by Sophie Moss
She walked back into the bedroom, pulled on a pair of high heel black boots, added a pair of dangly earrings, and turned to face Della. “What do you think?”
Della pretended to wipe a tear from under her eye. “I’m so proud.”
Annie rolled her eyes, grabbing her purse and heading for the stairs before she could change her mind. “Don’t wait up.”
It was strange, Will thought, the feeling of home that swept over him as he crossed the drawbridge back to Heron Island. Even after all the years away, there was still something about this place that pulled at him, that made him wonder what his life would have been like if he’d never left.
Beside him, in the passenger seat, Colin cracked the window. A gust of cool, salty air flowed into the SUV. “I can’t believe I grew up in Maryland and I’ve never been down here.”
“Most people don’t make it past St. Michaels. Not much to attract the tourists besides peace and quiet.”
“It’s nice, though,” Colin said, gazing up at a flock of geese flying in a V-shape over the marina. Their calls filled the sky as they searched for a quiet cove to rest for the night. “Not that Annapolis is that big of a city, but it still seems like everyone’s in such a hurry all the time. It feels good to get away.”
Will cruised down the sleepy street as the setting sun tinted the clouds orange. He felt the same way. It was hard to imagine returning to the crush of traffic in San Diego, the five lane interstates, the miles of endless sprawl.
He could breathe on this island, in a way that he hadn’t been able to for a long time.
A thin flash of refracted light drew his gaze to the porch of the white house with purple shutters at the end of the cluster of shops. The chimes shivered and swayed, catching the last rays of sunlight slanting over the island.
When the door opened and a woman stepped out of the café, it took Will several seconds to process that it was Annie. She wore a tight green dress scooped low at the neck, and cut high across the legs. Black heeled boots lifted her up several inches, making her legs seem impossibly long. Her thick red hair hung in loose waves around her shoulders, teasing the lush curves that he had been dreaming of getting his hands on for weeks now.
His mouth went dry when she bent down to fix a crooked planter on the porch step, oblivious to the vehicle that had slowed in the street.
“Damn,” Colin murmured, rolling the window all the way down. “Who’s that?”
Apparently satisfied with the adjustment to the cheerful cluster of chrysanthemums on the steps, Annie straightened and headed down the sidewalk to where her car was parked on the street. Will could only stare as her hips swayed with every click of her boots on the cement.
Colin leaned his arm out the window to get a better look.
“Stop looking at her ass,” Will growled.
“What?” Colin’s brows shot up as his gaze swung back to Will’s. “Look who’s talking?”
“Show some respect,” he said, his voice deep and dark as he jerked the wheel and slid into a parking spot a few cars behind her rusted Honda.
The look of shock on Colin’s face slowly morphed into a knowing smile. He looked back at Annie. “So that’s her.”
“What are you talking about?” Will snapped distractedly, already climbing out of the driver’s seat.
“The woman who’s complicating things for you,” Colin answered.
Will glanced back, just for an instant, before slamming the door and stalking down the street to where she was fitting the key into her car door. Complicated didn’t even come close to explaining the conflicting emotions that were pumping through him with every step closer to the woman who’d said she wouldn’t date until things settled down for her and Taylor on the island.
But where the hell else would she be going dressed like that?
“Hot date tonight?” he asked, his voice calm and controlled, not betraying a hint of the jealousy burning inside him.
Annie dropped the keys, startled. Her hand flew to her heart. “Will,” she said, whipping around to face him. “I didn’t even see you there.”
He leaned down, picking up her keys.
Nerves simmered just beneath the surface of her skin, flushing her neck and chest with color. “I didn’t realize you weren’t home,” she said, glancing uncertainly at the man in the passenger seat of his car. “I was just on my way to the inn.”
To the inn? He looked down at her outfit, drinking her in with his eyes. “Dressed like that?”
She blushed, running a hand through her hair. The smell of vanilla drifted toward him, driving him crazy. “Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked up at him, confused. “To see you.”
“Where’s Taylor?”
“At a friend’s house.”
“For the night?”
Annie nodded.
Will’s heart began a slow dull thud. She wasn’t going out on a date with another man. She’d been on her way to see him, to spend the night with him. His hand felt heavy as he reached for her. He drew her close, until her soft curves molded with the hard length of his body.
A gull cawed, circling above them in the fiery sky. He dipped his fingers into her hair as his mouth claimed hers. Her full lips parted, melting under his. He drank in the taste of her, riding that sweet wave of longing until he caught the sharp sultry edge of her perfume and thought he’d go mad.
“Will,” Annie breathed, pulling back slightly.
He held her close, unable to let her go. He was aware of a few people on the sidewalk passing by and staring. Let them, he thought, his fingers twisting into the silky strands of her hair.
He wanted to take her home, strip her out of that dress and have her naked and under him for the rest of the night. But he’d invited Colin to the island. He couldn’t ditch out on his friend. “How do you feel about oysters?”
“Oysters?” she asked breathlessly.
“For dinner.”
“That sounds good.”
