Finn had thought chasing women and partying at every opportunity was a great way to spend his free time. Most people were envious of the life he lived. And that had been enough for him until he met Willow. Or rather, until he lost Willow.
Watching her walk out of his town house had been more painful than waking up on that beach a broken man. It was like she had ripped out a part of him and taken it with her. And he knew now it was his heart.
He had never been in love with a woman before, but he was pretty sure that’s what it was. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and what she was doing. He smiled remembering things she’d said to him. All of his public escapades seemed frivolous and stupid compared to a private life lived with her. She made him a better man, which was no easy task.
Everything about her was so amazing. And special. She wasn’t just some cookie-cutter debutante. Willow was one of a kind. And he loved her.
Now he just had to find a way to prove to her that it wasn’t too risky to love him back.
* * *
For the first time since Willow bought her house, it felt empty. Doc would be coming by later to bring Shadow home, but until then, it was just her and the rooms that seemed larger and more cavernous than she remembered. Big and abandoned.
It didn’t help that the house had been left in a state of disarray. They’d basically gone to Seattle for the day to see the doctor and unexpectedly had never come back. She’d briefly returned to the house to pack some things for Charleston, but she hadn’t had time to do much else. Finn’s blanket was folded up in the recliner he’d loved to sit in. His empty coffee cup was still on the end table. Breakfast dishes were in the sink from that morning. Her notes from her latest book were scattered around her desk. It made it almost seem like Finn was still around. Like he would step out of the bedroom at any moment and ask her for some shampoo.
She had been alone in the house for far longer than she had ever been with Finn, but he had blended so seamlessly into her life, it was as though he’d always been around. People had always asked how she could live out here by herself, but it hadn’t seemed to bother her. Maybe she just hadn’t known what she was missing. But now, with Finn on the other side of the country, she truly felt alone here for the first time in her life.
Willow lowered herself into the recliner and gathered his blanket into her arms. Taking a deep breath in, she could smell Finn’s scent lingering in the soft fabric. She could imagine burying her face in his neck and drawing in that same smell as she kissed his warm skin. Without much trouble, she could once again feel the stubble along his jaw as it grazed her throat.
Sitting back, she closed her eyes and tried not to let herself get upset again. She’d managed to hold her emotions in check until she was out of Finn’s sight. She even made it onto the plane. But somewhere over Tennessee, Willow had started crying and couldn’t stop until they were nearly to Salt Lake City. She always thought the people in first class lived such charmed lives. She was wrong.
At least about herself and her happiness. Willow had set herself up to fail in this situation. The moment she’d laid eyes on the beautiful, unconscious Finn, she knew she shouldn’t get attached to him. She had a million different reasons, but the idea was the same—she needed to keep her distance or she would get hurt. She needed to protect herself and her heart. Without knowing the first thing about him, she knew that handsome face would never be hers.
To think otherwise was to court disaster.
And here, as she looked around her living room, was the disaster area. Ground zero. This was where she’d shared details of her life with Finn and he’d kissed her for the first time. Even as she’d pulled away from him, she’d known that a line had been crossed in her mind and her heart. A point of no return. Every moment she spent with Finn after that would only get her in deeper and deeper until she drowned.
And now she was all alone and hopelessly in love with a lying playboy she would never see again.
No. That wasn’t exactly right. Truth be told, Willow was in love with Jack. The problems hadn’t truly started until Jack morphed back into Finn. Until then, things between them had been simple and pure, somehow. Now their relationship was tainted by Finn’s lies.
Willow was about to go into the kitchen and deal with the mess they’d left behind when she heard her house phone ring. She picked it up quickly, figuring it was Doc on his way over with the dog.
“Hello?”
“Where have you been, Willow? I’ve called the house almost every day for a week and no one has answered until now.”
Willow frowned at her phone. It was her sister, Rain, who rarely if ever called, much less called repeatedly. “Is Joey okay?” she asked. The only reason she could think her sister might call that much was if there was an emergency with her young nephew.
“Joey is fine. We’re all fine. You’re the one I’m worried about.”
“There’s no reason to worry about me, Rain. I’ve been on a trip for a few days. Why didn’t you call my cell phone? I had it with me the whole time.”
Rain sighed into the receiver. “Willow, I don’t know your cell phone number. Why should I bother when you never leave the house? I don’t even know why you have one, to be honest. Do you get reception in the middle of nowhere?”
“I leave the house,” Willow said, but it was a weak argument. Before Finn showed up in her life, she really only left the house to take walks with Shadow and to get food and supplies in Victoria. People rarely called on it, but the cell phone did work, despite her sister’s concerns. “I’ve been in South Carolina for almost a week.”
There was a long silence. “Why were you in South Carolina? Was there some mystery-book thing you forgot to tell me about? A book signing or something? I forget that you’re a famous author sometimes.”
“No, it wasn’t for a book. It was a last-minute trip to Charleston. A vacation of sorts. I just got back into town last night pretty late.”
