Robbie quickly devoured his food and finished off Renee’s, then jumped up to join a volleyball game on the sand. Julie squeezed her mom’s hand. “Thanks for the wonderful day, Mom,” she said, and sauntered down to the water’s edge.
Renee sat quietly, her mind wandering back to Celia’s letter and the lake of her childhood. She could almost taste a crunchy, gooey s’more and feel the hot campfire on her face, mosquitoes buzzing in the dark outside the ring of light cast by flames. Big logs stripped of their bark, worn smooth by years of use, provided crowded seating for her family. Grownups sat in webbed chairs and told stories. Younger kids fell asleep in laps. Bigger kids usually got tired of talking and started a game of “ditch.” Fun but dangerous, the game often led to scratches and bumps. One bad spill resulted in a trip to the small emergency room ten miles up the road.
A brief touch on the small of her back brought Renee’s attention back to the beach. The bench she sat on tipped up on the concrete as Matt settled next to her. Gone was his uniform, in its place a blue tank top, shorts, and boat shoes. Renee couldn’t help but notice how the tank stretched taut over his chest. Based on the size of his arms, he did more than run on the beach to work out. If he was a beer drinker, he didn’t have the belly to prove it. He smiled his slow smile and relaxed next to her, staring out at the water too. She liked that he didn’t seem to feel the need to make idle conversation. She turned her attention back to the beach, making a conscious effort to stop glancing at him.
Renee was happy to see Julie was again chatting with the two girls she spent time with the night before. Robbie was still playing volleyball. Neither of them paid any attention to Renee. She shifted slightly closer to Matt.
“Off duty tonight?” Renee asked, grinning at the handsome man seated next to her.
“Yeah, just got off at seven. We all have to put in long days and nights around the holidays. Lots of tourists around. Short staffed, too. I have three deputies plus myself, so none of us get much time off. I hated to go back to my house and open a can of soup for dinner, so I decided to come down here for lobster rolls. Can’t beat ’em,” Matt declared, motioning to his tray of food. He winked at her. “Imagine my surprise when I saw a lovely lady sitting at a picnic table all alone, looking like she needed some company.”
Renee laughed. “As a matter of fact, I do welcome the company of someone over twenty-one and not related to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with the kids, but none of us are used to this much togetherness. I suspect they’re ready for some space, too.”
As Matt ate his lobster rolls, Renee asked him about life in Fiji, and what had brought him to live in such a place.
“I’ve been on the islands for three years, but I was born and raised in North Carolina. I studied criminal justice in college, considered becoming a lawyer, but hated the idea of being stuck inside all the time. My fiancée, on the other hand, wanted the financial security of being a partner in a big law firm. She wasn’t too happy with me when I joined the police force. She eventually become a lawyer herself. We started dating in high school, and it seemed like the logical next step to get married when we graduated from college. I was a rookie on the force, worked lots of nights and weekends, and she was studying for the bar. We didn’t see each other much. Drifted apart. Then she met someone at the office and decided she hated the uncertainty that came with being the wife of a cop. Turns out she preferred a quiet, boring life married to a tax attorney.”
Matt took another bite and chewed a bit before continuing, “After that, I put all my focus and energy into work. By thirty, I was a detective in Charlotte. Those were tough years. I still have some sleepless nights, remembering the shit I saw working that job. It finally got to be too much and I quit.”
“And you ended up in Fiji,” Renee concluded.
“Well, not directly. I tried my hand at carpentry work with a buddy from college. He owned a small construction firm. We worked hard all day and drank beer and played pool at night. The guy’s name was Jack. It was a fun year, but just a waste. Then Jack met Gayle, and the fun times were over for him. Three months dating her and she had him heading to the altar.”
Renee cut in. “Jeez, Matt, when is this story going to get to Fiji?”
Matt laughed. “An old-fashioned church wedding wasn’t their style. They decided to do a beach wedding . . . in Fiji. A group of fifteen of us came down here. I was supposed to be Jack’s best man.”
“ ‘Supposed to’?”
