Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
PRESENT DAY
Josie
The moment I spot Madeline standing on the deck of the restaurant where we’re meeting for dinner, I fling myself in her arms. I haven’t seen her in person since last fall when she and Garrett got engaged.
That weekend was such a whirlwind that we barely had time to talk.
But now seeing her face shining with joy in the flickering candlelight and the glow of the moonbeams rippling across the water, I’m hit with another wave of gratitude that I get to be a part of this special week with her and Garrett.
I release Madeline to give Garrett a hug and then watch from the corner of my eye as Ian does the same. Of course, he was invited to join us tonight, and I rode over here with him. Madeline told me that Ian is the closest thing Garrett ever had to a brother.
I sneak a peek at the two men as they slide into their seats across the table.
At first glance, they really could be related.
Both are tall with dark hair, blue eyes, and athletic builds sculpted from hours in the surf.
But where Ian is outgoing and charismatic, Garrett is more reserved, with a quiet strength shaped by years of hardship.
But Ian’s life hasn’t been easy, either.
He lost his dad at a young age and had to grow up too quickly.
It’s one of the things that drew him and Garrett together when they were still just teenagers.
I should have known how unrealistic it was to think that Ian and I were barely going to have to spend any time together this week, given his closeness to my sister and Garrett. Today is only the beginning.
“I met Serena,” I tell Madeline after we place our orders with the server. “I can’t wait to see the dress she designed for you.”
“I have my final fitting on Thursday,” Madeline says. “Will you come with me?”
“Of course. I’d love to.”
“Garrett is going to pick Mom up from the airport and drop her off at the fitting, too.” She turns to him with a teasing grin. “No peeking in the window to see the dress before the wedding day.”
He holds up his hands. “I promise.”
I laugh along with them and try to shove down my quiet dread at the reminder that Mom is on her way.
I’m not looking forward to the conversation when she finds out I’m sleeping in Ian’s guest room and spending my days running all over town with him.
I know she wants to protect me, and a couple of days ago, I agreed with her that spending time with Ian Langley was a terrible idea.
But after our day together, I’m struggling to connect with that same sense of doom.
“I talked to the woman at the bakery, and they’re all set for the cake. But…” Madeline shoots a sideways glance at Garrett. “When I was leaving, I saw that guy again. The one who was bothering me last summer at the bar.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, sitting up in my seat. “There’s a guy who’s been bothering you?”
Madeline nods. “Last summer when I was helping Chloe out at Hudson’s, there was a guy hanging around asking weird questions. I told him to leave me alone, and then Garrett had to throw him out of the bar.”
It comes back to me now. Madeline had mentioned someone harassing her at the bar last summer, but that was right before Garrett confessed a bunch of secrets about his past and revealed that his life was in danger.
We all assumed when federal agents caught the people responsible for threatening Garrett, the danger was behind them.
My pulse stutters. Who is this guy and what does he want from Madeline?
Garrett’s face is turning an angry red, and he’s clutching his napkin so tightly in his hands that his knuckles have gone white. “Did he say anything to you?”
“No.” Madeline shakes her head. “He just kind of stopped on the sidewalk and looked at me. I hurried to my car and drove off.”
“Why didn’t you call me right away?” Garrett asks, reaching over to squeeze her hand.
“There was nothing to say. He didn’t bother me. He didn’t even approach.”
“I’m calling the cops again,” Garrett says. “We need to find this guy and figure out what he wants from you.”
Madeline shakes her head. “You can’t call the cops. He didn’t do anything illegal. He’s allowed to be on the sidewalk of a public place.”
My gaze swings back and forth between Garrett and Madeline. “Do you think he’s related in some way to the drug trafficking case? I thought the FBI assured you that everyone involved was put away.”
Garrett nods. “They keep telling me that there’s no more danger.” He rubs the back of his neck. “So, if this guy isn’t related to that situation, I want to track him down and find out who he is. What does he want from us?”
A cold dread pricks at the back of my neck, and the reflection of the guy standing on the corner while I was at the bookstore comes back to me. I inadvertently suck in a breath and my hand flies to my mouth.
Ian’s gaze swings to me, his face clouded with worry. “What is it?”
Could this mystery man be following Madeline around because he knows she’s my sister? Could the guy watching her be looking for me? “What does this guy look like?”
“Tall, white, with light hair.” Madeline squints as if she’s trying to picture him. “Maybe mid-thirties?” She shakes her head. “He’s sort of… ordinary looking.”
I wish I’d turned around and gotten a better look at the man I saw on the corner earlier today.
Are they the same person? The man on the corner was tall and white with light hair.
But there were probably a dozen men on the sidewalk who looked like that today.
For about the millionth time, I search my memory from a decade ago.
Could the man I saw today, and the one following Madeline, be the same one who was there at the house that day?
Was the person I’ve been running from staring at me on the street today? And is he following my sister?
But this exercise was futile ten years ago, and it’s even more futile now. I barely got a look at that man back then, and I don’t know if he even saw me.
Ian is looking at me sideways. “Do you think you had an encounter with this guy, too?”
Madeline bites her lip, and a horrible sense of guilt washes over me.
I was the reason my sister had to flee from this island in the first place and to leave the only home she’d ever known right before her senior year of high school.
