Then Comes Baby

by Helen Brenna

  “Jamis, I’m not asking for forever. I’m not even expecting tomorrow. I just want tonight.”

  She made it sound so harmless, so perfect. And with everything in him he wanted to believe it was okay. One night. Hadn’t he suffered enough? She moved toward him, and from there it all happened so fast, he wasn’t sure if it was real or a dream. One minute they were in each other’s arms again and they were kissing and the next Natalie was naked on the floor and he was driving himself into her as if a demon was chasing him.

  He looked into her eyes and felt a connection with her that he’d never felt with anyone. Then she groaned and shifted her hips to meet him. One more thrust and he felt her orgasm pulsing around him. And that was all she wrote. Like Lake Superior waves crashing against the rocky shore, they collided, came together in one violent upheaval.

  A few moments later, as residual tremors faded and sanity returned, he rolled off her. “Holy hell,” he whispered. He hadn’t even paused long enough to take off his pants. Confused and even slightly disoriented, he zipped back up. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  “Not that fast, at least.” She sat up.

  “Not ever.” He sucked in a shaky breath. Dammit all. Damn Natalie. Damn this island. Damn this life. He’d fucked up everything. His marriage. His children. Why him? Why, why, why?

  “Jamis, are you—”

  “You need to leave.” He stood.

  “Why?”

  Keeping his eyes averted, he gathered up her sweats and held them out to her. If he saw her naked beauty again, there was no telling what might happen.

  She took her clothes and he could hear her dressing. “Can we talk about what just happened?”

  “A mistake happened.” He couldn’t look at her face, couldn’t bear to see the hurt he heard in her voice. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

  “It didn’t feel like a mistake to me.”

  “Natalie, leave. Before we make this night any worse.”

  “Why are you closing yourself off from the world? Protecting yourself so fiercely?”

  He looked at her then, and he’d never seen a more tragic sight. Her hair mussed. Her lips slightly swollen from his kisses. Her neck reddened by his beard. Her eyes clearly showing her vulnerability. She’d been marked by him and he damn sure didn’t have a right to claim anyone. “It’s not me I’m protecting.”

  “Then who?”

  “You.”

  “From what?”

  “Me.” He gritted his teeth, knowing he had to shut her down. “Tonight was about one thing and one thing only. Sex. Don’t read anything more into it than it deserves.”

  “You’re wrong,” she whispered.

  “Am I?”

  Suddenly, she didn’t look so sure.

  “You’re a woman,” Jamis said. “And you were here. That’s all there is to it.”

  “This isn’t over,” she said, slowly backing toward the door.

  “Yes. It is.” Fighting the urge to withdraw everything he’d said, Jamis turned his back on her. As the patio door slammed shut behind him, he smelled her sweetness on his hands. “For your sake.” Then he reached for a bottle of wine, hoping to wipe the memory of her naked and beneath him completely from his mind.

  NATALIE’S CHEEKS BURNED with humiliation as she ran through the woods. The possible physical complications of no protection didn’t bother her overly much, given it was the wrong time of the month by at least a few days. She was safe and healthy, and Jamis having had no sex since he’d come to Mirabelle meant he was most likely safe as well. But how could she have let tonight happen? How could she have gotten carried away by a man’s touch to the point of losing all sense of reason?

  Because Jamis’s touch had carried her away. Their encounter may have been a record quickie for her, but it was the most satisfying orgasm she’d ever experienced.

  And what had it all meant to Jamis? Had it been simply a mistake? Spontaneous, earth-shattering and over far too quickly, yes, but a mistake? If not a mistake, had it truly been just about sex? Then why ask her to leave?

  Feeling confused and raw to the bone, she stopped and glanced behind her, panting for air. Dim light spilled out through Jamis’s windows into the night. He was in his kitchen, pacing and drinking wine straight from the bottle. Suddenly, he stopped, slammed the wine down on the counter and covered his face with his hands.

