Laura raised her chin, feeling defiant. He got her. Her own sister didn’t get it, but this man, this grumpy sailor, got it. “I will. Thanks, Mark. You’re a good man.”
“Only when I’m sleeping,” he joked, and she laughed.
Laura felt buoyant for the first time in a long time. Mark really understood her. Maybe they might even be more than just a fling.
She shook her head.
No. That was cart-before-the-horse thinking. No need to get ahead of herself. They weren’t going to be a thing. She wasn’t going to let her overactive imagination plan out a happily-ever-after that wasn’t there yet. And after my big speech about guys falling in love first. Looks like I’m proving myself wrong.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Mark asked.
“Just happy that you don’t think I’m crazy for cashing in a 401(k),” she said and left it at that.
Just then, the waiter put their food down in front of them, and the two began to dig in. The meal was amazing. Laura had never had salmon that flaky, that tender and delicious. She was so engrossed in the meal that it took her a second to notice that Mark wasn’t eating. In fact, he was staring over her shoulder at the front door of the restaurant.
Laura craned to look and saw his brother, Edward, standing there, holding hands with a woman—tall, leggy, blonde and gorgeous.
Her stomach tightened. Could that woman be...?
“Mark?” Laura asked, questioning, even as she felt a little prick of dread at the pit of her stomach.
“That’s Edward and Elle,” he said, frowning. “My ex-wife.”
Chapter Sixteen
MARK WAS BEGINNING to hate this small island. It seemed he could never get away from his brother or his ex, and now here they were at the only nice restaurant on the strip. This was why he’d become a hermit, he remembered, why he took all his meals on the couch in his living room. But with Laura, he’d decided to take the risk. Now, he was regretting it. Of course he’d run into them. The island was microscopic, the restaurants few.
Edward, the smug jerk, looked just as smug as he had at the bar. Elle. Mark hadn’t seen her for months, he realized. She looked just as beautiful as ever, blond hair bleached by the sun, blue eyes soft as she glanced around the restaurant. But her belly was growing full with the baby, and he couldn’t help but notice that she was showing much more now than the last time he’d seen her.
Seeing her belly made his temper flare. How could she so easily move on? How could she have another child when Timothy was barely gone? Children weren’t like dogs. You couldn’t just replace one with another. Plus, what was to guarantee Elle wouldn’t make the same mistakes with this one? Had she really gotten her life together that fast? He doubted it.
He felt like he might choke on the bitterness. Mark watched Laura stare at the couple and wondered what she was thinking. It better not be thoughts of his brother. Even the thought of him hitting on her at the bar made his stomach tighten.
They hadn’t seen them yet. Mark and Laura were tucked away in a darker corner of the restaurant. Mark noticed that Edward was holding Elle’s hand, and the two of them looked cozy. He felt the knee-jerk jealousy, even though he was long past caring who Elle slept with.
Truth was, the day she’d let their boy walk into the ocean, part of him had just disconnected. Yes, it had hurt him when she’d turned to his brother for comfort, but it hurt more that Edward had offered it. Edward was supposed to be his brother, his blood. Still, he didn’t much need it in his face.
Elle glanced up and met his gaze. She looked startled, as if she’d forgotten he lived on the island, too. Maybe he’d been a hermit too long. Elle clutched Edward’s arm and that’s when he glanced up, a frown crossing his face. Mark felt his shoulders tense as Edward saw them, too. The couple hesitated at the hostess stand.
“I didn’t know...” Laura began. “I didn’t know she was...pregnant.” She looked visibly pained. It was one of the reasons he hadn’t mentioned it to her. He knew how the thought of other pregnancies made her sad. He didn’t want her to be sad about Elle’s—that should be a burden he alone carried.
“Yeah.” Mark stared at the tablecloth.
“Should we go?” Laura asked, not looking over her shoulder at the couple as she carefully watched his face. He could feel her eyes on him.
“No. We stay.” Mark was tired of hiding. He reached out and took Laura’s hand, squeezing it gently. He refused to care what they would do. He glanced at Laura instead. She looked uneasy.
“You sure?”
“We haven’t even finished our main course.” Mark took another bite to show how determined he was to hold his ground. He grinned at Laura, and she tentatively smiled back. That’s when he saw Edward and Elle turn and leave the restaurant, Elle practically pulling him out the door.
“They’re going,” he said and then exhaled a sigh of relief. The muscles in his shoulders relaxed, and he realized he’d tensed up, readying for a fight.
Laura swiveled in her seat, watching Elle as she ducked out of the restaurant. The couple was visible through the big glass window facing the parking lot.
“She’s really pretty,” she murmured, almost to herself.
“Yes,” Mark admitted. “But she’s not pretty to me anymore.” Not since Timothy. Not since Edward. Not since she decided to become a mother again.
“I don’t know what I expected... I...” Laura faltered.
Was she intimidated by Elle? Most women were, Mark realized. It was why she generally got the cold shoulder when most women met her. She was gorgeous, tall and thin, and it came as a surprise to no one that in her younger days she used to model. When they’d been married, she’d even mugged for the camera. He’d thought it was adorable until he realized her self-absorption with her looks and herself in general meant little room for him...or Timothy. When she’d retreated away from them so she could take her pills.
