Suddenly, he drew up at the sight of a body half-submerged in the receding waves ahead.
He blinked and wiped his eyes. I’m not in the war. This isn’t a dream.
Instinct took over and he flipped the body face-up, felt for a pulse. He administered CPR and patted the man on his back once he coughed up the lake water.
You’ve got to be shitting me. It was Kelly’s ex. “You okay?” He couldn’t help the roughness of his voice.
Sitting up, the man nodded and wheezed. “Thanks, man.”
“What happened? Lose your balance?” No lingering odors of alcohol or weed. A quick look around told him they were alone with the lake. No voices. No footprints. Slick fish line on the sand captured his attention. He picked it up.
“What’s that from?” the man asked after a raspy cough.
Will teased the thin plastic between his thumb and finger. Could have been new. Not pliant and weathered but stiff. “Fish line. Assholes are always leaving it all over.”
The man shook his head and fingered his temple. With a harsh exclamation of pain, he looked down at his ankle. “Fuck. I must have tripped and twisted it.”
“Hit your head too?”
“Like a motherfucker.” The man struggled to stand and Will winced as he got to his feet to help him. Limping, they moved past the scattered rocks his head smashed on, trickles of blood smeared on the surface.
“You okay?” the man asked.
Isn’t he the one who was drowning in the lake? “Bad knee.” Worse since he had knelt to give him CPR. He pointed to the man’s ankle. “You might have sprained it.”
The man grimaced and tested his weight on his foot. “Dammit. Now she’ll be all fussy over me. She’ll freak that I’m injured and overreact.”
Will wedged his shoulder under his armpit and helped him towards the townhouse. “Your wife?” Will bit his cheek at the throbbing pain of his knee. Well, she was his ex-wife…
“Huh? No, my sister. She’s staying at the house over there. I’m sure Tara will be worried, too. I’ve got to leave tomorrow. I hate to leave Kelly when I know she’s still sad, but I’ve got to get home.” He groaned.
“You’re her brother?”
“One of them. Grant Newland.”
Will felt the weight of a thousand pounds lift from his chest. A brother. Not her ex. “Will Parker.”
“Hey, is your knee really okay?” Grant frowned at their combined limping gait.
“It’ll be fine. It’s an old injury.”
“Now she’ll be worried I can’t drive. And insist I stay to recover. She’s always babied us. Even Dad. But she’s too stubborn.” He panted as they hobbled towards the building.
Will wearied from helping the man back to the townhouse, but stomached tenser anticipation of having to be near Kelly.
“How’d you hurt your knee?” Grant asked between breaths.
“War.”
Grant raised his brows. “Oh yeah? How long did you serve?”
“Marines. Seven years.”
“You were in the Marines?”
“What I said.”
Grant nodded and save for their panting breaths, they remained silent for the rest of the trek. The twang of the screen door snapped sharply in the night, announcing Kelly’s entrance to the porch.
“Thanks for finding me back there, man. You’ll keep an eye out for her, right?” Grant said as they neared.
Will gulped a deep breath, confused her brother would think she needed a protector, least of all him. “Of course,” he muttered before they reached her on the porch.
She slanted her lips. “What now?”
The flood light Will had asked Clay to install the day before highlighted her piercing blue-green scrutiny. He averted his gaze from their siren call.
***
“Oh, the compassion,” Grant said. He hissed as Will helped him to the chair.
“What happened?” Kelly studied Will’s swollen knee, then glanced up sharply at his face. How far had he supported her brother’s 210-pound frame on that injury? She debated between chastising him and hugging him, but she held her tongue and her heart, as he would probably welcome neither.
“Found him face-down in the water. Twisted his ankle and fell in. Smacked his head on a rock.”
“I thought Sean was supposed to be the clumsy one. C’mon, get inside.” She held open the door and avoided eye contact with Will as he helped Grant inside.
Chapter 28
The next morning Will deduced Grant was either impervious to Kelly’s fussy pampering, or she had discharged her sibling, because her brother waved to him as he left.
At the garage, Clay’s giddy mood annoyed Will more than usual. Without Randy around, Clay was a bit much to handle. The doctors said Randy might be released the next day and Will considered who would pick him up from the hospital.
Probably Kelly. He hated himself for envying Randy for her attention.
As he closed up the garage that night, his cell phone beeped. Clay’s number lit on the screen. Bone-tired and depressed, Will sat in his truck and leaned his head back against the headrest as he answered with his eyes closed. “Yeah?” He could hardly hear the other end with the background noise.
“Hey man, I need a favor.”
Will waited, absentmindedly trying to remember if he had any more Hot Pockets in the freezer at home.
“Can you swing by the kayak hut and give Kelly a jump?”
He pulled his head up and opened his eyes to slits. Clay had the balls to ask him to help Kelly?
“Look, I know you guys got some kind of silent treatment going on, but I’m all the way out at Daisy’s. Her birthday, man. Kendra and Alyssa made this surprise deal last minute. She needs a jump. You don’t have to talk to her. I already told her I’d stop by but you’re closer.”
