3. CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE
ETHAN
N umbness washes over me. It brings comfort in a way I’m all too familiar with.
I could get upset, but it wouldn’t do me any good. Stress would only raise my blood pressure, and in my family, that’s one luxury I can’t afford. I come from a long line of Tate men with heart problems. My dad died of a heart attack when I was eighteen, and my grandpa before I was born. Then, of course, there’s my youngest brother, Andy, who has congenital heart disease and had to have surgery before his fifth birthday.
I see a cardiologist once a year, and while my ticker may be in tip-top shape at the moment, the stress of my everyday life wears on it. So, to counteract that, I exercise, walk, and yes, I even meditate.
Plus, while I may have ignored the signs with Victoria, I’m no fool. I guess I was better at avoiding what was right in front of me than I was at admitting to the truth. Victoria is like me in this way. Maybe that’s why she hired Kinzie. Ignoring our differences had become too great of a burden for either of us.
Looking back, our short-lived romance was bound to fail. We’re from completely different worlds. Victoria is the daughter of a wealthy senator who’s spent her whole life in the lap of luxury. Then there’s me, a country boy, through and through. She enjoys the finer things in life, like buying crystal vases before dining at expensive restaurants. I, on the other hand, prefer to catch my own fish and prepare a home-cooked meal while breathing in the salty air from the worn-out wicker chair on my dock.
Then there are Victoria’s feelings about my home, the small boat docked in the bay. While she’d never been all that enthused by it, it wasn’t until we started discussing the wedding that I realized just how deep her hatred ran.
“My condo is bigger and it’s closer to civilization ,” she said, as if my ten-minute commute into town was such an inconvenience. So I stayed at her place most nights. I wanted to make her happy, to please her. In turn, I overlooked how unwilling she was to do the same for me. When I was on call at the station, however, I stayed home. That never sat well with her. “You can get a new job,” she insisted. “Work here. My daddy could put in a good word for you at the department.”
But I like where I worked. I like my home. I enjoy waking up on the water, to the sound of the waves lapping against the dock. To the peaceful tranquility of my houseboat. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
As the wedding grew nearer, Victoria stopped pressing the issue, and I’ll admit, I avoided the conversation entirely. Her visits to my boat had always been nearly nonexistent, and my overnights became fewer and farther between.
“My vertigo is really bad,” she’d tell me. “I sleep so much better when I have the bed to myself.” In hindsight, I suppose that was her gentle way of saying that my nightmares were too much for her. Another thing I don’t think she contemplated before saying yes to my proposal. I can’t blame her. They are bad. Sometimes, they even scare me.
The sound of another empty glass clinking against the bar stirs me from my thoughts.
Beside me, Kinzie is avoiding my gaze as she digs inside the tiny handbag that sits on her lap. More than a decade has gone by, but I know her enough to know the silence is probably eating her alive, hence the three martinis.
When she pulls out her car keys, my stomach lurches.
“You’re not driving.”
She glares at me with a set of dark blue eyes I’ve never forgotten. But underneath that hard exterior exist shades of hurt. Pain I caused years ago.
I should apologize. I should explain. She deserves that. But the words don’t come, and now is not the right time. So instead, I ask, “Do you live around here? I can give you a ride.”
“No. And no.” Glowering, she pushes off her stool.
When she gets to her feet, I stand too. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but she sure the hell isn’t about to get behind the wheel of a car after three martinis.
“Calm down, Ethan,” she says, and then adds, “Michael,” as if Victoria’s formality is ridiculous. “I have a driver coming to pick me up. I’m not stupid.”
“Kinz,” I say, grasping her forearm. The feel of her soft skin beneath mine sends a bolt of electricity through me.
She stumbles back. “Don’t,” she tells me, her voice losing its edge. “Don’t say anything. You were right. Three martinis was a stupid idea.”
With a sigh, I remove my hand, letting it drop to my side.
“I’m sorry. About today,” she says. With that, she turns on her heel and slips away.
For a moment, I’m frozen, watching her walk away. I don’t know how long I stand like that, but the spell is only broken when Ramon calls my name. “Do you want me to turn the game back on?”
I shake my head. “No. I’m going to head out. See you next week.” I pull cash from my wallet and set it next to my barely finished drink.
A pair of sunglasses sitting at the edge of the bar catches my attention as I slip my wallet back into my pocket. I pick them up, noting the cheap plastic of the black frames, and immediately laugh. Typical Kinzie. Some things never change. I’m sure she’s lost hundreds of pairs of sunglasses over the years. While I know she won’t miss these any more than the other dozen or so I’m sure she’s misplaced this week alone, I take them with me as I get into my truck and head to her sister’s house.
