by Cindy Miles
Then Nathan crowed, crowed like Peter Pan at his finest, and he did it again and again, louder and louder, the cawing sound echoing over the water until Owen joined him with his own crow, laughing. Then Nathan dived off the Tiger Lily and into the sea, amid the whitecaps and swooping gulls. The water closed over him as he dived in, warm and salty and familiar. Kicking to the surface, he turned onto his back and floated, and watched the blue sky above, and thought how lucky he was to feel so content. Happy. He’d trust her. If anything else came along, any kind of barrier? He’d deal with it then.
In his mind, and to his way of thinking, things could only get better.
* * *
“MAMA, MAMA, LOOK at that!” Willa exclaimed, her dark bob swinging as her head turned here and there. “Just look.”
Sean took in the view. “I see, baby, I see.” The four o’clock beachfront was packed with tourists and locals alike, gathering for the Cassabaw Fourth of July festivities. Large red, white and blue banners stretched between two long wooden poles at the entrance to the beach. A jazz band played at the end of the pier, the strains of bygone music wafting on the warm breeze. The storefronts were all festooned with something patriotic—banners, balloons, wind socks. Each store had pulled merchandise onto the boardwalk, selling their products with special Fourth of July prices. Food stands were set up along the beachfront offering everything from funnel cakes to Hendrik’s hot dogs, from a chili pot cart to a snow cone vendor. The afternoon breeze picked up, coming in from the ocean, and the salty air settled into her lungs, and when she licked her lips, she could taste the salt there, too.
As well as the memory of Nathan’s mouth against hers.
That thought left a slight shiver behind, despite the warmth of the day.
“Mama, where’s Captain Nathan?” Willa asked, tugging on Sean’s hand.
Willa was adorably dressed in white shorts, blue Keds and a red tank top covered with blue and white stars. And, of course, her fairy wings. They’d stopped at the first face-painting station they’d seen, and Willa now sported a small fireworks display on her cheek.
“Let’s look for him, okay? He said he’d meet us at the Windchimer at five, so let’s turn around and head that way.”
When Sean turned, she collided with a solid body. She looked up into the face of a stranger. A tourist, she guessed, judging by the short-sleeved Hawaiian button-down shirt, khaki shorts and straw hat he wore. Around his neck hung a rather large camera. Dark shades covered his eyes.
A flash of panic gripped Sean. So unexpected, so sudden. Her eyes darted elsewhere, looking for...something. She knew not what. That familiar feeling of unsettledness fell over her, and her hand shot out to grab Willa’s.
“Sorry there, missy,” he said, and his gravelly voice carried many years of cigarette smoking. “Didn’t see you.” He glanced at Willa and tipped his hat. “Well, look at you, all decked out for the Fourth.”
“Thank you,” Willa said. “So are you.”
He chuckled, and looked at Sean. “You wouldn’t happen to know the best place to get a dog, would you?”
Sean was already pulling Willa along. “Sorry, no,” she said, and shuffled her daughter through the throng of people milling about the boardwalk.
“Thanks anyway,” he called after her. “Happy Fourth!”
“Mama, where are we going so fast?” Willa asked as Sean pulled her along.
She didn’t know. She just knew she had to...go.
“Well, if you two aren’t the prettiest things on the beach today.”
Sean stopped abruptly and turned to face Nathan. His smile quickly changed to a worried expression as he seemed to read her panic. “Hey, is something wrong?”
Sean felt silly all of a sudden. There were dozens and dozens of strangers here. It was the Fourth. She’d overreacted. Taking a calming breath, she smiled. “No,” she said. “Just...caught in the crowd, trying to escape.”
“Hey, Captain Nathan!” Willa cried, and Nathan lifted her.
“There’s my little beach fairy,” Nathan said, grinning at Willa. “I like your face paint.”
“Thanks!” Willa replied, and cocked her head. “I kinda miss your big beard.”
Nathan laughed. “Do you want me to grow it back?”
Willa’s hands grasped his chin, and turned his head from side to side. She again cocked hers, inspecting. “Hmm, no. I kinda like your face.”
