Like One of the Family

by Kimberly Van Meter

  Lora turned sharply to see Heath striding toward them. She groaned inwardly. She certainly didn’t want him involved with this conversation.

  “Natty, good to see you. What’s shaking?” he asked, folding Natty into an easy hug. Lora couldn’t help the way her body stiffened at the sight but her own reaction was troubling. She imagined quills poking out all over her body in response.

  “She was just telling me how you two have shared some quality time together,” Lora said, turning to Heath and secretly taking pleasure in the way his cheeks pinked. Oh, so they had slept together. Natty wasn’t embellishing for effect. Good to know.

  “We went on a few dates,” Heath answered carefully, shooting a look Natty’s way that could almost be deemed quizzical. “But we figured out we were better as friends. Right, Natty?”

  Natty shrugged. “I suppose that’s how you remember it. But as I recall, I was ready to take it to the next level,” she teased.

  Lora had had enough of this particular conversation and tried to gracefully bow out. “So nice catching up with you but I have a ton of things to do so…”

  “Actually, I was hoping to catch a ride with you back to Larimar. I just let Lilah take the other Jeep.”

  Natty momentarily forgotten, Lora frowned. “Where’d Lilah go? Who’s watching Pops?”

  Natty sighed and shook her head. “I can still get the number of that place in St. Thomas if you like—”

  “Natty, please. I’m not putting my grandfather in a home. Now, if you don’t mind, I have to go.”

  “There’s no shame in admitting you’ve bitten off more than you can chew,” Natty called after her as Lora and Heath walked to the Jeep. Lora resisted the urge to say something rude and kept walking. Put her Pops in a home? Yeah, right, like that was ever going to happen. And who said she’d bitten off more than she could chew? Lora was the queen of handling things others choked on.

  “What was that all about?” Heath asked.

  “I didn’t know you dated Natty George,” she said instead.

  “Two dates…consisting of dinner and a movie in St. Thomas. Not exactly what I’d consider spending quality time.”

  “That’s not what she said,” Lora countered, wondering where she was going with the conversation. Was she fishing for information? Perhaps. She needed to know what kind of people Heath was associating with when he was supposed to be looking out for Larimar. “It’s your business who you date—”

  “Yes, it is,” he said, amused.

  She ignored that, continuing, “But I would advise you to be more choosy about your dating partners. Natty George, if she’s anything like she was in high school, was not a very nice person.”

  “Neither were you,” he pointed out, adding, “but I believe people can change.”

  She glared. He’d effectively boxed her in with that comment. “Well, I don’t,” she said. “People are who they are and other people just need to accept that.”

  “Why?”

  His blunt question sucked the wind from her sails. Why did she believe that people couldn’t change? Or was it that she believed she couldn’t change? There were times when she wished she were more like her sisters, so easygoing and effervescently charming, but after she got over her little pity party she realized she had to stop wishing for the moon because no one was going to deliver. “They just do,” she answered.

  “Ah, excellent answer,” he mocked, shaking his head. “Lora, of all people I have reason to believe that people don’t change. My parents never gave me a reason to hope for anything different but I believe in my heart that if people have the will, they can change.”

  “That’s naive,” she retorted, climbing into the Jeep as Heath followed. “People cling to patterns because that’s what life is all about, a series of repeating patterns. It’s the same in marketing. Trends go in cycles. There are no new concepts, just the way we package them for consumption. If you’re aware of this, you can stay ahead in the game.”

  “There is no game. Just people,” Heath said. “And people can and do change if they want it bad enough.”

  Lora wanted to groan or worse, bop Heath over the head with something blunt. People didn’t change. Plain and simple. Why’d he have to go all philosophical and Dalai Lama on her? It only made her look shallow and petty for being truthful. She switched subjects quickly. “So are there any more of our classmates you dated that I might know?” she asked, feigning some sort of conversational tone.

  “Why the curiosity?”

