The Key to Paradise (15 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Landon

I would have missed the news entirely if my exhaust manifold hadn’t finally bit the dust. I had planned to get an early start fishing, to be out the door before the sun ever broke the horizon. Instead, I was in a foul mood sitting on my couch when the emergency alert sounded and the red scroll crawled across the screen.

“Damn it.” I cursed at the screen. My house was right on the beach and with very little time to prepare it was going to be a bear to get it sealed up before the storm hit. Thankfully, Grandpa had installed hurricane shutters so the windows would be safe but I was going to have to drive down and pick up sandbags before I packed up and left. A category 4 would easily push the surf right to my back door.

On my way to the Tamarind Key Municipal Center where they were distributing emergency supplies I passed by Lily’s small bungalow and remembered she had just had surgery. I hadn’t stopped by to visit her in the hospital. I told myself it was because I was busy but the truth was I was nervous about running into Liv.

In the months since our last fight my emotions had veered wildly between righteous indignation and a gnawing worry that I had been too hasty, too proud and too presumptuous. Every night when I closed my eyes I saw her face. Her eyes wide and shocked, her mouth open to explain and the door closing. It almost made me want to apologize until I remembered
him
standing at the front desk tucking a loose curl back from her face. I remembered him calling her smugly from the beach. What had he said? That their wine was getting warm? If that doesn’t sound like a date I didn’t know what did.

I found myself pulling into Lily’s driveway next to Joan’s car already loaded with suitcases.
I’m being a helpful neighbor,
I told myself.
This has nothing to do with Liv.
Who was I kidding?

Joan answered the front door with a harried expression on her face.

“Oh Landon, I was hoping you were Liv.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that so I quickly changed the topic. “I just stopped by to make sure Lily was getting out ok after the surgery.”

“Oh yes, very sweet of you,” Joan said her face still distracted. “She’s riding with me up to Miami.”

“Do you need help getting her luggage or her into the car? You two should have left an hour ago.”

“No, no we can manage. I wanted to leave earlier but I’ve been hoping Liv would show up.”

I couldn’t avoid the elephant in the room any longer. “What harebrained scheme has she gotten herself into now?”

“She’s still trying to storm proof The Sea Watch.”

“By herself?” The sheer insanity of it stunned me. “She’ll never finish!”

“The staff was helping her. I don’t know how much they got done before they left.” She paused shifting from one foot to the other. “Landon…”

Oh no.
Was there any chance I could live the rest of my life in peace without getting pulled into the Campbell family drama? Somehow I doubted it.

“
Joan,
I have to get my own house ready before I leave.”

“I know but is there any way you can check on her real quick? It’s too late already; she just needs to leave. We’ll clean up the damage after the storm.”

I groaned inwardly but agreed. There was no way I could say no to Joan and it was the right thing to do. No matter how conflicted I felt about Liv personally I would never forgive myself if she got hurt.

“You’ll make sure she leaves?” Joan asked beaming from ear to ear.

“Even if I have to drag her out by her hair.”

I hurried to pick up the sandbags and dropped them off at my house planning to place them later before driving over to The Sea Watch. A few lights were twinkling inside against the preternaturally early gloom. To the south a massive bank of black clouds was gathering on the horizon. Lindy was on her way and Liv and I needed to be at least as far as Key Largo when she arrived.

The main doors were still unlocked. I pushed them open into the silent lobby.

“Liv?” I called out hearing my own voice echo back to me. “Liv?” Only silence answered.

Outside the wind was picking up speed. I could hear it howling and blustering through the rattling palms. The meteorologists had predicted the storm would make landfall at eleven o’clock at night but from the sound of it she was racing towards Tamarind Key faster than they had expected. Even if Liv and I left now we might just find ourselves trapped on US 1 in a car when she hit—an even more dangerous prospect than weathering it out in The Sea Watch.

With dread twisting through my stomach I ran down hall after hall calling for Liv but there was no answer. Had she left already? Was I chasing a ghost while she was cruising to safety? The Sea Watch seemed larger than she ever had before as I searched. Every door seemed to open on five other doors that she could be behind.

Distantly the clinking of a hammer sounded. I stood totally still trying to hear which direction it was coming from but the wind caught the sound and danced it around the porticos and through the tiles. By the time it reached my ears it was distorted and without a source. Still, if the wind was responsible that would mean she must be outside somewhere.

I ran back into the lobby and through the front doors. The minute I stepped outside I realized how much trouble we were in. Before, the wind had been gusting and prankish. Now, it was a steady roar I had to fight against for every step. While I had been inside it had started to rain huge steady droplets that were picked up by the wind and lashed against my bare skin. In an instant I was shivering cold. The storm had come.

Chapter Twenty

Olivia

Just one more board and then I absolutely have to leave.
I kept telling myself that but one by one I found myself hauling the plywood and climbing the ladder again and again. Slowly The Sea Watch took on the blind look of an old woman with blue glaucous eyes as her windows were shuttered against the approaching storm.

