Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  “Did you ever find out?”

  He shook his head. “I was only gone for two minutes—the only two minutes of my life I’d give anything to have back. It just felt so random, you know? If I hadn’t gone back in, she would still be alive. We’d probably be married, with kids. That life can just do that to you.” After a long pause, he said, “I still find it hard to believe sometimes.”

  “I’m sorry,” Georgie said as it became clear to her that he was the last guy in the world she should be dating. He had already lost one woman he loved. How could she ask him to risk losing another? “It sounds so inadequate, but I’m truly sorry.”

  He raised their joined hands to his lips.

  “This is why you became a police officer, isn’t it?”

  Nodding, he said, “The not knowing how it happened was the worst part for me, her parents and all the people who loved her. I figured if I could keep that from happening to even one other family, then maybe Ellen wouldn’t have died in vain.”

  Georgie clutched his hand.

  “I worked really hard and became the youngest detective in the department’s history. I’ve refused to sit for promotion tests that would move me off the streets and into a desk job. I’m right where I want to be, and I know I’m making a difference.”

  “You still think about what happened to Ellen, though.”

  “All the time.” His face shifted into a wry grin, but his eyes were sad. “By now that particular failure is hard-wired into my DNA. I learned a lot from it, though. Life is short, love is sweet, regrets can either make you or break you, nothing lasts forever.”

  Life could be so unfair, so exquisitely unfair. “Awfully big lessons for a twenty-year-old.”

  “Yes, they were. I had a lot of issues after it happened. I was mad at the world for years.”

  “I can understand why.”

  “I let the anger really eat away at me. Took a long time to get past that.” He glanced out the window and then back at her. “That day at the Dumpster?”

  Georgie nodded.

  “I haven’t lost it like that in a really long time.”

  “Now that I know you better, I can see why you got so mad.”

  “Still… I was out of line.”

  “And you apologized rather nicely with lovely flowers.” She leaned over to kiss him. “Thanks for telling me about Ellen.”

  “Thanks for listening.” He held her gaze for a long moment. “There hasn’t been anyone since then who’s really mattered to me. Until now.”

  “Nathan—”

  “I know what you’re going to say, but I can’t help how I feel.” Reaching out to caress her face, he added, “There’s just something about you, Georgie Quinn.”

  Georgie’s stomach ached as Cat’s warning echoed through her mind. If only he would stop doing and saying things to make loving him so damned easy!

  They found the group from the senior center gathered in the waiting room of the intensive care unit. Georgie and Nathan were introduced to Gus’s daughter.

  “My father thought the world of your mother and has nothing but good things to say about you,” Dawn said as she shook hands with Georgie.

  “That’s nice to hear,” Georgie said. “Is there any change?”

  Dawn shook her head. “He’s still in critical condition, but he’s holding his own.”

  “You know anything more about the investigation?” Bad Gus asked Nathan.

  “I haven’t spoken to anyone yet today, but I’ll make a few calls and see what I can find out.”

  “We’d appreciate that,” Walter said. “Roxy’s working a detail, so she hasn’t heard, either.”

  Nathan leaned in to speak privately with Georgie. “I’m going out to the hallway where I can use my phone. Will you be all right?”

  “I hope so.”

  “If you want to wait, I’ll go in with you.”

  “I’ll be okay.”

  He kissed her forehead and left the room.

  “You two seem awfully cozy,” Annette said with a sly smile. “He’s just as cute as a button.”

  “We’re friends,” Georgie said.

  “Friends with benefits,” Bad Gus muttered, and the others snickered.

  Georgie’s face heated with embarrassment. While she was glad to see them laughing again, she wished it wasn’t at her expense.

  “Do you want me to walk you in, honey?” Bill asked.

  “I’d appreciate that.”

  He looped an arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go, then.”

  Steeling herself for what she would see, she let Bill lead her around the nurse’s station to one of the glass-walled rooms where the beeping of monitors and Gus’s labored breathing were the only sounds. Georgie had to fight the immediate urge to turn and run. She had done that last night. Today she would stay and deal, no matter what it cost her, because that’s what her mother would have done.

  “Oh,” she gasped when she finally glanced at Gus’s face. What had been black and blue the night before was now angry purple and hugely swollen.

  Bill squeezed her shoulder. “Looks awful, doesn’t it?” he asked in a hushed voice.

  Georgie couldn’t speak over the lump in her throat, so she nodded.

  “They say there’re no broken bones, which is a miracle.”

  “So then why doesn’t he wake up?” Georgie asked.

  “There was some bleeding in his brain. They’re hoping they can operate if he stabilizes a little more, but by then . . .”

  “It might be too late.”

  “Yes, but they said we should talk to him, that familiar voices might stimulate him.”

  Georgie took a step toward the bed.

  “I’ll leave you alone,” Bill said. “Talk to him. I know he’ll hear you.”