“A vacation? By yourself?”
Willow’s jaw tightened, holding in the words. They weren’t super close, but since she’d gotten sick, her older sister had attempted to take a motherly role. She knew that Rain wouldn’t give up until she knew everything that was going on in her life. But that didn’t mean she was going to spill about Finn at the first prompting. It was a long story with a painful ending and she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell it yet.
“I was invited by a friend.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So how is Joey doing?” she asked in a weak attempt to change the subject.
“He’s two. He’s on the warpath destroying everything he can get his hands on. Steve wants to have another one, but I’m not sure I’m ready to start again. Now, who is this friend? Someone from the island?”
“Sort of.”
“Sort of? Why are you being so difficult, Wil? What’s going on that you don’t want to tell me? Your cancer hasn’t come back, has it? You did everything humanly possible to keep that from happening.”
“No. No, my last scan was clear. I’m perfectly healthy.” Just heartbroken.
She heard her sister audibly sigh in relief. “Then what is it? Something is going on, so tell me or I’ll waste your whole afternoon. Or worse, I’ll get on the ferry and come out there where you can’t avoid me. You can’t lie to my face, Willow. I can read you like a book.”
“Fine, fine,” Willow said, giving in. She really didn’t want Rain showing up on her doorstep right now. “Did you read about the John Doe in the papers? The guy that just washed up out of nowhere with amnesia and no one knew who he was?”
Between the hospital’s call to help identify Finn and Sawyer’s attempts to find him, the story had made its way into the papers. She supposed it was just as well they had left Seattle before the reporters could swarm them with questions.
“I think Steve mentioned something about that. He pays more att
ention to the news than I do. What about him? Do you know him?”
“Well, yes and no. I didn’t know him before his accident, but he actually washed up on my beach. Shadow found him when we were on a walk. Then we had that awful storm, so I was stuck taking care of him until we could get him to a hospital.”
“I don’t think I like the idea of some stranger at your house, Wil. Why didn’t you say something?”
“What were you going to do? The ferries weren’t running.”
“Wait, I remember the story now. Didn’t the papers say the guy had turned out to be some missing billionaire from that awful plane crash right before the storm?”
“That’s the same man, yes. Once they figured out who he really was, I went with him back to his home in Charleston to make sure he got settled in okay. He didn’t have his memory back and he needed some support. Then I came home. That’s all there is to it.”
“You went home with him. To the East Coast? That’s not a quick trip. There’s more to this than you’re telling me.”
“There is. And I’m sorry, Rain, but I just got back and I’m not really ready to talk about it yet. A lot of things have happened and I’m still working through it all.”
“You love him.”
How could she know? Her sister had a sixth sense about these things that had made Willow crazy growing up. “Yes, but it doesn’t matter. It’s over.”
The slam of a car door outside caught her attention. “Listen, Rain, I’ve gotta go. Doc’s pulling up outside with Shadow.”
“Okay,” her sister said with a dubious tone. “But this isn’t over. We’re going to talk more about this guy when you’re ready.”
“Whatever you say.” Willow hung up the phone and got up from the recliner. Looking out the front window, she could see her enthusiastic dog leap from the cab of Doc’s truck and run straight for the door with a loud woo of excitement.
Willow smiled and walked to the front door to greet him. She’d missed her fluffy boy these past few days. Maybe she’d let him sleep in the bed with her tonight.
She could use something to hold on to so she didn’t feel so alone.
Twelve
It took two weeks for Finn to get his life in order. It was longer than he wanted, but upending his entire life would take a little time if he was going to do it properly. He started by gathering his family to make an announcement. He spoke quickly and firmly so they knew it wasn’t up for debate. His memory had returned. He was resigning from Steele Tools and going to Washington State. Hopefully, to be with Willow, if she’d have him. But either way, he was done with his life as it was before the accident. No one protested. He hoped it was because they realized he’d finally found some direction in his life.
Next, he put his town house on the market and the desirable property sold in a day. Then he sold the Ferrari. He donated most of his furniture and household things and packed what was important, which was surprisingly little. He took a few boxes to Sawyer and Kat’s place and they agreed to ship them to him when he was ready. With a single suitcase, he boarded a commercial flight to Seattle and hoped for the best.
It was a bold step on Finn’s part. He hadn’t spoken to Willow since she walked out of his town house and flew home. But he knew that it would take bold steps to prove to her that he was serious. Serious about her and serious about the life he wanted them to start together.
He made a few stops in Seattle, the last being a boatyard near the coast. The salesman was stunned to have Finn walk onto his lot, point out a small but luxurious yacht model he’d had his eyes on for quite a while and hand him a check. The next morning, Finn and his new yacht were in the water and on the way to Shaw Island and his future.
