The Way Back (8 page)

That was her past and she didn’t want to think about it. Somewhere was her future and she didn’t want to think about that, either. Too scary. Too uncertain. For now, there was only here.

With her car and her apartment. Her friends and her Jamie.

A sign on the side of the road caught her attention and she pulled over. She got out of the car and didn’t hesitate even though Jamie had told her otherwise. She knocked on Tom’s door then let herself inside.

“Hello?”

It seemed odd to her the man would live in a place where the door was always open to strangers. Although it wasn’t like anyone on the island was actually a stranger. Still, during the summer season some off-islanders would stay in the cabins to fish and camp. She would tell him he should put a bell out front so people who needed him could ring first instead of walking into his home.

“In here.”

The place smelled like animals. A mix of dog and cat and other things she didn’t want to name. She could hear the woofs and meows chiming in from what had once been a dining room and was now a staging area for healing animals.

“Look, I’ve got my hands full. If you want to poke your head around the door—”

She did just that. A little hesitantly as she wasn’t sure if she would find Tom elbow deep into some animal. Instead he was wrestling with what looked to be one pissed off kitten.

“Zhanna.” She could hear the surprise in his voice and wondered why. After all she liked animals. It shouldn’t be strange she might come to see them.

What she didn’t like were doctors. Although he was a pet doctor, he landed on her list, too. He was a man who delivered sad news. Who made death happen. When he first started coming into the diner she would turn away from him and make Adel serve him. She didn’t want to make small talk with a doctor. She didn’t want to know anything about him that might make her rethink including him on her list. She didn’t want to know how Mary, who owned the tackle shop, was doing after her precious kitten Teddy Bear had been put to sleep.

After weeks of his teasing her and hounding her for information on the daily specials and always sitting where Zhanna was forced to acknowledge him, however, he eventually wore her down. Tom was a hard man to hate. Still, she didn’t like what he did for a living. She liked it even less today.

Maybe that’s why it was a surprise to him she should be here.

“Come in. Maybe you could give me a hand. I gave Emily the afternoon off and I forgot what a handful Trixie can be. I need to give her a shot. Can you—”

Moving forward Zhanna took the little hissing bundle in her hands. Judging by Trixie’s bandaged leg she’d gone toe to toe with some other predator and lost. Maybe she didn’t realize she was small and defenseless. Silly kitten.

“There you go,” Tom crooned. “Lean a little farther into me.”

Zhanna wasn’t sure who Tom was using his soothing voice on, her or the cat. She was leaning over the stainless steel examination table as far as she could. Meanwhile Trixie was butting her head against Zhanna in an effort to communicate how unhappy she was about her treatment.

“One second,” Tom took a handful of fur in the back of her neck and slid the needle inside while pressing down on the plunger.

Trixie jerked but other than that held steady.

“All done. Give her to me. I’ll put her back in her cage. Then we can talk about why you stopped by.”

Zhanna handed over the cat somewhat reluctantly. The feeling of all the warm fuzzy fur pressed up against her chest had been nice.

This she thought was not a good sign. It meant she might be lonelier than she thought she was.

Following him to the other side of the house where the sounds of all the animals in residence could be heard, Zhanna was reminded of how tall Tom was. Taller than her, which at 5’10 was not always the case for most men. He wasn’t a handsome man. His face was too long and his chin was too pointy. But he had a way about him that put people at ease.

Since he was often the bearer of bad news, Zhanna figured his demeanor made sense. You didn’t want some uptight tense person relaying the news your dear and loyal friend of so many years was about to be taken from you.

Lifting Trixie into one of the second-story cages, Tom gave her a gentle pat on the head and then closed the cage.

There were four animals in residence. One tiny dog with a funny name for its breed, and three ailing cats including Trixie. A fairly robust business for an island of not that many people. Then again islanders by nature tended to be loners. And loners loved their animals.

“So what brings you here?”

There was a look in his eye, Zhanna thought. Like he was excited by the prospect of something. She couldn’t imagine what it might be.

“You killed Shep.”

He winced and she admitted she could have phrased it better. She blamed it on her English, which could be perfect—when it suited her.

“I’m thinking Jamie would like a new dog.”

Tom put his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “Did you talk to Jamie about that?”

Zhanna didn’t want to lie. She also didn’t want to tell him the truth. “Can’t I see the new dogs? I won’t make any decisions for him.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll walk you out to the kennel.” Tom headed for the rear of the house and out the door. In the backyard there was a separate structure, which had probably been a garage but that he used as a kennel. Half the small building was for the cats, the other was for the dogs. He also had a gated piece of land beyond for the dogs to have play time. She could see the yard was littered with chew toys and wondered how much of the money he earned went toward the animals in his care rather than into his own pocket.

