Tangled Love on Pelican Point (Island County Series Book 3) (22 page)

I wrapped one of the blankets around my shoulders and sat next to the fire.

“The fire is nice.”

“I wanted to share this place with you before I left,” he said, the waves folding into the distance.

“It’s beautiful.” I opened my arm and invited him to share the blanket with me, trying not to get stuck on the words.

He nodded and sat down, wrapping himself in the blanket with me.

“This was always my refuge. I didn’t have many on the island.” The iciness in his voice made me shiver, but I nestled into him more.

“How often did you come down here?” I asked, folding my hand on his. The fire warmed my cheeks as I rested my head against his shoulder.

“Not often enough,” he sighed.

“Besides my brother, I didn’t have anyone I could trust growing up. I suppose the same could be said about my adult life.”

I squeezed his hand. “It doesn’t have to be that way.”

“I’m starting to see that,” he said quietly.

“What were you afraid of people finding out?”

“Lots of things.” He kicked his feet out in front of him and turned to look at me, adjusting the blanket around us. He had a reflective look in his eyes as I sat quietly and waited.

“My father wasn’t a kind man.” Anthony’s eyes darkened. “He used his position of power and wealth to get what he wanted. He bought people’s trust and their silence, for as long as I can remember.”

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know where his words were about to lead so I stayed silent. I knew his parents only from a distance. They’d show up at school events now and then. His mom picked up Natty, Cole, and me from the bowling alley a few times when we were kids, but nothing more than a passing wave. Something told me that whatever he was about to say would fracture every image I had of his perfect family, and my stomach was sick.

“The first time I saw him hit my brother, I was eight.”

I gasped and attempted to say something, but my throat closed up. Anthony’s eyes stayed locked on mine.

“I thought if I kept letting my dad focus on me, he’d leave my little brother alone. But that wasn’t how it worked. That’s not how evil works.”

“I’m in shock.”

He nodded and squeezed me, but his gaze stayed on mine. “It wasn’t like the older we got, the less he hit us. In fact, it was the opposite. It didn’t matter if we did anything wrong or not. If he was having a bad night, he’d take it out on us.”

“What about your mother?” I asked.

Anthony let out a grunt. “My brother and I have differing theories on her.”

“How so?” I asked, pushing the tears away. I’d been so stuck on wanting him to open up to me that I never guessed he was hiding such dark secrets . . . such a painful past.

“I think she should’ve done more to protect us, especially my little brother. She acted like she didn’t know what was going on, but she knew, and she never once stopped him or tried to leave him. She valued her lifestyle over her kids’ wellbeing.”

“And Cole?” I asked.

“I don’t know. He doesn’t want to think his mother could be so heartless. He’s not close to her, but he makes excuses for her.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“Life’s not always what it seems. I know my friends all thought we had it so easy, but the moment our front door shut, I never knew what to expect. I tried to stay away as much as I could. I came here all the time just to get away. Cole had more friends and more excuses to be away from the house, so I came up with my own. I wrote and taught myself guitar here.”

“Couldn’t the police do something to stop it?” I asked.

“It’s seldom that easy.” Anthony grimaced, barely able to grind the words out. “My dad was friends with the sheriff, and we knew we couldn’t trust anyone. Money does strange things to people. My dad guaranteed that the soccer team at school had the best equipment, the fastest computers were sent to the computer labs . . . every option was covered. If we told anyone at school, no one would have believed us. It would have hurt us. The best thing for us was to leave home the moment we could—and we did. Now that I’m older, I understand there were ways out, but at the time, the only thing that led my decisions had to do with trying to keep my brother safe, and Pelican Point was the only place that stopped my mind from racing. I didn’t have to think about tomorrow when I came here. I could just enjoy the moment.” He let out an uncomfortable laugh. “So that’s the mess of my life. We all have them. We’re all tied to our past somehow.”

I straightened up and turned to face him as he readjusted the blanket around us.

“But maybe sharing your history with me will help,” I said as he cupped his hands around mine.

“Maybe,” he said.

A few minutes of silence passed between us.

“I wish I could take away the pain.”

“Remember when you said whoever wrote that song had a bad case of the blues?” he asked, the sparkle coming back into his eyes.

“How can I forget?” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, now you know that you were right. I have good days and bad days.”

“A lot of things you’ve told me over the last month or so are starting to finally fit.” I let out a deep breath. “You’ve helped to reshape my view, and I know you still don’t understand how much you’ve done for me, but you have changed my life, and I hope to be able to somehow offer something in return.”

Anthony smiled. “Just don’t stop believing in yourself.”

“I won’t.”

“Should we eat so you can make it through your shift?” he asked, smiling.

I wanted to tell him that after hearing everything, I felt like absolutely no food, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He’d gone to such trouble to plan this.

He stood and the blanket dropped off as I spun around to face the table. He got a couple of plates out of the picnic basket and pulled out what looked like a yearbook, which he slid in front of me.

“What’s this?” I asked, sitting back down and wrapping the blanket around us both.

“When Mary and her daughter, Eileen, were helping me with my broken leg, she mentioned how wonderful she thought it would be if Cole and Natty got back together.”

I grinned. “Well, who doesn’t love a high school sweetheart story?” I laughed.

“Especially when they wished it could be them,” he said, opening the yearbook. “I got this from Mary. She wanted me to show it to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your dad and Mary dated all through high school.”

“No way?” A pulse of excitement ran through me. My eyes ran along the page, and there they both were.

“Yes way. She told me all about him. She’d literally light up like a Christmas tree when she started talking about him.”

“What happened, I wonder?”

