by Terri Osburn
Randy let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Then what is it?” he asked. “Why was she screaming like that?”
Joe leaned back in his chair. “We’re going to have a baby.”
CHAPTER 3
I can’t believe it,” Will muttered for the third time in the last hour. Maybe the fourth. “Did you see that coming?” she asked Sid, who was sitting to her left and staring at her beer bottle.
Sid shook her head. “Nope. Not at all.”
The party, though it was more subdued than the word implied, had returned to Dempsey’s without Joe and Beth. Beth had been given strict orders to put her feet up and get plenty of rest. Her blood pressure had been through the roof, which had stressed the baby, forcing the little bugger to make his irritation known. Or her irritation. Too early to tell on that one.
So strange. A baby.
“Why do you all look like this is the end of the world?” Randy asked. “She’s having a baby, not carrying the plague.”
“Mom and Dad will be home tomorrow,” Lucas said, returning to the table after calling his parents to share the news. “I told Mom that Beth and Joe wouldn’t want them to cut their vacation short, but I think she started packing their suitcases the moment I said ‘baby.’”
Relief fluttered through Will. The Dempseys’ return meant she wouldn’t have to handle the reporter in regards to the restaurant. A selfish thought considering why they were coming back, but a relief nonetheless.
“So much for a surprise birthday party,” Lucas added, spinning a chair next to Sid, then straddling it. “Beth pulled out a bigger surprise than anyone planned.”
Will agreed with that. But she agreed with Randy, too. “It’s still Sid’s birthday,” she said. “And Randy is right. This isn’t bad news. We should be happy for them.”
Randy raised a brow in her direction, as if surprised she’d agreed with him. She didn’t have to want him near her to admit he was right.
“I wonder if Beth is happy about it,” Lucas said. “Joe looked scared shitless. Think Beth is doing any better?”
Will knew how she’d feel if she were faced with a surprise pregnancy, but then again she wasn’t mere weeks away from marrying the man of her dreams. And even if she was, Will being in the family way would be a modern medical miracle now.
“She told me last summer that they weren’t having kids for a while.” Sid dropped her head onto Lucas’s shoulder. “Goes to show. Never tempt fate by saying shit like that.”
Randy chuckled. “Well, I’m happy for them. Once the shock wears off, they’ll see things in a better light.”
Easy for Randy to say. He wasn’t the one whose life was about to change.
“A new Dempsey.” Lucas shook his head, a grin teasing one corner of his mouth. “I guess it’s about time. Joe isn’t getting any younger, after all.”
“Watch it, pretty boy,” Randy said. “I’m older than Joe.”
“That’s what you could give me for my birthday,” Sid said, smiling for the first time since they’d left the clinic.
“What?” her brother asked.
“A niece or nephew.”
Lucas had made the mistake of taking a drink while Sid was talking. Will got a shower of diet soda.
“Hey!”
“Sorry,” Lucas muttered, trying to wipe his mouth and hold back the laughter at the same time.
Randy flicked Sid in the forehead. Sid tried to flick him back, but he stiff-armed her with a hand on the top of her head.
“Knock it off before I end up wearing another drink,” Will scolded, but couldn’t ignore the pang of jealousy. She’d never had a sibling. Hadn’t even grown up with cousins. It would be nice to have a family, even if only to have forehead flicking contests.
“Come on, badass,” Lucas said, rising from his chair and plucking Sid from her seat. “I’m saving you from an ass kicking, Randy. I hope you appreciate this.”
The large man gave a quick smile, and Will’s chest tightened. The reaction took her off balance. He was still the man who’d ripped into her the day before. She and her libido needed to have a chat.
“Don’t forget the presents and cards,” Will said. “Daisy collected them behind the bar.” There had been no time to pass the word that the party was cancelled, so Daisy had let people know as they arrived. Will got up to get the gifts, but Lucas stopped her.
“Relax,” he said. “We’ll get them.”
