by Terri Osburn
This woman had serious issues to get this worked up at the mere mention of marriage. He hoped the topic alone was the problem, not the topic with him included.
“He’s an old guy trying to lock in more business. He’s harmless.” Randy put the truck in gear. “You really need to relax. No one will be twisting your arm to make you get married.”
Glancing over to his passenger, he saw the color drain from her face and kept his foot on the brake. “Will?”
She stared ahead, eyes unblinking, but her hands were gripped tight enough in her lap to turn her knuckles as white as her face. Randy slid the gearshift back into park and held silent. Will might be sitting beside him, but she was miles away in her mind. Whatever memory was washing over her was definitely not a happy one.
He could wait. See if she’d tell him where she went. After nearly a minute, she came back. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” he said, softening his voice as much as he could. “Waiting.”
“For what?” She tossed her hair over her shoulder, her movements jerky and tense.
He laid both arms on top of the wheel. “For you to come back from wherever you’d gone.” Randy looked down, debating his next move. Pretending had never been his strong suit. “I don’t know what happened in your past, but considering what sent your mind racing back there, I have some guesses. Whoever hurt you is never going to do it again. Not as long as I’m around, okay?”
“I don’t need a protector,” she said, eyes focused on something in the distance.
“How about a friend?” he asked. That one seemed to get her attention because she finally turned to look at him. “I want to be your friend.”
Will snorted. “With benefits?”
He felt the sting of the accusation but held her gaze. “With or without. I’m here.”
As her shoulders dropped, she ran a hand through dark hair, shoving the mass of thick waves off her forehead. “I appreciate that, but there are ghosts from my past that would take more than muscle to defeat.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood. “I have a lot of muscle.”
Her laughter filled the truck cab, hitting him in the chest like a blow. “Yes, you do.” Crossing her arms over the purse in her lap, she turned his way again. “We never had lunch, and I’m starving. You want to eat?”
Feeling as if they’d made some kind of progress, he put the truck back in gear. “I could eat. How do you feel about Thai food?”
“I feel like it’s been way too long since I’ve had it.” Will gave him a weak smile, the ghost from her past still hovering in her eyes. “You know a Thai place around here?”
“I do. It’s back up the Banks a little, but worth the drive.”
“Then Thai it is,” she said with a nod.
The restaurant was mostly empty. Randy and Will opted for an outdoor table, as the temp had warmed up nicely and the patio was in the sun.
“What do you have in mind?” Randy asked, once the young waitress had taken their drink order and left them to peruse the menu.
Will kept her eyes on the list of offerings. “I’m thinking pork. These specials look good. Pepper ginger maybe. What about you?”
“I’ll stick with my usual,” Randy said. “Start with the Tao Hu Tod, then the vegetable Pad Thai.”
Her eyes tracked across the menu to find the descriptions of what he would order. She blinked, looked up to meet his eyes, then blinked again.
“What?” he asked.
“Tofu? You’re starting with tofu?”
Randy laughed. “I’m a vegetarian, Will. And tofu is good, especially the way they make it here.”
She dropped the menu to the table. “You’re a what?”
“You serve me green tea. Why would the fact I’m a vegetarian be a surprise?”
Will shook her head, started to speak, then closed her mouth. She finally pointed a finger his way. “Look at you. Doesn’t that take a lot of protein?”
Randy crossed his arms on the table, leaning forward. “There are lots of ways to get protein in your diet. Besides, I’m not some freak show exhibit. I work out. I’m healthy. That wasn’t always the case for the men in my family, and most of them died relatively young.” He shrugged. “I don’t intend to follow in their footsteps, so I go my own way.”
“How young is relatively young?” Will asked, eyes narrowed.
Not a topic he liked to discuss, Randy focused on the large vacation homes across the way, and the water beyond them. “Around forty. Some a little older, some a little younger.”