“You’re a million times more beautiful than she is,” Mark said and squeezed Laura’s hand once more. She glanced up at him, surprised.
“No, I’m not.”
“You are to me,” he said.
She sent him a hesitant smile, unsure of the compliment, but in his mind, he spoke the truth. Laura was shorter, true, and a brunette, but the spark in her green eyes, her beautiful fair skin, well, it put Elle’s freckles to shame. Besides, it was what was inside a woman that made her pretty. Mark was certain of that.
“It’s true,” he added.
She blushed a little. “Would you like dessert?” she asked him.
He grinned at her. “The kind of dessert I want isn’t on this menu.” She laughed a little, and the tension was broken.
After he paid for dinner and drove her back to the condo, he kissed her good-night outside her condo door. He wanted her—badly—but he didn’t want to make any assumptions. He would let her set the pace.
But she deepened the kiss and grabbed his shirtfront with both hands, practically dragging him into her condo. In a tornado of flying clothes, they made it to her bedroom, and they sank down on her palm-tree bedspread, neither one able to get enough of the other, their mouths hungry for one another.
“God, Laura,” he breathed, not sure if he’d ever felt this passionate about anyone, not even Elle. He wanted to be inside this woman now.
He flipped her over so she was on top, her thick dark bob swinging forward as she straddled him. She broke the kiss and sat up and he felt her delicious weight against him. He hardened beneath her pelvis as she moved slowly against him. She grinned, a look of mischief in her green eyes.
“Someone’s eager,” she said.
“You have no idea,” he murmured, feeling his whole body on fire for her.
She laughed deep in her throat, and he felt the reverberations all the way in his stomach. God, she was the sexiest woman on earth. He had no desire for anyone els
e in that moment. All he wanted was her.
He remembered her last time—wet, soft and eager and how she’d moaned beneath him, her faced flushed with pleasure as he brought her to climax. He wanted badly to do that again, to see her overtaken by ecstasy.
She put both hands on his chest. “But first, we need to talk.”
“Now?” It seemed the worst possible time to talk.
She reached behind her and grabbed the small plastic bag on her nightstand. “We should be using one of these.” She pulled a condom package from the bag.
Condoms. Of course. He should’ve thought of that. He should’ve. So why hadn’t he? Part of him knew why. He wanted to feel her bare once more. She’d been so delicious, so amazingly wet.
But condoms. That’s what they should be using.
Even though, wasn’t the horse already out of the barn? He pushed the thought away. No. Condoms were the right thing to do.
“Yes. Of course.” It was the safe, rational thing to do. They should’ve done this the first time.
“I mean, I hate these, just so you know, but we really need to...”
“I get it.” Mark wiggled out of his pants. She took the condom expertly in her hands and then slid it down the length of him. He groaned beneath her touch. Condoms wouldn’t be so bad, after all, he thought, as she lifted up her dress and pulled it over her head.
He admired her lacy bra and she slipped it off, exposing two perfect breasts. He cupped them in his hands, admiring their weight as she arched her back, pushing herself into him. She straddled him then, and he was once more inside her.
After that, he didn’t give the condom another thought.
* * *
AFTERWARD, AS THEY both lay spent and sweaty in each other’s arms, Laura grew quiet.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked as he traced her bare shoulder with his finger.
Laura hesitated, and he could feel her reluctance as she rested her head on his chest.
“Edward told me...that you had Elle arrested.”
“What?” Mark felt his blood pressure rise as his hand stopped, mid-caress. “What did he say exactly?”
Laura lifted her head and met his gaze, the look in her eyes uncertain. “That you had her arrested for neglect. Because of Timothy...”
Mark shut his eyes. He couldn’t deny it, but it’s not how Edward framed it, he was sure.
“It’s not what you think,” he said, rolling away from her. He sat up and swung his feet over the side of the bed, keeping his back to her. “I’m sure Edward painted me as a monster going after a grieving mother.” Mark felt his shoulders tighten once more. He knew the story Edward told. He told it all over the island, which was why Mark had so few friends. No one bothered to ask him his side of the story. Now here was Laura, ready to jump right in with the pitchfork crowd. Why did that hurt so much?
“What happened?” she asked, moving to him, putting her arms around him from behind. “Can you tell me? I’m not saying I believe Edward. All I’m saying is he said some bad things.”
Mark nodded, weighing whether or not he even wanted to try to defend himself. After all, what was the use? Most of the island had judged him and found him guilty.
“Mark. Please. I want to know.”
Mark sighed. He thought about the little detail Edward left out. About Elle. He still felt strangely protective of the woman, even though everyone on the island thought he had been determined to see her behind bars. That wasn’t it at all.
“It’s not really my story to tell.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
Mark hesitated and turned to face her. He had a hard time telling those green eyes no.
Laura lay back on the bed, pulling the covers up over her bare breasts. “You were the one who told me that it didn’t matter what secrets I told you, remember? I’m leaving in a couple of weeks? I told you what not a single soul other than my sister and my ex know about me, and now you’re not wanting to spill any beans? Seriously?”
