Playing the Part

by Kimberly Van Meter

  Lindy exited the lobby and ran smack into the very person she didn’t want to face just yet—Gabe Weston.

  She opened her mouth to defend herself but he blew past her, wearing an anxious expression. A feeling of dread settled in her stomach and she hurried after him against her better judgment. “What’s wrong?” Lindy asked.

  He barely acknowledged her, but answered tersely. “Carys is missing. She wasn’t in her room and she wasn’t down at the beach.”

  “I’m sure she’s just hiding out,” Lindy said, swallowing a really big lump of something that tasted like apprehension. Had she caused this kid to do something stupid like run away? The island was a safe place, mostly, but it certainly wasn’t smart for a kid to go wandering around by herself. “I’ll help you look.”

  “That’s not necessary,” he said, cutting her a short look.

  “I know the island and two sets of eyes are better than one, right?” she said, trying to appeal to his logic, but she saw an arctic storm blowing behind his eyes. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. “How long has she been gone?”

  He made an agitated gesture that spoke of private guilt as he admitted, “I don’t know, exactly. We were having a discussion and then she got really upset and ran out the door.”

  “Did she say what had upset her?” Lindy asked, though she could guess.

  “Actually—” he stopped to pin Lindy with a sharp stare “—she said you called her the b-word.”

  Lindy gaped. “The what?”

  “The b-word, which I can only assume is bitch. Is that true?”

  “No,” Lindy answered truthfully. “I hate to break it to you but your little angel lied to you. I called her a brat but I’d never call a little kid that other word, no matter how much they deserved it.”

  Gabe processed her answer and slowly came to his own conclusion. “I was afraid of that.” He sighed and pushed his hand through his hair. “I’ve been having some...issues with Carys.”

  “I can only imagine,” Lindy said wryly. “But we’ll find her, don’t worry. There are only so many places she can hide on this island.”

  “I thought she probably needed a little cooldown and went to the beach but after about thirty minutes I went to find her. She wasn’t anywhere.”

  She could hear the guilt in his voice and felt bad for him. She wasn’t a mom and didn’t know what it entailed but she knew for certain, she wasn’t interested in the job description from what she knew so far. “Okay, so she’s either gone to Hawksnest Beach or she went to town. My vote is for town. I’m guessing she has cash or a credit card?”

  He looked discomfited, as if Lindy’s assumption only solidified her opinion that Carys was a spoiled rich kid, but he nodded nonetheless. “For emergencies,” he clarified, as if that made a difference. In Los Angeles, a rich kid’s emergency could mean there was a new pair of Jimmy Choo ballet slippers at Nordstrom. Lindy supposed rich kids were the same no matter the zip code.

  “Well, that’s good. If she has cash, she’s probably blowing off some steam in the shops. I mean, isn’t shopping its own brand of therapy?”

  “I wouldn’t know. I don’t particularly like to shop. That was my wife’s department,” he answered grimly.

  Wife...likely a divorcé and he ended up picking the short straw with the kid this vacation. “So where’s the missus right now?”

  “She passed away a year ago.”

  Ouch. She bit her lip and the pink of shame heated her cheeks. “Oh. I’m sorry,” she said and actually meant it. She knew how it felt to lose a mother. With a pinch of conscience she grudgingly saw Carys in a different light. Maybe the kid was hurting and lashing out because she missed her mom and buttoned-up dad wasn’t cutting it in the emotional healing department. She skewed her gaze at Gabe and another apology hovered on her tongue. He started to veer toward the parking lot where his rented luxury car waited and she tugged at his magnolia-

  covered shirt, gesturing for him to follow. “C’mon, I’ll drive. I know my way around and some of these roadways are tricky.”

  He seemed poised to argue but thought better of it and followed her to the Jeep. They hopped in and after Lindy fished around under the seat for the spare key, they were rumbling out of the parking lot.

  “Do you always keep the spare in the vehicle?” he asked, clearly a bit incredulous. “I mean, anyone could just take off with your vehicle.”