She still doesn’t know why, and I could never tell her.
But if this guy is interested in me, then Madeline isn’t in any sort of danger, which means she’s worrying for nothing.
I can’t let this ruin her wedding, but I can’t tell her the truth.
Especially now, with Ian sitting next to me.
I stare into my glass. “Oh… no… I just wanted to know so I can look out for him.”
“I don’t like the idea of you looking out for him,” Garrett says in a low voice.
“I don’t want this guy around anyone I care about.
” A shadow crosses his face, and my chest tightens.
After years of running and hiding, he should finally be free from looking over his shoulder.
It’s my fault that he still has those worry lines etched across his forehead when he should be able to put his past behind him.
Ian looks at me intently across the table. “If you ever see someone creepy or feel unsafe, I want you to tell me immediately,” he growls.
His fierce expression and the protective edge in his tone stir something inside me.
Our day together felt so much like old times, and every minute I spend with him makes me want more.
I wish I could come clean and tell him the truth.
I wish I could finally be free of this. That we all could. But I’m afraid it’s impossible.
“Don’t worry about me.” I wave a dismissive hand. “I take self-defense classes, and I always carry pepper spray in my purse.”
Madeline glances at me in surprise. “You do? I didn’t know that. When did you start taking self-defense?”
I press my lips together as a memory rushes back. A heavy weight pressing me down, the breath shoved from my lungs. My heart pounding, my eyes burning.
I shove it from my head and force myself to give an impassive shrug.
“When I started my freshman year at Berkeley, they offered a safety initiative where they talked to girls about walking home alone, keeping an eye out for each other at parties.” All this is true, but I might not have been so motivated to attend the workshops if it hadn’t been for that summer.
“Now I take one every year, so it stays fresh.”
“Maybe you should do that,” Garrett says to Madeline. “Sign up for a self-defense class.”
She pats his hand. “I’ve lived on this island for a year. If that guy hasn’t approached me again in that time, I doubt he’s going to. But I’ll look into it after the honeymoon if it makes you feel better.”
“Fine,” Garrett growls. “But I’m buying you some pepper spray for your purse tomorrow.”
My heart tilts at his obvious love for her, and again I’m struck by how lucky they are to have found each other after all this time.
Madeline and Garrett’s love story had seemed thoroughly doomed, and yet, against all odds, they’re about to get married.
Garrett gazes at my sister across the table, his emotions playing across his face, and I can’t help but remember the brief time that Ian looked at me like that.
I glance at him, and our eyes meet. Heat blazes through me, and I can tell by the way his eyes darken that he feels it too.
I quickly change the subject away from anything ominous, determined that my sister won’t spend her wedding week worrying about something she shouldn’t.
And as I watch Madeline throw back her head and laugh at something Ian says, her eyes bright with joy, I realize that I can’t let my past get in the way of enjoying this time with the people I love.
I lean an elbow on the table, sipping my wine, feeling the tension in my muscles ease and my racing thoughts settle.
We stay late into the night at our table overlooking the water, a warm breeze blowing in off the ocean.
For the first time in as long as I can remember, I feel like I’m surrounded by family in the same way I was before we left the island all those years ago.
I stayed in Berkeley after college because it was just about as far away from Sandy Harbor as I could get. I enjoy my life there—I go for runs with my dog, I meet up with friends, I have my art and my job at the gallery. But I’ve never truly felt like I fit there.
I know Madeline felt equally lost in Maple Ridge, the town where she lived until she came back here to Sandy Harbor looking for her lost love.
What she found was Garrett and a whole community who embraced her.
She found a second chance. I steal a glance at Ian and let myself imagine for just a moment that such a thing might be possible for me.
When the servers begin to wipe down the tables around us, we head out of the restaurant.
Madeline and Garrett walk down the beach hand-in-hand in the direction of their cottage, and Ian and I climb into his truck to go back to his house.
We’re quiet on the way, but this time it feels comfortable instead of fraught.
Ian parks the truck out front, and we step into the darkness of the entryway.
I hesitate by the stairs, reluctant to go to bed and let the magic of the night end. Ian turns to me, and with the moonlight slanting across his face, his blue eyes glow almost silver. Awareness burns in the narrow space between us.
Ian leans in, sliding a hand into my hair, and I grab him by the shoulders, pulling him closer. Our mouths collide and it’s so familiar, his scent, the feel of his body against mine. But the urgency, the intensity of the longing I feel for him is new and thrilling and terrifying.
“Josie,” he murmurs against my mouth. “I missed this. I missed you. I never forgot what we had.”
His words slam me back to reality.
We can’t do this.
I pull away and stagger backward. “Ian, we can’t.”
“Why?” He takes a step toward me. “Josie, why can’t we?”
I shake my head. I can’t tell him. I can never tell him. “I’m sorry,” I whisper before I turn to run up the stairs to my room.
Tonight, I got caught up in the laughter and joy of Madeline and Garrett’s second chance.
But Ian and I were never the same as them.
Garrett might have kept secrets, but they were to protect Madeline.
How could she not forgive him for that? But my secrets would only hurt Ian.
My secrets are hiding all the ways I ruined his life.
If he knew what I did, if he knew how I took his dad from him and destroyed his future, he’d never forgive me. And I wouldn’t be able to blame him one bit.