Jaded (23 page)

The conversation continued until the Rockies rose from the western plains. Rock climbing and other extreme sports took over at that point, carrying on until the western deserts in California appeared below them. Lucas asked questions about Nate’s military training and service, and Nate started telling funny stories again, about Adam, then the men they would meet when they landed.

It was easy for Alana to slip back into her lifelong role as the smiling observer.

They landed in San Diego. After the plane taxied to a halt, Alana woke up Darla and helped her get the dress from the hanging cupboard. Nate opened the door to a wave of heat and sunshine so tangible Alana felt her skin soaking up the heat. She slipped her sunglasses from her purse. Nate went down the stairs first, then reached up to help Darla, then Alana from the plane.

“Oh, goodness,” Darla said.

At first Alana thought she was commenting on the brilliant blue sky and the hint of ocean breeze, but when a crowd of whooping men engulfed Nate, taking him to the tarmac in a group tackle, she just smiled and stepped back.

“I understand why it was so hard for Adam to come home,” Darla said quietly.

The pile of muscles and boots untangled and righted itself, ending with Nate, grinning and cursing under his breath as he brushed dirt from his clothes. As one, the group turned to face Lucas, Alana, and Darla.

“Gentlemen,” Nate said. “Ms. Alana Wentworth. Lucas Ridgeway. Mrs. Collins, Adam’s mother.”

Respectful smiles and handshakes for Darla morphed into something slightly edgier and more inviting for Alana, then the whole group turned for the waiting vehicles, sorting out people and luggage with a fair amount of discussion. Lucas opened the back door of the car for Alana, then slid into the backseat with her. The small convoy headed west, toward the ocean, and came to a halt at one of San Diego’s hotel/marina complexes, where Adam and Marissa were renting a slip. Alana eagerly slid out of the car, scanning the sterns for
Prairie Dreams
.

“There she is,” Nate said, pointing over her shoulder.

She
was used for both women and boats, and in this case could have referred to either Marissa or her sturdy, practical little boat. Alana stopped in amazement, staring at the woman confidently crossing the gap between boat and dock. Her hair streamed down her back, honey streaked in the darker brown and red strands. She wore a pair of khaki shorts and a red halter top. Swimsuit straps clung tight against her shoulders. Every inch of exposed skin was tanned to the color of caramel, but the most shocking change was in her face.

Laughter danced in Marissa Brooks’s eyes. She looked gloriously, radiantly happy, deliriously pleased with life. The woman Alana had met in Walkers Ford was pretty, dark, compressed under the weight of over a hundred years of family history and obligation. This was a woman bursting with life, and confidence, and sheer joy.

She loped down the dock to envelop Alana in a hug. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here!” she said.

“Ack!” Alana said, hugging her back tightly. “I’m glad to be here, too. Oh, let me take that!” she said, turning to Darla.

She relieved Darla of the precious dress mere moments before Adam swept his mother into a tight hug. She kissed his cheek, then stepped back to let him greet people he hadn’t seen since he left the Corps.

Holding her ground in the milling crowd of big male bodies, Marissa peered at the dress. “I can’t believe you made this in time,” she said to Darla. “Oh, I can’t wait to see it!”

“You should try it on as soon as possible,” Darla fretted, twisting and turning to get a better look at Marissa. “Did you lose weight? You look like you lost weight. Tell me you didn’t lose weight.”

“I sent you my measurements a week ago,” Marissa said gently. “I haven’t lost weight. I promise. Alana, can I use your room? The boat’s barely big enough for the two of us, let alone a dress fitting.”

“Of course,” Alana said.

Alana found it secretly amusing to watch a dozen Marines part like the Red Sea for Darla and the dress. As they passed, Adam caught Marissa around the waist. “We’re going out—”

“No peeking!” she said, covering his eyes and laughing. “You can’t see the dress.”

“I’m not looking,” he said obediently. “We’re going down to the beach. We’ll pick up everything for the barbeque tonight. Text when you’re on your way.”

“Anything special you like to drink, ma’am?”

Alana turned to find a very young, very bright-eyed Marine at her left shoulder, attempting to look solicitous and succeeding mostly at leering. What was his name? Garrett? “I’m fine with whatever,” she said.

“I know what she likes,” Nate replied.

“Oh,” Garrett said. “Sorry, sir.”

