Chapter 20
At first, the way Lissie talked to Mary Hastings with such ease, even calling her Grannie, totally shocked me.
I inhaled deeply, and then a wave of gratitude moved through me, easing my worry.
A family was exactly what I wanted for Lissie.
We sat at the kitchen table with Ben’s three-year-old daughter, Chelsea, finishing an art project, when Lissie and Mary exchanged a familiar little smile. It made me wonder if they shared a secret in that smile, something special they remembered from their morning walk.
Will’s mother already cared deeply for my niece.
Mary had a gentle, loving soul, and I couldn’t imagine any child rejecting her love. It must have been difficult for her to hold back with her sons, as I suspected she had at her husband’s direction.
But no doubt existed in my mind about Mary having found ways to impart pieces of herself onto her boys. As fierce as Will was, his ability to dig deep to find tenderness was proof of his mother’s influence.
I thanked God for her…because I was so unprepared, and that weighed heavily on my heart. On my own, I’d ruin Lissie.
Her blossoming relationship with Mary was a gift that provided me more time to figure out the best path forward for Lissie and me, if one existed—my role in her life would change with Ethan in the picture.
As her father, if that was true, then he would become her legal guardian.
Lissie giggled and wiped at the paint on her dress.
“We’ll let these dry now. Let’s get cleaned up, girls,” I said.
Mary nodded and tidied up the art supplies while I took the girls to the sink.
Lissie scrubbed her hands and held them up for me.
“Good job, sweet girl. The purple’s all gone.”
And then she smiled up at me with Ethan’s eyes.
My heart broke just a little. What had my sister done?
Lissie skipped around the kitchen island while I washed Chelsea’s hands.
“There we go, Chelsea. All good?” I asked.
She squealed, clapping her hands under the running water.
“Good!”
“Girl, you’re getting Auntie all wet.”
I shifted Chelsea to one hip and reached for the faucet.
Will abruptly caught my hand. He kissed my fingers and then shut off the water himself. He moved in closer.
“Let’s get on with the beach, Elle.”
Chelsea twisted, uncomfortable with the closeness of the giant looming above her.
“Go get changed,” the giant said.
Then Will lowered his head and kissed my lips.
I stared at his magnetic smile, stunned by his possessive display of affection.
Mary stood at the island, slicing apples for the girls. She narrowed her eyes.
“You know better, William. Wait for Ellie out in the hall.”
Will scowled at his mother, but as he left the kitchen, he mumbled an apology to her.
A giggle escaped my lips. I covered my mouth before another one slipped out.
“That one,” —Mary gestured with her knife in the direction Will had gone— “has always been a handful. Stubborn like his father and equally lionhearted.”
Then she smiled with a distant look in her eyes. I guessed she was caught up in a memory of her late husband, and it was beautiful to see it on her face.
I gave her a moment.
“Does Will look like Richard?” I asked.
“Oh yes, quite like Richard. In fact, he’s the spitting image. He walks like his father, even his voice is similar. All four of my boys have Richard’s eyes.”
My gaze jumped to Lissie.
I knew Will and Ethan had talked about her, but I didn’t know if they mentioned anything to Mary, so I corrected myself, hoping she hadn’t noticed.
Ethan should be the one to tell her.
She nailed me with a hard stare.
“Hastings eyes are quite hard to miss.”
Caught, I nodded.
She went on.
“There’s a fiery element in them. It’s like?—”
“—blue flames,” I finished.
I’d learned in my high school chemistry class how blue fire burned the hottest.
“Quite right, Ellie. You know, when he came back from America the first time, the clarity in his eyes was unmistakable. We knew if conflict did come about, it would become Will’s own private war. I suppose Richard knew long before that. He pushed Will harder than Ethan.”
Her vague suggestion that Will’s father played dangerous games with his sons’ lives offended me—I knew what Richard had been, and I understood how he used his family to serve his own personal agendas.
“Will has a good heart despite the burdens his father forced on him. He’s caring and generous with me and with Lissie. I hope you know that. He’s a good man…a better man.”
