Safe Harbor (19 page)
Authors: Marie Ferrarella
And then, ever so lightly, he brushed his lips against hers.
Stevi sighed. Her heart was racing again. He still had that effect on her and she had a feeling that he would for as long as he was in her life.
Which brought her to another point.
“Now that most everything’s out in the open,” she began as they walked out of the bedroom and into the hallway.
“Yes?” he asked when she paused.
She took his good arm and threaded it along her shoulders, then laced her fingers through his to keep him there. “Does that mean that you might be staying on a little longer?” she asked hopefully.
“It might...if I can find a place to stay.”
She stopped walking to look at him, not sure if he was being serious or pulling her leg. “What do you mean ‘if’? You’ve got a place to stay, right here.”
He shook his head, dropping his teasing tone. “I can’t keep taking your father’s charity.”
“It’s not charity,” she told him. “It’s payback. You threw yourself on that monster’s gun to save us. You’ve got a room here for life if you want it.” Then, before he could protest, she added, “My father said so. Ask him if you want.”
He wasn’t disputing that, but there was another point he felt Stevi was missing. “That monster wouldn’t have been here in the first place if it hadn’t been for me.”
She was not going to have this argument. “Don’t split hairs,” she said. “The bottom line is that you saved us and you can stay here for as long as you’d like to.”
“What if I’d like to stay here on a permanent basis?” he asked.
She’d just started to head for the rear of the inn and she stopped walking again to face him, struggling to stifle the cry of excitement that was bubbling up in her throat, seeking release.
Was he serious? Oh, please, let him be serious, she thought.
It took everything she had not to squeal her words out. In the calmest voice she could muster, Stevi told him, “That can be arranged.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” she echoed.
“How sure?”
That was when she knew he was staying. She could feel every part of her singing.
“Oh, very, very sure. I’ve got an ‘in’ with the owner and I can put in a good word for you,” she told him.
“Sounds good,” he said with a nod. Then he swept her against him with his one good arm and kissed her one more time. “Now let’s go see those fireworks.”
“I think I already do,” Stevi murmured happily as she led the way to the back lawn.
EPILOGUE
“I’
M
SORRY
, I
KNOW
I haven’t been down to talk to you for a while,” Richard said, apologizing to both his wife and his best friend as he stood between their two headstones.
The two headstones couldn’t have been more different. Amy’s was all sleek, cool white marble with an angel on it, an angel whose face closely resembled his wife’s the way she had appeared on their wedding day.
Dan’s headstone, on the other hand, was just a basic headstone with no frills, no ornate carvings on it. It was simple and straightforward, like the man himself had always been. He had insisted on the headstone being almost nondescript and Wyatt, though resistant in the beginning, had finally given in and commissioned the headstone that his father had wanted to mark his grave.
“It’s been pretty hectic here for a few days, as I know that you undoubtedly are aware,” Richard told his audience of two. “And, as I know you’re also aware, Stevi’s decided she doesn’t really want to go to New York or Paris or any of those other places she was considering after graduation.”
His request to them to find a way to keep her home had obviously borne fruit, he thought happily.
“Seems that young man whose life she saved, the one you had wash up on our beach a couple of months ago, has her intent to stay right here with the family and the inn. And, of course, with him. With Mike.”
He smiled as he sat on the seat that was built into the base of the tree next to their graves, thinking of everything that had happened since he’d last been to the small family cemetery.
“I really wasn’t sure what to make of him to begin with. I know you two are looking after us, but I have to admit I had a few doubts about the way things were going to turn out. But it seems that Mike is an undercover DEA agent who’d spent more than two years infiltrating the American side of a drug cartel.
“Someone within our own Ladera Police Department found out about him and blew his cover—and almost his life—away. Mike was on a drug lord’s cabin cruiser at the time and jumped overboard just when he was shot. If Stevi and Silvio hadn’t brought him back to the inn and tended to his wounds, that boy would have been dead.
“As it is,” Richard continued, still marveling that all this had happened to his family and to him, and that they were all alive to talk about it, “he wound up saving
our
lives, Stevi’s and mine, because the inside man at the police department turned out to be none other than Larry Crenshaw.” Richard shook his head, a chill running down his spine as he thought about the circumstances that were now behind him.
“You remember Larry Crenshaw, don’t you, Amy? He was in high school with us and he was the one who was always trying to get you to go out with him, even though you were going with me. He had a king-size crush on you—and as it turned out, he never really forgave me for living what he felt should have been his life, or so he accused me. All this time and I never realized what kind of scum he really was.
“But Mike knew and he was willing to sacrifice himself to save Stevi and me. He might have died, too, if Silvio hadn’t come to the rescue.
“That man never ceases to amaze me, Amy. He made your garden thrive, bringing all those dying plants to life. Turns out he knows how to do the same for people, as well as being one very impressive marksman.”
He smiled at his wife’s headstone. “I’m pretty certain that you’re the one responsible for bringing him to the inn in the first place. Always looking out for us, aren’t you, darlin’?” he murmured.
“I suppose I don’t really have to tell you the news, do I? But it does bear repeating, because it
is
such good news. With Larry’s, let’s say elimination, as a threat, that left a vacancy on the police force. Guess what? Mike interviewed for it—seems he’s tired of undercover work—and easily got the job. Which is good because right after that, he turned around and asked our Stevi to marry him. You know what that means.”
Richard chuckled, looking from one headstone to the other, as if waiting for someone to speak up. “Besides another wedding, it means that Stevi’s staying put. She’s decided to split her time between the art gallery in town and being the inn’s event planner. My way of thinking is if she’s going to be bossy, she might as well get paid for it, right?
“The first event Stevi’s planning is her own wedding. I’m not sure if that means she gets to boss herself around, or just how that’s going to work, but we’ll see.”
He rose to leave, then stopped.
“Oh, I almost forgot. We’re going to have two pairs of little feet running around just in time for Christmas. Seems Cris is pregnant, too. She didn’t want to say anything until she started showing because she wanted Alex to enjoy the spotlight as long as possible. That’s Cris for you,” he said with a wide grin. “Always thinking of others. She’s a lot like you that way, Amy.
“Cris’s baby is supposed to be two weeks behind Alex’s, and if I know Alex, it’s going to be a competition right down to the wire. Since neither of the girls wanted to know what they’re having, we’re just dealing in neutral colors for now. Me,” he confided, lowering his voice, “I’m hoping for little girls because we’ve done so well with the ones we were blessed with.”
He beamed at Amy’s headstone, recalling what it had been like during the early days, when they were overwhelmed and outnumbered parents doing the best they could.
He paused before turning back to walk up the incline to the inn. “Watch over them for me, you two. I could use all the help I can get. Well, I’d really better get going. I’ll try to make it back sooner the next time. Until then, I’ll trust you to keep everyone safe. Goodbye, my darling.”
Kissing his fingertips, he pressed them to the angel on the headstone. “Goodbye, old friend.”
With that, Richard turned toward the inn and began the climb back, thinking how very fortunate he was. The only thing that would have made him even more fortunate was if he could have had his wife and his best friend by his side, experiencing everything with him in the flesh rather than just in spirit.
But a man couldn’t have everything, could he?
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460334003
SAFE HARBOR
Copyright © 2014 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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