Heavenly Stranger

by Tina Wainscott

  Maddie swallowed her bite of crust. “I’m helping him…put the pieces together.”

  “We’re friends,” Chase clarified, and Maddie wondered just what he meant after hearing Lila’s interpretation of same. “She thinks she’s my guardian angel.” He winked at her, private joke, just the two of them.

  Then she realized that, with Lila at his side, he didn’t need her anymore. He had an ally, someone who could help him with his past, something Maddie certainly couldn’t do.

  She was beginning to feel a little lost and off-balanced. She wasn’t sure where she belonged anymore. The white line on her ring finger was her last link to Wayne. She had no such link to Chase. As Lila talked about their past, Maddie felt more and more disconnected from him. Especially when Lila touched his collarbone and asked, “Where is your cross?”

  “What cross?”

  “You always wear a gold cross on a chain, especially when you go sailing. You nearly missed the start of a race because you left it in your room and had someone go back to get it. Hold on a minute.” When she returned, she held a cross dangling from a chain. “This is the one you bought me for Christmas one year. You need it more than I do.”

  She knelt in front of him. Her arms went around his neck as she fiddled, interminably, to connect the clasp. Their noses were almost touching.

  Maddie wanted to scream out, I found him! I brought him here! He’s mine. Luckily, she couldn’t even swallow.

  Lila sat back when she’d finally closed the clasp. Chase stood, putting more distance between them.

  Maddie stood, too. “Lila, can I use your phone to make a call?”

  “Sure. Phone’s over there. Why don’t we give her some privacy? Come on, I’ll show you some pictures.” She took his hand and led him to the bedroom.

  The sound of her mom’s voice nearly broke Maddie down into sobs of insecurity and frustration, but she swallowed them. “Hi, Mom.”

  “Baby! It’s Baby,” she said away from the phone.

  “She wants to be called Maddie,” Colleen said in the background.

  “How are you, honey? Are you okay? Do you have enough money?”

  Maddie stared at the open door, though she couldn’t see into the bedroom. “I’m okay.”

  “Well, you don’t sound okay. Here, Tom, tell her to get home.”

  Her dad got on the line. “You do whatever—”

  “Your mom tells you,” Mom cut in.

  The sound of Lila’s laughter and then Chase’s low laugh made Maddie shiver. She turned back to the kitchen, fingers tightening on the phone.

  “Maddie, we need you at home,” Mom said. “We’re all off-kilter without you.”

  Colleen said, “I need to ask you about things, like how it was with you and Wayne.”

  More laughter drifted from the bedroom. Maddie tried hard to focus on the call. Her family did need her. It didn’t make sense, not when she’d been so dependent on them all her life, but they were going through stuff. The smartest thing she could do would be say goodbye to Chase and drive back—on her own—to Sugar Bay. The safe thing to do. The thing Baby would have done.

  “I can’t come back right now,” she said in a near-whisper. “I know you don’t understand, and frankly, neither do I. But I can’t leave until things are resolved here. I gotta go. Love you all.”

  She hung up. The bedroom door loomed ahead, and she pushed herself to take each heavy step toward it. If they were cozied up together, or worse, kissing, she’d break in two. The couch looked safe, just sit on the couch for a while, let them come out on their own time. She started to veer off, but another round of soft laughter pushed her onward. She took a deep breath and forced herself to walk to the open door.

  Chase was lying on his back, holding up a stack of pictures. Lila was sitting on the far corner sifting through several photo packages.

  He sat up and made room for Maddie next to him, and her heart returned to life again. “How’s your family? They freaking out?”

  “Pretty much.” She was going to tell him he’d been right about them needing her, but not in front of Lila. She sat down next to him, wanting to sink against him in relief that he hadn’t been reliving memories with Lila in a physical sense.

  It wasn’t good to be this insecure about a man she couldn’t have.

  “She has pictures of me going back years,” he said, handing her a stack of photos.