  “Why not answer the question?”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “A few. Nothing really serious.”

  “No one?” She found that hard to believe. Maybe he was a truly confirmed bachelor. “No one caught your eye? What, are you difficult to get along with?”

  He laughed. “I don’t think so. What do you think?”

  “I think you have a very annoying habit of answering a question with another question. That’s definitely a character flaw. Shows that you have something to hide.”

  “Oh, really? I didn’t realize you had a degree in that sort of thing.”

  “I might not have a degree but in my field I’ve had to become very good at reading people. Your evasive answers tell me you don’t want to answer at all and are deflecting to take the attention away from you.”

  “Fascinating,” he remarked drily. “And here I thought I was just being intellectually stimulating.”

  At that she actually laughed. “Well, I’d keep your day job.”

  They started up the winding road out of town and Heath suddenly said, “Let’s go to Maho Bay for a bit. Go for a swim.”

  Lora startled, not sure what to say or how to react. “I’m not wearing my bathing suit,” she started, suddenly wishing she’d worn hers under her tank top.

  “No worries. Lilah always keeps a spare right here,” he said, reaching toward the back of the Jeep and pulling what looked like a mass of string with tiny scraps of material attached. “You can wear hers.”

  “I can’t fit into that,” she protested. “Lilah is much smaller than me in the…chest region,” she finished, blushing just a little before lifting her chin, daring him to comment on the difference. To his credit, he simply let it pass, more intent on convincing rather than teasing her.

  “It’ll be fine. I could use a dip. The humidity is wicked today. You look like you could use a little cooling off, too.”

  She glanced at herself in the rearview mirror and agreed. It was wretchedly hot. A dip sounded perfect. Besides, they wouldn’t stay long. The gift shop inventory would wait for another half hour. “Okay,” she reluctantly agreed and bypassed the entrance to Larimar.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  LORA PARKED THE JEEP on the narrow shoulder and they climbed out. The skies were slightly overcast, reminding the islanders that it was hurricane season and anything could happen. The unpredictability was just a way of life for those who called this slice of paradise home—but it was something she’d forgotten.

  “Is it supposed to rain?”

  “Possibly…maybe later,” Heath said, grabbing two snorkel sets stashed in the back.

  “Where’d you get those?” Lora asked, surprised. “Next are you going to pull a Boogie board out?”

  “Naw, just these. I always keep these in the Jeep. You never know when you need to decompress, yah?”

  She fought the smile that threatened. Had he always had such a charming way about him? When he flashed that grin at her, her insides responded with a disconcerting little tingle that immediately put her on guard. Usually, when she’d run across someone with whom she’d shared real chemistry, she had deliberately lost their number. Chemistry was a dangerous thing.

  It caused people to act stupid, and she certainly couldn’t a
fford that in her line of work. She couldn’t count on her hands the number of people she knew who had tanked their careers because they’d let their heart rule their head. Well, not this girl.

  That cocky, self-assured voice in her head was no match for the reality staring her in the face. She’d eschewed a personal life to protect her position within the company and she’d still been canned. Seemed her game plan had been flawed after all.

  She swallowed a bitter lump in her throat. So maybe she should’ve gone out for drinks when asked instead of brusquely turning down every offer that hadn’t represented some strategic advantage. One man in particular had been particularly insistent—arrogant yet charming in his pursuit—and she was fairly certain she could’ve bounced a quarter off his firm cheeks if she’d tried, but she’d given him the cold shoulder. So cold in fact, he’d never approached her again.

  Looking back now, Lora was pretty sure she should’ve given in. He’d looked as if he might have known his way around a woman’s body and Lora could have used a good… Her cheeks colored as she realized her mind had wandered into places best avoided.

  That was ages ago, she reminded herself, casting a furtive glance Heath’s way. So long ago that she barely remembered the man’s name. Heath, on the other hand, was a different story. Even when she’d tried to push him from her mind, he’d stubbornly remained. She’d always considered it an annoyance that Heath popped into her thoughts at the most inopportune moments, but being here with him, everything felt different, more visceral. And her awareness of him made her feel awkward and unsure.

