Dangerously Sweet

by Angela Evans

  “Like there’s a thundering herd of wild animals trying to claw their way out.” Amelia grimaced.

  “You probably have a concussion,” Dex pointed out.

  “Luckily I’m not planning on playing football, driving a race car, or really doing anything at all for the next few days. Maybe even weeks.” Amelia leaned against the warm bricks of the building.

  “I’ve asked one of the agents to run you back to your bungalow. They’re going to take my family too.” Dex seemed distant, which was annoying and also strange. Amelia was fighting the urge to throw herself in his arms and seek comfort, but he seemed to have retreated behind a wall.

  “What’s going on here?” Amelia asked, gesturing towards the space between the two of them. Every other time she’d been with Dex they’d been touching, standing near each other, flirting…now there was more space between them than just the inches separating their bodies.

  Dex looked off towards the horizon for a minute, and she thought at first he wasn’t even going to answer her, but after he seemed to collect his words he finally spoke. “Because of me, because of this job, I almost got you and my whole family hurt, or worse. There’s a reason why I’ve kept my distance from them and from any relationships. Today served as a sharp reminder I’m not good for the people I care about.”

  Amelia’s heart soared at the idea he actually cared about her. That she may actually be more to him than a beach fling. That maybe he’d felt their connection the same way she had and realized it went beyond just sex. But any hope she felt was quickly crushed because she also realized he was pushing her away. The wall he’d built around himself wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t just that he was working or that the place was crawling with fellow cops. He was intentionally pushing her away and there was nothing she could do about it.

  “You can convince yourself of that if it makes it easier, but if you’re just looking for a way out, you don’t need one. At least not from me.” Amelia turned on her heel and walked away, fighting the urge to look over her shoulder to see if he was watching her.

  She hadn’t taken a dozen steps when Dex grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Back to my bungalow,” she answered, every bit as irritated as he was.

  “I said I would get you a ride!”

  “I don’t need your ride. Or your excuses.” She didn’t bother to keep her voice down and noticed a few of the officers nearby turned to stare at her and Dex.

  “I will take you to your bungalow.” Dex spoke through gritted teeth, still holding onto her arm and refusing to let go. How dare he get angry with her now!

  “Look, I don’t know if you noticed it or not, but I’ve had one helluva day. I just want to go back to the bungalow, take a hot bath, and forget any of this ever happened.” Amelia wanted to escape from all of this before she broke down and cried, which was going to happen any second if she didn’t get away from Dex.

  “I am taking you to your bungalow. Wait here,” he ordered before he stomped off. In minutes he was back, holding a set of car keys in his hand and pulling her towards a car parked nearby.

  “Whose car is this?” She asked, digging her heels in and refusing to climb in when he opened the passenger’s door.

  “I borrowed it from one of the officers. Get in.” He waited impatiently for her to comply with his order. She did because she decided there was standing your ground and then there was just being stupid. She didn’t have a car, she didn’t have a way to get back to Casa Blanca, and letting him take her meant she got there that much quicker.

  After she reluctantly climbed in and began buckling her seatbelt, he slammed the door closed and jogged around the front of the car to climb behind the wheel. As soon as his door closed and blocked out the noise from around the bakery, Amelia leaned her head back against the head rest and forced herself to take what felt like the first deep breath she’d taken in hours.

  Her eyes burned behind her closed eyelids with unshed tears born of stress, heartache, and relief, and so many other emotions she couldn’t name them all.

  “When you fell, I thought you’d been hit.” Dex’s voice startled her in the silence.

  “Hit?” She asked, not understanding what he meant.

  “Shot.” The single word was suddenly the key to making everything he’d said earlier crystal clear to her. Like a key inserted into a lock, the pieces suddenly fit together and opened the door.

  “But I wasn’t. I just hit my head,” she reminded him. “I wouldn’t even have done that if I hadn’t overreacted when the FBI agent tried to grab me and pull me to safety. I caused this myself.” She pointed to the bump on her forehead.

  Dex sneered at her. “You did not cause any of this yourself. I caused this. Or at least I caused it to affect you. If I’d kept my distance from you, they never would have targeted you.”

  “No, they would have targeted someone else. Maybe someone who wouldn’t have managed to get out of it alive with just a bump on the head.” It was all too much. Arguing with Dex when she was exhausted and emotional was not a good idea.

  Chapter Seven

  It was easy to see Amelia was fighting emotions, and Dex knew he needed to drop her off at the bungalow and leave her alone. If she broke down in tears, he would have that on his conscience along with everything else. He’d known better than to mess up her perfect little world with his messy life. He avoided relationships for a reason, and this was it.

  Messy cases he could handle. Years undercover with the worst humanity had to offer he could do without breaking a sweat. But Amelia’s tears would gut him, and he knew it.

  “The only reason The Boss is here is because someone tipped him off and blew my cover.” He denied her argument.

  “Believe what you want.” Amelia dismissed him and turned to stare out the window to avoid looking at him. He’d hurt her, but there was no way to avoid it. A little heartache now was better than a whole lot more later, he reasoned.

  “Just drop me off,” she said. For some reason being dismissed by her ticked him off. He was trying to put distance between them, but her going along so easily set his teeth on edge.