“I don’t really have many now,” Tom said as he led Zhanna to where she could see two dogs currently napping in the sun. “We don’t get a lot of strays here like they do on the mainland. All I have are two puppies from Jerry’s litter nobody adopted. I was considering bringing them to a shelter on the mainland where they might have a better chance. They’re close to a year now and once they lose the cute puppy look, it’s a harder sell. But they’re good dogs. Real good.”

Zhanna saw the dogs wrapped around each other, their snouts in the other’s chest, and she ached a bit.

“They’re a mix of Lab and Border Collie so they need space to run. Might be a good fit for Jamie if he’s ready.”

“Why do you say
ready
like that? People are always ready for a new friend in their life.”

She could feel Tom looking at her fairly intently. “Are they? I’ve been trying to make friends with you for almost a year now. But you haven’t seemed ready to me.”

She scuffed her feet in the dirt. Over her shoulder she could see another structure, short and square with a chain-linked fence around it, too. The crematorium, she knew. The place where Shep had been destroyed.

And Jamie’s heart with him.

“I don’t like doctors,” Zhanna mumbled.

“Good. Neither do I.”

She glared at him. “I don’t like pet doctors, either.”

“Oh. Thank goodness it’s the job. I figured it was because I always smell like someone’s shaggy mutt.”

Zhanna sniffed. He did smell a little wild. Nothing cultured or sophisticated about Tom.

“Anyway, I think a new dog will help Jamie.”

“Jamie had Shep for a lot of years. Sometimes you want to take some space to grieve. Your heart is in the right place, though. Maybe in a couple of weeks or months Jamie will change his mind.” He paused then turned to her. “Can I ask you a pretty blunt question?”

“Of course. I have no problem with blunt. It’s easier than subterfuge.”

He nodded as if he approved. “Okay. What is the deal between you and Jamie? I get you are friends. But are you more than friends?”

Instantly she felt the muscles in her back tense. “Why are you asking?”

“Well, if you can get over the fact that I’m a pet doctor, maybe I could take you out to dinner sometime. Some place nice on the mainland.”

She heard the words, saw the excitement in his eyes that had been there when he’d first realized who had walked through his door and did what any sane woman who had just been asked out on a date by a pet doctor would do.

She mumbled something half in Russian about being late for work and then bolted.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“A
ND
IN
OTHER
breaking news, plans are being made to send a rescue shuttle to the now critically ailing space station. The international community responsible for the station is seeking advice from NASA, the only organization to have attempted a mission of this nature before. Many remember Colonel Jamison Hunter’s daring rescue of the fourteen men and women aboard the space station almost ten years ago.”

A picture flashed on the television screen a couple of days later and Gabby, who was in the process of tying her running shoes, sat on the edge of the bed to watch.

That was the picture all right. The one of Jamison in his Air Force uniform staring intently out at the world. Not a hint of a smile. So serious, so stalwart. Of course he rescued all those people. Gabby had fallen in love with that picture. With the
idea
of him.

Then another picture flashed on the screen.

“Of course most also remember Hunter’s fall from grace two years later when he was caught by his wife while at a motel with another woman.”

Gabby remembered that picture, too. It was taken by a fan, of all people. A young kid who had recognized Jamie and wanted a shot of him. Instead, the guy got a picture of Jamie’s horrified wife and Jamie coming out of a motel room, while another woman in a precarious state of dress looked on from inside.

It didn’t occur to the boy why Jamison Hunter might be found in a motel room off the highway outside of Cape Canaveral. After all, he was happy to see his favorite hero.

It wasn’t until his father realized the potential money to be made from the picture that the situation all started to snowball. Ending only when a hero had been brought to his knees.

Gabby thought of the broadcast she’d just watched. A report about a failing space station, lives at risk, a rescue mission being formulated all ending with
let’s not forget Jamie was a cheater.

She imagined the second picture would dog him for the rest of his days. Always the story of his heroism to be followed by the story of his downfall—the two permanently linked in the public’s mind. It rubbed her the wrong way. Like a piece of sand in her shoe. Annoying, but not really worth the effort of trying to remove it.

Finishing with her shoes she bounced down the stairs of the B and B and stopped when she saw Susan cleaning the windows of the front door. Gabby had managed to avoid the woman since Jamie had muscled her back inside the place. She’d bought a box of Pop Tarts from the grocery store and had been eating those for breakfast. Not exactly the well-balanced food someone trying to start a running regime and get into shape should be consuming, but it was uncomfortable to have a woman who didn’t particularly want you in her establishment serving your food.