As I worked I could feel the wind picking up and hear the roar of the surf down on the beach. The few times I stopped to look the normally turquoise water had turned grey and breakers sent off huge plumes of spray as the broke against the shore. Lindy was coming faster than anyone expected.

I grabbed the last piece of wood I intended to put up that night and started climbing the ladder. The Sea Watch would be protected on her most vulnerable sides and for the rest the grand old lady was going to have to protect herself.

The board was to cover one of The Sea Watch’s many clerestory windows. It was long and wide and as I struggled up the ladder I realized it acted as a perfect sail. The wind kept catching it as it gusted and nearly tore it from my hands.

Just one more step. Then one more step.
I continued my climb. Once this was done I would hit the road and not come back until I was assured there was running water and electricity in Tamarind Key. Tonight had been a test of wills: me against the storm. I was walking away shivering, miserable and looking like a drowned rat but ultimately victorious. That is until the last freakishly strong gust of wind caught the board and tore it from my hands. I fought against it for too long as the plywood left long splinters gouged into my palms. When I finally realized it was a losing battle and released my grip it was too late and I was falling.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.
I had hoped to have better last words than that as my feet stuttered on the steps of the ladder and my arms wind milled helplessly. For one brief moment I thought I could regain my balance until that wind gusted again and I was lost. My stomach turned flip flops in my chest and my legs pistoned out desperately trying to find their way beneath the heft of my plummeting body but it wasn’t any use. I fell gracelessly and dangerously right into Landon Fitzpatrick’s arms.

I’d like to say that it was a fairy tale moment; that he scooped me from the jaws of death and pulled me into his warm embrace. Reality was not a fairy tale. Instead I ended up landing sprawled across him on the sand as the force of my fall took him down with me.

“Ow,” he managed to mumble from somewhere beneath me.

“Ow,” I agreed.

Before we could have a more coherent conversation he swept me up into his arms and ran into the sheltering sanctuary of The Sea Watch. I could feel the heat of his skin through his soaked tee shirt. There was nothing I wanted to do more than snuggle up against it while he murmured sweet apologies into my ears.

“Liv?” He asked.

“Yes?” I answered in my best breathy whisper.

“Are you out of your God damned mind?”

So much for sweet apologies.

He deposited me on the sofa in the lobby before heading to the storage room where we had stored anything loose on the patios that could be blown about in hurricane force winds. When he emerged, he had a small fire pit in one hand and a stack of drift wood in the other.

Quickly he set to work pulling the fire pit as close to me as he dared and stacking the wood with practiced ease.

“There’s no time,” I managed to stutter through my chattering teeth. “We have to leave before the storm comes.”

“It’s too late.” His voice was tense and uninflected. “The storm is already here. If we leave now we’ll just get caught on the roads. Our best chance is to ride it out here as long as we can and if things get bad head to higher ground.”

I searched my memories for one of an incline or a slight rise in elevation on Tamarind Key but I couldn’t produce a single one.

“Where’s higher ground?”

I didn’t like the way Landon’s jaw set and he refused to answer my question.

“This is ridiculous.” I rolled off the couch and almost made it to my feet. “Nana is going to be waiting for me in Miami. This is just the beginning. Things won’t get that bad that fast.”

Landon helped me to my feet and then roughly pushed me back onto the sofa.

“Can you stop being insufferably naïve for once? The edges of a hurricane are often the worst. If you leave now you’re going to get washed away on one of the hundreds of bridges between here and Key Largo. Now sit down and be quiet.” He slumped back into the chair looking murderous. “Why did you even stay this long? It’s just a building.”

My temper flared instantly. I could take being pushed around and insulted but no one—and I mean no one—insulted my girl.

“It’s not just a building! It’s my home!” I was practically screaming. “It’s the only place I’ve got in this world that’s mine. It’s what keeps me going. You think this was my dream? No! My dream was to be married with a baby on the way living in the suburbs but my dream turned to
shit.
So I found a new one, even better than the last, and if you think I’m going to leave her behind you’re mistaken!” Somehow we had both gotten to our feet and were now facing off.

“Sounds like you could have had your dream the last time I spoke to you.” He was close. Dizzingly close but his face was a mask of rage. His mouth set in a snarl; his eyes as cold and stormy as the clouds above us.

“Don’t give me that bullshit.” My voice was cold and distant; a stranger’s voice. “You rejected me that day on the beach. You went on a date with that reporter.
And…and!
When Chris came here trying to woo me back I turned him down. You questioned where my mind was? Well, it’s been here this whole damned time.”

“You turned him down?”

“Of course I turned him down!” I was worked into a lather. I couldn’t even think how ridiculous I looked soaked to the skin shivering and yelling in Landon’s face. “I don’t give a shit about him anymore. He’s dead to me! You were the one I’ve been thinking about…”

There it was: the humiliating truth laid bare. My own words hung in the air between us. He was the one I had been thinking about. The one I wanted. I could still remember when we first met, how he drove me stark raving mad. How every time we were around each other we turned into petulant teenagers constantly needling each other. I don’t know how it changed or when but Landon had wriggled his way into my heart.

