by Celia Ashley
“What are you really up to, Paige Waters?” he whispered. After a moment, he picked up the cell phone from the desk and dialed. He suspected she planned to storm the town with questions. Certain people needed a heads up.
* * * *
Paige parked her car in a space on the blacktop circle that surrounded the stone cross bearing the names of all the sailors Alcina Cove had lost at sea. She climbed from the vehicle, swung the door shut, and approached the etched names. Reading them, the sheer number of men and women who had died in pursuit of a living on the vast ocean in the past one hundred years dismayed her. The death notification she’d received regarding her father had only informed her that his ship had gone down, and his fate was not marked here.
Around the cross, flowers bobbed in the manicured beds, planted lovingly by a local society, according to the small plaque set on a post in the middle of them. Red, white, and blue blossoms of geraniums, petunias, and some tiny flower Paige didn’t recognize reminded her that the Fourth of July was around the corner. Tiny flags on wooden dowel posts spray-painted gold lined the edge of the garden.
Paige tarried a few minutes longer to study the most recent names. Some sparked a vague memory, the surnames familiar to her. Had she known a Donald Sweetwater as a kid? Or an Albert Dunwiddy? Probably. Despite its growth, the town wasn’t all that large. Many families remained in Alcina Cove generation after generation. Or so she’d been informed by both her mother, when alive, and web articles Paige had studied prior to heading north.
The ocean pounded the jetty rocks behind her. The processing plant she had passed in her car yesterday filled the air with a distant thrum. Beyond the memorial, Alcina Cove’s main thoroughfare lay straight as an arrow pointing inland, the residential side streets angled out irregularly from the business center. Paige decided to leave her car parked by the cross and head into town on foot. Most addresses on the small spiral pad in her purse should be located on the narrow side roads.
She stopped first at Cora Showalter’s home, a woman whose name she had found in her mother’s battered address book with Cora’s birthday noted. Even though Paige had never heard her mother talk about the woman, the fact that Debra Waters knew the woman’s birthday held some significance. Paige had sent Cora a note informing her of Debra’s passing and that she’d be coming north—she couldn’t quite bring herself to use the word “home”—in a few months and would like to stop and see her. Paige had never heard back, but that didn’t mean anything. For all Paige knew, there’d been little or no contact between this woman and her mother since that night long ago. Cora should still be able to provide her with information.
Striding up a slate and crushed stone walkway, Paige practiced the few lines she’d prepared for introduction. She pressed the bell at the front door. Receiving no response, Paige opened the screen door and knocked on the wooden one for good measure.
“Who are you looking for?”
Paige glanced over her shoulder. A woman with unnatural crimson hair glared at her from the sidewalk. “Cora Showalter?” Paige said. “This is the last address I have for her. Does she still live here?”
The woman wrinkled her nose. “Nope.”
“Do you know where I can find her?”
“Try the Episcopalian cemetery.”
Paige’s fingers tightened around the notepad, spiraled wire digging into her palm. “When did she die?”
“A few months back. Her daughter lives here now, but you won’t find her at home at this hour of the day. She works. And she won’t like an out-of-towner lurking on her sidewalk,” the woman added.
Paige sighed. “The accent, of course.”
“And the fact you didn’t know about Cora. Any long-time resident knew about Cora the moment she passed.”
“Was she that well-loved?”
The woman’s mouth twitched. “No.”
Paige strode down the walkway but halted a short distance away from Cora’s erstwhile neighbor. “So, are you a long-time resident, Miss—?”
“Of course.”
No offer of a name. Paige bit the inside of her lip. “Then maybe you knew Edwin Waters or Debra Waters?”
“Nope, can’t say I ever did.”
Paige didn’t quite believe her. She didn’t expect her parents to be known to everyone in the town, naturally, but the way the woman looked away when she answered made her suspect. Paige recognized there’d be no point in accusations, though. She thanked the woman and turned away, crossing the name Cora Showalter from the lined paper with a vigorous scoring.
“What have you got there?”
Paige glanced back. “Nothing. Thank you for your information.” Paige started walking back in the direction of Main Street. Behind her, she heard the woman’s heels clicking sharply in scurrying pursuit.
“Wait! Wait just one second.”
“Yes?” Paige paused in anticipation of last minute information. The woman clattered up beside her and snatched the pad and pencil from Paige’s hands.
“Let me see what you’ve got here.”
Shocked, Paige reached to take the notebook back, but the woman turned a shoulder to her. Paige realized she wouldn’t get the notebook back without a struggle. Not until the woman finished scanning the list, making little noises through her teeth as she ticked off each name. She went back and crossed through some of them before returning pad and pencil.
“There,” she said.
“Why did you do that?”
“Those people,” the woman explained, wagging her pointer finger over the page, “useless to try and hunt them up. They won’t be helping you. They’re gone, one way or another. As for the rest? You pound on the wrong doors, you’re going to find trouble. People around here, they don’t like strangers.”
“Yes,” said Paige, “I’m getting that impression.”
Holding Paige’s gaze while she gave a short, sharp nod, the woman backed away and spun on her heel. Paige scanned the lined page again. Her information pool had been reduced by more than half.