Finn had always wanted his own boat. His parents had a large yacht—License to Drill—they took out for holidays and trips from time to time, and some of his best memories had been from those trips. Now that he was hoping to live on an island, it was the perfect time to buy one of his own, albeit much smaller. It would be practical, fun, and if he’d read her all wrong and Willow slammed the door in his face, he would at least have a place to live.
It was about ten in the morning when he rounded the shore near Willow’s home where she had found him that first day. As he pulled up to her unused dock, he heard a familiar howling in the distance. He smiled. She and Shadow were on their walk.
Finn tied up the boat and stepped off onto the dock. His heart pounded loud in his chest as he walked across the worn boards to the grassy outcropping that separated the wooded area from the beach.
A moment later, Shadow leaped from the trees and made a beeline straight for him. Finn crouched down and welcomed the dog, who thankfully was happy to see him. Hopefully his mama would be, too. He accepted a few kisses and scratched the dog behind his ears as he vocalized excitedly.
“Shadow!”
The dog immediately turned and ran back to the trees, where he greeted Willow. She, however, barely took notice of the dog. Her eyes were glued on Finn. She was instantly stiff, as though she’d encountered a bear on her walk instead of the man she loved.
“Hello, Willow,” he said.
The line between her eyebrows deepened as her gaze danced between him and the beautiful boat just behind him. “What are you doing here, Finn?”
He took a step closer to her, and she didn’t move away. “I came to talk to you.”
“You rich people are so dramatic. You fly cross-country and charter a yacht to come out here, when you could’ve just picked up a phone.”
Finn shook his head. “What I needed to say couldn’t be said over the phone. It needed to be done in person.”
She narrowed her gaze suspiciously, but waited to hear what he had to say. “Say it, then. I’ve got a lot of work to do today.”
She hadn’t run excitedly into his arms and blanketed his face in kisses, but she hadn’t slapped him and walked away, either. He took that as a positive. “I love you, Willow. There are a lot of other things I could say, but that is the most important one. You are the first and only woman I’ve ever loved. And not just because I don’t remember. I remember everything, and nothing from my past has ever measured up to you.”
Her lips parted in surprise for a moment, but she held her ground. “I know you think that you mean what you say, but I’m not so certain.”
“You don’t think I love you?”
“I think that returning to your old life and all your old memories was hard for you. Having to face who you’ve been and what you’ve done couldn’t be easy. I imagine it’s easier to run off to a faraway place and avoid reality for a little while longer.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing?” Finn asked. “Running from my life?”
She shrugged. “You tell me.”
“No. I’m running to my life, Willow. I realized that the life I had in Charleston was full of excitement and fun, but it meant nothing. I’d very nearly been wiped from the face of the earth in that plane crash and in the end, it hadn’t really mattered if I lived or died. Sure, my family would be sad that I was killed, but it wouldn’t change much, because I hadn’t contributed much. I took and took, and I never gave anything back. And until you came into my life, I hadn’t cared. But you made me want something more.”
She watched him warily as he spoke. “When you were here before, you didn’t know anything about your life. You were happy with soup and cereal, and walks in the woods. It’s a simple life on this island. How do I know you won’t get tired of slumming out here in the real world? That you won’t decide to run back home and be a rich playboy again when things aren’t going your way?”
“I don’t have anything to run home to, Willow.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and scoffed. “You have that big, beautiful house overlooking the harbor. That fancy sports car—”
“It’s all gone,” he interrupted. “I
sold or gave away almost everything I had. The art, the furniture, all of it. But even if I hadn’t, it was just stuff. Once you left my house, it became glaringly obvious that it was just a big house full of things. The only memories that mattered were the ones I made with you, and it didn’t mean anything without you there with me.”
“You sold all your stuff, but you kept that cheap T-shirt and sweatpants I bought you?”
Finn looked down at the outfit he’d chosen to wear today. His San Juan Islands T-shirt and black sweatpants were perfect for a brisk day out on his boat. They were also a reminder of a happier time for him. “Of course I kept these. I kept everything that you bought for me.”
Willow bit at her bottom lip. He could tell that her resolve was starting to wear thin. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to love him. He could see it. She was just scared to trust him. He’d hurt her and he couldn’t expect the past to be wiped away as easily as it had before.
“So, you think you can just show up in that cheap T-shirt and say a lot of romantic things and I’ll just forget about everything you did, right?”
“No. I don’t expect you to forget. I know firsthand that forgetting just hides away the past—it doesn’t deal with it. I only hope that in time, you can forgive. I’m not going to stand here and make excuses for why I lied to you. In the end, all I ended up doing was to drive you away when that was what I was trying so hard to avoid in the first place. But once you were gone, I realized it was far more serious than just wanting you there with me. I needed you with me. And not just to hold my hand through hard times. I need you because I love you, Willow. You took a part of me with you when you left that day, and no amount of money or women or alcohol would ever change that.”
Willow swallowed hard and shook her head in disbelief. “You just gave up your whole life for me?”
Promises from a Playboy--A secret billionaire with amnesia romance Page 14
