Page 49 of Sweet Love at Bayside
“I didn’t plan on working eighty hours a week.” He needed Drake to know the truth. “I wanted to make him proud, and I couldn’t pull myself together here. Then things got away from me. Working became a way of life.”
Drake raked a hand through his hair with a tortured expression. “I get it. But you’re here now, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get you back here for good.”
Rick knew what he had to do. “Can you handle the patio?”
He took a step away and Drake grabbed his arm. “Forget the patio.” He hauled him into an embrace. “Love you, bro.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Rick walked along the moorings as if he were walking the plank. The darkening sky mirrored his emotions as each heavy footstep brought him closer to the ghosts of his past. His heart beat violently against his ribs as he passed one, two, three boats, stopping at the fourth. His eyes remained trained on the wood beneath his feet, refusing to rise. Inhaling a lungful of brisk air, he forced his gaze upward. The dark cabin windows stared back at him like snake eyes.
They say the faces of those you’ve lost fade from memory.But even now, seventeen years later, Rick could picture his father’s smiling eyes, his unruly dark hair bending at the wind’s will, and his thick arms, defined by hard work and the relentless pursuit of living life to the fullest, as he reached over the edge of the boat.
Give me your hand, Ricky boy. I’ll haul ya up.
Rick crossed his arms, a barrier between him and his father’s ghost.
Afraid? What’s the worst that can happen? You slip and fall in the water? Big deal. So, you swim, son. That’s why you have limbs.
He smiled, despite his heartache. His father had always been infuriatingly positive. Getting on the boat should be a piece of cake, but tears burned his eyes, and the longing in his chest felt like a never-ending abyss he wouldn’t be able to climb out of once he fell in.
Stepping on that boat meant…finally accepting his dad was gone?
He’d thought he’d done that the awful night they’d lost him. But if that wasn’t the issue, what was?If I knew the answer, I’d get on the frigging boat.
Holding his breath, he reached for the bow with shaking fists. Unfurling them was like bending iron. Closing his eyes, he touched his fingertips to the cool, sleek fiberglass, gritted his teeth, and pressed his palms flat.
See? Stable as the day is long.
His father’s voice drew his eyes open, and his gaze swept over the cabin. Flashes of that awful night barreled into him, and he slammed his eyes shut again, willing himself to remain standing and accept the torture once and for all. He was done hiding, done running. His entire body battled him, from the bones in his feet trying to carry him away to the very tips of his fingers struggling to let go. But he stood strong as the howling winds and sheeting rain of seventeen years ago pummeled him anew. The erratic sounds of the choppy sea roared in his ears. The deluge of waves pounded over the deck, and the screeching of the boat’s hardware sliced him open. The densewhooshof the boom and the deadlythudsent him stumbling backward, as if he himself had been carried into the sea. He dropped to his knees, tears spilling down his cheeks. His shoulders slumped, and his head fell heavily into his hands, but he didn’t run. He didn’t fight the fear or the gut-wrenching agony as the memory of Drake holding him back from launching himself into the black water pinned him to the ground.
I’m getting on that stinkin’ boat.
He forced his eyes open, and a hand shot down and grabbed his arm, hauling him to his feet. It took Rick a second to push out of the past and into the present, where Drake stood sure and steady before him.
“What are you doing here?” Rick’s voice was thick with emotion.
“Whatever it takes.”
Rick didn’t hesitate, didn’t give the past time to hold him back from his future. With Drake by his side, he climbed onto the boat, determined to be the man his father had raised him to be, and the man Desiree deserved.
Chapter Fourteen
DESIREE LAY AWAKE watching the sun sneak through the new coral curtains, thinking about how much had changed since she’d arrived. How muchshe’dchanged. With Violet in her life, her days were anything but structured. Her sister really did stink at keeping to a schedule, but Desiree was coming to accept that Violet wasn’t being volitionally rebellious. It was just the way she was wired.
She rolled onto her side, careful not to wake Cosmos, who was lying on the foot of the bed, and ran her finger along Rick’s strong, scruffy jaw. She’d never been the type of person to stay overnight with a boyfriend, because she had a busy schedule and liked to stick to it. During the summers, she usually tried to make it to Emery’s early riser’s yoga class a few days each week, and during the school year she liked to go over her lesson plans for each day before class. Getting off schedule at home would leave her feeling restless, but here, between the shop, getting to know Violet, caring for Cosmos, and her favorite thing of all, spending time with Rick, she barely had time to slow down and worry about anything. Or rather, worry about things like schedules. She had plenty of other worries, like had they chosen the right appliances and paint colors for the kitchen, and would the flower boxes keep Cosmos from escaping? Luckily, paying her mother’s mortgage wasn’t one of them. The sales from the shop were taking care of that. She’d even dropped the mortgage payment into the mail early.
She pressed a kiss to Rick’s lips, acknowledging her biggest worry of all. How could she ever go back to being the person she had been, when he’d become such a big part of who she was now?
Cosmos creeped along the bed on Rick’s other side and smothered his chin in kisses. Rick’s lips curved up, and he tugged Desiree against him. Cosmos hopped off the bed with a whimper. The pup should be used to them by now. They could hardly keep their hands off each other, and still, every time they reached for each other in the morning, Cosmos whimpered. She wondered if her mother would notice or care if she took Cosmos back to Virginia with her.
The thought of leaving brought a pang of longing.
Rick rolled over, trapping her beneath him. “Morning, gorgeous.”
He lowered his mouth to her neck and began killing her brain cells one kiss at a time. This was so much better than yoga and lesson plans.
“In a world with billions of people, how did I get lucky enough to find you?”
She struggled to hold on to her ability to speak as he kissed her neck, the crest of her shoulder, then worked his way up toward her ear. “You…stalkedme.”