  “They could but they don’t. It’s a private resort and everyone’s pretty honest.” She barked a laugh at a private memory. “We’ve only had one car thief in all the years we’ve owned Larimar,” she shared without shame. “And it was me. I took the Jeep and skipped off island to St. Thomas, where a few friends were having a party, and I didn’t come home until morning. In my defense, how was I supposed to know that the ferry didn’t run past 11:00 p.m.? I was grounded for a week after that escapade but it was worth it.”

  He shook his head, not quite sure what to think of her. Lindy didn’t take it personally. She was a bit of an odd bird, so she’d been told. “Oh, come on, you mean to tell me you never did anything crazy when you were a kid?” she asked, trying to take his mind off his daughter and ease the frown on his face.

  He exhaled a short breath as if he was wise to her attempt but he answered with a short shrug. “I guess. But it feels a whole lot different when it’s your kid doing the crazy stuff.”

  She bit her lip, her smile fading. Yeah, she supposed that was true. Now she wished she hadn’t tried to make light of the situation. “We’ll find her. It’ll be okay,” she said. “I grew up here and it’s pretty safe. Almost boring. In fact, in St. Thomas they call St. John St. Yawn if that tells you anything.”

  “She’s only eleven,” he reminded her.

  “Yes, but something tells me she’s pretty damn resourceful, even for an eleven-year-old. Am I right?”

  At that he nodded grudgingly, rubbing the skin above his brows. “Yeah. I guess you could say that. She can be a bit precocious.”

  “Yeah,” Lindy agreed. “I recognize it. That’s how I was, too. My grandmother had her hands full with me, but I turned out pretty well, so likely she will, too.”

  They drove into the plaza where the shops converged in a marketplace hub and Lindy grabbed the first parking space she could find, sliding into a tight spot that barely qualified as legal. Gabe looked uneasy at her parking job but she simply hopped out and waited for him to follow. She waved away his concern. “I know it looks illegal but it’ll be fine. Besides, we’ll be gone before anyone starts to raise a fuss. Trust me,” she said, scanning the plaza. Several tourists were snapping pictures of an iguana lazing on a tree branch at eye level until he tired of the attention and lumbered farther up the tree. Lindy turned to Gabe. “Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground if we do. You take the upstairs shops and I’ll take the bottom level. We’ll come back to this spot in thirty minutes. Okay?”

  “Okay,” he said and struck out, his pace brisk. She blew out a short breath and focused on where an eleven-year-old kid would likely want to hang out. The shops in this plaza were mostly geared toward tourists and she doubted the kid was looking to buy a coffee mug or T-shirt. Lindy closed her eyes and thought hard. If she were a kid with money at her disposal and she was so angry and hurt that she just ran away, where would she go?

  Off island. The answer seemed simple enough. A rich kid with resources and enough savvy was going to try to find a way off the island, possibly to purchase a plane ticket in St. Thomas to fly back to wherever she came from. Knowing Carys, the kid probably knew her way around a terminal. The wealthy were usually well traveled; some kids in L.A. were bicoastal with divorced parents so a plane ride was as natural as hitching a cab in New York.

  Lindy jogged to the marina and began scanning. She spied her old friend Billy Janks, unloading scuba gear from his charter. She waved and
grinned when his dark brown face split into an easy smile.

  “Yah a sight for sore eyes,” he exclaimed when she stepped aboard and gave him a fierce hug. “Heath told me yah were here but I couldn’t believe yah left all dat Hollywood glamour for little ol’ St. John.”

  “I didn’t leave permanently,” Lindy said, smiling. “Just a little break until things get more settled with Larimar.” She admired his beautiful boat. “Man, you’ve come a long way. I remember when you were just a snot-nosed island kid like the rest of us. Now you own your own charter company? That’s damn sweet, Billy.”

  He grinned and nodded. “Saving up for yah to make me an honest mon, sweet.”

  Lindy laughed. “As if I’d keep you from all the ladies who want a piece of that dark island candy,” she teased. “I’d never be able to live with myself if I kept you all to myself.”

