Serenity Harbor

by RaeAnne Thayne

  She supposed she technically should call Cade first to have him call off the search, but she would let Bowie do that. Her hands shook from relief as much as the cold, misty rain already seeping through her T-shirt as she found his number on her phone and dialed, slipping her shoes back on her bare feet as she waited for him to pick up.

  “I’ve got him,” she said before he could even say hello. “He’s safe and he’s fine, just wet and cold. We’re on the lake trail just before the Lawsons’ house. He was caught in a branch.”

  “Oh, thank God,” he breathed, as much a prayer as an exclamation. “I’ll come pick you up.”

  “No need. We’ll meet you at your house. It would take us almost as long to walk up to meet you at the road as it would to just come home. Call Cade and let him know to call off the search, would you?”

  “I’ll do that.” He paused. “Katrina. Thank you.”

  The emotion in his voice seemed to vibrate through her. “You’re welcome. We’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  “Bo?” Milo said when she disconnected the call.

  “Yes. That’s Bo. Let’s get you home to him. Come on, kiddo. Piggyback time.”

  She crouched in the mud, and he climbed onto her back. For the first time since she met him, she was grateful he was small for his age.

  “Can you hold the flashlight? That’s it. Just shine it ahead of us.”

  With distant lightning flashes across the lake and the occasional rumble of thunder, she took off on the trail back to Serenity Harbor. The trail was slick with mud, so she didn’t dare run, but she knew she needed to get him in out of the cold. The legs of his pajamas were still wet, and she could feel his occasional shivers against her back.

  She had made it only about halfway back to Bowie’s house when she saw the wavering light of a flashlight moving toward them at a fast clip through the trees. She caught glimpses of the dark figure carrying the light between the trees.

  “Bo,” Milo said, his voice gruff, probably from the cold and his earlier cries.

  She wasn’t sure how he knew, but it was definitely Bowie. The muddy trail didn’t appear to worry him. He was running full out. He faltered a little when his beam caught them, then moved even faster, reaching them an instant later.

  “There you are. You scared the hell out of me, kid.”

  He pulled Milo off her back and into his arms, and Milo hugged him back.

  “He’s cold,” Katrina said. “We should get him back to the house, where he can warm up.”

  “One minute.”

  Though he still had Milo on one hip, Bowie wrapped the other arm around her and pulled her to him. He was as wet as she, but in that moment, she didn’t care. She wrapped her arms around him tightly.

  “Thank you,” he said, then kissed her hard, adjusted Milo to a better position in his arms and raced back up the trail toward home.

  * * *

  AN HOUR LATER, she was warm and dry, wearing a pair of Bowie’s sweats that fit her about as well as her own sweatshirt had fit Milo. The sleeves were rolled up and she had folded the legs of the bottoms up about four times. She didn’t care. They were warm and dry, and that was all that mattered.

  Bowie was ushering out the last of the searchers while she sat with Milo on the sofa in the family room off the kitchen, the two of them wrapped in a blanket.

  She couldn’t see the boy’s face from the angle she was holding him but had a feeling he was asleep, judging by how still he had become over the last few moments.

  Her suspicion was confirmed when Bowie returned, speaking on the phone, caught sight of Milo and immediately lowered his voice.

  “Yes. Thanks. We’re all good. Thanks, Aidan. Give Eliza a hug for me and tell her she can stop worrying now...Yes. I’ll tell her.”

  He hung up and came over to stand near her. “I’m supposed to give you a message from Eliza Caine. She said to tell you that she’s baking you three dozen of your favorite white chocolate macadamia nut cookies and also has a giant hug with your name on it when she sees you next.”

  She managed a smile. “Eliza makes fantastic cookies. And her hugs are even better.”

  He didn’t smile in return, just continued watching her holding his brother.

  “I’m almost afraid to let him out of my sight now,” Bowie said, his voice gruff. “Maybe I should think about moving a cot into his bedroom.”

  She tried to ignore the shivers rippling down her spine at his low tone. “He was pretty scared out there. Maybe he learned his lesson about wandering outside.”

  “I hope so.”

  “How’s Mrs. Peters?”

  “Shaken up. She’s never lost a client before. I told her to go to bed. For now, I managed to talk her out of resigning—especially after I assured her this was totally my fault. I can’t believe I didn’t notice when he slipped right past me.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up, Bowie. You’re not to blame.”

  His expression told her he disagreed, but he didn’t argue. “I guess I need to take him back to bed. I’m sure you don’t want to sit there all night holding him.”

  She wouldn’t mind, actually, but Milo probably wouldn’t be all that comfortable.

  Bowie stepped closer, and those shivers came back as his hands brushed against her when he reached down to scoop Milo into his arms.

  Unable to resist, she followed Bowie down the hall to Milo’s room and watched as he set the boy carefully on the bed and tucked the covers back up around him. Milo didn’t stir, probably too exhausted from his ordeal.

  He brushed a hand over his brother’s hair, then bent down and pressed his mouth to Milo’s forehead, and her throat clogged with emotion at the sweetness of the gesture.

  Oh, she loved him.

  And she loved Milo, too.

