“I am so sorry, Kendall.” Matt reached out and laid his hand on her shoulder. He squeezed hard and she understood why. “All this time, all these years, and I don’t know that I’ve ever told you how sorry I am.”
“You didn’t have to say the words, Matt.” Kendall didn’t hesitate to reassure him. “You stood by me every moment after. That said it all.”
“Okay, you two look positively secretive over here.” Lori came around the corner of one of the trucks. She’d traded in her typical maxidress for jeans and a T and tied her usually flowing hair up in a messy knot. Behind her came Sebastian Evans from Cat’s Eye Bookstore and a tall, slender teen Kendall had seen around town. “Put us to work already.”
“Actually.” Kendall glanced over to where Hunter had sat down on the porch, clutching a nervous-looking Phoebe against his side. “I have a special project for you, Lori.”
“Oh?” Lori asked.
“Yes. See that little girl over there? She’s in need of some window boxes. Calliope sent the flowers. Now all they need is your special touch.”
CHAPTER TEN
IT FELT AMAZING, Hunter thought, as he aimed and clicked his camera, to be documenting a community pulling together for a common cause. After years of photographing some of the worst kinds of horror, a zing of joyous excitement bounced through him like a pinball.
The two dozen or so people who spilled onto the property of the Liberty had divided into groups, more than half of whom were helping dig and set posts for the bright white crisscross PVC fence that would serve as a safety barrier for future visitors. Men and women, some of whom he recognized from around town, settled into an easy, organized collection of determined, almost jovial individuals. He caught a few sullen—or maybe they were just sleepy—teens, but also a few who were helping hand out safety equipment for the chain saws about to be put into action chopping up the enormous redwood.
Since Lori Knight was occupying Phoebe’s attention, filling the empty window boxes hanging bare against the carriage house, Hunter was free to roam, capturing sweaty faces and wide-eyed grins.
“Do you want some water?”
Hunter turned and found Charlie Bradley, her broken-winged butterfly backpack slung onto her shoulders, two high pigtails sticking crookedly out of either side of her head. She held up a bag filled with bottled water.
“Hey, Charlie. Yeah, sure.” He took one and cracked it open. “So they put you to work, too?”
“Yeah. Me and Simon—that’s him over there.” She dropped the bag long enough to point to a gangly-looking boy with big round glasses and a green superhero T-shirt handing out water from his own bag. “Our moms are on duty at the diner, so we said we’d come help. Are you going to want to see the caves I told you about?”
“I am, actually.” Hunter stooped down, played with the lens on his camera before he aimed it at Charlie, who, as he expected, gave him an extra-wide gap-toothed smile big enough to fill the lens. “Now that’s going to be perfect. How about next Saturday? I know you have school this week.”
“We have half days on Thursday and Friday. We could go then. Simon can’t, though. He goes to a smarty-pants school in a different town. I just go to regular school.”
“Nothing wrong with regular school,” Hunter told her. “I wish I could convince Phoebe to go.”
“You mean she has a choice?” Charlie’s mouth fell open. “That’s not fair. How come?”
“Well.” Hunter sat on the ground and bit back a smile when Charlie mimicked him. “See, Phoebe’s mom, that was my sister, she and her husband died a little while ago. Phoebe was in school when it happened, and the police came to get her. She got really, really scared and now she doesn’t want to go back.”
“That’s terrible.” Charlie’s eyes went wide. “And very sad. How old is she?”
“She’s seven. She’ll be eight in a few months.”
“I’m gonna be nine on my next birthday. But that won’t be until after Christmas. I’m sorry her mom and dad died. And I’m sorry your sister died.”
“Thank you, Charlie.” He could see she was. Oddly empathetic, this little girl seemed to be. “I appreciate that.”
“Do you think maybe Phoebe would like a friend? I could be her friend. And maybe Stella and Marley can be, too. And Simon. And there’s Kyle over there. And Mandy. She and Kyle like each other, but no one is supposed to know.” She pressed a finger against her lips and rolled her eyes. “Older kids are so weird. They don’t even want each other to know, but it’s so obvious. They get all googly-eyed when the other isn’t looking.”
Hunter coughed to hide his laugh even as he felt his gaze pulled toward Kendall, who had suited up with the others and was revving up a chain saw. Everything inside him tightened, his breath hitching at the sight of her wielding that not insignificant piece of power machinery like a magic wand. When she sank the blade into the bulk of the tree, woodchips and sawdust flew up and around her, making her look like an odd fairy in the midst of casting a spell.
“It isn’t just older kids,” Hunter told Charlie then. “And in answer to your question, it would be great if you and Phoebe were friends. Even if you aren’t the same age.”
“Great. I’ll go introduce myself again, and when she’s done, we can hand out water together.” She got to her feet and slung the bag over her arm. “Thanks, Mr. Hunter.”
“Just Hunter is fine. Thanks again, Charlie.”
Click. Click. Click, click, click.
He lowered the camera slightly as Kendall removed her hard hat long enough to wipe her arm across her brow, a now familiar smile breaking across her face. He could feel rather than hear her laugh as Matt Knight danced away to allow a group of younger men to push the cut disc out of the way.