  “True dat,” he said, laughter in his voice. “So what da real reason yah here? Come for a ride?”

  She shook her head. “No. Unfortunately not. But I’ll take a rain check on that, though. Actually, I was wondering if you saw a little imp of a girl come through looking to pay someone to ferry her to St. Thomas. She has serious cash but she’s only about eleven.”

  Billy sobered and nodded. “She came tru here about fifteen minutes ago. I told her to go home. She plenty mad when I say dat. I tole her to cool off with a cold drink at the boathouse.”

  “Thanks, Billy,” Lindy said, relieved. At least Carys hadn’t found a way off island yet. She waved at Billy and headed toward the boathouse. She stepped inside and spotted Carys immediately. She was trying to haggle with a captain Lindy didn’t know.

  “I have cash,” she said, her small face gathering into a dark scowl. “What’s the problem? I’ll even pay you more than the trip is worth! I mean, you’d be stupid to pass up a deal like that!”

  Lindy could tell the kid was about to get tossed into the water headfirst by the annoyed captain and for a split second, Lindy was tempted to let him. The kid deserved that and more, but in the end, not even Lindy could allow herself to let that happen.

  “C’mon, kid, your dad is worried about you,” she said, startling Carys until she saw it was Lindy, then her face screwed into a fierce glower. “I know, I know, you’re mad. You can be mad in the car. Your dad is about to turn this whole island upside down to find you and you can’t even comprehend how that will make my life hell and I think you’ve done enough of that for one day.”

  “My dad doesn’t care,” Carys shot back, but there was a slight tremble to her lip that gave her away. Beneath all that bravado and bad attitude, the kid was hurting. Lindy sighed and wondered why she had to be the one to see it first.

  “You know he does so let’s stop with the games and the lies.” Lindy drew Carys away from the clump of island natives and took her to the bar.

  “I’m not lying,” she shot back heatedly.

  “You told your dad that I called you a b-word. You and I both know I didn’t do that.”

  Carys slid her gaze away. “I didn’t say which b-word. It’s not my fault he jumped to the wrong conclusion,” she said with a shrug. “He didn’t believe me anyway.”

  “That’s not the point. You can’t just make up stuff about people. Someone could get hurt.”

  “If he loved me, he’d believe whatever I said.” Lindy’s surprised laughter caused Carys to scowl. “What’s so funny?”

  “You, kid. Loving someone doesn’t give you an all-access pass to being a manipulative brat,” she said, pausing to order two Shirley Temples. “I don’t know your dad but he seems like a decent guy. You and I both know you were the little twerp who ruined our plumbing so let’s just get that out of the way right now. I see what’s going on, though. You’re trying to get your dad’s attention because you’re hurting but trust me, this way isn’t productive and it just hurts you in the end.”

  “How do you know?” Carys said, her voice small but defiant. “You don’t know anything about me or my dad.”

  “True. But I lost my mom when I was really young and I remember how it felt.”

  The defiance in Carys’s body language lessened a bit as she asked, “Really? How’d your mom die?”

  “Cancer,” Lindy answered candidly, surprised when the admission still had the power to sting. She straightened and focused on Carys. “How about your mom?”

  “Same. Dad said she didn’t suffer too long, though. By the time the doctors found the cancer, it’d spread everywhere,” Carys said, her small voice getting even smaller.

  Lindy blinked back an unexpected show of tears. It’d been a long time since she remembered everything her mom had gone through. It’d been tough, but fast, too. Lindy had always wondered if her mom had simply given up because of her divorce. Her mom had never quite recovered from the shock of her husband splitting without warning.

  “Dad doesn’t like to talk about it, though,” Carys whispered. “He says it’s not going to bring her back so we shouldn’t dwell on it.”

  “How do you feel about that?” Lindy asked.

  “I hate it.”

  “Yeah, I would, too. My mom was a special woman. I’m sure yours was, too.”

  “She was.” Carys sniffed and swallowed. “She was the best mom in the world.”

  “And I’m guessing she thought you were pretty awesome, too. I mean, something tells me you didn’t act like this when she was around.”

