Where Your Heart Is (Lilac Bay Book 1) (24 page)

The ferry’s horn brought an end to that idea. Over on the dock, I could see that they were nearly finished loading up the new passengers. There was no way I could make it before they left.
You have to try
, I thought, breaking into a run. I sprinted as fast as I could, nearly tripping over my wedge heels and wishing I had worn flat shoes for once in my life.

Just as I expected, the ferry started to pull away before I even got to the end of the dock. “Damn,” I groaned, out of breath. “
Shit
!”

“You okay, Iris?” I looked up to see Jerry walking down the dock, that damn chicken crate still in his arms.

“I missed the ferry,” I said. I felt like I might cry. I had no idea where David might be going. The next ferry wouldn’t leave for a half hour. He could be anywhere by then.

“You leave something on the mainland?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whispered, the urge to cry intensifying.

“Sorry, love. You know, if you’re going to stick around, you might want to get a boat. Much easier to get around. I always take mine across, unless I’m fetching chickens, of course.” He laughed merrily. “You know me, I could never leave the poor things to sit on the floor while I steered.”

I stood straight, an idea occurring to me. “You have a boat?”

“Sure do. Now, she’s not as nice as your cousin Andrew’s, that’s for sure, but—”

“Could I borrow it?”

He went still. “Well, now, Iris. I don’t know. I want to help and all, but it’s—”

“Please, Jerry? Please? I’ll really owe you one.”

“There’d be no question, sweetheart, if it wasn’t for… well… I kind of got the impression you were afraid of the water.”

I waved my hands dismissively. “I’m much better now.”

He seemed unconvinced. “Do you know how to drive a boat?”

“Oh, yes!”
Come on, Jerry. He’ll be on shore soon
. “David taught me.”

His face brightened. “Well, if David taught you, that should be all right.”

I said a silent little pray that David’s reputation held such sway for people on this island as I followed Jerry down the dock and over to the marina. Luckily his boat was docked in one of the first slips. He pulled a key from his pocket as I started to untie the lines.
You can do this
, I told myself, battling down the rush of fear.
It’s no different from David’s boat
. Okay, so it maybe was about twenty years older. And it didn’t have the GPS or a sat phone or sonar or—but it was going to be fine! I could do this!

“Be careful, love,” he said, handing me the key. “It tends to stall when you first start up—just give it some gas.”

“Got it. Thanks, Jerry.”

I managed to get the boat out into open water without panicking. So far, so good. But then it stalled out when I tried to get some speed.
Give it some gas
, I reminded myself, trying not to wince at the way the entire thing shuddered. I finally got it going, cutting a straight line across the bay, careful to avoid the ferry route. The small white dot was nearly to the shore now. I put on some more speed, and the whole boat shook, making me gasp in fear. The boat wasn’t as big as
Love Spell,
and I felt a lot closer to the water than I did with David. And the waves were big and—I gulped, feeling a rush of panic.

I closed my eyes for a brief second—not the smartest move when driving, I know—and tried to imagine David’s clear grey eyes. The way they held my gaze so firmly, making me feel calm.
You can do this
, he seemed to say in my head. I opened my eyes, feeling determined. I
could
do it.

It took fifteen minutes to cross the bay. The fifteen most frightening moments of my life. But as I neared the shore, a strange kind of elation seemed to replace some of the fear. I was doing it!

Love Spell
was easy to spot, tied up to the public dock. I swallowed. I had never actually docked before. But I’d seen David do it a bunch of times. How hard could it be? I maneuvered toward the dock and concentrated on not crashing.

“Iris?”

David’s shocked call had me swerving, nearly hitting the end of the dock. “Shit,” I muttered, straightening it out. I came in slowly, inch by inch, until I could finally idle the engine and drift in to dock.

“Did you drive this thing across the bay?” David cried, running down the dock to help me tie up. “By yourself?”

He kneeled, tossing me a rope, tying another to the front of the boat. Jill had been right. He looked great in those jeans. He peered down at me, disbelief on his face. “Are you okay?”

I was. The terror of the last few minutes meant nothing now. Not with him so close, looking at me with so much concern on his face.

“Iris, what the hell is going on?”

“I needed to get to you,” I told him. “I didn’t know where you were going and—”

He pulled his phone from his pocket and peered down at the screen. “You didn’t try to call, did you?”

Oh. His cell phone. Somehow, the thought had never occurred to me. Yeah, that was pretty stupid.

“I needed to see you,” I said with as much dignity as I could muster. I was feeling incredibly silly about my dramatics. Why hadn’t I just called? Now that I was docked and my adrenaline was slowing down, the smell of Jerry’s boat was starting to register. It smelled like fish and chicken feathers. “And I need to get out of this boat.”

