His voice was no more than a whisper, a soft caress to her heart, body, and soul. It gave her hope and held promises of a future she’d thought long gone. It also did other things to her…down south and made her question her sanity over that whole no sex on the first date thing. Heck, this wasn’t their first date. It was more like their two hundred and fiftieth date, but who was counting? Besides, they’d been talking all week.
She knew Colin. He was a good man with an amazing capacity to love and he cared deeply for the animals under his watch. He was also hotter than hell and driving her crazy.
“How about we focus on the here and now and worry about dreams and plans tomorrow?” She whispered right before she nipped his ear.
“What did you have in mind?”
“My place, a bottle of merlot, and—” Her phone rang and as tempted as she was to ignore it, she couldn’t. It was Gram. She held up her finger and answered the phone. A few seconds later she hit the cancel button and turned back to Colin. “A rain check?”
“Is everything okay?”
“I need to get over to her place. She’s pretty upset.” Shay bit down on her lip, torn between disappointment and hope. “She said O’Malley’s gone.”
Chapter Seven
“Grammy, can you please stop pacing and sit down and talk to us?” Shay begged her grandmother while giving Colin a pleading look for help.
He had no idea what he could do or how to help. The older woman had been in a state when they’d arrived, mumbling to herself, sitting, standing, wringing her hands, and, worst of all, on the verge of tears. Colin could handle it if she were screaming and throwing things, but these were quiet little sniffles, the kind where one wrong move would send the gates crashing down on her emotions.
He’d rather take on a lost child or a scared wild animal.
“Damn fool of a man.” Gram muttered as she made her twentieth or so pass of the living room. “Just as stubborn dead as when he was alive. Always had to have it his way. You’d think he was Elvis or something.”
“Gram?” Shay looked at Colin with her hands thrown up in front of her face. Gram just kept pacing.
“If he hadn’t up and volunteered, he might have still been here. But no, he had to go and be a hero, leaving me an almost pregnant bride.”
Shay turned to him and mouthed, “WTF?”
He shrugged, as he had no clue what “an almost pregnant bride” meant.
With a deep sigh, Mrs. O’Malley’s shoulders drooped and Colin braced himself for the torrent of waterworks to come, but instead the lady started laughing.
“I should leave, let you two talk in private,” Colin offered.
She lifted a mason jar that he suspected contained more than her usual iced tea. “Stay, young man. You and your friends wanted to know the truth. Well, I’ve got a tale to tell. First, you might want to grab a glass for you and Shay and fill it with some of that wine I’ve got in the fridge.”
Shay nodded. Sensing she needed a minute, he slipped into the kitchen and looked around for a couple of glasses. A cool breeze blew across his cheek as he reached for one of the cupboards. He spun around, but there was no one in the room with him. He walked over to the air vent and put his hand up in front of it. Nothing.
Maybe the old guy’s spirit wasn’t gone after all?
Or maybe he was imagining things because he was pretty sure Mrs. O’Malley was about to tell him and Shay she’d made the whole ghost thing up. Which made no sense given what he’d experienced since starting his investigation and the evidence they’d found on his recorder.
He filled two regular wineglasses he found shoved to the back of a cupboard, took one more look around the empty kitchen, and joined the women in the living room. Shay thanked him and took a big gulp. He’d have to ask her if he missed something once they were alone. But for the time being he rested his hand on her leg to let her know he was there for her.
Mrs. O’Malley looked at his hand for the longest time, picked up her own glass and simply stared at the red liquid. “It was the winter of 1959. A nasty, bitterly cold New England winter with one snowstorm after another when my father said he’d had enough and we were moving to Florida.”
She chuckled, and a small smile lit up her face. “He said if he wanted to freeze his arse off he would have stayed in Ireland. We moved right after the first of the year to this pretty little town called Naples. Mama said it was almost as good as being in Italy. We’d only been here for two weeks when I met him.”