  Maddie didn’t want to look at pictures of the old Chase with the short hair and hari-kari look who partied too much and hung with crowds she could never hope to fit into. Lila was in many of them, including shots of their informal wedding. Some of the pictures were at the start or finish line of some race. Dozens of boats clustered around the sailboats as they headed out. One picture was of Chase holding some plate in victory.

  Lila held up a picture. “This is Julie.”

  Chase took it, and Maddie knew he was trying to put this woman with the one he’d seen in his flash of memory. She leaned closer to see the picture. Julie had thick, dark hair and a lush figure she liked to show off with clothes that were much too tight, or at least that was Maddie’s impression of her.

  “This was at your father’s birthday party last year. Does she look familiar?”

  Chase shook his head.

  “She’d had too much to drink that night. You and she got into an argument. She felt Patrick was unappreciated, and you were taking advantage of his hard work by playing all the time.”

  “Doesn’t sound like a woman I was involved with,” he said with a trace of hope.

  “By the end of the night she was crying and apologizing all over you.”

  He set the picture down, and Maddie could see his pain at believing he’d killed her.

  They talked for a couple more hours. Chase would get caught up in some story about himself as Lila told it, but he never forgot that Maddie was sitting beside him. He always included her with a smile or a word.

  Finally, Lila said, “You both look exhausted. I’ll make up the sofa bed.”

  An awkward silence followed once it was made. Where would Chase sleep? Two beds, two women. Lila walked over and gave Chase a hug and a quick kiss on the mouth. In a low voice she said, “You always sleep in my room. But I know…things are different now.”

  He stepped back out of her embrace and looked at Maddie. “Yeah, they are.”

  Maddie saw Lila’s hurt look as she retreated to her room, but she was too swamped in relief to worry much about it. She used the bathroom first, changing into blue pajamas covered in sheep. She made a face at her reflection, wishing she had something more…sophisticated. She let out a breath. She had miles to go before she even approached sophistication.

  While Chase showered, she filled a glass of water and set it on the end table. The mattress was lumpy and dipped toward the middle. Would he really sleep here with her? She remembered the time they’d spent in each other’s arms.

  When he came out wearing an old pair of sweatpants, bare chest damp, she had to clear her throat and try to forget she’d touched that body. He looked at the bed, then at her.

  “Do you think this is a good idea?”

  “Better than you sleeping with her,” Maddie shot out, then regretted it. “Besides,” she added in a strained voice, “where else would you sleep?”

  It annoyed her that he looked around at the options, which were basically nil. “I just don’t want to compromise your honor.”

  “Too late,” she said, trying her best at a coy smile.

  He leaned close and wrinkled his nose at her. “Well, that’s not going to happen again, is it?”

  “Definitely not,” she said, finding her voice going soft at his proximity.

  “We have to keep this on a strictly friends-only basis until we know what we’re into here.” Even his voice sounded more velvety than usual.

  “Strictly,” she repeated, her gaze locked onto his.

  He broke eye contact only long enough to take in her face, lingering on her mouth
before dragging his gaze back to her eyes. He was so close now that she had to tilt her head back to see him.

  “Even a quick kiss like this…” He demonstrated, touching his mouth briefly to hers. “is a bad idea.”

  She slid her hand around the back of his neck. “A really bad idea.”

  “And a real kiss would be out of the question.” But it wasn’t out of the question when he captured her mouth with his, coaxing her mouth open and tasting her with a swipe of his tongue.

  So much for resolve, she thought, letting her weight pull her onto the bed and taking him with her. He felt hot and sinful, and she couldn’t quite resolve herself to back away. Besides, she had nowhere to go.

  “Oh, sorry,” a voice nearby said, breaking them apart. Lila looked both embarrassed and chagrinned. She wore a silk nightshirt that showed off her long legs. “I was just, well, you know…” She nearly tripped in her haste to get inside the bathroom.

  Chase dropped back onto the bed, hand over his face. “Maddie, you’re making me so crazy.”

