Secretly Married Page 18

  He finally turned. Looked up the dock toward the island. Palm trees were bent back from the wind. The beach was blown smooth and white.

  Feeling empty inside, he walked up the dock. No baby. No reason to convince her stay. With each fall of his boots on the wood, he heard the question again in his head. Does that include me?

  He reached the end of the dock. Moved from wood planks to cement. From cement to a gravel lot.

  Then his head snapped up and he peered out over the ocean.

  Why hadn’t she answered him?

  He veered back to the shack housing Diego’s quasi office. Snatched up the phone and dialed Castillo House. Spoke briefly with Logan.

  Thirty minutes later he climbed aboard the chopper Logan had summoned and headed after her.

  He needed to prove that some things would never change. And he needed to prove that some things could. So he didn’t go alone.

  Alonso went with him.

  Chapter 16

  By the time Delaney walked off the plane in New York, she felt disheveled and exhausted.

  The ferry crossing had been windy, though Diego had been inordinately kind. He’d pressed hot coffee on her during the ride, checking on her regularly as if he feared she was going to bolt over the side of the boat. He even arranged the cab that took her from the ferry to the airport. When she’d tried to pay him, he’d waved away the money, assuring her that Sam had already taken care of the matter. After the crossing, where she’d had the ferry to herself, the flight in comparison had been cramped. She’d had to change planes, too, and the second leg hadn’t been any better.

  She followed along with the throng of people, trying to close out the noise and the jostle that was distinctly jarring after the quiet of Turnabout. She veered off long enough to visit the restroom. Tried not to weep yet again the way she’d done in the shower that morning over the evidence that quashed the slim chance she and Sam had conceived another child.

  She was nearly home, but there was no relief in it. And certainly no joy. Not with her father’s funeral facing her. Not with the thought of facing Chad. There was no way she could pretend she’d be satisfied with common goals and interests without love, and continuing to practice with him would only be cruel to him.

  She left the restroom and shuffled along with the crowd, her briefcase bumping against her hip. At least she didn’t have luggage to retrieve. She’d left most of the items she’d purchased back at Sam’s.

  Thinking about that didn’t help.

  She fumbled with her cell phone, turning it on for the first time in days. It immediately began buzzing. She had messages waiting. She flipped the phone shut again and stuck it back in the side pocket of her briefcase. She’d listen to the messages later. On the taxi ride to her mother’s place. It would help pass the time. Give her something to do.

  Other than think.

  “Looking for a ride?”

  The low voice came toward her left ear and she jerked, whirling around, stopping dead in her tracks. But she hadn’t hallucinated Sam’s voice.

  Her heart stopped. That was all. It just stopped. And when it started again, she felt dizzy.

  She drank in the sight of him as if it had been days rather than hours since they’d parted. Blue jeans. Royal-blue shirt splotched with yellow and green. Sunglasses tucked in the collar of his shirt. And he stood right there in front of her, as solid as a boulder in a stream, the people passing by just flowing around him.

  “How’d you get here?”

  “We got a direct flight.”

  And then she noticed Alonso, standing several feet away. And she struggled to contain the fresh jolt of shock ripping through her. “You’re not sending Alonso—”

  “No.”

  She looked from the boy to Sam. “Then why?” She couldn’t even articulate the rest of the question. “We’re going with you. I don’t care that you think you don’t need anyone. You shouldn’t have to do this alone.”

  She glanced uneasily at the people brushing by them. “I’m sure my father would have appreciated you being there, but why bring—”

  “Because we both love you.”

  Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

  He smiled slightly and glanced back at Alonso, who stepped forward. Sam nudged her out of the flow of traffic into an empty gate area and pushed her down onto a molded seat. Then he sat beside her.

  Alonso slumped down a few seats away, stretching out his long legs, trying to look disinterested. But his tennis shoe jiggled.

  Then Sam touched her arm. And she looked back at him. His gaze burned over her face, and her heart began pounding. And he leaned forward and kissed her.

