No Regrets

by Susannah Gautier

  Travis’s cast a glance at his clothes for a moment. “I do work for the Coast Guard. You remember? Deep, dark, ocean, boats, diving in shark-infested waters? Black tie just wouldn’t work out there, Aidan,” he said, chuckling.

  “Apparently, it works for Jamie Connolly. What would she want with a small town like Seabrook where our biggest gala is the Oktoberfest fish fry on Sabina Beach?”

  “She must have come home for some reason,” Travis offered.

  “It’s none of my business. Or yours.” Aidan glared at Travis from the ladder. “All I know is that in less than twenty four hours a hurricane could hit Seabrook. And I can’t finish putting up these damn shutters if you don’t stop distracting me talking about women.”

  Travis smiled and changed the subject to football. The two men finished putting the shutters on Aidan’s house, then Travis left to work the hurricane shift required of all Coast Guard personnel.

  Aidan quickly showered and dressed. He packed a few essentials then drove to Jamie’s house feeling slightly edgy. Her sleek, silver sports car was parked outside and he breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled up to the cottage. He went to the door and decided against knocking, perhaps unconsciously hoping to find her indecently dressed. Or better yet, butt naked.

  The door was unlocked. He opened it quietly.

  “You Jerk!” Jamie yelled out as one of Thorn’s squeaky toys sailed past Aidan’s head. “You low down, dirty rotten scoundrel!”

  Aidan ducked just in time as another whizzed by, missing him by inches.

  “Hey!” Aidan said, shielding himself as she reached for Thorn’s rawhide bone. “Slow down.”

  Jamie saw him walk through the front gate. She was ready for battle. She was so enraged, so incensed she'd grabbed the first thing she could find, hoping in the very least to shock him into meekness. So far, it wasn’t working.

  In a matter of seconds, he was beside her and in an empty living room there was no barrier to put between them.

  “Don’t you touch me… you scoundrel,” she said miserably.

  The faintest trace of amusement colored Aidan’s expression. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever been called a scoundrel. I expected something more creative from a designer.”

  He touched her then, drawing her hands intimately into his as he pulled her dangerously close to him.

  Aidan looked down at her. At the moment, she hated his height, his size, and all his swaggering masculine appeal. She vibrated with fury, but her body betrayed her, responding to his touch erotically, lustfully.

  “Don’t you dare kiss me.”

  “I like my women willing. You were willing enough this morning.”

  His women? Her face burned with rage and embarrassment, and the searing nearness of him. “You double crossed me,” she said, spitting the words out with vehemence.

  He let her go and she knew an inexplicable flash of regret as his warmth left her hands. He ran a calloused hand through his hair leaving it ridiculously ruffled. He was so beautiful, so masculine, so perfect. How she despised him.

  “Villa Milagros was sold?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was tight.

  For once, the man looked at a loss.

  “What kind of man are you to make love to me while you are stabbing me in the back?”

  “I wanted to buy the house long before you ever showed up in Seabrook. We both wanted it and someone had to lose. It has nothing to do with our-” he hesitated.

  “Our…?”

  He ignored the question. “I made my bid before this morning’s… events.”

  “I never had a chance to make another bid on it with your local boys at the bank watching out for you.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about it,” he said.

  “Yeah, right. I’m going to fight you and fight your little Seabrook testosterone club,” she said.

  “You’re talking nonsense. I don’t know why you want Villa Milagros so much, but this time you're not going to get your way. I'm going to raze it to the ground.”

  Jamie felt the color drain from her face. "What?"

  "Don't tell me that you didn't have the same idea. The lot is prime waterfront. It was a matter of time before someone snatched it up to develop it."

  “Develop it? No!" The very thought of it made Jamie ill.

  "What else would you do with it? The house has been empty for years. Who would want to live in it?" Aidan asked.

  "I would," she said.

  Aidan looked at her, momentarily caught off guard. "Well, you won't. I'm tearing it down the moment I sign the papers."

