Tide Will Tell (Islands of Intrigue: San Juans) (7 page)

He gave her a sideways smile. “The food was good, but….” He leaned toward her, lowering his voice. “Just between you and me, I’d rather have a burger and a shake.”

She looked up, surprise flashing in her eyes. She forked a small bite of tuna. “I’m with you.” Her face fell as she looked at the French doors where Jessica had exited. “I didn’t mean to upset her.”

Josh frowned. “Of course you didn’t.” This was crazy. How could he possibly comfort this girl when she was voluntarily engineering a huge train wreck? The sooner he got away from all this, the better.

“I don’t know if I can do it.” She now gripped her fork like she might want to stab someone with it.

He jarred. Was she seeing the folly of her plan to marry Mr. Cole? “Do…what?”

“Go shopping with Jessica.” Her teeth gritted. “She’s obviously not happy about me marrying her dad.”

Disappointment flared. She could go through with the marriage, but she couldn’t handle the shopping? “Don’t worry about Jessica. She’s still pretty upset about her mom. I mean, not that that’s an excuse or anything.”

Nodding, Kate stared at her plate.

His heart went out to her. “Besides,” he heard himself continue. “I could go with you on your wedding errands tomorrow with Jessica. Kind of act as a shield.” He paused, then added. “If you want me to.”

She looked up, her face brightening. “I’d owe you a milkshake.”

He smiled in response. “Make it chocolate, and you’ve got a deal.”

Was he crazy? This girl was an inch away from stealing his carefully-guarded heart, and he was letting her do it. What was he thinking?

Chapter 9

Kate sunk down deep into the front seat of Josh’s car as he drove off the ferry onto San Juan Island. His suggestion that they could elude the press lurking outside the estate by taking his slightly dinged-up teal blue Toyota instead of the limo had seemed risky at first, but to Kate’s amazement, it had worked.

As the car advanced slowly along with the rest of the ferry traffic, she peered out the window at the main street of Friday Harbor. Instead of a swarm of paparazzi, a mix of tourists and locals milled about a very cute, old-fashioned looking town.

A couple of kids zoomed past on skateboards, stirring up melancholy thoughts of Dakota. He loved pretending to roll down the street on one of his longed-for modes of wheeled transportation. To Kate, it had always seemed like a blessing in disguise that he couldn’t afford a skateboard or roller blades. Lacking strength and coordination, the poor kid would have been crushed by his inability to soar the way he did in his imagination. It was probably better that he was stuck with pretending, even though the sight of him at fifteen running and leaping garnered too many cruel comments.

Kate blinked. She had to believe that when she’d left, someone had stepped in to shield him from the harshness of the world.

Recognizing that slinking down like a fugitive was far more suspicious than just behaving like a normal person, she pulled herself up a few inches. She scanned the quaint area, which looked like the setting for a Hallmark movie. Quaint shops lined the street that, under different circumstances, she’d be itching to explore. As it was, she bit her lip and prayed that they could do what they needed to do and get back on the ferry before anybody tried to get her picture.

Optimism overtook her tongue before she could suppress it. “This town is so cute.”

A harrumphing noise from the backseat reminded her that Jessica had grudgingly accompanied them, no doubt just to please Chase. Kate clamped down on her enthusiasm for the picturesque town and vowed to keep her thoughts to herself to avoid giving Jessica more opportunities to berate her. Her fragile self-esteem didn’t need that right now.

“There it is.” Josh curved smoothly into a parking place directly in front of a pale pink storefront with the words ‘Friday Harbor Bridal’ painted in elegant script on a sign above the entrance. “Wait right here.” He exited the car, crossing to Kate’s door in a refreshing show of chivalry.

As he opened it and reached in to help her out, Kate gave herself a mental pep talk. She could do this.

Glancing around for reassurance that no one was going to assault her with a camera or a microphone, she stepped out of the car and tested her weight on her sore leg. Confident, she took one step, then stopped and stared. There in the window of the gift shop next door was a pink flier featuring a color photo of a woman beneath the word
‘MISSING’
.

