Kate shoved the papers aside and clasped her hand to keep from striking her desk top. “Would you have sent condolences? I don’t remember you sending any when my mother died.”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t, but there were reasons for that.”
Her heart pounded in her chest, and she feared that he could hear it. “And what would they have been?”
He raked his hand through his hair. “Come on, Kate. We’d just had a bad breakup. I knew how you must be grieving over your mother’s death, and I didn’t want to cause you any more pain. But I have a standing order at the Baskets and Blooms to place flowers on your mother’s grave each year on her birthday.”
Kate’s eyes widened, and she gasped. The arrival of the bouquets delivered to the cemetery had been a mystery for years. The owners at the flower shop had informed her they didn’t know the identity of the buyer and that payment always came from a mainland law office that wouldn’t reveal their client’s name. She would never have dreamed they were from Brock. “Those are from you? But why?”
He shrugged. “It’s a way I can show how I felt about a remarkable woman.”
A memory flashed into her mind. The day Brock left the island he had taken her mother to the beach, and they had been gone a long time. When they returned, Kate met him coming out of the guest room with his suitcase in his hand. He’d pushed past her and walked out the door. That was the last time she had seen him until today.
Kate took a deep breath. “I—I don’t know what to say but thank you.”
Brock smiled. “There’s no need to thank me.” He shifted in his chair and leaned forward, his arms resting on his thighs. “But that’s not why I’m here. I know you’re busy, and this may not be a good time for me to drop by. But when I saw you on the beach earlier, I knew the sooner I came to see you the better off I’d be.”
Kate frowned. “I don’t understand. If you thought I’d order you off the island when I saw you, you don’t have to worry. As long as you don’t break any laws while you’re here, our paths probably won’t even cross.”
“I know that. But the thing is, I want our paths to cross. I came back to Ocracoke to see you, Kate. I need your help.”
The heartbreak of six years ago boiled up inside of her. He needed her help? Where was he when she needed him? She narrowed her eyes. “How could you ask me for anything?”
He swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed. “I know it shocks you, and I wouldn’t blame you if you asked me to leave. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Just please hear me out before you make a decision.”
She picked up a pencil on her desk and rolled it between her fingers. “Very well. What do you want to tell me?”
He took a deep breath. “Let me start by saying that three months ago I wouldn’t have believed I would ever come back here. I knew how you felt about me, and I don’t blame you for that. But I’ve had something happen in my life that has nearly driven me over the edge. I’ve been going to counseling, but nothing has helped.”
The fact that Brock had even used the word counseling, much less been involved in it, shocked Kate. “You’ve been to counseling? You used to say that counseling was for the weak. That people who were in control of their lives didn’t need some high-paid shrink to sit and have a pity party with them.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what the old Brock said, but things changed. A few months ago something happened, and my life collapsed around me.”
Kate frowned and leaned forward. “What?”
Brock bit his lip and thought for a moment before he spoke. “When I joined the police force in Nashville, I heard about a ten-year-old murder case. A local man named Robert Sterling was accused of killing his business partner. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. His attorneys had appealed the case for years, but they hadn’t been able to get a new trial.”
“Did you know the man?”
Brock shook his head. “No, but I’d read about the case, and I knew he was on death row. Anyway, late one afternoon I was alone in the office when my phone rang. It was a man who said that he’d wrestled with his conscience for years and that he could prove Robert Sterling was innocent. He said he was facing some serious surgery and that he didn’t want to die without telling what he knew.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I didn’t know. I told him we were interested in what he had to say. Since he was so sick, I told him my partner and I would come see him the next day. He agreed. I took his name and phone number and told him I’d call him the next morning to arrange a time. I also told him we would check out anything he told us. He said it was crucial that we get on this right away because Sterling’s execution date was only a few weeks away.”
Kate exhaled. “It sounds like he was sure the man was innocent.”
Brock nodded. “I thought so, too. I hung up and was getting ready to leave for the day when the phone rang again. It was a friend of my father’s in Los Angeles. He was calling to tell me that Dad had been in a serious car accident and wasn’t expected to live. He was asking to see me before he died.”
Kate’s eyes grew wide. “Your father? I didn’t think you had any contact with him.”
“I hadn’t in years, not since he deserted my mother and me when I was ten years old. I knew if my father was calling for me, I had to see him and ask him why he never got in touch with me when I was growing up.” Brock’s eyes filled with tears, and his lips quivered. “Do you understand how important that was to me?”
“Yes, Brock. I understand.”
He took a deep breath. “I scribbled a note to my partner and asked him to follow up on the Robert Sterling matter the next morning. Then I left it on his desk and rushed home. Within hours I was on a plane to Los Angeles.” He hesitated for a moment. “The good news is that my father didn’t die. I ended up staying with him for six weeks, and they were some of the happiest of my life. We bonded for the first time, and all of a sudden I had the father I’d always wanted.”
Kate smiled. “I’m glad, Brock. I remember how you always wanted to know him.”
His face clouded. “But there’s more. The bad news is that when I returned home, I discovered my partner had never found the note I left for him. He didn’t read it, he didn’t contact the witness and Robert Sterling was executed.”