He lost track of the time he spent, sitting on the barely there grass, feeling the dampness of the earth soaking into his jeans as he filled up roll after roll of film. When a butterfly, no, make that three butterflies, flitted around his hands, he froze. One settled on the edge of his lens, its wings beating slowly against the gentle spring breeze. “Calliope?”
“Close.” Xander Costas came over and stood beside him. “Darned things have taken to following me now. Or maybe it’s Stella.” He pointed behind him as Stella ran toward Charlie, who was offering a skeptical-looking Phoebe a bottle of water. “How goes it?”
“Depends on what you mean by ‘it.’” Hunter got to his feet and dug into his pocket for a new roll of film.
“Didn’t realize anyone still used film,” Xander said, then whistled when he got a better look at the downed tree. “Boy, that’s a big one. They don’t fall very often, but when they do—”
“They make a big bang. Believe me,” Hunter told him. “Phoebe and I were in the house when it came down.”
“I’ve been pushing for Gil to get the trees around here checked by an arborist. Maybe this will convince him.”
“Kendall convinced him about the fence,” Hunter told him. “Maybe you should have her ask him.”
“Good idea. She is becoming a bit of a secret weapon. Speaking of a secret weapon, I wanted to talk to you about a job.”
“Oh?” Hunter wound up the film, pulled it free, then loaded a new roll. How he loved that satisfying click when the cylinders caught. “Like I’ve told Kendall, I’m not much good with tools. I used to stink at building with Legos.”
Xander laughed. “Nothing like that. I’m in the process of rebuilding Costas Architecture into Costas Architecture and Construction. We had a rough few years, and well, I’m taking things in a different direction now that I’m the one in charge.”
“Okay.” Hunter wasn’t entirely sure what this had to do with him.
“The butterfly sanctuary is going to be my first major project in over a year. And, honestly, it’s the first project I’ve ever overseen myself. I was thinking about hiring you to photograph
the progress, create a story almost, of what happens along the way from start to finish. I thought maybe I could hire a video producer to turn it into a promotional bit for the website or a PowerPoint presentation... Actually, I’m not entirely sure what I’m thinking. Would you be interested?”
“Ah. Wow.” Hunter blinked. “Maybe, yeah. Any idea how long the project is going to take?”
“We hope to have it done by migration season next year. Could be sooner. Not sure. I’m thinking of taking you on as an employee, maybe as one of my marketing consultants, which would be salaried, of course. I could guarantee maybe two years. More depending on what comes down the pipeline. I know you’re used to traveling a lot, and there could be some of that. Depending on how this project turns out. I think we’d work well together.”
Hunter wasn’t entirely sure what to say. “Can I take a little time to think about it? I need to consider Phoebe and living arrangements and, well, some other things.”
“Sure. We’re officially breaking ground on Thursday. If you say yes, that would be your first day. We could get the before shots after the official ceremony.”
Hunter chuckled. “That was Gil’s idea, wasn’t it?”
“The guy is all about showmanship and promotion.” Xander shook his head. “Gotta believe there’s a decent guy in there deep down. At least that’s what Calliope keeps telling me. So, let me know by Wednesday?”
Three days to decide whether to put down semi-permanent roots? Hunter found his gaze pulled back to Kendall, only this time, when he found her, he saw her watching him. When their eyes met, she smiled.
“You know what?” Hunter was tired of overthinking things. Once upon a time he used to live for the rush of spur-of-the-moment decisions. “I don’t need time to think about it. I’ll take the job.”
* * *
IT WAS DIFFICULT, Kendall realized as she snatched a bottle of water out of the inflatable pool cooler, to find a bit of silent refuge. The initial shock that came with the crowd invading what was her usual bit of isolated paradise in Butterfly Harbor had worn off ages ago. About the time she sliced off her first hunk of redwood and looked up to find Hunter’s gaze on her, which left her quaking in her work boots.
She tried to remember the last time a man had looked at her that way, as if she was the only light in an endless void. She’d smiled because she hadn’t thought better of it. But now, with time to actually think about what was going on around her, she didn’t have a choice and could recall nothing else. She needed some quiet, some peace. That would help sort out her feelings. If only for a few minutes.
Doing a quick survey of the crowd still busy at work, she found herself walking past the motor home and settling against the far side of the building. She slid down the wall, knees tight to her chest, where she could turn her head slightly and see the ocean beyond the cliffs. She drank her water in record time, closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath.
In the years since Sam and Samira had died, she’d found herself locked into an unbreakable circle of loss and grief. Reminding her over and over again that she was alone. It was as if her mind couldn’t move beyond that worst day of her life.
Talking with Hunter about them had changed a lot, so much so that she wondered if she’d ever really grieved them properly. That perhaps all this time she’d been grieving the life she’d lost. The future, the family she’d been counting on.
The tears burned hot and thick in her throat, but this time she didn’t try to stop them. She let them flow until they soaked her shirt, mingling with the sweat of determination to fix something. Make something, anything, whole again.