  “You got quiet all of a sudden,” he said, breaking into her thoughts. She forced a small smile but didn’t dare share what was going through her head. She didn’t understand it herself, and until she did, she wasn’t going to mention her feelings to anyone. The sand gave beneath her feet and a slight breeze carried the scent of dark, damp earth and growing green things. She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs and letting the calm she desperately needed follow.

  The small knowing smile on Heath’s mouth caused her to smile back. “I’d forgotten how much I love the smells here,” she admitted. “It’s so lush and heavy, but clean, too.” She chuckled. “It doesn’t smell like that in Chicago.”

  “What does it smell like?”

  Dirty snow, stale ice and diesel fuel. She shrugged. “It smells cold.”

  “So glad I’m here, then,” Heath said, grinning as he turned to head toward the beach.

  She trailed behind him, critically assessing his body since his back was to her and she could get away with it. Where had those muscles come from? Sturdy thigh muscles tapered to strong calves and his ass was a study in male perfection. How was it possible that she’d completely missed the fact that the island boy had grown into a first-class, grade-A choice piece of hunky man flesh?

  Maybe she’d noticed but had deliberately ignored the thought because she hadn’t wanted to take the chance that something might happen between them. Her cheeks burned at the mere wondering that happened when she played the what-if game in her head.

  “How long’s it been since you snorkeled?” he asked as they walked to the beach, which was such a short distance from the road that she could literally throw a rock and hit a wave.

  “It’s been a while,” she murmured. Beneath the sweet, heavy air the humidity lurked. Rain was definitely on its way. The rain in Chicago had been cold, driving moisture that could quickly turn to sleet. There’d been nothing about it that she’d enjoyed. But rain on the island…somehow it seemed cleansing. She allowed a small smile as she said, “Hopefully, the technique hasn’t changed.”

  “Nope. Pretty basic. Put this in your mouth and go. Sorry I don’t have flippers, though.”

  She shrugged and accepted the snorkel and mask from Heath. “I doubt I’ll be going out too far.”

  “No sense of adventure?” he teased, eliciting a larger grin on her part. “That’s okay. Maybe we’ll see some sea turtles.”

  As Heath walked to the water and dove in, Lora detoured to a large copse of trees and quickly changed into the tiny bikini. She groaned to herself as the scrap of material barely covered her breasts, which threatened to spill out in a wardrobe malfunction if the wind changed.

  “Come on, the water’s perfect,” Heath called out, adjusting his mask on his face.

  “Screw it,” she muttered, exhaling loudly as she dropped her sarong and tank top to the soft sand and scooped up her snorkel set. Heath had seen her in a bathing suit before; it was an island for crying out loud. People went to job interviews wearing bathing suit tops.

  But as she approached the water, Heath stopped to stare, and suddenly she almost lost her nerve.

  This had been a bad idea. Lora instinctively went to hide her chest with her arms but Heath quickly recovered and gestured, saying, “Are you going to just stand there or get in? I think I saw a turtle a few yards out!”

  And then he disappeared, Lora seemingly forgotten in his turtle excitement.

  * * *

  HEATH WAS THANKFUL HIS FACE was hidden under the waves. Lora was simply stunning in that ridiculously tiny bathing suit. He should’ve known a suit that fit Lilah would be obscene on Lora. Lora was built like a woman with overflowing curves in all the right places whereas Lilah was more like a petite waif that a stiff wind could knock down. It ought to be a crime for a woman to look like that with her type of personality. Men were lured by that hot body and then sliced to ribbons by her razor-sharp tongue. So she was gorgeous. This wasn’t news. Get ahold of yourself, he thought, mentally berating himself for longing to stare like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. It was a short minute later that Lora reached him.

