Beautiful Storm (Lightning Strikes Book 1)

by Barbara Freethy

  He crossed the room and sat down on the bench next to her. "Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine."

  Despite her words, she stared back at him with hurt in her beautiful brown eyes. He felt his stomach tighten and a knot of emotion fill his own throat. He wanted to make her feel better. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to protect her from whatever was making her hurt, and he hadn't felt that way in a very long time.

  He understood passion and heat. Tenderness and this tightening feeling of affection were much more disturbing.

  "You've been crying," he said, wiping a tear off her cheek with the tip of his finger. "Were you thinking about your father?"

  "Yes, but that's not why I got so stupid and emotional down there."

  "Your mother was hard on you."

  "She always is."

  "She told me to tell you she's sorry."

  Alicia's eyes widened. "Seriously? What brought that on?"

  He shrugged. "I might have said something about her being out of line."

  "You defended me?"

  "I said what I thought. I don't stand by and do nothing when people I care about are being hurt."

  Her gaze met his, a question in her eyes. "You care about me, Michael?"

  "How could I not?" he countered. "Look what you've done for me."

  "Well, thank you."

  "You're welcome. So are you planning to come back downstairs or hide out up here for a while longer?"

  "I haven't decided yet." She let out a sigh. "I don't like myself in Texas, Michael. I come into this house, and I'm not me anymore. I'm the teenage girl I used to be. I'm the one who disappoints my mother. It's annoying."

  He smiled, relieved that she wasn't as emotionally distraught as he'd anticipated. But then, Alicia had a way of rebounding quickly when life knocked her down.

  "I like you in Texas, Alicia. In fact, I like you everywhere." He leaned forward and cupped her face with his hands.

  Her gaze darkened. "Michael, what are you doing?"

  "Nothing yet. But I have some ideas."

  "Distracting ideas."

  "Oh, yeah," he said, his pulse racing at her sweet scent, the thought of her lips under his again. She was so close, so very close.

  "We need to focus," she said, a desperate edge to her voice. "Remember why we're here."

  She was only repeating what he'd told himself every time her smile made his heart catch, but he didn't care about why they were here at this moment. He only cared about feeding the desire that was running rampant through his body.

  "I remember," he murmured. "But right now it's just you and me—and a moment."

  Her lips parted in what he anticipated would be a protest, but he kissed away whatever words were hovering on her lips.

  She tasted like lemonade, like summer, like his best daydream. His troubles slid away as he moved his hands from her face to her hair, running his fingers through the thick waves, holding her still so he could kiss her the way he wanted to—the way she wanted him to.

  Her arms came around his back. Her tongue invited him in. And he was more than happy to deepen the kiss.

  Passion hummed between them, lighting up his nerves, tightening his body, making him want much more than just a kiss.

  Alicia broke away first, her chest rising with each breath as she gazed at him through eyes that were bright and needy. "Michael."

  He liked the way she said his name with an intimate sweetness that made him want to make her say his name over and over and over again.

  "We can't do this," she added.

  Those words he didn't like nearly as much.

  "My mom and brother are downstairs."

  She made a good point. He sat back, his hands falling to his thighs. "Bad timing, but great kiss."

  "Yes," she agreed. "But—"

  He cut her off with a shake of his head. "We don't have time for that conversation. If we don't go back downstairs, your mother and brother will probably think we're doing what you just stopped us from doing."

  Her cheeks reddened at his words, and she jumped to her feet. "Then we better leave."

  "One second."

  "But you just said—"

  "I need a minute," he confessed.

  "Oh." She blushed and then sat back down. "I didn't know I had that effect on you."

  He smiled at the proud gleam in her eyes. "I think you knew very well."

  She smiled back and just like that he wanted to kiss her again.

  He needed a distraction. "So this was your room?"

  "Yes. I shared it with my sister Dani. This window seat was my favorite spot. I used to sit here and read or draw while I waited for my dad to come home. Things were always better when he was in the house."

  Alicia's voice filled with emotion as she turned her gaze out the window. "From here, I could see the planes coming in to land at the airport. The night he died, I sat right here, watching the lightning, feeling the thunder rumble through the house. I think I knew there was something wrong. I just didn't want to believe it. Then the police knocked on the door. Even after they told us the horrible news, it seemed like a dream. I don't think it really hit me that he was gone until a week or so later."

  "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

  "Me, too. I think of my dad often. I wish he could have seen me grow up, graduate from high school, move to a new city. I wish he could have been part of my life for longer than he was, but we don't always get what we wish for."

  "No, we don't." He still felt the loss of his mother, and he didn’t remember her in nearly the same detail as Alicia remembered her father.

  "The hardest part of losing my dad was the mystery around his death. Because they never found his body or his plane, there was always a little seed of doubt in my mind, hope that went on for months. I know that's crazy, because he was over the Gulf of Mexico when his plane went down, and the search area was huge, but it's hard to let go when you don't have proof." She looked into his eyes. "That's why you can't let go of Liliana, because you don't know what happened to her. And I think there's a part of me that wants to find her because I can't find him. That sounds ridiculous—"

  "No, I get it," he said, understanding her motives better now. "You're trying to give someone else closure, even if you can't find it yourself."