Kate’s heart took off at a sprint. Without reading further, she knew that the pretty blonde in the picture had to be Trina Cole, Chase’s first wife.

“They’ve been up all over the islands for a full year.” Jessica spit the words from just behind Kate. “Get used to it.”

Alarmed by the comment, Kate looked down the sidewalk. A pink rectangle adorned every window on the street. Panic set in. What exactly was she up against here?

Josh joined her. “Try not to let it bug you.” He opened the door to the dress shop. “At least the wedding people thought ahead.”

He jutted his chin toward the window next to the open door. A single piece of scotch tape remained with a tiny bit of pink paper sticking to it. The implication was obvious. They had made a hasty and possibly passive-aggressive effort to avoid offending their high-paying customer.

She forced a wan smile and entered the shop.

Twenty minutes later, she stood in the fitting room staring at herself in the triptych of full length mirrors. Her gown, which had looked elegant and impressive in the designer’s watercolor rendering, now looked more like a parachute with a chandelier perched on top.

“It’s really quite exquisite, Miss Jennings.” The woman who had helped her into it bent to spread the train out so Kate could experience the full effect.

“Do you think so?” Kate frowned. Maybe she just wasn’t used to seeing herself dressed this way, but she felt more like she should being saying “Trick or Treat” than “I do.”

“Oh, yes.” Standing, the woman assured her. “The shop in San Francisco did an excellent job, and it will hardly need any alterations. You know, those are real Swarovski crystals on the bodice.”

Kate nodded, as if the significance of that was actually…well,
significant
. The designer in San Francisco had looked at Kate’s collection of photos clipped from bridal magazines and had come up with this design, tying together the different elements Kate had said she liked. It was a one-of-a-kind, but at the moment that distinction seemed to Kate not to be very impressive.

“Are you ready for the viewing?” The high pitch of the woman’s voice betrayed an edge of nervousness that would no doubt be quashed only when the sale was finalized.

“Viewing?” Kate hated feeling ignorant, but she’d never even set foot in a bridal salon before, much less paid attention to their standard protocol.

“Yes. You know…” The smile in the woman’s eyes melted slightly as she swept an arm toward the door leading out of the small room. “Showing your friends.”

“Oh. Right.”

Friends.
The thought of parading around in front of Jessica sent her mind into a tiny tizzy, but she wanted Josh to see the dress. She needed some reassurance that she didn’t look ridiculous in it, and she had a feeling she could count on him to be honest.

She scooped up as much of the skirt as she could in her arms to facilitate walking, and followed the woman out of the room, trying futilely to keep the crystals on the bodice from jingling.

When she stepped into the viewing area, Jessica looked up from her phone, made a sound of amused disgust, and went back to typing a message. Josh stood, looking at Kate with an expression that was impossible to read.

“What do you think?” She hated the insecurity she couldn’t keep from her voice.

Tapping away at her phone, Jessica uttered something that was barely discernable. “S-t-a-y-p-u-f-t.”

Kate’s lower lip started to quiver and she bit down on it to keep from crying.

Josh looked at her with a smile that was slight, but sincere. “It’s really beautiful.”

Making a snorting sound, Jessica ramped up her texting.

Josh shot Jessica a warning glance then turned his attention back to Kate. “It’s your wedding.” He took a step closer to her. “Do you like it?”

Did
she like it? She studied her image in the mirror. Why was she even questioning? This was exactly what she had asked for. Finding an alternative would take hours, and what if she found nothing better? She didn’t want to risk wasting Josh’s and Jessica’s time, nor that of the poor bridal shop woman. Besides, it was just a dress. No big deal.

Her shoulders slumped. “It’s fine.”

The woman clapped her hands, but Kate felt the hollow absence of that magical feeling she had always expected to descend over her at this moment in her life. Choosing a wedding dress was supposed to be something a woman shared with her best friends amid tears and clinking champagne glasses. This felt more like she was agreeing to try out a cable package she wasn’t completely sold on.

The next half hour passed in a whirlwind as the woman marked a few alteration points with pins, and Kate changed back into her linen suit and “sensible” flats. She was then escorted into an office where she signed so many papers she felt like she was buying a house. When she finally made it out to the front of the salon, Josh stood, the only one in the room.

