The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) (5 page)

They rounded the corner of the aisle, which gave them a straight shot to the pharmacy counter, where a couple was arguing with the pharmacist.

“I think someone else was using my driver’s license.”

“I don’t think so, ma’am.”

“God, don’t call me ma’am. I’m only thirty-one.”

Nina tugged on his sleeve to try to escape her stepsister’s notice, but Lou caught the movement and turned.

“Nina, can you help me out?”

“Ma’am... Miss, you can’t have someone buy the antihistamine for you after just trying to buy it yourself.”

Lou cussed at the pharmacist and slapped the counter. “Hick town.”

“C’mon, babe. Let’s go back to the bar.” Kip, looking more beat-up than before, wrapped an arm around Lou’s waist.

“Hold on.” She shrugged him off. “What are you doing back in town, Nina? I thought you were headed to Moonstones.”

“Needed a few things.” Nina tipped her chin toward the pharmacist, who was hastily rolling down his window.

“Why are you trying to buy antihistamines?”

“You know, runny nose.” Lou pinched the bridge of her nose and sniffed.

“Antihistamines are for stuffed-up noses.”

Lou plucked a tube of lip balm from a hook and put it in her pocket. “You have any room at the inn?”

“What?” Nina visibly recoiled.

“At Moonstones? Any vacancies for me and Kip to crash?”

“I...I thought you were staying here in town.”

“We are, but we’re running out of cash.”

Jase reached his arm behind Nina and gave her hip a pinch. Surely, she could say no to her stepsister. The woman tried to drown her just this afternoon.

“I can’t help you, Lou.”

“Of course not. You got what was rightfully mine, and now you can’t even spare a room for me.”

“Jase and I were expecting to be alone.”

His heart slammed against his chest. What was she playing at?

Lou narrowed her reddened eyes. “You and your handyman?”

Nina tossed back her shoulder-length hair. “I just didn’t want to get you all wound up, Lou, but I’m getting sick of tiptoeing around you.”

“What does that mean?” Lou’s voice had taken on a dangerous edge, and Jase inched closer to Nina.

“Jase isn’t my handyman. He’s my fiancé.”

Chapter Six

Nina wrapped her arm around Jase and gave him a squeeze. It was what she’d been wanting to do ever since he pulled her from the water anyway. Now she had an excuse.

Kip had dropped the box of condoms he’d been fidgeting with, and Lou gave it a kick with the toe of her shoe.

Nina’s muscles went rigid, bracing for the explosion.

Lou’s trembling lips stretched into a line and then turned up at one corner. “I’m not as surprised as you might think.”

Not as surprised as Jase anyway, who hadn’t uttered a sound since her announcement of their impending nuptials.

“And why is that, Lou?”

“I’d heard you were engaged, but that was through a friend of an acquaintance’s second cousin or something like that, so I didn’t know how true it was.”

Lou had heard about Simon? Nina squared her shoulders. “Well, it’s true, and we want to be alone, so you’ll have to tough it out at your motel.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything more of you, sis.”

A low sound rumbled in Jase’s throat and he pulled her close. “Now that I’m going to be part of the family, I can speak my mind. You need to stop ragging on Nina and get your life together.”

“Really.” Lou crossed her arms and her light-colored eyes glittered.

Even though Lou self-medicated with drugs and booze, those substances did nothing to calm her down. But Nina had Jase to protect her until Lou left the island. She hoped he understood the lie. He seemed to be taking to it like a natural.

“And we don’t want to see any more damaged boats or anything like it.”

Lou spun around and grabbed Kip by the arm. “Whatever. You two deserve each other, but just beware, Jase. Nina will use you and then chew you up and spit you out.”

“Folks.” The clerk was standing at the end of the aisle, her eyes wide. “We’re closed.”

Jase waved his toothpaste in the air. “I still need to buy my toothpaste.”

“Hurry it up, and you two—” she wagged a finger between Lou and Kip “—you need to leave.”

They left without a backward glance, Kip leaning heavily on Lou.

Aware of the cashier glancing from her face to Jase’s, Nina kept her mouth shut as Jase paid for his toothpaste and they walked out of the store.

Not until they climbed into the truck and Nina cranked on the engine did Jase whistle through his teeth.

“Sorry, sorry.” She put her hand on his thigh. “It wasn’t just a way to get her to stop trying to wiggle into Moonstones—it was a message to her that I wasn’t alone. I hope you don’t mind too much. If she follows her usual pattern, she’ll throw a few temper tantrums and then leave the island when she doesn’t get her way, and hopefully take that creepy Kip with her.”

“I’m okay with it just as long as you don’t start shopping for rings.”

The hand on his thigh curled into a fist and she punched him. “Don’t worry.”

After they returned to the B and B and she’d shown him to the one decent room and bathroom, she lay on top of her covers in a pair of flannel pj’s, rubbing her belly.