  She couldn't bear to lose the house. It was like losing her mother all over again. "If you want a fight, I’ll give you the fight of your life. Let’s go to court and see if justice really does prevail. But I’m warning you, my attorney will-"

  “Ah,l et me guess Conrad Malcolm. Looks like you won’t be doing your own fighting then,” he said.

  He left then, letting the door slam loudly behind him. She felt a pang of anguish she hadn’t known since the day her mother told her she had cancer.

  “Scoundrel” she said softly.

  Tear her house down? No!

  For the first time in a long time she felt the sting of tears on her cheeks.

  ˜

  Aidan was waiting for Ross at school. They'd let the kids out early on account of the impending hurricane so Ross was especially excited when he came crashing onto the seat of his father’s truck.

  “Did you give the puppy back yet?” Ross asked.

  “Yes I did.”

  “Will he be okay in the hurricane?”

  “I’m sure he will be.” He realized he'd never found out where Jamie planned to ride out the storm.

  “Can we go visit him now?”

  Yeah, Aidan thought, wouldn’t that be a great thing to expose to my kid? A woman who throws squeaky toys when she’s angry? Ross might be able to teach her a thing or two about self-control. The mention of Villa Milagros and all the awful memories the house stirred in Aidan made his stomach churn. But, the look on Jamie's face when he said he planned to tear the house down concerned him. She'd looked almost forlorn.

  He was perplexed by her move back to Seabrook, her desire to live in the old abandoned house, and her connection to the vilest man he'd ever known. Except he was beginning to think she didn’t really know Conrad Malcolm too well, didn’t know the type of sleazy back-alley deeds he committed. Despite her worldliness and glamorous associates, he was willing to bet she was still an innocent. Leave it to him to fall for another innocent.

  “Daddy?” There was no mistaking the plea in Ross’s voice.

  “Sorry buddy, with this storm coming everyone is too busy. We’ll have to do our visiting another time, all right?”

  “Okay” Ross said glumly.

  “I’m taking you to Jo’s. I’ll meet you later after I finish up at the house.”

  Jo came out to the truck to meet them when Aidan pulled up in her driveway.

  “How are you, Ross?” Jo asked cheerfully.

  “We found a puppy named Thorn this morning in our yard, didn’t we Daddy? But he had to go home to the lady from the beach.”

  “Is that so?” Jo listened as Ross told an animated story about the puppy, glancing not too covertly at Aidan.

  “And how was your day?” she asked Aidan.

  Aidan’s smile was forced. “Terrific.”

  When a man was irritated with a woman, the last person he wanted to tell was Jo if he had any brains. If Jo knew it was the beloved Jamie Connolly of designer fame irritating him, he’d never hear the end of it.

  “You don’t seem terrific,” Jo said.

  “I am. I need to get back and finish up some things at the house. Then I’ll meet you at the Seabrook Resort inland. I’ve booked a suite.”

  “If you get stuck in Seabrook, you’ll be too busy trying to stay alive to do anything else, fixing or otherwise” she said with a knowing smile.

 
“What do you mean by that?”

  “Aidan, I’ve known you for too many years for you to fool me. You may fool everyone else but you can’t fool me. Now go on, don’t let her get away.”

  Aidan laughed, despite the way the day was going. “I keep telling you Jo, you watch too many soap operas. I hope you aren’t exposing my boy to that stuff.”

  “Go on and try not to be too much of your arrogant self,” Jo said.

  As Aidan drove away, he wondered. Was there something he was missing that everyone else knew? He shook his head. Women never ceased to confound him. He messed with the radio, hoping to hear the latest hurricane bulletin. Somewhere along the southeast coast, Hurricane Dean was going to hit land in the early morning hours. He turned the radio down and checked the time. Now there was more to worry about. It was nearly eight already, which meant less than an hour of daylight left.

  He turned off the expressway toward his house but he wasn’t going home. He was going to Jamie’s house and come hell or high water or squeaky dog toys, all of which were a definite possibility, he was going to talk some sense into that woman. She wouldn’t stay in her crumbling cottage if she had any sense. A category four hurricane could blow the deteriorating roof off that decrepit house and drag her wispy body out into the whirling storm. She wouldn’t be safe in her home. He knew with sudden clarity she wouldn’t be safe with him either.

