Gypsy Heat: A Gypsy Beach Novel

by Jillian Neal

  They strolled down another few aisles until they were near the pharmacy. He tossed another box of condoms in the cart. With a sexy little smirk, she added an additional box.

  Lifting his left eyebrow in intrigue, he drew her close to his body and let a low growl slip through his lips.

  “We’ll need those for now, but I’m going on the pill as soon as I find a doctor. I want to feel you come inside of me again,” she whispered heatedly.

  Grady’s entire body seized. He continued to hold her in front of him. “If you move, I’m gonna make a fool of myself in this store because thinking about that makes me harder than a fucking mast on a sailboat.”

  Her giggle did nothing to help him hide his potent erection. After adding ‘finding her a decent doctor’ to his list of things to do to help settle her back into the beach, he ran through a list of mundane issues until he could walk without embarrassing himself. With a quick adjustment of everything in his boxers, which elicited another giggle from Nadya, they headed to the cash registers.

  She was immediately prepped for battle, which he knew he deserved. When one hand propped on her hip and the other landed on the wallet in her fringed bag, he tried to hide his grin. He held his hands up in a form of surrender. “Just listen to me for a minute, okay? Let me get this and make you dinner. I really want to feed everyone tonight, and you know me and my brothers can eat enough to bankrupt someone.”

  She huffed audibly.

  “If you want to pay for this, you can. No qualms from me, but listen,” he commanded.

  She rolled her eyes, and he continued. “After dinner, I want to go to the hardware store in Wilmington. I’m gonna get some relatively high-tech surveillance equipment. The cops aren’t going to help us catch whoever that kid was that was on my boat, so I’m going to. He has to have something to do with all of this. The equipment will probably be expensive, and I can’t afford it right now. So, let me get this, and you help me out with the equipment.”

  “And you’ll let me buy the diapers, and formula, and food next time Ms. Cinderson’s kids need all of that.”

  “Absolutely, and I swear to you I won’t say another word. We’ll figure out how to work everything. If you want to dump everything we make in the same bank account, I’ll do it. Thank you for all you’re doing. I swear, Nad, I’m learning.”

  She gave him a speculative look, but he’d prove himself to her in every way.

  They loaded up the groceries in the seat between them and headed towards his father’s house. He lived two streets inland from Gypsy Beach in a small one-story house with two bedrooms. When his mother had split town, his dad moved to the couch and gave Nate and Beau his old room. He’d tried to do right by them, but he’d had no clue how to raise three boys other than to put them on a boat young and often, just the way he’d been raised.

  The house was a half-mile from the docks, which was convenient, but when Grady lived at home he’d always thought the house’s best feature was the fact that Nadya’s mother’s home was situated behind his, through the overgrown back lawns and two doors down.

  Memories glassed the pain in Nadya’s eyes when she glanced back towards the home that had done a piss-poor job of raising her. “Did you see my mom before she moved away?” choked from her in hollow tones of agony.

  “No, angel, I didn’t. Pops told me she was moving, but I blamed her for sending you away. I’ll resent her until the day I die. I didn’t want to see her. I don’t ever want to see her again.” He laced his fingers through hers as he parked the truck in his father’s driveway. “Do you ever talk to her?”

  She shook her head. “She called and told me she was moving, but wouldn’t tell me where or give me a new number or anything. Said she was tired of hearing me complain about Peter.”

  Grady made use of his molars to dam back the volatile spew of curse words that threatened to explode from his mouth. “Un-fucking-believable,” finally made an escape.

  “Yeah.” She shrugged and reached to open the door. “Come on. I’m starving, and I want to see Pops.”

  “Nady …” Her feet were on the dandelions springing up through the cracks in the concrete before he could stop her. “Pops isn’t like you remember,” mumbled from him in an admission that further crippled his soul.

  They entered the house and more memories than her body could contain assaulted her consciousness. Gas and oil-mixed fumes from the boats, Sanka coffee, a thousand bologna sandwiches, and that musk of Haven men cloyed at her nostrils and filled her heart.

