Boot Key Harbor Series: Contemporary Romance Short Story Collection

by Cyndi Raye

  The pain in Angela’s eyes was a pliable thing.

  Ben saw and felt an answering ache in his chest, knowing he put that look there.

  Angela carried a torch for him since their teens. He had always known, though not sure of the intensity. He was also attracted to her back then but never pursued her for fear of ruining their friendship.

  Their friendship as they knew ended the night they became lovers and she voiced feelings he feared. It was hard for a man like Ben to admit fear but there was no more denying he had not risked putting his heart on the line for so many years because he was scared of the debilitating emotion.

  After Angela had stormed out of the bar, Lenny came over, looked Ben dead in the eye and said, "If you can't love her the way she deserves, let her go so she can find someone who will."

  That was a rude awakening for Ben.

  In all the years they had known each other, Ben had never considered that Angela would find a man to settle down with. To have kids with. To grow old with.

  Someone who would take her away from him.

  Lenny's words invoked the images of her with a faceless man and it was like someone reached into his chest and pulled out his heart.

  He stopped lying to himself in that moment. Lenny walked away and Ben admitted to himself that he loved Angela - that he was in love with her.

  She had confessed her love to him that night. Now, the only thing preventing them from being together was fear.

  In an effort to protect himself, he had tried to pretend the events that transpired after her brother's wedding did not happen and threw any available female in her face. Regret simmered in his gut.

  He had to fix this. He ran out of the bar, barely hearing the call from the nameless woman who had been clinging to him. He did not stop to acknowledge it.

  Urgency drummed in his veins. He had to show Angela he was ready to be the man to give her a ring, a beautiful house behind a picket fence and as many babies as she wanted. He just hoped the damage he had done was repairable.

  Angela's tiny fist came at his face and he did not try to dodge the coming blow. It was the least she deserved after the way he treated her.

  She was getting worked up to the point where he feared she would hurt herself so he restrained her by pulling her against his chest and confining her hands behind her back.

  "Let me go. You're not allowed to touch me ever again. Go find one of your little hussies to keep you company and leave me alone."

  "I did not sleep with any of them," Ben implored her, hoping that fact would make the situation better. After touching her, the thought of placing his hands on another woman turned his stomach.

  "You expect me to believe that after the way you were carrying on? You know what? It does not matter. We're both grown, unattached and don't need permission to see other people. Go back to that woman at the bar and I'll go get ready for my date."

  It was Ben's turn to spit fire. "Who is he?"

  Her eyes shifted to the side for a split second and he knew she was lying. Knowing that did not make him any less angry. The thought of her with any other man left him livid. Spending the night joined with her awoke possessive tendencies he did not know he possessed.

  "Any man that so much as breathes in your direction will get his kneecaps broken. Your behind will not fare so well either if I find out you're entertaining any man but me."

  "Why, you hypocrite-!"

  Ben covered her lips with his.

  Their anger combusted into something hotter. Ben hoisted Angela up and her legs wrapped around his waist.

  Fingers tangled in her hair, Ben separated their lips and forced her to look into his eyes.

  "You're mine now," he growled, his caveman still showing.

  She nipped at his lower lip. "And you're mine. No more other women."

  "You're it for me, Angela. No other woman will ever do".

  He carried her into the cottage. Laying her down on her queen-sized bed, he wondered how he resisted taking her for so long. With her silky hair spilled against the white sheets and her passion filled eyes beckoning him, she was temptation incarnated.

  He laid over her and proceeded to use his body to show her this was the start of their forever.

  Later, he watched her sleep as dawn broke. After a long night of loving, he should be well tuckered out yet he felt oddly energized.

  His phone beeped with a text. It was his friend and one of the business partners.

  Emergency explosive job called in. Men & supplies ready to go.

  Jacob also sent an attachment with details on a bomb threat made at an over-water hotel.

  Ben responded. Roger that, ETA 10 mins.

  He wished he could stay in bed with Angela all day. He would gladly hole up here with her for the next month but time was of the essence in cases like this.

  He could not leave without saying goodbye though.

  "Wake up, babe." He roused her with kisses along her face and neck. When she opened her eyes and smiled at him, he could not resist a long, deep kiss. Lifting his head, he said, "We need to talk. Meet me at Lenny's at the usual time?"

  There was some things he needed to tell her. First and foremost, was how deep he had fallen for her. They were too caught up in their physical needs last night to do much talking.

  She nodded hesitantly and the light in her eyes dimmed.

  After a quick buss on her lips, he reassured, "This is the start of our future. No more running around each other. We’re an item now. You get what I'm saying to you?"

  She nodded after studying him for a moment. "I think so."

  He would clear up all confusion later but he had a job to get to now.

  "Got to get going but we'll talk later, okay?"

  Leaving the warmth of the bed, he dressed with her heavy-lidded eyes on him.