  She moved past Bowie and kissed Milo’s forehead, too, heart aching. She tried to burn the scent of clean pajamas and his grape no-tears soap and shampoo into her memory.

  “I’m so glad he’s okay,” she whispered.

  “Thanks to you,” Bowie said.

  She knew that wasn’t necessarily true. Someone else would have found him, but she was grateful some instinct had guided her in that direction.

  “I should go,” she finally said, after they both left Milo’s side and returned to the hallway. “I have a...long day of travel tomorrow.”

  “We need to talk about that,” he said.

  Yes. She needed to tell him she was sorry, that she had lied, but she didn’t know where to start.

  “I’ve been thinking about Gabi,” he said, his voice firm. “I’m going to help you adopt her, and I don’t want to hear any arguments.”

  “Bowie,” she began, but he cut her off, his expression implacable.

  “Stop being so damn stubborn and hear me out. I am going to help you adopt your daughter. No strings, no ulterior motives. I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do.”

  He looked so very determined, his mouth set and his jaw firm, and she fell in love all over again.

  “Hear me out. Caine Tech has an entire division in Bogotá, including an excellent legal team. Their specialty is obviously not family law, but they do have contacts in the system and can find reputable, honest people in Barranquilla who will guide you through. I already talked to Ben and Aidan earlier this evening, before Milo disappeared, and we set the wheels in motion. Someone will be there to pick you up when your flight lands and will help fast-track all the paperwork necessary. We’ve also been in touch with the US Embassy, and they’re prepared to fast-track her visa to the States and citizenship paperwork as soon as possible.”

  He had done all this earlier in the evening, before Milo disappeared. While she had been sitting around moping, feeling hopeless—weak and ineffectual—he had been taking action, makin
g calls, planning a strategy. Even after she lied so cruelly and told him she didn’t love him, he had been working to fix this for her, to help her achieve something dear to her heart.

  How could she continue to doubt that he truly loved her?

  “Bowie,” she began, but her voice faltered, unable to break through the logjam of emotion in her throat.

  “Save your breath. There’s a little girl down there who needs a family—who needs you—and I don’t care what it takes. We will make it happen.”

  She had been so stubborn, thinking she had to learn to count on her own strength. She did. But leaning on a man—when he was the right man, when he was good and kind and decent—didn’t make her weak.

  It made her smart.

  He loved her. The joy of it finally washed over her, cleansing away all the stupid mistakes of her past.

  Bowie Callahan loved her. She wasn’t StupidKat anymore. But if she walked away from Bowie and the beautiful future they could build together with Milo and with Gabi, she would be living up to that childhood nickname and more.

  “Okay,” she finally whispered.

  He stared at her. “Okay, what?”

  “Okay. I want your help and...everything else.”

  He said nothing, just continued to study her, a wary intensity in his eyes.

  He wouldn’t make it easy for her, she suddenly realized—and he shouldn’t. He had absorbed all the risk earlier by telling her of his feelings. In return, she had shut him down cruelly. It was up to her now to shove aside her fear and her pride and offer him the only thing she could.

  “I will accept your help gratefully because it’s the best thing for me and for Gabi. More important, because...I love you.”

  He continued gazing down at her, completely motionless as if he hadn’t heard her, and for one fragile, tenuous moment, she wondered if she had just made a horrible mistake.

  No. She wouldn’t believe that. He loved her. He said he did. Despite the hard circumstances of his childhood—or maybe because of them—Bowie Callahan was a man of honor and integrity.

  He wouldn’t have said the words if he didn’t mean them wholeheartedly.

  She stepped forward and touched his face, the lean, beautiful sculpted features of the man she loved so deeply.

  “I am sorry I lied to you earlier. So sorry. I was a coward. I’ve messed up so many times before and was terrified I would do it again—only this time, it would matter. This time it would devastate me. I love you, Bowie. I’m so sorry I lied and hurt you. If you give me another chance, I swear I’ll find some way to make it up to you.”

  Silence. Those blasted crickets.

  She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, her heart flayed open to him and her fingertips absorbing the heat of his skin. A few seconds? A lifetime?

  Just when she was beginning to think it was too late, that she had ruined any possible chance for her happy-ever-after, his mouth lifted into a sweet, beautiful smile overflowing with more tenderness and love than she could ever have imagined.

  “That sounds promising,” he murmured. He shifted his mouth and brushed his lips against her fingertips where she touched his face, then reached for her.

  With a sob of relief, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely.

  “I meant it, you know,” she said, a long time later. “I love you, Bowie. When I came back to Haven Point, I vowed I was done with men, that I was only going to focus on Gabi and the life I wanted for us together. But then you and Milo worked your way into my heart, and I realized there is more than enough room there for everyone.”

  “Good,” he said, so much joy and tenderness in his eyes she nearly wept again. “Because we’re not going anywhere. I love you and I know I’ll love Gabi, too. I can’t wait to meet her.”

  Of course she had to kiss him again after that. A long time later, she was in his arms on the sofa, both of them out of breath and disheveled.

