Barefoot Bay_Paradise by Design

by Barbara Barrett

  Keegan grimaced. Knowing Drew’s reticence for anything public since the scandal surrounding her dad had broken, there was no way she’d agree to an interview. The only good point was that it would shorten the time they’d spend at her villa.

  Good point? Was he afraid to see her again? No way. He was a grown man. She was a major chapter in his past life. Of course he could face her; he just didn’t know what he’d say or how he’d react. That’s what had been plaguing him ever since he’d run into her earlier. He didn’t have time or brain power enough to dwell on seeing her again while he was trying to decide whether to sign the contract for the next season.

  A little while later, one of the staff stopped by with a generous supply of flashlights and batteries and informed them the entire complex was supported with a back-up generator. “The phone you’ve been using to order meals will still work, even if the power goes off briefly. Don’t be afraid to use it if you need help.”

  As predicted, the storm arrived around three in the morning. With nasty repercussions. First, the high winds took out the electricity. The four of them resembled a burlesque routine as they bumped into each other in the dark, attempting to find the flashlights, having invested their planning time working out the schedule for the next two days rather than dealing with emergency preparedness.

  Then came the thunder and lightning. Though Clay had designed the villas to take the worst the weather gods offered, including hurricanes, still, Tony, jumped at every flash and crawled under the dining table to wait for the power to return.

  Just as they were growing accustomed to the constant rumbling and flickering, lightning struck a tree not far away. Fortunately, it didn’t burst into flame but simply fell apart, the top dropping to the ground with a splintering snap.

  Bo peeked out the curtains. “Whew, that was close. Think I may join Tony.”

  Before he got there, however, frantic knocking on the door competed with the storm sounds. Keegan raised a brow. “What the…”

  Who’d be out in this downpour? He opened the door to a bent-over Drew, panting and soaked completely through. Ironic twist of fate from earlier in the day.

  He yanked her into the entryway, pleased and frightened at the same time. “Good God, Drew. What were you doing out there?”

  She struggled to gain her breath, swiped sodden tendrils of shoulder-length hair from her face. Then she noticed him and blinked. “Dad.”

  For a second, Keegan thought she’d confused him for Honeywell. Then realization hit. “What about him? Where is he?”

  She sucked in air, blew it out, straightened. “He’s hurt. Please. Help.”

  “Okay?” Keegan covered her in bath towels Ainsley provided. “Is he back in your villa?”

  She nodded, reached for his hand, four years of separation momentarily forgotten. “Come.”

  He’d never seen her so scared, even during the dark days of her dad’s difficulties. “Okay. You stay here with Ainsley and the three of us will go.”

  “No! He needs me. I shouldn’t have left him, but I didn’t know what else to do. The main building was too far.”

  “Then we’ll all go,” Ainsley said, already donning a windbreaker.

  By the time they reached Drew’s villa, the back-up generator had kicked in. They found Burgess Honeywell crumpled on the floor. A large, bloody goose egg protruded from one side of his scalp. Tony, the one they turned to for first aid expertise due to his medical corpsman duty in the Army, checked the man’s pulse. “He’s conscious but barely.”

  Keegan knelt on the floor next to Drew’s father. “Mr. Honeywell? Can you hear me?”

  “Umm.” A weak murmur, but at least he was conscious.

  Drew joined Keegan and Tony on the floor by her father. “Don’t move, Dad. Stay where you are.”

  She received a slight moan in response.

  Ainsley returned to the group. “I called the main desk and asked them to send medical help.”

  Tony glanced up at the others. “Until they get here, someone get a blanket to cover him.”

  Within minutes, Chuck Wilder, the on-site nurse, examined the patient. At length, he took in the two women. “Registration records show his daughter is here with him. One of you her?”

  Drew leaned closer. “I’m his daughter, Drew. Is he going to be okay?”

  “You never can tell with head injuries. He needs to be checked for a concussion at the hospital on the mainland.”

  Keegan wrapped Drew in a blanket to stop her shaking. “On the mainland?” she asked. “Go there in the middle of this storm?”

  “We don’t have the experts or equipment here, ma’am,” Wilder responded while he texted something on his phone.

  Only then did she appear to notice the rest of the group. “You’re all wet too. There’s plenty of towels in the linen closet.”

  “Don’t worry about us,” Ainsley said. “Take care of your dad.”

  Keegan exchanged Drew’s blanket for his windbreaker and borrowed Tony’s sweatshirt for himself. “You guys can get along without me for a few hours. I’m going with them.”

  Chapter Five

  “Drew, wake up. The doctor is here.”

  At Keegan’s touch, Drew blinked her eyes several times before she could keep them open, her throbbing joints reminding her she’d slept upright in an extremely uncomfortable chair the last few hours. It was six in the morning. They’d been at the hospital a little over two hours, during which time her dad had been whisked away for an MRI and other tests.

  A guy in green scrubs stood before her. After introducing himself as the emergency doctor, he went immediately into a prognosis. “I’ve stitched up the wound. A preliminary CT scan shows no damage to the skull, but I want to hold him here for a day just to be sure there’s no concussion, or if there is, treat it. Now that we have some idea of the extent of his injury, we can put him on light pain medication. I don’t want him to sleep yet, so this will keep him comfortable yet awake.”