* * * *
Sweat stinging the sunburn on her nape and shoulder, Paige returned to the cottage discouraged. Not one of the residents on the remaining list had been home. Paige parked her car in the graveled spot that served as a driveway and climbed out to hammering coming from next door. If she hadn’t totally alienated the man, Liam Gray might be of some help. After sweating all day, she lifted an arm for a quick sniff to make certain she didn’t smell like a cow’s backside before heading over to the house where she had spent her earliest years.
The first thing she saw as she rounded the beach-facing porch was sawhorses laden with packs of cedar shakes. On top of the nearest pack, a faded blue shirt fluttered in the breeze. Paige’s gaze shot to the top of a ladder to the porch roof where Liam, shirtless, muscular, and lightly browned, straddled a pile of cedar with his back to her, hammering replacement shakes into place. Paige bit her lip.
“I’ll be right down,” he said without turning.
Paige pivoted away, heat flaming her cheeks with more ferocity than the sunburn at her neck. Naturally, he would be able to see the whole beach reflected in the second floor windows, including her upturned face gawking at him.
The ladder rattled with his descent. She waited until he had slipped back into his shirt before looking at him. He hadn’t buttoned the garment. The soft fabric hung over his torso, negligently revealing more than it covered.
“What can I do for you today, Ms. Waters? Was there something you needed?”
Annoyed with herself for her distraction and him for his sarcasm, Paige shifted her gaze away from Liam’s naked chest. “For starters, you can call me Paige.”
“Paige,” he said. “Better? Did you need something from me?” His tone had become guarded. As it should be, she supposed. She hadn’t been very friendly when they’d met before. If nothing else, the hour hadn’t been conducive to the usual niceties. As for needing something from him, well, s
he didn’t want to think about the way he looked in his open shirt. Because there was that need. Her mind had gone there straightaway, to that simple, dangerous, heated need. One foisted on her by solitude and loneliness and a desire to be held, to melt away until, for a while, nothing of herself remained. He stared down at her, waiting.
“I thought I might ask you about my father.”
He appeared mystified. “Your father?”
“Yes. Did you not hear me this morning when I said I was Edwin Waters’ daughter?”
“I heard you.”
Something in his manner snapped her drifting focus back to his face again. His black lashes had lowered, partially concealing his eyes.
“Did you know him?” she asked. “My father?”
“Why would you think I knew him?”
“But you knew of him,” she persisted. “You made mention about him dying shortly after you bought the house.”
“Yes, I did. But it doesn’t mean I knew him or anything about him.”
Paige sighed. “Somebody has to.”
Liam’s lashes lifted. The thought process behind his dark eyes remained unreadable.
“I don’t even know exactly how he died except the rather useless ‘his ship went down.’” Embarrassed by her voice’s beseeching tenor, she inhaled to steady herself. “Can you at least tell me that?”
He started moving toward the ladder, impatient, no doubt, to be back at his work. “I’m sure there are other people in this town better able to answer your questions.”
“Maybe there are, but none of them were available today.” Perhaps she was paranoid, but it was as if they’d gotten wind of her intentions and vanished, decided to take a holiday rather than talk to a stranger. Paige took a step after Liam and stopped, her head jerking up to view the second floor window. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had someone helping you. I shouldn’t have interrupted.”
Pausing, Liam followed her gaze. “What are you talking about?”
“Up there,” she said, “in the window.”
He took a few steps back from the ladder in order to gain a better view of the upper storey. “I don’t have anyone helping me, Paige. And there’s no one up there.”
“But—”
Coming to stand beside her, he crouched until his head was level with hers. She could smell his body’s musk, the evidence of salt air and labor in the sun. She held her breath.
“It’s just a reflection of the clouds. See?” He straightened. His warm, hard forearm grazed her shoulder. “I’ve got to get back to work. Tomorrow you ask around again, and if you get nowhere, I’ll see what I can do. Not everyone in this town is willing to open up to an outsider.”
“At one time, I wasn’t an outsider,” she wanted to say. Instead, she strode away from him, heading for the beach. She remembered to call over her shoulder as she stepped down into the sand, “Permission to walk?”
“Permission granted,” he said without a touch of humor.
Chapter 3
The light cast by the single bulb in the bedside lamp was insufficient for the task at hand. Apparently, people who rented the tiny cottage did not read. They slept, or engaged in activities that did not require illumination. Paige possessed no chance of either.
Sleeping from sunrise until noon probably didn’t help her insomnia, nor did her frustrating afternoon. The recollection of Liam Gray shirtless in the late-day sun was the biggest obstacle to slumber.
Now there would be a complication she did not want. A man like him would already have a woman in his life anyway—a gorgeous woman without baggage and who didn’t require a stepstool to kiss his mouth. Paige considered the many other ways of reaching that part of his body but dismissed them, tossing the paperback onto the nightstand. Overthrown, the novel skittered off the wooden surface to the floor with a loud slap. Something slammed against the bed’s undercarriage and then darted out, dark and low, across the room.