Will hung up and drove the short distance to the kayak hut, pulling onto the public beach. It was strange being out there in the dark of the night, with people gone and voices absent. Normally Kelly wouldn’t have even been out there, he guessed, but there had been a full-moon special. Burns must have asked her to work late.
When he walked onto the docks, she was leaning over on the edge of the dock reaching for a kayak floating out of her reach. Admiring the slender curve of her back as she stretched out, he crushed the memories of how she had felt under his hands.
“Oh, come on.” Her back to him, she begged the kayak closer.
He cleared his throat, and she screamed and fell forward into the river. Will planted his feet on the wooden planks, erased all trace of emotion from his face. Unsure of what else to do with them, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and watched her surface.
“What the hell are you doing?” She wiped the water from her eyes.
“You need a jump?” He frowned at her, sticking to his callous act because it was his comfortable default.
She spat the water out of her mouth and shot him a glare, then pulled herself onto the dock. “You scared me.”
“You need a jump?” he repeated. Jump? Didn’t Clay get a new battery for her? Alternator must not be charging.
He could hear fatigue in her sigh. “Yeah. I thought Clay was coming.”
“He was too busy getting some.”
She led him up the dock, squeezing the water from her ponytail.
“Why are they all over the place?” he asked of the kayaks randomly floating like elongated rubber ducks on the dark river.
“I don’t know. Some punk cut the ropes when I made the last run,” she said and pointed ahead. “I parked behind the hut.”
He followed her, agitated at how hard it was to be near her. Damned hard. And damned if he wasn’t getting hard. How could he not look? The clothes clung to her slim body. He recalled how she had looked when she fell asleep on his lap. The feisty woman all soft and serene. The best sex he ever… He slammed shut the memory.
She opened the hood and wrung more water from her hair.
Will looked in and frowned
.
She didn’t need a jump. She needed someone to stop tampering with her car. Concentrating, he put his fists on the frame and studied the cut wires. Someone who knew what they were doing. Like Clay’s brakes. And coincidence that someone had cut the rope for the kayaks?
He dropped the hood shut. “Jump’s not going to help.”
She slanted a brow at him.
“You need a new alternator,” he lied. His stomach bubbled like it had on the boat when she fell off the skis. The same kind of gutsy turmoil he had shared with Matt many times in the war. Danger?
He dismissed the thought. Churchston, he reminded himself. Not Afghanistan. The paranoia and nervousness had waned with time, but he still had his moments. Still had to work at controlling his calm, remembering the world wasn’t out to get him from behind every corner.
“Really? Damn.” She hurried to follow him back down the dock.
Like when she fell off the skis. Will stood at the end of the docks and knew he wasn’t letting her out of his sight, with her hating him or not. Something wasn’t right. Paranoia or protectiveness. It didn’t matter which, Will lived by ‘better safe than sorry’. Probably a prank, but he still didn’t like it.
“Well, let’s herd them up.” He lowered himself into a kayak.
“What?” She set her hands on her hips.
“I’m guessing you’ll need a ride home now,” he said and paddled off to retrieve another kayak. “May as well get this done.”
“Oh.” With a skeptical expression, she grabbed a kayak and chased after the liberated boats. “What is it, you’ve got a hot date you’re rushing for?”
Ahead of her, Will worked his jaw. “Yep,” he lied again, more comfortable with her being annoyed at him than grateful for his help. “Let’s hurry it up, would you?”
An hour later the kayaks were secured along a new line and Will led the way to his truck. Unable to resist staring at the wet clothes which clung to her body, he flung a towel at her.
She caught it in her face. With a swift thrust she threw it to the ground. “You know what? I’ll walk.”
Will chased after her. “It’s miles away.”
“I’m not afraid of the dark.”
He paused for a second, watching her back as she stormed off. Like when she fell off the damn skis. She had shown enough common sense then. She knew she couldn’t have swum all the way to the beach without help. This time, though, Will didn’t doubt she could hoof it home. But he couldn’t shake gut instinct that all the ‘mishaps’ weren’t accidents. She might not be afraid of the dark, but Will was afraid for her.
“Come on.” He trotted after her.
“As much as I appreciate you’re reluctantly forcing yourself to give me a ride, I prefer my own company.” She yanked her hand from his reach.
“Don’t be a pain in the ass,” he said and hustled after her again.
She stopped suddenly and he slammed into her back. They tumbled to the sand and he wrestled on top of her.
“I’m a pain in the ass?”
“Can’t you get in the truck?”
“What’s it to you? I don’t have to put up with your attitude. I can walk fine. Go off on your damn date, Will. I’ll pass on charity from a jerk every time.”
He held his breath, fumbling for words. He couldn’t tell her it didn’t feel right. That he had a prickly itch of something bad in the air.
Churchston, not Afghanistan.
“I’ll pick you up and carry you in there,” he said. Maybe a physical challenge would work.
Her frown was pensive, not obedient. “What’s it to you?”
He tongued his cheek again. “What if I say ‘please’?”
She didn’t answer but to turn her head on the sand, scanning their surroundings. With a doubtful smirk, she shoved at his arms to let her up.
It was a quiet ride home and when he pulled up to the townhouse, she reached into her pockets but failed to exit the cab of the truck.