  “I’m going to be tied up for a while. I don’t know how long, exactly. A few days probably. I’ll check on you when I get back.” That got her attention and her head swung around to stare at him incredulously. Immediately she cradled her head in her hands and grimaced in pain.

  “Ouch!” After a few moments she opened her eyes again and pinned him with an angry glare. “You’re leaving? Your mother’s wedding is in just a few days!”

  “I’ll do my best to be back, but either way she’ll get married and live happily ever after, I’m sure.” He’d be back for the wedding, but he’d avoid Amelia, walk his mom down the aisle, and kiss her goodbye before fading back out of his family’s life again.

  “You’ll do your best?” She was definitely pissed off now. “You’ll do your best? Your best has not been all that great up until now. You hadn’t even met the man your mother is going to marry until you got here. Your sisters said they haven’t seen you or even heard from you in years. Hell, your own mother believed you were really a drug dealer and a thug.”

  True, everything she said was absolutely true. He pulled the borrowed car into a parking space and shut off the engine. He wanted to reject her accusation, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny the truth. As a young man, he’d gone above and beyond to be there for his family, but in the last few years he’d done exactly the opposite. He’d gone out of his way to stay away from his family. He’d stayed away from everyone who might matter to him. Until Amelia. He’d let her way too close, and now she’d almost gotten killed.

  Seeing her fall and not knowing if she was seriously hurt or not had nearly killed him. He couldn’t stand the idea of her being hurt because of him.

  “You act like this big tough guy and nothing can hurt you, but the real reason you don’t want any of us to get too close is bec
ause you’re afraid you will be the one who gets hurt in the end.” She threw that at him and then scrambled out of the car. She did her best to stomp away, but stomping didn’t really work on a sandy beach. After a handful of steps she stopped, angrily removed her sandals, threw a glare over her shoulder at him, and took off towards her bungalow.

  She didn’t have to worry about hurrying; he was sitting in the car staring after her, but he couldn’t have chased after her if he wanted to. He was frozen by her words. As always, Amelia saw past all his armor straight to the heart of who he was. No amount of bravado or macho bullshit ever fooled her.

  He watched until she disappeared through the front door of her private bungalow. After a minute or two, he put the car in reverse and drove away. The distance between them did nothing to stop his imagination from conjuring up images of her soaking in a bubble bath. On a groan, he flipped the radio on, turned the volume up loud, and forced his focus back to the job at hand.

  * * *

  “I don’t think he’s coming,” Amelia whispered to Leslie. She didn’t want Dex’s mother to overhear. The older woman had her heart set on being walked down the aisle by her son at her wedding that afternoon.

  Leslie gave her a look that said, Did you really think he would? and continued helping her put the flowers on the cake.

  She had worked around the clock, with a killer headache, to finish the cake on time. Without Leslie she could never have pulled it off. Amelia was determined not to let Patrice down in the only way she could control. She couldn’t make Dex show up, even though she desperately wished that she could.

  How many times had she caught a glimpse of a man walking on the beach and felt her heart jump thinking it was Dex, only to have the man get nearer and realize he didn’t look a thing like the man she was missing? She’d tried to tell herself she’d only known him a short time, that it wasn’t really love, just lust or chemistry, but her heart wouldn’t listen. Her body ached to be in his arms again, to hold him again.

  She wished she hadn’t said the things she’d said when she was angry. She’d called him a coward, for Pete’s sake. He was the furthest thing from a coward! Wanting to protect his family and her from being hurt did not make him a coward; it made him…Dex. She’d considered calling him. She’d even thought about checking for incoming flights and waiting at the airport.

  “You’re obsessed,” Leslie accused softly.

  “I know! I can’t help it,” Amelia groaned. She placed the last few flowers in the perfect spot on the cake before starting to pack up their supplies and clean up the area. The cake was positioned perfectly inside the reception area where Barefoot Brides held their events. From behind the cake table, the bride and groom would have a beautiful view of the bay glistening in the afternoon sun.

  Amelia turned as she heard Willow Hershey approaching. “Oh my gosh, that is the most beautiful, decadent-looking cake I have ever seen. Please tell me you’ve decided to stay in Barefoot Bay?”

  Amelia smiled at the compliment and then grimaced at the question. She longed to make this her home, but without Dex in her life, she feared she would be constantly haunted by memories of their brief time together. Ironic since she had come to Barefoot Bay to get over a failed relationship and now it looked like she might be leaving to do the same thing.

  “Oh, thanks so much! I hope Patrice loves it, too. As for staying, I’m afraid that probably isn’t going to happen,” Amelia said.

  “No word from him, yet?” Willow said in a knowing voice. “Patrice is going to be so upset if he stands her up on her wedding day.”

  “I know,” Amelia agreed.

  “I have a feeling she’s not the only one, huh?” Willow placed a comforting hand on Amelia’s shoulder.

  Leslie chimed in. “She’s got it bad.”

  “You know, that spot right over there,” Willow pointed towards the dance floor. “That’s where my husband proposed to me at my parent’s vow renewal ceremony. He had left Barefoot Bay, too. I thought it was over, and he surprised me. So don’t give up just yet. Sometimes these guys we love just need a little more time to figure it out than we do.”