  Variegated patterned shag carpeting still ran the length of the tiny home and butted up against the paneled walls. Her eyes landed on the spot on the carpet where she’d dropped a lit cigarette when she was fourteen. Grady had covered for her. Told Pops that he’d been the one smoking. She wondered momentarily if anyone had ever patched that hole Grady’s fist drove into his bedroom wall when she’d told him she was pregnant.

  Nate and Grady shared a nervous glance as Beau helped Pops stand from the olive green naugahyde couch. Memories of her legs and ass sticking to that very couch on humid summer afternoons when Grady was on top of her formed in her mind.

  The house was a collection of things Grady’s mother had found at thrift stores or had taken from the sides of the road before trash day. The old metal television trays still swayed on the long carpeting whenever anyone neared them. There had never been any money to re-do the home, and no need according to the men that lived there. When she’d been a kid, the fact that it was warm, occasionally had food, and that Grady was there made it the most wonderful place in the world to her. She recalled never wanting to leave. She was safe there. The sanctuary it had always provided her warmed the chill that wouldn’t leave her peace unless she was in Grady’s arms. She felt it begin to disintegrate completely.

  “Pops, you remember Nadya, don’t you? Grady’s girlfriend. She was gone for awhile, but she’s back.” Beau grimaced over his attempted explanation.

  Nadya ordered her bottom lip to stop trembling. Pops gave her a blank stare for several long seconds that seemed to stretch into an eternity. “I remember. I remember everything!” His agitation at Beau shook through her. Grady wrapped his arm around her. The heartbreak was palpable as it shot through the room.

  “Nady … Grady’s girl.” He kept one hand on his cane but held the other out to her for a hug. Smiling, she squeezed him gently.

  “That’s right,” she encouraged, but had no idea if that’s what you were supposed to do. Grady and Nate had tried to tell her. She hadn’t wanted to believe them. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as they said. He did know her.

  “Where’s the baby? Where’s my grandbaby?” he suddenly demanded of her.

  “Pops,” Grady choked and shook his head. The air seemed to have been vacuumed from the room itself.

  Tears she simply couldn’t hold back trailed down Nadya’s cheeks. She couldn’t breathe.

  Nate’s hand worked over his face and covered his mouth in horror.

  Beau offered Nadya a sorrowful glance. “I’m so sorry,” he mouthed.

  “There’s not a baby, Pops.” Grady finally managed, though his body convulsed and his voice was haggard as he managed the words.

  Shivering again, Nadya made certain that her pulling away wouldn’t make Pops lose his balance and then flew to Grady’s arms.

  “Yes, there is. Where is the baby? I want to see it. I remember. I remember everything you told me.”

  “Pops, there’s not, okay? Listen to me. There isn’t a baby. Stop talking about it,” Nate ordered. “Did you give him his medicine?” He turned on Beau.

  “Yeah, man, I did, but it’s not working anymore. The doctor said he’s getting worse.”

  Nadya’s body gave another heartbreaking shiver against Grady. Tightening his hold, he had no idea what to say to make this better. It was too much agony to work through, too much loss.

  “Come on, angel. Let’s start dinner.” She needed an escape from that room, and he sought only to care
for her.

  Pops was mumbling something about the baby and began arguing with Nate. Grady grabbed the grocery sacks from the TV tray where he’d balanced them on top of a stack of Sport Fishing magazines that were probably dated about the time Nadya had last been in the house. He guided her into the kitchen and grabbed a cheap tissue that had the consistency of sandpaper from a box on the counter. Working tenderly, he blotted the tears streaming down her cheeks.

  She took another and blew her nose. “I’m okay,” she lied.

  “You’re not okay, angel, so don’t say you are. Just be honest with me. It’s bad. I know. If you want to leave, I’ll take you back to the boat.”

