Like One of the Family

by Kimberly Van Meter

  “It’s a quality that keeps me sane in Los Angeles when I’m surrounded by pervs and weirdos, and those are just the movie execs.”

  Lora laughed again, seeing her sister in a fresh light. How had she never known how cool her little sister was?

  “Thank you,” Lora murmured.

  “Sure thing,” Lindy said, yawning. They’d been at the hospital for hours and this was the first update they’d had on Heath. They were all exhausted. The storm had finally passed but everything was still dripping wet outside. The news reports were showing coverage of the damage. A falling tree had crushed one house. Luckily, it’d been an empty vacation rental.

  “Why don’t you take Pops and Lilah back to Larimar. I’ll stay and call if there’s anything new to report.”

  “Are you sure? I could stay,” Lindy offered.

  Lora shook her head. It didn’t feel right to leave. “I’m sure. I’ll call. I promise.”

  Lindy yawned again. “Okay. Try to get some rest, too.”

  Lora promised she would catch a few winks if necessary but knew that she likely wouldn’t sleep. Her mind was tormenting her with scenes and flashes of times when she’d been unaccountably rude or mean to Heath.

  And then her mind would conjure the memory of how she’d reacted to the knowledge of his true feelings.

  Suddenly, it became clear why her offer of no-strings sex had been so distasteful and insulting. How long had he felt this way about her and why? She’d never given him any reason to like, much less love her.

  She flushed with shame. She didn’t deserve someone like Heath. He was good and kind; patient and generous. In spite of being raised by two drug addicts, his moral compass was truer than her own. The things she’d done in her career—former career, that is—would appall the average person.

  She’d stabbed coworkers in the back to jockey for position on a choice account; she’d lied, manipulated and stepped on anyone in her way.

  She couldn’t imagine Heath doing half the things she’d done in her thirst for success and yet she’d flat-out accused him of swindling her grandfather.

  Lora nearly hung her head in disgrace. No wonder Heath had looked as if he wanted to strangle her.

  The doctor returned to let her know that she could see him if she wanted. Lora wanted to see Heath but a part of her was afraid.

  “You’re a coward.”

  The words hung in her mind and she swallowed her fear. She nodded and followed the doctor to the ICU. She tried to prepare herself for the sight of Heath so diminished, so broken but nothing could’ve prepared her for the gut punch that followed.

  A giant white gauze covered the opened skull and a plastic drape surrounded him to minimize germs coming into contact with the exposed tissue. She stuffed a knuckle in her mouth to keep from crying out. What if he died, the fear whispered but she shoved it back. He won’t.

  “You better not die, Heath Cannon. Our story isn’t finished yet,” she murmured, tracing her fingers lightly against the plastic drape, wishing she could touch his skin, to let him know she was there.

  Regret was always a bitter pill, but right now, she was choking on it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  HEATH REMEMBERED THE FIRST time he’d seen Lora Bell. Her long dark hair had been tied up in a ponytail, a blue polka-dot bikini and a tiny white sarong wrapped around her little hips. She was drinking a smoothie while her mother had been buying some fresh fruit at the market stands. Even at ten she’d snagged his eye.

  She’d noticed him staring and she’d stuck her tongue out at him.

  He’d reciprocated.

  A tiny smile had tugged at her lips made red from the flavor of her smoothie, and then she’d scampered after her mother.

  After that moment, he’d always kept an eye out for the striking brunette with the pale ocean-blue eyes.

  He didn’t know that her mother was dying of cancer—likely she hadn’t known, either. It was several months later that the diagnosis had been made, from what he remembered Pops telling him.

  The next time they met, he’d been starving, probably half-dead.

  She’d saved his life and she probably never knew it.

  “Are you ready to wake up yet?” Grams asked him. He knew better now than to try and crane his neck to find the voice because she was simply always out of range. And she was totally in his head. But he liked the sound of her voice, even if it was an illusion.

  “Not yet,” he answered, troubled. “She doesn’t love me. That’s hard to face.”

  “You’re a sweet boy. Always were. When I first saw you I thought, there’s a kid who needs this family. I’d always wished we’d have petitioned the court for you but we weren’t blood family so we likely would’ve lost. Not to mention your parents were local and we were still outsiders. It would’ve been a mess.”

  He nodded. “It’s okay. My life was good.”

  “Don’t be giving up just yet. You’ve still got a whole lot of living to do.”

  “Good to know,” he said wryly, wincing when his brain seemed to contract with pain. He waited out the wave of agony and then when he could breathe again, he said, “I’m ready to wake up if it means this pain will stop.”

  “Can’t promise that, but awake is definitely better,” Grams agreed.

  * * *

  LORA SAT BEHIND POPS’S desk staring at the certified letter that’d been delivered a few days ago. Since Heath’s accident everything else had taken a backseat but she couldn’t ignore it any longer. Heath was recovering slowly, his brain had stopped swelling and the doctors were able to put his head back together but he was still in a coma. Lora was reluctant to leave his side but the problems facing Larimar were more dire than ever.

  Lindy walked in, a somber expression on her face. She sat in the chair opposite the desk with a sigh. “So you weren’t exaggerating, then? We’re going to lose Larimar?”