Kate gasped and clamped her hand over her mouth. She stared at Brock and lowered her hand. “How horrible.”
“It is, but there’s more. When I failed to call the witness, he tried to reach me. Whoever he talked to at the station evidently didn’t know I’d left town. They put him through to my voice mail to leave a message.”
“And no one checked your messages?”
Brock shook his head. “No. The man entered the hospital the next day and had his surgery. He was sedated for days. When he was finally conscious, he realized nothing had been done. That’s when he called Sterling’s lawyers. They went to the district attorney but were unable to get the case reopened, and Sterling was executed. The lawyers broke the story to the newspapers along with my name.”
Kate couldn’t believe what she was hearing. As a police officer, she knew how devastating it could be if a miscarriage of justice caused an innocent person to suffer, let alone be killed. She wanted to go around the desk and comfort Brock, but she remained in her seat. “I’m so sorry, Brock.”
“Yeah, me, too. I was cleared by my superiors of any wrongdoing, but I can’t forgive myself, Kate. I keep asking myself why I didn’t ask the chief when I called to update him on my father’s condition if they’d questioned the witness. The only answer I have is that I was so worried about my father, I wasn’t thinking about anything else.” He paused and took a deep breath. “And now there’s a law professor and a group of his students who are digging into Sterling’s case. It looks like he was innocent after all.”
“Have you talked to the witness since you came back from California?”
Brock shook his head. “No. He died while he w
as still in the hospital. The doctors said it was a heart attack.”
Kate frowned. “This sounds like it was a series of mishaps that no one could have prevented. You can’t blame yourself for what happened.”
Brock stared at her with tortured eyes. “But I do, Kate. I should have followed through on what the man told me.”
Kate took a deep breath. “You can’t change what’s happened. You’re going to have to find a way of living with it.”
He leaned back in his chair. The muscle in his jaw twitched. “That’s why I’m here.”
She sensed he was about to tell her something she’d rather not hear. “I don’t understand.”
His elbows rested on his knees, and he leaned forward. “I didn’t come here to dredge up old memories, Kate, but there’s one that’s haunted me for years. I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind for the past three months.”
She didn’t want to hear what haunted him. She had her own memories to deal with. She needed to tell him to go, to leave before he reopened wounds she’d thought healed. She started to rise. “I don’t think it will do any good to relive the past, Brock.”
He held up his hand to stop her. “Please. Hear me out.”
She didn’t want to hear him out. She wanted him to go, but the pleading look he directed at her begged her to listen. She nodded. “All right.”
“When we graduated from college six years ago, we each went home for the summer. But I came to Ocracoke in June for us to plan our fall wedding. Remember?”
Kate struggled to show no emotion on her face, but her heart pounded in her chest. “I remember.”
“I knew your mother was dying of cancer, and I wanted to help you get through the ordeal of losing her. As heartbroken as I was over that, I wasn’t prepared that you’d decided you had to stay on Ocracoke after her death and take care of your family.”
The corners of Kate’s mouth puckered into tight lines. “Are you forgetting that I had two sisters who were sixteen and four years old who were about to lose their mother? Not to mention a father who was devastated. They needed me.” She spat the words at him.
He didn’t flinch from the anger in her voice. “I know, but you made your decision without discussing it with me. You had assumed I would agree and live with you here. When I told you I didn’t want that, we decided it was best if we call off the wedding.”
“If I remember correctly, you decided to call off the wedding. I thought you’d find a job on the mainland and commute so that I could stay here and take care of my two younger sisters.”
Brock raked his hand through his hair. “I told you how unreasonable that was. It’s a two and a half hour ferry ride to the mainland from here, and then it’s another fifty or sixty miles to a town with a large police force. I didn’t want that kind of commute every day. I thought you’d understand that.”
Kate started to rise from her chair again. “I don’t want to discuss our history, Brock. Maybe you should leave.”
“No.” He jumped up and planted his palms on her desk. “Please let me finish.”
She hesitated a moment before she sank down in the chair. “Okay, but make it fast.”
He nodded and eased back into his chair. “I will. Whatever happened then is in the past, but I have to tell you one more thing that happened that summer. On the last day I was here, your mother felt better, and she asked me to take her out to the beach. She wanted to watch the waves roll in. We sat on the sand, and she told me about her life on the island, how much she loved her family and about her peace of dying. She said she’d trusted God all her life, and now she was ready to trust him after death.”
Tears burned Kate’s eyes. “That sounds like her.”
Brock clenched his hands in his lap and stared down at them. When he looked up again, Kate saw a hint of tears in his eyes. “Then she said she was sorry that her dying had caused you and me to break up. I tried to convince her she wasn’t at fault, but she just smiled that sad little smile that said she knew better. She stared at the waves for a long time. Then she said she knew how much I’d missed having a father, but there was another father who wanted to love me and show me the special plan He had for my life.”
Kate closed her eyes, and she imagined how her mother must have looked that day. She could almost hear her mother’s soft voice speaking of God’s love as she did so often. “What did you say?”