  Giving her another quick kiss, he ordered, "Get some more sleep. You’re off of work today, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sleep the day away then. You’re going to need as much shut eye as you can get. I have plans for that luscious body of yours so don’t bank on getting much sleep tonight.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her and watched a blushed work its way from her face down to her bare chest.

  He reluctantly left the cottage.

  He did not notice the figure at the main house watching his departure.

  Chapter 5

  Angela did not know why she thought Ben changed.

  She was sitting at their special table at Lenny’s Place, wondering how she could have been fool enough to believe the lies. She should have known better.

  Three hours had passed since she arrived. She was nursing her second glass of wine, trying to figure out what could have held him up. No answers were forthcoming.

  Sitting here, aching inside while others merrily went about their way around her made her realize how foolish she had been. She always thought she accepted that she and Ben would never have anything more than a friendship. She had been waiting all this time though.

  Waiting for him to get over his issues with falling in love.

  Waiting for him to see her as a woman and his other half.

  Waiting was pointless.

  Ben would never stop being Ben, a player who did not want to settle down.

  She deserved better than being just another one of his playthings.

  She wanted to have someone to come home to every night. Someone who was there every morning when she woke up. A man whose eyes lit up because of her. Someone who told her he loved her and meant it.

  Ben clearly did not have those feelings toward her.

  She left a few minutes later, determined to leave her love for Ben in the past where it belonged.

  ***

  Ben paced the length of the waiting room of Fisherman’s Hospital.

  Still in his dive suit, he looked down at his hands. They had been covered in blood just a short while ago. The other men of the dive team crowded the white-tiled space as well, all in various
degrees of disarray.

  These men were tough. All had faced death too many times to count and came out on top. Now, they were close to losing one of their own and the strain showed on their faces.

  No explosive job was without its dangers but the job they had been hired for had seemed simple enough. Find and identify possible explosive devices in the foundation of a popular over-water resort.

  It was the fourth time in a month that a bomb threat had been called in at the hotel but the first three times had revealed the calls to be pranks.

  The caller had given the location of the bomb but the area was too narrow to send in a remote control robot. Two members of the team had gone in and discovered a pipe bomb attached to a column supporting part of the building.

  “Shit, the timer only has four seconds left,” came a voice over the radio.

  “Get out of there!” Ben had shouted but it was too late.

  One of the men came away from the explosion with a non-life-threatening wound to the head but the other man had been caught by a piece of the previously evacuated, collapsing structure. He had been airlifted to the hospital.

  The story had been leaked and about an hour ago the television stations had started reporting the story. The face of the teenager who set the bomb was reflected on the television housed on a shelf in the waiting room. Riley O’Hare had taken to social media to brag about his success in planting the bomb and was easily tracked by law officials.

  Luckily for the perpetrator, he had already been arrested by the police department because if finding him had been left up to Ben’s team, there would be nothing left of him to detain.

  “A reporter at the local, reputable newspaper QTY Channel 14 discovered that members of the community believe the suspected bomber planted the explosives to win a bet made with a friend,” the female broadcaster announced.

  At the mention of the newspaper, Ben checked his cell phone again. It was 2:16 AM, long past the time he was supposed to have met up with Angela at Lenny’s. He had sent a message to her explaining the situation but it remained unanswered.

  He was surprised she had not shown up at the hospital yet. Being a reporter, she had to have known what happened even if she missed his message. A call had not produced better results. She did not pick up.

  He brought her number up again but before he hit the call option a movement out of the corner of his eyes took them away from the smart phone.

  All four men stood in unison when the doctor entered the room.

  The grim look on the silver-haired man's face had Ben expecting the worst.

  ***

  Excitement filled the newsroom when Angela walked into work that morning. Before she could ask what was going on, her adopted father appeared on her right and barked, "In my office. Now."

  She knew that tone of voice. The one that was ruthless and could cut a grown man down to his knees. It had slashed her like an invisible knife far too often.

  Her emotions were raw as it was. She spent the night closeted away in the cottage, turning off her cell phone and all other devices that might let the outside world intrude on the needed solitude.

  She followed her adopted father at a measured pace, hoping to survive the verbal lashing he was about to impart with her dignity intact.

  Everyone they passed made sure to avoid eye contact with her. She held her head high and straightened her spine, making sure to project a confidence she did not feel.

  The door had barely closed behind them when he turned to her and said, "You have disappointed me for the last time, Angela. You’re fired.”

  A buzzing sound similar to that of a swarm of bees filled Angela’s head. His lips continued to move but all she heard was that buzzing sound. She was falling apart inside as he continued to lecture her. Yet another man was letting her down.

  Incapable of speech, she did not defend herself as he made accusations against her character. Her eyes burned with the effort of holding back tears.

  He sputtered when she turned around mid-sentence and left the office. She did not stop even when he yelled, “Get back in here, young lady. I am not done talking to you.”

  She packed up the belongings at her desk and walked out of the three story building.

  She needed to lick her wounds far away from Boot Key Harbor and she knew just the place to go.