Will reached across the table, laying a hand across his forearm. “I’m sorry. I was aware that both your parents had died when Sid was pretty young, but didn’t know about the rest. Or think about the fact that you weren’t exactly an adult when they passed either.” She gave his arm a squeeze, and with a smile added, “That won’t happen to you. You’re too healthy. And stubborn.”
She sat back, sliding her hands below the table. “Besides, Sid would kick your ass for dying on her.”
That was probably true. The comment reminded him how close Will and Sid had become. “Speaking of my sister, how did it go getting her in a dress yesterday?”
“Oh, she fell in line real quick once she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. The dress Beth picked out is gorgeous, but then Sid could make a burlap sack look sexy.”
“How about you?” he asked, curious to know what Will would be wearing when he had the pleasure of walking down the aisle with her on his arm. “Do you like the one for you?”
Will’s face went soft, as if he’d flashed her a picture of cute kittens or something. “It’s beautiful. Exactly what I’d have picked for myself.” Her eyes brightened. “And wait until you see Beth. As if she’s not glowing enough whenever Joe is in the room, she beams in that dress. I have to make sure this wedding is perfect. I’ll never forgive myself if something goes wrong.”
“Nothing will go wrong. We’ve got this.” Randy winked at her.
“Since when is this a we?” Will lifted the menu off the table. “I’m the one stuck with the bride’s planner. It’s my ass on the line.”
He pushed her menu down with one finger. “Have you always been this stubborn?”
“Excuse me?”
“The venue is my place, and was my idea. The groom is my best friend, and I’ve come to care about his bride as well. I’m offering to help make sure this wedding comes together the way it should, and you act like I’m asking for a kidney. Why is it so hard for you to accept some help?”
“I can accept help. When I need it and when I ask for it.” Blue eyes narrowed again, this time lacking their previous sympathy. “Maybe you’re the one who can’t stand to be told you’re not needed.”
Right. He was the problem here. This little meal was going downhill fast, but he wasn’t backing down on this one. She needed him, and he would make her realize exactly how much.
“Do you know the dimensions of the deck on Anchor Adventures?”
“No,” she said, the word clipped with impatience.
“Do you know what’s available on the deck, in regards to electricity, space, and lighting?”
“No,” she all but growled.
“But you’re prepared to finalize plans with the tent company, the disc jockey, and the caterer without that information?”
Will closed her menu and slammed it onto the appetizer plate in front of her. “You’ve made your point. I need information that you have to make this wedding happen.”
Information that he had. She couldn’t even say the words. “You’ll have to do better than that,” he pushed. “Try again.”
She looked ready to swallow her tongue, a rising temper evident through the flush of her cheeks. “Fine,” she growled. “I need you. Happy now?”
“Yep.” Randy sat back in his chair and motioned for the waitress. “Now, let’s eat.”
Such a pompous ass. What was his problem? Why did he have to push so much, work his way in li
ke that? Will didn’t like being off balance, and that’s all Randy seemed to make her feel. Off line. Unsure. And worst of all, there were moments when he made her laugh.
Gorgeous and built and kind and pushy and funny and…Damn if she didn’t like him. Even when he poked to make her admit things she didn’t want to admit. So she couldn’t do everything on her own. That didn’t mean she couldn’t try. Having to admit, out loud, that she needed him to pull off this wedding left a bitter taste on her tongue.
Will didn’t make it the last three years by depending on people for help. Depending on the wrong person is what had screwed up her life to begin with. If she hadn’t leaned on Jeffrey in the wake of her mother’s death, Will would be back in Boston sitting in a corner office dealing with spreadsheets and profit-loss statements, not tending bar on a remote island, looking over her shoulder, prepared to cut and run without warning.
It was the cutting and running that freaked her out more than anything these days. Will had made the idiotic mistake of falling for Anchor Island. It felt like home. Her friends felt like family, much more than the people to whom she was blood related. They had been raised with money. Raised with the fancy name that wielded power and influence.