  But that is exactly where she would be staying, with him.

  ~

  It was nearly dusk when Aidan finally pulled into Jamie’s driveway. The wind had picked up dramatically and it was raining sporadically. According to the latest bulletins on the radio, Hurricane Dean, with its 135 mile per hour winds, internal tournedos, and enough rain to flood the entire county was headed right toward them. Hurricane Dean? What a ridiculous name for a hurricane. They should have named it Hurricane Jamie, he thought wryly. Yes, Hurricane Jamie did have a certain ring to it.

  He didn’t bother knocking. A surprise attack was best considering his earlier welcome.

  “Jamie?” he called out as he stepped into her aging palace. He searched the house but found it empty. No Jamie. No Thorn. Maybe she wised up and decided to pack up and leave. No, he remembered seeing her impractical little sports car still parked in the driveway. Perhaps she was staying with Kerrie. Travis said he saw them together at The Watering Hole so he gathered they must be old friends.

  He dialed Travis from Jamie’s kitchen phone. “Hey Trav, where you at?”

  Travis’s words were barely perceptible through the turbulent winds. “I just finished evacuating Sabina Beach. Idiots trying to surf… like always.”

  “Where’s Kerrie?” Aidan shouted above the crackle.

  “Kerrie? She’s a reporter. Where do you think she is? Damn fool’s going to get herself killed covering this storm.”

  Aidan had forgotten that Kerrie worked for the Seabrook Press. The chances of Jamie being with her were slim to none. “Jamie’s not with her then?”

  “No. She was asking me if you two were together. You’d better get yourself inland,” Travis shouted over the wind. “In a couple of hours the gusts will be too strong to drive through. It’s a bad one, Aidan. You don’t want to be in your house if it hits.”

  “I’m not leaving until I find Jamie,” Aidan snapped.

  Travis’s chuckled deeply. “You picked a hell of a day to fall in love. I hope it’s not an omen as to how your relationship will be.”

  Aidan ignored the jibe. His concern for Jamie outweighed all else now. “Call me if you hear anything.”

  Aidan checked his watch. It was after six. He peered out the front window. Daylight was fading fast while the squalls were increasingly stronger. They had maybe an hour left before it would be too unsafe to drive. He wandered through the house, making sure all the windows were locked tightly and then sat on Jamie’s bed, watching through the window for her return.

  He was exhausted from boarding up his house and gave in to the temptation to lie down while he waited for her. Her bed was filled with the scent of her, sweet, alluring, sensual. His mind wandered into a dreamy, erotic daze, filled with images of Jamie.

  Aidan sat up abruptly, shaking off the exhaustion that had lulled him into dozing. He rose groggily in the dusky light and made his way to the living room. It had grown darker outside, and the house was still and dim. He went to the kitchen and found a light switch. He heard a rustling sound at the front door as he flipped the light switch.

  “Don’t you run off like that again, do you hear me?” Jamie’s soft voice scolded.

  It was like music to his ears. The vision of her, when he walked into the living room was a pleasure for his eyes. The room was brushed with faded daylight. She was a rumpled mess. Her dress was wrinkled. Her hair was damp and windblown. Thorn was wet and wiggling as she cradled him in her arms like a squirming baby. She looked sweet and demure and motherly, and he wanted to shower her unkempt face with kisses.

  Relief quickly turned to irritation. “Where have you been?”

  Her eyes flashed angrily at the sight of him. “Seabrook really has changed. I guess I really do need that security system.” She put Thorn down on the floor and marched past him to the kitchen, effectively ignoring him.

  He would not be ignored. He grabbed her arm and twirled her around to face him before she had a chance to stop him. “There is a dangerous hurricane coming this way, in case you didn’t know.”

  “No kidding?"

  “And this derelict building you call home, with its rotting roof and substandard electrical wiring is going to get pulverized.”

  A haughty little grin formed on her lips. “No doubt.”

