Wild Lover Complete Series (12 page)

             
“Oh dear. Perhaps he’s sunk? Perhaps a wave crashed on his boat? Or maybe a shark…”

             
“Come on, Mom! Next you’ll be saying he was abducted by pirates.”

             
“In Cuba, there are pirates—“

             
“Okay, this isn’t helping.”

             
“Here is my true opinion, Mia. Go to the marina and ask the men there to radio him or whatever they do.”
              “Good idea. I’m going now.”

             
“Tell me what happens! I will say some Hail Mary’s.”

             
Mia said goodbye to her mom and slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops. She drove to the marina as fast as she could without provoking the state troopers that lurked the interstate. She leaned over the steering wheel. The witch’s theme song from the Wizard of Oz, the one that plays whenever the green-faced antagonist appears on her bike or her broom, ran through Mia’s head.

             
She parked the car and trotted into the marina’s office. She looked out the window, in the hope of seeing the Wanderlust, but its slip was empty. She checked her watch. 8pm. It would be dark soon.

             
She dinged the little bell on the front desk. A fat man in a Jimmy Buffet tee shirt emerged from some back room. “Can I help you?”

             
“Yes. Or, I hope so. I’m a friend of Blaine Daniels. The Wanderlust.”

             
“Right.”

             
“He was supposed to be in at five, and I haven’t heard from him.”

             
The fat man nodded. “Another woman called in about thirty minutes ago. Wife of one of his clients. She hadn’t heard anything either.”

             
Mia’s heart sank. “Did you call him on the radio?”

             
The fat man nodded. He didn’t seem particularly concerned. “No answer. I was going to call again in thirty minutes.”
              “Well?” Mia asked.

             
“Well what?”

             
“Has it been thirty minutes?” she wanted to grab the radio herself, but she wouldn’t have the first clue as to how to use it. She wasn’t even sure what it looked like.

             
He looked at his watch and shrugged. “Eh, you’re right. I’ll try again.” He pressed a few buttons on the blinking machine beside the desk.

             
“That’s the radio?” Mia asked. She’d pictured something smaller. More like the CB she’d seen in reruns of the Dukes of Hazzard.
Ten-four, good buddy
, she thought.              

             
“Yeah.” The fat man looked at Mia as if she were two years old. “What did you think it was?”

             
“Just try him, please.”

             
“Wanderlust? Wanderlust, touch base. You read? This is Barlett’s. Looking out for you boys now. Wanderlust?”

             
The man tried a few more times before flipping some switches. “Nothing.”

             
“Oh, my gosh.” Mia said. Maybe her mother was right. Sharks and pirates and rogue waves ran through her mind. “What now?”

             
“Maybe he’s having engine trouble. If he’s that far out, he can get out of radio range.”

             
“How far is out of range?”

             
“Oh, seventy, eighty miles.”

             
“Eighty miles?”

             
“I don’t’ know that Blaine guy that well, but he seems to be a wizard with boats. I wouldn’t worry about it. Why don’t you head home? I’ll keep trying.”

             
Mia shook her head. “No. I’m staying here until you hear something.”

             
“Suit yourself,” said the fat man. He wandered back into his little office.

             
Mia played games on her phone and read the paper for the next four hours. Every so often, the fat man would come out and call the Wanderlust again. Her heart rose in her chest each time as she waited for Blaine’s English accent to come over the wire and tell them he was on his way. Each time, the fat man got dead silence.

             
Finally, around midnight, the fat man was ready to call it a night. “You going home?”

             
Mia shook her head again.

             
The fat man sighed. “Listen, I know you’re worried. Why don’t you stay here? There’s a little portable bed out back. I just live across the way, in the manager’s apartment. You get some rest, and I’ll come back around 5am to check on things, if he’s not back.”

             
Mia thanked the fat man. He showed her to the tiny bed, and pointed out the bathrooms and the water cooler. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t have a toothbrush.”

             
“It’s okay,” said Mia. “I really appreciate you letting me stay. I don’t know how I’m going to sleep…”

             
The fat man left the room and came back with a bottle of pills. Mia raised her eyebrows.

             
The fat man laughed. “Nothing too harsh. Just Benadryl. It might make you sleepy.”

             
“Thanks. I’ll try it.” Mia took two of the pills and drank a glass of water. The fat man said goodnight and turned out the light.

             
Mia lay back on the thin pillow. She closed her eyes and tried to say the Hail Mary’s her mother had taught her. She got through five iterations before she fell asleep.

             
Mia awoke to the fat man shaking her foot. “Miss,” he said. “Wake up.”

             
Mia sat up. She felt groggy, as if she’d consumed a bottle of wine the night before. “Is he back?”

             
The fat man shook his head.

             
“What do we do in the morning?” Mia asked.

             
“It is morning. Well, it’s almost afternoon, really. 10:30.”

             
Mia was suddenly wide awake. She looked at her phone to clarify what the fat man was saying. It was indeed going on noon. Nothing from Blaine.

             
“And he’s still not back?”

             
The fat man shook his head, and to Mia’s terror she saw real worry on his face. “No, he’s not.” Even his tone of voice had changed. “It’s been over twenty-four hours since anyone heard from the Wanderlust. I’ve called in the Coast Guard. They’re sending out search helicopters.”

