by MK Meredith
Bel hesitated, distracted by the shadow of his solid muscles clearly outlined through the light-colored swim shirt that seemed to be painted onto his skin. Clearing her throat, she tried to remember the question. “My seminar. Yes, the reason we're out here in the first place.”
She narrowed her eyes in thought. It wasn't easy to accurately express the importance. The truth was it was more than just the average educational class on love—it was everything she wanted but knew she'd never find, and essentially, it was her hopes and dreams.
It would be her mark.
Her dad had found his as a mentor and leader of Pepperdine. Everyone knew DC. Her brother had found his purpose helping people escape the pressures of life even from the comfort of their home. As for her? Well, her true calling would be to help people understand love so that when they did find it, they’d be better equipped to handle it.
But she couldn't say all that to him. Something held her back.
“You know my seminar’s about love. It’s my focus.”
He handed her a wet suit, and she worked on slipping it on.
“Not only are there different kinds of love, but within that love, there are different levels.” She followed along, placing her feet in the footprints he left behind, reveling at how big his feet were.
She almost stumbled at the thought and forced her eyes to focus on the horizon.
“It’s more than just an emotion. It’s chemical…science.”
He stopped and studied her, his gaze intense.
She was suddenly aware that not only was she in a wet suit, she was in the water. “Oh, you're sneaky.”
He walked alongside the board, then helped her slide on to straddle the board. “There's nothing sneaky about it, Bel. When I'm out on a location scout, I have to be willing to check out a few places that may not necessarily be where I want to go. But for the right movie, the right story…the right motivation guides me there every time. Stepping out of your comfort zone isn't about being a rebel or a risk-taker but finding your own story.”
“Yeah, well, I can find my story just fine sitting behind my desk, thank you very much.”
He didn't answer.
Annoyed, she glanced over at him, surprised to see him about twenty feet away, holding a long rope.
“Maybe so, but then you'd miss out on something like this.”
Her heart hammered in her chest as she looked out at the endless ocean behind her, then twisted back to gauge the distance between herself and the shore.
With her sharp movement, her board dipped to the side a bit.
Jimmy put his hand up. “Whoa! You can't get off. You're floating over a small reef. Just look beneath you.”
“Pull me back, Jimmy.”
“You’re fine, professor. Just relax, take a deep breath and look along the side of your board.”
The day was bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky. The water was fairly calm, and the combination of the tide flow, ocean current, and her very tenuous tether to land kept her floating in place.
She closed her eyes tightly for a moment, pulling in a breath, then did as he directed. Her stomach rolled with every small wave moving beneath her board, but as her eyes focused beneath her, she sucked in a startled breath.
What appeared to be two different kinds of coral were intimately twined. The only thing that separated one from the other was the difference in color. Both were thriving though they shared practically the same space.
The sunlight bending through the crystal-clear water made it look like it was moving, almost as if in a slow dance.
“This is beautiful.” She glanced up at him.
Suddenly aware of where she was, she looked to the right then left. No one else walked along the beach. “Are we even allowed out here?”
Jimmy's lips curled into a mischievous grin.
As if on cue, a beach patrol came in to view a ways up the beach.
“Oh shit!” She frantically paddled in the water trying to get back to shore, making the board rock precariously.
“Calm the hell down, or you are going to end up in the water and damaging the coral,” Jimmy demanded. “I've got you. “
She was too intent on saving herself to listen.
“Bel!”
His voice cut through her panic, and she froze, staring at him. “I’ve got you.” And with smooth, easy pulls, he brought her to the shore.
She scrambled off as he grabbed the board.
“Let's go,” he said and took off in a quick jog up the beach.
Once they were out of sight and made it back to his bike, he stored the board. Bel rummaged through his storage and grabbed her bag. Not even bothering to remove her wet suit, she unlocked her car, then slid onto her front seat.
Watching over his shoulder for the cop, she gestured for him to hurry. All she needed was a station visit to go on her record at Pepperdine, and she didn’t want him to get into trouble either. “Don't you ever do that to me again!”
In a casual, cocky manner, he lifted his helmet from the handlebars.
She had never liked cocky, so the roll of awareness that moved through her from a simple pitch of his brow was more worrisome than the beach patrol any day of the week.
“Do what? Provide an experience you've never had before? Allow you to see beauty that you would have only ever seen through a photograph?” He stepped into the space of her opened car door, clearly unfazed by the presence of law enforcement, and twirled an errant strand of her hair around his finger before tucking it behind her ear. “Make your heart beat faster than it has in a long time? You feel alive right now, Bel. And you like it. Admit it.”
His voice was low, intimate but demanding. She couldn't tear her gaze away from his mouth as goosebumps raced across her skin at his touch. Every nerve fiber in her being stood at attention, begging for one more look, one more word, one more innocent caress from this man.
For the sake of self-preservation, she would admit no such thing.
“What I’d like is to not get arrested. My job isn’t like your average daily grind. An arrest would end my career.” She swallowed past the lump in her throat. The fact that it was due to his nearness rather than any impending arrest said way more than she was willing to listen to.
