by Jillian Neal
He scrubbed his hands over his face weary from the day, the week; hell, the past year.
John was rummaging through the refrigerator. “I assume you have no food because your Gypsy feminist princess is feeding you all your meals.”
“You wanna lay off the Gypsy thing? I’m in the mood to pound the shit out of something. Don’t move to the top of the short list.”
“As many times as you’ve threatened me lately, I do have to admit you look a million times better. You look alive again. I was getting worried.”
“I finally feel alive and like I have a reason for living. We just need to get this shit worked out with Alexa and then I can get on with my life here. Evie loves Sienna, and she loves living here.”
John seemed to bite back whatever retort he was going to make. “Hey, I’ll take Evie Grace to Alexa for you tomorrow. I’m going back anyway.”
“Thanks, I really appreciate that. I’m not quite ready to expose Sienna to Alexa.” Ryan shuddered.
John chuckled his agreement. “Hey, what’d you want to ask me?”
Ryan was sick to death of all of the precautions. The impudence of it all left him chaffed raw. He’d built a business making solid, split-second decisions. All of the precaution and rhetoric was eating at his soul.
“I need whatever paperwork I’m supposed to have that says Evie can be with Alexa for a few days, but then I get her back.”
“Well, since she signed her over to you for the next month, you can have her back whenever you want her. Not sure why you’re playing nice with Alexa though.”
“Her mother’s dying, John, and I’m tired of hating her. I made a kid with her. It would be nice if we could occasionally be civil.”
“Yeah, I’m all for civil, Ryan, but don’t forget that if you lose your plea for full-custody, there won’t be any Gypsy Beach, or Sienna, or her Inn. You’ll get Evie every two weeks, but you’ll have to be in Georgia. Maybe you should let Roby claim the Inn and talk Sienna into moving if you’re so sure she’s a good idea, because I don’t see you surviving all that well dividing your time between here and Atlanta. How in God’s name would you run a business like that?”
“I’m not letting that bastard take her home, John. I’m selling this place. I’ll pay him off and give her the Inn. I already have a buyer.”
“What?!” John gasped. “Are you fucking insane?”
Ryan leveled a cold glare at his best friend.
“I hate to rain on your parade, Ryan, but this is your only residence. This is what you’re claiming will be Evie’s home. You having a stable place to live is very important for your custody plea!”
“I’ll have Evie a home, John. Don’t be ridiculous. This place was purchased outright long before I married Alexa. It belonged to my parents and then to me when they lost everything. Alexa has no claim to the sale money, right?”
John sank down on the couch rubbing his temples. “In theory, no, but this is Alexa we’re talking about.”
“That’s all I needed to know.”
“Where are you gonna live?”
Ryan turned towards the shoreline gazing towards what he intended to make his home. “I’m gonna get Sienna a ring, as soon as the divorce is….” He halted his explanation abruptly. “Fucking hell!” He threw open the sliding glass door and took off down the beach. Lights were on at the Inn and someone was moving inside.
Twenty-Six
“Ryan!” John called and then took off after him. Ryan pointed to the Inn. Flashlight beams spun around the kitchen.
“Who is that?” John gasped for breath.
Even Ryan’s days of running hadn’t quite prepared him for his velocity. A stitch pulled at his side, but he pressed on.
He flung open the back door just as the front door slammed shut. John headed around front, but they’d missed the intruder by a matter of seconds.
There were no getaway cars. The intruder was on foot. Ryan raced after the footfalls but halted abruptly when he realized that he’d left his girls alone on the other end of the beach. What if he was being lured away?
He returned to the Inn to take a quick, haphazard inventory. Not much had been moved. A few of the kitchen drawers were open but nothing else. The intruder had either been alerted to their arrival or had seen them coming. They clearly hadn’t been there long. He locked the Inn up and raced back home.
Ryan never slowed as he took the steps inside his beach house two at a time. He checked on Evie first and then Sienna, relieved to see that they were both still sound asleep. He brushed kisses on their sweet cheeks and made certain they were warm enough before he returned downstairs.
