“Not in the least,” he said with a small smile. “I know you, Lauren.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Maybe you should start believing it.”
For a moment there was nothing but easy quiet between them. Lauren couldn’t remember when she’d felt so at peace, with so many questions finally answered—except one. She turned to him, drawing his gaze to hers. “Shane, you still haven’t told me why you came to my house tonight.”
“I wanted to tell you that I love you,” he said simply.
Her heart skipped a beat. “I think I must be high from smoke inhalation. Could you repeat that?”
His smile broadened. “I love you, Lauren. I’ll say it as many times as you want. And I’ll say it for the rest of our lives, if you’ll let me.” His gaze turned serious. “I knew you were the one for me the first time you got on my bike and slid your arms around my waist. You hung on like you weren’t going to let go, and it was the first time I’d ever wanted someone to hang on. It scared the hell out of me. The only person I ever wanted to commit to was you, and I couldn’t have you. After I left I tried to forget you, but it didn’t work. No one else ever came close.” He let out a deep breath.
She could see the worry in his eyes that his declaration wouldn’t be enough, that it was too late. Silly man. “I love you, too, Shane. I always have.”
“Thank God!”
His heartfelt relief made her smile. “So what are we going to do about this?”
“Whatever you want, Lauren. I can move to San Francisco if you want. I can move anywhere, as long as you’re with me.”
“That’s one good thing about loving a man with a boat,” she said lightly. “But I think I want to stay here for a while. I want to get to know my dad again, while he’s still well enough to know me. Except we don’t have anywhere to live now.”
“So we’ll buy a place.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You mean a house on dry land?”
“I can live on dry land.”
“Without the waves rocking you to sleep?”
“I guess you’ll have to rock me to sleep,” he teased. “I do love you, Lauren. God, it feels good to say that out loud. I don’t know why it sounded so scary in my head.”
“Because you’ve been hurt by love—but that’s going to change,” she promised. “We have our second chance, just like Leonora and Tommy.” She gave him a tender kiss. “Let’s go home.”
“To our home,” he said.
She smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
EPILOGUE
Two days later, Lauren entered the Bayview Care Center with Shane, Kara, and her baby, now named Faith.
Kara paused in the hall outside Colin’s room. “The days I spent in the hospital are the longest Colin and I have ever been apart. I know I need to do this, but I’m a little scared. Her eyes filled with tears. I have to tell Colin that while I love him, I have to put our daughter first. I have to say good-bye.”
Lauren blinked back her own tears. The love between Kara and Colin was so powerful, so deep, and she couldn’t imagine having to go through what Kara had been through.
Before Kara could open Colin’s door, Charlotte, Joe, and Jason stepped off the elevator and came toward them.
“We thought you might want a little more support,” Charlotte told Kara. “If it’s too much, we’ll wait outside.”
Kara smiled. “Thanks, but you can come in. You’re all Colin’s friends. You’re all my friends.” She pushed open the door and walked over to the bed.
The group gathered behind her. Colin looked exactly as he had the last time Lauren had seen him. She glanced over at Shane, whose expression was grim. He’d been against this visit. He’d wanted to take Kara straight home from the hospital, but she’d insisted on making the stop.
“Colin,” Kara said. “I brought your daughter to see you. Her name is Faith, because you always had faith that she’d be born perfect, and she was. We have our little girl. And I’m going to make sure that she knows everything about you.” Kara drew in a deep breath. “But I won’t be able to come here every day. I’ll need to stay with her. I know you’ll understand.” She paused, and then laid the baby down on Colin’s chest. She lifted Colin’s hand and placed it on the baby’s back.
Long seconds ticked by.
Lauren could hardly breathe. The scene was so poignant, so sad. Shane slipped his hand into hers, holding on tight. She knew he wanted to make things right for Kara, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could do.
“So I came to say good-bye,” Kara continued. “I thought it would be hard, but it’s even worse,” she said, her voice breaking.
Shane started forward, but Lauren held him back. She knew Kara needed to finish this.
Kara drew in another deep breath of courage. “I felt your spirit in my room the other night, Colin. You came to me when I was scared. You said our little girl is beautiful. I know you can see us from wherever you are. And we’ll always be with you.”
As Kara bent over to lift the baby back into her arms, Colin’s eyelids began to flicker. At first Lauren thought she was imagining things, but then she heard Kara gasp.
They all surged forward as Colin opened his eyes—his bright green eyes.
For a long moment, the air sizzled with electricity, expectation, hope.
Colin looked at his chest, and he reflexively held his tiny daughter close. “Is this our baby?”
Kara let out a cry of joy and disbelief. “Colin, you’re awake!”
He stared at her in bemusement. “Was I asleep?”
Kara started to laugh and cry together.
Colin glanced around the room. “What’s happened?” he asked in confusion.
“A miracle,” Shane said, as he looked at Lauren. “Kara finally got one.”
“We all did.” Lauren smiled. “We all did.”