“I don’t know, but I couldn’t resist sending Mary to help your dad.”

“Here I thought it was because you wanted to help me,” I scoffed, and he placed a kiss on my cheek.

“Well, you were partially the reason.”

“Life certainly continues to throw surprises my way,” I said, looking at the worn pages of the yearbook. “Look at what this caption says,
Most Likely to Grow Old Together: Mary and Charles
.”

“Wouldn’t that be something?” Anthony asked, taking a bite of his sandwich.

“Yeah, it would. Can you imagine if, after everything and all these years, they wind up back together?”

And I wondered if maybe the reason my parents were so screwed up boiled down to the simple fact that they married the wrong person. I snuck a sideways glance at Anthony. His expression was contemplative as he looked out toward the water, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t worry about the future. I just enjoyed the moment.

“I don’t understand,” I said, staring at my email. “I have seventy-five orders for my sparkling star sign.”

“Huh?” Natalie asked, looking up from her flower arrangement. It was Wednesday, my day to pick up Loxxy’s arrangement.

“My inbox is getting flooded with orders for no reason,” I reiterated.

“That’s a good thing, right?” She laughed.

“It is, but I have to update the turnaround time at my shop. There’s no way I can get all these done in a week. Oh, my gosh. The orders are not stopping. What in the world is going on?” I moaned, an odd mixture of excitement and fear zipping through my body.

“So weird,” Natty said, taking a sip of her coffee, but there was a funny glint in her eyes.

“What?” I asked while logging onto my Etsy store. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” She pretended to look at the wire orders coming through.

“There. I updated my store for a two-week turnaround, but I might have to change it if this keeps up. I just don’t get it. I didn’t do any marketing or anything. Well, I’d better get back to Loxxy and try to bust out the rooms so I can go home and start on these orders. This is a blessing and a curse.”

“Mmmhmm,” Natty hummed, without looking at me.

I glanced at the inbox on my phone. “Another ten orders came in.”

“Curious. So you’re not following Anthony?”

“Following Anthony? Why would I be following him? He’s at his house talking with the listing agent. I don’t think he’d be thrilled if I started tracking him down. I’ve got my own life to live. Just because I’m kind of seeing him doesn’t mean that I should start following him everywhere he goes. That’s the exact opposite of what I stand for in relationships.”

Natty was laughing so hard by the time I finished talking, she could barely stay upright.

“I don’t mean physically following him,” she said, wiping away tears. “I mean on Facebook and Twitter.”

My head dropped in shame. “I’m getting old. I can’t believe I didn’t even think of that. But what does that have to do with my orders?”

I clicked on Facebook using my new phone and searched for his name. “Wow. That’s a good profile pic on Facebook.” Just seeing his face brought the warm fuzzies all over. “So you follow him?”

“Of course. He’s about to be my brother-in-law.”

“You hope,” I teased, scrolling down his newsfeed. My heart stopped when I saw a post about my Etsy store from this morning. There were pictures of the sign he’d asked me about several days ago, along with the links to buy it. Over a thousand people had liked the image and hundreds said they were going to buy it. “You knew?”

“I saw it come over on Twitter,” she informed me.

“He posted it there too?” I quickly switched over to Twitter, and this time it felt like the world had fallen out from under me. “Did you see what he wrote?”

“Sure did.”

I stared at the words. In well under one hundred and forty characters, he managed to completely change my world in more ways than one.

Check out my girlfriend’s store. She’s insanely talented
.

“Word of advice, though,” Natty warned.

“What’s that?” I asked, looking up at her, dazed by what I saw.

“Don’t look at the replies. There are a lot of angry women out there who are upset that his status is no longer single.”

I laughed. “Well, it’s news to me too.”

“Oh come on. You knew he was into you.”

“Temporarily, yes. But beyond the short-term, I pretty much assumed that once he left the island, that would be it.”

“Tell Negative Nancy to bring my Sappy Sophie back,” Natty teased.

“Well, I think I’m going to fly my way over to Loxxy.”

“Are you going to call Anthony?”

“I think a visit is more in order, but with surprises like this, I’ll be able to pay for a nurse for my dad all by myself.”

Natty smiled and shook her head. “Most people would be planning a vacation or splurging on clothes.”

“Ha. Like that’ll ever happen. I’m too cheap. Frugal is my middle name.”

“Speaking of, did you get next Saturday off?” she asked.

“Not this one, but the next one. Yep. Got the day off approved. I still can’t believe what you guys are doing for my dad and me. It makes me kind of embarrassed.”

“Get that out of your head. Anyway, Jewels has been having so much fun with the planning. There’s a carnival for the kids, a beer-fest and wine tasting for the adults, and . . .” she stopped herself. “All kinds of good things.”

That sounded suspicious, but I had to get over to Loxxy or they’d start to wonder. It was so hard not to call Anthony and thank him, but this had to be done in person. He was amazing.

I picked up the floral bouquet, and Natalie followed me out the door.

“If you need any help with filling the orders, remember to let us know,” Natalie said as I climbed into the car.

“Okay,” I said, narrowing my eyes on her features. “Did you know he was going to do this?”

She grinned and shut my door, and I realized once again how lucky I was to have such an amazing group of friends.

By the time I’d parked and gotten inside the Loxxy, another twenty orders had flooded into my inbox, and serious worry started to fill my veins. How was I going to handle this many orders? Not to mention, Anthony’s home was about to go on the market, which meant I needed to get the staging done this week.

A vibrancy I hadn’t felt in a long time crashed through my system. I felt renewed energy, and the determination to get everything done was a challenge I couldn’t wait to accept.