Begin Again (Home In You Book 2)

by Crystal Walton

  Of course she did. “Can I borrow your phone, then?” Not being able to check on Maddie was killing him.

  “Sure. After—”

  “Coffee. Got it.” With an exhale, he pushed up from the seat. The sooner she got her caffeine fix, the sooner they could touch base with home and hit the road.

  Inside, a crowd mingled in front of a live band in the corner.

  “Indie music. Sweet.” Ti rolled onto the balls of her feet. “And they even cleared a spot for dancing.” A look of mischief raced from the corners of her mouth straight to her eyes.

  Whatever she was thinking, it couldn’t be good. Drew prudently backed away, but Ti caught his shirt. “You know what you need?”

  “To get the heck out of here?”

  “Practice.” Ti plucked her trilby hat off and fit it on his head instead. “You want to show up that Marcus guy and save your shop? You gotta learn to let your hair down, take risks, be spontaneous.” She gestured toward the dance floor with her eyes.

  That confirmed it. The girl was officially certifiable.

  Not backing down, she nudged him in the shoulder. “C’mon, don’t be such a stiff. Leave your walker outside, and live it up a little, Gramps.”

  Drew loosened his tense arms. “I’m not wound as tightly as you think I am.”

  “You kidding? Even Oprah couldn’t get you to open up.”

  His jaw twitched. “I can have fun.”

  Ti raised a sassy brow, stole her hat back, and drifted onto the floor. “Prove it.”

  He started to move but stopped. A backward glance at the fading sunlight outside pulled him in one direction while Ti’s unrelenting drive lured him in the other. Releasing a gruff breath, he weaved through the crowd. This woman was going to be the end of him.

  He wedged alongside her and cupped a hand to her waist. She dipped her chin. And in a matter of seconds, the dance floor turned into a checkerboard. Each move upped the need to win.

  Ti twirled out of reach, drawing him farther onto the floor. He wasn’t about to let her slip away. He slid a hand to her back and drew her close.

  Her lips grazed his ear. “Live in the moment,” she whispered.

  The same maxim Dad had taught him stirred from a place inside he’d forgotten existed. Could he go back to living like that?

  “You don’t even know how to have fun anymore. All you do is smother.” The razors in Annie’s words clawed down his spine. He dug for another piece of taffy in his pocket, needing a tension releaser.

  Ti splayed her arms out, as though asking for his choice.

  He took her in under the lights. Could she have known?

  With his shoulders squared, he released the wrapper and reached for her hand instead. Live in the moment, Anderson.

  The band played another song. And another. Dancers came and went, but Drew didn’t let Ti go. Every other pressing thought dissolved into an atmosphere brimming with her free-spirited energy.

  Time lapsed. In sync with hers, his body came to life. His senses responded—to the music, the adrenaline. He felt every beat, every sway. The lights, the vibrations, the smell of her skin mixed with his. It all pulsed through him until Ti finally planted the hat back on his head as if crowning a victor.

  “See, I knew you had that kind of spark inside you. Just took a little uncovering.” She winked. “Marcus won’t know what’s coming for him.”

  The lights’ soft glow clung to her glistening skin. Drew swallowed, searching for his voice. This complicated distraction of a woman knew what he needed more than he did. This excursion wasn’t even about paint supplies, was it? She’d dragged him out of his world of stress. Made him forget what he’d lost in the past and what he risked losing now. He’d even forgotten about . . .

  A sinking feeling caved into his gut.

  The ferry.

  Chapter Five

  Assumptions

  At the dock, Drew returned to the car and handed Ti her cell. “Chloe isn’t answering, but I got through to Cooper.”

  “Everything good?”

  “Aside from missing the last ferry of the night, and every hotel being booked?” He craned his head back. “Yeah, super.”

  Ti reached over to knead his shoulder. “Just think of it as another helping hand teaching you how to be adventurous.”

  More like a strangling hand. He didn’t need to be adventurous. He needed to be home, taking care of his shop and his daughter. Why didn’t she get that?

  Drew glared at the traitorous clock. “You know that thing’s off, right?”