Scrambling onto her knees on the narrow mattress, Paige bit back a shriek. Was that a freaking rat? Grabbing the lamp, she angled it down to illuminate the painted floor. Various hiding places existed: under the dresser, behind the small stove and refrigerator in the kitchenette, back under the bed, the bathroom. Paige chewed her lower lip as she considered the animal’s likely route. She had no choice but to go looking for it.
And when she found the darned thing? Paige leapt off the mattress in the door’s direction. Landing at a run, she flew toward the handle and yanked the door open. With any luck, she could chase the animal out.
Paige pawed through her purse for the small LED flashlight she kept. Once found, she clicked on a focused beam and began a cautious search in all the places she’d envisioned a rat hiding. Finding no success in the main room, she walked with soft, guarded steps to the bathroom and flicked on the overhead, filling the room with light. “Last place,” she announced in an attempt at bravado, “unless you ducked out when I didn’t see you— Oh, hello.”
On older cat was curled behind the pedestal sink, yellow eyes wide and pupils dilated, flecks of gray around its muzzle and tufted in ears that laid flat against its head. Paige dropped slowly to her knees, clicking off the flashlight.
“Hey, how’d you get in here?”
The cat blinked once, ears flicking forward from the defensive. It issued a small chirp as it began to unfold from a tight ball.
“You haven’t been in here since I arrived, have you?” Paige tried to figure out when the cat might have slipped inside. Surely, she would have heard if the animal had shared the room with her since her arrival late the night before. Where had it come from? “Are you wild, buddy, or someone’s pet?”
A brief knock sounded on the open door. “Paige, is everything all right?”
Paige leaned back to view Liam filling the doorway, the night sky black behind him. His wet hair was skimmed back along his head, the white T-shirt he wore splotched with damp. Not rain. He must have showered.
“If you were planning to be my white knight, you’re a little late.” God, Paige, stop flirting.
“Why? Did you require rescuing?”
Hell, was he flirting back? She studied his face as he stepped inside. No, probably not. “I have a visitor.”
“What?” He appeared truly shocked, eyes flying wide before his brows lowered into a frown.
“A kitty,” she said.
“If you have a cat in there with you, it’s probably mine.”
Paige frowned. “What does your cat look like?”
“Black.”
“Oh.” Paige stood. “Come have a look then.”
She stepped back to allow him into the bathroom. He smelled like soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and a hint of sawdust. She supposed that came from his jeans. Attempting to ignore the flipping of her stomach, she watched to see how the cat reacted to him.
Liam dropped to one knee on the white tile floor. “Shadow, what are you doing?” After a languorous stretch, the cat ambled over to him and climbed into his arms. Liam rose again, his head inches from the low bathroom ceiling, his shining black hair backlit by the bulbs in the glassless fixture.
“Shadow? You named a black cat Shadow?”
He shrugged. “Not very original, I know. I found him and took him in, and the name fit. He hasn’t complained.”
Paige reached out and scratched the animal behind the ears. The cat responded with a throaty purr. “How long has he been gone?”
“Yesterday. He wanders but always comes back at night. I was out looking for him when I…when I saw you on the beach last night. Well, I guess it was technically this morning.” His gruff tone had softened. Paige wondered if that was the cat’s doing. She pictured this broad-shouldered individual searching the night for his foundling pet and felt a sharp, visceral pull low in her abdomen.
“I’m glad you two have been reunited.” She restored the flashlight to her purse. “Did you come over here only looking for him?” Paige fas
tened her purse, fingers hovering over the zipper tab, wondering if there’d be any chance he’d say no.
“Yes, and I saw your door was open.”
She sighed. His rumbling voice reverberated through the room. Paige faced him, crossing her arms over her breasts. The cat cuddled in his sturdy arms in no way detracted from his rugged good looks. Light from the kitchen lamp glinted off his scar. Paige tapped her jaw line. “What happened?”
His expression changed. “You really don’t have any boundaries, do you?”
Paige jerked a shoulder in dismissal. “I didn’t mean anything. Sorry.”
Liam shook his head. “It’s fine. I have to get going.”
“Want something to drink? I have…well, bottled water is all I have right now. I need to get to the grocery store.” She laughed, trying her best to make it not sound as though she’d invited him for something more.
“It’s late,” he said. But he didn’t move.
She met his gaze dead on, trying to figure him out. She’d never met a man she couldn’t sum up in about two seconds. No, that wasn’t true. She’d never bothered with a man she couldn’t sum up in two seconds. There was a vast difference. That practice said a lot about herself she didn’t like. The fact she was still contemplating Liam said even more about him.
Her breath rushed out. “You’re right. It is. I won’t keep you.”
He nodded, the cat in his arms purring loudly. “How long do you plan on sticking around?”
“I cashed out my savings and took a leave of absence. I need answers to many things in my life.”
He nodded. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You’ll see me tomorrow.”
Her skin warmed. She followed him in silence to close the door behind him. Standing a moment on the threshold, she allowed the breeze off the water to dry the tiny perspiration drops from her brow as he walked away. Down by the water’s edge, a soft glow caught her eye. She turned. A light bobbed at the height of a man’s hand at his side, as if someone carried a lantern.