He guessed she had a point there. Who was Laura going to tell? And besides, Elle wasn’t his problem anymore.
“Elle had—or, hell, probably still has—a prescription drug problem.”
Laura grew silent. “What?”
“On the island, prescriptions aren’t as regulated as they are on the mainland,” he admitted. “It’s easier to get things. Things to make you sleep. Make you stay awake or things that just make you feel...better.”
Laura listened to him, rapt. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
Mark lay back down next to her and stared at the ceiling. “No one did. Not even Edward. Although, I bet he does now.” Mark sighed, rolling over to face her.
“But she’s pregnant.” Laura sucked in a breath.
“And I hope she’s quit the pills. For now, at least.”
“But she took them. When she was with you.”
He nodded.
“We’d been fighting about how many pills she took. She needed one every night to go to sleep, and then she needed one every morning to wake up, and then she’d take a different one in the middle of the day when she was feeling bored or unhappy or whatever it was.” Mark so vividly remembered those days. How she’d be so slow to get up, so sluggish. How she wouldn’t hear Timothy cry in the middle of the night.
“What about Timothy?”
“She said she did it because Timothy made her so tired, that she needed a boost to keep up with him. She didn’t take all that readily to motherhood. She was depressed after he was born, and it never really lifted.”
“Postpartum depression. And she used the drugs to cope.”
He nodded. He took a deep breath. This next part of the story was the hardest. “I thought she was doing better, I really did,” he said. This was the excuse he always told himself. The one that made it okay that he’d left her alone that morning. “Just the week before she told me she was clean. She’d thrown all the pills away with me watching, and I thought she was done with them. But she wasn’t.” He sucked in a deep breath. “I had to go to work, and I left her, and she said she’d be fine. That she’d take Timothy to the beach, and they’d have a nice day of it.” Mark clenched his jaw, and it was almost as if his body didn’t want him to get the words out. “But I shouldn’t have left them. She hadn’t thrown them all away. She took a pill that morning. She was groggy and in a hurry and she took a sleep pill instead of an upper pill. And that’s why she fell asleep on the beach that day.”
Laura looked at him, every bit of her face registering shock.
“I didn’t want her arrested. I wanted to get her into a treatment program. But maybe I wasn’t very nice about it. Maybe I was angry, too, that she’d lied to me about being off the pills. So, yeah, I asked my friend to arrest her. I thought she’d...get help.”
Tears rimmed her eyes. He was amazed how much she was affected by the story.
“Oh, Mark. I’m...so very sorry.” She reached for him and he moved into her arms. She held him tightly.
“It’s not your fault.”
“No, it isn’t, but it’s terrible, and you shouldn’t have to have gone through that. I can’t believe Edward let the island believe you wanted to lock up your grieving wife for no reason.”
Mark shrugged. “I’m sure it’s what Elle told him, and I’m sure it’s what she told herself because the truth is probably too painful.”
Laura cradled his head against her chest. “You lost your boy and your wife all at once.”
Mark nodded into her. “But things weren’t right with Elle for a long time before that. The pills—well, I don’t even remember the woman I married, to be honest. She was long gone.”
Laura bit her lip. “I just...I just think you deserve so much better than that.”
Mark lifted his head and met her gaze, and for once in a very long time, felt
heard. He felt understood. When could he say that? Even Dave deserted him in his time of need. And his brother had done worse than that. But Laura, she understood.
For the first time, he felt a little bit of hope. Maybe he shouldn’t give up on everything just yet. Maybe Laura was right. Maybe he could still win the race.
“You really want to learn to sail? To race?” he asked.
Her eyes lit up. She nodded fiercely.
“Then what have we got to lose? Lessons start tomorrow, first thing.”
Chapter Seventeen
LAURA WOKE UP bright and early, ready to learn how to sail. She rolled over, expecting to find Mark there, but his side of the bed was empty. Where had he gone?
She pulled herself from bed, realizing she was still naked from the night before. Her muscles felt deliciously sore from all the exercise. She’d never tried so many positions in one night. Mark was adventurous, and she’d never felt as wanted or as sexy with any other man. She pulled the top sheet from her bed and wrapped it around her.
“Mark?” she called but heard no answer from her condo. He wasn’t in the kitchen or bathroom. Where was he? She glanced around for a note but found none. Her phone was also void of messages from him. Her dreamy mood from the night began to evaporate. Maybe he went to get coffee. Or breakfast. Or...maybe he just ran out on me.
The thought jarred her. Had the condoms pushed him away? She thought back about falling asleep in his arms the night before. Things had seemed fine then. So what had happened? No. Don’t panic. Maybe he went downstairs.
Laura pulled on some clothes, slapped on a baseball cap and headed downstairs to his condo. She knocked on the door but got no answer. Then when she glanced in the parking lot, she saw his truck was gone.
He could still be getting breakfast, she thought hopefully. Even though the small little ball of dread in the pit of her stomach told her otherwise.
She hated this. The insecurities that bubbled up in her when she least expected it. There was always that little voice in her head that told her she wasn’t good enough, that men wouldn’t stay, that she wasn’t worth the effort. The same little voice told her I told you so when Dean went back to his wife.
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