“Of course it didn’t,” Jillian said. “Stuff like that doesn’t impress you.”
“Exactly, so maybe it won’t matter to Brandon, or BJ. I wonder what the B stands for. Do you think it's Brandon?”
They reached the cafeteria and within moments had their hot tea. There were tables in the area and Shar walked to the table closest to the condiments. There was a discarded newspaper laying on the table and a couple of gossip magazines. She set the two cups on the magazine and then turned to grab the honey. Cali was carrying two cups also, since they’d decided to grab one for their mom. She set hers on the table next to Jillian’s and accepted the packets of honey her sister handed her. They both ripped open packets when Cali looked down at the magazine.
She stopped squeezing the sticky sweet contents into the paper cup of hot tea, her gaze caught on the photo beneath the paper cups. “What?”
Her brows knit together and she looked closer, pulling the cup off the page she gaped.
Jillian gasped beside her. “Olivia. That’s Olivia.”
Cali moved the other cup and picked up the gossip paper…and both of them gaped at their sister. The third triplet.
She was locked in a passionate kiss with the mega movie star Brad Pearson.
“This can’t be right?” Cali whispered. Olivia hadn’t come home for months. She’d even missed Cali’s wedding and hadn’t made it up this weekend for Shar’s wedding. She hadn’t even called much.
“She’s his publicist,” Jillian said. “She knows better than to do this.”
Cali looked at Jillian. “I don’t know what’s going on here but now’s not the time to worry about it.”
“I totally agree. Here, let me have that.” Jillian took the magazine and rolled it up then stuffed it into the big purse she carried. “There. We’ll read it later and hope Mom or Dad don’t see it. Right now we need to focus on Gage.”
Cali took a deep breath and started squeezing honey into tea and stirring furiously. “This has been a crazy day. First the wedding falling apart, then Gage being shot, his missing brother possibly being found, and now our level-headed sister, who knows not to get involved with a client is on the front of a gossip rag.”
“All true,” Jillian said, sounding dazed. “I just can’t figure it all out. I hope the next thing that happens is that the doctor comes and tells us Gage is going to make it.”
Cali picked up the cups. “I agree. I just hope no one else sees one of these magazines until Gage is okay.”
Chapter Six
BJ walked with Shar down the hall. Shar was holding up miraculously well, but he could see in her eyes and the waver of her lips sometimes that the effort was costing her. She was a strong woman. That much was evident.
Then why had she taken her first look at him and fainted?
And why did she look haunted every time their eyes met?
“Thank you for coming to wait with us. I’m sure Gage will want to talk to you when he wakes up.”
“Why is that?” he asked, “I still don’t know what he wanted from me when he stopped by my boat.”
She looked thoughtful, her brow knit together and he could see her mind working behind those green eyes off hers.
“I really think that is for Gage to tell you. And I have my suspicions as to why he stopped by your boat but I don’t know for sure. If I had his phone to check his messages I might be sure what his reasons were.”
“He had his phone in his hand before he was shot. It’s probably on my boat somewhere.”
Her expression brightened. “Then we’ll tell Levi and he can have one of his officers bring it over.”
BJ rubbed the back of his neck. It was knotted with tension. “I hope you don’t take this wrong, I wouldn’t want to upset you at all right now with what you have going on. But, this is all very strange. Stopping by my boat, me a complete stranger, putting himself in danger of being late for his wedding. Why would he do that?”
She stopped walking. “BJ, like I said, I have my suspicions but I can’t reveal that to you. It’s not my place. I can assure you that Gage will be able to explain it when he wakes up after surgery.” She looked away as tears formed in her eyes.
He waited for her to blink them away and compose herself again.
“What does BJ stand for?” she asked.
“Brandon James.”
“Oh, and do you have family around here?”
“No, from what my mother once said, we lived here when I was a boy, before my father died. So I finally decided to come take a look at it. I liked it and so I’ve been doing some charters and thinking about staying on for a little while.”
Was he imagining that he saw her eyes flare with excitement?
He started to ask her again what was going on but someone called her name.
“Shar,” her brother Levi called from behind her. “The doctor just came out.”
BJ stored the questions for later. Right now he just hoped the doctor had good news.
Shar's heart lodged in her throat as she lifted her skirts and hurried down the hall toward the doctor. She came to a stop beside her father and the rest of the family parted to let her stand in front of the pretty female physician.
All the emotion she was trying to suppress had been building to an overwhelming storm inside of her with each passing moment that she hadn’t heard Gage’s progress.
“How is he?” She nearly gasped, her words cracking.
“He’s out of danger. The damage wasn’t as extensive as it could have been which is what saved his life.”
Shar covered her face with her hands and bit back a cry and fought the urge to fall apart. She grabbed her dad’s arm. “He’s going to be okay.” She had once believed she didn’t want to share her life with anyone. That a man would try to hold her back and curb her need to devote much of her life to the rescue of sea turtles and protecting the eggs on the beaches. But then Gage came along and turned her world and her thinking upside down. And now becoming Mrs. Lancaster was her heart’s desire. To share her life with him as they both worked with the turtles.
