“No. That conference call ended earlier than I thought it would.” Ray pulled a clipboard from the rack and scanned it. A woman by the name of Ashley Ryan had signed up for the boat tour at eleven. He checked his watch and noted he had a full hour before she arrived. “I’m going over to Smithy’s Tackle Shop to get a rod tip replacement and will be back in a minute.”
“Sure thing, Ray.”
A few minutes later Ray was standing in the checkout line behind a family of four. It was obvious the couple had no control over their two young sons under the age of five, who were horseplaying around. Already the boys had knocked over a display of tackle boxes, and from the expression on Smithy’s face, Ray could tell the man was ready to finalize their purchase and get them out the store before the kids could do any more damage.
Ray switched his gaze away from Smithy to glance out the window, and suddenly his breath was snatched from his lungs. A woman had paused on the boardwalk to read one of the markers. The first thought that came to his mind was that she was beautiful. Even with a baseball cap on her head, she looked good with shoulder-length hair and striking features on tawny brown skin.
This wasn’t the first time a woman had caught his attention. After all, he was a man, memory or no memory. However, this was the first time a woman had stirred this strong a reaction within him. A deep attraction. Sadly it was an attraction that couldn’t go anywhere.
“That’s all for you, Ray?”
Ray turned his attention back to Smithy. “Yes, that’s all,” he said, placing the rod tip kit on the counter. “Looks like you’ve been busy this morning.”
“I was. However, I’m glad that couple took their kids out the store before they caused more damage. Those kids tossed all my bits out that basket onto the floor and those people didn’t say anything.”
Ray shook his head. “I noticed.”
“I don’t know why some people don’t make their kids behave. If one of mine had acted that way when they were young, I would have taken a strap to them.”
Ray knew Smithy’s kids, a boy and a girl, who were in high school. They worked with him at the tackle shop on the weekends and both seemed to be good kids. Very respectful to adults.
A short while later he left the tackle shop and was headed back across the walkway to the docks. He glanced ahead and saw the woman. The one he’d noticed earlier. At that moment he saw something else. Those two kids had gotten away from their parents and were running ahead, tearing through the crowd, not caring who or what was in their way. Up ahead was a group of teens headed toward them on skateboards. In order to avoid hitting the kids they would have to swerve to the right. If they went to the left they would crash into one of the buildings. To go right meant colliding with a woman who had paused at the edge of the boardwalk—the section not protected by a railing—to look down into the water.
He knew what was about to happen and shouted, “Hey, lady, look out!”
Instead of getting out the way, she snapped her head around and looked at him just seconds before the group of boys on skateboards tore past her like a mighty whirling tornado, causing her to lose her balance and tumble into the ocean waters.
Not knowing whether she could swim, Ray raced to where the woman had fallen in. He glanced down to search the waters and didn’t see her anywhere. Tossing aside the bag from Smithy’s, he kicked off his shoes, snatched his T-shirt over his head and tossed his cell phone on top of the pile, before diving into the water after her.
* * *
IS THIS WHAT dying feels like?
The cold water surrounded Ashley, pulling her deep. Still too stunned by the apparition of her husband, she made no move to reach for the surface. And he’d called out to her. She wasn’t sure what he’d said but hearing the sound of Devon’s voice was what had made her turn. She’d looked right into his face just seconds before losing her balance to tumble into the rough waters. Was she meant to take her last breath under water like he’d done?
Suddenly she felt someone catch her around the waist to tug her back to the surface. Why was she being saved when she was supposed to die this way? If she wasn’t supposed to die this way, then why had she seen Devon?
Ashley felt her body being turned and she realized she was no longer under the water but was on her back with the sun shining down bright on her face. She felt herself gliding through the water and then being tugged out of it.
Unable to open her eyes, she felt a hard surface at her back. She heard someone shout that help had been called just moments before warm lips were placed over her mouth while someone was pinching her nose and breathing air into her lungs.
And then she heard that voice again. Devon’s voice. He sounded angry and he was demanding her to breathe. If she began breathing, did that mean she would be joining him, wherever he was? She tried opening her eyes but couldn’t. It was as if something heavy was weighing her eyelids down. Nor could she breathe like Devon wanted her to do. Her body felt full, tight, almost lifeless. Then suddenly warm lips were placed over hers again, and she immediately recognized them as Devon’s lips. And he was pinching her nose again while forcing deep gulps of his breath into her lungs.
* * *
“BREATHE, DAMMIT,” RAY demanded as he repeated the process, attempting to force air past any blockage in the woman’s passageway and lungs. He then put his ear near her mouth while watching her chest for any sign of breathing.
He didn’t see any movement and quickly began the process again, ignoring the crowd that had gathered around them. After a few more tries, Ray was relieved when the woman began coughing up water and then breathing.
The crowd of people around them cheered. Thank God, he thought. Obviously she couldn’t swim because she hadn’t put up a fight against the water. He prayed that help arrived soon. Catalina Cove had one fire department and a hospital.
