Home to Stay: Anchor Island 3

by Terri Osburn

  Without having to lay a hand on anyone.

  “That’s right,” Jude said, then he cleared his throat. “We were talking about the article. I thought you were waylaid by that brunette near the door?”

  “Nah,” Randy said, planting his large frame on the stool Will had vacated. “Georgette’s husband works for me. She had a question about the reopen date.” He gave Jude’s shoulder a squeeze, making the smaller man wince.

  Looking to his left, Jude said, “I see that lovely woman from the registration desk at our hotel. Think I’ll go see how she’s doing this evening.”

  Using the tip of his beer bottle to send Will a silent salute, Jude headed across the room.

  Will pinched her lips as tight as she could to keep from telling Randy exactly what she thought about what he’d done to Jude.

  “Could I get one of those green teas, please?” he asked, as if he hadn’t just physically intimidated a man into ending a harmless flirtation.

  So she wasn’t going to take Jude up on what he’d clearly been offering. That didn’t mean Will appreciated Randy taking matters into his own hands.

  Literally.

  “Who do you think you are?” she asked, slamming her rag onto the bar. “You could have hurt him.”

  Randy’s head jerked back. With lowered brows, he asked, “Could have hurt who? Pretty boy over there?”

  “His name is Jude,” Will ground through a clenched jaw. “He was being nice, and you practically knocked his head off.”

  He rested his elbows on the bar, his hands clenched into fists. Will took a step back.

  “From what I heard, he asked if you were willing, as if instead of offering drinks you were offering happy endings. Last I checked, this wasn’t that kind of establishment, and you weren’t that type of woman.”

  “What do you mean that kind of establishment?” she asked, anger moving her forward again. “You mean a bar where people try to pick other people up? That’s exactly what this is.” She felt her temper rising. “And you have no idea what type of woman I am. You don’t know a damn thing about me.”

  “Well not because I don’t want to,” he said, cutting off anything Will was about to say.

  “What?” she asked.

  Randy put his head down and rubbed a line across his forehead. When he looked back up, the brown eyes were softer. “The only reason no one on this island knows much about you is because you won’t let us. You’ve been here a year and we don’t even know where you’re from.”

  Will snatched the rag and wiped up the wet spot Jude’s beer bottle had left behind. “I grew up all over. There isn’t one place I’m from.”

  Randy laid his hands flat on the bar. “You had to graduate from high school somewhere. Where was that?”

  Gnawing her lip, Will shuffled through all the lies and made-up history she’d created over the last three years. Then she told the truth. “Maine. I graduated from high school in Maine.”

  She hadn’t shared a true fact about her past with anyone since the night she left her old life behind. Doing so felt scary and liberating at the same time.

  Randy smiled, awakening the butterflies that had been flitting around her gut a lot in the last week. “I hear it’s beautiful up there.”

  “It is,” she nodded. “You’ve never been?”

  He shook his head. “Not yet. Maybe someday.”

  This was a different kind of flirting. She could laugh off Jude’s charmer attempts. He only wanted to have some fun, not get to know her or learn about her past. The photographer had been harmless, even if he was the person in possession of a single image that could ruin her life.

  No, that picture wasn’t nearly the threat Randy Navarro could be. If she let him.

  “I’ll get you that green tea,” she said.

  “That would be nice, thanks.”

  She stepped toward the mini-cooler near the register, but Randy stopped her, saying, “I really didn’t hurt him. I surprised him is all. I’m not that kind of a guy.”

  Will nodded. “That’s what I keep hearing.”

  “Do you believe it?” he asked, genuine curiosity and a hint of hope in his eyes.

  She opted not to answer and opened the small fridge. “We’re out of the teas up here. I’ll have to get one from the back.”

  Randy had no idea why it mattered so much what Will thought of him. Maybe because he didn’t like how it felt to be feared. The fear brought with it a lack of trust, a belief he was a kind of person that he wasn’t.