He immediately reached down a hand to pull me up to the dock. The feel of his hand on mine, his skin work-worn and rough, made me want to weep.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes searching my face, afraid. “Did something happen in Chicago?”

“No. Well, yes, I guess, kind of.” I was babbling, too overcome with being this close to him to put my thoughts into words. “Where were you going?” I asked. “Why did you come to the mainland? What’s this about you quitting Rose’s?”

His face colored slightly. “I didn’t quit. I just talked to Edward about the possibility. In case a few things panned out and…”

He looked so uncomfortable, his hands shoved in his pockets. “What’s going on, David?”

“Look,” he burst out, his words coming in a rush. “I behaved really badly the other night. I guess I have some issues with, you know, abandonment, when it comes to women. So I lashed out.” He swallowed, looking uncomfortable. I thought of all those days of grumpiness, of the way he had seemed so angry at me when I first showed up on the ferry dock. Before I could respond he was off again “But it was wrong of me to pressure you into giving up your career, Iris. I know how hard you worked for it. And I know that Traverse City is no Chicago, but they
are
doing a lot of development here. You said it yourself, the tourism industry is hot right now.” I don’t know what he saw on my face, but he held up his hands. “Like I said, I know it’s not Chicago. And I don’t expect you to—but it’s an option, that’s all. And if you decide you need to be in Chicago, well, long distance would be a lot easier from TC than from the island. It would save at least an hour on the commute. And in the winter, I mean, the island gets cut off, and I wouldn’t want—”

I grabbed his hands. “David, what are you talking about?”

He looked down at me, his brow furrowed. “I’ve been trying to figure out a way to make this work for us, Iris. I don’t want you to give anything up. But I don’t want to give you up, either. I can’t.”

“Are you saying you would…what, leave the island? Live in Traverse City?”

His eyes were worried now, like he couldn’t tell what my reaction meant. “Well, yeah. I know long distance isn’t ideal, but maybe we could try it? And if it didn’t work.” He took a deep breath, straightening his shoulders. “I guess I didn’t hate Chicago
that
much. I could probably give it another go.”

“You would move to Chicago for me?”

He searched my face for another long moment before resting his forehead against mine. “I would do just about anything for you, Iris. I love you. The only thing I can’t do is lose you again.”

A sob rose in my throat. God, I really was becoming a crier, wasn’t I? Posey had rubbed off on me, I supposed. “Don’t cry,” he murmured, kissing my forehead.

“It’s happy crying.”

“It is?”

I grinned up at him, feeling like my heart was going to burst. “David, I love you, too.”

His eyebrows went up in surprise. “You do?”

“I just drove Jerry’s boat across the bay—all by myself—to get to you. Of course I love you.”

His grin made every bit of that harrowing journey across the bay worth it. I would have done it again a hundred times to see him smile like that. I pressed my lips against his, wondering why in the hell we hadn’t started kissing five minutes ago. He kissed me back, pulling me close to his body. I could feel that perfect heat emanating from him, the feel of his arms already so familiar. Like home.

“Shit, I’m a jerk.” He pulled back to look down at me. “How’d the interview go?”

“Really well. They offered me the job.”

The skin between his eyes seemed to pinch a little, but he smiled. “Well done! Congratulations!”

“I’m not taking it.”

His mouth dropped open, making him look a little dopey, to be honest. It was adorable. “You’re not?”

I shook my head. “No. Because long distance doesn’t work for me.”

“Iris, I don’t want you to give up on—”

I placed a finger over his lips. “It doesn’t work with you or with my family. You’re the one who told me that home didn’t have to be a place, remember? You told me my family stayed on this island for the people. And that I was a part of it whether I lived here or not.”

He nodded, his eyes focused on mine.

“Well, you were mostly right. I do want to be a part of it. But I want to be a part of it
here
. I don’t want to be away from all the people I love.” I placed a light kiss to the side of his mouth. “And that includes you.”

“But what about work?”

I shrugged, and just like that, it felt like a weight disappeared from my chest. Maybe my job didn’t have to be the most important thing about me. Maybe it was okay to not know sometimes. To take a chance, try something new. Isn’t that what my mom had wanted most for me? For me to be free from the pressure and stress that had almost broken her. She had a point. It felt pretty damn good.

“The good thing about me, David, is that I’m good at an awful lot of things.”

He laughed. “Is that a fact?”

“It is. Today, I drove a boat across the bay all by myself. Tell me that doesn’t kick ass.”

He pulled me in closer, his entire body flush with mine. “It definitely kicks ass.”

“So don’t worry about me,” I whispered. “I’ll figure it out.”

“Iris Holder,” he murmured, lowering his mouth to mine. “I have absolutely no doubt about it.” And then he kissed me again, just to show that he meant it.