“I invited a friend to the island for a few days.” His thumb stroked the soft curve in her throat where her pulse jumped. He wanted to kiss her there. He wanted to spend the rest of the night discovering all the places that would drive her crazy. He wanted to take his time exploring every inch of her body. “We were on our way to meet Becca and Ryan at Rusty’s. Will you join us?”
She nodded, her green eyes still filled with desire for him, her lips still slightly swollen from his kiss. “Let me go upstairs and change first. I’ll meet you there.”
“You look perfect.” You are perfect.
“I can’t go to Rusty’s dressed like this.”
“Yes, you can.” He wasn’t letting her go. He wasn’t going to give her the chance to change her mind.
“People will talk.”
“Let them.” His hand closed over hers, and he led her back to the sidewalk, over the carpet of leaves to the SUV.
Colin opened the passenger side door, stepping out to give Annie his seat.
“Annie,” Will said, “this is my friend, Colin Foley. Colin, this is Annie Malone.”
Annie hesitated, just for a moment, and Will caught the flash of recognition deep in her eyes.
They were both full of surprises tonight.
“It’s nice to meet you, Colin,” Annie said, offering her hand.
Colin’s eyes danced with laughter as he took her hand and lifted it. “Annie,” he said gallantly, brushing his lips over her knuckles. “The pleasure is all mine.”
Will slipped his arm around Annie’s waist as they walked through the doors, in a casually possessive gesture that had her head spinning. The restaurant was packed, a long line stretching out from the buffet where serving dishes held fried oysters, oyster fritters, oysters Rockefeller, oysters Chesapeake, steamed oysters, bacon wrapped oysters and oyster stew.
A man in a white apron stood behind a serving station, shucking raw oysters and setting them in the half shell on a bed of ice. Will leaned down, his lips grazing her
ear. “Have I mentioned how much I like that dress?”
“I think you might have,” Annie said as several women at the bar turned to stare. She spotted Becca in the buffet line and waved, trying to act normal, trying to act like her whole body wasn’t still on fire from the way Will had kissed her out in the street. They made their way through the crowd and Will introduced Colin to his friends.
Becca’s face flushed a warm shade of pink when Colin took her hand. Annie didn’t blame her. At six-foot-four, Colin towered over most of the men in the room. He had the same hard body as Will, but he’d let his midnight black hair grow out an inch or two longer. Add a pair of cool blue eyes, a strong jaw and a full mouth, and it was a pretty irresistible combination.
Well, Annie thought as Will slipped both arms around her from behind and drew her back against his warm solid chest, irresistible to most women.
Becca released Colin’s hand and glanced over at Annie. She gave Annie’s outfit a once over and wiggled her eyebrows. “Hot,” she mouthed before stepping back into line between Ryan and Colin and snagging a plate from the buffet table.
Annie turned her face up to Will’s, lowering her voice. “Why didn’t you mention Colin was coming to visit?”
“I didn’t know he was.” Will grabbed two plates from the table and handed her one. “It was a spur of the moment decision.” They moved forward a few steps in line and the smells of lemon and butter wafted up from the steaming seafood trays. Will nudged her toward a tray of baked oysters covered in spinach, crabmeat and Parmesan cheese. “These’ll go fast, so grab a few while you can.”
She snagged two for each of them, and glanced back up at him. “Did you drive all the way to Annapolis to pick him up?”
Will added a generous slice of cornbread to each of their plates. “I met him at Walter Reed this afternoon.”
Walter Reed? The military hospital in Bethesda?
No wonder he hadn’t told her where he was going. He’d dodged all her attempts to raise the topic of PTSD since Halloween night, but maybe this was his way of reaching out. Going to Walter Reed, inviting his former teammate back to the island for a few days. Maybe if he could spend some time with other people who understood what he was going through, it would help him heal.
“He had a physical therapy appointment,” Will said, as if that explained it. He picked up a fried oyster, setting it on her plate. “I wanted to see how things were going.”
“And how are they going?”
“Good,” he said, nudging her toward the fritters. “Colin’s mastered the use of the prosthetic. He only has to go back now and then for an adjustment. We spent most of the afternoon talking to guys with injuries a lot worse than Colin’s.” His gaze darkened, dropping to Colin’s left leg where his friend’s prosthetic was hidden beneath a pair of jeans. “I wish I’d gone sooner.”
Annie followed his gaze. If it weren’t for the subtle protrusion of metal through his jeans when he walked, she wouldn’t even know Colin’s real leg wasn’t underneath. She thought about Will, and the burden he carried deep inside him. How many service men and women were back here, living among them, carrying these hidden scars?
“Though I admit,” Will murmured, his voice growing husky as he leaned down, “I may have regretted my decision to invite him down to the island when I saw you wearing that dress tonight.”
Amazing, Annie thought, that he could switch gears so quickly. He put his hand on the small of her back, leading her back to the table.
As soon as they were settled at a booth by the window with a round of drinks, Becca turned to Colin. “How long have you known Will?”
Colin reached for his beer. “We were in the same training class in Coronado, got placed on the same team afterwards.” He looked over at Will. “About ten years, I guess.”
Will nodded.