  But again, why did it matter? He’d had his share of people who didn’t think much of him. That was part of life. So, why did those people’s opinions not matter, but Will’s did?

  A small voice in the back of his brain whispered it’s because you like her. But that was crazy. The woman had a hair-trigger temper, then swung back to soft and sweet before Randy knew what hit him. She called bullshit anytime she saw it, was more secretive than a CIA agent, and had the bluest eyes he’d ever wanted to fall into.

  He almost laughed at the last thought. Fall into her eyes. What kind of sappy, girly-movie shit was that?

  “Hey there, big guy.” Beth plopped onto the stool beside him. “Drinking alone?”

  “Will went to get me a bottle of green tea.”

  Her nose scrunched up as her lips twisted. “You like that stuff?”

  Randy laughed, feeling his shoulders relax. “It’s good for you.”

  “So is spinach, but I’m not adding it to my diet.” She pointed to her nose. “Couldn’t even be around it right now. Turns out being pregnant intensifies your sense of smell by about a billion percent. And the strangest scents make your stomach roll.”

  “That would suck.” Randy loved a heaping bowl of spinach but kept the fact to himself. “Where’s Joe?”

  Beth sighed. “Parking the car. He insisted I not walk any farther than from the Jeep door to the entrance. I’m surprised he didn’t carry me up the steps.”

  “He’s worried about you.” Randy would likely feel the same way. After watching what the reporter had done to her today, he considered volunteering to help Joe carry the petite woman anywhere she wanted to go. “Does he know what happened today?”

  “What happened today?” Will asked, sliding an open bottle of green tea Randy’s way. “Did you have another episode?”

  Beth shot Randy a dirty look as she answered. “Joe does not know, and I’d appreciate it if you two would keep it to yourselves.”

  “How could I tell him?” Will asked. “I don’t even know what it is yet.”

  Green eyes darted to the door, then Beth leaned in. Will leaned in too, and the scent of lilacs swirled around Randy’s head.

  “That reporter was at Lola’s today. She asked me how I got here. Instead of giving the smart answer, that I’d come here for a vacation”—she poked the bar with one finger—“which would not be a lie, I said I’d come to meet my future in-laws. I don’t even know how it went from there. Her questions were like bullet fire, and I kept taking direct hits until she figured out I’d left one brother for the other.”

  Will jerked upright. “Yikes. It does sound bad when you say it that way.” When Beth shot her a pleading look, she added, “I mean, that’s so annoying of her.”

  “I had to cut off the interview and take Beth outside to get some fresh air.” Randy bumped Beth with his shoulder. “That’s when I told her everything worked out the way it was supposed to, and she shouldn’t be worried about what anyone else thinks.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Will said. “Reporter Rebecca hasn’t started asking about you yet.”

  She was right. Randy had yet to face the firing squad that was Rebecca King’s interview style. At least not on a personal level. She’d asked questions about the island with rapid-fire succession, but not one had been about him personally.

  Maybe she was waiting, looking for a weak spot to attack before she pounced. Or maybe she didn’t find him all that interesting.

  “It’s in
a reporter’s nature to ask questions, right?” He lifted the tea to take a drink. “We only have to make it through a few more days, then she’ll be gone.”

  “Who will be gone?” Joe asked.

  This was beginning to feel like a bad skit.

  “The reporter. Though the photographer is nice,” Beth said. “And kind of cute.” She grinned at Will, as if they were sharing some inside joke. Randy snorted before he could stop himself.

  “I hope that’s not a snort of agreement,” Joe said. “I’ll take a beer, please, Will.” He planted a kiss on Beth’s forehead, then took the stool to her left. “They’ll be out with us tomorrow. My biggest hassle will probably be keeping Sid from throwing her overboard if this reporter lady pisses her off.”

  “She’s going out on the boat? That’s going to make things worse.” Beth said.

  “Why?” Joe took the beer Will slid across the bar.

  Beth dropped her forehead onto the edge of the bar, turning it from side to side. “No no no no no.”