  Chapter Six

  For the second time in less than a month, Angela was throwing herself a pity party. This time she was binging on cake, ice-cream and Lifetime movies.

  After getting the boot from her adopted father, she raced to the cottage to pack a few things then high-tailed in out of Boot Key Harbor. One hour into the drive she realized she forgot her cell phone but could not bring herself to care. She wanted to get away from her life and her cell phone was one less connection to it.

  She showed up at one of her brother Jake’s hotels and promptly became a weeping, babbling mess.

  She confessed everything from her fake relationship with Ben to why her adopted father no longer wanted her to work for him.

  The Dalton family housekeeper had spied Ben leaving Angela’s cottage early in the morning and reported it to her adopted father. Although Angela was a grown woman, the man thought it highly inappropriate that an unmarried woman should be entertaining a man on his property.

  “I will not have your younger brothers and sisters exposed to such irresponsible behavior. What if one of them had walked in on you in a compromising position?” he had said. “I refuse to risk their well-being and reputations as upstanding individuals by being associated with a deviant character like you have proven yourself to be.”

  That was five days ago and Jake graciously allowed her to hide from the world in one of the unoccupied hotel suites. Both of her brothers were unsure how to help. Annie, on the other hand, kept on telling her she needed to stop feeling sorry for herself, find a way to make peace with her current relationship with her adopted family and get to the bottom of what happened with Ben.

  Annie was a major pity party pooper. So she even refused to answer the door. Promising her new family she wanted a day to herself, they agreed to leave her alone.

  “One day. It’s all you get. Then we are going to help you fix this,” Annie warned. “You have us now. No sense in drowning in your own misery without your brothers and sister.”

  Currently, Angela was dressed in a pair of sweat pants and an old t-shirt with her hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun. She was munching on popcorn and watching a movie about a young woman who thought she had the perfect life only to find out her soon-to-be husband was a serial killer.

  Men! They were such heartbreakers.

  There was a knock at the door but she ignored it. She had no desire to see anyone.

  Anne walked in with the twin males flanking her.

  “It hasn’t been twenty-four hours already!”

  “We lied. We can’t let you go on like this.” The determined light in the other female’s eyes made Angela nervous.

  The feeling only grew when her brothers sat opposite her looking all kinds of uncomfortable. Annie sat next to Angela and turned to her. “You know we love you, right?”

  “Well, hello to you guys, too,” Angela quipped.

  Annie took her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “You have some misguided idea that you’re unlovable and we’re here to let you know what complete hogwash that is. We have not known each other long but you’ve already been the best sister anyone can ask for.”

  A tear spilled over Angela’s right eye, emotion overflowing again. Annie pulled her into a hug.

  One of the men groaned, “See, Annie? Look what you did. I told you to let her be.”

  “Oh hush, she needs to hear this.” Annie lifted Angela’s head so that their eyes connected. “Maybe the Daltons cannot appreciate how awesome you are but I can tell you that Jon, Jake and I love you unconditionally. If mom was here she would feel the same.”

  A male hand rested on Angela’s shaking sh
oulder and Jon said, “No doubt, sis. You’re one of us and we’ve got your back no matter what.”

  Jake groaned, “You guys are going to make me get all sappy, aren’t you? You are killing my manly man persona.”

  Laughter bubbled into Angela’s sadness at Jake’s totally put out tone. Her siblings had formed a circle around her. Surrounded by such warmth, she did not doubt their sincerity.

  Jake swiped a thumb underneath her eye. “Love you, baby girl."

  “And we know someone else who loves you if the way he looked at you at Jon’s wedding is anything to go by.” Annie dropped a newspaper dated five days before, headlined Terror in Boot Key Harbor, on Angela's lap. “Now that we’ve got you back in fighting form, I believe you’ve got a man to go claim."

  ***

  It was Friday night and Lenny’s place was packed with a TGIF crowd. The music was loud and drinks flowed freely. Smiles and laughter were everywhere.

  Ben took one step in and wanted to go back to his sailboat to sulk like he had been doing for the last few days. All this gaiety made him want to punch someone in the gut.

  One of the men grabbed his shoulder, sensing his intended departure. "Uh uh, you're staying right here and having a beer with me. You need to get over whatever is bugging you. We’re not leaving here until we’ve figured out how to get you back to normal."

  Cole had appointed himself as a one man intervention team. With every passing second he came closer and closer to getting that punch to the stomach.

  Cole was the strong, silent type who hated crowds and touchy feely situations. The fact that he was trying to get Ben out the funk he had been in lately showed that he cared about Ben's well-being. Ben appreciated the gesture and that was the only reason he let the other man lead him to the bar.

  It had been almost a week since the explosion.

  Their brother, though still confined to bed, was going to live, thank goodness. Everyone on the dive team was ecstatic about that development. Ben wished he could focus entirely on the feeling of relief that his friend survived but his heart was weighed down.