by Marie Force
While he knew he should try to get her to take something for the fever, he was afraid her ravaged stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it.
She turned over and curled up to him, her face pressed against his chest.
The implied trust she conveyed by reaching for him in her sleep set off a chain reaction of emotion in him. She was so damned sweet, even if she wanted the rest of the world to see her bitter, edgy side. He’d seen the sweetness, but he adored snarky, sarcastic Tiffany, too. Blaine smoothed a hand over her hair, hoping she’d sleep off the worst of the bug overnight.
He must’ve dozed off, waking when she moaned in her sleep.
“Tiffany,” he whispered.
Her eyes opened, and she blinked him into focus.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded.
“Need anything?”
“Maybe some water. I’m so thirsty.”
“Coming right up.” He released her to get up and retrieve ice water from the kitchen. When he returned to the bedroom, he helped her sit up and held the glass for her.
She took a couple of greedy sips. “That’s good.”
“Take it slow. You don’t want to get your stomach going again.”
As if it had heard him, her stomach let out a huge growl that made them laugh.
“That’s attractive,” Tiffany said. “In fact, I must be knocking your socks off with how attractive I am right now.”
Blaine leaned in and kissed her square on the lips. “You’re gorgeous, even when you’re sick.”
“Sure I am.”
“Would I lie to you?”
“I don’t know. Would you?”
Even though they’d been joking around, he sensed that she expected a serious answer. “Never.”
“That’s good to know,” she said with a small smile that told him how much his one-word answer had meant to her.
“How about some crackers to see if your stomach can handle a little food?”
“Earlier, I thought I’d never eat again, but now crackers sound good. I feel a hundred times better than I did before.”
“That’s good. Be right back.” He returned a minute later with a box of oyster crackers and a couple of painkillers to combat the fever, which she took with another big swallow of water. “This was the best I could do.”
“I love them.”
Propped on pillows, he sat next to her and held the box while she munched on a handful of the small crackers.
“This makes me want clam chowder,” she said.
“A sure sign that you’re on the road to recovery.”
“No kidding. A few hours ago the words clam chowder would’ve made me puke.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the flu is taking the island by storm. I’ve heard of at least two dozen cases.”
“Lucky me.”
He took her hand and linked their fingers. “Lucky me. I get to take care of you.”
“It’s all part of your devious plot to make yourself essential to me.”
“How am I doing so far?”
“Pretty good.”
“Only pretty good? That’s disappointing.”
He loved listening to her laugh, loved the way her eyes danced with mischief and her lips pursed in thought. There were a lot of things he loved about her, he realized in a moment of clarity.
“Why did you suddenly get all serious?” she asked, mimicking his expression.
“Did I?”
She nodded. “What’re you thinking about?”
Blaine chose his words carefully so as not to drive her away by getting too serious too fast. “I was thinking that I like being with you like this.”
“When there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of sex?”
That made him laugh. “Even then.”
Chapter 18
Owen gently shook Laura awake. She’d been asleep for hours, and he could no longer pacify Holden, who needed to be fed.
“Laura,” he whispered.
Holden’s hungry cries escalated to piercing shrieks that roused his mother from a deep sleep.
“Is he okay?” she asked, her voice rough and sleepy sounding.
“He’s hungry. Should I make him a bottle?”
“No, I can feed him.” She pushed herself into an upright position. “I hope I won’t be getting him sick if I do, though.”
“Wouldn’t he already be exposed?”
“I suppose I’ve exposed you both.”
“And wasn’t that fun?” Owen said with a grin.
Laura smiled as she unbuttoned the front of her nightgown, and the baby latched on as if he hadn’t eaten in a week rather than a few hours. The sight of her breastfeeding the baby never failed to stir Owen’s most protective instincts. “Thanks for taking care of him.”
“It’s my pleasure to take care of him. We played with some blocks and had a workout on the baby gym. Pumped some iron. Guy stuff. You wouldn’t get it.”
“Glad you got in some male bonding time. How are things downstairs?”
“Seems to be going well. Stephanie got a great crowd.”
“Are people checking out the guest rooms we opened?”
“We’ve had a steady stream of visitors on the second floor. Holden and I went down to take a look a little while ago and answered a few questions.”
Laura frowned and ran a hand over the baby’s head. “I should be down there.”
“My mom and Charlie and Shane are leading people through the rooms. Don’t worry.”
“It should be me.”
“You’re sick, honey. Half the island has the same bug, so don’t feel bad. In fact, Stephanie had to recruit Grace, Jenny and Sydney to fill in for three of the servers who have it.”
“Everyone is having fun while I’m stuck in bed. It’s not fair.”
Owen leaned in to kiss the pout off her lips.
“Don’t kiss me! I don’t want you to get it!”
“Far too late to worry about that. Besides, I never get sick.” He patted his belly. “Iron gut.”
“You can join the party if you want. He’ll be down for the night after he eats, and I’m fine.”
Owen stretched out next to her on the bed. “I’m right where I want to be.”
