Love on Lavender Island (A Lavender Island Novel Book 2) (28 page)

Adam smiled. “She’ll love it. We’ll watch it together.”

His heart felt as if it were sinking like a rock. Seeing her again—her beautiful smile, her doe eyes, her soft hair that fell around her face—and knowing he might never see her again was crushing him. He tried to get up the courage to say some of the things he needed to say, but he didn’t want to come off like a needy, pathetic jerk. Instead, he hardened his heart further and turned away.

“You might need to go now, right?” he asked.

Ass.

Paige looked up at him with those eyes that killed him. “Do you have a minute to talk? It might be our last night of peace and quiet before the wedding workers start descending tomorrow.”

“I thought you might have things you needed to do for the wedding.”

“I do, but I . . . I have some things I want to say.”

Unless she was saying she wanted to stay, he didn’t know if he wanted to hear it. A few weeks ago, he would have wanted to hear anything—how much fun she’d had, how much she enjoyed the great sex. He’d have eagerly listened to how much she’d loved the laughs, his salsa, their horseback rides, the ranch. But now he didn’t want to hear that. Because now it would only drive home the point that, while he wanted so much more of her, she’d had enough of him.

“Adam, I—”

He held up his hand. “I don’t know if we need to do this. Do we?”

She looked up at him as if he’d just slapped her. Her eyes teared. She took a step back. Bit her lip.

His chest crushed again. He was such an ass. He couldn’t do this to her. As much as he wanted to harden his heart so it wouldn’t hurt so much, he couldn’t. He’d have to let her say whatever she wanted to say. If it drove a knife through him, so be it.

“Can we go for a walk?” she asked quietly.

That would just drag this out. But he would do it, for her. “Sure.”

She nodded and headed back out the door.

He set
Last Road to Nowhere
down on the table and followed behind her.

Time to fall on the sword.

Paige bit her lip as they wandered across the yard, and she tried to figure out how to start. Dusk was starting to fall, changing the sky to a deep purple over the dried grass. The evening was mild, but she wrapped her arms around her torso as they kept up a brisk pace.

Unable to formulate anything that might cushion the blow, she simply blurted it out. “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

Adam slowed and turned slightly toward her. His eyebrows formed a deep frown as he stared down at her; then he looked back at the horizon they were marching toward. “Go on.”

“When we were kids—that summer of the fires—my mom wasn’t the one who told George on you and had you sent away.” The words were coming in a rush now.

His scowl grew deeper. “She wasn’t?”

“I was,” Paige said. “I told on you. I went to your kitchen, and she came with me, to tell George. It wasn’t Ginger. It was me.”

Adam stopped and turned toward her completely. He stared at her for a long time, his face alternating between fury and disbelief. “You thought I started the fires, and yet you’ve been
sleeping
with me?” he asked.

“No! I never thought you started them. I never said that to George. I just told him about you and Samantha—that you were there, too. I didn’t think it was you. My point was that it could have been anyone. I didn’t think he’d have you thrown in jail, Adam. But, I must admit, I did want them to break up you and Samantha.” Tears sprang to her eyes. What she had done, and saying it out loud, hit her full force in the chest. She wanted to reach up toward him—touch him, stroke his face, hug him—but his expression looked murderous. She didn’t dare. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered into the space between them.

He glanced between her and the road. “Paige . . .” He couldn’t seem to even find the words. His face was a mask of incredulousness and anger.

His phone rang in his pocket, but he ignored it and turned to face the sunset. “That drove a wedge between me and my dad that lasted forever.”

“I know,” she whispered. Tears flowed down her face now. She couldn’t help it any longer—she needed to touch him, just a gentle touch, to let him know how sorry she was—and she reached up for his shirt, but he stepped away.

“And Samantha . . . ,” he said. “When her parents took her off the island, she left without looking back. I don’t think she ever believed me. Those years I lost with Amanda . . . that was why.”

“I know,” Paige said, choking on a sob. “I’m so very, very sorry, Adam. If I could do it all over, I would.”

His phone rang again, but he simply turned away. The anger on his face was morphing into pain, and Paige didn’t know which was worse.

“And you let me hate Ginger all these years, even though it wasn’t her,” he said.

Paige nodded weakly as his phone rang again. She glanced at it, a minor panic starting in her chest. Multiple phone calls were never good. “Are you going to get that?” she asked.

He yanked his phone out and glanced at the screen. “It’s Bob.”

“Go ahead. It sounds urgent.”

“What do you need?” he barked into the phone.

Adam didn’t take his eyes off her. He looked as if he was looking at her for the first time—and not liking what he saw. Something Bob said made his brows furrow even deeper. “Calm down. What are you talking about?”

He listened for a second, then shook his head. “I’m on my way toward the Top of the World, I—”

Suddenly he looked behind him. And a slew of whispered curses followed.

Paige followed his gaze and saw a huge plume of smoke lifting out from behind the trees.

The meadow was on fire.

CHAPTER 26

Paige ran behind Adam into the front yard, where they both stopped short when they saw the blaze roaring across the dry grass toward the gazebo.

Amanda raced out of the house right then, looking toward the meadow herself, her mouth dropping open at the sight of the violent flames.

Adam moved toward the resort, but Mendelson was already running out along the deck.

“Is anyone else in there?” Adam shouted.

Mendelson shook his head.

Adam then turned toward the stables.

“I’ve got to get the animals,” he yelled to Paige. “Go back to the road. Take Amanda. Start heading down the mountain.”

“But my mom!”

“Your mom is back there?”

“She’s in the kitchen.”

A few more whispered oaths flew out of his mouth as he stared across the meadow, but—within seconds—he was running in that direction.

“Adam!” Paige screamed.

