when Ava had desperately needed her. That last night…God, no, she wouldn’t think about that now. She’d think about her brothers instead.
She’d loved her brothers. Had never stopped loving them, missing them. If she were honest with herself, she’d admit that finding her brothers again had been on her mind for years, and when she’d been offered the job in Aransas City she’d fantasized about finding them, hoping they’d still be living in Texas. But she hadn’t expected to find them here, in the same small town she’d ended up in. Coincidence? No, she didn’t believe in coincidence. More like fate.
But none of those feelings changed her dilemma. What could she say to them, when they asked, as they were bound to, why she’d never tried to find them after they’d all grown up? Why she’d disappeared from their lives and never sent them so much as a Christmas card in the more than twenty years since?
She couldn’t tell them about a past so reprehensible she could never think of it without feeling shame and disgust. Couldn’t remember it without that intense feeling of self-hatred.
Her phone rang. She thought about ignoring it, but anything was better than reliving her past. “Ava Vincent,” she said automatically, though a tiny voice in her mind whispered, Miranda Kincaid.
“Great news,” a deep male voice said. “I’ve got the boat working.”
What boat? And who the— She shook her head, clearing the jumble of thoughts. “Jack?”
“At your service. When will you be ready to go? We won’t be able to do more than make a quick circuit of the bay, but that should be enough to give you an idea of how you want to start the study and make you a little more familiar with the area.”
Focus, she told herself. You can’t afford to think about your brothers, not yet. When she got home tonight, she’d figure out what to do. Or rather, how to do it.
“Give me half an hour,” she said, hoping she could pull herself together by then.
“SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Jack asked Ava. They’d been cruising around for over an hour, hugging the shoreline, and she’d yet to say more than two words to him. He didn’t think she was mad at him. No, she wasn’t mad, but she’d been…he thought about it some more and settled on distracted.
As he’d expected, she’d snapped multiple pictures of dolphins, but for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on her heart didn’t seem to be in it. It was almost as if she took no pleasure from it, which didn’t jibe with what he knew about her professionally. And as far as he knew, this was her first outing in Aransas Bay. He’d expected at least a little enthusiasm. She was outside, on the water, taking pictures for her study. She should have been in dolphin heaven.
She lowered the camera and looked at him. “What do I think about what?”
He gestured. “The boat, the bay, the weather. Who’s going to the World Series. You know, conversation? You’ve heard of the concept, right?” He didn’t know about her, but he didn’t want to go out day after day and never talk.
She stared at him a minute. “I guess I’ve been a little distracted. Sorry.”
“Yeah, I noticed. Anything you want to talk about?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing.” She put a hand to her temple and rubbed. “A headache.”
He wasn’t too sure of that but he let it go. “Are you always this quiet?”
“No.” She smiled and added, “The boat is great, Aransas Bay is a lot different from where I worked in Florida, the heat is brutal, and I don’t follow baseball. Basketball’s my game. How about those Mavericks? Any other questions?”
He grinned. “A few. I’ve never been to Florida. Tell me why it’s so different.”
“I worked at a marine science institute in the Keys. It was gorgeous. The beaches are white sand, the blue water is close in.” She paused, considering. “It’s prettier, but…the Texas coast has its own appeal. It’s more—” she lifted a shoulder “—rugged than Florida, I think.”
“We don’t have pristine resort-type beaches, that’s for sure. But I’ve always liked the Texas coast.”
“This is my first time out on the bay,” she said, confirming his suspicions. “I like it.”
“Good, because you’ll be seeing a lot of it. Ready to call it a day? We can go over our plan for the next few weeks if you want. Seems like we should have an idea of which areas we want to explore instead of just cruising around aimlessly. I’ve been talking to some locals, so I do have some thoughts about that.”
“That sounds like a good idea. I won’t need to go out every day, since I’ll need to build in some time to identify the dolphins by the dorsal fins I photograph. Unfortunately, not all of the photos are in digital format and online so I have to look through analog albums as well.” She put her camera down and looked at him for the first time since they’d left. “I haven’t seen that many dolphins today. I hope that’s not a bad sign.”
“Nah. Some days they’re everywhere, some days they’re hard to find.”
She paused for a moment, then said, “Do you know a place called Copper’s Cove? It’s the site of a bird sanctuary.”
He shot her a surprised glance. “Where’d you hear about that? It’s not exactly national news.”
“I read about it in the local paper. The one you gave me this morning. And according to them, it is national news now. They’ve just been given a large grant.”
He’d forgotten he’d given her the Port o’Call. “Can you beat that? Yeah, I know where it is. Do you want to go there? It’s a cool place, but I don’t know if you’re likely to find dolphins in those waters. It’s awfully shallow.”
“Do you mind? Is it out of the way?”
“No, it’s not far from the Institute. We’re headed that way anyw
ay.”
“Thank you. So tell me, do you…know the woman who founded it?”
She’d tried to come across as nonchalant, but he thought she sounded tense. He rubbed his nose and gave her another considering look. “Yeah, actually, I do. Cat Kincaid is my next-door neighbor. Married to a friend of mine, Mark Kincaid.” He thought it odd that she hadn’t voluntarily said much until she started pumping him about the sanctuary.
“Mark’s the reason I’m here,” he continued. “When he heard Dr. Long was looking for a captain, he gave him my name.”
“That was nice of him.”
“Yeah, he’s a nice guy. He and Cat are both nice.” He shot her a curious glance. “Are you interested in birds as well as dolphins?”
“I used to be. It’s been a long time, though. I’ve spent a lot of time learning about marine mammals and haven’t had a chance to do anything with my birding interests.”
“You should let me introduce you to Cat, then. She’s into birds. Rehabs them.” He paused a moment and added, “Funny thing—” he watched her closely as he said it “—Mark’s the reason I thought I’d met you before.”
She’d been looking out at the bay but at that she turned to him. “I don’t understand.”
Since they were nearing the cove, he slowed down. “You look like him. Kind of spooky, how much you look like him. I don’t suppose you have family in the area?”
She was silent for a long moment, then said, “No, I—I don’t have any family period.”
Then why are you so interested in the Kincaids? he thought. But maybe he was making too much of it. She could simply be curious, as she’d said, and her resemblance to Mark was a fluke. Mark had certainly thought so.
But Mark hadn’t seen her.
He should leave it alone. Mark wouldn’t thank him for bringing up the topic of his sister again. He’d told Jack in no uncertain terms to forget it, and it wasn’t any of his business. Besides, Ava had seen the picture. If she really was Mark’s sister, then it was up to her to do something about it.
“Speaking of family,” she asked, “how old is your son?”