“Speaking of presents,” Sid said, turning to Lucas. “What did you get me?”
The look that crossed Lucas’s face qualified as too much information even before he spoke the words. “I hid your present in the bedroom. It could take us all night to find it.”
Sid turned an uncharacteristic shade of pink. “Then we’d better hurry home.” Putting words into action, she tugged Lucas hard enough to knock a lesser man off his feet. From then on, the two might as well have been alone for all the attention they paid to anyone else.
“They make a cute couple,” Will said, watching the tall, handsome lawyer juggle the presents his tiny fiancée was piling in his arms. “Disgustingly mushy, but cute.”
Randy crossed his arms, his eyes watching the same spectacle. “Hard to tell, but he’s softening her up. I wasn’t sure he had it in him for a while there.”
Will took the opportunity to ask something she’d been curious about for months. “Last summer, when Lucas first came back. It was you who told him that Sid liked to run on the beach, wasn’t it?”
He looked surprised and a bit guilty. “A little nudge never hurts,” was all he said.
Rubbing a fingernail along a rough spot on the table, Will waited for the tension to squeeze her gut. The feeling she always had around Randy, as if she were being suffocated and needed to get away to breathe again.
She wouldn’t say she felt comfortable, but she wasn’t choking for air either.
Damn it. If she let herself like him…
“You were good earlier,” he said, jerking Will from her thoughts. “When Beth got sick. I was worried at first, when you froze.”
She had frozen. Not because she wasn’t good in a crisis. That had never been a problem for Will. The reaction had stemmed from the realization of how scared she was for her friend. How much she cared about Beth. Will hadn’t let herself care that much about anyone in a long time.
“You were the one who held it together like a pro,” she said, opting to deflect the topic away from herself. “Have you done rescue work or something?”
“When you spend your life walking on the edge, you learn how to handle stress and stay calm.” Randy lifted one shoulder. “To some it looks like adrenaline junkies are always flying by the seat of our pants, but that’s not the case. It’s not luck or skill alone that’s kept me alive this long. It’s brains, presence of mind, and being able to process a situation in seconds.”
Will had never thought much about how adrenaline junkies must think, but what Randy described was very close to how she’d been living for the past few years. A life on the edge, always worried someone might recognize her, learn her secret. The remote nature of Anchor had allowed her to relax a bit, but now that security was being threatened by the magazine coverage.
Time to go back on alert, and be prepared to move on if necessary.
“Guess I’d better go.” Randy pushed his chair back and rose to his feet, a shadow falling across the table as if something enormous had risen from the sea.
Will rose with him. She needed to get back behind the bar. “Here’s hoping we don’t get any more surprises like this one for a while.”
“Hey,” Randy said, pausing until she made eye contact. “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For not making me feel like a leper for once.” Will didn’t know what to say to that, so she remained silent. “You have a good night,” he said, then flashed the smile that did stupid things to her brain.
As Randy walked away, Will’s heart beat double time. That w
as supposed to happen when he walked into a room, not out of it. Time to resurrect the roadblocks. Going soft over Randy Navarro was a complication Will could not afford. Her life was already complicated enough.
The lunch crowd had dwindled to less than a dozen by mid-afternoon on Monday. With a good ninety minutes of peace before the dinner service started, Will took the opportunity to do a readout on the register.
The totals looked better than she’d expected. A good sign for the season to come. She was jotting down the numbers in the notebook she’d been keeping for end-of-the-week analysis when two strangers stepped up to the bar.
A petite blonde with a clear presence about her climbed onto a bar stool. A man with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail sat down beside her, his nose in his cell phone.
“I can’t get a signal,” the man said, holding the phone in the air over his head and squinting at the screen.
“There’s no cell service on the island,” Will informed him. One of Anchor’s best features, in her opinion. “What can I get you?”