  She heard the door swish shut behind him and tried to find a place on Gus’s battered body where she could touch him without hurting him. Reaching for the hand that was attached to a finger monitor, she tried to think of something to say. “Hi, Gus, it’s me, Georgie, and I’m so sorry you got hurt. How could anyone do this to you?” A sob lodged in her throat, and she fought it back. He didn’t need to hear that. Clearing her throat, she forced a cheerful tone. “I know you’d be teasing me if you could because I showed up here today with Nathan Caldwell, and I danced with him at the social last night. You remember how he made me cry at the Dumpster, right? Well, he came over that same night with flowers to apologize. He took me out to dinner, and well, some other stuff happened that you certainly don’t want to hear about.

  “Anyway, the thing is, I like him even though I don’t want to like him. That’s messed up, isn’t it? Cat, my roommate, thinks he could be my ‘one.’ How funny is that? I mean, we just met a few days ago. Granted, a lot’s happened since then, but still, the one? Crazy, huh?”

  She watched Gus’s chest rise and fall in a steady rhythm.

  “But you know, if I was looking for ‘the one,’” Georgie continued, “he’d make for a very attractive candidate. He’s so cute, isn’t he? Well, you probably don’t think so, but I do. Cat and Tess say so, too. Oh, and get this, they’re dating his brothers! We’re turning the house into a regular bordello. I wonder what my mother would have to say about that!

  “I miss her,” she said with a sigh. “In all the chaos of dealing with the house and the center and her estate, sometimes it’s easy to forget she’s really gone. I find myself reaching for the phone because I want to tell her something. I used to tell her everything. We talked on the phone every day. Did you know that? I don’t tell too many people that because, you know, it’s kind of weird to still talk to your mom every day when you’re almost thirty. But that’s just how it was between us. We were always close. My friends used to fight like she-cats with their mothers, but I never did. The other day I even dialed her cell number . . .”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nathan stood riveted in the doorway, the desire to offer comfort warring with the overwhelming need to hear more of G
eorgie unfiltered and uncut. How he wished she would talk as freely to him. So, Cat thought he could be “the one” for Georgie. Interesting. And she thinks I’m cute. Very interesting. . .

  “. . . and it wasn’t until her voicemail picked up that I remembered she was gone. I’m ashamed to admit I called back three times, just to listen to her voice on the message. Pretty sad, huh? And Ali and I can’t get in touch with our dad. We tried to call him to tell him Mom died, but we never heard back from him. It’s not like we’ve been close to him since he left Mom, but we thought he’d want to know what’s going on.” Georgie reached out to smooth Gus’s hair off his bruised forehead. “And now Ali’s having the surgery, and she’s after me to have that stupid blood test. Is it so wrong to not want to know something like that? Why can’t I just wait and see what happens?”

  Confused and curious as to what she was talking about, Nathan ached over the sadness he heard in her voice, and offering comfort suddenly became more important than satisfying his curiosity. He cleared his throat.

  She spun around.

  “Hey,” he said. “How’s Gus today?”

  “About the same.” She eyed him warily. “How long were you there?”

  He joined her at Gus’s bedside. “I just walked in the door.”

  “Oh.”

  Nathan could tell she didn’t believe him.

  “Did you find out anything about the case?”

  He glanced at Gus. “I’ll tell you outside.”

  Georgie leaned over, sought out a spot on Gus’s face that wasn’t bruised, and pressed a light kiss to his forehead. “Get well,” she whispered. “Please. I miss you.”

  Nathan realized she was crying, so he rested his hands on her shoulders.

  She surprised him when she turned into his embrace and clung to him.

  “Come on,” he said, keeping his good arm tight around her as he led her to the hallway.

  Her tears soaked through his shirt and warmed his chest.

  “I’m sorry.” She sniffed. “I seem to be crying all over you a lot lately.”

  “You’ve had good reason.”

  “I can’t stand seeing him like that.” She glanced up, and the devastation on her face broke Nathan’s heart. “Tell me they caught the guy who did this.”

  “They got a couple of good prints from the door frame, and they’re following up on a few other promising leads. They’ll get him, Georgie. If they don’t, I will. I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  “I never do.”

  “Thank you.”

  “For?”

  “This.” She slid her hands up to his shoulders and rested her face against his chest. “For being here.”

  A surge of tenderness took Nathan by surprise. With any other woman, he would want to shake her for all the mixed signals she was sending. But rather than shake her, he held her closer and was grateful for the opportunity even as he burned with questions he wished he could ask her.

  After spending half an hour with the others in the waiting room, Georgie and Nathan left with promises to check in later. As they emerged into the sunny summer day, he watched her perk up like a drooping flower that had just been watered. “What do you feel like doing?”

  “I have no idea. I can’t remember the last time I had nothing to do.”

  He hooked his index finger around hers on the way to the car. “How about taking a ride? There’s something I’ve been wanting to check out in Portsmouth.”

  “Sure.”

  “I need to go home and get changed first.”

  “Okay.”

  “I like this agreeable version of Georgie Quinn. She’s easy to get along with.”

  “She’s making a limited appearance today only.”

  “Then I’d better take full advantage.”