“You know I never put much stock in the existence of God, but I didn’t want to upset her. I thanked her for her concern. Then she turned to me and said, ‘We can’t go through life without God. Someday you’re going to think your life is falling apart. Think of me sitting on this beautiful beach God created and come back to Ocracoke. God is everywhere here, Brock. All you have to do is look for Him, and you’ll find the peace you need.’”
Kate sat in stunned silence before she was able to speak. “Did she say anything else?”
He shook his head. “No, but like I said, I can’t get her words out of my mind. Maybe she realized that with the attitude I had that it was only a matter of time before something would knock me down, and she wanted me to know where I could find help.”
Kate blinked back tears. “Did you come back thinking I’d help you?”
He stared into her eyes. “I suppose I hoped so, but I didn’t dare let myself believe you would care what happened to me one way or another. I don’t want to cause you any problems, Kate, but I’ve come to the point in my life that I need the peace your mother talked about. I figured the first step would be trying to gain your forgiveness.”
Kate pushed to her feet and walked to the window. With her back to Brock she stared out at the alley that ran behind the building. Mixed emotions surged through her—happiness for Brock’s reconciliation with his father, sorrow for the death of an innocent man and leftover anger from years ago. Now he wanted her forgiveness.
She whirled around to unleash her rage on him, but the sight of him slumped in the chair touched her heart. How could she disregard the words of hope her mother had given to Brock? Then there were the flowers for her mother’s grave. She walked over to where Brock sat and stopped beside him. “After all that’s happened between us, it must have taken a great deal of courage to come here.”
She steeled herself for the old Brock to give a flippant answer. When he spoke, she knew the words came from his heart. He took a deep breath. “It did, but I meant what I said, Kate. Please believe me.”
She reached out to touch his shoulder but drew her hand back before it made contact. “My mother was the most forgiving person I’ve ever known, and she tried to teach her children that trait. Although I know Jesus expects us to follow the example He gave us, I’m afraid I haven’t reached that point yet. I can’t promise I will ever forgive you, but I will promise that I’ll pray about it. In the meantime you have to find your own way to God. He’s there waiting. Maybe you’re not listening.”
He nodded and pushed to his feet. “That could be true. I know hearing me out hasn’t been easy for you because you probably still hate me. But maybe we can heal some old wounds while I’m on the island.” He held out his hand. “Can we try to be friends again?”
Kate stared at his hand for a moment. “I don’t—”
“I’m not asking to go back to where we were. Just friends. I think your mother would want us to be.” He arched his eyebrows and after a moment she slipped her hand into his. He grasped it and squeezed. “Thank you, Kate. Maybe we can start off by meeting for lunch today.”
She shook her head and pointed to her waiting paperwork. “I can’t, Brock. I’m too busy. Maybe some other time.”
“You have to eat. Just lunch. That’s all.”
What would one lunch hurt? She sighed and pinned him with her gaze. “I take my lunch break at one o’clock. I can’t promise, but I’ll try to be at the Sandwich Shop then. That’s the best I can do.”
He smiled and backed toward the door. “I’ll be waiting in case you can make it.”
&nbs
p; Kate heard him tell Lisa goodbye as he walked through the outer office, and then the door closed. She dropped into her chair and clasped her hands on her desk. What had she done?
Some days she didn’t think about Brock at all, and she’d considered it a good sign that she had finally dismissed him from her life. Now he’d shown up with a story that had ripped her heart. Her mother had always felt God’s presence on the beaches of Ocracoke as she watched the waves roll in. Kate could imagine how she must have looked the day she talked with Brock.
Now Brock had come back because of words spoken by her mother six years ago. She’d always known her mother had a special insight into the needs of others. Even when she was dying, she’d wanted Brock to know the joy she’d had from living her life for the God she loved.
Her mother had taught her that Jesus never turned away someone who was hurting, and a true believer would never do that, either. Maybe in some way her mother had known that after her death Kate would shoulder overwhelming responsibilities. And she had. Her mother had also known how hurt Kate was over the broken engagement and how hard it was for her to forgive. Perhaps her mother had been thinking of her, also, at the time.
If so, then this could be God’s way of helping her, too. In searching for Brock’s peace of mind, she might also learn to forgive and put all the hurts of the past six years behind her.
If she could do that, being around Brock Gentry would be worth it in the long run.
THREE
Brock leaned against the railing around the deck of the Sandwich Shop and scanned the traffic on the street below. How many minutes past one was it now? He fought the urge to check his watch again. It couldn’t have been more than a minute since the last time he’d looked. He’d give her some more time. After all, she had to deal with that murder and couldn’t drop everything to rush off to lunch.
What if she ignored his invitation? He pushed away from the railing, turned his back to the street and strode to the far end of the deck. Doubts drifted into his mind. Perhaps he shouldn’t have come to Ocracoke. It might be too soon to expect her to sit down for a meal with him. He should have waited before he spilled the story about Robert Sterling’s death and that last day he spent with Kate’s mother.
Dangerous Reunion (Love Inspired Suspense) Page 3