  “How does he remember that?” Her voice shook so violently it wounded him.

  “I don’t know. He gets stuck on things. Certain memories that he can recall vividly, and he replays them over and over. He’ll tell you the story about catching that 600 pound Bluefin over and over ‘til you think you’ll go insane if you hear it one more time. He must remember me telling him you were pregnant. He just doesn’t remember all the years in between.”

  With that, she began sobbing. He wrapped her back up in his arms, not certain what else to say.

  “I’m so sorry, Grady.” She knotted his t-shirt in her fists as she cried out just a little more of what they’d been through together. It seemed to come in waves, like the ocean. When they were together in the present the tides stayed at bay, but the past always seemed to intrude again. He assumed that would continue until they’d worked through every issue of their past.

  “It’s okay, angel.” He tried to console her. He brushed kisses in her hair, swayed her back and forth, and held her tightly, but nothing helped. Part of him longed to join her, to give in and cleanse the last fourteen years from his soul with a baptism of his own tears.

  Eventually she managed to lift her head and stared up at him with her swollen red eyes. “Sometimes …” another shiver worked through her as she shook her head. “Always …” she corrected and drew a deep audible breath. “I wish I could forget all those years, too.”

  That did it. She pricked the well he’d held back for half of his life. She returned to his chest, and he buried his head in her hair and broke down completely.

  Eventually, Grady managed to clear the liquid memories from his eyes and get the steaks and fish on the ancient charcoal grill on the back deck. His brothers made no mention of his bloodshot eyes, though everyone knew he’d finally given into the pain that had consumed his entire life for far too long. For a brief moment, Nate joined him and Nadya on the deck, handed him a cold beer, and slapped him on the back before returning inside without speaking a word.

  He braced for another assault from his father when Beau helped him to the picnic table and they settled in to eat. “You catch anything today, Grady?” Suddenly the persistent haze of confusion cleared from Pop’s eyes. Grady knew it would return, but he relished these moments that were becoming fewer and further between.

  “Nah, Pops. I didn’t fish today. Nate caught this snapper.” He gestured his head to his plate.

  “Grady was busy catching something else,” Beau taunted. With one quick glare from Grady, he shut it, however.

  “Nate’s a good fisherman because you taught him, Grady.” His father didn’t seem to have noticed Beau’s quip. “You taught your brothers just like I taught you.”

  Nate grinned. “You’re right, Pops. Grady’s a hell of a big brother. He always took care of us.”

  Grady shook his head, not certain where this round of unnecessary accolades had come from.

  “Grady takes care of everyone,” Beau chimed in readily.

  “He always has, especially me,” Nadya beamed at him.

  “Would you all shut up and eat.”

  “If only you’d listen as good as you fish, Grady,” his father huffed. “Never listened to nobody. Still don’t.”

  “Hear, hear,” Beau laughed. Nadya tried to conceal her giggle by leaning in and kissing Grady’s cheek.

  “I listen. You eat, Pops. Don’t worry about me.”

  “You don’t listen,” Beau retorted quickly. With a sigh, Grady knew where this was going. He rolled his eyes.

  “We need to expand into a full marina. Add in other watercraft that we can rent for hundreds of dollars a day. We don’t need to be on them to make money. We’d take in a killing. Buy a new boat. A huge boat where we can take out big parties.”

  Nate smirked. “You just want your own ship, bro. Don’t act like that isn’t what this is all about.”

  “You know somebody that could sail it better than me?”

  “You keep your ass out of jail and finish school, then we’ll talk about you getting a ship,” Grady repeated his command from earlier.

  “I don’t need a stupid degree to sail, Grady.”

  “But you do need to not be in jail,” Nate took up Grady’s banner.

  “What kinds of other watercraft?” Nadya’s quiet voice broke through the mounting tension.

  “Ah, hell. You,” Grady turned to her with his finger pointed in her face, “No. Just drop it now.” It was one thing to let her help with their current living situation and with Beau’s arrest. It was something else entirely to use her hard earned money to finance a venture that may not pan out.

