Balancing Act (28 page)

“It’s the
Wistful
.” He recognized her even without seeing her name on the stern and relief poured through him.

He heard a small, hiccupping sob and wrapped an arm around her shoulders to give her a brief squeeze.

“It’s going to be okay, sweetheart. Smart boy. Damn.”

Seth opened the mic on the loudspeaker overhead. “Ahoy!
Wistful
. Ahoy!”

He repeated it a couple more times before he saw the cabin door slide back and a small head appeared on the steps.

“Oh, Seth!” Tessa laughed. “It’s Zach. He’s okay!”

Seth felt a surge of gladness so strong he staggered against the helm as he brought the
Merry Ann
alongside and cut the engines before lowering the anchor. He turned to Tessa and leaned down without thinking to press a kiss on her cold lips. “Wait here, Tess. I’ll get him on board. It’s too slippery for you and the baby out there.”

She nodded.

As soon as he stepped outside, Zach’s trembling voice greeted him. “Seth? Is that you?”

“Yeah, son,” he reassured him, his voice gruff. He couldn’t let either Zach or Tessa see how emotional he was. They were counting on him to be strong. “I’m going to throw you a line. I want you to tie it to the bow. I’ll be over in a minute in the runabout to get her ready to tow back behind us and get you on board. Are you okay?”

“Yes, sir,” Zach said in a subdued voice. “I’m sorry I took your boat.”

“Don’t worry about that now,” Seth told him. “We can sort everything out later. Right now we need to get you home. Tessa’s waiting onboard for you.”

“Man, she’ll skin me.”

Seth laughed, feeling some of the heart-clenching fear ease. “I doubt it.”

Zach caught the line on the second try and tied it to
Wistful
’s bow. A minute later, Seth steered a small boat over the choppy water to the sailboat’s stern where he tied up and came aboard. Zach slipped and slithered along the icy deck and launched himself at Seth. After catching the boy in his arms, Seth lifted Zach against him and hugged him hard.

“It’s all right, little man,” he soothed. “You did all right. You might have hell to pay when we get back, once Tessa gets over the relief of you being alive, but for right now, I’m telling you, man-to-man, you did some mighty fine sailing.”

Seth heard one small sob before Zach sniffed and nodded his head. He gave the boy another hard squeeze and set him down. “Let’s go below for a minute and I’ll make a call on the radio.”

“I would have called,” Zach said, “but I didn’t know how it worked.”

Seth ruffled his hair. “Before you ever go out again, that’s one thing we’ll remedy.”

Zach nodded.

Seth grabbed the mic and radioed the Coast Guard base. “This is Seth Barrett, owner of the
Wistful
. I’ve located Zachary Mallory and my boat approximately ten miles southeast of Mac’s Marina. Over.”

“Roger,
Wistful
. Advise you stay put.”

“Negative,” Seth replied. “I will be returning on board the fishing trawler
Merry Ann
. Was planning on towing
Wistful
. Something I should know?”

“Roger,
Wistful
. Storm is heating back up again. Advise you batten down the
Wistful
and let her ride out where she is while you return to the marina ASAP. Over.”

“Roger that. We should be underway aboard the
Merry Ann
within the half hour. Out.”

Seth turned off the radio and turned to Zach. “Can you maneuver in those clothes or do you need to change back into your own?”

“I should change,” Zach said.

“Get to it then. I’ll get the
Wistful
ready to ride this out right here. Then we need to get back to the
Merry Ann
.”

* * * *

Tessa watched Seth help Zach onto the runabout. He had secured everything he could aboard the sailboat before he untied the line linking it to the fishing boat. Something must have made him decide not to attempt towing his boat. As she glanced at the heavy sky and listened to the wind, she realized the weather was going downhill once more. She sought them out again, watching their movements and reassuring herself they were okay.