  She forgot the announcements coming over the loudspeaker, the dull roar of footsteps and voices and cell phones ringing. She forgot everything but the feel of him. The taste of him.

  Even as her fingers closed over his shoulders, twisting in the silky-thin fabric of his shirt, he was setting her away from him, leaving her breathless and feeling foolish. Alonso was watching them, looking vaguely fascinated by their display.

  Sam shoved his hand through his hair, leaving the black strands spiked. “I didn’t marry you because I felt sorry for you,” he said abruptly.

  She sucked down all her emotion. “What a comfort.”

  “Or only because you were pregnant. I married you because I fell in love with you the first day I met you. You were sitting across that bloody desk in your office with a superior little look on your beautiful face that basically told me I could go to hell before you’d forsake one of your clients to the case I was investigating.”

  She shifted, grateful to be sitting, because her legs were definitely shaky. That first meeting had been because of Alonso.

  Sam’s hooded gaze rested on her face. The bruise on his cheekbone seemed particularly prominent. “Probably should have just admitted that I loved you from the get-go. Maybe we wouldn’t have made such a monumental mess of everything. Fact was—” he cocked his jaw for a moment “—the fact was you scared the hell out of me. You were completely out of my league. Smart enough to run circles around me.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “But I wanted you more than I wanted air to breathe.”

  Her throat tightened.

  “And the second you lowered your defenses, I drove right on in, using the pregnancy as an excuse to get what I wanted. You were wrong when you said I was ashamed of our marriage.” His voice went ragged. “But you were right when you said I didn’t think it would last. Not even with the baby coming. Because the only reason you’d agreed to marry me was because you wanted our baby to have a father who cared about her.”

  She shook her head. “I never subscribed to the notion of someone’s heart breaking.”

  “I know.”

  Her throat felt like a vise. “But I realized I was wrong when you walked out of our apartment.”

  “I’m sorry, Laney.”

  She exhaled shakily. “So now what? Nothing’s changed. Even if we did contemplate…trying again, my chances of conceiving are slim at best—”

  He moved swiftly out of his seat to crouch before her, his hands covering hers where they twisted together in her lap. “I wanted kids with you, Delaney. Nobody else. Because I loved you. I still love you. I will always love you. The question is, what do you want?”

  “I want whatever will make you happy.”

  He caught her arms in his, shaking her gently. “What do you want, Delaney?” His voice was slow. Deliberate.

  Tears clogged her nose. Her throat. Sometimes love is all there is. Etta’s acerbic comment drifted through her mind. “You.”

  “Do you love me?”

  How could one word be so hard to say? “Yes.”

  He exhaled as if he’d run a marathon. His head lowered to her lap, pressing against her hands. “Finally.”

  Her fingers flexed. Grazed the cool, thick silk of his hair. “How could you not know?”

  He lifted his head. His eyes g
leamed. “For the same reason you didn’t. You never said the words. God, for two grown people, we’ve managed to make a royal mess of things.” He sat back on his heels and pulled something from his pocket. Then he held out his hand.

  She stared at the two wedding rings, her heart cracking wide open. Tears slid silently down her face and she didn’t care. Not one little bit. “You kept your ring. I thought…I don’t know. That maybe you’d heaved it off Luis’s Point or something.”

  The corner of his mouth curled up. He handed her the larger ring but kept the smaller one. “I know I’m not going to get any awards for great timing here, but Delaney Townsend Vega,” he said huskily, “I love you. And I need you. And I need you to admit that you need me, too. No more shutting each other out.”

  She didn’t care about timing. “Sam.” There was a knot in her throat. “I do need you. I always did.” And admitting it wasn’t nearly as hard as it was facing a future alone, without him.

  He bent his head for a moment, then looked up again. His eyes were damp. “Then, will you come back to Turnabout with me and be my wife? Will you marry me?”

  She dashed her hand across her cheek. “We’re already married,” she whispered.