  Ti stopped massaging and shrugged. “It’ll be right eventually. Next time daylight savings comes around.”

  “You never reset your clock?”

  Another half shrug. “Why bother?”

  Drew stared at the headliner. “I knew we should’ve taken my Jeep.”

  “Why, ’cause you have an I-missed-the-ferry emergency bag in the back? You do, don’t you?”

  “No. ’Cause I have a functional clock in it.”

  “Now, how’ll you ever learn to roll with life that way?”

  He shook his head. The girl was hopeless.

  The creak of her door opening turned his head. “Where you going?”

  Already outside, Ti ducked back in. “We’re stranded at the beach. Might as well enjoy it. Unless you’re up for hijacking a ferry.” With a feisty smile to match her laid-back logic, she grabbed a blanket from behind her seat and moseyed toward the shore.

  Drew stayed put. For all of five seconds. Groaning, he climbed out and met her at the sand. Truthfully, he’d rather be out here than in a hotel, anyway.

  He glanced at her heels and smiled in spite of himself. “You might want to buy different shoes to wear around here.”

  Ti lifted one ankle boot. “These are Kenneth Coles.”

  Drew blinked at her.

  “Kenneth Cole. Nothing, really? Let me see those jeans. Do they have an elastic waistband?”

  He held her hands back by the wrists and egged her on with the same phrase she’d used on him the night of the party. “You could guess.”

  “Wow, Mr. I-have-a-sense-of-humor-after-all. Who knew?”

  Keeping a straight face, Drew peered at the water.

  She nudged him. “Oh, c’mon. You want to laugh. Admit it.”

  He pressed his tongue to his cheek to hold it in. Useless. The girl had a serious knack for driving him crazy.

  Sobering, Ti rubbed his upper arm. “I’m sorry about the ferry, Drew. Honestly. I know being home is important to you. But can we try to make the best of it?”

  Apparently, a half nod sufficed, because she was hauling him down the beach before he got a word out. Though once in front of the indigo sky and peaceful waves, his muscles relaxed on their own. He didn’t even notice she’d sat on the blanket until a tug on the bottom of his jeans invited him to join her.

  She leaned into his bicep. “So, what’s your thing with the ocean?”

  He raised a brow.

  “I’ve seen the way you look out at the water.”

  She had a way of seeing more than she should.

  Drew dragged his fingers in the sand alongside the blanket and dodged her blue eyes. If he wasn’t careful, he could get lost in them just as easily as in the ocean. “There’s no thing.”

  “Right.” She stretched back on her hands and crossed her ankles. “Well, whatever romance you’ve got going on with it, more power to you. I got caught in the undertow once as a kid. Haven’t been able to go in the ocean since.”

  “You don’t strike me as the type to get scared.”

  “You make a lot of assumptions.” She nudged him with her foot. “The ocean doesn’t terrify you?”

  “Should it?”

  “It can do a lot of damage.”

  “All the more reason to challenge it,” he barely said aloud. He glanced over to streaks of intuition and something more coloring her eyes.

  Wind skimming off the waves blew strands loose from her braid in an
image of vulnerability Drew hadn’t seen from her until right then.

  Not that she’d let it linger. Ti sat up and let her eyes roam over him. “You know what you need?”

  Drew tossed his head back. What now?

  “A salt rock lamp. It’ll calm the tension right out of you.” She curled her bottom lip under her teeth while scanning behind them to the street. “Wonder if they sell them around here.”

  “A rock what?” He raised a palm. “On second thought, I don’t even want to know.”

  The roar of a wave breaking against the shore blended into her laughter. Between the melodic sound and the moonlight glistening across her legs, Drew wrestled to look away. He’d lived in Ocracoke all his life. Seen enough vacationers come and go to brush arms with his share of beauty. Still, something about this girl drew him up short. Made him want to pull her close, give pieces of himself away he couldn’t afford to.

  Dousing the impulse, he faced the wind head-on. With any luck, it’d knock his body temperature back down where it belonged.

  Apparently, she wasn’t having the same reaction. She shivered beside him, stretched the hem of her dress over her legs, and hugged her arms to her chest.