Nathan laughed. “Well, that’s good to hear, since it’s the only one I’ve got.” He looked at Sean, and his presence calmed her.
“I think I kinda like it, too,” she confessed quietly.
“Okay, you three stop gawkin’ at one another and let’s eat,” a grumpy voice said from behind Sean. “My stomach’s gnawin’ on my backbone already.” Jep, wearing his customary baby-blue jumpsuit, his navy Coast Guard hat and a pair of dark shades, was accompanied by Owen, who also wore his navy Coast Guard hat. Matt, Emily, Eric and Reagan were making their way toward them, not too far behind on the boardwalk.
“Why am I not surprised?” Nathan said with a chuckle. “The stomach speaks!”
“Hey, King Jep!” Willa said, waving at the older Malone.
“Well, hey yourself, darlin’,” he said, and a grin pulled at his mouth. “I see you got your wings on.”
“Yes, sir,” Willa agreed.
“Nathaniel, where are your wings, bro?” Eric teased.
“I’ll wear ’em anytime, squirt,” Nathan remarked. “I’ll get you a pair, too.”
Eric grinned. “You’re on.”
Reagan, wearing dark shades and looking as lovely as ever in a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a white tank top, wore her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. “I’m getting a vision of that,” she said. “Might be painting-worthy.”
“You gotta paint it,” Matt urged, egging it on.
Sean knew who the prankster of the family was. Well, she glanced at Jep. There was more than one, so it seemed.
“We can discuss it over food,” Jep added.
“Dad, one would think you’d never eaten before.” Owen laughed.
Sean took it all in; the family before her, joking and hugging and just...being together as the band played on the pier, and the wind socks whipped, and the gulls chimed in with their screeches, and the waves broke against the shore.
She knew then she never wanted to leave Cassabaw.
Never wanted to leave the Malones.
Especially the one holding her daughter.
In order to accomplish any of those things, she was going to have to figure out a way to remove the threat that never left her. The very one that caused her to react earlier with the stranger. She needed to face her past. Resolve the danger. Somehow. Presently, she had no plan. All she knew was that to stay on Cassabaw, to be free of her past, to be able to give herself freely to Nathan, she had to eliminate the threat. She couldn’t continue to jump to conclusions every time a stranger approached her. She couldn’t allow her daughter to be uprooted and yanked around.
She couldn’t allow the fear to consume her any longer. And for that to happen, she had to face who she was.
The thought of confessing her past—her full past—to Nathan terrified her. Not only for the humiliation factor, but the fear of what that confession might bring to Cassabaw. But if she wanted a real life here, with these people, she’d have to do it.
It was a gamble.
It might be one she’d have to chance.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THEY SPENT THE last of the Fourth’s afternoon rays settled on the deck of the Windchimer, joined by the aging yet engaging Beasts of Utah Beach.
Nathan had introduced Sean to the entire group. Mr. Wimpy, wearing his blue bucket hat, and his sweet-faced wife, Ms. Frances, who wore a pair of white gloves, a fl
owery dress and hat like in days gone by. The boisterous Mr. Ted, who still sported a flattop from the navy, and his wife, Ms. Leila, whose voice shook from a stroke she’d suffered long ago. Mr. Sydney, with his searing baby-blue eyes and white hair, and his spunky little wife, Ms. Evelyn, whose fake-scowling at the husband she obviously adored cracked Sean up. Dub, wearing his Atlanta Braves baseball hat, and his slender wife, Ms. Myrtle, who admitted her hair had turned from a dark chestnut to its current lovely snow white at age twenty-six. And Ms. Frances’s brother, Putt, who reminded Sean of the seventies actor Tim Conway, and his petite but feisty little wife, Anita, aka Pee Wee, all charmed her.