  Randy caught Joe’s questioning look and tried once again to rescue Beth. “Ms. King visited Lola’s today. The subject of Beth originally coming here to meet her future in-laws came up, and the reporter followed the string through to the switch from Lucas to you.”

  “Crime in Italy.” Beth’s head jerked back up. “There is never going to be a good way to tell that story.”

  “Is that what this is about?” Joe said, turning toward Beth as he pulled her chin in his direction. “Are we happy?”

  Beth nodded.

  “Is Lucas happy?”

  “Yes,” she said, sounding like a chastised four-year-old.

  “Is Sid happy?”

  “Disgustingly so,” Will answered for her.

  Joe’s eyes never left Beth’s face. “Nothing else matters then, right?”

  Randy knew agreeing to that one was going to be difficult for a woman used to worrying what people, friend or foe, thought about her. An endearing quality, but a tough burden to carry all the same. Made tougher by marrying a man who didn’t give two shits what anyone thought about him.

  Except the woman he loved.

  Randy looked up to see Will watching the couple intently. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was wishing for something similar. Not what he expected from a woman who worked so hard to be alone.

  Joe dropped a kiss on Beth’s nose, then planted a longer one on her lips. Randy looked down at his tea, feeling like an intruder on an intimate moment. From the corner of his eye, he could see Will had found something else to focus on as well.

  Him.

  When he caught her eye, an attractive blush covered her cheeks.

  If she was thinking what that blush said she was thinking, maybe it was time he put a little more effort into getting to know Willow Parsons.

  CHAPTER 7

  If Joe and Randy weren’t there, I’d have beat that bitch to a pulp and thrown her over the side.”

  Sid had apparently not enjoyed her day on the water with Ms. Rebecca King. Will took a sip of her beer as she watched her friend charge around the pool table to take her next shot. Venting about her afternoon on the water with the not-so-popular reporter didn’t seem to be hindering her concentration, as she sank two more balls in rapid succession.

  “I’m surprised Joe wasn’t willing to help you,” Will said. “Did she really insinuate that you and Beth swapped brothers?”

  “The bimbo did everything but ask if we continued to swap every other weekend.” Sid pointed with her cue stick. “She better hope I don’t catch her without someone around to save her skinny ass.”

  As badass as Sid could be, something told Will that Rebecca King could hold her own in a brawl, and maybe even come out on top. The women were of a similar size, so neither held a weight advantage. Sid would fight dirty, of course, but the reporter didn’t look like the type to stick with the rules either.

  “What do you think of the photographer?” Will asked. “He seems nice enough.”

  “I don’t know.” Sid sank another ball. “He’s almost too happy. Don’t get me wrong. I can admire the pretty Orlando Bloom thing he’s got going on.”

  “I’m with you on that.”

  “But I can’t help but think of them as a pair, which makes me dislike him by association.”

  Will chuckled. “From what he said the other night, I don’t think he likes her very much.”

  Sid stood, dropping the cue by her foot. “Really?”

  “Said she’s best in small doses with long breaks in between.”

  “Hah,” Sid said. “Score points for picture boy.”

  “There you two are,” Beth said, barreling into the poolroom as if seeking a place to hide. “I need one of you to go order me a burger and onion rings.”

  Will and Sid exchanged a look, then Will asked, “Why can’t you order the burger yourself?”

  “I did.”

  “What?” Sid said.

  “I ordered a burger, but I want two,” Beth said, rubbing her stomach. “Tom and Patty are out there and I don’t want to look like a giant pig.”

  Will did the math on how much fat and calories were in one Dempsey Burger, let alone two. The numbers left her a little numb, but to be fair, the woman was eating for two. Or maybe three if her appetite was any indication.

  “Go order for her, Sid.”

  “Why me?” she asked, bent over the table in position to take a shot.

  “Because they know I don’t eat burgers, so they’d never believe I was ordering for myself.” Will wasn’t a vegetarian, but she did avoid red meat.