Still trying to catch his breath, John had returned to the refrigerator and extracted a six-pack he must’ve brought with him. He offered Ryan one, but certainly wasn’t surprised when he shook his head and made a glass of ice water instead.
“Any idea who that might’ve been?” John fell back on the couch.
“That’s the second time it’s happened. Somebody ransacked the place while we were in Atlanta getting Evie from your house. Nothing was taken. They’re looking for something.”
John’s brow furrowed. “You think it could be Roby? Maybe he’s trying to scare her into selling or something.”
Ryan shook his head. “Roby couldn’t have gotten away that fast. He’s gotta be 75 years old. He can’t outrun me.”
“So, who is it?”
“Sienna’s a little worried it might be some asshole ex of hers. I don’t know. That’s far-fetched as well, but so help me, if it is him, you’re gonna be defending me in my murder trial.”
“So, this girl that you’ve been in love with for half your life just happens to show up at this half-wit beach town at the same moment as you. You magically fall back in love, oh, except her Inn isn’t really hers, she has no money but needs a contractor, and she might just need a big strong guy to take care of her. Yet, you introduce her to your daughter and are willing to sell your house for her. Man, she cannot be that good in bed. You need to remember who she comes from. She’s a Gypsy!”
Fury exploded from Ryan’s gut and rocketed outwards. He threw the sliding glass door open again. “Get out!”
Stunned disbelief flew over John’s features. “What?”
“I said get out!” The menace in Ryan’s tone left little room for question.
“I’m trying to look out for you. Forgive me! You know you haven’t made the best decisions in your life. That’s fairly obvious. I’m just trying to keep you from making another one.” He gathered his briefcase, duffle bag, and jacket. “I’ll come pick Evie up in the morning.” His final rebuttal was lost in the sea breeze as he climbed in his Porsche and sped away.
The hot shower did nothing to cool his temper. Not bothering to even pull on a pair of boxers, Ryan climbed into bed with Sienna. He planned on staying up most of the night and keeping an eye on the Inn, but he just needed to be beside her when he could.
“You okay?” Her soft intonation brought him a sense of calm. She slid across the mattress and clung to him as she laid on his chest.
“Yeah,” he lied.
“I love you.” There was a note of desperation in her voice. She’d overheard the argument.
“I know, baby. I can feel it. Please don’t ever think I doubted you or your intentions. John’s an idiot. He’s been in on the explosive endings of so many marriages, he can’t even recognize love anymore.”
“Maybe.” Her fingertips softly whispered through the patch of hair on his chest and then travelled lower, making his entire body tense in hopeful expectation.
Staying just north of where he so wanted her hands, she made a return trip to his chest before beginning the journey all over again. “But I think John is trying to take care of you and of Evie. I understand why he’s worried. I mean, this is a little crazy, I guess. I doubt anyone on the outside really understands what I feel when I lay here in your arms, what I feel when we’re together, or when I see you taking care of Evie and o
f me.
“If the last ten years got me back here, maybe it was worth it. I don’t know. But I do know that no matter what happens I love you. So, maybe John doesn’t recognize love because he’s never experienced it. I don’t want you to be mad at him because of me.”
It simply wasn’t in Sienna to hold a grudge. She was pure and occasionally reckless, but that always came out of a passion for authenticity. She had missed him, and wanted him, and recognized that he had hurt her possibly irreparably, but she wasn’t going to let the past ruin a chance for the future she wanted. That simply wasn’t her. She believed in chance and hope and possibility. She believed in him despite everything that had happened.
“I’m going to get this figured out, Sienna. I’m going to get you your Inn, and get my daughter, and we’re going to have a real life. I swear to you. Just give me a little time.”
She hugged him tighter and brushed a kiss along his collarbone, and then her lips followed the patch of hair down his sternum. She spun her tongue over each of his nipples before returning to her course.