The stress of seeing Lou today couldn’t be good for the baby.

Had her stepsister been watching and waiting for her to return to Break Island? Did she have spies here reporting to her?

She rolled to her left side and buried her face in the pillow. Now she sounded as paranoid as Lou.

At least seeing her stepsister today convinced her that the hole in the boat was not the work of Simon. And why would it be? What did Simon have to gain from giving her a scare?

She’d escaped from LA to Break Island for relaxation and simplicity, but her problems had not only followed her, they’d multiplied.

Now she didn’t have to face them alone. She had Jase Buckley on her side.

She tucked her hand beneath her cheek. She didn’t even know the man. Why did he make her feel so safe? The boat rescue was only part of it. He reminded her of Simon—before the PTSD had taken control of Simon’s mind—steady, strong, loyal, lethal.

Lethal? Where had that come from?

Simon had always insisted he held a boring government job developing security systems, but she’d never believed him because he traveled a lot and never discussed his work or coworkers—except that one she met, Max Duvall, who’d been as mysterious as Simon. Maybe she’d let her imagination carry her away, but she’d had a hard time believing Simon was a pencil-pushing civil servant.

Maybe if he had been, the PTSD wouldn’t have destroyed him.

And Jase? Was he more than he appeared to be?

Right now he was her pretend-fiancé—and that was good enough. But shouldn’t even a pretend-fiancé know that his pretend-fiancée was pregnant?

* * *

S
HE
WOKE
UP
the next morning to the sound of a saw. She shoved her feet into a pair of fuzzy slippers and scuffed across the floor to the front rooms. She peeked through the curtains at Jase sawing wood, the old fence torn down and lying in a heap.

He had shed his flannel, and his muscles bunched and flexed beneath his white T-shirt as he worked. As if sensing her scrutiny, he looked up from the fence.

No good pretending she hadn’t been staring. She raised her hand and he waved back.

Tucking her robe around her body, she opened the front door and stepped onto the porch. “How long have you been at it?”

“About an hour. Did I wake you?”

“No. You’ve made a lot of progress. Do you want some breakfast?”

“Isn’t this a bed-and-breakfast?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’d like some breakfast.”

She put a hand on her hip. “It’s not like you’re a regular guest.”

“That’s right. I’m your fiancé.” He picked up his saw and started attacking the next piece of wood.

She let the door slam behind her as she stepped back into the house. Brushing her hands together, she made a beeline for the kitchen. Her mom had been a great cook, but she hadn’t inherited that cooking gene. If she ever got this place back on its feet, she planned to hire a chef to cook the meals for the guests.

But she had a guest now, and he had to be hungry after working for an hour on the fence.

She rustled up enough ingredients for an omelet and made some toast to go with it. She put the kettle on for tea but Jase had mentioned relying on a cup of coffee to get him going in the morning. She hadn’t drunk much coffee even when she wasn’t pregnant and she didn’t want to pump the baby full of caffeine, so she didn’t even have any instant coffee to offer him.

She poked her head out the front door. “I don’t have any coffee. I can run into town and get you a cup at Logan’s Coffee.”

He reached for the top of a post and held up a white cup with a sleeve wrapped around it. “Beat you to it. I told you I needed a shot of caffeine in the morning to give me a jump start. Do you think I could’ve accomplished all this without it?”

“Impressive. Are you ready for breakfast?”

“You don’t have to call me twice.” Holding his cup in one hand, he stepped over a pile of debris and met her on the porch.

“Let me wash my hands and I’ll be right with you.”

She set the table as the water ran in the bathroom and then Jase emerged, buttoning up a different flannel from the one he wore yesterday.

She circled a finger in front of him. “Do you think a flannel shirt is the state shirt of Washington or something?”

He laughed and tugged on the collar. “If it is, it’s for a good reason. It’s chilly up here, and I have a feeling it’s going to get worse with that storm on the way.”

“It’s supposed to be a monster.” She sat down and broke off a corner of toast. She’d passed the stage in her pregnancy for queasiness, but hadn’t yet broken the habit of nibbling on dry toast.

“Where are you from, Jase? I detect a little bit of a New England accent.”

“Really?” He selected a piece of toast from the plate as if he was picking out a new car. Then he spread a pat of butter across the surface in slow motion.

“Yeah, really. Are you from the Northeast?”

He shrugged. “Connecticut.”

“And what did you do in Connecticut before your stint as a marine?

“I taught high school history for a year before enlisting and went back to that when I got out before I decided I needed to write down my experiences.”

“Were they bad?”

“What? Who?” He crunched into the toast.

“Your experiences.” She swirled the tea bag in the hot water, watching the ripples spread across the surface. “Did you have bad experiences during the war?”