“Who? My grandfather, Mickey O’Malley?” Shay had scooted to the edge of the couch, the wine glass gripped in one hand and the other crushing his hand.
“Yes, but it wasn’t Mickey who had eyes for me that night, it was his cousin Finn. Finnegan Eoin O’Malley. He was so dashing. Hair as black as midnight with piercing blue eyes. He had a dimple in his chin.” She lifted her gaze to meet their stunned expressions. “He walked right up to me at the church dance and said, ‘Before this night is over I’m going to kiss you.’”
“Did he?” Shay whispered.
“Ha. The man was so full of himself he’d put a peacock to shame.” She shook her head and sighed. “No, he didn’t, and not for lack of trying either. He did ask to walk me home and to see me again the next night. Of course, I told him no but he showed up anyway with a single wildflower and said he’d die if he had to wait any longer.”
Colin squeezed Shay’s hand before releasing it; much longer and he’d lose permanent circulation in his fingers. “Sounds like one determined individual.”
“Stubborn.” She laughed some more before taking a sip of her wine. “And a romantic. It was a whirlwind romance. I’d found a job at a flower shop right after we arrived and Finn was working construction with Mickey. But every night he’d arrive with a single wildflower and take me for a walk. We’d talk about everything. Our families—his dad had died during World War II—our dreams for the future, politics, especially the Vietnam conflict.”
Her voice broke. A single tear slid down her cheek, then another, and another.
A moment later she pulled herself together and smiled. “Sorry, you’ll have to forgive a sentimental old woman. We still argue over that damn war. Or we did. Anyway the situation over there was escalating and more and more troops were being sent to Asia daily. Finn wanted to do his part, like his dad. I told him to wait until they called his number, to give us more time.”
“He didn’t wait, did he, Gram?” Shay reached over and took her grandmother’s hands.
“It was Sunday and we both had the day off. He said he wanted to take me someplace special. So he picked me up in Mickey’s car and drove over the old wooden bridge to Mimosa Key, went right up there to where Casa Blanca sits now. He laid out a blanket and the perfect picnic lunch and when we finished eating he kneeled in front of me and asked me to marry him. Said he couldn’t live his life without me in it, couldn’t go on another day without knowing he’d get to spend forever with me.”
She released Shay’s hands to hold up her left hand where she still wore her wedding band and the engagement ring with a single diamond. “Of course I said yes and being young and in love, I didn’t think twice about fully loving him that day. As we lay there after, glowing in our happiness, he told me we’d get married as soon as he got back from boot camp. He shipped out the next day.”
“He tricked you?” Colin asked, shocked that she could love a man who would do such a thing.
“No. They sent him straight from basic to Vietnam. He wrote and promised the first chance he could get home we’d get married. Two months later he was killed in action. He never even knew he was going to be a father.”
“Wait, Gram. Do I have an uncle…or an aunt?”
“No, sweetheart. Finn is John’s father, your grandfather.”
Shay sat up, her back stiff as a board, face devoid of all emotion. This couldn’t be easy on either woman. The grandmother waiting for either the beloved granddaughter’s acceptance or a recrimination of her
past and the secret she’d kept. Shay had to be reeling from what she’d probably see as a huge betrayal, because the woman hated secrets and lies with a passion. He knew all too well from their break-up years ago.
“I’ve got to go.” Shay stood up and smoothed the front of her dress. “I really need to leave. Now. We’ll talk later. I can’t, I just can’t.”
Before Colin could move she was out the front door and he was left alone with her grandmother. He stood up and Mrs. O’Malley put a hand out.
“No, give her a minute. She’ll need it to pull herself together.”
Colin sat down, his mind and attention on the woman outside. He wanted to be with her, to wrap her in his arms and take the shock and pain away. To make her laugh and watch her eyes turn dark with passion as she stuck to her guns in waiting, even though he could tell it was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Times were different back then. Unmarried pregnant women were still pariahs in polite company. Mickey didn’t have to marry me, but he did it for Finn, for me and for the baby. We had a good marriage, thirty-three years, and we loved each other.”