Seth looked like he always did–whether he was in a custom-tailored suit or foul weather gear–strong and dependable. He was always there for her when she needed him the most. She swallowed as she realized the truth she’d denied for far too long. She loved Seth Barlow-Barrett whether he was wearing the suit or the soaking wet storm gear. More than that, in her heart, she knew she could trust him. It was why she had sought him out today.

She had some serious soul-searching to do and some even more serious fences to mend.

As the men she loved made their way back to the
Merry Ann
, Tessa heard the rain on the roof of the cockpit once again take on that distinct sound of frozen precipitation. The freezing rain was starting to come down in earnest once more as Seth stowed the runabout with Zach’s help. Then they were there on the bridge. Tessa hugged Zach to her, mindless of his soaking wet clothes. He could soak her through to the skin a hundred times so long as she could hold his skinny frame next to her and bury her face in his flame-colored hair. God, she had missed him so much.

“Oh, honey,” she whispered next to his ear. “I’ve been so worried. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to how unhappy you were.”

Zach hugged her and stepped back. “I wanted to prove I wasn’t some dumb little kid, but I guess I messed up big time.”

Tessa shook her head in dismissal. “We’ll deal with that later. For now, you need dry clothing.”

She eyed the stairs leading to the cabin below deck. Seth looked over his shoulder at her. “No way. You are not climbing down those steps, as rough as it is. Zach can go on his own to see what he can scrounge up. If he’s big enough to sail a boat in this, he’s big enough to find dry clothing and change. You, Tessa, are staying right here.”

When she looked at him and acquiesced with an, “Okay,” she could see it surprised the hell out of him. She was turning over a new leaf, starting right now. Tessa wasn’t sure how long it would last, but she was determined to show Seth she was done making snap judgments, done mistrusting people–well, mistrusting him at least.

* * * *

Seth restarted the
Merry Ann
’s engines. He realized as soon as the boat chugged back out into the main channel just how much shelter Zach had managed to find. He marveled again at how well the boy had thought under stress where many adults wouldn’t have made decisions nearly as sound. That basic level-headedness was what had kept him alive. Seth thanked God because he didn’t even want to consider what would happen to Tessa if she lost her brother. Even he couldn’t bear the thought, but then, he looked on the kid almost as a son. Seth squinted into the leaden darkness and sailed for home.

There were plenty of questions they would all have to ask and answer, but right now the most important mission was to get the
Merry Ann
and the most precious cargo she’d ever carried back to the marina all in one piece.

Chapter 17

Tessa sagged with relief as the lights of the harbor that sheltered the marina came into view. The seas had gotten progressively rougher on their return, so that even she was beginning to feel a faint queasiness that had nothing at all to do with being pregnant. In a few more minutes, the
Merry Ann
bumped up against the dock, and Mac himself was there to help them tie up.

Seth insisted on carrying her inside the office before he would set her down. Zach and the older man were right behind them, stomping their feet.

“Ice is starting to stick on more than cars and windows,” Mac remarked. “We need to get out of here before it gets any worse. You need a place to stay?”

“No.” Seth shook his head. “We’ll use the family’s house. It’s just a few miles down the road.”

His eyes met hers, and Tessa saw the promise in his golden gaze, a promise that they would talk at long last.

“I’ll need to call Uncle Edwin and Aunt Kathleen,” Tessa murmured.

“We have a land line at the house, and there’s a good cell signal from there. Let’s get you and Zach over there and all of us into dry clothing, then you can make any phone calls you need to make.”

Mac was right, the freezing rain made even walking a challenge. Seth insisted once again on carrying Tessa. When they reached the Escalade, he told Zach to get in the back as he buckled her into the passenger seat. After starting the engine and setting the defroster on high, he chipped the ice off the windshield and side windows. It took a few minutes, but they were on their way.

As Seth said, the house was a few miles down the road, but it took a while to reach it because the roads were more than slick, they were downright hazardous. A large wooden-shingled older home, it sported a wide, pillared veranda. Seth pulled the Escalade under a side portico that looked as though it had been designed for carriages. Now it offered them a dry, ice-free avenue to get inside, and for that Tessa was grateful. She’d had all of this storm she wanted.