  "Exactly. And I do believe that the lightning led me to the park so I could help. Maybe that's just so I can rationalize my obsession with electrical storms, but that's the way I feel."

  "I want to believe it, too, Alicia."

  "Really?" she asked doubtfully.

  He nodded. "I've never thought much about the weather until I met you."

  "Most people don't."

  "But my father told me once that people show up in your life when you need them. At the time, he was referring to my grandfather, who hadn't paid me much attention until he decided to bail me out of jail and send me to prep school." He paused. "I feel like you showed up in my life for a reason that I can't begin to understand, but for which I'm incredibly lucky."

  She blinked her eyes against a sudden rush of tears.

  "Hey, I didn't mean to make you cry again," he said.

  "I really don't ever cry—except when I'm in Texas," she said, wiping her eyes.

  He smiled at that. "Before we go back downstairs, do you have any photos of your dad?" He glanced around the room. "Or did only boy bands make the wall? The Jonas Brothers? Really?"

  "They were cute."

  "If you say so."

  "I do have some pictures of my dad." She got up from the window seat and walked over to the bookshelf. She pulled a scrapbook off the shelf and brought it back to him. The book was weathered with age.

  "This was my dad's book from when he was in the Navy. I took it out of my mom's room after he died, and she never took it back. I don't think she liked looking at it, being reminded of the past, but it brought me comfort." She opened the first page. "Here he is on the deck of a carrier."

  "You look like
him," he said, noting the man's dark hair and eyes, the lift of his chin, the smile in his eyes. "He looks like he's ready to take on the world."

  "He was always ready to do that. He was a fearless flyer." She flipped through several more pages, pointing out important moments from her father's career, including a medal ceremony. "He received the Navy Cross for extraordinary bravery and heroism. He flew his plane into enemy territory to rescue two wounded soldiers. I remember asking him if he was scared, and he said, no, his mind was on the mission. He couldn't afford to be scared."

  "Sounds like you get your courage from him, too."

  "I like to think so. He was an incredible man. After he left the Navy, people forgot about all that he'd done, especially my mom. She was proud of him when he was serving. But when he got out, he couldn't do anything right in her eyes. They were always fighting." She paused. "I know she said downstairs that I never saw my father for the man that he was, that I only saw the hero. I could say that she never saw the hero; she only saw the man who came home late and didn't help out around the house the way she wanted."

  "She also saw her husband. That's a different relationship than the one you had with your dad, Alicia."

  "I know, and my dad wasn't perfect, but he was a good man." She turned the page and pointed to four guys standing on the tarmac of a Naval carrier. "These were some of my dad's best friends. Jerry Caldwell, a fellow pilot. Next to him is Randy Cavanaugh, a flight mechanic and on the end is Stan Baker, a radar instrument officer. Growing up, they were Uncle Jerry, Uncle Randy, and Uncle Stan. I was close to Stan's kids when we were little. I have no idea what happened to any of them. It feels like a long time ago."

  "Did you move around a lot as a kid?"

  "A few times. And there were many months when my dad was deployed, and my mom was raising us by herself. I realize now that that couldn’t have been easy. But she's a strong woman."

  "That's the nicest thing you've said about your mom."

  She made a face at him. "I do love her. She just makes me a little nuts."

  "And I have a feeling you do the same to her."

  "Yes, I do." She closed the photo album and stood up. "We should go downstairs. You volunteered to grill, remember?"

  "I remember." As he got to his feet, he put his hand on her arm as she turned to leave and said, "For the record, Alicia, it doesn't matter what state you're in. You don't need to be anyone other than who you are, because who you are is amazing. Don't let anyone put doubts in your head."

  Her eyes filled with appreciation. "That's a really sweet thing to say."

  He grimaced. "Sweet isn't what I was going for."

  She laughed. "Well, still, it was nice. Thanks for the pep talk."

  "Gotta keep my partner happy."

  "About what happened before, Michael…"

  "I know: wrong place, wrong time—again. Someday we'll get it right."

  * * *

  Alicia's nerves were still tingling when she walked out to the back deck. It wasn't only Michael's kiss that had unnerved her, it was also the personal and intimate conversation they'd shared that scared her. She hadn't opened up to anyone the way she'd opened up to Michael. She didn't know why she'd told him so much about her family, her father, and herself, but it felt good to have aired some of the old hurts.

  When they reached the table, her mother gave her a speculative look, and she couldn't stop the guilty heat that swept through her body. She really needed to get a grip, remember that she was an adult now and she didn't owe her mother any explanations.

  "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever coming back," her mom said as they sat down. "Did Michael tell you I apologized?"

  "He did. I was just showing Michael my old room, and some photos of Dad from his Navy days."

  "Of course. I'm going to start pulling dinner together," Joanna said, getting to her feet. "Are you still up for grilling, Michael? Jake almost always burns the steak."

  "Not true," Jake replied. "But I'm happy to let Michael take over. I've been the only man around this house for too long."