Of course that wasn’t stopping Gabby from frequenting Adel’s. She knew it pissed Zhanna off to serve her dinner, but Gabby was taking a perverse thrill in it. It was like poking a tiger. Or perhaps a Russian bear. She had a feeling one of these days her grilled chicken salad with dressing on the side was going to end up on her head, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

Facing the reality that if she was going to leave through the front door, she was going to have to engage the hotelier, Gabby lifted her chin and threw back her shoulders.

“Morning, Susan. Fine day, isn’t it?”

A muttered humph and more squirts from the glass cleaner bottle were the only response.

“I’m going to meet Jamie for a run on the beach. Sort of becoming a habit for us.”

This time Susan replied by vigorously wiping what she had recently squirted.

Persistent, Gabby continued. “It’s almost like we’re becoming friends.”

In a flash Susan whirled around with the spray bottle in her hand and aimed it at Gabby. Her finger was pressed against the trigger and ready to fire. Gabby held up her hands in surrender to the woman wielding the window cleaner.

“Don’t you talk about friendship to Jamie with me. I know better. You lied to get close to him and now you’re going to use him for some sleazy tell-all.”

“Susan, I know I lied to you about what I was doing here. But the only reason was because I could tell people were really defensive when it came to Jamie. I needed a place to stay. To work.”

“You’re darn tootin’ we are defensive. We know who Jamie is. We’re his friends. And we know what he went through all those years ago. I don’t want to see that happen to him again.”

Gabby dropped her hands realizing the woman didn’t have it in her to shoot. “That’s my point. You all know him and seem to have his back. Which makes me think there is more to the man than the cheating adulterous scumbag he’s been painted to be.”

Susan’s eyes narrowed and Gabby could see she had said the wrong thing. She hadn’t meant to. She just wanted to get out of the house and go for a run with Jamie. So maybe she could learn about him what these other people had learned and know him the way the world didn’t.

Solely for the purpose of convincing him to let her write his story. Only for that. There was no personal gain for her. And if she believed that…

“Jamie said I had to let you stay here. And Lord knows I owe him enough favors I’ll do what he asks. But I’m telling you again if you hurt him, you’ll hear about it from me.” Susan made a jabbing motion with the bottle and Gabby backed away as she stormed off abandoning the windows. Knowing nothing she said was going to make a difference, Gabby trotted off to her car on her way to meet Jamie.

* * *

“I’
M
READY
. I
FEEL
like I can run miles today. Maybe even two.”

Jamie shook his head. Newbies. It had been two days since he declared his intentions toward Gabby. Either he didn’t make a compelling case that his seduction methods were near lethal, or she really wasn’t interested and thus unafraid. Because she continued to show up, like clockwork and give it her best effort.

She could hang with him now for almost a mile. When he’d told her she made it a mile yesterday she instantly stopped to give herself a round of applause. Then he asked if she wanted to keep going to which she replied “Hell, no,” and walked down the beach toward her car.

She was obviously a woman who liked to take the time to celebrate the milestones.

Today she was bouncing around with the energy of a younger woman and she did look ready to take on the world. He probably figured the least he could do was explain how not ready she was. He didn’t imagine it would go over very well as a seduction attempt, but at least he would get to do bendy things with her and that was always fun.

“Okay, it’s time to take this seriously.”

She nodded. “Yes, that’s what I’m talking about. I’m ready to go. Let’s go. I feel good. Yesterday one mile, tomorrow a marathon. Who knows what I can do.”

He didn’t snicker. It wasn’t cool and women didn’t like it. “If you’re going to run on a regular basis, you need to learn the basics of stretching. All you do is lift your legs a few times and then jump around. Not that I’m not enjoying the bouncing—it has its advantages in your case—but it’s not exactly doing your muscles any good.”

Gabby waggled her finger at him. “Is that supposed to be a seduction? Because, dude, telling a woman her boobs are bouncing when she’s wearing a sports bra is not exactly going to win you any points.”

“We’ll call today a seduction-free zone.”

“Because I’ve had such a hard time resisting up until now.” She smiled to lessen the blow and he smiled back.

Damn, he was starting to like her. Not good. That’s not what quick flings were about. They were about heat and passion and goodbyes. They weren’t about jokes and fun and teasing.

“Will you listen to me?” He tried to make his tone stern because, joking aside, she really did need to take care of herself or risk injury.

“If you say something worth listening to.”

“You need to stretch. Correctly. I do this up at the house, so you don’t see it. First, you want to focus on your hamstrings.” He indicated the muscle above his knee that ran the length of his thigh to his butt and watched to see if she actually followed the motion all the way up.

She did. He so had her and she didn’t even know it yet. Instruction and seduction in one smooth move.

He stretched his leg in front with his heel up. She copied and he pushed down slightly on her lower back to get her into the correct position.

“Now hold this for a few seconds and breathe.”

“It hurts.” There was a touch of whininess in her voice.

“Because the muscle is loosening.”