  “Oh, yeah, isn’t that convenient.” He kissed her palm. “Then, will you just come back to Turnabout and never think about leaving me again?”

  She curled her fingers around the circle of his wedding ring. “Sam, why did you bring Alonso?”

  He sat back again. Looked over at Alonso. The two eyed each other, then Alonso rolled his eyes and moved closer. “This is my cue, right?”

  Sam nodded.

  “What’s going on between you two?”

  “Sam thinks that maybe you, uh, you’d like us all to be a family.”

  Delaney sucked in her breath. She looked at Sam, hardly daring to believe it. “He does?”

  “He does,” Sam said. “I think we should petition for guardianship of Alonso.”

  She covered her mouth for moment. “You don’t even like each other,” she managed.

  She saw the look Sam sent Alonso. And suddenly realized that they must have had some kind of meeting of the minds, in the time it had taken them to go from one coast to the other.

  “I didn’t like the fact that you gave your time so willingly to him when you wouldn’t to me. Women don’t have a corner on jealousy. But you love Alonso and I love you.” A muscle in his jaw flexed. “And I know what it’s like to have to live down a father’s deeds. So maybe that’s where our family is meant to begin.”

  Her heart squeezed. She looked up at the boy. “Alonso? What do you think about all this?”

  He shrugged and dug the toe of his shoe harder against the corner of a cracked tile. “I told him he’s out of his friggin’ tree.”

  “Well,” Delaney said faintly. “There’s a surprise.”

  “But if it gets you to come back to Turnabout then I guess it’s cool. Castillo House is okay, but it’s hard to find a quiet place to read, you know? Still have to go there to shoot hoops, but…” He shrugged again.

  “I don’t want there to be a constant battle zone between you two,” she said.

  “We’re not saying it’ll be easy,” Sam allowed. “But Alonso and I have agreed that there is one really big thing we have in common. We both love you. We’ll probably keep each other on our toes for the next ten years making sure we live up to you.”

  Her head spun. Not in her wildest imaginings could she have anticipated, dreamed, hoped. “You two have this all figured out?”

  Alonso nodded. He pushed his hands into his pockets. “I’ll, uh, try not to disappoint you.” He shot Sam a look. “Either one of you.”

  “There’s only one point yet,” Sam said.

  “What could there possibly be left?”

  “You have to say yes, V.” Alonso shook his head, but he was finally smiling as he moved back to the seat several feet away.

  And his smile took in both her and Sam.

  “He’s right.” Sam turned to her again. “You have to say yes, Laney. We can have a ceremony all over again. No flying off to Vegas, though. No secrets. This one will have everyone there. Jessica if she’ll come. Etta and Janie and Leo. Hell, I’ll even allow Danté off his leash for the afternoon. He can’t get in too much mischief as long as nobody gives him a pen. If you feel compelled, I can even tolerate Do-Wright for the event. Maybe Sara will like a tall blond guy who looks like Brad Pitt and it’ll get Leo off his duff where she’s concerned.”

  “Are you trying to bribe me?”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up. His hands tightened around hers. “Is it working?”

  She curled her fingers. “It’ll take me a while to take care of the practice. I can’t leave Chad in the lurch.”

  “I know. You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t doing back bends in order to be fair to everyone else. We can figure out details, Delaney. We’ve just got to figure out the important thing. To set our minds on what matters. And what matters is us.” His jaw cocked. “I know Turnabout is hardly a paradise. It’s quiet and antiquated and—”

  “And it’s your home,” Delaney leaned forward, cutting off his words with her fingers on his lips. “Though it hardly seemed quiet while I was there.” His lips curved slightly beneath her fingertips. She swallowed. “It’ll be our home. The first real one we’ll have together.”

  He caught her hand in his, drawing it down. She realized there was a fine tremble in his tight grip. His thumbs slid over her wrists, pressing intimately against her frantically beating pulse. “Is that a yes?”

  She nodded. “Yes. But I don’t need another ceremony, Sam. Just put the ring on my finger. And I promise I’ll never take it off again.”