It’s stupid, but I don’t have anything better to do. It’s not like Tessa will tell me where Kinzie lives. Not that I’m after her address anyway. I’ll drop them off, and she can give them to her sister the next time they see each other.
Half an hour later, I park my truck along the side of the road opposite Tessa’s house. She and her husband live near the center of town. The houses here are set perfectly apart from one another, with manicured lawns and white picket fences. It’s near the elementary school and a library, an ideal place to raise a family. Most people purchase homes here for that reason, though if memory serves me right, Tessa never wanted kids. Kinzie was the one who wanted a large family, kind of like mine.
I told her that being a part of such a large family wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. There was a lot of fighting and teasing, and somebody was always in someone else’s business.
That was the beauty of it all, she’d said. Because at the end of the day, we cared enough to be in that business.
As soon as my feet hit the concrete driveway, a tall man with a square build peeks his head out from inside the garage. He doesn’t look familiar, but the one time I interacted with Tessa about a month ago, I gathered that her husband wasn’t from Hope Island.
“Can I help you?” he says, brushing away the sweat at his temple.
“Hey.” I give a half wave. “I’m an old friend of Theresa’s.” I don’t know why I use her full name. Maybe the formality of Victoria’s life is wearing me down. “I mean Tessa,” I correct. “I dated her sister way back in high school. I ran into Kinsley at a golf course today in Savannah, and she left these.” I raise the sunglasses for him to see.
Chuckling, the man plucks them out of my hold. “You must be Ethan. Heard a lot about you.” He flips the shades over and inspects them. “Fucking Kinzie and her damn sunglasses. You didn’t have to drive all this way. She buys them at the dollar store. She probably orders them in bulk.”
His candid response throws me off. He’s heard a lot about me?
I can’t imagine Tessa saying anything about me, not with how adamant she was about not wanting me to pursue the asshole who assaulted her the night I found her in the alley behind her office. I was on patrol, driving the streets of Hope Island, when movement outside the building caught my attention. At first, I thought maybe shadows had been playing tricks on me, but over the years, I’ve learned to trust my gut, so I pulled over.
All the lights were off in the front, even the lampposts on the street, but there was a glow coming from the back of the two-story building. When I stepped into the alley, Tessa was getting to her feet. There was a cut below her left eye, and her swollen cheek was streaked with blood. She was trembling, but not crying. I ran straight to her. Asked what happened. If she’d gotten a look at the person who’d done it.
“No,” she said, her voice shaky. She went on to say she didn’t want me to get involved. That she hadn’t even seen the man. She didn’t want me chasing after somebody who might come back. And she sure as hell didn’t want her husband to know.
I reminded her that she was hurt. That she needed medical assistance. That I was a cop and it was my job to report it. It was then that she finally pleaded with me. “Please. I don’t want the cops involved.” Then, as if on cue, tears spilled down her face.
I never did file a report, but not because she asked me not to. I left it alone because when I started typing up my report, Tessa popped up as an FBI agent. What the fuck was I supposed to do about that? I had to keep the streets safe, but reporting an incident involving the FBI was a bit out of my depth. I hadn’t even known there were agents in Hope Island.
“My name’s Derrick. Do you want a beer?” the man says, breaking me from my thoughts.
Confusion swirls in my mind as I blink at him.
With a laugh, he roughs a hand through his hair. “Sorry, man. Kinsley is inside. Sleeping. I’m sure she’ll be out cold for the next few hours. Haven’t seen her toasted like this since her own breakup.”
I look toward the house. She’s here? My heart stumbles, and my throat gets tight. How many times has she been here over the years? How many times has she been this close to me? Why the hell didn’t I look for her? If I had, I could have told her I was sorry for leaving so abruptly.
I shake my head. I wouldn’t have. There’s no point lying to myself. If I’d found her, that would have led to a conversation I would never have been ready for.
“Thanks, but I should get going. I didn’t know Kinzie would be here.”
“You local? If you drove out this way and you know my wife, you have to be local, right?”
He doesn’t know. Tessa didn’t tell him.
I nod. “I live off the bay.”
“Must be nice. You fish a lot?”
I shift my weight. Shit. I could be here all day if I ask. I shouldn’t. This isn’t my territory. This is Kinzie’s family. I shouldn’t be making friends with her brother-in-law. But I can’t help myself. Not after the man brought up my favorite topic. “You fish?”
A grin appears on his face. “I used to. Haven’t since I’ve been here, but I think of it every time I drive down that way.”