Page 58 of Bayside Heat
They’d both been on the deck of the boat the night of the storm when their father had fallen overboard and been lost at sea, while their mother and Mira were down in the cabin, out of harm’s way. Drake could still hear the howling winds, still feel the cold rain pounding his cheeks, the deluge of waves crashing over the deck in the pitch-black night, and the dense whoosh of the boom cutting through the air as it slammed into their father, sending him to his death. The ocean was a destructive, uncaring beast, and it had swallowed him to its dark depths so quickly, none of them could have saved him.
Drake turned away, busying himself with unpackaging another instrument. He hadn’t thought anyone had noticed the fear that had risen inside him.
“Dude…?” Rick put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on?”
He faced the brother who had struggled for so long with guilt over their father’s death, who had fought him every step of the way to keep from healing. Until Desiree. Drake had dealt with the grief from his father’s death years ago. The only thing he had ever hidden from was his feelings for Serena. And he hadn’t hidden from them as much as he’d tried to outrun them for her sake. Now that he knew how she felt about him, he was done with that bullshit. But the path from here to a future with Serena was unclear. He was sick of things being unclear or off-limits, and when they were sailing, he was struck by another troubling gray area.
“When we were sailing, all I could think about was what if the unthinkable happened when we were out there. Dad didn’t get to say goodbye to any of us. I was so damn focused on our pain and trying to hold everyone together, we never talked about what Dad’s last thoughts were. What went on in his mind as the boat keeled and he went overboard? What was he thinking during his last few seconds of life? I don’t want my last thoughts to be ‘I’ve wasted years,’ or ‘Why am I here while she’s there?’ I can’t go back and fix the years we’ve missed, and it’s probably too soon to figure out the second. That’s what you saw.”
They stood there in silence for a few moments as their painful past wrapped around them. The haunted look in Rick’s eyes made him look five years older, and Drake was sure he was guilty of the same.
“I thought about Dad’s last moments until I was sick with it,” Rick confessed.
“I know. You and I talked about that when you and Des got together, but for me it’s a selfish thought. As much as I want to know what Dad thought, I kind of don’t.” He paused, his confession gnawing at his gut. “But I want to make damn sure I don’t regret a thing from here on out.”
They worked in silence for a long while, putting up displays, each lost in their own thoughts. Eventually Desiree called, which was Rick’s cue to leave.
He embraced Drake longer than usual. When they parted, he said, “Are you thinking of moving to Boston?”
Drake shrugged. “I wasn’t,” he said honestly. He made enough money with his music stores that he didn’t need to work at the resort. But the resort had never been about money. It had been Drake’s way of bringing his family back together. Maybe Rick’s advice hadn’t been too far off when he’d said, At some point you’ve got to stop looking out for her and look out for both of you. Maybe it was time for Drake to stop putting everyone else’s happiness before his own. “But maybe it’s worth thinking about.”
Chapter Twelve
“THERE’S SOMETHING VERY wrong about you being dressed to kill when I’m this far away,” Drake said in a husky voice that made Serena want to crawl through the phone Wednesday afternoon instead of heading into her meeting with Muriel Younger.
She was standing outside the building. She dipped her head as a couple walked by, so they wouldn’t notice the flush heating her cheeks, and spoke quietly into the phone. “If you’re lucky, maybe I’ll show you what I have on under this killer outfit on FaceTime tonight.”
He made a growling noise, and she felt it against her skin like his rough, calloused fingers. “Let’s make that a promise, sweetheart, not a maybe, because just that thought is going to keep me on edge all day.”