“Um.” She licked her lips in hesitation.
Will stared her down. Please do not torture me.
“My keys must have fallen out when I fell in.”
He let his head fall back to the headrest. So help me God.
She glared at him. “Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t scared me!”
He slammed the gearshift forward and drove for the stone house.
“Do you have an extra key?” she asked as they left the truck.
“Clay has it.”
“And he’s—”
“—out getting some.”
Will flipped the lights on and went through the house as though she wasn’t there. He paused in the hallway to toss blankets to the couch and then went to shower. Once he was clean and dressed, he found her sitting on the couch with the towel wrapped around her.
“Be back later,” he said and slammed the front door behind him. He had no clue where he was going but he knew he couldn’t sit there. Alone in his house. With her.
As he drove into town, he questioned the absurdity of his actions. Never before had anyone twisted up his motives and thoughts.
She’s another ordinary woman. Another woman who wanted false promises of love so someday she could walk out on him. With the renewed frustration of not having her in his life, he vowed to find the hottest, most promiscuous woman at Elmer’s.
“She’s just another ordinary woman,” he coached himself as he locked the truck on Main.
She’s another ordinary woman. Right?
Chapter 29
By the time Will came home, he had a migraine, his knee was bothering him, and he never wanted to talk to another person again for as long as he lived. Better yet, never even think about wanting a woman again.
Instead of going to bed, he sat on the edge of the coffee table and watched Kelly sleep on the couch. It was torture as he followed the curves and shadows of her sleeping face. Committed her every detail to memory.
He thought about her car tampered with, the kayaks all over, the boat running over her. He tucked back a strand of hair from her face and studied her closer. How could she come to matter in so short a period of a time? As if looking at her would give him answers. All it did was test his self-control.
***
In the morning, after his run and shower, Will stood in the kitchen drinking water when Clay tapped on the front door.
“Hey man.” He came in and ran his hand through his hair. “You go jump her car last night? It’s still at Burns.”
“Wouldn’t start.” Will still didn’t know how to explain what he had seen.
“Well, where is she?” They looked to the couch as Kelly sat up with drowsy face. “Kelly—” Clay came forward and she snapped awake.
“What is it?” she said, alarm on her face as she eyed both men.
“Come on,” Clay said and grabbed her shirt sleeve, hurrying her to the door.
They ran for the townhouse to find Eddie wheezing on the front yard.
“Eddie boy.” Her voice cracked as she went to the dog and touched his face, checking his body for what could have hurt him.
“I came home a few minutes ago and found him out here.” Clay said.
“Eddie,” Kelly whispered and probed at his throat, his chest. “What happened to you, buddy?”
Will crumbled at her tender voice. Kelly had been at his place all night and Clay must have partied all night if he had just gotten home. “How’d he get out here?” he asked. He crouched to inspect the dog, but only saw Kelly’s eyes concerned and alarmed. His attention was always riveted on her.
“Probably the dog door,” Clay answered. “We cut one out for him a few weeks ago. Kelly, we’ll take him to the vet. I’ll drive you out there. It’s not too far.”
She nodded and caressed her dog’s head.
Will went inside to get a towel to help move the dog in some kind of a sling, but stopped still at her apartment door. Ignoring his knee, he lowered himself to the square flap cutout on Kelly’s door. Touch
ing it gingerly, he removed a piece of black neoprene fabric that had been ripped off and stuck in the hinge. Probably part of the dog collar.
Outside, they loaded Eddie in the bed and Will told Clay he’d see him at the garage later. Will frowned at Eddie’s bright blue nylon collar. Not black neoprene. Kelly wiped at her eyes as she climbed into the truck bed to ride with Eddie. Will rubbed at the back of his neck as they left, and as soon as they were out of sight, he searched the townhouse and yard for anything else suspicious.
***
“Maybe he ate something,” Clay said to Kelly through the rear window of the cab.
“Maybe.” She felt again for Eddie’s pulse.
Downtown, they stalled in traffic and she looked around. “What’s taking so long?” Traffic in Churchston? What an oxymoron. There weren’t enough residents to cause traffic.
Clay sped around the car in front of them. “I don’t know. There’s a tractor up the road taking something to the beach.”
At the animal clinic, the vet warned he couldn’t perform miracles but promised to work as fast as he could. After the technicians pumped Eddie’s stomach and announced he was stable and resting, Clay drove Kelly to the kayak hut on his way to the garage.
“So what happened with your car?” Clay said.
“I don’t know. Will said I needed a new alternator.”
Clay shook his head. “I checked it when I put the battery in. Worked fine. It wasn’t very old.”
She sighed, exhausted from the adrenaline rush of fear first thing in the morning.
“I’ll check it out later,” he said as she got out on the beach.
She spent the slow day tossing a ball against the wall of the hut, trying not to think about Eddie. But when she wasn’t worrying about Eddie, she was missing Will.
She remembered Randy should have been discharged that morning. She had planned to make a cake and host a little celebration.
Scratch those plans. No car. Alternator? She anticipated Clay would procrastinate fixing it for her. In the meantime, it had to be back to bumming Burns’ truck. And routine snake-checking.
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