  He slowly released her wrists. Lifted her hand and slid the ring home. Then he kissed it, exhaled and looked back at her. “I love you, Dr. Vega.”

  She lifted his hand and slid his ring back where it belonged. She lifted his hand, kissed it.

  Then she looked into his eyes. The man she’d loved and nearly lost. And she saw something she’d always been afraid to believe in.

  She saw forever.

  “You can call me Mrs. Sam,” she whispered, leaning forward into his kiss. “I like it better.”

  His mouth covered hers.

  From somewhere she thought she heard Alonso mutter, “Finally.”

  Epilogue

  The weather was postcard perfect for the middle of May. Blue skies, fluffy clouds and the faintest of breezes that blew through the palms. Even the air smelled fresh, lightly perfumed by the orange poppies that were springing up from nearly every inch of ground within the perimeter of the high iron fence surrounding Castillo House.

  “It’s a beautiful day for a wedding.” Etta dabbed her eyes with a little kerchief.

  Sam heard her and smiled. “Renewal of vows,” he corrected for about the hundredth time. And the service was a lot later than they’d figured on. But once Delaney left New York and her practice there, she’d been busy settling into her new position at Castillo House, and they’d both been busy with the paperwork concerning Alonso’s guardianship, which had finally been approved.

  Etta just waved her hand at Sam, though, not concerned in the least with terminology. She sat forward in one of the white chairs that Logan, Sam and the kids of Castillo House had spent an hour setting out, which were now occupied by a good portion of Turnabout’s population. “She is here, isn’t she?”

  Sam laughed. “Don’t worry, Etta. She’s here.” Even though he hadn’t seen her since early that morning, he knew exactly where Delaney would be. Exactly what she was doing. Their life together now was considerably different than it had been the first time around. Delaney had replaced Betty Weathers at Castillo House. He had agreed to take on some mayoral duties. But neither used their careers as an excuse to keep distance between them. Finally, they’d learned to work as a team.

  “Relax, Etta.” Danté stepped forward from his place with the groomsmen and
urged Etta back into her seat, a grin hovering around his mouth. He’d been surprised when Sam asked him to stand up with him for the ceremony. Even after more than six months of Etta’s Sunday dinners, there was still tension between Sam and his father. But it was getting better. And it would keep getting better.

  “Well, I can’t help it,” she said. “I’ve waited a long time for this. The first wedding for one of my grandchildren.” Her gaze cut to Sam warningly. If she wanted to call the ceremony a wedding, she was going to do just that. Then her expression softened again. “Just hope I don’t have to wait as long for the next one.” She eyed Leo, standing next to Sam.

  He frowned and shook his head, looking as if bugs had been poured down his back. “Janie would be a better bet,” Leo assured.

  Etta exhaled noisily. “There’s not a man on this island good enough for my Janie.”

  Since most of the Vega men agreed, they just grinned. Then the music began. A live harpist, courtesy of Delaney’s mother who’d insisted on providing something for the ceremony.

  Sam watched Jessica come down the aisle between the rows of chairs on the arm of Paolo, one of the newest boys to come to Castillo House. She sent a small smile their way as she sat in the front row across from Etta.

  At least she had come. Had rearranged a trip to Europe by a few days in order to do so when Delaney had made a point of admitting how much she wanted Jessica to come. Do-Wright hadn’t made it, though. Something about some conference he was speaking at. But he’d sent a telegram, and Delaney was happy.

  Delaney.

  He watched her walk from the house with the rest of her entourage. She stopped at the rear of the chairs, dwarfed by her young escort, while first April Fielding walked unerringly up the aisle, tossing out flower petals with abandon. She smiled brilliantly all the way. She’d been pretty happy about being the flower girl for Mrs. Sam, and had practiced walking the path until she’d perfected it.

  When April got to the front, she slid into a chair next to Maisy and Caitlin, who’d returned to Castillo House with baby Zach.