  “My ears are burning.” Nick Hershey, Willow’s sexy former Navy SEAL husband appeared from around the corner. “Am I interrupting girl talk?” he asked as he wrapped an affectionate arm around his wife’s waist, pulling her close.

  “If we say yes will you go away?” she laughed.

  “Nope, I love hearing you talk about how much you adore me and couldn’t live without me. Please continue,” Nick teased.

  “Actually I was telling them how sometimes it takes the guys a little longer to figure things out than it does us girls.” Willow’s happiness was palpable and Amelia felt a shot of pure envy like she’d never experienced before.

  Just her luck, she’d figured out exactly what she wanted in life, but it didn’t look like she was going to get it.

  “Excuse me,” she mumbled and hurried away from the happy couple and the wedding preparations. She needed a minute to compose herself and pull it together before she fell apart in front of everyone.

  As she rushed across the sand, she saw a man walking towards the wedding venue that for a moment her eyes tricked her into thinking was Dex. Shaking her head, she continued on the path towards her bungalow. She needed to pack her things, get ready to check out, and head home that evening, leaving the place where Dex had made love to her and left her breathless. The place where she’d finally admitted to herself she didn’t want to run the kitchen in the family’s lodge anymore, but instead wanted to run a small bakery. Preferably the small bakery in Mimosa Key making wedding cakes for the Barefoot Brides. She felt like she’d figured her life out in the time she’d spent in Barefoot Bay, which was what she’d come here for, but now she knew what she wanted most was Dex and he wasn’t here.

  Closing the door behind her she leaned back against it and sucked in a deep breath. Taking a moment to compose herself, she went to the bedroom and grabbed her mistreated suitcase from the closet and tossed it on the bed. She needed to pack. No matter what she was going to do she had to check out of the bungalow today after the wedding. Tossing her clothes and other items into the suitcase without a care for how they landed or if they even made it inside the luggage, she moved around the room on auto-pilot gathering things. She opened the table beside the bed to check and see if there was anything inside to take with her and found a box of condoms inside the top drawer.

  She picked up the box like it might bite her and flopped down on the bed with a loud sigh. “Damn,” she said out loud to no one at all.

  Glancing out the bedroom window, she could see the beach with the waves gently rolling into the shore. She definitely had to leave Mimosa Key because everywhere she looked she was overwhelmed with memories of Dex. She thought she saw him again for a split second out the window, walking with a woman on either side. She was obviously losing her mind. Would she think she saw Dex everywhere if she left Florida and went back home? Was she going to think every man she saw might be him for the rest of her life? Surely not!

  She couldn’t resist a second glance out the window at the man, though. The woman on his left resembled Naomi, so she looked again. The woman on his right looked like Francine. “Oh, my God,” she whispered out loud. It was really him.

  Tears burned the back of her eyes. He had come back for the wedding, for his mother. Amelia swallowed the lump in her throat.

  He was here.

  He was here, but he hadn’t come to find her.

  Like a bucket of cold water had been thrown in her face, any sentimental feelings she had were washed away. He had come, but not for her. He’d come for his mom. That’s the way it should be, she told herself, but still she was filled with crushing disappointment.

  He had come back, but not for her.

  * * *

  “Don’t you think you should go and see Amelia?” Francine said for at least the third time since he’d arrived.

  “I’ve got it
covered,” Dex replied, again.

  “I’ve seen her around the last few days while you were gone. She looks like someone stole her puppy.”

  Francine was not one to pull her punches. Just what he needed, more guilt. He didn’t know if Amelia would even talk to him. He didn’t deserve forgiveness, but that wasn’t going to stop him from asking.

  “I thought she would be here, actually.” Dex looked around to see if he could catch a glimpse of her reddish blonde hair among the crowd anywhere.

  “I think this might be the last place you’d find her.” Francine gave him a look that said get real and walked off, leaving him standing alone as his mother and her new husband’s friends milled around the reception hall.

  Walking his mom down the aisle had been a surreal experience, not something he had ever expected to do. He was happy for his mom, and he genuinely liked Marco. His mom deserved all the happiness she could find in life. Now to see about his own happiness, he thought, as he set off in search of the only woman who could make him want to throw his badge in the nearest trash can and never worry about chasing bad guys, or watching his back, again.

  He had the letter from Agent Anderson in his back pocket. As soon as he could slip away from the festivities without anyone looking for him, he intended to do exactly that. For now, Amelia had no idea he was back at Barefoot Bay, so he didn’t need to rush. He could give his mom the focus she deserved on her big day.

  The bride made her appearance then, and there was no mistaking the pure joy radiating from her. Her smile had enough wattage to light up the entire room, and the groom on her arm looked every bit as blissful. The happy couple; they looked like the living embodiment of that phrase. “Oh, you’re still here. I was afraid you’d have gone off in search of Amelia,” his mother said as she pressed him in a hug.

  “No, I was waiting for you. I’m not going anywhere,” he answered her. “Amelia doesn’t even know I’m here, so I’ve got time.”