I forced myself to look up at him. My knees were shaking and my heart pounding. He was staring down at me with an unreadable expression on his face. His grey eyes were as dark as the surf crashing outside. The silence was palpable. Awkward and heavy it begged to be filled.

“What I meant was…”

Before I could finish my sentence his lips were on mine rough and claiming. His fingers were twining through the wet strands of my hair; his nails grazed my scalp as he pulled me against him. His muscles were hard and tight, coiled strength against my body. The heat of him seared through my wet clothes.

I kissed him back with a hunger and need I had never felt before. I could taste him on my lips as wave after wave of sensation swept through me. Relief, joy, confusion and fear.

“Landon, wait. Wait.” I took a step back struggling to catch my breath. I had never been kissed like that before in my life. It felt like electricity was coursing through my body. Silvery shocks surged down my spine as his hands closed around my waist again.

“No more waiting, Liv. We’ve waited too long already.”

“What if this all blows up in our faces?”

“What do you mean?”

God it was hard to think when his fingers were dancing along the hem of my shirt peeling the soaking fabric away from my slick skin.

“I’m snippy and pushy. You’re stubborn and think the worst of people.”

“Thank you,” he said as he leaned forward to nibble the wet skin of my neck. A small gasp I couldn’t contain escaped my lips.

“I mean it. These past few weeks have
sucked.
I don’t want to go through that again. If sex complicates things…”

Landon took a step back and stared at me with confusion clear in his eyes.

“Is this just sex to you?”

“No, I mean…if it is to you…” I was fumbling and stuttering trying to figure out what this meant to him before putting my own heart on the line. He shocked me when he laughed. A deep, happy rolling laugh that made my stomach turn slow flip flops.

“And we find ourselves here again. Why is it always this way between us? Both too proud and too afraid of being hurt to say what we’ve been thinking this whole time. Well, I’m going to be the bigger man.”

I shot him a death glare.

“Olivia Campbell,” he continued taking my hands in his. “You have driven me crazy from the moment I met you. I’ve never met anyone who has simultaneously made me want to strangle them and kiss them until you. Before I met you I had a steady, good life and you came into it like a whirlwind. Nothing will ever be the same and I don’t want it to be. I want to spend the rest of my life arguing with you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. He had put into words exactly how I felt about him, that maddening combination of frustration and desire that had been burning through me from the first time he snapped at me.

“We’re a disaster.”

He moved closer again and his thumb brushed softly against the line of my jaw until a piece of debris blowing in the storm crashed against one of the boarded up windows making us both jump.

“Then there’s no better time than now. We have a disaster outside and one inside. Besides,” he added pulling me back into his arms. I curled up against the hardness of his body. “If the storm kills us both I’d rather die a happy man.”

I reached up and pulled his face closer. His lips brushed softly against my own. It was just the lightest touch of skin on skin but it seared through me like a raging wildfire. The world around me disappeared. The wind howling, the creaking of the boards, the screaming of the nails as they barely held against the tempest were as distant as the whisper of the surf on a calm day.

He pulled me closer deepening the kiss. My mouth opened beneath his and he moaned softly sending a shiver down my spine.

“I can’t wait anymore,” I gasped as his lips travelled down my neck.

He reacted instantly reaching down and peeling my wet shirt over my head. The storm was outside but all the electricity was crackling between us. My heart was pounding in my chest as I pulled his body tight against mine desperately needing the touch of his skin against mine. Instead I felt the cold cling of his soaking t-shirt.

“You know what I’ve wanted to tell you since we first met?” I whispered in his ear.

“What?” His fingers unclasped my bra with an easy grace.

“You always wear too many clothes.”

He laughed softly pulling back and tugging his shirt up over his head. There it was again, the view I remembered so well from the beach. Each muscle so clearly defined beneath the golden glow of his tan skin. I ran my hands across his stomach feeling like a hot stone was resting low in my belly.

His shorts followed his shirt to the floor and he stood before me in all his glory looking like an ancient marble statue of a god come to life.

“That’s just not even fair,” I said as my eyes raked over him taking in every perfect inch.

“Now it’s your turn.” His voice was rough with desire and the sound of it made my knees weak.

I slid my clothes off one article at a time feeling the heat of Landon’s eyes on my bare skin. As I shimmied my jeans down over my hips I heard him inhale sharply. My need for him was mirrored in his eyes. I had never felt sexier in my life.

“My God Olivia, you’re beautiful.” He closed the distance between us sweeping me off my feet and laying me softly on the rug. I was desperately grateful. I didn’t think my knees could support me for much longer.

He lowered himself on top of me and I squirmed against him eager to feel the hardness of him between my legs. I should have been cold and shivering. I was soaked to the bone and the air temperature had dropped precipitously with the storm. But between us the air was an inferno. My skin felt parched and seared but desperate for more when suddenly he pulled away.