Will may have shared the name on paper, but that was the only thing she had in common with her biological family.
“I’ll leave the check here for you. No hurry; let me know when you’re ready.” The waitress dropped a slip of paper on Randy’s side of the table. “Can I get you a to-go box for that, ma’am?”
Will’s plate was still half full. After their brief spat, her appetite had disappeared. “No, I’m good, thanks.”
Randy finished the last bite of his Pad Thai, which he ate with chopsticks, of course, and wiped his mouth. “If this place were closer to home, I’d eat here every day.”
Closer to home. The phrase hit a nerve with Will. Would she ever be able to call someplace home again?
“The food was good,” Will admitted. “Thanks for suggesting it.”
Their argument had ended as quickly as it had begun, with Randy appearing to have some sort of instant amnesia about the whole thing. He didn’t have much of a temper and seemed to fizzle back to the happy-go-lucky guy in a matter of seconds.
He noticed her plate for the first time since the waitress had set the meals on the table. “You didn’t eat yours. You said you were starving.”
She glanced to her watch. “I guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought. We need to get on the road. I told Tom I might be late, but at this rate he’ll be stuck with half the dinner shift before I get there.”
Will glanced over Randy’s shoulder and caught a redhead staring hard at their table. Did she know her? After a week of Rebecca going on and on about how familiar Will looked, she should have known better than to stay off the island for too long. The redhead said something to her friend, a tall man with arms covered in tattoos, then headed their way.
Will’s palms began to sweat and her heart rate went through the roof. There was nowhere to run. No way to jump the railing to their right without drawing attention or having Randy think she’d lost her mind. Will put a hand over the side of her face and turned her body as far away from the woman as possible without falling out of her chair.
A quick look over her shoulder revealed the woman had reached the table behind them and continued on. A roar filled Will’s ears. The moment of truth was about to find her in a Thai restaurant in the middle of the Outer Banks, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Shit shit shit shit shit.
“Randy? Randy Navarro?”
Will spun in her chair as Randy looked behind him. In seconds he was on his feet, wrapping the stranger in a giant bear hug and lifting her off the ground.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, planting the woman gently back on the patio. “I expected you to be on that Cancun trip this month.”
“I couldn’t go without my Randy.”
Her Randy? The roar continued in Will’s ears. Adrenaline left from the fear mixed with a flash of jealousy to create an ego-splitting cocktail in her bloodstream.
“I had to take this year off,” Randy said, keeping the woman pulled tight against him. Stepping to the side, he said, “Kayla Fontana, this is my friend Will Parsons. She lives on Anchor with me.”
That needed an immediate correction. “I don’t live with him,” Will said, struggling to keep her voice level. “We both live on the island.” Her hands were shaking, so she kept them hidden beneath the table.
It was Randy’s turn to blush. “Right. No. That’s what I meant.”
Kayla laid a hand on his cheek. “You’re cute when you’re making an ass of yourself.” She turned to Will, extending a hand. “Nice to meet you. Hope this big lug is treating you right. He’s a great catch if you can pin him down. God knows enough of us have tried.”
Enough of us? What the hell? Did he have a harem they knew nothing about on Anchor?
“No pinning down going on here,” Will said, taking Kayla’s hand for a brief shake. “We’re in the same wedding. I’m friends with the bride, he’s friends with the groom.”
Kayla punched Randy in the shoulder. “Going after another bridesmaid? And I thought I was special.” Randy performed a great interpretation of a drowning fish as Kayla laughed. “That’s how we met.” She gave Randy a heated look. “Those were the best ten days I ever spent in Tibet.”
Will used her napkin to wipe the sweat from her upper lip as she pondered this odd revelation. It seemed there was much about Randy Navarro that the people around him didn’t know. Like that he traveled to exotic places to have ten-day sexcapades with bridesmaids.
“We never did make it to Shishapangma, did we?” Kayla said. “Not that I minded.” Her voice dropped a telling octave. Will knew exactly why this woman didn’t mind missing out on Shishapangma, whatever the hell that was.