“We’re old friends, Bill,” Nate said. “Bartles & Jaymes sangria, right?” he said to Alana, completely straight-faced.

Laughter pealed out of her. “See you later.”

Lucas’s face was completely blank through this exchange. Adam hauled him in for a quick slap on the back, then guided him toward the vehicles.

Inside the hotel, they found Nate had checked them all in, and their luggage was waiting in their rooms. Alana and Darla both had marina views, Darla in a suite, three doors down from Alana. She had no idea if Lucas and Nate were even on their floor.

Marissa took the dress from Darla and disappeared into the bathroom. “Did you have a good flight?”

“I could get used to flying like that,” Darla said as she opened one suitcase to reveal a sewing machine, thread, fabric, and assorted needles, zippers, and buttons. “How does it fit?”

“What do you think?”

They both turned to see Marissa standing in the doorway between the bedroom and sitting area. The dress fit her perfectly, rich cream silk folded in tight, flat undulations from the bodice to her flat stomach and hips, then flaring ever so slightly around her ankles. Thin flat straps curved over her tanned shoulders, nearly hidden by her tousled fall of hair.

“Oh, my goodness,” Alana said, her throat inexplicably tightening. “Adam’s going to go weak at the knees when he sees you.”

“That’s the plan,” Marissa said.

Darla was already by Marissa’s side, critically pinching the fabric at her waist, smoothing her hand down the seaming in the back. “It’s a little loose.”

“It’s perfect,” Marissa said decisively, echoing Alana’s thoughts. “I want to be able to dance and eat and laugh all night. It’s absolutely perfect.”

Darla already had two pins on either side of the bodice and was adding another to the straps. “I’ll just tighten it up a little here,” she said distractedly. “It won’t take a minute.”

“Flowers?” Alana said, thinking about white against that cream fabric.

“Red roses.”

“What’s Adam wearing?”

“No idea,” Marissa said. “Shorts, maybe. Not a tux. We’re keeping this as simple as possible.”

“My son best not show up for his wedding in shorts,” Darla said as she jabbed a pin into one of the shoulder straps.

“Hair?”

“You know that style that looks like you just got out of bed, but really you spent a couple of hours on it?”

“Yes.”

“That one.” She looked at Darla, then mouthed to Alana, “He likes my hair down.”

Alana smiled back. “Perfect.”

“Where’s the location?”

Marissa moved to the sliding glass doors leading to the balcony, pulled back the drapes, and pointed. A little ways down the beach from the marina was a sheltered sandy cove. Rocks rose on the far side, and the sun gilded the wet stone with afternoon light. At sunset it would be bathed in the same undulating red and orange waves as the stained glass windows at Brookhaven.

“It’s beautiful,” Alana breathed. “How on earth did you find this place?”

“We were calling around, looking for hotel rooms with a marina. I got to talking with the reservations clerk and she mentioned they had a last-minute cancellation.” Her face fell for a minute. “A death in the family. I hate to think of my happiness coming at someone else’s expense.”

“It’s not,” Alana said. “That’s just the way life works. You’ve been unhappy long enough.”

“Sometimes I can’t believe this is real, that this is my life. I wake up next to Adam, and we’re moored in some remote bay off the coast of Hawaii, and the stars are so thick I understand why our galaxy is the Milky Way, and I can’t believe it.”

“It sounds idyllic.”

“And then a week later, we’re becalmed a thousand miles from land, the sun beating down on us, getting on each other’s last nerve because we both smell, and I really can’t believe it.”

“Take that off,” Darla said. “I’m going to make a few adjustments, and then I’m going to bed until tomorrow. You all have fun without me tonight.”

Marissa swept the older woman into a hug. “Thank you so much,” she said. “It’s perfect, and I love it.”

“You’re welcome.”

Alana and Marissa watched her go. “She won’t be happy until it’s perfect by her standards.”

“She could be working as a designer in New York or Chicago,” Alana said. “My mother would kill for that attention to detail in her clothes.” It made her sad to see that kind of talent languishing in Walkers Ford, and only strengthened her commitment to see Cody get the education and opportunity he deserved.

Marissa changed back into her shorts and halter top in the bathroom while Alana dug her swimsuit out of her luggage and pulled on a tank dress as a cover-up. Together they made their way down to the beach. They spread out the towels the hotel provided, then Alana dashed into the water. She sleeked back her hair then returned to the towel.