The woman stopped coughing and slowly opened her eyes and stared at him. She then tried moving her mouth. “Don’t try talking, ma’am. Help is on the way.”
Ray noticed the woman was looking at him strangely. “You fell into the water,” he said, not sure if she was confused about what had happened.
She kept looking at him and he figured the woman was in shock. It was understandable if she was. Although she hadn’t been in the water that long, she’d managed to get a lot of water in her lungs. He glanced around. The skateboarders were there with petrified looks on their faces, but the couple with those misbehaving kids was nowhere to be found. Go figure.
He glanced back down at the woman who was still staring at him. He had checked her head earlier and hadn’t seen where she might have hit it, but still, she needed medical help. What was taking the paramedics so long to get here?
Ray studied the features looking back at him. Even after her ordeal in the water she was totally wet but still beautiful. He saw the wedding ring on her finger. She wasn’t anyone from the cove, he was certain of it, and figured she was probably a visitor in town. Was her husband in the cove with her?
“Coming through!”
He heard the paramedics. Great! They were finally there. “What happened?” one of the paramedics asked, although Ray thought it was pretty damn obvious.
“A couple of kids racing around on the boardwalk caused the skateboarders to swerve to avoid hitting them. Made this woman lose her balance and tumble into the water. I dived in and pulled her out—she wasn’t in the water long,” he said, making a move to get out the way to let the paramedics take over.
The woman grabbed hold of his arm. “Don’t go,” she whispered in a hoarse, barely audible voice.
He looked down on the hand holding his arm and then gazed back at her. “Is there someone I can call, ma’am? Your husband?”
He saw something flash in her eyes, and instead of answering, she said with choppy breath, “Please. Don’t go.”
He figured she was still in some sembl
ance of shock. Instead of disengaging her hand from his arm, he shifted positions where the paramedics could check on her without being in their way. Even when they pulled her up in a sitting position, she held tight to his arm and continued to stare at him.
“Ma’am,” one of the paramedics said. “Do you know who you are?”
Without taking her gaze off Ray, the woman nodded a slow affirmative before saying in a hoarse voice, “Ashley Ryan.”
Ray heard her and immediately remembered the name. Ashley Ryan was on his log to take the boat tour at eleven. He also knew she’d been one of Vashti’s referrals, which meant she was staying at Shelby by the Sea.
“Ma’am, is there someone here in the cove with you? Someone we should call? Your husband?” the paramedic asked.
She shook her head no.
Ray wondered why she was still staring at him that way.
“As a precaution, we need to take you to the hospital so they can check you over.”
She finally broke eye contact with Ray to look at the paramedic and then shook her head furiously. “No hospital,” she said, forcing the words out in a breathless rush.
“You do need to let them take you to the hospital, ma’am,” Ray decided to speak up and say.
She switched her gaze from the paramedic and back to him. Tightening her grip on his arm, in a low voice she asked, “You’ll go with me? Please.”
Ray was surprised by her question and hesitated a minute before saying, “Yes, I’ll go to the hospital with you.”
Satisfied, she released his arm.
“Here’s your shirt, Ray.”
“Thanks.” Someone handed him his T-shirt and he turned to put it on. Then someone else handed him his shoes and cell phone. He stood and got out the paramedics’ way, keeping his eyes on the woman whose eyes were now closed.
He pulled out his cell phone, called Shelby by the Sea and told Vashti what had happened. He then called Tyler to tell him what had happened as well and to handle things with the tours because Ray was on his way to the hospital with the woman who’d been their eleven o’clock customer.
CHAPTER FOUR
ASHLEY HEARD THE movements just seconds before she heard the voices, a masculine voice and then a feminine one.
“How is she, Nurse Corker?”
“Resting comfortably, Dr. Frazier.”
She then heard papers shifting right before the masculine voice asked, “I understand she was pulled from the water unresponsive.”
“Yes, and after several attempts she was revived.”
Then the room got quiet again as if the doctor and the nurse had left. Ashley wasn’t sure the amount of time that had passed before she knew the two people had returned. She wanted to open her eyes but couldn’t find the strength to do so just yet. Then suddenly what had been said earlier came back to her, nearly shocking her brain in the process.
She recalled Devon’s voice telling her to look out. Then she’d seen him just seconds before she’d lost her balance to tumble into the murky waters of the cove. Devon’s ghost had been a sign that her life was about to end, and that her husband had come for her to join him. Ashley had discovered she was fine with that because all she’d done for the past three years was grieve his death.
Then suddenly she’d gotten pulled out the water and the man who’d saved her had been Devon. She remembered and knew for a fact she hadn’t been hallucinating. Devon had come back from the dead and was walking among the living. Suddenly she felt a pain in her head at the thought of something so preposterous.
“Ms. Ryan, I’m Dr. Frazier. Can you hear me?”
Ashley slowly opened her eyes and was nearly blinded by the brightness of the hospital lights. She quickly closed her eyes, and when she reopened them it was to stare into the face of the man towering over her.