Turn the page
for a sneak peek at
IN SHELTER COVE
the next heart-tugging Angel’s Bay romance
from bestselling author
Barbara Freethy
Available now from Pocket Books
It was almost midnight when Brianna settled into bed. As she stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows dance in the moonlight, she tried to relax but still felt tense, jumpy. She wasn’t used to the way the house breathed yet. And it was too quiet in Angel’s Bay.
She was accustomed to falling asleep to the sounds of cars streaming down the highway next to her former apartment, the shriek of sirens from the nearby fire department, the loud thumps of her upstairs neighbors. While often annoying, those noises had comforted her, made her feel less alone.
As if sensing her need for noise, the puppy began to bark and whine, long, pitiful high-pitched cries. Despite her son Lucas’s plea to let the dog sleep with him, she’d insisted on putting the puppy in its crate in the kitchen. She didn’t want to set a precedent that she wouldn’t be able to change. Unfortunately, the dog was testing her willpower.
Pulling the pillow over her head, she told herself that Lucas had learned to sleep through the night on his own and so would the as-yet-to-be-named dog. Lucas was debating among Oscar, Snickers, and Digger. After the damage the puppy had already done to the backyard in the short amount of time he’d been in it, Digger might be the best choice.
Ten more minutes of pathetic puppy cries finally drove her out of bed. She pulled a sweatshirt over her camisole and cotton pajama bottoms and walked into the hall. She stopped at Lucas’s bedroom to pull the door shut, then went to the kitchen. The puppy bounded to his feet when he saw her, barking and yelping even louder. She closed the door to the kitchen, hoping the noise wouldn’t wake Lucas.
Kneeling next to the crate, she gave the dog a firm look. “It’s bedtime. You’re supposed to go to sleep.”
He barked in delight as if she’d just told him it was time for a walk. She stuck her fingers through the mesh, and he licked them with enthusiasm, bringing a reluctant smile to her
lips.
“Okay, I get it. You don’t want to sleep. But you can’t keep barking.” Maybe if she let him out, he’d run around and get tired. She took him out of his crate, and he squirmed in her arms, licking her face and hands and anything he could get his tongue on. Then he ran around the kitchen, sliding into the table legs and the walls. They were going to need a little more room.
She opened the back door and watched in amazement as he flew around the dark, fenced-in yard, exploring the shadows under the bushes and trees. There was a lot of overgrown foliage; she’d need to do some gardening. It was nice to have such a big backyard. Lucas would have room to run and play and would enjoy it as much as the dog did.
Glancing next door, she saw lights on at the back of the house. Someone was up late. The Realtor had told her that an elderly woman owned that house. On the other side was a couple with three older children; she hoped she’d find a babysitter among them.
She wasn’t all that eager to meet her neighbors, though. There would surely be questions about Derek that she didn’t want to answer. But she wouldn’t be surprised if everyone knew who she was before she knew who they were. News traveled fast in Angel’s Bay, and the widow of the town’s least favorite son would be gossip-worthy.
She returned to the kitchen and put on some hot water for tea. Maybe it would relax her enough to sleep. Like the puppy, she was finding it difficult to settle down in her new surroundings. While she waited for the water to boil, she unpacked one of the half-dozen boxes on the kitchen floor, one less task to do tomorrow. When the water was hot, she poured her tea into a mug and stepped out onto the deck.
The puppy was nowhere to be seen. He had to be under a bush or in a dark corner, she thought, as her uneasiness grew. She heard barking, an unfamiliar yap, and then a crash followed by male swearing—all coming from next door. When she walked into the yard, she saw the hole that the puppy had dug underneath—just big enough for a small dog to get through.
“Damn,” she muttered, as the barks and swearing next door grew louder.
She ran down the side of her house and found a gate that led into the neighbor’s property. As she slipped inside, a tiny white puff of fur ran around her, chased by her puppy and a very pissed-off man who was also wrestling with an irate, spitting cat.
“Digger! Puppy!” she yelled, though the dog had no idea what his name was and was too busy chasing another dog to pay any attention to her. She thought he was chasing a dog; the small furball had squeezed under the deck in a space so small that her puppy could only bark furiously at his escaped prey.
The man let out another curse as the cat sprang from his arms. He put a hand to his face, and as he stepped into the light, she saw a long red scratch down a face that was very familiar.
Her heart jumped into her throat. “No way!”
Jason looked as shocked as she felt.
“You can’t possibly live here,” she said. “I was told this house belongs to an elderly lady.”
“It does—Shirley Pease. She had a stroke a few months ago and went to a care facility. Her daughter is living here now.”
“You don’t look like her daughter.” Her gaze slid down his body. His jeans were slung low on his hips, and his button-down shirt was open, revealing a tantalizingly broad, muscular chest. His bare feet and tousled hair made him look as if he’d just rolled out of bed. She swallowed hard at the thought. She’d forgotten how sexy he was. Forgotten how his gaze had always made a tingle run down her spine. But Jason was the cop who’d ruined her husband’s life, and she couldn’t forget that.
“I’m housesitting for my father’s girlfriend,” Jason said. “And you need to get your damn dog under control. He’s digging a hole under the deck,” Jason pointed out.
He was right. Another minute, and her puppy would be under the deck with his dog. She ran over and grabbed Digger.