When her body and her kisses blazed a trail over his lower-abs and her hand gently caressed from his sac up the veins swelling in his cock, a garbled moan escaped his lungs. His body gave a mimicked thrust as her tongue explored the ridge of his cock in several sinful glides that drove him wild.
With a mischievous smirk, she set to burn away every trouble plaguing his brain with the heat of her mouth. He watched her cheeks hollow. She moaned in ecstasy as the pearl of longing that leaked from him was washed away by her tongue. The reverberation of her voice shot through him as he gave into the perfection that only existed when they were together.
Twenty-Seven
John made a half-assed apology the next morning when he picked up Evie, and Ryan half accepted the apology. He needed John to fight for Sienna and the Inn, and God knows he needed him at the custody hearing the next week, so he decided to let time prove he and Sienna’s love. She wasn’t going anywhere. John would see that eventually.
After they’d hugged Evie good-bye a dozen times each and promised to pick her up in a few days, they headed to the Inn. Refusing to tell her about the evening before, Ryan let his acrimony drive him. He finished the back decks by noon.
Sienna spent the morning scrubbing down the walls and prepping them for the vintage wallpaper they’d found at the market in Wilmington. She’d done an outstanding job.
When she headed to Mac and Molly’s to get them some lunch, he phoned Owen Sanders to accept the offer on the McNamara Beach House. It was the largest home on Gypsy Beach, and with the agreement that Ryan would make the repairs needed to the decks and replace the bathroom and kitchen tiles, Sanders had offered him top dollar. The potential rental income made it an outstanding investment, one Sanders had immediately recognized.
The benefit of selling to investors was that they generally worked in cash. Assuming that the judge didn’t take Sienna’s side, that somehow the fact that her grandmother had lived in and cared for the Gypsy Inn for the last thirty years didn’t matter to the courts, Ryan would purchase the Inn outright from Roby.
He would immediately make a full offer if it appeared that the hearing wasn’t going to go her way. He would sign a contract there at the trial and provide the cash at the closing. If the stars somehow managed to align, he was hoping that somehow he could sign the contract at Sienna’s trial, attend his own custody hearing and acquire full guardianship of his daughter the next week while he was still in possession of the beach house, and then close on the Inn. If everything fell in that perfect order, this just might work.
He refused to allow any contingency to shake him, though they certainly splintered his mind as he pried up rotten pieces of hardwood from the upstairs floor and set to replace it. The floor-sander was due to arrive at three. With any luck, if he worked until late tonight he could have the upstairs floors complete.
Sienna and Ryan had debated but had eventually decided to go with tile for the bottom floors. Sienna wanted to use large rugs to soften the area but tile would be far easier to care for when guests, wet from the ocean, were traipsing through without end.
He would begin work on the tile and wallpaper the next day in order to start work on Sander’s rentals at the end of next week. He needed the Inn in working order before he moved Evie and himself in. He could help Sienna with all of the final decorating at night after he’d worked on Sander’s homes all day.
He still hadn’t explained his plan to Sienna. He knew she would refuse to allow him to sell his house for her. He planned on presenting her with a ring and the keys to her Inn right after he’d acquired both. Following the methodic plan was all that mattered. Making certain every intricate piece fit in exact order was the only way all of this would work. One thing could not come before the other. The Inn, Evie, his finalized divorce papers, her ring, the closing on the beach house, all in that exact alignment. Nothing other than that was acceptable.
If Alexa found out about the sale of the beach house or about an engagement ring, she would likely nuke every single dream he held and walk away carrying his baby girl, laughing all the way. The fallout of her vengeance was never anything short of a hydrogen bomb. He would not allow that to happen. Somehow this all had to work.
“Hey, good lookin.’ I brought you some lunch.” The lyrical melody of one of the sweetest voices in the world had Ryan standing and giving her a sexy grin.
