Searching for Sea Glass: BEST-SELLING AUTHOR (Sea Glass Secrets Book 1) (11 page)

He let her. And he immediately felt cold. He was a self-controlled and distant man. Ask anybody, they’d tell you. It was a skill he’d perfected over a long, brutal childhood and a longer stint as a rabid corporate warrior. But her rejection froze something deep inside JD. Something that had struggled to flicker to life when he’d first seen her again. Something he’d rather not look at too closely. So he didn’t. He shoved it away. And he locked it in that part of his black soul he never identified.

“Leave me alone, JD,” she begged. Sunny was smart. And she had hard-won courage. But she knew when she was up against an adversary she couldn’t defeat.

“I can’t.”

His bleak words tore at her already wounded heart. “Then I’ll do the leaving.” She turned and walked away from him. She shoved open the swinging doors and disappeared down the dark corridor.

“Sir? Sir?”

JD lifted his head. He opened his bleary eyes. A concerned middle-aged woman stared down at him. She was dressed in a nurse’s garb. A very old and battered stethoscope dangled around her neck.

“Bonnie, I think he’s been here all night,” she said to a woman over his shoulder.

“I sure hope not. You know how old man Cellers feels about folks camping out in the waiting room,” answered a crisp disembodied voice from across the room.

“Doc Cellers just doesn’t want homeless people coming in and ripping off all the toilet paper out of the bathrooms. And you know yourself, we had to call the police on that guy last month. The one who tried to get in after hours and steal drugs.”

“Sir? Sir, you need to leave. Visiting hours aren’t until eight o’clock,” said the older woman. Her words were accompanied by a stern shake of his shoulder.

“Take your hands off me,” JD grunted.

The woman took a cautious step back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were awake.”

He rubbed a hand over his face and felt the rasp of morning beard. He knew he probably looked like an outlaw. And he didn’t think it would serve his cause very well if he frightened these women. So he smiled.

It must have worked. Because both of the middle-aged women sighed. One of them stopped as she was picking up the phone. She’d obviously been about to call security. Now she just stared at JD with a dazed expression.

“I’m here with Sunny Murphy,” he said.

Both women broke out of their embarrassing trance.

“Oh, you must be a friend or a relative of the Dunns’?” one ventured to guess.

JD shook his head. He ran an impatient hand through his black hair. “No, just Sunny’s.”

“Friend?” asked Bonnie with hopeful eyes.

“Or relative?” asked the other woman. Her eyes were not hopeful, they were suspicious.

Everybody hereabout knew of Sunny’s no-account family. If this man numbered himself among that group, this lady would be glad to give him a piece of her mind. Sunny Murphy was the closest thing they had to a saint in Sea Glass Point. Everybody said so. The weathered nurse was not about to let her be victimized again.

“Friend,” JD answered. Then he wondered why he’d gone to the trouble. He very rarely explained himself to anyone. Most people knew not to question him.

The woman’s face softened into a smile. “Well, I’m glad to see she’s finally allowing a man into her life.”

“Me too,” agreed the one named Bonnie. “Trey tried to date Sunny for the longest time. And she just wouldn’t have anything to do with him.”

“He sure did.” The older one nodded sagely. “Course it was just a matter of time till he up and asked Trinity out. Now they’re as happy as can be.”

“Especially with the baby,” Bonnie said.

“I know. What a cutie-pie. And born with a head full of hair,” the other nurse said. “Trey’s on duty, but I can’t wait for him to see her. And I’m so glad Sunny’s got someone.”

“Especially after all she’s been through,” Bonnie commented. “You want a cup of coffee?” she asked JD as she walked over to the nurses’ station.

His eyes narrowed. “The sheriff dated Sunny?”

Bonnie blushed. It wasn’t often she had a man’s total attention. But she did now. “I think they went out a couple of times. Just a friendly kind of thing.” She looked beseechingly over at the other nurse.

“Listen Mister, if you’re the kind of man who has problems with a woman’s past, you need to just shove off,” said the older woman. “Sunny’s had a real hard time in her short life. She doesn’t need some caveman sort who beats his chest and holds her accountable for every little jot and tiddle that happened before he met her. Sunny Murphy is a fine woman. She doesn’t need your drama. Her life is crazy enough, as it is.”