  "I haven't grilled in a while but I think I can pull off steaks," Michael said. "Why don't you show me what you have for spices and we'll get the meat ready?"

  "Spices?" Joanna asked doubtfully. "I don't have much. I usually just throw the meat straight on the grill."

  "Well, let's see what you have."

  "You sound like you know what you're doing," Joanna said.

  "I was raised by a chef. Some things stuck." He sent Alicia a smile before he followed her mother into the house.

  When they were alone, Jake gave her a pointed look. "So what else were you showing Michael upstairs—besides your old room?"

  "Nothing that you need to know."

  "What's the deal, Alicia? And don't give me the bullshit just friends answer. I've seen the way he looks at you, the way you look at him."

  She sighed, knowing that she really didn't have a good answer to the question. "I don't know what we are. I've only known him a short time. But I'll admit that there's something there. When I'm around him, I feel dizzy, lightheaded, like I'm walking a few feet off the ground."

  "It sounds like you're falling for him."

  "Maybe a little."

  "Or a lot."

  She met his gaze. "Right now we're mostly concerned with trying to find his friend. Anything else that might be brewing is on the back burner."

  Jake leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "Alicia, you need to be careful. You're getting into the middle of a double homicide investigation."

  "I'm just trying to find out whether it's possible someone besides Melissa Bryer could have killed Professor Bryer and that woman."

  "The wife had a strong motive, and I'm not sure I even blame her. If I found my wife in bed with another man, I'd feel like taking them both out, too."

  "Big talk from a guy who hated to go hunting with Dad," she reminded him.

  He grinned. "Well, I don't like to shoot animals for sport. But cheating spouses, that's another matter."

  "Speaking of spouses, why don't you get serious about someone, and then Mom will get off my back. You're the oldest. You need to go first, take the heat off me and Dani."

  He laughed. "Thanks, but I like my freedom."

  "Really? I remember when you were in love with Katherine. I thought you were going to get married before you got out of high school."

  A frown drew his lips into a tight line. "Yeah, well, that was a long time ago."

  "Do you ever hear from her?"

  "Not in years. But Mom likes to keep me up to date. Katherine is a doctor now, a pediatrician."

  "That's cool."

  "She always liked kids."

  "Is she still single? Because I'm guessing Mom is probably hoping you'll get back together. Katherine had a way of calming you down."

  "That's not going to happen. We were kids back then. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. Or at least I didn't know."

  She heard a note of pain in his voice and felt a little guilty for trying to deflect the conversation away from herself and onto him. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were still touchy about her. That's interesting."

  "I think you and Michael are far more interesting. What's your next step?"

  "Still trying to figure that out. We're hoping to get more information from JAG. But in the meantime, we're going to try to talk to anyone connected to Professor Bryer. That's one reason I decided to see Mom tonight. I figured she might know him from the university. She told me a little about him, but I need more. You don't know anyone who works at the university, do you?"

  "Katherine's younger brother TJ is a grad student in electromagnetic engineering at Texas A&M. Was that Bryer's department?"

  "I know he did something in engineering, but there are several departments."

  "I think TJ is a teaching assistant there. Mom told me she ran into him a few months back. That's when she caught me up on Katherine."

  "Really? I would l
ove to talk to him. I wonder if he still lives at home. He was a lot younger than Katherine, wasn't he?"

  "Yes." Jake frowned. "Judging by the gleam in your eyes, I think I'm going to be sorry I brought him up. You should back off of this, Alicia. It's dangerous."

  "I don’t think talking to TJ is going to put me in danger."

  "You're so stubborn. What's really going on here? Are you trying to prove your worth to Michael? Wait—I know the answer. It's the lightning, isn't it? You think you were called to this cause. You're as crazy as Dad was."

  "I'm not crazy, Jake, and neither was Dad. If the lightning hadn't shown me that ID tag, I never would have met Michael or come back here."

  "That was just coincidence. Look, Alicia, I've flown through some monster storms. I've seen the weather that you love so much from a lot closer than you have, and yes, it's magnificent, but it's nothing more than weather. Lightning is not a sign from the universe. You need to get over that idea. It's not sending you messages. And you're not going to suddenly see what happened to Dad in a bolt of lightning. We know what happened. A storm sent his plane into the sea. That's it."

  "I'm just not as sure of that as you are," she confessed.

  He raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You're not sure about what happened to Dad?"

  "None of us really know, Jake. We don't have any facts. And there is no body buried in the cemetery under his gravestone."

  "He's not still alive, Alicia. You can't think that."

  She didn't really think that he was alive, but with no evidence to the contrary, who really knew? "He could be stranded on some tiny island in the middle of the ocean."

  "For almost ten years?"

  "It could happen."

  "But it didn't happen. Come on, Alicia. You're too smart to believe that some miracle is going to occur."

  She shrugged her shoulders. "It's hard for me to give up on people, especially people I love. I still feel a strong connection to Dad, and I feel it the most when lightning is all around me. Whether he's alive or not, his spirit connects with me. That's just the way it is."