A week after her return, much to her relief, Ash left the Tribune for a better offer at a bigger, albeit sleazier paper after his scoop on Noah went public. Though it was never common knowledge, she knew that what he’d done by interloping on her trip to Montana hadn’t sat well with Somerhalder and his departure from the Tribune had been by mutual agreement.
Unavoidably, she’d found herself clicking on articles about Noah/Eamon on the internet, watching videos of him moving in and out of buildings and town cars as reporters hounded him. But interestingly, since the information about his service as a Navy SEAL had come out, the slant of the pursuit had changed. They wrote now, not about the past with his sister, but about his heroic service instead. His reputation was, not so subtly, undergoing a reinvention. Though she could take no credit for that, she was glad that something good seemed to have come out of the debacle in Marietta. Something fine.
She hadn’t really expected to hear from Noah. Her goodbye to him had really been goodbye. She’d known that as soon as she’d written the word. If the situation were reversed, she supposed she’d feel exactly the same as he did. But that didn’t dull the sting of what had happened. That would live with her for a long time.
“It’s raining out there,” Frannie said from her office doorway. “It’s not supposed to rain in the summer. You going home soon?”
She and Frannie had patched things up. What happened had never been her fault in the first place. “In a few minutes. I just have a few things to clear off my desk.”
“Go out for drinks? I know a bar where they serve their alcohol with little umbrellas.”
Gemma chuckled. “Thanks. But I’m gonna pass. I’ll have to just settle for my grown-up umbrella tonight.”
“You know,” Frannie advised, “eventually, you’ll have to come out of your cave. You can’t stay in there forever. It’s been three weeks.”
“I like my cave. It suits me. Besides, I think there’s a Nature marathon on TV tonight and…well, I wouldn’t want to miss the meerkats.”
“Meerkats? Girl, you need to get a life. So, if you change your mind, give me a call. I’ll be the one sitting by myself at the bar, fantasizing about drinking piña coladas on Barbados…Mykonos…maybe that little island off the coast of Africa…” She pushed away from the doorway, still listing islands.
“Bye, Frannie.”
“Turks and Caicos…or Fiji would be nice…” Her voice trailed off down the hall.
A few minutes later, Gemma closed her laptop and packed up. She said good night to the others who were working overtime and headed out to her car, her umbrella in hand. It really wasn’t supposed to rain in the summer in Seattle, but then again, had anything gone the way it was supposed to go lately?
The employee parking lot was nearly empty and her lonely gray Honda was parked at the far end. There were a few other cars in the lot, including a black town car, whose red brake lights shone in the pouring rain. The windshield wipers swished at the deluge but she couldn’t see inside the darkened windows. As she drew closer, though, she saw a man outside that car with his back to her, crouched near the bushes, his umbrella overhead. He was reaching into the weeds for something.
Instinct stopped her. She was quite alone out here. Pulling her phone from her purse, she got her keys ready in a defensive grip.
Then she heard a sound. A plaintive cry like a crow or a bird. Or…
A kitten.
The man straightened, tucking something inside his jacket as he turned. Impossible.
“Noah!” Her heart skipped a couple of beats.
He seemed just as surprised to see her. “Gemma.”
She felt like she’d just stepped off the edge of the earth. Maybe…maybe the fact that he was in her parking lot was an accident. Maybe he was in Seattle for business. Of course. For Pellmer’s. But he just happened to stop right next to her car? And she hadn’t heard from him for weeks. “Wh—what are you doing here?”
He uncovered the tiny black kitten tucked under his coat. “Rescuing a cat, apparently.”
“Ohhh,” she said, staring at the poor, half-drowned thing from a distance. The kitten mewled again, closing its eyes at the delicious and sudden warmth inside his coat.
“Someone must have left her here,” he said. “Thrown her away.”
“How sad.”
He petted the cat’s head with one finger. “What people will do, huh?”
“Yeah.” The rain pelted her umbrella making a staccato sound and she felt dampness soak her ankles. What people will do.
“I mean,” he went on, “who would throw away a cat that can purr like this?” Indeed, the tiny thing seemed to have no volume control.
“Hard to fathom.”
“But I guess we’re all only human, right? And we make mistakes.”
“Yes,” she agreed quickly. “We do.” Silence stretched between them for a long rush of rain. “What are you doing here, Noah? It’s not an accident that you’re here in my parking lot, is it?”
“No. No accident. I came looking for you. I found this. What do you think I should do with this cat?”
“I think you should keep her…or him. I think…when animals find you, choose you, you should keep them. They’re meant for you.”
He tightened his grip on the kitten and stroked her head. “I heard her crying over here in the bushes. Even through my window. She was very persistent. I think…I will keep her. She deserves that.”
Gemma reached out a finger to rub the kitten’s wet head. “Lucky cat.”
He lifted his gaze to her. “I read your article,” he said. “The one you wrote about Marietta.”
That surprised her. “Did you?”
“I liked it. Very much.”
She blinked away the moisture gathering in her eyes. “Thank you. I’m glad you did.”