“Well, I’d love to sit here and watch you two catch up, but I really have to get back.” Will stood, desperate for a moment alone. “I’ll be at the truck.”
As she walked away, she caught Kayla’s voice on the breeze. “Oh shit. Did I screw that up for you?”
Randy’s response was lost in the distance.
CHAPTER 12
Yes, you may have,” Randy said, watching Will walk away with her back straight, shoulders tense. She’d been acting odd right before Kayla came up behind him. As if she’d seen something that scared her. “But I think you might have helped me, too.”
“Really?” Kayla asked, stepping out of his arms. “And how did I do that?”
He nodded in the direction Will had gone. “Hard to explain.” Taking Kayla’s hand, he said, “I really do have to go. I’m driving and she needs to get to work. How long are you going to be in the Outer Banks?”
“Arrived today and we’re here for a week. I want you to meet Austen.” Kayla waved someone over. “And be nice. He’s scrawnier than my usual, but I can’t resist the tats. And by some miracle, he’s actually a stand-up guy.”
A lanky man with tattoo sleeves, large gauges stretching his earlobes, and a silver hoop in his left eyebrow joined them. Kayla made the introductions, explained they were there with Austen’s family, which Randy planned to tease her about later, and agreed to make time for a visit to Anchor during the week.
After exchanging numbers, Randy took care of the check and headed for the truck, not sure what he’d find waiting for him when he arrived.
Since he had the keys and the truck was locked, Will had taken a seat on the tailgate. As he approached, she kept her eyes locked in the other direction, feet swinging as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
Her face belied the body language. Jealous was good. Not in the long run, but a good sign for the moment. But his past wasn’t the real problem. Hers was.
“Hey,” he said, advancing slowly, hands in his pockets. “You okay?”
“Fine. Why?”
That sounded anything but fine.
“Oh, I don’t know.” He took a seat beside her, straining the shocks on the truck. “You cut out of there pretty quick. I’d like to think you were jealous, and that’s what Kayla assumed, but she didn’t see your face seconds before she called my name.”
Will kept her face averted but tightened the grip on her purse. A move so subtle he almost missed it.
“There seems to be a lot about you that people on Anchor don’t know,” she said.
Deflection. A nice try.
“You thought she’d recognized you instead of me.” Randy sighed. “Will, why does having someone recognize you send you into a panic? Why can’t you have your photo in a magazine?”
She finally turned his way. Tears swam in her blue eyes. “I can’t answer your questions.”
He brushed a tear away with his thumb. “Why not?”
Using the sleeve of her denim jacket, Will wiped her face. “It’s complicated.”
“Doesn’t have to be.” If she’d tell him, maybe they could fix it. Whatever it was.
Will half laughed, half hiccuped. “Trust me. If I could make it all go away, I would.” She slapped both hands on the tailgate and hopped off. “I really do have to get back. Tom is expecting me.”
Randy stood, encouraged by the fact Will didn’t step back. “You don’t have to do this alone, you know. You have friends. We’re here to help whenever you need us.”
Will dabbed at the drops clinging to her long eyelashes. “That’s a nice idea, but right now I need to get home.” Her voice hitched on the word home, then she moved around him and hurried to her side of the truck.
The woman took stubborn to a whole new level. Whatever she was dragging around from her past, Randy was certain it couldn’t be as bad as she believed. There was no way she’d killed someone. Or been involved in some giant espionage scheme. If she was in the witness protection program, she was the worst witness ever, since he was pretty sure those people were supposed to act natural at all times.
So what was it? What put that fear in her eyes? He carried the thought back around to himself. Randy had assumed Will had been hurt by a large man in the past, as his size was the only reason he would be the one to set her off. She didn’t have the same reaction around Joe or Lucas. Or even their dad, Tom Dempsey, who might not be as wide as Randy, but he was just as tall.