  “Th-thank you, doctor.” She stuttered her words because she hadn’t been able to warm up, even with the dry clothes she’d hastily changed into before leaving the island. She had a basic idea what he’d told her but struggled to absorb the meaning. Still, she was able to take her first full breath since the accident.

  Keegan went off with the doctor. Though this situation didn’t appear to be as serious as her mother’s accident, all Drew had been able to think of during the ride here and then what seemed like an interminable wait was how much she didn’t want to lose her father.

  Not until one, then two, then several teardrops dripped from her face, did she realize she was crying. She hunted through her purse seeking something to wipe her eyes but couldn’t find anything. A hand clutching several tissues appeared before her face. Keegan had returned unnoticed. “Thanks.”

  “Want me to leave you alone?”

  “I’m fine if you stay, so long as you can tolerate my blubbering.”

  “Hey, you’ve done great throughout this emergency.”

  She slumped her shoulders. “Great, right. I’m almost thirty and had little idea how to help him. I put you all in danger, bringing everyone back to the villa with me in the middle of the storm. Any one of us could’ve been struck by lightning.”

  “But we weren’t.”

  “About that? I, uh, ran to the nearest villa. I didn’t know it was where you were staying until you opened the door.”

  Keegan settled his head against the back of the couch, stretched out his lengthy frame. “I wondered how you managed to find me in the middle of a torrential downpour when you couldn’t even open the door to me in good weather.”

  She made a face. “I’m sorry about that. I reacted out of shock. You were gone before I came to my senses.”

  “You probably thought, well, never mind. Thanks for agreeing to let my crew film the inside of your villa.”

  “Once I learned who and what it was for, it seemed the right thing to do.”

  He regarded h
er, his dark blue eyes softening, clouding. He lifted his hand as if to touch her, then withdrew it. “It’s been a long time, Drew.”

  Until now, the hours since she’d sought help at his villa had played out like a drama where she’d been a first responder along with Keegan, his team, the nurse and now the hospital staff. The focus had been on saving Burgess Honeywell, not a reunion. Now Keegan’s inky blues reminded her more was happening here. After all this time, they were once again talking to each other. What she said, how she treated him today could mark a turning point in her life.

  That look from him, the one meant only for her signaling intense awareness, had her throat going as dry as crackers without cheese. Breathing became a task as her insides turned to mush. That much hadn’t changed.

  He’d opened the door to reconciliation a tiny bit. Should she open it farther? She tried to gaze into those mesmerizing eyes, but it wasn’t an easy task without getting lost there once again. “You haven’t changed much other than you look even better than you did back then.”

  He chuckled. “Gotta stay in shape to keep my job, but thanks.” Now he did touch her hair, tugged a stray lock behind her ears. “You cut your hair. Looks good shorter.”

  Delicious waves of heat curled through her abdomen. “I needed a change after…”

  “We don’t have to talk about back then if you’d rather not.”

  “It’s time. I owe you more of an explanation.”

  He lowered his lids, as if considering whether he wanted to hear. But then he eyed her again. “Okay.”

  “Calling off our marriage was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, Keegan, but I hoped we’d at least end things as friends.”

  He lifted a brow. “Really? Then why did you refuse to see me when I returned the next day?”

  What had he said? The awakened attraction swirling through her body screeched to a halt. She opened her mouth but didn’t speak.

  He picked up on her confusion. “I came to see you the next day, sure once you thought through the finality of your decision, you’d reconsider.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  Keegan wrinkled his forehead, leaned forward. “Yes, I did. I spoke with your mother. You were in your room. When she returned from checking with you, she was all apologetic-like but said you thought it best we not see each other again.”

  Drew shook her head. “I had no idea.” Her voice had gone quiet. If this was true, and she had no reason to doubt Keegan, her mother had changed the course of her life. The implications of what might have been had her mother not interfered struck with the impact of the storm they’d just survived. Her chest felt like it had been pummeled. Don’t go there. What’s past is past.

  While hospital operations continued around them, they each sat absorbed in his or her reflections about their missed opportunity. Drew was vaguely aware of a dinging in the background, visitors and staff drifting in and out of her horizon, but her mind was elsewhere. If she’d talked to him that day, would their lives have taken a different course?

  Keegan finally broke the silence. “Would you have sent me away if you’d known?”

  She stared at her hands. “I can’t say. It’s so long ago. Memories of those days are distorted by the events that followed.”

  He bounded from his seat, stood before her. “I need to walk. Come with me. We won’t go far in case the staff needs to find you.”

  She hadn’t been alone with Keegan, hadn’t talked to him since that fateful day. Now he’d invited her to stroll the hospital corridors with him. Like they’d never been apart and walking together was an everyday thing.

  Why not? She couldn’t stay in this uncomfortable seat a minute longer. She joined him but didn’t take his hand, keeping a foot of space between them. They made their way down a nearby hallway until they reached the “sun” room. Outside, the rain continued, though at a less intense pace than before. Gray morning light penetrated the mist, matching her mood.