“You’re not going in?”

“I’ve been in the ocean every day for the last six months,” Marissa said complacently.

One of the things Alana liked so much about Marissa was that she didn’t feel the need to fill the air with chatter. Unlike Freddie and her mother, who contributed a running commentary on everything, Marissa could sit in silence. Alana lay back and let the sun warm her bones. She should feel relieved, ready to go home, rejuvenated, like she’d accomplished something that mattered to her. She’d had her time as a librarian. She was going back to something meaningful on a global scale.

So why did she feel so restless? Because she was leaving behind Cody, who needed her, and Mrs. Battle, who made her laugh and felt like the guide she’d never had?

Or Lucas? She admired him. She liked his company. She loved watching him move. She forgot what she was saying when he walked across a room, loose joints and hard muscles and unshakable confidence.

Whatever she’d started with Lucas two weeks ago wasn’t anywhere close to finished.

“Thanks for coming,” Marissa said. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to, and it means so much to me, because none of this would have happened without you.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Alana demurred automatically. “Adam seemed pretty determined to get you back.”

Marissa rolled over onto her stomach. “If you hadn’t given him the books I ordered, he wouldn’t have known which lever to pull,” she said seriously. “I could have held out against him if he hadn’t known that secret.”

Funny how a person couldn’t see what raged like a forest fire to everyone else. “It was obvious to anyone who watched him walk into Brookhaven that something was going to happen between the two of you,” Alana said.

“Things happen when Adam’s around, but something good? Something life-changing?” She shook her head. “It could have gone either way. It’s entirely possible that if you hadn’t given him those books, I’d still be in Walkers Ford, and he’d be one semester into grad school in Brookings.”

“But you’d be together.”

“Maybe.” Marissa studied the sand. “But like we are now? That’s all you.”

“And Nate, for taking you out on
Resolute
. And you, for having the courage to follow your dream. And Adam, for whatever he did to set himself free.”

“He did something amazingly brave,” Marissa said almost inaudibly. “I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do what he did. But you were the catalyst. You set it in motion.”

“I really didn’t—”

“You did.” Marissa’s eyes narrowed. “Are you not okay with that?”

“I’m just not used to thinking of myself as a person who makes an impact,” she admitted.

Marissa’s eyebrows shot up, but before she could respond, they were surrounded by Adam, Lucas, and the rest of the group carrying coolers, lawn chairs, Frisbees and footballs, firewood, and portable speakers for an iPod. Within minutes, a fire burned merrily in a fire pit. A couple of guys traded insults as they took over the cooking, and before long, a half-playful football game was going on in the surf.

Lucas showed up in board shorts and a T-shirt with a faded logo for the Boys and Girls Club of Denver on his chest. Adam called him onto his team.

“Do you know anything about football?” Marissa asked.

“Chicago has a team?” Alana said, a hard lemonade in one hand and a doubtful expression on her face.

She’d seen Lucas naked. She’d seen him in motion. She’d seen him naked and in very dirty motion.

She’d never seen him sprint full tilt through the water’s edge, then pivot to catch the ball Adam lofted over the other team’s players, right into Lucas’s arms. As he caught the ball, one of the young Marines tackled Lucas, pile driving him back into the waves, but Lucas surfaced with the ball in one hand outstretched. He waggled it as the other man came up. Adam whooped, and the soaked Marine said something that made Lucas laugh out loud, then extend his hand to pull the kid to his feet.

“Are you sleeping with him yet?”

Alana startled, and felt heat sweep into her face.

“I’ll take that as a yes. You didn’t say anything in your e-mails.”

“It hasn’t been going on long,” Alana said. “I’m a private person, and he respects that. Or maybe it just suits him to not get involved.”

Marissa tipped back her bottle of beer. “You leave when?”

“As soon as we get home. Back to Walkers Ford, that is.”

Marissa didn’t say anything else. The game came to an end when the players started to lose the ball in the twilight sky. Everyone settled in beach chairs around the fire, Adam’s fingers possessively linked with Marissa’s. Alana tried to unobtrusively save a space for Lucas, but two guys settled in on either side of her and spent the rest of the night fetching her drinks, making sure she had enough to eat.