Zach held her hand as Seth turned on the lights. Like the house’s exterior, the rooms were large and airy, their high ceilings adorned with ornate fans, and decorated with antiques that looked not just old but also well-used. It was a far cry from his parents’ stuffed and starched estate in the Virginia countryside.

Seth must have read her expression. “My paternal grandmother’s responsible for this house, a woman about as unpretentious as there ever was.”

Tessa glanced around the room, a little more relaxed once she realized this wasn’t the showplace his parents’ home was.

“There is one drawback to staying here,” Seth continued. “The furnace was set just high enough to keep pipes from freezing when the house was closed for the winter. There is a fireplace in the living room, so I’ll build a fire, and we can use that to warm up. It will be easier than trying to crank the furnace up, not to mention a whole lot faster.”

He glanced at Tessa. “If you’re up to it, can you scrounge around in the kitchen to see what you can find to eat? I’ll take Zach upstairs and hunt up dry clothes for all of us. As many Barlow-Barretts as there’ve been in and out of here over the years, there’s bound to be something to fit everybody.”

Tessa nodded. “I’d better call Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Edwin first.” She glanced meaningfully at Zach. Seth nodded in understanding. No way did she want her brother around when she made the call because she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

“Come on, buddy. With six kids in my family, I bet we can find clothes that will fit you, maybe even some of my hand-me-downs if there was anything left after Brandon and Phillip got through with them.”

As they walked toward the wide doorway leading to the staircase visible in the front hallway, Tessa heard Zach ask in a disbelieving voice, “People had to wear hand-me-downs in your family? I thought you were rich.”

Tessa cringed, but she heard Seth’s laughter rumble back and it helped calm her. She waited until they’d gone, then dug out her cellphone and found her aunt and uncle’s number in the contacts before punching Send. Aunt Kathleen picked up on the second ring.

“It’s Tessa, Aunt Kathleen. I wanted to let you know we’ve found Zach and he’s okay.”

“Where is he? We’ll come get him.”

Tessa rubbed her hand behind her neck. “We’re south of Annapolis on the Maryland shore, and in the middle of a full-fledged Nor’easter. The streets are a skating rink. That’s why we’re not coming back. I think it would be better if you waited until tomorrow when we can get back to Alexandria.”

“You took him across the state line?” Her aunt’s tone was accusatory. “That’s kidnapping, Tessa. I can’t believe you would be that foolish.”

Tessa squeezed her eyes shut hard. Sometimes she couldn’t believe this woman had been her mother’s sister. Two people so different, it was difficult to imagine.

“I didn’t
take
him anywhere, Aunt Kathleen,” she responded, trying to be patient. “He managed to get here all by himself, which says something about how well you’ve been taking care of him that he could get this far without you realizing!”

“Watch it, Tessa!” There was such spite in her aunt’s tone that Tessa knew any hope of establishing any kind of relationship with the couple was an impossibility.

It was also the final straw. She had tried to hold her tongue through the whole ordeal of fighting her aunt and uncle for custody, but she was through trying to play the politically correct game.

“No, you watch it! Zach had enough time to leave your place, get all the way down here and steal a sailboat, which he then sailed miles down the coast. It was pure gut feeling that made Seth call the marina after I showed up at his place to ask for help, or Zach would still be out in this storm.” Tessa paused long enough to get a breath. “You can pick Zach up tomorrow, because the court says you have the right to, but tonight he’s not leaving my sight. And if you want to call the cops, then you go right ahead. I’d welcome another day in court. This time you can be the ones to justify your actions…and your expenditures. So bring it on.”

She disconnected without giving her aunt another chance to talk. When she set it down on the table next to the couch, the nerves from the day’s stress hit. She started to shake. As the first sob broke, she felt Seth’s arms come around her. She turned her face into his chest. He felt so solid, and she needed that so much.