Mr. Cell Phone looked stunned, while the blonde turned in her seat to examine the back half of the dining room. “Did you say no cell phone service?” Ice-blue eyes stared in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right? Even third world countries have cell service.”
Will flashed her tourist-welcoming smile. “Afraid not.”
“That’s it, Becks,” he said in a crisp British accent as he set a small black duffel on the stool beside him. “We’ve finally reached the end of the world.”
Wisps of light brown hair danced around a narrow face that could be described as feminine if it weren’t for the scruff along his chin. The man wore a dark green corduroy jacket with a gray scarf wrapped around his neck. Everything about him said “world traveler.” Not the typical Anchor tourist by far.
“Sorry,” Will apologized, not sure what else to say. “We do have internet. In some places.” She didn’t want to imply Dempsey’s offered free Wi-Fi, but she was certain wherever they were staying would have it.
“Well, bully for you.” The comeback would have been rude if it hadn’t been said with that lovely lilt and accompanied by a charming smile.
“Relax, Jude,” said the Becks person. “You’ll survive one week without your phone.” Addressing Will, she said, “I’ll take a green tea if you have it.”
“Coming right up.” Will turned to Jude. “And you?”
He perused the area behind the bar, his eyes practically glowing when he spotted the list of imported beers. “I see you becoming my favorite person this week, love. Slide me over a Samuel Smith, if you please.”
Will filled the order, setting both bottles before her patrons. “Safe to say you’ve just arrived?” she asked.
“Fresh off the boat,” Becks answered, flashing pearly whites that must have cost her a fortune. Hazel eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen you somewhere before. Have we met?”
That question always put Will on edge, but she was certain she’d remember a striking blonde with the name Becks. “Don’t think so.”
“Have you done any modeling?”
Will snorted, then looked up and realized the woman was serious. “No, I’ve never modeled.” What the hell would she model? Restaurant aprons?
“Really?” The woman stood on the step of her stool to see the rest of Will. “You’ve got the height for it. And lots of agencies are looking for women with hips now.”
Somehow that didn’t feel like a compliment. Will turned around to grab a glass off the back counter and checked out her hips in the mirror behind the bar. They weren’t that wide.
“Your hips are lovely, my dear,” Jude said. “Don’t mind Becks here. She lacks a bit of tact.”
“I know I’ve seen that face before,” Becks said, ignoring her friend. “Where are you from?”
Will never answered that one. “Here and there.” Tossing the cap from Jude’s beer, she asked, “You two want to start a tab?”
“Hell yes,” Jude said, lifting his bottle in salute. “I’m going to need lots of these to get through a week with no cell phone.”
Becks continued to pretend her friend didn’t exist. “How long have you been on Anchor?”
Seemed a harmless one. “Little over a year.” Switching to sales mode, Will gave her best pitch. “You won’t find better food anywhere on the island than right here at Dempsey’s. You two want to try an appetizer?”
“I could eat,” Jude said, then asked, “Where’s the loo, darling?”
“Far right corner,” Will answered, nodding her head in that direction. Placing a menu on the bar, she addressed the blonde as Jude took his bag and crossed the dining room. “The steamed mussels are amazing.”
“You really do look familiar,” Becks said, accepting the menu. “I know I sound crazy at this point, but are you sure there isn’t anywhere I could have seen your face before? I spend most of my time in Boston. Have you ever worked there?”
Will always knew this day might come. Was surprised it hadn’t happened before now. Three years ago her face had been plastered on flyers, as well as flashed across the evening news, all over New England. But mostly in Boston.
“Nope. Must be someone who looks like me.” Using all her energy to tamp down the panic charging through her system, Will grabbed a half-empty bag of bottles from the recycle bin. “I need to take these out.”
Charging through the kitchen, she swung open the back door and tossed the bag into the large blue Dumpster. Instead of returning to the kitchen, she ditched into the office to think through her next move. Only she’d forgotten Patty was in there catching up on paperwork. She and Tom had returned the day before, having driven all day Saturday to arrive on Sunday.