“It was war, but it wasn’t all bad and my book is mostly about that part—the not-bad part.” He took a pull from his coffee cup. “How about your...stepfather? Did he talk about it much?”

“He was in Vietnam. I think it affected him deeply. He suffered from depression.”

“Is that why he...?”

“Killed himself?” She took a quick slurp of tea, burning her tongue in the process. “I’m sure that contributed to it. My mom was his lifeline, so when he lost her he felt as if he’d lost everything, even his will to live.”

He shook his head. “That’s either a great love, or that’s obsession.”

“They are different, aren’t they?”

“Definitely.” He picked a mushroom out of his omelet and pushed it to the side of his plate. “Have you ever had either one?”

A smile curved her lip as she resisted laying a hand on her tummy. “Yeah. How about you?”

His brown eyes darkened to black as he stared past her. “I thought I did.”

“I’ve been there, too.” She sighed and picked up her fork, aiming it at his plate. “You don’t like mushrooms?”

“No.”

“Sorry. I should’ve asked.”

He brushed off her apology with a wave of his fork. “No problem. This is a good omelet with all the other stuff in it.”

“What’s up after the fence?”

“Thought I’d start clearing some of the weeds in the front and maybe do some repairs on that deck.”

“I’ve got a guy lined up for the gardening, but I’d love to have that deck back online. My parents loved sitting out there in front of a fire and watching the bay.”

“I can see why. It’s a great spot.” He shook his empty coffee cup. “Do you think our ruse was enough to get you off Lou’s radar for now?”

“Maybe. Again, I apologize for the drastic measures. I just wanted to let her know that I wasn’t alone, that I had someone...on my side.”

“I am on your side, Nina.”

“Why, Jase?” She planted her elbows on the table and rested her chin on her folded hands. “Why have you been so helpful to a total stranger?”

He cocked his head. “I think it’s just the circumstances. I was there when your boat sprang a leak, and I was there again when you ran into your evil stepsister and her creepy companion. I’m not here completely out of the goodness of my heart. This is the perfect place for me to set up shop for a little while.”

“Are you saying if I didn’t have this B and B, you’d have let me sink in the bay?”

“I wouldn’t have let anyone sink in that bay—including Lou and Kip.”

“I’m just teasing. You have some natural protective instincts, just like...”

“Your stepfather?”

Her stepfather’s only protective instincts had been toward his wife, but Simon had wanted to save everyone. Until he couldn’t save himself.

“Yeah, my stepfather was pretty protective.”

“Maybe it’s a military thing.”

“Yeah, a military thing.”

“Are you going to be working around the B and B, or do you have other plans for the day?”

“I’d like to head across the bay today like I was trying to do yesterday, to get some supplies.”

“Are you going to take the ferry?”

“I am.”

“Are you going to be able to haul back everything that you need?”

“Not as much as I could with a boat, but I’ll manage. The mainland provides carts for the islanders, especially now with the storm on its way.”

“Do you want me to come along?”

“When do you write?”

A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I’ll do some writing tonight.”

“I can go it alone.” She pushed back from the table and grabbed their empty plates. “You have your work cut out for you here.”

“Do you need a ride to the ferry dock?”

“I was just going to drive and park, unless you think you need the truck for something.”

“I might need it, if that’s okay.”

“Sure, I’m sorry I didn’t think of it.”

“That’s not why I offered to drive you.” He plucked the keys from the hook on the cabinet. “Never mind. It’s a good enough reason.”

There it was again. He’d been looking out for her. She might as well accept it and go with the flow.

When Jase pulled up in front of the dock, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. “You could use a few things for the yard unless your gardener had it covered, that is, if you have room in your cart.”

She took the slip of paper from his fingers and dropped it into her purse. “I’m sure Brian’s going to need supplies and tools for the yard. He’s not really a gardener, just a dropout from U-dub, and there will be plenty of room on the cart. People do this all the time. Not everyone has a boat, believe it or not.”

“I’d hate to be stuck on an island and dependent on the ferry to get off and on.”

“Lots of people do it, but Mom and Dad always had a boat.” She popped the door handle before Jase had a chance to hop out and get her door. He’d really go overboard if he knew she was pregnant.

Not that she minded his attentions, but if she planned to embark on single motherhood, she’d better get used to managing on her own.

He sat in the idling truck until she boarded the ferry and turned to wave. As the ferry chugged across the bay, she kept her eyes on the truck until it turned into a toy.

He’d watched her across the water, and she’d watched him. What was this connection they had? She didn’t know whether to feel relieved or nervous that it didn’t seem to be all one-sided.

The ferry cut through the bay, heading toward Newport. It was the closest thing Break Island had to a big city. It did have a big-box store, and that’s all she needed for now.

As she walked down the gangplank, her tennis shoes squeaking on the metal, she nodded to a couple of Break Island locals waiting in line for the ferry back.