  A hint of pink crept into Carys’s cheeks and Lindy smiled in understanding. “Listen, how about this... I’ll make a deal with you. If you promise to stop trying to kill our septic system with your antics—” Lindy took a deep breath, shocked about what she was going to offer to the kid “—I’ll make a promise to listen to you anytime you want to talk about your mom. We can share stories about our moms if you want. Moms are special ladies. They deserve to get a little shout-out, even if they’re not with us anymore. Is that a deal?”

  “You’d listen to me talk about my mom? About anything I wanted to say?” Carys asked.

  “Yes,” Lindy answered, realizing she was making a big promise but deep down she knew the kid needed it. “Anything you want. Your dad is trying to do the best he can but you have to cut him some slack, you know? He’s probably hurting, too.”

  At that, Carys’s eyes watered and Lindy knew she’d hit a nerve. Carys didn’t really want to hurt her dad but she was a little girl who was lashing out because that’s all she knew how to do. “Okay,” Carys said, nodding. “Want to shake on it?”

  “Absolutely. A deal’s not a real deal unless we shake on it. And maybe spit, too.”

  Carys hesitated and then spit in her hand before holding it out to Lindy. Oh damn, Lindy thought with a grimace. She’d been kidding about the spit part. But what the hell and after spitting in her own hand, she sealed their deal with a squishy shake.

  “Great,” Lindy said, quickly wiping her hand on the seat of her sarong. “Now can we get out of here and get your dad before he has a heart attack?”

  Carys grinned. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Lindy nodded and, as they walked out, knew she’d just made a reluctant friend in an eleven-year-old girl.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  GABE’S HEART WAS racing and his stomach had turned queasy. He’d pushed Carys too hard; he should’ve backed off. But he was at a loss as to what to do with her. He knew deep in his bones that Carys was guilty of all the things she’d been accused of and probably even a few things that hadn’t been caught yet but he just couldn’t understand why she was being such a terror. He’d tried about everything under the sun to help her heal—

  Disneyland, a new pony, the best birthday party money could buy—and it seemed her attitude only worsened.

  And now this? If something happened to her he’d never forgive himself. He never should’ve listened to tha
t woman when she talked him out of going straight to the police. They needed a search party right now. Changing direction, his thoughts almost manic, he startled when he heard Carys’s voice behind him.

  “Hi, Daddy,” his daughter said, smiling as if she hadn’t scared the living daylights out of him. She walked beside Lindy as if they were old friends, which made him do a double take. An hour ago Carys had been hollering for the woman’s head. Now they were buds? Lindy’s brow went up ever so slightly, as if encouraging Carys. His daughter drew a deep breath and—Lord help him, he was going to have a heart attack—apologized. “I was real upset but I shouldn’t have run off like that. I’m sorry, Daddy.”

  With his daughter looking up at him with those gorgeous baby blues, appearing more sincere than she had in months, Gabe found himself floundering with the wind sucked from his sails. He’d been prepared to yell, cry, kiss and chastise but instead he simply nodded, unsure of what to do. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he said, shooting an uncertain look Lindy’s way. He was willing to bet she had something to do with this remarkable transformation.

  If he wanted answers, he would find them with the woman he really wanted to avoid. When Charlotte had been alive, he’d been a faithful man and even after her death that hadn’t changed. He knew he wouldn’t be much of a partner to anyone new after Charlotte died and he’d wanted to make sure he was making good choices, particularly now that the parenting burden fell squarely on his shoulders. So that meant smothering the inevitable awakening of his libido, which chose to flare to life at inopportune moments. And up until that moment, he’d been successful. But there was something about this woman that made his decision to remain single and celibate very difficult.

  “I’m hungry,” Carys announced, grabbing her dad’s hand. “Let’s go to that hamburger place we went to the other day...Sailor’s, I think?” She looked to Lindy for confirmation and Lindy nodded.

  “Best burgers on the island, maybe even all the islands, but then I’m partial. I’ve been eating there since I was a kid.”