             
Mia sat in stunned silence on the bed. Blaine was in serious trouble. She wasn’t overreacting. Now, just when she’d finally given in to loving him, there was a chance she’d lose him forever.

Wild Lover Book 4
             

              Mia Tennyson’s life had been turned on end in the past three weeks. Since she’d met Blaine Daniels, she’d reached highs she didn’t know possible. She’d sunk low, too, as they both wrestled with demons of insecurity and past failures. Now, just as she thought they’d found a middle ground and could move forward with their fledgling relationship, real trouble had found them. Or, to be more accurate, found Blaine and left Mia wondering about the future. Not just the theoretical future. Mia was hanging on minute by minute.

             
She sat on a bench outside Bartlett’s marina with her mother’s rosary in one hand. Nearly thirty-six hours had passed since Blaine had left on a routine fishing trip. No one had heard from Blaine or his two clients on the Wanderlust since earlier the previous day. Mia had gone home to shower and try to get some sleep, but worry had brought her back to the marina. She couldn’t stand the thought that some news might come back and she’d miss it.

             
As the afternoon wore on, the fat man who ran the marina, whose name Mia finally garnered as Tim, seemed more and more panicked.

             
“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “The weather hasn’t been that bad. It must be engine problems.”

             
“The coast guard hasn’t seen anything? Nothing at all?” Mia asked. She sipped at a cold can of Coke. Normally she only drank diet, but today she wanted the comfort of real sugar.

             
“I called Daniels’s parents. In England. His emergency contact. They’re pretty upset.”

             
“Oh,” Mia said. She wished she knew Blaine’s parents, so she could offer some comfort. Since they’d not even known each other a month, and Blaine’s family lived in the UK, she’d feel silly calling them to give her two cents.

             
Hi, I just met your son and we’re sleeping together. I’m in love with him and we’re going to St. John for a month, but you’ve probably never heard of me…

             
Tim brought her attention back to reality. “The parents said they’ll get in touch with friends here in the US who can keep them up to date, too.”

             
Tim must have been reading her mind.  Mia wondered if it was that obvious that she and Blaine had just met. When she was with him, she felt like she’d known him forever. To everyone else, however, she really was just the girl he’d been sleeping with. The thought made her cringe.

             
A red Lexus pulled into the marina parking lot. There were plenty of expensive cars parked around the marina, but most of them were big SUVs. The kind of vehicles that men used to haul boats or just make themselves feel manlier. The red coupe was out of place, like a cherry in a bowl of apples.

             
A tall blonde woman got out of the car. She used the movie star method. He long tan legs came first, followed by the rest of her and a beguiling flip of her hair. She tucked an expensive looking clutch bag under one arm.

             
“Excuse me,” she said. She pushed her dark glasses up on her head. She had large blue eyes and pouty lips. She tugged at the short skirt of her tight sundress as she talked. “I’m looking for someone named Tim. The manager of this place?”

             
Tim’s chest puffed out. Between his round belly and his shaggy mustache he reminded Mia of a walrus. “That’s me. Can I help you?”
              “I hope so. I’m so frazzled. My in-laws called me this morning. I was en route from LA to New York and redirected to Miami.” She held out her hand. “My name is Candice Daniels.”

             
Mia’s heart dropped into her stomach like someone had coated it with iron. Blaine’s ex-wife. Or… if he’d been lying to her… maybe this woman was still his wife.

             
Tim the marina manager seemed as confused as Mia. He looked between Mia and the blonde woman, as if he might unintentionally reveal a secret.

             
“Ah, okay,” he said. “Good thing you could come.”

             
“Have you heard anything?” Candice pulled her phone from her bag. “I haven’t heard a peep. It goes straight to voicemail.”

             
Mia found her voice. If she needed to find out what was really happening here, she’d have to speak up. Better to get it over with. “There’s no signal that far out. We haven’t heard anything on the radio either.”

             
The blonde woman looked at Mia. Mia felt like curling up in a ball. She’d slicked her hair back in a ponytail and didn’t have on any makeup. She wore an old pair of khaki shorts and a tank top, as opposed to the blonde woman’s Rodeo Drive ensemble.

             
“Right,” said Candice. “Do you work here, too?”

             
Mia stood up. “No. My name is Mia Tennyson. I’m Blaine’s—” She took a deep breath. “I’m Blaine’s girlfriend.”

             
Candice didn’t say anything at first, and for a moment Mia was sure she was going to be informed that Blaine was very much still married. Finally Candice opened her mouth. “Oh, I see. Well, thanks for holding down the fort until I got here.”

             
Wait,
thought Mia.
What does that mean?

             
Once again Tim seemed to want answers as well. “You Mr. Blaine’s sister?” he asked.

             
“I’m his ex-wife,” said Candice. “His parents know we’re still friends so they asked me to come and wait for news.”

             
Mia and the marina manager exhaled in simultaneous relief.

             
Candice was all business. “What has the coast guard had to say?”

             
“They went out twice. Searched the fishing holes where I assumed he’d be. Nothing.”