  “I love you,” he murmured again, and she knew she would never tire of hearing it. “When I moved to Haven Point, I never expected to fall in love, but from the moment I met you in the produce aisle at the grocery store, somehow I knew my heart would never be the same. You know you’re going to have to marry me, right?”

  She stared at him, completely astonished. “M-marry?”

  He shrugged against her. “Not tomorrow or next week but eventually. Gabi and Milo will have enough challenges to face in this world. They’re going to need both of us to help them do that.”

  It wouldn’t be easy, she knew, emotions overflowing into tears as she kissed this man she loved with everything inside her.

  Life wasn’t easy. But they could face those challenges together.

  EPILOGUE

  SERENITY HARBOR HAD been invaded.

  Bowie stood in the doorway, taking in the chaos that had exploded in his backyard.

  Children and dogs seemed to be everywhere, running, laughing, barking. Gabi and her cousins played a heated game of tag, joined by what seemed like every dog in town but was really only Rika, Hondo and Gabi’s cousins’ little pooch, Sadie.

  At least thirty people sat in clusters talking or laughing, and more bustled in and out of the house carrying food to the long tables set up on the edge of his terrace while the delectable smell of perfectly charred meat wafted into the air from the vicinity of Bowie’s barbecue grill, where Ben, Aidan and Marshall fought over the tongs and chief grill master rights.

  Katrina brushed past him carrying her delicious fruit salad, and he stopped her long enough to sneak a quick kiss. His wife of six months stole his breath every single time he saw her, and he loved her more than he ever believed possible.

  “Hey! You’re going to make me drop this,” she exclaimed, though he saw her color climb and loved knowing he could still make her blush.

  “I’ll take it. Where do you want it?” he asked.

  “Thank you. Anywhere you can find room on the table.”

  He headed toward the bulging table filled with potluck offerings and topped by a huge banner made by his sister-in-law Andie and her kids that read Congratulations, Callahan Family. Underneath it were all their names: Bowie, Katrina, Milo, Gabriela, all encompassed by a big red heart.

  “Papa!” Gabi shrieked as she ran by, and he scooped her up and into his arms, this girl who had brought so much life and light and joy into his world.

  She was the reason for this party, which was a celebration of their appearance that afternoon before a family judge where Bowie formally adopted her.

  Katrina had gone through the lengthy, complicated process in Colombia the summer before on her own, though he and Milo—along with Debra Peters, who had become a cherished member of their family—had made frequent visits to see her, and they had all been together on the day Katrina finally brought Gabi back to Haven Point.

  They’d considered rushing their wedding to expedite the adoption process. A married couple had an easier time of adopting than a single woman, and his position and financial resources wouldn’t have hurt. Things might have been less complicated that way, but Bowie had sensed Katrina needed to stand on her own, at least at first. Gabi had been hers from the moment Katrina met the girl, and Bowie hadn’t felt right about swooping in and solving everything for her, though his financial resources and Caine Tech influence had certainly smoothed the process the second time around.

  “Are you having fun?” he asked Gabi now.

  “Yes,” she declared, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tight. The whole world would be a much better place if every person had someone like Gabi in his or her life to keep things in perspective.

  “Love you,” she said, kissing his cheek, and Bowie felt the sting of emotion that he didn’t bother to blink away.

  This sweet little four-year-old girl had turned wha
t had already been a pretty damn good life into something unbelievably beautiful.

  “I love you, too, pumpkin.”

  “Put me down now, por favor, Papa,” she said, her bossy tone brooking no argument. He laughed and complied. She wriggled to the ground and took off, running after Will and Chloe and the other children.

  He watched them for a moment until he caught sight of another person he loved, Milo, sitting by himself on the wooden glider bench he loved, petting his therapy dog, Cooper, a big, calm golden retriever.

  Bowie headed over and stood beside Milo. “You’re not playing tag with Gabi and your cousins.”

  Milo shook his head but said nothing. Milo’s speech had truly taken off over the last year, but he was still a man of few words. That was fine with Bowie, especially since Gabi chattered enough for the both of them.

  He had worried a little about how Milo would deal with a little sister who also had special needs—especially having to share Katrina with her. He should have known better. From the moment they met at Gabi’s orphanage, the two children adored each other. Milo, three years older, watched out for Gabi with a touching protectiveness and Gabi, in turn, dragged Milo into friendships and fun—sometimes whether he liked it or not.

  “Everything okay?” Bowie asked the little brother he thought of as a son, this unique little creature who had completely changed his life.

  The very best gift Stella had ever given him.

  “Yeah,” Milo said.

  “Then what are you doing over here by yourself?”

  The boy tilted his head in that serious way he had and studied the crowd, the other children, the various pets and babies and friends.

  “Being happy,” he said simply.

  That emotion burned again, and Bowie wiped at his eyes, not the slightest bit ashamed of it.

  “Mind if I join you?” he asked. Milo shook his head, and Bowie sat beside him, not saying anything, just savoring the moment.

  Katrina came out again, this time with a tray of hamburger buns she carried over to the grill. When she spotted them, she must have sensed the intensity in his gaze—she was good at that, the most intuitive person he’d ever known. When she walked toward them, he caught the tantalizing scent of strawberries and cream and the woman he adored.