  Sid leaned her stick against the wall behind Will. “Then when she gets busted eating two burgers, it’s my ass on the line for aiding and abetting.”

  “Hooking up with a lawyer has made you paranoid,” Beth said, slapping a twenty onto the table. “Get me that burger and you can keep the change.”

  Burger bribery. Amazing what a desperate pregnant woman would do, but it proved how well Beth knew their little boat mechanic.

  “You got it, Curly.”

  As Sid left the room, Beth climbed onto the high-set chair across from Will, closed her eyes, and laid her head against the wall. “I’m going to be as big as Joe’s boat, but right now all I care about is eating those burgers.”

  “Cravings, huh?”

  Will hadn’t gotten far enough along to experience those, but she wondered if her little one would have sent up the red meat flag.

  “I think they’ve officially begun.” She hung her purse on the back of the chair. “Last night I was dying for pickles. I had to slide out of bed without waking Joe, bribe Dozer with a hot dog to get him to stay quiet, then hold my nose as I ate the things because the smell was nauseating.”

  “You were craving something that you couldn’t even smell without getting sick?”

  “I know,” Beth said. “Of all the things I’ve heard about being pregnant, the fact that it would make me completely insane was not included.”

  “Really?” Will laughed. “Pretty sure that’s the first thing anyone told me.”

  Beth’s head jerked away from the wall and wide green eyes stared at Will. “You were pregnant?”

  She hadn’t meant to let that slip out. Will shrugged and stared at the silver label on her beer. “It was a few years ago. I lost it.”

  Though not without someone’s help.

  Beth laid a hand over Will’s. “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry. I had no idea.”

  “No need to apologize.” Will accepted the affection for a few seconds, then pulled her hand away.

  “And here I am complaining about it.” Beth set her forehead in her hand. “God, I’m such a jerk.”

  “None of that now.” Randy’s words came back to Will. No one knew her because she wouldn’t let them. But there was more to her life than one tragic episode three years ago. “I’m so happy for you and Joe, and I love hearing about the baby. Don’t ever think you can’t talk about it around me. In fact,” she
said, “if you could talk about it as much as possible when Sid is around, as I’m sure it’ll freak her out, I’ll buy you a six-month supply of diapers.”

  They laughed together, the moment of tension sliding away.

  “Were you married?” Beth asked. “Wait. I’m sorry. That’s incredibly nosy.”

  Will shook her head. “No, it’s alright. I was engaged, actually.” Not that she’d accepted the proposal without hesitation. “So we have that in common.”

  “What happened to the guy?”

  A tougher question to answer. Will used all her energy to stay in the present. “Let’s say he turned out not to be the guy I thought he was.”

  “Oh,” was all Beth said.

  In that moment, Sid returned. “Order is in. Why do you two look like that?”

  “Like what?” Beth asked, a bit too chipper.

  “Like you’re hiding something.”

  Will wasn’t sure when Sid had gotten so astute, but she didn’t see any reason not to repeat the little bit she’d shared. These women had become like sisters to her. She owed them something of herself.

  “I was telling Beth that a few years ago, I was pregnant.”

  “No shit?”

  “No shit,” Will answered, the simple response lightening the mood. “I lost it, and things didn’t work out with the guy. Now how about those fittings tomorrow.”

  The other two women sat in dazed silence for several seconds. Beth recovered first. “Right. The fittings.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “You have my planner, but I think the appointment is for one-thirty.”

  “It is,” Will said. “I checked. And I called to make sure the dresses were in. They arrived today.”

  “Damn,” Sid said. “I’ll be out on the boat.”

  “Nice try,” Beth said. “I’ve already told Joe you need the afternoon off. He’s lined up someone else to cover for you.”

  The curse Sid said under her breath was a bit stronger than damn.

  “I’ve had several versions shipped in. Whatever ones you don’t like we can return,” Beth said. “And you two don’t have to match. So long as the dresses complement each other, I’m good with whatever you pick. Since the ones I’ve ordered all go nicely together, it should be fine.”