  “If we can’t come up with the money in sixty days.”

  “How much? I have some money saved up,” Lindy offered.

  “Sixty thousand. Do you have that much lying around?”

  Lindy’s expression fell. “No.”

  “Me, neither.” Lora also had some money saved, about twenty thousand, but it wasn’t nearly enough. Even if she cashed out her various CDs and liquidated some assets, such as her condo, she wasn’t sure she’d have the money in time. “And Heath is going to be out of commission for some time so it’s not like he’s going to be able to pitch in as he’d planned.”

  Lindy looked sharply at Lora. “Don’t go blaming Heath again. It wasn’t his fault he fell off a roof.”

  “I’m not blaming him, Lindy. I’m simply stating a fact. Heath’s original plan is moot. And we’re screwed.”

  “We need a new plan,” Lindy said.

  “Duh. Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Lora said wryly. “I’ve been trying to come up with Plan B since I got back home. I never thought Heath’s plan was completely solid. I mean, granted the fused glass is selling—better than the other gift items—but not nearly well enough to pull Larimar out of this hole. Heath hasn’t been able to make a single loan payment yet and we need money now.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  Lora thought hard, then came to the only conclusion she could find and Lindy wasn’t going to like it.

  “You and I need to move back home. I will put my marketing experience to work and you will put your entertainment experience to work and together we’re going to save Larimar.”

  * * *

  LINDY FOUGHT THE URGE to instantly decline—she had a life in Los Angeles—but how could she when her family home was in danger? “What about your job in Chicago?”

  Lora looked away. “I don’t have one.”

&
nbsp; Lindy’s eyes bugged. “Excuse me?”

  “I was fired before I came out here.”

  Lindy didn’t know what to make of her sister’s admission but she knew Lora’s pride was probably in tatters. Lora had never been fired in her life. She set standards for everyone else to dream of reaching. “What happened?”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it,” she said, moving to straighten the papers in front of her. “Suffice to say my talents were no longer in line with the company’s needs. I’d planned to start circulating my résumé with our competitors but I’ve decided I don’t want to go back. So that leaves me free to stay in St. John for the time being.”

  “Oh,” Lindy said softly, sensing there was more to the story but Lora wasn’t exactly a sharer. Under normal circumstances Lindy would’ve pressed for details but she could tell Lora wasn’t going to budge. Whatever was behind her termination was personal and painful. And frankly, even Lindy knew that Lora had enough on her plate to deal with.

  “How can I help? I don’t see how my acting experience is going to help Larimar.”

  “I’m putting you in charge of the outdoor adventures we’re going to start offering at Larimar. And I want you to start inviting your Hollywood friends up here—start spreading the word about Larimar. If marketed correctly, we can make this the premier getaway for the rich and famous.”

  Lindy hated that idea. Part of Larimar’s charm was that it was a hidden treasure and it didn’t put on airs like some stuffy five-star establishment that catered to the “rich and ridiculous” as she liked to call them.

  Lora continued, completely missing Lindy’s expression of distaste, saying, “I will market to my corporate contacts, to suggest for corporate retreats. Lilah will run the front desk and we should be able to turn this around.”

  “Pops will hate this idea,” Lindy said stubbornly. “And I’m not crazy about it, either. And what do you think Heath will think of it?”

  “Not to be unnecessarily blunt, but Pops and Heath put Larimar in this position, not me. We have to do what’s necessary to pull out of this hole. If you have a better idea, by all means, share.” Unhappily, Lindy didn’t and by her silence Lora took that to mean as such. “Right. So, how much money do you have saved up?”

  “About eight thousand, why?”

  “I have about twenty thousand. I think if I can offer some significant cash, then I might be able to buy some more time from the IRS. It shows good faith.”

  Lindy nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. Of course she’d do anything to save Larimar but she’d worked hard to put away that nest egg. And now it was gone in one fell swoop.

  Lora noted Lindy’s crestfallen look and tried softening the blow, saying, “Just pitch in five thousand and I’ll pitch in the rest.”

  “No. That’s not fair to you.”

  “That’s what I have in liquid assets. I have some other assets I can tap,” Lora said.

  Of course she did. Lora was a financial whiz. Even as a kid she’d always managed to make her money work for her, whereas Lindy had always found money quickly left her hands the minute it touched her palms, which was why she was so proud of herself for managing to save a couple bucks from her last few gigs. She sighed and said, “All right. I’ll stay. But I’m not completely on board with this new direction and if I come up with something better I’m going to suggest it.”

  “Fair enough,” Lora said, returning to her paperwork. But Lindy wanted to talk about something else. She figured if she was staying, she ought to put in her two cents about this situation with Heath.

  “So are you going to the hospital today?” Lindy asked, coming to the topic in a roundabout way.

  Lora avoided eye contact as she answered, “No, I don’t think I have time today. Why don’t you go and then give me an update?”

  Lindy frowned, a spark of anger growing in her chest. “I think you should go see him,” she suggested firmly. “It helps for him to be surrounded by people he loves.”