  “Staying here would be nothing short of suicide,” he said gravely.

  She twisted from his grasp and continued into the kitchen pantry where she retrieved a bag of dog food and proceeded to dump the pellets into Thorn’s bowl.

  Aidan’s felt his fury rising. This was no time for games. The danger of a hurricane was too real. “Where are you planning to stay tonight?”

  Her expression was scornful and her voice was cold. “Let’s get one thing straight, I don’t answer to you. Where I have been or where I am going is none of your business.”

  Aidan clenched his teeth. “Are you planning to stay here?”

  “That is none of your business.” She graced him with a big, artificially warm smile that made his heart go cold.

  He was tempted to leave her. He still had time to drive inland to the hotel where Jo and Ross were staying. Jamie was a grown woman. If she was stupid enough to stay in this run-down home near the ocean during a category four hurricane for the sake of her pride, he should let her suffer the consequences.

  He couldn’t do it though. He couldn’t be a part of any more tragedy. He couldn’t stand by and let Jamie do something so colossally stupid. Besides, he wanted her. Wanted her in his safe keeping, in his arms, hell, in his bed he might as well admit. He had since the first time he had laid eyes on her in this unlikely little cottage she'd bought for herself.

  The glass in the windows began to rattle as the wind whipped fiercely through the beating rain. A wary expression passed over Jamie’s face.

  “Are you planning to stay here?” He kept his tone deceptively calm.

  She nodded defiantly.

  “Very well.” He moved swiftly then, picked up her tall, willowy body, and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of apples.

  “Put me down you ape!”

  She twisted and squirmed and called him names he hadn’t even heard the crudest guy, use but he would be damned before he put her down.

  He strode out the front door, hauled her into the driver’s side of his truck, and screeched out of the driveway. The gusts had grown powerful. He drove with both hands to steady the wheel and to keep from veering off the road. He looked over at Jamie and she was silent.

  “We have to go back.” Her tone was solemn.

  He humored her with a small smile. “Why
?”

  “Thorn. I can't leave Thorn!”

  A few moments passed before Aidan pulled into his drive way, stopped and shoved the truck’s gears into reverse. He turned to look out the back window, a wise decision as it turned out. Within mere seconds, a large branch from an ancient oak tree came crashing down behind them, inches from his truck.

  Aidan opened the truck door and took a troubled look around. “And you wanted to stay at your house?” he bellowed above the furious, howling blasts. He staggered against the wind to behind his truck. Jamie shoved her door open and bolted. Aidan caught her, wrapping his arms around her, imprisoning her. “This is serious, Jamie. I’m not going to let you risk your life so foolishly.”

  “I’m not leaving Thorn!” she cried from under the pelting rain.

  “I’ll go back for him. You stay here.” He let her go and handed her his keys. “When I get back we’ll move this branch and get the hell out of here, okay?”

  Jamie took the keys from his hand and nodded. She was drenched from the liquid flurries. Her lips quivered and were becoming an unpleasant shade of blue. He pulled her hastily toward the front door, out of the slicing wind. Casting a wary glance at the hostile sky, he ran out into the storm.

  Jamie watched him as he pounded thunderously through the mud in the direction of her home. She almost felt sorry for sending him out into such horrid weather except she hadn’t asked to be dragged, caveman-like away from her home and helpless puppy to the questionable safety of Aidan’s home.

  She turned, unlocked the front door, and stepped inside. It was pitch black with the shutters covering the windows, and she felt an irrational feeling of panic. She desperately scraped her hand along the wall and searched for a light switch. Relief filled her as she felt the hard bump of plastic. Light flooded the foyer.

  She made her way from the entry to the living room and switched on a nearby lamp. Wow. This was no bachelor pad. Aidan had taste. A cushy sofa stood along one wall surrounded by a few comfortable armchairs. The walls were a warm color, the décor was eclectic and playful, and colorful art decorated the walls. The fact she approved of his taste unnerved her. Did the man have any faults? Besides, of course, being pig-headed, arrogant, and irritatingly gallant?