“That part about the people of Marietta, and how the magic wasn’t in the water at all, but in the risks they were willing to take?”
She nodded. That had been her favorite part, too. Aside from the all too personal confession part, where she admitted she had, in fact, done the same. She reddened at the thought of him reading that.
“You want to sit in the car? It’s kind of wet out here.”
She blinked at him and then the car, but shook her head. Being forced to formally exit stage right with her head up after yet another embarrassing confrontation with him was something she just couldn’t do tonight.
“Okay,” he said, understanding. “Okay. Here’s what I came to say: I should have given you a chance to explain that night. I should have trusted you. Instead, I jumped to conclusions. I should have believed you when you said what you did. I wanted to believe it, but turns out…I have a few issues.”
Yes, she knew. “Don’t we all?”
He took a step closer. “I needed to get some things in order back home. Sort through some of those ‘issues.’”
“And did you?”
“Yes. Not completely, but…yes.”
The downpour slowed suddenly to a mere drizzle. Gemma wiped a hand across her damp cheek. “I’m sorry about what happened with Ashton. Sorry for how he outed you in that awful story.”
“He did that. Not you.”
“He wouldn’t have found out at all if not for me.”
He walked closer. “I know how he found out.”
She frowned up at him.
“Frannie’s a good friend to you. You should hang on to friends like her.”
“I…don’t understand.”
“I think you do. She wrote to me. Told me what I never gave you the chance to say. She had your back. Like my friends—my brothers—did that last night in Marietta. I told them the truth and amazingly, they forgave me. You did me a huge favor, Gemma. What happened back there changed so much. It changed me.”
“I’m glad something good came of it.” She reached out and ran a finger across the purring kitten’s head. “I’m sorry, too. I just need to say that, in person. I’m really sorry for d
eceiving you. That was awful of me.”
“I wasn’t exactly honest either. I’m sorry for that. Glass houses, you know?”
She exhaled a teary laugh. “I do.”
“But…for a guy who’s made an art form out of erasing his past, I couldn’t seem to get you and the time we spent together out of my mind.”
She had no idea what to say to that or even if he meant what she hoped he did. “But you tried?”
“And failed. Until I started realizing that forgetting you was the exact opposite of what I should be doing. I came here to find you to tell you that I was wrong for walking away from you. I went back home after that night and nothing was right. I mean…nothing.” He took another step closer, close enough she could hear the half-drowned kitten purring furiously inside his coat. “Not my name, not my job, not who I was anymore. And I realized I’d left something behind. A huge, important part of what I wanted in my life. You.”
Hope stirred inside her. But she’d been burned so many times, she was afraid to believe it. “You shouldn’t say things like that if you don’t mean them.”
“I’m in love with you, Gemma.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “You should get that kitten in out of the rain. Feed her. Get her warm.”
“Did you hear me? I’m in love with you.”
“I heard you. But you don’t really even know me.”
“Yeah, I do,” he said. “Come away with me.”
Confused, Gemma glanced at her aging Honda waiting in the next parking space. “What? Where?”
“I’ve rented a house on Bainbridge Island for a few weeks. Stay with me there. Let’s start over again.”
Shocked, she took a step back. “I—I have a job, Noah. I can’t just go running off to Bainbridge Island to—”
“Yeah, you can. Someone with a little pull pitched the idea of Bainbridge for your column. Local color and all. Somerhalder actually liked the idea.”
“You…you talked to my boss?”
“Me? No, no. My sister, Reena might have suggested the idea in exchange for an exclusive for you with her about her experience. And her work with the local youth outreach.”
She bit her lip, trying to hold back the emotion climbing her throat. “And…I suppose Reena’s going to be in Bainbridge?”
“Well…” He shrugged. “She promised to call. But the rest of the time will just be you and me and Cat, here. Getting to know each other again. Or…at last. What do you say? Give a guy another chance?”
She reached out and took him by the hand. “Only if he gives the girl another chance, too. After all, she screwed up pretty badl—”
He dropped his mouth on hers in a kiss that shoved away all her arguments and reminded her how very human they both were. Flooding back came the memory of loving him that last night together and the way he’d held her until morning. He’d made her feel beautiful and wanted then and his kiss now tasted of hope and possibility. She could hardly believe he’d forgiven her and she wasn’t sure who to thank for that. Frannie? Her lucky stars? But none of that mattered. She wouldn’t make the same mistake twice with him. That much she knew.
Between them, the kitten mewled and purred, its little needlelike claws kneading Noah’s chest. “Ow,” he hissed, carefully rearranging the cat while keeping Gemma close.
“She’s just happy,” Gemma explained.
“I can feel that,” he said, grinning.
“Did I mention that I’m in love with you, too?” she whispered against his mouth with a smile.
“I don’t believe you did,” he breathed, in between kissing her again. Finally, he pulled back, touching his forehead to hers. “But since we haven’t formally met, I’m Noah, sometimes known as Eamon and occasionally, and oddly, a sunglasses-wearing starlet named Audrey. But who I really am is somewhere in between those three.”