He took her through the other leg then they moved on to calf and Achilles stretching. She grumbled but did what he asked and if he touched her more than was necessary to put her body into the correct position, well, all was fair since he’d told her upfront what his intentions were.

Seduction-free zone. As if such a thing existed.

She looked fine in black spandex bending her body in half to reach for her toes. She might think her butt was big or her hips were wide or whatever, but all he thought was
hello.

“Why is Susan so loyal to you? What did you do for her?”

The question took him completely off guard. He was thinking sex and she mentioned Susan. The sweet lady who ran the inn and sex occupied such opposite sides of his brain it jangled him for a moment.

“Ah, Susan.” What could he say? He certainly wasn’t going to reveal any of her secrets—wasn’t his place. But sometimes the best way to make a question go away was to answer it. “She was having some financial issues—the roof was leaking. So I helped her out.”

“Is that what you do here? I mean, for a living. Do you lend people money or something?”

“Stretch the other calf,” he told her and watched her mostly get it right. She was trying to merge yoga or dancing into what was supposed to be a simple stretch.

“So do you?”

“No, my job is not to lend people money. I’m not a bank. Yeah, I had a pretty good income back in the day and I was able to save. And before my reputation went to shit I was doing speaking engagements of up to fifty-thousand dollars a pop. Now I collect a government pension. I don’t need to work. Whatever I do around the island I do to keep me busy and help the locals out.”

“You don’t get bored? You were an astronaut. Going from that to a jack-of-all-trades guy seems like a pretty big step down in the excitement factor.”

“Let’s go,” he said as she shook off the last of her stretches. They started at an easy pace, one catering to her. He wasn’t going to kid himself and say he adjusted his pace for any other reason than to keep her with him longer. He liked the company. Especially now Shep was gone. Even if he wasn’t going to answer half of her questions, he liked the distraction she provided.

In the past few days he’d come to realize he had relied too much on his dog for companionship. Had Gabby not been around to fill the void left by Shep, he couldn’t say how hard he would have taken the loss.

Jamie knew why he’d sentenced himself to life in isolation. He had even convinced himself he preferred it. It wasn’t until Gabby arrived that he suspected he was missing something. He should be annoyed with her, but he was honest enough with himself to acknowledge he needed this.

He needed a kick in the butt. Something to push him out of his daily rut. It had taken years to adjust from being an astronaut to, as Gabby so succinctly put it, a jack-of-all trades. Tough mental conditioning to learn how not to miss flying, adrenaline and, even though he was loath to admit it, the spotlight.

It wasn’t the national spotlight he craved. But the one shone on him by his peers. He respected the intelligence and talents of the elite teams he’d worked with. Their acknowledgement and recognition he’d done something better than so many others did…yeah, he’d liked that.

It was hard to not miss it. But hard was his wheelhouse. It’s where he lived.

“After being an astronaut, anything is a step down. If it wasn’t handyman, it was going to be something else equally as unexciting.”

She snorted, but because she was breathing harder it came out more as a coughing choking sound. “I don’t believe you. You could have stayed with the Air Force, maybe been promoted to general. You could have gone into politics or business. You’re a natural leader. That’s evident about you.”

“Yeah, and now I lead the island.” The words came off his lips and when he heard them he realized it was true. It wasn’t strapping himself to a volatile rocket and shooting into space, but it had its perks.

Like loyalty. Like acceptance. And a sense of community. All qualities he’d had in the world of space exploration.

However, here on the island, the loyalty and acceptance also came with responsibility.

They approached an aging dock. Jamie did the usual scan of the area and frowned when he got the expected result. He jogged toward where the dock extended over some protruding rocks and stopped.

“Oh, thank God we stopped.”

He disregarded his partner’s mumbled prayers and shouted. “Bobby Claymore, you get off that dock right now.”

“Ah, but Mr. Hunter, Mr. Neely says—”

“I don’t care what Ted says. If he’s going to let kids try to lobster off the dock, then he’s going to have to repair it. It’s not safe. Let’s go.
Now.”

The kid scrambled, gathering up his pot and heading for the security of shore.

“Wow,” Gabby said bent in half, trying to restore normal breathing. “That was a total dad voice.”

The flash of pain ripped through him almost stealing his breath.

“Hey, are you okay? I didn’t mean—”

“I’m fine. Just annoyed. I’ve been telling Ted to either restore the dock or tear it down. I would do it myself, but the man is so damn stubborn and it’s his property. I’m sure if he saw me coming with a saw in my hand, he’d have his gun ready. Seventy-five years old and he thinks he can still do everything.”

“See, there it is again.”

Jamie turned toward the beach. He had another few miles to go. She’d gone nearly two today and would probably be proud if he told her. Some last lingering bit of irritation had him holding back, though.