“Hey, baby.” He guided her into his embrace and planted a kiss of hope on her pretty rosebud lips. Following her down to the kitchen, he gently pushed the bottom drawer of the ancient chifforobe at the end of the hall with his boot. He’d closed it a half-dozen times. It was likely twice the age of the house and had travelled in a gypsy wagon most of its life. No surprise that the drawer was warped and in need of repair.
The drawer obeyed this time, and they settled in for sandwiches, homemade potato salad, and coffee, courtesy of Mac and Molly.
Dead on his feet, Ryan ran the polisher over the hardwoods one last time. It was nearing one in the morning. Sienna had fallen asleep seated in the hallway. She’d refused to go on to bed, vowing that she was going to stay up with him.
With a grin, Ryan lifted her into his arms and carried her to the room she’d chosen to make theirs. Half-awake, she managed to pull off her clothes. Deciding not to offer her a t-shirt, Ryan tucked her in. He made quick work of a shower and joined her in the bed. She sought him in her sleep. Their bodies joined and their legs tangled with magnetizing force. He held her in his arms knowing that as long as she was there, somehow this would all work.
The next morning he awoke alone. Battling the absence and the harrowing fear, he scrambled from the bed. Where was she? He threw on a pair of boxers and checked the bathroom and then out the windows overlooking the shoreline. He headed down the stairs. His heart rattled frantically against his ribcage.
“Sienna?” he called, but she wasn’t in the kitchen. He clutched his chest when his eyes fell on the back deck he’d constructed two days before. She was seated on one of the built-in benches staring out at the mighty Atlantic. The sun seemed lost in a grey abyss of the bleak skies. The waters were churning out their discord.
Sienna had her knees pulled to her chest hugging herself as she watched the troubled waters that seemed to match her mood. Wondering what had gotten to her so early, Ryan poured a mug of coffee from the full pot that she must’ve fixed recently. He could see her favorite mug seated beside her as her only company.
Joining her on the deck, he momentarily debated how to proceed, but decided to go with instinct. She never wanted any pretense. She just wanted him. “What’s wrong with my girl?”
A timid smile played on her lips as she turned. “Hey,” she sighed. “I love it when you call me that.” The admittance delighted Ryan, but slightly embarrassed her. Her cheeks flushed, only adding to her natural beauty,
He leaned and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “I love to call you that. I love t
hat you’re finally mine again. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, Sienna, but you didn’t answer my question.”
Her shoulders rose in a slight shrug. Then after another resolute gaze back out to the waters she met his eyes. “Ryan….” She shook her head. “I just wish you wouldn’t… I don’t know. I was just telling Nana good-bye.”
Navigating through that maze of cryptic clues, he scooted closer to her. “You wish I wouldn’t what?”
“Work so hard here.” Her answer seemed to weight her head. It drooped with each word. “I can’t afford a mortgage here. I can’t afford to pay Roby. He’s going to get the Inn. I don’t want him to get all of your hard work, too. You put your soul into this place and….” She shook her head and attempted to dam back the incoming tears.
He wrapped his arms around her, set to vow to her that he wouldn’t let her lose the Inn when suddenly the rest of her broken explanation made sense. “You’re telling Nana good-bye because you think you have to move from here.”
She managed a nod as her tears beaded and made fevered tracks down his chest.
“Sienna, baby, listen to me. I am not going to let you lose this place.”
“Stop, please!” Her fervent order seemed to have avulsed from her soul. “Don’t you see? I can’t have the Inn, and I don’t really need it. I love it so much here, Ryan, but I only need you. I know that if you share custody with Alexa you have to stay in Atlanta. For ten years, all I’ve really needed, all I was ever really looking for was you. So, I should just give Roby the Inn, and we should go back. I don’t care where we live. I just… I just have to be with you. That’s all that matters.” She broke down in convulsive sobs.
He lifted her into his lap and wrapped his muscled body around hers. “I am not going to let you lose this Inn. I am not going to lose Evie. We are not going to move to Atlanta. We’re going to raise Evie right here. Please, baby, please don’t cry. This is all going to work out.”