She laughed. “And I’m Gemma Wade with a ‘D,’” she whispered back. “Girl who’s a sucker for a man with a cat. And I know exactly who you are.”
He smiled against her mouth, kissing her deeply until all thoughts of articles and secrets disappeared. “Good. Now will you please get in my car? It’s really wet out here.”
She threaded her arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder. “I thought you’d never ask…again.”
Epilogue
A year or so later…
A month before their wedding on the shores of the Pacific, with family and friends surrounding them, that house they’d rented on Bainbridge Island had officially become theirs. There they’d welcomed all of the brothers and made room for his family, too, for the wedding. This place that had served as their beginning was home to them for good now. From the newly finished dock, Noah looked back, admiring it. He could hardly believe that this was his life. His and Gemma’s. Built sometime in the last century, the house’s clapboard sides and shake roof reminded him of New England, as did the twenty-five-foot sailboat they had docked there for the summer. For the first time in his life, he felt like he belonged.
The months they’d spent in this house had been some of the best in his life and each day, he’d fallen more deeply in love with her than the last. For two outsiders who’d never imagined the other side of the glass, they’d done pretty well.
Up the hill, the door to the house opened and Gemma emerged, arms filled with supplies for the day trip up the coast. At her ankles, the black cat—who’d been officially named Cat-trina—wound precariously through Gemma’s legs, threatening to trip her, then trotted ahead quickly down to the boat and hopped aboard as if she owned the place. The cat had grown sleek and beautiful, as comfortable on the boat as she was on land. Noah strapped on her miniature life jacket, which she tolerated, barely. Black as the night sky with eyes the color of the sea, Cat-trina was a fierce little force of nature that had spilled into their lives that day in Seattle and never left.
She’d even adjusted to the major renovation they’d undertaken on their new house. The dust and noise generally made her curious not scared. Typical.
Today was a much-needed break from both work and the dust of construction for both of them. Gemma still wrote a column for the paper, but worked from home mostly. In her spare time, she’d begun that novel she’d always wanted to write. And Noah had moved the offices of the family’s Connelly Foundation to Seattle where he was a ferry ride away from home. Six months ago, he’d given up running his father’s company to his sister and his mother and a cousin who’d been hungry for that opportunity. Work suited him now, and occasionally, took him and Gemma traveling around the world.
“I think I’ve got everything,” Gemma said, handing him the cooler and beach towels, her arms still full of miscellaneous other surprises she’d brought along for the trip.
“You do realize we’re only going for the day?” he said, helping her into the boat.
“Of course. Better safe than sorry, I say.”
“Which is only part of why I love you,” he said, kissing her as she slid past.
She laughed and set the other things down on the benched seat along the rail. “For my organizational skills?”
“For always planning for our future,” he said.
She loosened the ropes, untying the boat from the dock with a smile. “Oh, I’m on it.”
He started the motor that would put them safely into the inlet, and guided the boat away from the dock. The cat stretched out in her favorite spot on the bow, soaking up rays and kneading the air with her claws.
Once in deep water, Noah raised the sails and inhaled the fresh, salty air. It seemed hard to believe that little more than a year ago, his life hadn’t looked anything like this at all. Every good change had sprung from her. Every nuance in his life that had shifted forward toward happiness was because of her. He could hardly reconcile how he’d gotten so lucky. Somewhere, somehow, he must have done something right.
When they reached the break, Noah steered the boat up the coast, skimming the shoreline as gulls swooped across their bow, taunting
the cat. Gemma, who’d been in the galley settling things reappeared with a beer for him and a ginger ale for herself. She’d changed into her bathing suit and a melon-colored cover-up.
“Here’s to days on the ocean and overpacking,” she said, clinking her can with his.
“To many, many more of those,” he agreed. “We low on beer? You don’t even like soda.”
“No,” she said. “There’s plenty of beer. I just can’t drink it.”
He sent her a curious look. “Worried we’ll need a designated driver? I’m only gonna have one.”
“No, silly. I’m a little queasy today, is all.”
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me? We could have canceled. And you never get seasick.”
“I’m not seasick,” she said, as the cat climbed onto her lap for a rub. “I’m more…intermittently nauseous.”
Now he was concerned. “I’m turning the boat around.”
“No…” she said. “That’s not necessary. It won’t make a bit of difference where I am. And it’s such a beautiful day.”
She hadn’t said a thing about feeling sick before they’d left. They’d planned on meeting some friends up the coast to take them out sailing for the day. But now he wondered if he should call them to cancel.
She sat next to Cat-rina on the azure cushions and sipped her soda, watching the ocean slide by. Wind whipped the sails taut and he cut through the waves to catch it.
“Holly and Trey invited us to Amelia’s first birthday,” she told him. “I think we should go.”
They had, in fact, met Holly’s new daughter soon after her birth, when the draw of Marietta had enticed them back in the fall. She was a beautiful child with curly dark hair and blue, blue eyes. She looked like a mini-Holly. “Since they named us honorary godparents, how can we refuse?” All of the brothers had fallen into that category, after Mick, who held the official spot.
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