“I agree,” said Bonnie. “Sunny’s got way too much on her plate to be worrying about what you think of her.”

“What kind of hard times?” he asked with laser focus.

“What are you talking about?” Bonnie asked.

“What kind of hard times has Sunny had?”

The nurses looked at each other. Both kept their mouths clamped shut. All the sudden they both found work they had to do behind the nurses’ station counter.

“What kind of hard times?” JD’s voice telegraphed danger.

“The kind that are none of your business,” said a man’s voice from the door. Trey Dunn stood there. He was tired and he was rumpled. But he was ready to defend his friend.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Bonnie said. She scurried over to him. “Trinity’s been asking for you Trey.”

“Is she all right?” he demanded. “I told Sunny to call me back, if things didn’t go well with the baby.”

Bonnie patted his arm. “She’s fine. And that baby’s going to break hearts when she gets just a little bit older. Come on back, you can see for yourself.”

Trey smiled until he turned back to the other man. At that point he looked mean. He pointed a finger at JD. “You stay away from Sunny. You can swing your weight around in Dallas, with your old money and high-toned ways. But that won’t get you very far down here. We look after our own. Sunny called me last night. She was scared… of you. She was scared you mean to take Billy. I’m telling you right up front, I’m not going to stand for that. Nobody around here will. You best get in your fancy limousine and burn up the road going back to Dallas.”

A lethal little smile settled upon JD’s lips. He rose to his full intimidating height, several inches over Trey. “Make me,” he drawled.

Trey’s hand hovered over his service revolver. JD smirked when he saw the movement.

“That might slow me down. But it sure as hell won’t stop me,” he said.

“Back down McIntyre,” Trey barked. But his eyes widened in fear all the same.

“Or you’ll do what? Shoot me?” the bigger man taunted. “Be kind of hard to write that up in a report. Shooting the town’s unarmed benefactor isn’t going to play too well on social media.”

“Just leave her alone. That’s all I’m asking you to do.” Trey went from demanding to pleading.

“Why is everyone so convinced I’m here to hurt Sunny Murphy?”

Nobody answered his question for the longest time. Then the oldest nurse broke the awkward silence.

“You’ll need to ask Sunny that,” she instructed. The others nodded.

“I can’t make you leave,” Bonnie added. “But I will ask you to be kind when you see Sunny. She’s had a rough night.”

“I could arrest you,” Trey mumbled. Seeing the other man’s defiance, he backed down again. “But your high-powered lawyer friend would probably get you released from custody before I could even get you to the jail. For the love of God, man, can’t you just leave her alone? She hasn’t done anything to you.”

“Tell her I’m out here and I want to speak to her.” JD ignored everything said to him.

“I don’t know if she’s even back there with my wife,” Trey lied.

“She’s back there. Like you said before, in this town you look after your own. Sunny wouldn’t leave her friend alone.”

“That’s the honest truth,” Bonnie admitted. “Remember how she sat with Willie for days on end?” She asked her friend.

The older woman nodded. “Yeah, I do. Poor thing, she haunted this room like a frail, broken ghost.”

JD made a fine show of searching his pockets. But he listened to every word the women said. He was getting a pretty good idea of what must have happened five years ago. And he didn’t like it. Piecing together what he’d forced out of Sunny with what the nurses and the sheriff said, led JD to believe Sunny’s explanation that nothing had happened to her was far from the whole story.

“Mr. McIntyre?” Bonnie called. She held up a Styrofoam cup of coffee to him. “Are you sure you don’t want coffee?”

“Yeah, you better take it. Then you’re going to need to leave,” the other nurse said with bulldog tenacity.

“Dot, you can’t really make him leave. This is a public institution,” Bonnie chided.

“Oh, I can make him leave. You just watch me,” she answered coming around the corner of the Formica counter.

JD watched her approach. She was tall for a woman and built like a truck driver. She wore pink scrubs that skimmed over her bulky frame. There was a frown on her wrinkled face and deliberate intent in her eyes. This was a woman on a mission.