But now all she wanted was him.
The doctor explained some details that she tried to keep up with but she just needed to know when she could see Gage.
“We’ll get him in ICU and the nurse will come get you. I’ll be checking on him periodically.”
“Thank you,” her dad told the doctor.
All Shar could do was nod. All she could think about was that she would see Gage soon.
Gage slowly began to come awake. He remembered much of what had happened. He remembered seeing his brother, the gun, and fighting for his life. He remembered Shar’s kiss.
He’d taken that memory with him as he’d faded in and out in the emergency room.
“Gage. Can you hear me? I love you. The doctor says you’re going to make it.”
His heart thundered and he struggled to open his eyes. He needed to see her. Needed to apologize for messing up the wedding. And then he felt her press her lips to his.
Warm, sweet lips covered his and made him dizzy with love and longing for her. And he opened his eyes…her kiss showed him the way home.
“I want to wake up to those lips every morning,” he murmured and wrapped the arm without the IV in it around her shoulders and held her tightly.
She cried then. Buried her face in his neck and sobbed. “Oh Gage. You came back to me.”
He rubbed her hair, breathed in the soft scent of her and gently kissed her temple. “Of course I did.”
She hiccupped and then took his face in her hands and kissed him. And then she looked at him so tenderly. “Did you stop to see your brother?”
His head cleared and he remembered. “Brandon. I’m sorry, Shar. I should have let it wait. But the information came through and I had to pass the marina on the way to the resort and I couldn’t pass it by. I had to at least get a glimpse of him. I never meant to be late. To stand you up.”
“I know. And I understand. But,
he still doesn’t know. I don’t think he has realized that you and he share those amazing blue eyes with each other.
Gage managed a smile. “You noticed that?”
“Of course I did. And so has most of my family who knows what’s going on. DNA will probably have to be done but the eyes made me a believer.”
“They come from my dad.” He remembered how sure he’d been the moment he saw BJ’s eyes.
Shar caressed his face from temple to jaw. “He doesn’t know yet. He’s here and he has questions. But he has no idea about being your brother. Gage, he thinks his dad died when he was a small boy.”
Gage closed his eyes letting the information sink in. “It makes sense. From what we can figure she married quickly, changed her name and may have been using an alias when she married.”
Shar looked worried. “Don’t stress too much over it right now. He’s here. You’ll have time to talk to him but right now you just need to get better. When you’re out of the ICU then you can think about this.”
Gage rubbed her back. “You are amazing,” he murmured. “I love you. And right now all I want to think about is getting out of this bed and making you my wife.”
She smiled. “Soon. Rest now. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
His eyes drifted closed and he knew he had a smile on his face as the meds he was on pulled him back to sleep.
Chapter Seven
Two days after the shooting on his boat BJ went back to the hospital. Shar Sinclair had called him and told him Gage would like to speak to him. “What time?” had been his only question.
He’d been busy over the couple of days since the shooting as he cleaned up his boat and waited. He’d mulled over everything that had happened and no answers to the mystery of what Gage Lancaster wanted with him had come. He’d researched Gage on line. Having learned from pulling up the wedding announcement that Gage was actually Benjamin Gage Lancaster, the son of Milton Lancaster head of Lancaster Industries. He and his father had built Lancaster Industries into a hugely successful company.
He’d also learned that Gage was the heir of the company and since Milton’s death there was a lot of speculation about the company right now.
What did Gage Lancaster want with him?
And how could it have been so important that he had been willing to be late for his wedding?
Today he would find out.
He wore jeans and a blue t-shirt as he knocked on the door of the hospital room. Shar answered the door. She looked better without the worry and stress that she’d been riddled with two days ago. Her smile lit up her face as she greeted him.
“BJ, come in. Please.”
Gage was sitting up in bed and he smiled when BJ walked in and held out his hand.
“You look better today. I’m glad you’re okay.”
Gage gave him a firm handshake. “Thanks. I’m supposed to be released tomorrow. And I thought about waiting until then to speak to you. But I decided this couldn’t wait any longer. And you deserved to know what was going on.”
“I have to admit that I’m curious,” BJ said. “What would Benjamin Lancaster want with me?”
Gage looked at Shar and she went to stand beside him and from the drawer beside the hospital bed she pulled out a yellow folder. She handed it to Gage then placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled at BJ.
This was getting deeper by the minute BJ decided.
“Shar told me that your father died when you were young. I’d like you to look at these photos.”
BJ took the file and flipped it open. He was just ready to get this over with and get back to his life. He stalled though when he saw a picture of his mother and a man who was carrying a toddler on his shoulders as they walked down the beach. They were all smiling. Happy.
There were more photos of his mother and the older man, some with the toddler.
“Is that your mother?” Gage asked.
BJ met Gage’s serious blue gaze and like that first time he’d met Gage something felt familiar. “It is. But I don’t recognize the man.” He looked closer at the toddler and it struck him that it was him as a baby. “And this is me? Right?”