Over the nursing baby’s head, her gaze met his. “If that’s the case, then why do you look so pensive?”
“Do I?”
She nodded.
“Hmm, I didn’t think it showed.”
“Maybe not to anyone else, but I know you, and I can tell by now when something is troubling you.”
It was, Owen mused, at times astonishing and confounding to be so in tune with another person. Since he’d never had that kind of connection before, he was still getting used to it. “My mom.”
“What about her?”
“She’s on a date with Charlie.”
Laura gasped and startled the baby. She took advantage of the opportunity to switch sides. When she had the baby settled again, she placed her free hand on Owen’s chest. “How do you feel about that?”
“I’m happy for her, but I’m worried, too.”
“About what?”
“That she’s not ready to start something new. It hasn’t been that long since everything happened with my dad, and I’m so afraid of her getting hurt again.”
“I don’t know Charlie all that well, but he seems like a very nice man. He’s a hard worker, and Stephanie thinks the world of him. That should count for something.”
“It does. It counts for a lot. Still…”
“She’s your mom, she’s been through an awful ordeal and you’re allowed to worry about her. But you have to let her spread her wings. She’s got a lot of time to make up for, and so does Charlie. In some ways, she was just as imprisoned as he was.”
“That’s very true.”
“Does his past bother you?”
“Not so much. I’ll tell you what I told her—she was married to a guy who everyone thought was a hero but should’ve been i
n prison. And then there’s Charlie, who, to hear Stephanie tell it, saved her life only to learn that no good deed goes unpunished. Which one would I rather see her with? Charlie. No question about that.”
“I like that, and it’s so true. We might be getting ahead of ourselves anyway. It’s one night.”
“Have you noticed the way he looks at her?”
Laura glanced over at him, hesitantly. “Maybe.”
“I suspect it’s going to be more than one date.”
“I suspect you might be right.”
Play it cool. That was Dan’s strategy for the evening with Kara. Don’t act too interested or too charming or too anything. It had taken weeks of effort to get her into his car, and he was petrified he’d say or do something to ruin his chances before he could get to know her better. And he desperately wanted to know her better.
The car itself might’ve been his first misstep of the evening. Unlike the women he dated in LA, she hadn’t seemed impressed by the convertible Porsche he’d spent an ungodly amount of money to have shipped to the island. Some things a guy shouldn’t have to live without, and his car was definitely one of them.
In hindsight, he realized the car contributed to her already formed impression of him as a pretentious climber who cared more about things than he did about people. He’d considered telling her the truth about his work, but he decided to save that ace for when—not if—he needed some points.
The car had a story all its own behind it that he’d like to share with her at some point, if the opportunity presented itself.
“Nice car,” she said after a protracted period of silence that did nothing to settle his nerves. He’d been reeling from the second she opened the door and he caught sight of her in the incredible red dress. And her hair… It was so smooth and shiny, falling in soft waves around her face. As he’d suspected, underneath her tomboy exterior lurked a very sexy woman.
“Thanks.” Why not tell her, he thought. He wanted her to know him—really know him. “It was my brother’s.” Even all these years later, the pain still took him by surprise. “He was an army ranger, killed in Afghanistan in 2005.”
She rested her hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry, Dan.”
“Thanks. It was a long time ago.”
“I… I thought…”
“What?”
“My first thought was that the car is pretentious, and now I feel terrible for thinking that.”
Dan laughed. “It’s pretentious as all hell, and Dylan loved it. Having the car he loved makes me feel closer to him, if that makes sense.”
“It does. It makes perfect sense. Do you have other siblings?”
“Two sisters, both older.”
“It must’ve been so hard to lose your only brother.”
“Worst thing I’ve ever been through. Wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Kara seemed to be chewing over what she wanted to say next, so Dan forced himself to stay quiet and let her ask whatever she wanted to. “The other day when we talked about your work, why didn’t you tell me what you really do?”
Dan grimaced. “Heard about that, huh?”
“Yes.”
He couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or merely curious. “Are you mad I didn’t tell you?”
“I’m more surprised, I guess. It’s been my experience that people like to talk about themselves, especially when they’re trying to impress someone.”
Her blunt approach to life was so damned refreshing. “Is that what I’ve been doing? Trying to impress you?” He was mindful to interject a suitable amount of humor into the question, lest she think he was making fun of her. Had he ever tiptoed so carefully around another woman? Not that he could recall.
He could feel rather than see the roll of her eyes. “What would you call it?”
“Well, I, ah…”
“Are you this articulate in court when you’re pontificating on behalf of your clients?”
“Okay, first, I don’t pontificate, and second, I’m known for my articulate elocution.”
Her lusty laugh did strange things to his insides. He suddenly felt warm all over, so he opened a window.
She gathered up her hair and kept a firm grip on it.
“What’s the matter?”
“The fog will make my hair huge in like five seconds.”
“Sorry,” he muttered, rolling up the window, resigned to his fate of being far too warm in her presence.
