Page 20 of Betrayal In Calusa Cove
She blinked.
“Are you really afraid I’m going to pack my bags and take off?” he asked, dropping his hand to his lap.
“That thought does cross my mind sometimes.” At first, she’d kept Fletcher at a distance because she’d blamed him for her brother’s death. She’d needed someone to point her grief and anger at, and Fletcher had been an easy target. But as time passed, and the truth behind Ken’s death had been revealed, she hadn’t been able to keep blaming a man who’d suffered, too. If she were being honest with herself, which she was now, she’d put walls up because everyone she’d ever loved had abandoned her either through leaving or death.
Fletcher included.
“You spent years in the Navy. Years seeing the world. I can’t help but wonder when you might get bored being back here.”
Fletcher drew in a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “I don’t know what to say to you to make you understand or to feel safe in the knowledge that I don’t want to be anywhere else but here.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to believe that. Or that in the last two years, I can’t see that.” She tapped the center of her chest. “Or even feel it. Maybe it’s everything that’s going on, and it’s like I’m just sitting around and waiting for the other shoe to drop, kind of like the ripple effect that happened after Audra’s dad went missing. You and Ken left for boot camp. Audra took off. And from there, it was just like one by one, I ended up alone.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Fletcher looped his arm around her waist. “You’re not alone. Can’t you see that? We’re all here for you. Me, the guys, Audra, Trinity, Chloe…all of us.”
“I do know that,” she said. “It’s just hard to accept sometimes after years of feeling alone and doing it all by myself.” She lifted her hand when he opened his mouth. “Ken was hard on me the last couple of years he was alive. I didn’t understand him anymore. We’d been close as kids. Sure, we fought and often didn’t get along, but he was my brother, and he wouldn’t, for whatever reason, support me and this damn marina. His legacy. He was angry about it. And he said the most outrageous things to me. I often wondered if you supported him in that decision.”
“I didn’t know he was doing that. If I had, I would’ve said something.” He pressed his finger against her lips. “And before you go and say anything about that, when most of that was happening, you would barely take my calls. You didn’t tell me anything. That is a two-way street.”
“I know.” She nodded. “I just can’t help these feelings and thoughts. Instead of bottling them up and snapping at you all the time, I decided to tell you, since you asked about what I was thinking.”
He chuckled. “I appreciate that. As long as you don’t regret last night or this morning.” He arched a brow. “Because I still lo?—”
“I don’t regret it, and let’s not go there, Fletch. I’m not ready for declarations. Let’s just enjoy things and see what happens. Can you do that?”
He nodded. “But I hate being called Fletch.”
“Why?” she asked. “It’s who you were for my entire youth.”
“I don’t know. I think because when I joined the Navy, everyone called me Fletcher or used my last name, except Ken. But even he started calling me that a few years in. When I came back, and people here were calling me Fletch, it grated on my nerves. Especially when you were telling me I needed to grow up. Which was odd, because I had. So, I thought Fletcher sounded more like a man and not a stupid teenager.”
“That’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” She let out a little laugh. “But Fletcher is a nice family name.”
He burst out laughing. “My grandmother always loved that I was given her maiden name. Thought it bonded us together somehow. She was a crazy old woman. About the only person Silas was afraid of. Then again, she once ran through town after my dad when he first started dating my mom in a housecoat, hair curlers, combat boots, and a loaded rifle. Silas saw the whole thing. He was just a kid, but said it terrified him. Thought my grandma was gonna shoot my old man right there in front of Harvey’s Cabins.”
“Your grandma was the best, even if she was a little left of normal.”
“She sure was,” Fletcher said.
A few moments of silence ticked by. The sun disappeared, casting an eerie glow over the Glades.
“So,” Baily said, bumping her shoulder into his. “Anything exciting happen in the wild world of Parks and Rec?” she asked, needing something normal. Something to ground her in the present. Something that wasn’t heavy and filled with worry. Something that felt more like her past than her present.
Fletcher grinned. “Exciting is one word for it. Had to mediate an argument this morning between two people from that boat parade about whether or not manatees are just fat dolphins. I had to wonder where on earth these folks were from and if they’d ever seen the ocean before.”
She laughed. “Seriously?”
“Swear on my life. One of them was convinced the manatees were part of a government cloning project gone wrong. Said it with a straight face. Didn’t even crack a smile or lift a brow. The man was dead freaking serious.”
“Oh, Lord.”
He chuckled. “Dawson wasn’t too far away, so I told them to ask him. Said he was the town’s marine biology expert. That he knew everything and would be honest about something like that. You should’ve seen the look on Dawson’s face.”
Baily tipped her head back, laughing harder now. Fletcher leaned closer, brushing a kiss to her temple. It was simple. Sweet. Intimate. Like old times and just what she needed.
“The Navy brought you some good people. Dawson’s a special man. He’s good for Audra. The woman’s still not tame, but she’s softer.”
“They bring out the best in each other,” he said. “They’ll make great parents. It’ll be fun to watch, especially if they have a little redhead just like Audra.”