Jason got down on his knees and peered under the deck. “Come on, Princess,” he called. “It’s safe to come out now.”
“Princess?” she echoed.
Jason scowled at her. “She’s not my dog. I didn’t name her.”
“She seems to like you,” Brianna said as the tiny fluffball threw herself into Jason’s waiting arms, whimpering with relief.
“At least she likes you better than the cat. That’s a nasty scratch it gave you.”
“Shit! Where did the cat go?” Jason got to his feet and scanned the yard, but there was no sign of the calico.
“It’s probably hiding,” Brianna suggested.
“Yeah, until you and that little monster leave. He needs to learn some manners.”
“He’s a puppy. He’s—exuberant.”
“Is that what you call it? How long have you had him?”
“About eight hours. He was a present to Lucas from his grandparents.” The puppy barked and began to lick her face again. “He’s very friendly.”
“I can see that. He looks like Buster, Derek’s old dog.”
“Apparently that was the intention.” The mention of Jason’s past friendship with Derek reminded her just who this man was to her. “I’d better get back.”
“Hang on.” He opened the door to the house and thrust Princess inside, then returned to the deck. “I need to find the cat.”
She headed toward her yard, keeping an eye out for the cat, until a large shadow by the front windows of her house startled her. She stopped so abruptly Jason bumped into her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She wasn’t sure. She took another step forward, knocking into the trash can. The shadow moved through the trees. “Someone is in my yard,” she said in shock.
“Stay here.” Jason moved past her quietly, quickly.
She obeyed for a moment, but the idea of Lucas being alone in the house propelled her forward.
Jason met her on the lawn. “I don’t see anyone. It was probably just the wind moving the trees.”
Maybe he was right. There were tall trees on both sides of the property, and it was pretty dark, the nearest streetlight three houses away. “I need to check on Lucas.”
“Did you come out the back door?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll walk around with you.”
Her back door was open the way she’d left it, her cup of tea sitting on the deck. She picked up the mug, then hurried inside to check on Lucas. He was still asleep. As she came out of the room, she saw Jason checking her bedroom.
“What are you doing?”
“Just looking around. Everything seems to be fine.”
She walked into the kitchen and put the puppy in his crate, much to his dismay. He immediately started barking. “He really doesn’t like this thing.”
“I can’t say that I blame him.” Jason leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms in front of his chest, making himself a little too comfortable for her taste. Then again, it was nice not to be alone in the house.
She didn’t know why she was so jumpy. She’d lived alone with Lucas for the past five years, aside from the weekends when Derek’s parents, Rick and Nancy, would come to visit.
She refilled the tea kettle and turned on the stove. “Tell me again who lives next door?”
“Shirley Pease, Angel’s Bay’s head librarian, lived there for twenty years until she had a stroke a few months ago. Her daughter Patty is moving in. If she doesn’t rope my father into marriage before that,” he grumbled.
She gave him a curious look. “You don’t sound as if you care much for Patty.”
“She’s an ex-stripper, which doesn’t bother my father at all. She has certain large attributes, if you know what I mean.”
“And she’s going to be your stepmother?”
“I hope not. With my father, who knows? He’s a romantic, up until the time he ends up in divorce court.”
Brianna raised an eyebrow. “Has he been there more than once?”
“Three times.”
“What number was your mother?”
A dar
k shadow passed through his eyes. “She wasn’t a divorce. She died when I was seven.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “It was a long time ago. My dad took it hard. He couldn’t get out of bed for months, and his business failed. We were running out of money, and then my uncle came one day, packed us up, and drove us here to Angel’s Bay. I think he saved my dad’s life—probably mine, too.”
She didn’t want to get to know Jason. She didn’t want to see any other side to him than the one he’d shown the day he testified against Derek. Then he’d been a cold, ruthless, ambitious cop who was destroying Derek’s life and hers, too. He’d been the villain in Derek’s version of the story, but he didn’t look so much like a bad guy now, with his tousled hair and bare feet. He looked like the guy she’d first met in the bar five years ago, the one who’d shamelessly flirted with her until he’d realized she was taken.
She turned away and rinsed out her cup, busying herself with getting another tea bag. She wanted Jason to go, yet she couldn’t quite ask him to leave. He sat down on a stool by the counter. “When my father started to recover, he discovered there were loads of women eager to make him feel less lonely. They were also eager to marry him. Patty is just the latest in a string of women my father thinks might be the real thing.” He shook his head. “He had the real thing. She died.”
“Did you want him to stay single forever?” Brianna couldn’t help asking.
“No. I want him to be happy. I want him to find love, but he looks in all the wrong places.”
“Maybe they’re just not the places you would look.”
“Well, I wouldn’t look to a stripper for love,” he admitted. “Other things, maybe.”
She had a feeling that Jason had no trouble getting women. The pot on the stove began to whistle, and she quickly turned down the flame. “Do you want some tea?”
“Not really a tea guy.”
“That’s all I have. I haven’t gone to the store yet.” She poured herself a cup, surprised when her hand shook. All the stress, she thought. It had been a bad couple of weeks.
On Shadow Beach Page 27