  “Did I spoil things for you and Lila?”

  He lifted his hand enough to give her a look of consternation. “The only woman here that I want more than I should is you. Now go to sleep and stop making me kiss you.”

  She lay down beside him. “Say that again. I liked the sound of it.”

  “Stop making me kiss you.”

  “No, the other part.”

  “Now go to sleep.”

  The next morning Chase watched Lila toast some frozen waffles. He had loved this woman. Without a doubt, she was sexy, probably his type. But he couldn’t dredge up anything more than a detached appreciation for her looks. And of course, her kindness.

  Maddie was watching him watch Lila. The easiest way to have sent her packing was to have shared Lila’s bed…for old time’s sake. It had run through his mind when she’d offered. Yet he couldn’t do it, couldn’t hurt Maddie in that irrevocable way. And couldn’t use Lila either.

  Worse, all through the night he kept pulling Maddie close. That wasn’t hard thanks to the dip in the mattress, but even that hadn’t been close enough.

  “Will your memory ever come back?” Lila asked as she handed him the last plate.

  “I don’t know.” He wasn’t going to get into the whole psychological aspect of memory repression. He drizzled syrup over his waffle and took it to the coffee table where Maddie was cutting into hers. “Were you with me that last night? I was supposedly drinking at Salty’s before I went to the boat.”

  “I was working, but it was busy. You were hanging with Brian and Tombo. You three went together like tequila, lime and salt.”

  “Was I the kind of guy who talked about his…conquests?”

  “I don’t think so.” Lila tilted her head, letting her long hair flow over her shoulder. “Isn’t it strange to ask other people about who you are?”

  “Very. Can Tombo and Brian be trusted? With knowing I’m here, I mean.”

  “I…I think so. They’ve been scarce since your accident. Haven’t been to Salty’s as much. Tombo’s been disappearing for a few days at a time without telling anyone. He might be into some trouble, but that’s nothing new. Brian’s…well, he’s Brian. Oh, you don’t know Brian, do you? He’s loaded, or at least his family is. His father owns a chain of high-end yacht brokerages, and Brian’s getting into the business.”

  “You sure you want to alert them to your presence?” Maddie asked, tucking her legs beneath her. She was wearing pedal-pushers with colored polka-dots and somehow, on her, they worked.

  “They were your best friends,” Lila said. “You got together every Tuesday and Saturday—and every other minute you could grab—to go over sailing strategies.”

  Both Chase and Maddie lifted their heads. “Tuesday nights?” they said in unison.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Julie met her lover on Tuesday nights,” Chase said, color deepening his face. “And if I was with my friends…”

  “You weren’t with her,” Maddie finished.

  “I’ve got to find out how late we stayed together. And how late Julie stayed out. Call them.”

  Lila didn’t seem convinced, but she left messages with both men to meet at her place later that evening.

  Chase took the phone book down from the shelf and dialed a number. Then he asked for Patrick. “I’m going to find out what’s between me and my brother.”

  It was a credit that the SWAT team wasn’t waiting at Patrick’s apartment. Patrick let Chase in, though his expression was murderous.

  Even though it was only ten o’clock, Patrick poured himself a scotch, then held the decanter out to Chase. “Oh, that’s right, you’re a tequila guy.”

  “I’m a Dr. Pepper guy now.”

  The apartment was spacious with skylights and pale colors. It overlooked the waterway that sparkled in the sunshine.

  Patrick brought the crystal decanter to the table and sat down. “All right, talk. And don’t think you’re going to come here and make things right between us. That’ll never happen.”

  “I’m not denying that I was on the boat with Julie that night, or even that I…caused her death. I’ll do whatever it takes to rectify the situation in your eyes.”

  “You’re going to run.”

  “I’m not going to run. But before I turn myself in, I need to…understand.”

  “I could kill you, you know.”

  Chase blinked, not expecting that response. “What?”

  “I could kill you. Hell, you’re already dead. Nobody would know.”