Something inside her had broken open these last few weeks, like an eggshell cracked in just the right spot. It wasn’t just seeing Phoebe, a little girl who looked so much like Samira. Nor was it Hunter, who with his charming smile and easygoing attitude had drawn her out of her herself. It had taken both of them for her to find the courage to step back and see what her life could still be.
Kendall shook her head, squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she tried to drag an image of Sam up from the depths of her memory. An image that no matter how hard she tried, became superimposed with that of another man. A man who had the unbelievable ability to make a bitter, angry woman like her laugh.
“There you are.”
Kendall’s heart did that little dance again, the one that had her glancing up into the tree-obscured blue sky. “Really?” She couldn’t help but ask Sam, because only he would have such timing.
“Really what?” The next thing she knew, Hunter was sitting beside her, a camera that looked as if NASA had invented it clutched between his hands. “You talking to yourself now?”
“No.” There it was. That irresistible urge to smile. How did he do that? “No, actually, I was talking to Sam.”
“Ah.”
Kendall watched him closely for resentment or irritation or an indication her talking about her dead fiancé offended him. But there wasn’t a hint of any of that. If anything, his eyes brightened.
“You said he wanted to be a teacher.”
“Grade school science.”
“High school sweethearts, huh?”
“You really do pay attention to what people say, don’t you?”
“Part of the job.” Hunter shrugged, and stretched out his legs. He set his camera on his lap, and, like it was the most natural and normal thing in the world, he reached out and slipped his fingers through hers.
As if he were some sort of blast furnace, her entire body warmed. And in that moment she wondered if this man had the power to do the impossible and thaw her heart.
“Tell me something else about him.”
“Sam?” His name came out like a croak.
“Yep. Tell me about the first time you met. No, wait. The first time you saw him.”
“First day of freshman year of high school.” The memory came fast, whooshing her back to the bustling halls, the sounds of slamming lockers, goading teases and the smell of palpable teenage angst. “He had his nose stuck in a book and was walking down the hall. He walked straight into a halfway-open classroom door.” A bubble of laugher rose up and escaped. “Almost broke his glasses.”
“Glasses, huh? A bit of a geek then?”
“Oh, he was king of the geeks. One of his books had slid across the hall and stopped at my feet. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.” She still had that book. In that storage unit back home. “I hunted him down later that day, after he’d been to the nurse’s office. Instead of thanking me, he went on this diatribe about how Hawking’s theory changed his life and had I ever read it and if I did could he talk to me about it over lunch because no one else he knew had ever read it before.”
“Hawking, huh?” Hunter chuckled. “Now that’s a pickup line I’ve never thought of.”
“I don’t think he meant it as one, but it worked. I had stars in my eyes from that moment on. Pun intended.”
Hunter smiled. “How long did it take him to ask you out on a date?”
“I asked him. If I’d left it up to him, it never would have happened.” Kendall could still see the expression on Sam’s round, bespectacled face as he’d blinked in confusion. “It took me a good few months, but I asked him to go ice skating with me. I might have fibbed a little and said I didn’t know how.”
“But you did.”
“Of course,” Kendall scoffed. “It was North Dakota. Most of us are born with skates on our feet. Sam was a transplant, by the way. He spent the first twelve years of his life in Florida. Man never did learn how to skate. I was going to teach him as soon as we got...home.”
“You made the choice to go into the service together?”
“Absolutely. Both our dads were military. It made sense and the army gave him a lot of options to put that brain of his to use. And he wasn’t about to let me go without him. We d
ecided we’d make it work.” But it hadn’t. Not in the end.
“He sounds like a nice guy.”
“He was.” Kendall nodded as some of the bitterness flaked away from her heart. “He really was. Thank you.”
“For?”
“For asking about him. For listening. For...” She broke off, struggling for the right words. “Thank you for being my friend.”
“I’ll be anything you want me to be, Kendall Davidson.” He looked into her eyes as he lifted their joined hands and pressed his lips against her battered knuckles. “Are you done hiding?”
“I haven’t been hiding.”
“Please.” Hunter rolled his eyes in the same way his niece tended to. “Not that I blame you. That’s a lot of people who turned up. But I’m hungry, and word has it Flutterby Dreams is sending a food truck.”
“Flutterby on Wheels.” Kendall laughed at his bemused expression. “Jason’s latest brainstorm. Now that he has Alethea as an apprentice, he’s putting her to use. And she’s good. Really good. Maybe.” Kendall pushed herself up and pulled him with her. “Maybe even better than Jason.”
“Not possible.” Hunter tightened his hold when she loosened hers. “Not that I’ve ever had the privilege of eating at one of his restaurants, but I have heard tell.”
“You don’t have any excuse not to while you’re here. And you know a few people now with an in. You can eat there anytime you want.”
“Great. When do we go?”
“Hold up.” Kendall skidded to a stop, she’d caught a glimpse around the corner of three little girls huddled together. She motioned for Hunter to be quiet.
“It’s too bad you can’t come to school, Phoebe.” Charlie Bradley’s voice rang nice and clear over the crashing waves. “We’d have so much fun at lunchtime. We hang out at the library a lot. You could come with us.”
Safe in His Arms--A Clean Romance Page 14