  No. Tonight was not a mistake. And he knew it.

  JAMIS AWOKE THE NEXT morning to the shrill sound of his phone ringing. He held his head as a raging pounding shot through his skull. A hangover. Damn, it’d been a long time since he’d had one of those. In an effort to stop the noise, he grabbed the phone. “What?”

  “Good morning to you, too.” It was Stephen. “Worked things out with your publisher. They’re giving you another six weeks. That’s the best I could do. The book is now due November fifteen. You gotta get it done before Thanksgiving. Can you do it?”

  Did he have a choice? “Sure.”

  “Jamis—”

  “I said no problem.”

  “My, but you’re crankier than normal this morning. Hangover?”

  “Screw you, Stephen.” He hung up and tossed the phone onto the bed.

  After dragging himself to the bathroom, he puked all but his guts out. On standing up, he caught his reflection in the mirror and stared. Who was that man with his scraggly beard and too-long hair? He looked nothing like the image in his mirror for most of his life, nothing like the clean-cut man on the back cover of his books. I look like a freaking wild man. How had that happened?

  “Well, I’ve had enough of you.” He grabbed a pair of scissors and a razor and chopped, trimmed and shaved. By the time he was finished, aside from a few more wrinkles and severely bloodshot eyes, his reflection looked damned close to the old Jamis. Then he crawled back to bed, covered his head with a pillow and passed out again.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  AMIDST THE CHATTER OF eight children finishing breakfast, Natalie stood at the counter making a last batch of waffles, lost in thought. More than a week had passed since that fateful night at Jamis’s house, and she still couldn’t get the feel of him, or the way he’d made her feel, out of her mind. Being with him had felt so perfect, so right, it was hard to feel any degree of shame over what had happened. What would an entire night with Jamis be like?

  But that wasn’t likely to happen. Even if she managed another night alone this summer, Jamis would never let it happen. Why did he feel the need to protect her from him? What had he done? And why was she so bound and determined to break through to him?

  The waffle iron started steaming. “Okay, who wanted more?”

  “Me,” Chase said.

  “And me.” Blake raised his hand.

  She split the waffle between Chase and Blake. As she headed back to the counter, she glanced up through the kitchen window hoping to catch a glimpse of Jamis through the trees. No such luck. Either he’d barricaded himself in his cabin or he was doing an awfully good job avoiding her.

  The sound of a golf cart drew her gaze to the path through the woods only a moment before the island’s chief of police, Garrett Taylor, drove into her yard. “I’ll be right back.” She set the waffle iron down and went outside. “Hello there, Chief Taylor. It’s good to see you again.”

  He stepped from the cart and shook her hand. “Natalie, you gotta start calling me Garrett.”

  “Hard to do with you looking so official in your police uniform, but I’ll try to remember.” When Natalie had discussed the minor renovation work she’d wanted him to do on the house, he’d been wearing jeans and a faded work shirt. “By the way, congratulations on your marriage.”

  He grinned and ducked his head. “Thank you.” For such a big tough guy, he certainly looked whooped.

  “But you didn’t come all the way out here for small talk, though, did you?”

  “I’m sorry, no.” His smile disappeared. “Last night there was a break-in at the Hendersons’. A bunch o
f movies and CDs were stolen along with several hundred dollars from a bank deposit bag.”

  Natalie’s brain started buzzing. “And?”

  “One of your camp kids, Galen, was seen heading through the woods not far from the store about the time of the theft.”

  “What time?”

  “Around midnight.”

  “But he was home. In bed.”

  “You know that for sure? You saw him?”

  She thought back. As usual, she went to bed around eleven after checking on the younger kids. But she’d passed on Sam and Galen, thinking they had a right to some privacy. Had he snuck out sometime during the night? “No, I didn’t see him here at midnight.” She had to be honest, no matter how protective she felt toward her kids. “You need to talk to him? See if he was there and saw anything?”

  “Please.”

  “Do you want to come in?”