Gage nodded. “It is. And that’s my father, Milton Lancaster holding you.”
BJ studied the photos again. His mother looked incredibly happy. But she’d always looked happy. She’d been a loving woman with a big heart.
“We’ve been looking for you for years, BJ. We’d need to do a DNA test to be certain but I’m convinced you are my brother.”
BJ’s head whipped up from studying the photos. “Excuse me?”
“Believe me,” Gage said. “I felt the same shock when the lawyer at the reading of the will told me I had a long lost brother. It is one heck of a revelation.”
BJ took a step back, his heart was ramming against his ribs and his hands were cold. “My father died when I was a baby.”
“No, your father died three months ago in Manhattan.”
“Maybe you need to sit down,” Shar said, speaking for the first time. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“I’m fine standing.”
Shar handed Gage another folder and Gage pulled a photo from it and held it out to BJ. “Your name is Brandon. This is my dad when he was your age.”
BJ reached for the photo and stared at the headshot of Milton Lancaster. He looked at Gage and then he looked at the mirror on the wall over the sink behind Shar. Gage’s eyes had been familiar because they were his eyes. They were Milton’s eyes.
His gut tightened, he felt ill and the room was suddenly hot. Why? If this was true, why would his mother have lied to him? He asked the same question to Gage.
“From what my dad’s friend and lawyer revealed to me was that my dad wanted to marry your mother. He loved you and her and he wanted to bring you home where I was and make us a family. But your mother was a free spirit who had no desire to move to New York. I think she grew worried that my dad would try to take you from her if she wouldn’t agree to marry him. And to be honest she might have been right. My father was used to getting what he went after.
“But then you and she suddenly disappeared from Windswept Bay and despite the investigators he hired to locate you he never could. His PI got a lead on you finally but my dad, our dad, had a massive heart attack before the lead could be followed. I learned about you at the reading of the will. You, of course will have to be tested just for legalities sake, but you are now a partner in Lancaster Industries.”
BJ just stared at Gage and then Shar. This was crazy talk.
“What if I tell you that I’m quite happy and satisfied with my life just the way it is?”
“You’re still my brother and you’re still my partner. Nothing changes that. And I have to tell you, I’m anxious to get to know you. I have no other family except Shar and my future in-laws.”
“We know this is a lot to take in, Brandon.” Shar looked sympathetically at him.
“I prefer BJ,” he said and knew it was gruff. Unreasonable. But this was a lot to take in.
“BJ.” Shar smiled and came to touch his arm. “We know this is all a shock. But, there will be time to work it all out. However, we are going through with our wedding tomorrow and we would love for you to be there. Gage would love for you to be there.”
BJ rammed a hand through his hair and tried to take it all in. He was a guy who went where the whim took him. He had a boat that he moved from port to port and a way of life that suited him. He was not a guy who wore a suit. “I think I need some time to think about this. He pushed the folders toward Shar.
“Those are yours. We have copies.”
“Take them and we’d love to have you at the wedding tomorrow at three. We’re moving it up. I’m tired of waiting to marry the woman I stood up once.” Gage smiled at Shar.
BJ could see the love between them. But he wasn’t willing to accept all that they’d said. Not yet. “I wish you both well and a happy wedding. But right now, I need to think.”
Turni
ng he walked out of the room down the hall onto the elevator.
But as much as he wanted to deny that his mother had lied to him, something in his gut and in his eyes told him he couldn’t. He had a brother.
And now, what was he going to do about it?
Chapter Eight
“Tell me he’s out there,” Shar said as Jillian came hustling into the dressing suite with a huge smile on her face.
“Yes he’s out there. He’s been here for hours. I think he camped out in one of the rooms so he wouldn’t have to drive.”
Cali chuckled. “I heard rumors from our brothers that he might have slept in his tuxedo so he’d be ready.”
Shar laughed. “You are so funny. I was just teasing. I have no doubt that he’s out there. He’s been sending me sweet text messages all morning.” He wasn’t moving very fast right now, with the wound still fresh but he wouldn’t have it any other way, he wanted to get married. And even though he’d not had any confirmation from BJ that he would be at the wedding, he’d said that all of that would work itself out in time. But it was time for a wedding. Past time for them to wed.
And she agreed.
There was a knock on the door and Jillian answered it. Her dad smiled at her from the doorway. “It’s time, Superwoman.”
Shar chuckled and could feel it all the way to her toes. “Nope, today I’m just me.”
Gracie smiled over Sam Sinclair’s shoulder. “Okay, ladies, it's marching time.”
“Then let’s get this show on the sand,” Cali said, her eyes twinkling.
She and Jillian led the way and Shar followed them. She slipped her arm through her dad’s and then one by one her sisters started walking down the path. There was a small pang of regret that Olivia hadn’t made it even after the delay but Jillian and Cali had finally shown her the gossip magazine with Olivia’s photo splashed over the front of it. And later she’d spied it at the grocery store. Her level-headed sister had gotten herself into an interesting mess.
With This Kiss (Windswept Bay Book 3) Page 4