  “This feels good,” she admitted, smiling. “I’d forgotten about the humidity. You’d think I’d be acclimated by now.”

  “Well, you’ve been gone awhile,” he said, forcing himself to appear nonchalant and at ease when in fact every nerve in his body was on high alert. He wanted to bury his face in the valley of those barely concealed breasts, but then at the same time he wanted to keep his distance.

  “So where’d you see the turtle?” she asked hopefully, and he was grateful to oblige the distraction.

  They floated along the water’s surface, facedown, watching the angelfish and assorted other fish flit to and fro on a path only they could follow, and Heath felt the troubles of the world slipping from his shoulders. One glance at Lora who was avidly following a school of vividly colored butterfly fish as they darted through the water and he knew this had been a good idea. The woman was strung pretty tight. He couldn’t imagine what she did in her fancy, high-powered job but he didn’t think it brought her much joy. Lora had an amazing smile when she chose to show it off, but most people remembered Lora as the sour-faced Bell sister because she was too busy acting above everyone else.

  They didn’t know there was another side to her—hell, he didn’t think that Lora remembered that about herself.

  He couldn’t help but wonder how things might’ve been different between them if he’d stayed in St. John when his parents had split. Maybe she wouldn’t have been so closed-off from him. Then again, maybe everything would’ve remained the same. He didn’t know what had changed for Lora, only that she had. Drastically.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lora gesture wildly and point. He swam closer and caught a glimpse of a large sea turtle gliding along the bottom toward the reef. She smiled around the mouthpiece and he saw delight in her eyes behind the mask. That split second when her guard was down, her joy lit up his insides like a Christmas parade. He wished it was always like this. Maybe if it were… No. Don’t go there, a voice in his head warned and he wisely listened. At least for the moment.

  They spent another hour meandering through the water, looking for interesting fish, but as the sun started to sink in the sky, H
eath realized half the day had already disappeared. All too soon, it was back to reality. But he wasn’t quite ready, not yet.

  Lora removed her mask and slipped under the water to rinse her face and then resurfaced. Her eyes sparkled with the dying light of the day as she treaded water. “I haven’t seen a sea turtle in so long. I’d forgotten how amazing they are.” She sighed and floated on her back, murmuring, “I sure miss this.”

  “Why do you stay away?” he asked, rinsing his mask, as well.

  Lora hesitated and she closed her eyes. Finally, she shrugged as she answered. “Work.”

  “It’s not work that keeps you away,” he said, calling her bluff. “It’s something else.”

  She sighed as if caught and returned to treading water, but not quite meeting his stare. “I don’t really want to talk about it, okay? Let’s not ruin this moment by dragging ourselves through a deep conversation.”

  “Do you ever talk about what’s bothering you?” he asked, curious. “Because it seems to me what you do best is bury things until they smother to death. But you know that doesn’t work. Whatever you bury, always resurfaces and when that happens, it emerges as something different, something worse.”

  She looked at him drily. “Thank you, Dr. Phil. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Sure, retreat into sarcasm, but you know I’m right.”

  “So what if you are? What good is it going to do to complain about things that are in the past? It won’t change the outcome. It just reminds you how awful you felt at that moment. It’s a rehash of a terrible movie. And, frankly, I don’t have the time to dedicate to such foolishness.”

  “Are you happy?” His question startled her and her hesitation told him everything. “If you’re not happy, why not start fresh? Make the choice to accept joy in your life and reject all that other stuff.”

  She barked a short derisive laugh. “Heath, I’m not the right person to give this kind of advice to. I’m not into the whole peace, love and whatever else people without real careers go around spouting. I love my job. I love my career. I’m good at it. Competitors drool over my qualifications and my adversaries cry into their pillows when they learn they’re up against me. I have money in the bank and solid investments to protect my retirement. My condo is paid for and I have very little debt. I can safely say I’ve made solid business decisions when it comes to myself,” she said with the slightest little clip as if daring him to find fault.