“But he’s not the love of your life? Not the spirit who’s been keeping you company?”
“No, that’s my dear sweet, stubborn Finn.” Mrs. O’Malley glanced at the front door, where they could see Shay’s outline through the screen. “John knows the truth. He also knows Mickey loved him like he was his own, just like he loved that girl out there. Tell her that for me and that when she’d ready to forgive me, I’ll be here.”
Colin rose and hesitated. “She doesn’t blame you for loving Finn.”
“Oh, I know, dear.” Mrs. O’Malley took a sip of her wine. “If you love her, Colin, don’t lie to her. And keep that manstick of yours put away until you make her an honest woman.”
Colin choked over his reply. He’d barely made it out the front door before his laughter erupted, only to be cut off short at the sight of Shay crying.
*
She couldn’t believe he was laughing. What happened to the compassionate man who fought back tears over the mistreatment of wild animals? “I’m so glad you find this situation funny. Maybe you can explain it to me, because I’m having a hard time grasping the humor here.”
On second thought, she didn’t want to know and instead of waiting for his lame reply she walked off to the Jeep.
Forgive.
“Stuff it, Finnegan O’Malley.”
“What?” Colin asked from behind her.
“Nothing. I wasn’t talking to you.” Shay climbed into the Jeep and closed her eyes. “Just take me home, please.”
“Manstick.”
Shay opened one eye. What kind of answer was that? “Excuse me?”
Colin leaned into her space, brushing the pad of his thumb across her cheek. “You asked what was so funny. Manstick. Your grammy told me to keep mine put away. How do you women come up with these names?”
“We sit around in bars and play Name That Euphemism. Here you guys thought all we did was talk about you.”
“Not us, just our equipment.” Colin kissed her and climbed into the driver’s seat.
He let the sound of the wind fill the void as they zipped down the road from her gram’s small house until they came to the sign for Casa Blanca. “Do you want to talk about what happened back there?”
“No, not really.” She wanted to lose herself in the lushness of the island paradise. To stroll on the sandy shore and dip her toes in the blue waters of Barefoot Bay while gazing at the pink clouds and magnificent sunset of violet, red, and tangerine. If only her mind would let her. “I can’t believe she lied to me all these years.”
Colin parked the Jeep and they walked in silence to her bungalow. He took her hand and pulled her down onto the top step next to him, wrapping his other arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be too hard on her. Life was different back then, practically the dark ages for women.”
Shay sighed, knew Colin was right, but it was so much more than how it started or even why. “Oh I don’t care about the whole unwed and pregnant thing. She loved Finn, enough to want to marry him, and even had it been an affair of a different kind, I wouldn’t hold it against her. I’m not exactly a virgin myself.”
“A fact I am very aware of and happy about.” Colin chuckled.
Shay bumped into him to keep him on track. “I get why she’d lie when she and Mickey first got married, especially given the times and her parents’ views. Does my father know? Has he been lying to me all this time too?”
“He knows, although your gram didn’t say when he learned the truth. That’s a question you’ll have to ask him or her.”
“I can’t imagine what he felt like when he found out, or rather I guess I can because his dad was his idol and meant the world to him—”
“Just like he did to you?”
“Only he wasn’t my granddad, but my cousin.”
Colin shifted, forcing Shay to focus on him. “Love doesn’t work like that, not the real stuff. What parents feel for kids or grandkids or… don’t laugh, soul mates. What they feel is unconditional, Shay. Blood and pieces of paper aren’t in control and it takes a lot more than siring an offspring to make you a parent.”
“We’re not talking about one of your big cats here.”
“No, but you see it in the animal world where a pup has been abandoned by its mom and placed with another litter. That new mom takes it in and loves it and cares for it just like one of her own. Adoptive parents love their kids no less than a birth parent and sometimes more.” His voice had gone from soft and soothing to passionate and perplexed and had Shay smiling.