  After gripping his knees for a solid minute, Drew yielded to his southern roots. He undid the first few buttons on his shirt, tugged it over his head, and straightened out the white T-shirt underneath. “Here.”

  With an expression saying everything she didn’t have to, Ti slipped on his shirt and lay back on the blanket. “Thanks. If I could fall asleep, I’d crash right now.”

  “Too cold?”

  She gazed at the stars and unrolled his shirtsleeves. “I haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

  Drew didn’t know much about her, but restless nights he understood. Deflecting, he slapped on a playful tone. “I hear cutting yourself off after three cups of coffee a day helps with that.”

  “Hey, coffee’s a super antioxidant, thank you very much. It protects against all kinds of diseases.” Her mouth slanted. “I read it even decreases the risk of depression. Just sayin’. You might try it.”

  “I’m not depressed.”

  “Okay, Eeyore.” She propped up on her elbow and stared him down in a silent playoff.

  Drew’s eyes reached for the midnight blue sky as he reclined beside her.

  “There ya go. See, relaxing isn’t so bad, right?”

  “If that’s what you call this,” he mumbled.

  “You know what? Forget sleep. We should talk instead.”

  “Do you ever not talk?”

  Dumb question.

  “It’ll be fun. Think of it as investing into your shop. I have to get to know the owner, remember?”

  Somebody rescue me.

  “Oh, stop. I’ll make it easy. Tell me five random things about you. I already told you I’m afraid of the ocean. What’s your greatest fear?”

  Drew rolled in the opposite direction, but she lugged him back around. He wasn’t getting out of this, was he? He pinched the bridge of his nose. “There’s nothing to tell. I’m a boring single dad, content to live in a small town my whole life. End of story.”

  “Hardly.” Arched above him, Ti pried his hand away from his face. “You, Drew Anderson, are an enigma. The fact that you don’t even know it proves my point.”

  He held her pensive gaze. Long strands of hair whirled around her tiered earrings and sloped along her skin to the collar of his shirt. Aw, man. As if the sheen from the essential oil she’d dabbed on her neck earlier in the car wasn’t killing him enough.

  An inward groan tightened his stomach. He never should’ve let her wear his clothes.

  Drew pulled himself up by the knees and forced his focus on to the tide’s rhythmic rise and fall. But even with restricting his vision straight ahead, he sensed her next to him. Could feel the warmth of her arm right beside his. All he’d have to do was turn his head and . . .

  Locked-up memories rippled in with each wave. His pulse joined the sounds of the beach filling the stillness. He breathed in. Out. Closed his eyes.

  “Its vastness,” he said a few moments later. “My thing with the ocean. The salt, the waves’ ebb and flow, the challenge of paddling out in any weather.” Conquering the rip current was nothing compared to treading a whirlpool of things he couldn’t change.

  He drew swirls in the sand with a conch shell. “It’s easy to get lost in it.” For just a little while.

  The silence beside him drew his gaze. No witty remarks or impish grins. Only eyes that understood things left unsaid. “Keep talking. It’s soothing.”

  Drew lay back and wedged an arm under his head. “I’m not good at talking.”

  “You don’t say.”

  He didn’t have to turn to feel her smile.

  “Tell me about your dad.”

  When he tensed, Ti rested a calming hand over his.

  He glanced away from the delicate feel of her fingers over his skin and cleared his throat. “Dad first came to Ocracoke with the Coast Guard. He and my mom opened the shop together years later and built a life here. He was a rock for his family in every way. Strong. Faithful. Did what had to be done to provide for us.”

  Drew scoured the dark heavens, needing the sunrise instead. “He died five years ago. Some tourists were stranded off the coast in a bad storm, and Dad didn’t hesitate. Rescue missions were in his blood. We went after them on his old skiff. He saved everyone’s life except his own.”

  The waves played a song of tribute against the shoreline while Ti’s thumb caressed the back of his hand in place of words.

  “From what I’ve seen,” she whispered a minute later, “it sounds like you’re a lot like him.”