Restless, she shoved him back as she got out of the car. With a quick scan of the beach to look for the cop, she paced. “Is this how you live your life? As if the well-being of others doesn’t matter?”
His grin went flat, and his eyes shuttered. Widening his stance, he crossed his arms over his chest. “No, I leave that to you with comments like that.” His voice was gravelly as if dragging through his vocal cords.
Like a warning growl from a wild animal. One she should heed, but damned if something about him didn’t make her a bit reckless.
The very reason she should get in her car and not look back.
“Is this how you want to live your life, Bel? Lashing out and hiding?”
“I do not hide.” Warning be damned, she stepped in front of him, chest to chest.
“No?”
She stepped closer, her breasts lightly grazing the front of his chest, hardening her nipples even through the thick protection of the wet suit. “No.”
His eyes dilated, the growing pupils turning them dark and setting off her adrenaline more than the threat of getting arrested.
The phrase playing with fire never stood a chance when dealing with Jimmy. Every moment with him was like trying to tame a damn inferno.
She licked her lips and caught him as his gaze flicked to follow the movement before meeting her own once again.
Wrapping his strong fingers around her upper arms, he yanked her to him for a brief, delicious second, before placing her right back into her car with a growl.
“This time…you should.”
CHAPTER 5
J immy watched Bel drive away.
The distance made with each passing second left him feeling restless. He shoved his hands in the front pocke
ts of his cargos, pulling in a breath.
Nothing was hotter than the moment she challenged him nose-to-nose.
Holy fuck.
He'd come way too close to kissing her…twice…and though he'd wanted to do it more than he'd wanted to kiss anyone in a long time, this woman in this situation in this point in his life was not the one he should be tasting.
She craved stability, but more than that…she seemed desperate for it.
The patrolman from the beach walked by with a wave, and he returned it.
Bel had thought they were doing something illegal. Damn, could the woman move fast when motivated. She needed someone to shake up her life a bit. Though it saddened him, outside of pushing her into a few adventures that would probably make anybody else yawn, he had no plans of derailing what she wanted in life.
There'd been too much of that going on over the years, starting with Margo and his brother. Jack had had so much potential out of the two of them. There’d been no doubt in anybody's mind that his brother would find a way to break out of the damaging, vicious cycle of foster care.
And he had almost done it, too. Met a beautiful woman, fell in love, had a precious little girl.
On a sigh, Jimmy loaded up the boards and stowed the straps. Pulling his helmet onto his head, he went through his list of to-dos before the sunset. Confident in the direction he was taking Bel’s photos, it was only a small portion of the overall project. None of his work ended by simply clicking a button. The vision had to be there, the right lighting, the right lens, and even after the perfect shot was captured, there was a magic in developing a photograph in a way that magnified the inherent beauty.
Fuck. He scrubbed his hands over the whiskers on his chin. If he wasn't careful, he’d turn into a damn poet.
His phone buzzed in his front pocket. It was Margo.
“Is Cleo okay?” His heart sped up in his chest. The cliché of history repeating itself was a joke when it came to his sister-in-law. The saying implied that there was the possibility of time between events, but with Margo, it seemed almost daily.
The urgency to protect Cleo choked him at times, and he railed against the tethers that kept him from doing more. The rules were there to protect children, but if the adults weren't paying close enough attention, they often resulted in hurting them more.
Margo's voice was panicked, and her words slurred through the line. “I can't find her. She never came home from school. I've called some of her friends, but they haven’t seen her since last block at school.”
An adrenaline surge shot pins and needles through his limbs as he straddled his bike, but it dissolved away as quickly as it had come. With any other kid, he might have panicked. But not Cleo. If she were missing, there was a reason, and the sound of Margo’s voice told him all he needed to know.
“I have a few ideas. I'll get back to you soon. Are you in a safe place?”
She snorted. “Like you care.”
He didn't even bother to answer. No matter how many times he expressed his concern, his sister-in-law always responded to him the same way as if he was the cause of her pain at every turn.
Whatever she needed to tell herself.
He was no saint, but at some point in an adult's life, that moment of growing up needed to happen. Just hadn't for her yet. He wanted to understand; truly he did. She broke after losing Jack, and he got how that felt. But Cleo needed her. That should have been enough to keep her from a deep dive.
Jimmy sped down the Pacific Coast Highway. Leaning into the turns, he was careful not to get too crazy with the trailer behind him. So much for getting any more photos.
He’d learned that when Margo called, the rest of his day would not be his own. He pulled off PCH toward Point Dume Nature Preserve. Jimmy and Jack used to take Cleo there when she was little. They’d tell her silly stories, and man, she’d giggle.
It was a sound he’d fallen in love with the very first time he’d heard it and one he hoped to hear forever.
Over the past year and a half, he had found Cleo sitting there all alone with tears streaming down her face more than once. And his heart broke open a bit more every time.
He grabbed a blanket from the storage bin and, going with the hunch in his gut, made his way along the familiar path.