“How’s it going out there?” Patty asked, peering over her reading glasses.
“Good,” Will said, her voice higher than intended. She cleared her throat. “It’s fine. The lunch crowd was good for a Monday.”
I may have to leave town, she thought.
“Good to hear.” Patty laid down the bank statement in her hand and looked back to the computer screen. “You did an amazing job with the accounting system while we were gone. Where did you learn to keep books like this?”
“Just picked it up as I’ve moved around.” The lie tasted bitter on her tongue. “I’d better get back out there.”
“Tom will be in around five to relieve you.” Patty removed her reading glasses. “Will, we really appreciate all the work you’ve put in for us. I don’t know how we ever got along without you.”
Great. That would make cutting out without warning even harder.
“I’m happy to help,” she said, exiting the office, then leaning her back against the cold metal door of the walk-in.
Maybe Becks wouldn’t remember. Maybe she hadn’t seen the ads listing Will as a missing person. Not that those ads identified her by the name Will. After three deep breaths, she forced her heart rate to slow. There was no reason to jump to conclusions. So she looked familiar. That sort of thing happened all the time.
One more deep breath and Will felt in control again. Stepping out of the kitchen, she was greeted by Jude’s broad smile.
“Becks here says you recommend the mussels. We’ll take an order, and load me up with another beer, would you?”
“I can do that.” Keying the order into the system, Will used the bar mirror to survey the pair.
Becks, a hazel-eyed blonde dressed like something straight out of a fashion magazine, looked like one of those women who could get dressed with her eyes closed and still come out looking trendy. Hardly the type to play tourist on their tiny speck of sand. At one mile long and two miles wide, with no chains or franchise businesses of any kind, Anchor drew families, baby boomers looking for hokey fun and good fishing, and the occasional college crowd.
Upper-crust twentysomethings like Becks and Jude seemed more the big city type. Manhattan, Paris, or London. So what had brought them to the bottom of the Outer Banks?
Ge
orgette appeared at the end of the bar, turned in a drink order, then returned to the floor. Will filled the order, lined the drinks on the bar for Georgette, then opted to remain at the far end until the appetizer showed up in the window.
After the order was filled and she’d set the basket of mussels, two plates, and silverware in front of them, Becks asked, “What sights would you recommend to tourists around here?”
The safer topic let Will breathe easier. “One of the biggest draws is the lighthouse. It’s out at the end of Lighthouse Road on the southwest corner of the island.”
To Will’s surprise, Becks was taking notes. “Right. What else?”
“Oh, um.” Will scratched her head. “There’s wild horses, the preservation museum, and the beaches.”
The pen moved furiously across the notepad. “Good. That gives us someplace to start.” Becks elbowed Jude. “Why don’t you take a picture of our lovely bartender here? She’s like the island welcoming committee. We definitely need her picture.”
Jude dropped a half-eaten mussel and wiped his hands on a napkin. “Excellent idea.” He pulled a very professional-looking camera from his case. “Smile, darling.”
The flash blinded Will before she had time to react.
“There,” Jude said, setting the camera next to his plate. “Perfect start to this assignment.”
“Assignment?” Will asked, her heart beating as if it were pumping tar instead of blood. “You’re not from—”
“Prime Destinations magazine,” Becks said, extending a hand. “Rebecca King, at your service.”
A gray haze danced around the edges of Will’s vision. “Will Parsons,” she muttered, her brain running on autopilot as she took the offered hand. “Nice to meet you.”
CHAPTER 4
When Randy answered the phone in his office at the fitness center, the last thing he expected to hear was Will’s voice.
“Get over here now,” she’d said in a near whisper, then the line went dead.
If his caller ID hadn’t revealed that the call came from Dempsey’s, he might not have known where here was. His first thought was Beth, but Will would have given more details if there was another medical emergency. Whatever it was, her voice carried enough urgency to get him on the road.