  Feeling like she was returning to the scene of a crime, Georgie followed Nathan into his house.

  “I’ll be quick,” he said on his way upstairs. “Grab a drink if you want. The fridge is right around the corner.”

  She helped herself to a Diet Coke and stepped onto the back porch, where Ben was reading the morning paper.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Oh, hi.”

  He gestured to the other chair. “Have a seat.”

  “We’re only here for a minute.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  They coexisted in awkward silence for several minutes before Nathan reappeared, wearing shorts and a T-shirt from a 5K race.

  “What’re you up to today, Ben?”

  “Just hanging out, waiting.”

  “For?”

  “Tess to finish work.”

  “Ben, about this thing with Tess—”

  “I can’t imagine how it’s any of your business,” Ben snapped.

  “You need to be careful with her—”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “You haven’t exactly been known for your sensitivity to others since you got home.”

  “You’re wasting your breath, Nate.”

  “Go easy with her, or you’ll answer to me.”

  “Save your man-of-the-family act, little brother. It’s getting old.”

  Nathan took a step toward him, but Georgie stopped him by resting her hand on his forearm. With a parting glare for his brother, Nathan led her inside.

  “Where should I put this?” Georgie asked, holding up the empty can.

  Nathan took it from her and tossed it into the middle section of a three-part bin.

  “What’s that?”

  “My recycling center. Paper, plastic and cans, and compost.”

  Georgie wrinkled up her nose. “Compost? Gross.”

  He sighed with pretend exasperation, but she could still see the tension in his eyes from the confrontation with Ben. “I have so much to teach you. I noticed you ladies don’t have a recycling bin. I’ll get you one.”

  “No need. I’m not going to be there for much longer.”

  “What about Tess and Cat? Are you going to kick them out when you leave?”

  She followed him to his car. “Of course not. They’re going to take care of the house when I go home to Atlanta.”

  “You’re really digging in on that, aren’t you?”

  “On what?”

  “Going back to Atlanta.”

  From the driver’s seat, she turned to him. “Why wouldn’t I? I live there, Nathan.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “If I have any prayer of putting my career back together, it has to be there. That’s where all my professional contacts are. If I don’t get back there soon, word’s going to get out that Davidson’s fired me. Do you think anyone will care that it was because my mother got sick and I got stuck running her senior center in Newport, Rhode Island? All they’ll hear is ‘fired,’ and I’ll be right back where I started eight years ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m pissed at Ben, and I took it out on you.”

  “Do you understand what I just said to you? Did you hear me?”

  “Everything after you going back to Atlanta was kind of fuzzy,” he teased. Reaching for her hand, he brought it to his lips. “I heard you, sweetheart. And what you said makes sense. I just hate the idea of you being so far away from me.”

  “There you go again.”

  “Whoops,” he said with a sheepish grin. “Sorry.”

  “No, you’re not. Where are we going anyway?”

  “Take West Main.” After a long period of silence, Nathan said, “What’s going on with Tess, Georgie? I know you know.”

  “I can’t talk to you about that.”

  “Is she in trouble?”

  “Not with the law or anything like that.”

  “Then hiding? From something or someone?”

  Georgie hesitated, only for a second, but it was enough.

  “That’s it, isn’t it?”

  “I can’t, Nathan. Don’t ask me to betray my friend.”

  “Even if I could help her?”<
br />
  “You can’t fix everything.”

  “Especially if I don’t know what the problem is.”

  “Don’t pout,” she teased. “It’s not pretty on you.”

  “I’m not pouting.”

  Georgie snorted. “Whatever you say,” she said, tossing his words back at him.

  “I may as well put this out there, too.”

  “What?” she asked with a wary glance.

  “I could probably find your father if you really want to know where he is.”

  “You were listening! I knew it!”

  He continued to stare straight ahead as if she hadn’t spoken.

  “Aren’t you even going to try to defend yourself?”

  “Nope.”

  Georgie fumed as she drove, trying desperately to remember everything she had said to Gus. Ugh! She had told him the whole thing about Cat suggesting Nathan could be “the one.” Had he heard that, as well? Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel. Oh God, the blood test. She had mentioned that, too.

  “So do you want me to take a stab at finding him?”

  Despite her irritation, she couldn’t help being curious. “What would that entail?”

  “I could run a check on his credit cards to start with. There’s a good chance he’s leaving a paper trail of some sort. With a little digging, I could find it.”

  Georgie pondered that for several quiet minutes. “We haven’t had much contact with him since he took off when I was in high school. The last we knew, he was living in Phoenix, but the number we had for him is no longer in service.”

  “I could find him.”

  “Can I think about it?”

  “Sure you can.”

  “Thank you for offering.”

  He shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”

  “It is to me.” They drove through Middletown into Portsmouth. “Where’s this place you want to check out?”

  “Portsmouth Abbey.”

  “I used to go ice skating there on Sundays when I was in high school.”

  “I did, too. I wonder if we were ever there at the same time.”

  She smiled at him. “We probably were.”