  He retracted his finger quickly, however, when she shot him a look that said if he’d like to keep his hand attached to his body he’d get that finger out of her face.

  Beau wasn’t going to miss the opportunity. “Jet skis, wave runners, paddleboards, maybe eventually a few runabouts, wake boards, stuff like that. You can charge by the hour. People love stuff like that, and McNamara’s building more rental properties beyond the Inn. Like a small hotel thing, and tourists drive in constantly because Gypsy Beach isn’t as crowded as Carolina and Kure.”

  “Interesting.” Nadya’s determination made a rapid appearance, and Grady ground his teeth.

  “Don’t be stubborn, Grady. You were always so stubborn. Let Beau sail. He’s a good boy. Knows what to do. Let him sail Gemini some. You’ll see. Change is inevitable. You can’t stop it, and you need to stop working so much so you can take care of the baby. Nady is tired.” His father vacillated between the conversation they were having and one they’d had fourteen years before.

  “Pops, there isn’t a baby.” He grunted and attempted to rub the conversation from his temples. That, at least, shut everyone up.

  Beau apologized for not helping with the dishes and informed everyone that he had something to do that night. Grady hated himself for immediately wondering if his plans including breaking into some house over on the rich side of town. Biting back an interrogation, he turned to Nate as they did the dishes and explained what had happened to Nadya while they were out on the boats the day before.

  “What the fucking hell?” Nate huffed as Nadya listened to the story about the 600-pound Bluefin for the third time.

  “Yeah, well, I’ve had enough. I’m heading out in a few minutes. I’m gonna set up a few cameras, see if we can’t figure out what the hell is going on. You think Pops will be okay ‘til Beau gets back?”

  “He’ll be fine. I’ll get him to bed and stay ‘til he’s asleep,” Nate assured him. “You go on. I’ll help you set the cameras up tomorrow.”

  Twenty

  Grady was shocked at the selection of surveillance equipment available at the Home Depot. True to his vow, he didn’t balk when Nadya wanted to purchase the more expensive waterproof cameras for the houseboat. They picked up several motion detectors and monitors for the office. He debated putting something on the big ships, but they decided to get one that would sweep over the entire dock so they could see everything on their phones.

  Much to his relief, she hadn’t brought up Beau’s idiotic idea to expand the business. He’d love to know just where Beau thought they would get enough money to buy all that watercraft and to pay people to handle the rentals while they were out on fishing expeditions. He would not allow his
little brother to take advantage of Nadya’s money. Rentals might be a big seller or they might not, and that was a lot of upfront cost. It could take years to make all of that back. Just paying for all of that gas would cost a fortune. Beau probably hadn’t even thought of that, and why was he so obsessed with making lots of money, anyway?

  Grady thought he’d done a good job of pretending that it hadn’t bothered him when Nadya whipped out her debit card to pay for their purchases. Apparently, he’d missed the mark.

  “See, that didn’t hurt too bad, did it?” She called him on it as they walked back through the parking lot to the truck. Her smirk made the moonlight dance in her dark eyes.

  His body, weary from the world, took notice of the way her hips and long hair swayed as they walked, the way her beautiful lips formed that sexy grin, and the way her dark eyelashes batted when she blinked. He ached to have her again, to taste her sweet juices and feel her come over and over again around him. He’d never get enough, and this morning on the boat had just been an appetizer for the feast he needed.

  “Aww, I’ll make it feel better, baby,” she cooed when they reached the truck, and stared up at him from under those black lashes with abandon lit in the depths of her eyes. Far too tempted to stop himself, he set the bag of equipment in the back and caged her body between his and the passenger side door. A soft moan escaped her as he mated their mouths.

  “You are gonna make me feel better, angel, as soon as I get you home.” He groaned before he turned his head and extended the tender kiss, a juxtaposition to his gruff, demanding tone.