  “I think it’d be better if he came out here.”

  That didn’t sound good. “You don’t think he did it, do you?”

  “Just have him come out, Natalie, please.”

  “I’ll get him.” But when she turned around Galen was already stepping out onto the porch. Sam stood in the doorway with the younger ones filling in behind her.

  “What’s up?” Galen asked, glancing warily at Garrett.

  “Could you come out here, please?” Natalie watched Sam’s reaction. The teenager shook her head and rolled her eyes as if she’d expected this outcome. “Sam, can you take the kids inside and start cleaning up from breakfast?”

  “Come on, guys.” Sam closed the door.

  Natalie shifted her attention back to Galen. “Chief Taylor would like to talk with you.”

  He came toward her, but his gaze turned guarded. “Yeah? What about?”

  As Garrett glanced at Galen, his demeanor changed from pleasant handyman to suspicious cop in seconds flat. “Were you hanging out downtown last night?”

  Galen glanced at Natalie.

  “Tell him the truth,” she said.

  Galen hesitated. “Yeah. I was.”

  So he had snuck out of the house. Disappointment washed over Natalie, but she struggled to stay objective. This didn’t mean he’d committed a robbery.

  “Who were you with?”

  Galen crossed his arms over his chest and that old, sullen look passed over his face.

  “Galen,” she said, “you snuck out of the house, so you know you’re in trouble, but don’t make this worse. If you don’t have anything to hide, then there’s no reason to not cooperate with Chief Taylor.”

  “I was with Dustin and Chad,” he said. “And a couple of girls.”

  “What were you doing?”

  “We played some foosball and pool and then we hung out in the woods for a while. Built a fire. Talked.”

  “Were you drinking?”

  Galen didn’t say anything.

  “The truth,” Natalie urged. “Lying will only make your situation worse.”

  “No,” Galen bit out. He glanced at Natalie. It was clear her opinion was more important to him than Garrett’s. “I was not drinking.”

  Garrett studied him. “Then why did we find empty beer cans and liquor bottles at your fire pit?”

  “First off, it’s not my fire pit, okay?”

  “Relax.” Natalie touched Galen’s arm, but he shrugged her off.

  “And the empty cans and bottles weren’t mine.”

  “You telling me the others were drinking, but you weren’t?”

  “I got nothing else to say to you.” He turned to go into the house.

  “Friends don’t give up friends, huh?” Garrett said. “Were you aware the Hendersons’ store was broken into last night?”

  Galen stopped, kept silent.

  “There was a theft.”

  “Great. Just great.” Galen shook his head and paced. “You think I did it, don’t you?” He glared at Garrett, but when he turned his gaze to Natalie, a look of intense betrayal and hurt filled his eyes. “You can’t do this to me,” he yelled. “This isn’t fair.”

  “Galen, settle down—”

  “No, Natalie! I snuck out of the house, that’s it. I didn’t do anything else wrong.”

  “Garrett, have you talked to Dustin and Chad?” Natalie asked.

  “Yep.” Garrett kept his eyes on Galen. “They’re both claiming that it was Galen’s idea. That he’s the one who broke the rear window and snuck inside.” He paused, waiting for a reaction. “What do you think of your friends now?”

  Galen looked away.

  “If you didn’t do it, then who did?” Garrett asked. “Did you see anyone else?”

  At first, Galen didn’t answer. Finally, through clenched teeth he said, “No. I didn’t see anything.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Positive.”

  Natalie took it one step further. “Do you know anything about the robbery? Anything at all that might help Chief Taylor?”

  “No!” he yelled at Natalie. “Can I go now?”

  She glanced back at Garrett.

  “At the moment,” he said, “that’s all I need.”

  Without another word, Galen stalked back into the house. Natalie turned to Garrett. She was going to trust there was a wealth of compassion under that hulky, formidable exterior. “I think you should know that if Galen is charged with theft, the rules of my camp require he be sent home to Minneapolis immediately.”