I should have kept my mouth shut.
But to my surprise, Mary smiled, and a twinkle flickered inside her honey-brown eyes.
“I do know it, Ellie. go and change. He’s done his time.”
I ran up the back staircase to my room and chose faded denim boyfriend shorts with split side seams and a sleeveless white blouse. I tossed lip gloss and sunglasses into my black leather shoulder bag, and then dashed out the door.
Will waited for me in the hall, just as his mother had said. He met me at the bottom of the stairs, wearing jeans and one of his confident smiles. He flashed his brows and rubbed his chin.
“Christ, Elle. Your legs…I want you back upstairs. We can go out another time.”
I flipped strands of hair over my shoulder and gave him a slow, mischievous smile.
“Nope. Beach now, bedroom later.”
He lifted me off the last step.
“You’ll kiss me first.”
“Then you won’t want to leave. Swear we’ll still go.”
He nodded.
I hooked my legs around his hips, cradled his face in my hands, and slanted my mouth over his, tickling his lips with my tongue.
He opened and thrust his tongue impatiently around mine.
When we broke apart, he put me down, keeping a tight grip on my waist. I panted, breathless.
“Is it still the beach you want?” he teased.
Thinking about it, I shook my head. As if. I could never erase the image in my head of Will and me tangled in bedsheets.
A cocky grin hit his mouth.
I dragged my eyes to the growing bulge in his jeans.
“I mean yes, I want to go to the beach. And if you’re a good boy, maybe we’ll use that later.”
His breath touched my ear.
“Never good. But you’ll be in my bed tonight anyway.”
Then, as we walked out the front door, he kept one hand firmly planted on my ass. And for the first time since we arrived, I was outside of the house.
The glorious sun caressed my face, my bare arms.
Not a cloud floated in the sky. It was a balmy seventy-eight degrees, and the earthiness after a long rain, freshly clipped grass, and lavender wove through my senses.
I inhaled deeply, finding the saltiness of the sea, and smiled.
Ben pulled up in a black Range Rover with dark windows and Thomas riding shotgun.
John sprinted out of the house and yanked open the car door.
I cuffed him on the shoulder and winked.
He returned the wink, adding his handsome grin.
Will and I climbed in the back. He locked his arm around my waist and slid me over the leather close to him, and John jumped in on the other side of me.
“Weapons,” Will said.
Thomas looked back at Will from the front.
“Secured. You don’t want more security?”
“Not this time. Let’s roll.”
My lurking anxiety made its move…I squeezed Will’s thigh and chewed on my lip.
“Is it safe?” I whispered.
He tightened his arm around me.
“It’s safe. Locals aren’t aware anything’s going on. They might be confused when they first meet you, but these people aren’t our enemies. They’ll become protective of you.”
“What about…you know?
“There’s no intel saying assassins are here. But it won’t be long, so I want you to experience Old Town while it’s still quiet.”
I took in a deep breath.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you, baby.”
He winked and kissed my forehead.
I trusted Will, and if he said it was okay, then it was okay.
“I’m going to teach you to properly use a handgun. I have a small Glock for you. You’ll handle it only when I give it to you,” he said.
“What?”
“I’d be foolish not to prepare you.”
A gun wouldn’t be much use for me, not in the UK, where they broadly prohibited firearms possession. But Will’s family was well connected, knew the policy loopholes, and I understood his goal—I would be exposed to guns, so I needed to know what to do with one.
“Will, I should learn to fight.”
“No,” he snapped.
“But—”
“—no, I won’t see you get beaten and bruised.”
I leaned over his lap to gawk out the window at the scenery. Wild forget-me-nots bloomed along the edge of the forest. The sun broke through the trees, warming everything.
“We’ll see,” I said.
He dismissed my challenge, pointing at the deer in our path.
When the estate ended at the bottom of the ridge, Ben took an old main route leading into the heart of Hastings, the area they referred to as “Old Town.”
The ancient little town could’ve easily been the model for Stonington, though it did have an edgier feel—like it dangled from a precipice, working hard to hoist itself up and evolve with the younger, hipper generation.