His time out on the water with Bel had taken longer than expected since the sun was practically kissing the water on the horizon. It had gotten cooler, and a breeze kicked up off the Pacific. He rounded a cluster of cypress trees, listening for any familiar noise over the rumbling waves below.
There she sat.
At the sight of her, his shoulders sagged in relief. He knew she’d be there, but actually seeing her let the rest of his worry wash away with the waves below.
She looked smaller than ever, sitting all alone on the big boulder with her knees pulled up under her chin. As he feared, tears ran down her cheeks, and the crushing weight of guilt made each step that he took a huge effort. Somehow, he pulled himself along and up the small climb.
“It's gotten chilly.”
Cleo started with a sniff and looked up at him. “How’d you know I was here, Uncle Jimmy?”
He ruffled her hair and sank down beside her, draping the blanket around her shoulders. She immediately curled into his side, tucking her chin beneath the blanket.
“I don't know why I asked that. You always find me.”
He pulled her in tighter, resting his chin on top of her head. “And I always will, Clee. Why did you come out here by yourself? Your mom was worried.”
“That's only because that lady is coming to talk to her.”
“What lady is that?” he asked, racking his brain to remember any detail that he might have missed from his past conversations with Margo. She hadn’t mentioned any meeting. Certainly, none that had to do with Cleo.
“I'm not sure, the lady from the state. Mama says we have to be very clean and polite.”
He took a good look at one of her hands, spreading her fingers out wide, then tapped each of her little fingernails set off with a ring of dirt under the nail. “We both know how good you are in that department.”
She giggled, displaying both hands before them for inspection. “I was making salty mud pies at school today during recess.”
“Of course, you were,” he said, chuckling. He dialed Margo's number but got her voicemail. Then a text came through. “Don't bring her here. Now is not a good time.”
With a shake of his head, he shut down the rage burning inside of him and forced a smile on his lips. “Are you hungry?”
Cleo nodded. “But first, tell me a story about you and daddy.”
This was a request that never failed to punch him in the gut but one he promised himself he’d always accept. “What kind of story do you wanna hear about this time?”
“Tell me a good one. Tell me one where you were loved.”
The pain in his chest was suffocating. “You know I love you.”
She glanced up at him. “I know that you love me.” Her words rushed both relief and love through his chest so swiftly that tears stung his eyes, taking him off guard.
It took him three times clearing his throat before he could speak. “Remember when I told you about the Mother of Malibu?”
Cleo nodded. “Yes, she sounds like a movie star.”
Jimmy nodded with a laugh. “You're not wrong, sweetie. She is in a way. So, you know how when you watch a movie you like and it lets you kind of forget things for a second…things that hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Raquel Gallagher is just like that but in person. She met your daddy and me when we were punky boys. We were friends with her sons. She has three, you know, Martin Jr., Liam, and Kyle.”
“Three boys?” Cleo made a face of mock horror, making Jimmy laugh.
It felt good.
“Raquel made the best brownies, and any time we ventured over to their house after school, she’d fill our bellies with them.”
“Daddy liked her?”
“He did, we both did…do. She was the first adult who really seemed to like us.” He studied Cleo and ran a hand down her hair. It was snarled from her day's adventures. “You wanna meet her?”
Cleo’s eyes lit up. “Really?” she whispered.
“Come on.” He grunted as he stood, pulling her up with him and keeping her wrapped in the blanket. “I'm on my bike. I'll take it slow, and you need to hold on tight.”
“You know I will, Uncle Jimmy. I'll never let go.”
And he hoped it was true. He was going to do everything in his power to make her life better, but the road that lay ahead wasn’t an easy one.
And he prayed that no matter what happened, she’d keep holding on.
Bel pulled into Raquel and Martin Gallagher's driveway, pausing for a moment to admire the velvety dark sky lit up by all the stars and a bright wedge of the moon. She'd sworn she saw motorcycle taillights off in the distance but shook the possibility from her head. She had to get Jimmy out of her mind. It was bad enough he was so consuming when he was in front of her.
Her body still buzzed from the moment they'd shared, her lips still tingled at the mere thought of his mouth on hers. It was so ridiculous she wanted to laugh out loud but swallowed it down instead. No reason for everyone else to think she’d gone mad, too.
She hated feeling ridiculous. Ridiculous was the result of chaos and disorganization.
She'd gone home and sifted through her notes on the seminar, readjusting the order of her talk, jotting down some notes on possible ideas, then reviewed her class schedule for the rest of the week. As of a few minutes ago, her kitchen sparkled, her toilet was now scrubbed, and each leaf of every plant had been gently wiped down.
Once everything was in order and she felt calm, she realized she was late meeting up with the girls. It had become a monthly thing, ever since Samantha and Gage had tied the knot.
Their initial situation was a good example of everything she didn't want in her life. A psycho stalker who’d threatened Sam right outside her very own home and a crazy ex-mother-in-law who’d blamed her for every evil her son had committed.