Relief competed with polite curiosity. “Where’s Jessica?”

“Well, after picking out her maid of honor dress…” He motioned toward a slinky strapless red gown that adorned a velvet hanger on the wall. “…she went out to get a chai. She said she’d see us on the ferry.”

Surveying the dress, or what there
was
of it, Kate shook her head. The plan to have Jessica as her maid of honor was a sure argument for elopement. If Josh hadn’t offered to accompany them today, Kate very likely would have traded in her wedding dress for two plane tickets and a ladder.

She sighed in resignation. “That’s just as well.” Starting for the door, she reached into her bag for her sunglasses. “She doesn’t like my dress.”

“So what?” Josh swung the door open for Kate. “It’s not her wedding.”

“And neither do you.” Kate slipped on the glasses as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. “I could tell.”

He followed her outside. “Hey, it’s not my wedding either.”

“Fine.” She glanced up and down the sidewalk, relieved to see that no photographers lurked. “I was just hoping for a little reassurance that I didn’t look like a lampshade or something.”

“I said the dress looked beautiful. I wasn’t lying.” He paused. “It’s just that…”

She looked at him. “What?”

He winced. “Well… it just doesn’t look like you.”

“
Look
like me? What do you mean?”

“I mean, it doesn’t look like your style.”

A deep affront tried to settle in her chest but was crowded out by an unfamiliar warmth. “How would you know what my
style
is?”

He dipped his chin toward her, as if speaking in confidence. “I saw that picture of you, remember? You looked so different.”

She shrank back. “That picture was taken a long time ago.”

“Even so…” He nodded with a confidence that should have come across as arrogant, but somehow didn’t. ”Something tells me the girl in that picture is the
real
Kate.”

She felt awkward at what seemed like a little too perceptive an observation on his part. What would he think if he knew that the “real” Kate was actually a girl named Kathy?

“Come on.” Hands in his pockets, Josh tipped his head in conjunction with his forward movement up the sidewalk.

“Where are we going?”

He lifted a one-shouldered shrug. “You owe me a shake, remember?”

Glancing again at the row of flier-dotted windows, she wavered on her still-unsteady legs. “Okay, but…can we take the car?”

Josh stopped and turned, giving her that cockeyed grin that had wormed its way into her heart mostly without her knowledge and definitely without her consent. “If you still think you want to live here, you have to carve out your own place in the community.”

Cautioning a step forward, she contemplated his words. Why had it seemed feasible and even desirable for her to hole up on Chase’s property like some kind of outlaw? This town was charming, and no one here seemed to be paying any attention to her. Josh was right. If she had any hope of making a real life for herself, she had to show a little backbone. She could do this.

Pleased that she could walk without a hitch in her gait, she caught up to him. “So where’s the ice cream?”

He smiled. “I think I saw a sign just around the corner.”

Casting a quick glance up and down the street to confirm that there were no paparazzi or looky-loos staring at her, she gained confidence.

He looked over at her as they strolled. “Are you okay? You’re limping a little.”

She sighed. So she wasn’t hiding it as well as she’d hoped. “I’m fine. I just twisted my knee yesterday wearing those stupid high heels. I’m not really used to them.”

“I’m not surprised. You strike me more as the athletic shoe type.”

“Meaning what, exactly?”

“You just seem like a person who would prioritize practicality over fashion.”

It was hard to be insulted, considering the accuracy of his statement. She pursed her lips. “For someone who’s known me for less than twenty-four hours, you seem to have a lot of opinions about me.”

“Not opinions, really. Just observations.” He sounded congenial, like their being together was the most ordinary thing in the world. “So, what else do you need to get done today?”

“Well…” Considering that she hadn’t thought past getting the wedding dress, the question caught her off guard. “I do still need a wedding gift for Chase.”

He nodded, his expression noncommittal. “Where do you want to look?”

“Well, I…” This could present a problem. What do you buy for the man who has everything, including a yacht and access to a private jet? Her gaze darted around and landed on a couple up ahead, bent over a colorful shop window.