“Is the training as hard as they say?” Becca asked.
“It’s brutal,” Colin said. “But worth it.”
“What was Will like?” Becca asked, unable to hide her curiosity. “When you first met him?”
Colin smiled. “Will’s reputation in BUD/S is legendary.”
“They don’t want to hear this,” Will cut in.
“Yes, we do,” Becca argued.
Colin popped a fritter into his mouth, lowering his voice. “They called him the Escape Artist.”
“Colin,” Will warned.
“Come on, Will.” Becca laughed. “You’ve never told us anything about that time in your life.”
“He’s just being humble.” Colin leaned towards Becca. “When we were in training, Will had a knack for finding a way out of every trap, knot, or bind the instructors put us in.”
Will remained perfectly still, his hands wrapped loosely around his bottle of beer, but Annie could feel the tension simmering off him. He wasn’t proud of this, she realized. Why did it make him so uncomfortable?
“We had to do this one exercise called drown-proofing,” Colin explained as Becca hung on his every word. “Everyone dreads it. You basically have to jump into a pool with your hands and feet tied together with ropes and do a series of drills without drowning.”
Becca reached for the cocktail sauce. “That sounds awful.”
“It is.” Colin chuckled. “If you panic and someone has to rescue you, you fail. If the ropes come untied, you fail. If you can’t complete the drills, you fail. The only way to pass the test without completing all the drills is to physically break free of the ropes.” Colin grinned at Will. “Only two SEALs have ever succeeded at breaking the ropes. Will’s one of them.”
Will took a long pull from his bottle. When he set it back down on the table, he lowered his hands to the bench. Annie could see the tightly coiled muscles of his forearms, the tense rigidity of his fingers as he curled and uncurled them under the table.
“It drove the instructors nuts.” Colin laughed. “But Will always found a way to escape the worst situations they put us in, even when everyone else got trapped.” Taking a bite of cornbread, Colin launched into another story about a training exercise that had Becca and Ryan in stitches.
Annie stole a glance at Will. She knew now why he wasn’t proud of that story. He didn’t want to be the one who always escaped. He didn’t want to be the only one who’d come back from that terrible mission in Afghanistan in one piece. He’d told her himself he wished he’d been the one who’d died.
She thought about Taylor, and the guilt she still felt for being the sole survivor of the school shooting.
The noise from the bar and the voices in the dining room grew, drowning out the rest of Colin’s story as Annie looked down at where Will’s hand rested on the bench seat beside her.
She inched her hand toward him, until her smallest finger brushed against his.
Without a word, he looked down, and hooked his fingers around hers, holding onto her as if she was his rope now, and if he let go, everything would begin to unravel.
Will tossed his car keys to Colin as they strode out of Rusty’s later that evening. “Keep driving until the road ends. You can’t miss it.”
“Any particular room you want me to sleep in?”
“Pick whichever one you want,” Will said. “There’s beer in the fridge, a TV in the room off the kitchen, and DVDs on the shelves. If you decide to go out to the dock, watch the floorboards on the back porch. A few of them are rotted.”
Colin sent him a mock salute and nodded goodnight to Annie. Will’s hand closed over hers, and they crossed the parking lot to the quiet neighborhood street leading back to the café. Becca and Ryan had decided to stay for another drink at the bar, which meant…she and Will were alone.
Heading back to her place for the night.
She was the one who’d started this. She was the one who’d decided to take this step. But was she really ready? Was she really going to do this? Risk her heart like this?
It was only one night, right?
Then why did it feel like so much more?
�
��Annie.”
“Yes?”
“Look at me.”
She lifted her gaze to his. In the moonlight, his eyes seemed impossibly dark. Dark and deep and full of secrets. She couldn’t stop thinking about what Colin had said at the table, that Will could get out of any trap, any bind, any knot.
Did he see her as a trap? As someone who would tie him down, make his life complicated?
He could get out of any knot, but she was just learning how to tie them. All she wanted was to root herself to this island with as many knots as she could.
“You’re nervous,” he said.
She nodded.
He stopped walking, pulling her close under the shivering boughs of an ash tree. His hand came up, cupping her cheek. “You have nothing to be nervous about.”
But didn’t she? Didn’t she know exactly what she was getting into? There was no way she would have decided to spend the night with him if she wasn’t already halfway in love with him. And if she was already halfway in love with him, there was no way he could leave now without breaking her heart.
He ran his thumb gently over her bottom lip before his mouth lowered, brushing over hers.
Butterflies, low in her belly, began to stir. They floated up, fluttering tentatively, then flapping their wings faster, until an orange glow fanned out around her heart.
Stay.
The word pulsed inside her, a reckless hope that built with every beat of the wings.
He tugged gently at her bottom lip with his teeth and eased back. Her breath released on a sigh. “Are you still nervous?”
She shook her head.
“Good.” He smiled and slipped his arm around her waist.
They started back down the path and she focused on putting one foot in front of the other, trying to hide the fact that her legs were wobbling not from nerves now but need. They were still a few blocks away from the café, and the only sounds were the crickets chirping in the grasses and the gentle swish of falling leaves.