“Ms. Ryan, can you hear me?”
She forced her mouth to move. “Yes.”
“Do you know where you are?” Dr. Frazier asked her.
“Yes.”
But her mind was still on Devon. He was alive.
After being revived on the boardwalk, she’d opened her eyes and looked into his face, and she knew it wasn’t the trauma of hitting the water. When he’d put on his T-shirt, she’d seen his tattoo—the word sunflower written in script by his shoulder blade. Instead of the word, she had a design of a sunflower on her hip. Seeing that tattoo had been the confirmation she hadn’t been hallucinating.
So why hadn’t he recognized her when she clearly recognized him? Granted, he had a beard, looked a bit more rugged, his nose looked like it had gotten broken, and because his skin had darkened some, it was apparent he spent more time out in the sun. But she would recognize her husband anywhere. In fact, all those changes in his features made him even more handsome. Nothing could erase those gorgeous bedroom brown eyes, the sensual shape of his mouth and the deep, husky tenor of his voice.
“Ms. Ryan?”
The concerned look in the doctor’s eyes gave her pause and she knew she needed to pay attention to whatever the doctor was asking her. “Could you repeat that?” she asked him.
He nodded. “Do you remember falling into the water off the boardwalk?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Do you remember being revived?”
“Yes.” She definitely remembered that part and had known the exact moment Devon had placed his mouth over hers to force air into her lungs.
“You were pulled from the water unresponsive. The man who rescued you is Ray Sullivan. He owns the boat touring company here, Ray’s Tours.”
Ray’s Tours? That was where she’d been headed for a two-hour tour around the cove. She didn’t care what the man called himself, she was convinced he was Devon. “Where did he come from?”
Dr. Frazier lifted a brow. “Who? Ray?”
When she nodded, he said, “Lucky for you, he was on the boardwalk and went into action the moment he saw you fall in the water.”
Ashley let out a frustrated breath. That wasn’t an answer to the question she’d asked. Before she could rephrase the question, the doctor said, “I’m admitting you overnight and if you do okay you can leave tomorrow.”
Her brows shot up. “Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Because of the amount of water that got into your lungs, we need to observe you for the next twenty-four hours.”
She swallowed. “I need to see him. Ray Sullivan.”
The doctor smiled. “You can thank him for saving your life later. Right now I need to get you over to the radiology department for a chest X-ray. Afterward, you will be assigned to a room.”
Before she could say anything else, the doctor was gone, leaving her with the nurse, who smiled over at her. “Hi. I’m Paula Corker. I need to take your vitals.”
Ashley nodded and then said, “I want to see the man called Ray Sullivan.”
The nurse, who looked to be in her midtwenties, gave her a dreamy look, grinned and said, “Hey, don’t we all? There’s a slew of women who would have loved to have gotten rescued by him. But on a serious note, he’s really concerned about you. Last time I looked he was still in the waiting room, awaiting word on your condition.”
Devon was still at the hospital? Would he try to explain why he’d faked his death? Why he was pretending not to know her? The shock of seeing him hadn’t completely worn off but she was trying to deal with it as best she could without getting hysterical.
“Your pressure is up a little,” the nurse said after taking her blood pressure.
That was no surprise there, Ashley thought, not knowing how to stay calm while dealing with the magnitude of emotions she felt. Happiness, confusion, anger and shock. She then asked the nurse the same question she’d asked the doctor earlier, hoping for a different response. “Where did he come from?”
Paula glanced over at her. “Ray?”
Ashley nodded.
“Like Dr. Frazier told you,” Paula said, checking her pulse. “He was on the boardwalk and saw you fall in, and it’s a good thing he did. For years we’ve tried to get the mayor to put a rail up. You might want to sue. That would get their attention. You being a tourist and all.”
Ashley didn’t want to sue. What she wanted was answers, and she decided to rephrase her question. “Has he always lived in the cove?”
The perky nurse scrunched up her forehead as if she was in deep thought trying to remember. “Umm, Ray moved here a little over three years ago. Not sure where he came from but he’s good friends with Kaegan Chambray, who owns the shipping company here. I think they were military buddies. Ray’s also good friends with Sheriff Grisham.”
Ashley didn’t say anything for a minute, and then she asked, “Is he married?” She hadn’t even looked at his ring finger.
“No, he’s divorced, but just a little warning. I wouldn’t get my hopes up about him if I were you, no matter how much concern he’s showing toward you.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because Ray’s a loner and doesn’t date. Trust me, a number of women have tried seducing him, and they have all failed,” Paula said, grinning.
Ashley wondered if Paula was one of those women, and as if Paula read her mind, she said, “It’s a good thing I married Alan right out of high school. My hubby is the love of my life, so I was never caught up in all the single ladies vying for Ray’s attention. Right now, he and Kaegan are the two most eligible bachelors in town, now that the sheriff has gotten married.”
Forget Me Not Page 4