  Chase eyed the scotch and wondered if Patrick had already had a few drinks that morning. “Dad would know. Eduardo. Lila.” He didn’t want to bring Maddie in on this. “You’re not going to kill me.”

  Patrick narrowed his eyes. “How do you know? Supposedly you don’t remember anything. Maybe killing runs in the family.”

  “Just do me a favor and don’t kill me until I understand what happened.” Patrick’s hands were shaking, though Chase doubted with rage. He looked at his brother, studied his refined features, hands without calluses, skin without a tan. Like Maddie and her sister, he and Patrick were nothing alike. Chase kneaded the bridge of his nose. “We weren’t close.”

  Patrick laughed bitterly. “All you cared about was sailing. I got stuck being the son Dad could be proud of. Only he was never proud of me either.”

  “He is, I’m sure. He just doesn’t know how to show it.” When Patrick didn’t buy that, Chase continued. “All right, so we weren’t close. I think we’ve established that.” It bothered him that the man sitting across from him was his blood brother, yet they seemed more like enemies. “But we didn’t hate each other, did we?”

  Patrick ran his hand back through his hair several times in that nervous habit. “I hated you sometimes. I resented your freedom. But if you’re asking was there real hatred between us, the answer is no. We lived our own lives.”

  “So I wouldn’t have, say, tried to steal Julie away from you out of spite?”

  “No, you were just being your usual selfish self.” His words slurred a little. “You wanted her, and it didn’t matter that she belonged to me.”

  “Did I…steal other men’s girlfriends, too?”

  Patrick obviously wanted to say yes, but he reluctantly said, “No. Just mine.”

  Selfish he could live with. Reckless even. But the kind of man who would steal his brother’s love…that he couldn’t live with. “Don’t I go for blondes?”

  “Usually.”

  “You said her night classes were on break.”

  Patrick’s thin mouth became a line. “I found out that she hadn’t been to one in the two months before she died. Because she was meeting you.”

  Chase felt the hatred in those words. “How long was she at her supposed class?”

  “All evening. If we weren’t spending the night together, she always called me at eleven to say goodnight.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a woman who�
�s cheating.”

  “Well, I didn’t think so either.”

  “Lila tells me that I met with Brian and Tombo every Tuesday and Saturday.”

  “That’s what you told her. A cover story, I’m sure.”

  Chase let out a long breath. He couldn’t prove anything there until he talked to them. “Tell me this, Patrick. I know I was involved with Lila. Even though I can’t remember our relationship, when I look at her, I’m attracted to her. I saw a picture of Julie last night. No attraction. Not my type at all.” Of course, Maddie wasn’t his type either, but he was definitely attracted to her. “If I wasn’t out to steal her for the sake of stealing her or being a real asshole, and I wasn’t attracted to her, why was she on my sailboat that night? Can you think of any reason?”

  He banged his glass down on the table. “I don’t know why she was on that boat with you! You think I haven’t asked myself that same question? There could be no other reason than sex. She wasn’t much into sailing and even if she was, she wouldn’t be going out alone with you. At night.” He pushed the glass across the table. “I’ve got to get back to work. Some of us have responsibility.” He glared at Chase. “Some of us aren’t wanted for murder.”

  “Patrick…” Chase didn’t know what to say, but his brother had already stormed out of the apartment. There seemed to be no way to make amends with him. Between their history and Julie, they were lost as brothers.

  He walked around for a moment, looking at the many pictures of Julie throughout the room. In one she proudly flashed a rock of a diamond engagement ring. In another, she sipped champagne on someone’s yacht. It ripped him apart that he’d had something to do with her death, that he’d taken her away from Patrick. He had to know why.

  Tropical foliage shaded the parking area as Chase walked to Maddie’s car. He heard a sound behind him, and before he could turn around, something covered his face. His struggles were no match for the brute force that lifted him off the ground and shoved him into a dark place. He heard a trunk lid slam shut, then felt motion as the car pulled out of the lot.

  CHAPTER 19