He turned. “Go
back toward the road
,” he repeated. “Take Amanda.”

Paige didn’t need to question where he was going. There wasn’t a clear way out for her mother. There were some back trails that led away from the house on the other side—the trail the intruder took weeks ago—but her mother wouldn’t know where to find them. Fear clogged her throat as Paige watched Adam disappear into the smoke. But she had to get Amanda out of here.

She ushered Amanda back toward the house on a jog. Denny was barking frantically. Paige scoured the house for Click. She was starting to have flashbacks to the fires before. But even those hadn’t been so close to homes. To her home. To animals and memories and life and the people she loved.

Once they found Click, they grabbed the struggling kitten and dashed across the pasture toward the stables. Paige’s pulse raced erratically as she watched a pickup truck come the other way, then another and another, lining up along the ridge to help. But then she coughed. The sky was filling with dark smoke and ash.

“Amanda, put your shirt over your mouth.” She showed her how to pull the collar up and breathe through the fabric as they ran toward the trucks. Paige found it easier to wrap Click in the hem of her shirt, also.

They arrived at the stables near the main road just as the wranglers were pulling the horses out of the stalls and directing them toward one of the three trailers they’d brought. Amanda rushed forward to help, and keep the horses calm. When they were loaded up, the wranglers jumped back into their trucks, waving Amanda and Paige toward them. Smoke was everywhere.

“Amanda, go with Gabe!”

“I want you to come, too.” Amanda looked at her with panic. “And I want to wait for Adam.”

“Adam went back for my mom. He’ll probably try to evacuate her the other way. He’ll come out of the woods trail down by the harbor, and he’ll be okay. We have to get you to safety.” She guided Amanda toward Gabe’s truck.

“I saw you guys fighting.”

Paige blinked through the smoke at yet another of Amanda’s non sequiturs. “What?”

“I saw you fighting. Out the window. You’re not breaking up, are you?”

“Amanda, we can talk about this later. I need you to go. Take Denny. Go with Gabe.”

“I want to help.”

“You can help by leaving so we don’t have to worry about you.”

Paige ran up to Gabe’s truck and opened the passenger door for Amanda, urging her in along with Denny and Click. She looked at Gabe. “You two, hurry!”

“There’s room for you!” Amanda scooted over.

Paige looked up at the long line of trucks pulling up. “There’s a bucket brigade coming. I want to help.”

Paige saw the entire community spilling out of pickup trucks—Rosa, Little, Joseph, Sherryl, Antonio, John from town, Billy Joe from down the block, Mendelson, and Mendelson’s son, David, and about fifty others—all with buckets or hoses. This community was wonderful. They’d never let anything happen to one another. As much as Paige disparaged the small-town mentality of Lavender Island, in times like these, she realized its value. That mentality might include rumors and gossip and everyone knowing everyone else’s business, but it also meant that when someone was in trouble, everyone was there to help. Her eyes welled up again as she saw them move quickly toward the pond. Just then the island’s two fire trucks pulled up the dirt road.

“I promise I’ll be safe,” she told Amanda. “I’ll see you in an hour or so.” She tapped the side of the truck for Gabe to leave and then turned and ran toward the brigade.

At three in the morning, word went out that the fire was contained.

Adam dragged himself to Rosa’s, where everyone had gathered. He’d raced toward Helen’s house, found Ginger, and literally carried her down the side trail toward town. She seemed to only weigh about eighty pounds, weak with her chemo treatments, perhaps, and his adrenaline made short work of getting her down the hill. About a fourth of the way, he’d met four men from the Carmelita Hotel—old Mr. Perry and his three burly sons—who’d come up to see what the smoke was. He’d handed Ginger off to them.

“Take her to the hotel,” he’d panted. “I have to get the Grumman.”

They’d nodded and started back down with Ginger as Adam flew back up the hill and across the meadow, choking on the smoke, to get to his Grumman S-2T. They’d used the plane to put out many fires in the past, but he never thought he’d have to use it for his own property. Sweat had dripped from his forehead as he maneuvered the plane back and forth, first dropping the twelve hundred gallons of retardant across four acres, then returning to the ocean for additional bucket drops. Between the plane and the fire trucks, and the bucket brigade saving the outlaying properties, the fire was contained in about an hour.

Rosa had supplied everyone with free food and drinks in her cantina to keep them going through the night. The moon was still on the horizon, hovering, not quite ready to give up her reign. Adam headed through the bar, shouldering his way through the crowd, looking for Amanda and Paige.

Everyone clapped him on the back and told him what a great job he’d done. But he didn’t feel he had. He knew they’d lost the gazebo and most of the meadow. The trees on the perimeter of Paige’s house were blackened to scraggly spokes of branches. And his job was in no way complete until he laid eyes on both Amanda and Paige.

He suddenly caught sight of Paige coming out of the women’s restroom in a flurry, her eyes looking ravaged and panicked.

“Paige!” he shouted across the room.

She didn’t hear him and seemed to be moving toward the front door.

“Paige!” he tried again.

He pushed his way through the crowd, trying to get to her. He had to tell her so many things—he wanted to tell her he loved her. He wanted to tell her he was furious with her. He wanted to tell her he could forgive her for what she’d done in the past, but he had to work through the fact that she hadn’t trusted him enough in the last couple of weeks to tell him the truth about it. He wanted to tell her she was beautiful. He wanted to tell her she infuriated him. He wanted to tell her she made him feel a thousand emotions he’d been shut off to for far too long. And mostly he wanted to tell her he was glad she was alive.

When he finally caught her elbow and turned her around, she still had the panicked look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

Her eyes looked wild; her mascara had blackened the rims of her eyes, and one streak stained her cheek.

“Adam, we need to go!”

“What? Why?”

“No one can find Amanda,” she said.