And, it was quite obvious how much the Malones loved this group. They all sat together, facing the sea, and it astounded Sean that not only were these folks still alive, but that they’d shared so many years—decades—of memories. They’d gone through a war together, and amazingly the brothers had all survived it. She couldn’t imagine that all of them had been at Utah Beach on D-Day—it was unheard of to send that many brothers to war. And although Nathan said they’d all grown a bit frailer over the past year, they still managed remarkably well, even with the oldest, Mr. Wimpy, being ninety-four. It was a fast-dying era, those from World War II, and it saddened Sean to think that within a handful of years, they could be gone. They’d all known the Malone boys since birth—or in Jep’s case, since childhood. It made Sean realize the history of this family extended well beyond even what she could see. Well beyond the photos in the lighthouse.
Life, she realized, was so very precious.
Together they ate delicious Cajun fried shrimp cakes, barbecue shrimp and hush puppies. They wrapped up their feast with a big funnel cake—a delicious batter fried and rolled in powdered sugar.
Willa sat between Nathan and Jep, and Sean watched them all stuff funnel cake into their mouths. She wasn’t sure who had more powdered sugar on their chin—Willa or the guys or Emily. Now, that girl could eat, and according to Nathan, it wasn’t just a pregnancy affliction. Her appetite made Sean smile.
“Em, describe that funnel cake to Sean,” Nathan said to his sister-in-law.
“It’s a gooey, fried, sugary, gilded coaster of pure rapture,” Emily said without missing a beat. She winked at Sean. “How’s that?”
“Sounds perfect to me,” Sean answered, licking the sugar from her fingers.
Soon Willa finished up, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
“Mama, can I run in the sand?” she asked. “With my bare feet?”
Sean laughed. “Sure, baby.”
Willa kicked off her Keds and took off down the steps, running through the dunes, fairy wings flapping as several people on the beach flew bright red, white and blue kites.
“Well, that’s a damn sight, ain’t it?” Jep exclaimed.
“Here it comes,” Eric said with a chuckle. “Wait for it...”
“Why, I used to run up and down this very same beach, back before all this—” Jep waved his hand toward the boardwalk “—fancy stuff was here. With a homemade kite my da made me out of—”
“An old linen apron,” Eric, Matt and Nathan all said in unison.
Everyone laughed.
“Well, he did,” Jep said, and turned to Sean directly. “That thing would soar the skies, I tell ya.” His hand waved toward the clouds. “I’d unwind that string so far you’d lose sight of the kite.” He winked at her. “Them’s the good ole days, darlin’.”
Sean smiled. “I believe it.”
“And weren’t you just the cutest little thing, Jep,” Emily stated. “Wearing knickers and suspenders.”
“And the most comfy, soft hat you could imagine,” Jep added. “Yep. Good old days, indeed. And you bet your sweet patootie, I was some kind of cute.”
His lack of modesty tickled everyone.
“Tell me what you see, sweetie,” Reagan said to Eric, leaning against him.
Eric’s gaze leveled the beach, and as he studied the scene before him, his mouth quirked into an astonishingly handsome way. “Well, beautiful, the sun is just setting. The sky is turning all shades of reds and oranges and purples, and Willa is running around, jumping in the air trying to catch dragonflies. She’s wearing those cute fairy wings strapped to her back, so it looks like she’s about to fly. There are colorful kites flying in the air. One is blue and shaped like a star. The wind is blowing, so the sea oats are swaying back and forth on the dunes, like ocean wheat. Seagulls are flying low overhead, hoping for a scrap. And those little brown sandpiper birds are scurrying at top speed across the sand, just out of reach of the water.” He draped an arm around Reagan, pulling her close to him, then kissed the top of her head. “How’s that, gorgeous?”
Reagan had removed her shades, and although she was mostly blind, you couldn’t tell it if you didn’t know. She had the most brilliant blue eyes.
And the love in Eric’s green ones—trademarks of the Malone men—shone so bright, it was unmistakable. Anyone could tell how much Eric loved Reagan, and that he was not only used to describing things to her, but enjoyed it, and took great effort in getting the smallest details correct.
Nathan slipped his hand into Sean’s then, and his fingers squeezed hers lightly. She shifted her gaze to his. Those eyes twinkled and spoke words to her no one else could hear and that she was almost positive she made up in her head. Affection. Attraction.
“Em, tell Sean that little story,” Reagan suggested. “The dragonfly one.”