He nodded. “The bride and her sister were set to arrive the day after we got in. Guess she got cold feet because she never showed. At first, Jack was royally pissed off, then he was distraught, then he decided to drown his sorrows in alcohol throughout the whole week. He acted like a total ass. Couldn’t stand to be around the guy. By the morning we were scheduled to fly home, I couldn’t stomach the thought of going back to the construction gig with Jack. So I turned off my alarm, rolled over, and missed my plane ride home. That was three years ago, and I’ve only been back to the States a couple of times since to visit family.”
He suddenly flashed his quick little grin at her, eyes crinkling in the corners. “How did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“I don’t normally share my life story—even with ladies as pretty as you.”
He tried to sound casual, but Renee suspected it bothered him some, having told her so much without much prodding on her part. She reached across the table, squeezed his hand lightly, then wrapped her fingers back around her sweating glass of lemonade.
“Your turn, Renee,” he said. “Now that I spilled my sad tale to you, tell me: what brings you all the way to Fiji for New Year’s with two great kids but no man?”
After glancing around and seeing her kids were still busy with their new friends, Renee took a sip of her lemonade and told Matt much of her own story. She shared how she wound up working for a large firm after college and married Jim. She told him briefly of Jim’s illness and early death, how she’d found herself a widow at thirty-five. Feeling uncomfortable, exposed somehow, she skipped ahead to more recent events. But she still felt so comfortable with Matt, she told him about her job loss—and the bitterness it brought. She also shared how grateful she was to have this time with the kids and time to figure out what she wanted to do next. She even shared the contents of the letter from Aunt Celia, despite not having shared the news with her own kids yet.
Matt whistled. “That’s a lot to deal with, Renee. Do you . . . want to go for a walk?” He seemed to want to lighten the mood after such heavy conversation.
“Sure,” Renee replied. “Just let me tell Julie and Robbie.” She gathered their garbage and tossed it in the trash on the way over to the kids. Robbie gave her a quick wave and grin when she approached him discreetly. He was listening to another boy tell stories around a bonfire someone had built when their game wound down. He promised Renee to be back at the cabin by eleven o’clock. Julie also committed to being home by the same time. She had a later curfew at home, but Renee wasn’t comfortable letting her stay out any later in a foreign country.
Looks like I just gained myself a couple hours, she thought while she meandered back to the table, feeling shy yet oddly thrilled about the prospect of time alone with Matt.
But his calm smile and unhurried attitude put her at ease. They walked back out to the small parking lot in front of the diner and headed in the opposite direction from their resort. There was little traffic on the blacktop road that skirted along the beach. A sand-strewn path ran alongside the road, allowing them to stay out of the way of the occasional vehicle that drove by.
“That’s old man Driso’s bait shop on the corner,” Matt pointed out as they strolled. “Ornery ole cuss, but ya need anything for fishing, he’s the man. One of our dispatchers, Isabel, lives in that pink little number with her grandmother. The girl’s sleeping with our newest deputy . . . they think no one knows but the whole precinct is on to ’em. Oh, and if you want to go home with
some amazing shells, best place to find them is on the little beach down at the end of this path—one of our best-kept secrets.” He continued to add local flavor to their walk with his commentary, constantly making her laugh. Renee was thoroughly enjoying herself and the company.
Eventually Matt turned toward a small cottage covered with bleached cedar shakes, sporting bright blue trim. A patch of scruffy sea-grass was neatly trimmed in front. Empty window boxes flanked each side of the white door. The place looked neat, but lonely.
Matt reached out and took Renee’s hand, gently pulling her down the white shell path toward the cottage. “This is my place,” he explained, “and Hank isn’t going to be able to wait much longer to be let out.”
“Hank?” Renee asked.
A sudden flurry of high-pitched yipping came through the open windows. Matt released her hand, reached in his pocket, and pulled out a key, unlocking the front door. “Please—come on in. This will just take a minute and we can keep walking.”