“So why didn’t you tell me about your work?”
“I don’t know.” He tugged at his shirt collar. “It wasn’t because I don’t want you to know about it. I didn’t want to sound, you know…arrogant.”
“Far too late for that,” she said, laughing some more.
While his arrogant self might be annoyed that she found it so easy to poke fun at him, the part of him that ached for what she’d been through loved that he could make her laugh. For that reason, he was happy to be her patsy. “You’re being kind of mean to me to say it’s our first date. I’d think you’d want to impress me.”
“Is that so? I thought I’d already impressed you just by having freckles. Are you saying I need to do more?”
“If you want to keep my attention.” He’d meant the comment as a joke but immediately regretted it. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded, Kara. You have my undivided attention, as you well know.”
The animation had left her voice when she said, “I knew what you meant.”
Dan took a huge gamble and reached for her hand. At first, she resisted, but then she relaxed and seemed to accept the intrusion. “He was crazy to let you go.”
“When you get to know me better, you might not think so. For all you know, I’m a controlling shrew who likes to be in charge all the time.”
His heart did a happy dance at the idea of getting to know her better. “Why, Ms. Ballard, are you talking dirty to me?” he asked with a dramatic shiver.
“Shut up,” she said, laughing again.
He really loved it when she laughed.
A steady pounding on his front door woke Blaine from a sound sleep. He glanced at the bedside clock and saw that it was only ten thirty. When was the last time he’d gone to bed so early? With a mighty yawn, he eased himself out of bed, hoping Tiffany would stay asleep. He pulled on jeans, zipped them and closed the bedroom door behind him when he stepped into the living room of his small cottage.
Since he was always wary of people he’d arrested showing up uninvited at his front door, he looked through the peephole he’d installed to see who was there. When he saw his mother’s frowning face, he groaned and threw open the door.
“I believe I told you I wanted to see you today,” she said without preamble as she marched by him into the house. She was petite with dark hair gone gray and brown eyes. He loved her dearly, honestly he did, but sometimes she drove him crazy. Clearly, this was going to be one of those times.
“I believe I told you I was busy. You know, working.”
“Don’t give me that, Blaine Michael Taylor. I know darned well that as the chief of police, you can go anywhere you wish to on this island at any time you wish to.”
She usually saved his full name for only the most heated of exchanges, and the idea of a big fight with her exhausted him. “What’s got you so wound up?”
“You know exactly what’s got me ‘wound up,’ as you put it. Once again, you’ve taken up with a needy woman who already has you buying her things like furniture. What kind of self-respecting woman lets her new boyfriend—or whatever you are—buy her furniture?”
“That’s not how it happened, Mom. She didn’t let me do anything. I did that completely on my own.”
“What happened to her furniture?”
“Her scumbag ex-husband took it all with him when he moved out, not that it’s any of your business.”
She threw up her hands. “How is it any of your business?”
He absolutely refused to squirm, the way he would’ve back in high school when she l
ooked at him that way. “I made it my business. I like her. She needed it. I saw it. There’s nothing more to it than that.”
“If you want to tell yourself that—”
“Mom! Stop it. I’ve heard enough. I don’t have to explain myself to you. I’m a grown man.”
“Who’s made some very, very bad decisions where women are concerned in the past. Do you even know what she’s selling in that little store of hers? Why, the whole town is talking about it! Just tonight at bridge club, Myrna Applegate said the word dildo. I almost had a heart attack right there on the spot.”
“Mom—”
“And to think my own son is dating—or Lord knows what the two of you are doing—the town dildo queen! Well, my God, Blaine, I can’t bear it. Loretta called her store the ‘The House of Dildos,’ and the whole group had a big laugh over it. All the while, I was dying inside knowing you’re all wrapped up in her. What will they say when they find out my son is…” She waved her hand around as she searched for the word. “Dating her?”
“Stop. You don’t know anything about her. You have no idea—”
“Is she or is she not selling dildos on Gansett Island?”
He shifted from one foot to the other, his face heating at that word coming from his mother’s lips. “Maybe.”
“There you have it. What else do you need to know about her?”
“How about the fact that she’s sweet and loyal and genuine and funny and a wonderful mother and sexy as hell? Do any of those things matter, or are you so hung up on what she’s selling in her store that it’ll never matter to you that she’s a good person?”
“A good person doesn’t bring that kind of filth into a town like this.”
He snorted as he pictured the apoplexy she’d have if she knew that he’d tried out—and greatly enjoyed—some of Tiffany’s so-called filth. “Come on, Mom, it’s the twenty-first century, for crying out loud. You sound positively puritanical.”
“I don’t care how I sound, and I can’t help how I feel. I don’t approve, Blaine, and there’re plenty of other people on this island who agree with me. Need I remind you that you lost your last job because of a woman? Are you really going to let that happen again? Mayor Upton won’t be happy to hear you’re seeing her, especially with all the traffic trouble her smut shop is causing in town. I’d think you’d be concerned about your job, taking up with a woman like that.”