“My name is Dot Morris,” she said in an abrupt voice as she sailed up to him. “My husband is Judge Morris. He doesn’t like vagrants. I want you to leave.”

JD knew his choices were limited. If he intended to stay in Sea Glass Point long enough to make his peace with Sunny and maybe get to know his nephew, he’d better use charm instead of force. Especially with Mrs. Judge Morris.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Morris. I was just on my way out.”

The woman crossed her arms and began tapping a rubber crepe-soled toe as JD walked out into the brisk morning sunshine. Before he was on the sidewalk, he had his phone in his hand. “Matt?” he spoke into the receiver. “I want you to research Sunny Murphy’s family for me. I want to know where they are now. I want criminal background checks as well. And Matt, I want all the financials on the Murphys. If there’s a mortgage on the café, I want you to buy it. That goes for the house as well. I intend to own Sunny Murphy.” He listened for a minute. Then he asked, “So my mother called?” He nodded again. Yeah, I’m glad she and Leanne aren’t coming down. Can you get that report on Murphy to me today? Yeah, I’m being serious. I want the information on her as soon as possible. I’m on my way in. Tell Sam to wake up the boy. I need to talk to him.”

Something he heard on the other end of the line made him curse under his breath. “No, I did not agree to release the child to any friends of the Sunny Murphy. I don’t care who this Maude Evelyn is, she had no right to take him. Do you know where she lives?”

JD listened to the address. He walked to his car in the parking lot. He retrieved the keys and pressed a button as he got near. The low-slung Italian sports car growled to life. The man pressed another button on the high-tech key ring and the door sprang open. As he was lowering himself inside, he began speaking again.

“I’ll pick the boy up and bring him home with me.” He settled his long legs under the steering column. “I don’t care what the old lady says. The boy is my nephew.”

Seconds later, he was pulling the vehicle out onto a deserted two lane highway. As the tires grabbed the asphalt of the road, JD punched the address he’d just found on his cell phone into his GPS. A low melodic female voice began instructing him. Within fifteen minutes he pulled into the drive of a stunning white Victorian mansion. It stood just off the square in downtown Sea Glass Point.

The building had to be over one hundred years old. It was three stories of pristine clapboard and intricate plum-colored gingerbread. A small, tasteful sign pointed to the side entrance of
‘Maude Evelyn’s Dance Studio’.
He looked that way and realized the dance school must be housed in the adjacent carriage house. It mirrored the house with its white paint and pale magenta trim.

JD got out of his car. He began to follow the bricked sidewalk to the home’s wraparound porch when he heard it. A boy’s uproarious laughter. He got past the large, weathered, cement urns planted with red geraniums. They stood like guards on either side of a picket fence gate. He unlatched the gate and strode up the serpentine walkway. At the base of the wide steps he heard the child again.

“Maude Evelyn, watch me spin!” the voice squealed.

JD was now on the porch. He could see through the wispy white lace curtains into what must have been the house’s parlor. His nephew sat upon an old-fashioned round piano stool twirling himself around. Faster and faster the little boy spun. Finally, he put his chubby bare feet down on the frayed Persian carpet and yelled once again.

“Maude Evelyn? Come see me spin!”

When the child got no answer. JD watched Billy run out of the room. Soon he was back dragging the old lady by her hand. She happened to glance through the rippled glass of the window. She frowned when she saw the man standing on her porch.

Before JD could ring the vintage doorbell, Maude Evelyn jerked the door open to confront him.

“Get off my property, you trashy carpetbagger,” she snarled. She wrenched the edges of her frilly night coat over her scrawny chest. She glared at him. “This is private property. You’ve got no right to trespass.”

She started to slam the door in his face. JD stopped its momentum with a deft turn of his shoulders. Now he was halfway inside.

“That is breaking and entering. I’m calling the police,” she declared. Twin spots of high color showed up on her withered old cheeks.

“I didn’t break anything. And I’m not entering,” he said reasonably. “I just want to speak with you.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” she asserted. She raised her nose and tried as hard as she could to stare down its long narrow length at him. “You may leave the same way you came in.”

She was a haughty old bird. He’d give her that. But her surly attitude would not deter him from taking custody of his nephew.

“I’m not leaving. I came to get my nephew.”