  Lindy thought she caught a wince on Lora’s part but she couldn’t be sure because Lora had moved on briskly, saying, “Exactly. And he loves you and Lilah like sisters. Heath and I were never close so it doesn’t make much sense for me to be hanging around the hospital when I have so much work to do here.”

  “Stop it!” Lindy shouted, startling Lora into dropping her pen. Lora recovered her pen with a glare but Lindy was not going to back down. Lora was retreating into that hard shell of hers because she was afraid of losing him. “You’re so damn transparent! When are you going to admit that you have feelings for him? Didn’t him falling from a roof scare some sense into that thick skull of yours?”

  “Lindy…it’s complicated. And I think by staying away from the hospital, he has a better chance of recovering. He doesn’t need any negative energy around him. And when he fell, we were actually shouting at each other. Do you really think my face is the first one he wants to see when he wakes up? Likely not.”

  “You’re afraid of losing him so you’re putting distance between yourself and Heath but he needs you, not me and Lilah. He loves you! And if you weren’t so damn hardheaded and stupid when it comes to your feelings, you’d realize that you love him, too.”

  “I don’t,” Lora said quickly, too quickly. Lindy narrowed her stare at her sister, seeing right through her. Lora squirmed and avoided her gaze. “You know how you felt when you saw Heath fall? That terror? It’s because it was that moment when you realized that you could lose him and you could no longer hide behind that damn cold wall of yours, pretending that no one, especially Heath, mattered. That was real, Lora. That moment—that feeling—was real and true. Trust that, not in whatever your brain is telling you now.”

  Lora blinked back moisture and Lindy knew she’d hit a nerve. “Why does he love me? I’ve never given him a reason to,” she said, almost begging for an explanation so she could understand.

  Lindy shrugged, also baffled by Heath’s unrequited love for her sister, but as Grams used to say, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” “What does it matter? He’s always had eyes for you and you ought to count your lucky stars that a man like Heath would look past your many faults to find the woman beneath.”

  “Many faults?” Lora said, stung. “That’s a bit harsh don’t you think?”

  “C’mon, Lora, you’re as prickly as a hedgehog to most people, even to your own family. So, yeah, you’ve got some serious flaws you ought to work on.”

  “Oh, should I be more like you?” Lora said, going on the offensive, which Lindy was surprised she hadn’t done earlier. “You’re so busy falling in love with the idea of falling in love that you go through boyfriends like toilet paper.”

  “My issues with commitment are not in question here,” Lindy maintained stubbornly. “I’m not the one running away from a good man just because I’m scared.”

  “If you love Heath so much why don’t you go after him?”

  Lindy stared at her sister, then answered bluntly. “Lora, if Heath had ever once looked at me the way he looks at you, he wouldn’t have had to chase me. A man like Heath comes along once in your life. You’d be stupid to walk away. And if you are foolish enough to walk away because you’re too afraid of putting yourself out there, you’re not the strong woman I always thought you were. The fact of the matter is, he never looked at anyone the way he looked at you. It was like the sun rose and set in your eyes. It was poetry and rock ballads. He defended you when you were acting like you do on most days—difficult—and he stayed with Larimar because he loves this family. Like it or not, he’s here for good so you better do a heart check and ask yourself, do you want to ruin a good man for the sake of safeguarding your heart or do you want to take a chance on something great?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  LORA STOPPED HERSELF from yel
ling after her sister. Everything Lindy had said was true. Lora was terrified.

  Giving your heart to someone was a risky venture. What if they had clumsy fingers and dropped it? Her heart couldn’t take another bruising. When you’re only invested in yourself, you only have yourself to watch out for.

  But she couldn’t deny that being in Heath’s arms had been an awakening experience. It felt like home in ways that she’d never known. Had she truly gone through her life closed off to that warm and loving feeling?

  It hadn’t been sex with Heath—it’d been making love. That was the difference she hadn’t been able to name. She’d felt cherished, protected, desired and loved. No one else had made her feel that way. Maybe because she’d never felt that way about anyone else.

  But in a way, she’d always known her feelings were there for Heath. He’d been such a handsome boy. In spite of his hollowed cheeks and ragged clothes, she’d seen the island boy and her heart had beat faster. And when he’d smiled at her, she’d never known such joy. And when he’d disappeared for a year like a feather on the wind, it’d scared her.

  When you loved someone, they went away. First her dad, then mom, then Heath and then Grams. The lesson had been pounded home.

  So she’d subconsciously vowed not to love Heath.

  But that hadn’t stopped him from loving her.

  Damn you, Heath, she thought, dropping her head into the shelter of her arms. I love you, and I’m scared. No, terrified. What if he doesn’t make it? The thought of Heath dying froze the blood in her veins. He couldn’t die without giving her the chance to make amends. She couldn’t picture living without him.

  Then get your ass out of that chair and go to him, a voice instructed brusquely.

  And for once in her life, she actually thought the voice in her head had told her something worthwhile.

  * * *

  HEATH HEARD A VOICE, only this time, it wasn’t Grams.

  “The first time I saw you, I thought you were the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen—almost too pretty, you know? You had that long, dirty, island-boy hair that only surfers can get away with and I thought, he’s the cutest boy alive.”