  Garrett considered her. “That’s a good rule.”

  “I have a zero tolerance policy with regard to breaking the law.”

  “Does he like it here? At your camp?”

  Natalie felt her protective instincts kick into high gear. “He pretends not to, but I think he does.”

  “What’s waiting for him back home?”

  She sighed and rubbed a hand across her forehead. “A drug-addicted mother who steals from him and kicks him out of the house.”

  Garrett nodded. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

  Natalie paused, giving the question fair consideration. “Yes.” She nodded. “I do.”

  “We lifted a couple prints off the scene,” he said. “If Galen comes in on his own to get printed, that’ll say a lot.”

  She nodded. “I understand.”

  “I’ll do some more digging.”

  After Garrett left, Natalie went into the house. Sam had taken all the kids into the craft room and had gotten them all working on their projects. “Where’s Galen?”

  “Upstairs.” Sam came out of the porch and dragged Natalie into the living room. “What happened?” she asked.

  Natalie explained the situation.

  “Those losers!” Sam crossed her arms. “I knew something like this was going to happen.”

  “Is that why you wouldn’t go with them the other night?”

  She nodded. “They’re bad news.”

  “Sam, I need to talk to Galen. You got things under control down here?”

  “Sure.”

  Natalie went upstairs and knocked on Galen’s door. “Can I come in?”

  “No.”

  “For sneaking out last night without permission, you’re grounded next Friday night.” She waited for a protest, but nothing came. “I have something more important to say, and I don’t want to say it from the hallway.”

  The door cracked open to show a defiant young man standing with his arms folded across his chest. “I might as well just pack my bags now, huh? Is that it?”

  “No.” She glanced into his face and her heart ached for all the pain, frustration and insecurities she saw there. “I wanted to tell you that I be—”

  “Screw it!” He turned his back on her. “I’m just going to pack—” He stopped, spun around and stared at her. “You do? You believe me?”

  She nodded.

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “It’s not that I don’t think you’re capable of stealing. In fact, I’m sure you are. Most people are. And I’ll tell you something I’ve
never told anyone else. I stole something from the Hendersons’ store when I was about thirteen.”

  He was listening, studying her.

  “A tube of mascara that I really, really wanted.” She walked into his room and was happy that he didn’t try to stop her. “My mother found out and made me go back and apologize. I felt ashamed about it for years.”

  “You still went to work at that store anyway?”

  She nodded. “Bob and Marsha are good people. Working for them helped me get over a lot of guilty feelings.” She tilted her head at him. “Kids steal for a lot of reasons. Attention. Sense of entitlement. For the fun or adventure. Every once in a while, they steal because they have to.”

  “Maybe I just wanted to impress someone,” Galen said, trying to stay tough.

  “No.” She shook her head. He was testing her and she understood. “I know, in my heart, that you didn’t steal anything from the Hendersons. Because I know, in my heart, you wouldn’t risk having to leave this island.”

  The sullen tough guy disappeared as he hung his head and looked away.

  “Chief Taylor said they found some prints at the scene of the robbery. He said that if you go in to get fingerprinted that would send a strong message that you were innocent.”

  “I am innocent! I shouldn’t have to prove it. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”

  “Galen—”

  “No, Natalie! If Chad and Dustin go in to get printed, then I will, too.”

  How could she argue with that? “The only problem is that if Chief Taylor believes there’s enough evidence to charge you with this crime, then regardless of what I believe you’ll have to go home.”

  “I get that,” he said, pushing past her and down the hall. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “Galen,” she said, “you don’t need to figure this out all alone.”

  “Yes. I do.”

  Much to Natalie’s dismay, Galen refused any further discussions on the matter. The next time they went into town rumors of Galen having been involved in the robbery at Hendersons’ had spread like wildfire. Missy had told her there’d even been a special town council board meeting to discuss whether or not her camp license would be renewed for next summer. By the time they were finished with their errands, Natalie had had enough.