  Alone, away from others’ ears, Keegan pulled up and faced her. “Your dad was proven innocent and mine lost his bid for governor within a year of our break-up. Why didn’t you seek me out then?”

  She related the details of her mother’s accident and the subsequent months before her death. “With the partnership dissolved, Dad was just starting over, attempting to convince his old clients to stick with him. He was in no shape to handle the 24/7 care my mother required. I had to step up. I couldn’t leave them.”

  Keegan ran a finger around the top of a flowerpot. Examined the leaves of the ficus. “I was already traveling the globe by then. I sent get-well wishes to her through your dad. And later…”

  “When she died, you can say it. It was a blessing, actually. She’d been in so much pain and was confined to bed all that time. It took a while for me to shift gears after her death, but eventually, I was ready to move on.”

  “And that would be to where?”

  “Fabricating women’s accessories. I quit my job at the fashion house during Dad’s problems. Too hard to concentrate and too many supposedly sympathetic co-workers who asked prying questions so they could be the center of gossip. But I needed something to do while I stayed at home with Mom, so I started making purses. Then shawls and kimonos. Things like that. Occasionally I’d design and make an outfit for a friend.”

  “That what you’re here for now?”

  “No. Dad asked me to put his notes together from back then.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “The Feds aren’t done with him?”

  “He says he wants me to have all the facts, to protect myself in the future.”

  Keegan nodded, whether he saw the sense of the plan or just to move on, she wasn’t sure.

  “Why didn’t you discuss calling off the wedding with me before you decided?”

  An inevitable question. He was bound to ask. “You know the answer to that. I didn’t want you and your family to suffer from the scandal, and I thought if I told you as much, you’d try to convince me otherwise.”

  “That probably would’ve happened. But don’t you think you owed me that opportunity?”

  She released a sigh. “Of course, I did. I knew that even then.”

  He cocked his head. “Then why…”

  “Miss Honeywell?” a woman’s voice said from the doorway. “Your father has been admitted to the hospital and taken to a room.”

  “How is he doing?” Drew asked.

  The woman—must have been an aide—gave a slight smile. “You’ll need to talk to his doctor about that, but you can also ask your father yourself. He wants to see you.”

  “Go ahead,” Keegan said. “I’ll stick around.”

  She didn’t argue but followed the woman. “Don’t let all these wires and machines scare you,” the patient said as soon as she entered his room. “I feel better than I look. Just foolish for putting everyone through so much trouble in the middle of that storm. Should’ve watched where I was going.”

  “I didn’t realize the phone was connected to the main desk. I wasted valuable time, Dad. I’m so sorry.”

  He gripped her hand. “I understand. You were in a panic. Anyhow, they tell me I’m in relatively good shape. I’m all stitched up, or however they close head wounds these days. But they want to watch me the rest of the day.”

  “Then I’m staying here by your side.”

  “Actually, cookie, I want you go back to the island. There’s nothing you can do here.”

  “But Dad…”

  He shook his head. “Ouch! Can’t do that for a while. Put my notes on hold and enjoy Paradise.”

  She didn’t feel right leaving him, but the man could be quite thick-headed when he chose to be, his current injury aside. “I’m just a call away, if you need me.”

  “Keegan still here? I’d like to see him, too, before you leave.” His manner didn’t leave room for negotiation. She hadn’t seen her dad this in control in years, despite his bandaged head and being confined to a hospital bed.

  Had his injury re
vived his confidence?

  Chapter Six

  Keegan checked back with the team while he waited for Drew to return from seeing her father. Even though the rain had almost ended, it would be hours before things dried out enough for exterior shots. They planned to shoot the interior of their own villa first. In other words, they seemed to have everything under control. Good to know they could get along without him when he decided it was time to design buildings full time.

  “Keegan?” He glanced up to find Drew. She wasn’t frowning, although she wasn’t exactly all smiles either. If anything, she appeared anxious from the way her gaze seemed to be focused over his shoulder.

  “Back already?”

  “He wants to see you before you leave.”

  Really? He hadn’t talked to Burgess Honeywell since the man’s business troubles erupted, although Honeywell had thanked the Bock family for the charitable contribution they sent in memory of Drew’s mother. “Did he say why?”

  “I guess to thank you and your team for coming to our aid this morning. He didn’t want me to stay, so I’ll wait here.”

  Stranger and stranger. Did he really want to see the man? It was one thing to come to the guy’s aid during the emergency, but was he up to chitchat now? After all, this was the guy whose blind trust in his partner had caused Keegan to lose the love of his life. Hell, his wounds had healed. Maybe it was time to restore good relations with the Honeywells. “Okay. I’ll be back soon.” He hoped.

  The injured man was sitting up in bed when Keegan arrived. He wore a bandage beret over one half of his head, and his coloring was still a bit chalky, but his appearance had vastly improved from when they’d arrived at the hospital.

  “You’re probably wondering why I asked for you, so I’ll get right to the point.” Keegan remained standing, and Mr. Honeywell didn’t indicate he should take a seat. “Thanks for coming to rescue me in the middle of last night’s monsoon. Drew kinda freaked when she thought I was unconscious, or she might have remembered the on-site phone.”