Someday, he’d make a great dad.
“I’m not saying Mickey O’Malley didn’t love us. I know for a fact he did and I loved him tremendously. I always will. He was the best. Hard working, dedicated to his family, always had a story to tell and a tune to whistle.” She closed her eyes as a memory washed over her of Granddad lifting her onto his shoulders. They were at a…parade, zoo? Nothing of importance now, but what was, was the fact that he had always been there for her.
“Finding out doesn’t change how I feel about my grandparents, it doesn’t make me doubt their love for me, but I can’t help feeling let down. Mickey died twenty-five years ago and I get that I was too young to learn the truth then. However—”
Colin kissed her right in the middle of a sentence. She knew that tactic of his and sat back, giving him the eye.
“If she had told you ten years ago, would you feel any different, any less disappointed?”
“Don’t get logical on me, when I’m in the middle of an emotional meltdown.”
He laughed and kissed her again. “But you’re not melting down. Yeah, you’re ranting, a little, but behind the emotions you understand why she did what she did.”
Gah! How was it, after all these years, that he still knew her so well? She wanted to be mad at him for being right, just like she wanted to be mad at her gram for lying to her, but the truth was, she understood.
Gram had done what she always did: protect those she loved from getting hurt. If Shay were in her shoes she’d do the same thing. With that admission the hurt and disappointment, well, most of it, faded away.
“You know I’m not sure I like you very much anymore,” Shay teased.
Colin pulled her up from her spot on the step and into his lap where he could nuzzle at her neck. “Sure you do. In fact, you’re absolutely crazy about me.”
“Crazy? Yes. About you? The jury’s still out on that.” She smiled down into his laughing face.
He placed a kiss on her collarbone. “Then I’ll have to prove my case better.” Another one went farther up her neck, right below her ear. He looked up at her, the smile she loved—gone. He’d turned serious and deep in thought and fine lines had appeared between his brows.
“Shay, you know I’m in this for the long run. I don’t know if I can promise to keep my manstick put away as requested, but I will promise no secrets betw
een us.”
“I’m okay with those terms.” She framed his face and kissed him.
Or rather it started that way, but then Colin took over and what was meant to be quick and fun turned into something soft, sensuous, and incredibly sexy. His tongue swept over her lips, easily coaxing her mouth to open and give him access to explore. His hands caressed her back, pulling her in closer.
Colin lifted his head and ran his fingers through her hair. “I never told you why I got into ghost hunting.”
Shay put her finger across his lips. “Is it a life-changing secret?”
He shook his head no.
“Is it going to change how I feel about you or look at you?”
He thought for a moment and then shook his head.
“Then maybe the story can wait until you’ve kept that first promise or broken it. Just take me to bed, Colin. I don’t need to wait until date number two or three or whatever.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure that if we stay out here on the steps we’re going to get caught doing a whole lot more than kissing by either Uncle Nino or Gabe in the next bungalow or, God forbid, Poppy. She may work in housekeeping, but she sees all, knows all, and hears all. If you drop the f-bomb around her, she charges a dollar for her Jamaican Adoption Fund. I’d hate to find out what she’d charge if she caught us in the act.”
“As the lady wishes, then.”
Colin stood up with her still in his arms and turned so she could open the front door before he carried her over the threshold. She had no idea if he even had a clue about the significance behind that move but it wasn’t lost on her. He kicked the door shut and looked around.
“Door on the left,” she murmured as she kissed his neck and then laughed as he bounced her up and down while trying to turn the doorknob. “Put me down and it will be easier.”
She slid out of his arms, only to be pinned against the hard wood with his body. Colin tunneled his hands into her hair, framing her face while he kissed her. He devoured her mouth, throat, and worked his way down her neckline. All the while his hands had been busy with the knot at the base of her neck that held her dress up. He inhaled sharply as the top straps dropped and her naked breasts were exposed to him.
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