A small gray terrier—the same color as the house, Renee observed with a smile—jumped all over their feet and shins, his little butt wagging his tail so hard he could barely stay upright. Hustling the dog to another door at the back of the kitchen, Matt got him outside quickly to avoid an accident. Renee took the opportunity to glance around the small kitchen and sitting room. Everything was neat and tidy, though bland. The only color in the kitchen came from kid’s art posted on the white fridge.
I wonder if he has children he neglected to mention . . . ?
Before she could investigate further, Matt shouted for Renee to come out back. She exited the rear of the kitchen to a backyard. A small brick patio held wooden lawn chairs and a small table. The far edge of the patio was rimmed with sand and tufts of sea-grass stretching back a hundred feet, followed by a ten-foot drop to a wide expanse of yet more sand, and, finally, the ocean. A narrow path cut through large black stones lining the drop off, allowing access to the beach.
Hank ran in circles through the grass and sand. After he completed his business, he sniffed toward the path, but Matt called him back. Back he came, carrying a stick as long as he was, wanting Matt to play. “Not now, Hank, we can play later,” Matt told the pup. Hank promptly rolled over at his feet, so Matt, laughing, scratched his exposed belly. Matt clipped a long leash to his collar. “Don’t trust Hank to stay close,” he said to Renee, chuckling.
Renee stood on the patio, enjoying the expansive ocean view. Matt wandered back to her side.
“There’s a small pub down the road, another ten minutes or so. Would you like to walk down there for a glass of wine before we head back to your cottage? Or I might have a bottle of white in the fridge—Christmas gift from the local Chamber of Commerce.”
It was an easy decision for Renee. She had no interest in sitting in a dark, noisy bar when instead they could sit out in the fresh air and enjoy this view. “Definitely stay here for a bit, if you don’t mind.”
“Sounds good,” Matt said. “Why don’t you sit and keep an eye on Hank while I go get us a couple glasses of wine?”
He headed back into the house. The wooden screen door, most of its white paint peeled off, knocked shut behind him. Renee was left alone with the dog, now sitting on his small haunches, staring at her with the stick at his feet. He lay down in the sand, his nose pushing the stick in her direction, eyes begging her to play.
Matt was only gone a few minutes. He came back with two unmatched wine glasses and an open bottle in the crook of his arm. He claimed the chair next to Renee. Filling her glass, he passed it to her, then filled his own. Everything about the evening felt right. It had been a long time since Renee spent a quiet evening with a man, undistracted by kids or household duties. Their conversation picked back up on lighter topics. Matt told her about his first months on the island, landing his job as sheriff, finding this property. While there was little major crime he had to deal with, there was the usual stuff.
“We’re also starting to see more drug trafficking, unfortunately,” he said.
As they talked, the sun slowly sank into the water, first turning the ocean a dark violet color and then an inky black. A bright white moon rose. Wine gone and stiff from sitting, Matt put the dog back in the house and together they took the sand path down to the water’s edge. For the second time in two days, Renee found herself on a dark beach with Matt. He no longer felt like a stranger.
This time when he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her into his embrace, she stepped into him, her arms stretching up to circle his neck. He lowered his face to hers. Tonight’s kiss was more urgent. While last night was a chance encounter, tonight was not. Renee now realized she had been attracted to this man ever since she first saw him in the dusty parking lot on their first day. Sure, she had been annoyed and slightly offended, but she couldn’t deny her natural attraction to him.
Matt deepened their kiss and pulled her in tighter. Renee groaned softly. Her hands found his thick hair; his skimmed up under her loose white blouse and cupped her breasts, the filmy lace of her bra offering little protection from his warm palms. A cool breeze touched her now-bare back and she went up on the tip of her toes to better fit into him. When this still wasn’t enough, together they sank into the soft sand at their feet. Matt pulled Renee on top of him with a laugh in an effort to keep her off the damp sand.
Lightheartedness was quickly replaced by a sense of urgency. Matt yanked his shirt off and Renee’s blouse and bra followed, leaving them skin-to-skin from the waist up.
It felt like they were the only two on earth.