Emily gave Sean a smile then pointed toward the sea, and Sean noticed a thick cluster of dragonflies had gathered and were flying and darting in sync.
“I adore dragonflies,” Emily stated. “Isn’t it lovely how the sun shoots through their wings, like colorful stained glass in a chapel? They’re so magical.” She waved her fingers in the air. “I can imagine fierce little warrior fairy knights in full fairy armor, riding on the fireflies’ backs and fighting the evil Raven King who’s come to take over their secret kingdom in the dunes. That’s why they’re all over the place, the dragonflies.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Sean. “A battle ensues.”
Matt laughed softly, pulling Emily close. “I keep telling her to write that stuff down,” he said lovingly. “Kids would love it.”
Emily smiled at her husband. “Maybe for our kid.”
Sean’s thoughts clamored at the desire to tell the Malones her occupation. To talk dragonflies and fairy kings and queens with Emily. How...natural it seemed. She wished it could happen now. She wanted it to. Maybe soon?
A quiet, comfortable silence set upon the whole group then, and Sean looked between the Beasts of Utah Beach, who carried on their own conversations about baseball and the good old days, to Owen and Jep, talking shrimp among themselves, to Nathan’s brothers and their quiet, secret words meant only for their loved ones’ ears.
It was the most contentedness that Sean had ever felt.
“Captain Nathan! Mama! Come chase me!” Willa hollered over the breeze.
Nathan grinned and pulled Sean to her feet. They headed for the sand, where they kicked off their shoes. Nathan chased her little girl around the dunes as Willa’s squeals of delight rose over the cries of the gulls, and Sean couldn’t stop laughing—especially when Nathan turned from Willa to her, and she became the hunted. Sean ran, laughing, as Willa and Nathan scurried after her, until Nathan feigned exhaustion and threw himself down into the sand. Willa fell on top of him, doing whatever he did. He was good with her. Natural. Like he’d been there all along...
Suddenly, Sean noticed that stranger from the boardwalk, the one with the straw hat and camera. He was in the sand, near the water, camera pointed toward the kites. He gave a wave and a wide smile, and she waved in return. He pointed his lens toward the kites once more, and continued along the beach.
It was all surreal. Cassabaw was surreal.
When her gaze found Nathan’s, he was already looking at her, a smile lifting his mouth upward in the cutest of tilts. Willa scooped sand and covered his legs with it, while he patiently sat there as though it was the most natural thing in the world, getting sand dumped on your body by a five-year-old.
Sean’s heart surged in her chest.
Nathan Malone was surreal.
Soon after, the sun completely dropped out of sight, and darkness settled over the sky, and the first stars emerged, twinkling and winking where they hung. The Cassabaw Station Police Department put on the fireworks show from a barge in the water. Sean and Nathan, with Willa nestled between them and Jep, sat in chairs Owen had set up on the beach and watched the colorful display overhead. Multicolored streams of sparkles and fire shot through the sky like meteors, preceded by the loud boom, and Willa cupped her ears.
“Here it comes!” she hollered. “Mama, here it comes!”
Just before the firework exploded into the night sky.
After nearly thirty minutes of spectacular fireworks, the light of the last sparkle illuminated the faces of all spectators. Willa climbed onto Jep’s lap, and as he showed her the various stars in the sky she drifted off to sleep against the old Coast Guardsman. He glanced at Sean over the top of Willa’s head.
“Looks like we wore her slap out,” he said with a grin.
Sean moved to get up. “Oh, I’ll take her—”
“You got plans to attend to, missy,” Jep said, patting Willa on the back. “Owen, come help me and the little Cassabaw fairy up, will ya?”
“Yes, Dad.”
Owen winked at Sean, and as the Malones moved about in military fashion, gathering up chairs and cups, Emily waddled over to her.
“I hope you don’t mind,” she said, grasping Sean’s hand. “Nathan is a wily boy. He has what I expect is a most romantic tryst set up for the two of you.” She sighed, glancing at the stars, then back to meet Sean’s eyes. “Do you mind if Willa spends the night with us?”
Sean glanced at Nathan, who grinned and shrugged.