  Drew dropped his gaze back to the unreachable horizon. “He left big shoes to fill.” Ones he was failing to honor in every way.

  Rather than prying deeper, Ti simply rested beside him. Something about her presence siphoned things out of him before he knew what was happening.

  “My mom passed away three years before that. Cancer.” A soft breath feathered over his skin. He stiffened at Ti’s closeness and the emotions slipping in. “It was a long time ago.”

  “Doesn’t mean it hurts any less.” She curled a gentle hand around his arm. “Tell me stories about Maddie.”

  Now his daughter, he could talk about for hours. Just thinking about her awakened a joy strong enough to crowd out all other thoughts. Each story he shared eased his mind and body and seemed to lull Ti’s breathing into a deep, unconscious tempo.

  “So, the Energizer Bunny sleeps after all,” he whispered while taking in this impulsive, headstrong, hippie girl. A salt rock lamp? He shook his head with amusement until she nestled closer as though curling into a pillow.

  Her softness wrecked any possibility he’d be able to sleep. If the hairs caressing his chin in the breeze weren’t making him hyperaware of her proximity, the traces of her lavender oil infusing the familiar briny air did him in.

  He swallowed hard. Part of him was tempted to relish the feel of this woman beside him. The other part knew that was exactly why he couldn’t.

  A strand of hair tickled the corner of Ti’s nose. She batted it away and reached to yank the covers over her cool body. Instead of blankets, her wrinkly dress and sand-coated skin brushed against her fingertips.

  Confusion circled until a slow replay of last night warmed over her with the sun. The way Drew came to life on the dance floor, the vulnerability he shared on the beach. Maybe there was hope for him after all. Even the chance of an actual friendship between them.

  Ti pushed her hair off her forehead and fluttered a glance at the empty space beside her. She shot up and looked around.

  “It’s time to go.” Drew’s strong bravado matched his tall, determined stance behind her.

  The unruly cowlick above his ear wasn’t half as turbulent as the look in his eyes. Alrighty then. Ti gathered herself and things from the ground. “Had a hard time sleeping?”

  He kept his gaze p
inned on the ocean. “You could say that.”

  Unlike her. For the first time in several nights, she’d fallen asleep with ease. No nightmares or restless tossing and turning. Just peace.

  They walked in silence toward her car. In the parking lot, her cell lit up with the number from her art studio in Astoria. It wasn’t fair for phone calls to rob her of peace so easily.

  She cast a tentative glance at Drew before answering. “Hey, Mia. Everything okay?”

  When her top employee hesitated, Ti’s pulse ratcheted up five notches. The girl rarely ever paused long enough to take a breath. She gripped her keys. “Mia? What is it?”

  “I don’t know exactly. Maybe nothing. But this man came by the shop yesterday, asking for your cell number. Said you weren’t answering your home phone, and he hasn’t seen you come in or out of your pad.”

  He was staking out her house? The panic reeling in Ti’s stomach expanded up her throat. Focusing on Drew had been the perfect distraction. Too perfect. She’d gotten so caught up in things here, she’d shut out what awaited her at home.

  “The guy said he was family. But I don’t know, girl. He sort of creeped me out, so I told him I wasn’t at liberty to give out personal information until I talked with you first.”

  Ti exhaled through her mouth. “Don’t tell him anything. If he comes around again, call the cops.”

  “You know the guy? What’s going on?”

  Ti turned and caught a cutting gaze from Drew—gathering pieces she couldn’t afford him to put together. She opened her car door and forced herself to downplay. “Nothing the NYPD isn’t used to. It’s fine. Listen, I gotta go. I’ll touch base in a few days.”

  Drew didn’t say anything after she hung up. At least, not with words. On the drive to the docks, his flexed jaw made it clear he suspected she was hiding something he didn’t want her dragging him or Maddie into. Couldn’t blame him. But right now, her only choice was to lie low until things blew over back in Queens.

  Once aboard the ferry, Ti redirected her energy to figuring out why Drew’d woken up as Mr. Stiff again.

  A lot of good it did her. He stood off by the rail in one of his brooding trances. Were they back to square one?