Maybe it was the secluded beach on a moonlit night; maybe it was the fact she would only have a short time with this man before she had to go back to her real life. Whatever it was, all of Renee’s inhibitions fell away. Caught up in the moment, instead of stopping his hand, she helped Matt when he fumbled with the snap on her shorts. She welcomed the cool sand on her back when he finally had to roll her off him to rid them of the rest of their clothing. Renee could feel Matt’s desire, could sense it in his movements.
A shrill ringing stopped them both. Disoriented, Renee had no idea what she was hearing. Swearing in frustration, Matt rose to his knees and then to his feet, pulling Renee with him. He located her blouse and handed it to her before grabbing his shorts up out of the sand and yanking the cell phone out of his pocket.
“Blatso here,” Matt grumbled into the phone. “This better be good.” As he listened, he still held Renee close, not seeming to want to let her go. Renee couldn’t make out what the caller was saying, but she felt Matt stiffen against her and he cussed softly. “Give me thirty minutes,” he said to the person on the other end of the phone and hung up. His hand went behind Renee’s neck and he pulled her in for a quick, deep kiss, then stepped back and pulled on his shorts.
“I am so sorry, Renee, but we have a report of a missing teenage girl. She’s a local, and her folks haven’t seen her since she left for work this morning. Apparently she didn’t show up at work. They’re out of their minds with worry. I need to go in right away. I’m so sorry,” Matt repeated, tracing his hand lightly down her cheek.
Matt’s words immediately wiped the fog of desire from her brain. Buttoning her blouse and brushing the sand from her clothes, she waved off his apology. “You have to go in right away. I’ll find my way back to our resort.”
“Absolutely not,” Matt said. “I’ll throw on my uniform and give you a ride back in my cruiser. I’m not leaving you to walk back alone.”
He led her back up the moonlit path to his house. She waited in his small kitchen while he quickly showered off and dressed in his uniform. He gave her a quick kiss before he led her by the hand out to the small garage beside the house. Still reluctant to end their evening but knowing he didn’t have a choice, he stole one last quick kiss as he sat her in the front seat of his police car.
He had her back to her resort in record time. It was only 10:30, so she didn’t know if the kids would be back yet, nor
did she know if she wanted them to see her with Matt. But Matt insisted on walking her up to her door and seeing her safely inside. She wondered if maybe there was something more going on with the missing girl that he wasn’t sharing.
He’s acting like it isn’t safe to be out alone.
Renee worried for her own kids’ safety. She hurried to their cabin to see if they were back yet. Inside she found both Julie and Robbie, along with Julie’s two new friends and one of the boys Robbie had been playing volleyball with earlier. They were playing cards at the kitchen table.
Sagging with relief, Renee returned to the front door and thanked Matt for the nice evening. After he left, she visited with the kids, then headed to bed, giving them the chance to entertain their new friends without her hanging around.
In the dark of night, her thoughts returned to that moment on the sand, naked beside a strange man who was no longer a stranger, and she wondered if she’d have the chance with him again. And if she wanted to if she did.
Chapter 23
Gift of Incentives
Renee didn’t get that chance.
The remaining days of their vacation were a flurry of activity. They tried to squeeze in as much fun as possible. Matt phoned the cabin and apologized to Renee for being tied up with the case of the missing teenage girl, but he just couldn’t get away. Renee understood, but she was disappointed she wouldn’t see him again.
For their last evening, Renee and the kids decided to go out for dinner to a nice restaurant. Tonight was the night Robbie and Julie had decided to open their letters from Aunt Celia. Renee also planned to tell them about her inheritance. The evening would be a celebration. Before they went out, they packed their bags; they would leave early in the morning.
When they arrived at the restaurant, they were ushered to a table on the open patio overlooking a small inlet below. The sun was low on the horizon; soft lighting and candles illuminated the tables. Renee was glad the kids had heeded her request to dress up. They were two of the youngest in the dining area and would have looked out of place in shorts and flip flops. Robbie flirted too much with the cute waitress, but Renee was still proud of her kids.
Whispering Pines (Celia's Gifts Book 1) Page 13