People and celebrations filled the streets for the annual week-long summer festival.
Vendors sold fresh-caught fish and seafood, crafts, and other goods. Local artists painted portraits. Solo musicians and a traditional marching band dueled for attention. The carnival queen and her court paraded through the cobblestoned streets.
Only limited parking existed, and most streets were closed to vehicle access.
Ben pulled the car into a gated lot behind a pub that had a crown sculpture mounted above its entrance.
Will caught my unasked question.
“The pub is one of Ethan’s investments. His friend runs the place.”
As we stepped out of the car, a pretty blonde got out of another car nearby.
She was fashion-model thin and six feet tall.
Thomas took hold of her hand.
“Ellie, this is my friend Kirsty.”
Kirsty smiled sweetly.
“It’s quite nice to meet you. Thanks for including me today.”
I smiled back and nodded, saving my heavily American-accented words for later.
Then, as a group, we walked through the middle of a narrow street lined by a mix of Victorian and Tudor era buildings until we hit the fishermen’s beach, or the Stade as locals called it. There, a historic pier reached out into the English Channel and ancient castle remains perched on top of the west ridge.
I looked at the tiny pebbles covering the beach.
“There’s no sand?” I asked.
“No sand. It’s a shingle beach,” Will said.
“Oh. Well, how do you walk along the shoreline then?”
One corner of his mouth curved in amusement.
“You take off your shoes, baby.”
Will pulled me by the hand, taking me to the edge of the water, and we kicked off our shoes.
He swooped me into his arms and stepped into the water. When he put me down, the surface was softer, not like sand, but more like sand than pebbles—limestone from the cliffs.
I hooked my arms around his neck.
“Take off your sunglasses, Will.”
When he wore them, it frustrated me because I liked reading his expressive eyes.
He hooked the sunglasses on his t-shirt, and I locked my eyes on his.
His hands slid from my waist onto my backside.
“Your plump little arse fills my hands perfectly,” he teased.
“Plump?”
He grinned.
“It’s quite perfect.”
I pulled his face to mine, and he kissed me, long and hard. Then he put his forehead on mine while we caught our breath.
“Christ, I can’t get enough of you, Elle.”
“So maybe you can stay tonight?”
An eye-crinkling smile lit up his face.
I recognized right then how serious things had become between us—how quickly we had fallen. He’d put everything into the kiss we shared on the tarmac in Connecticut, proving he was all in. One hundred percent. No middle ground.
And now, I didn’t want him to leave me. Not that night, not ever. I kissed his cheek and tugged on his arm.
“Come on, let’s walk. What’s in this direction?”
Will grabbed my hand and curled his fingers around it.
“It’s a bit of a walk, but there is something down there I want you to see.”
We headed east holding hands to a quiet expanse of shoreline beneath chalky white cliffs. The Channel’s intensity had carved out gorgeous walls with little hidden coves. We dropped our things there, and he led me into the water.
Will pointed above the cliffs.
“Can you see beyond the trees on the ridge?”
I shook my head. He was much taller than me. So I stepped farther into the water, where the tide swept over my knees.
Beyond a grove of trees, I saw chimneys.
I took two more steps backward, and there…the house.
Eastridge overlooked our exact location, an elegant stone fortress. She stood tall and proudly announced her presence to all who looked her way.
“How beautiful,” I breathed, mesmerized.
Will’s stare burned into the side of my face.
An aggressive tide swept in, and he pulled me onto the beach and kissed me again.
A gust of cool air washed over me, leaving behind a sheet of goose bumps on my skin. And with a song meant only for me, the sea whispered a message to me.
I shut my eyes and arched my back, stretching out my arms, trusting Will to hold me, to keep me safe, while I sent my silent reply to the whispers.
It had found me.
My hair floated behind me on the hard-driving breeze.
And in that very moment, something peaceful, something so honest that it hurt, claimed my heart.
Will pulled me back into his arms and kissed my lips.
I didn’t open my eyes.
“You were never lost, Elle. I would never let that happen.”