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  Chapter 22

  Kira stared blankly at the goings-on in the airport and tuned in to the warmth of Anthony’s hand on her back. She would miss that for the next month and a half. “I can’t believe I’m really going.”

  Anthony nodded. “You’re going to do great.”

  “Right.” Marissa had boarded her plane over an hour ago, which gave Anthony and Kira a little more time to say goodbye to one another. She was grateful for everything he’d had done for her in the last few hours. He’d set up an emergency meeting with his attorney, Jed, and made sure everything Finny offered was put in writing, all the way down to the public apology in at least six different media sources. He’d stood upright and tall in the face of her ex, his confidence never wavering. He’d even taken the initiative to shake Monty’s hand, thank him and Finny for making things right, and wish them a safe trip.

  Anthony Marino had said the words once—told Kira that he believed in her. But now he was putting that into action. Strong-as-titanium action. She couldn’t remember feeling so loved.

  “Just a few more minutes …” He pressed a kiss to her head. “I’m going to miss you, Kira.”

  She nodded. “I’m going to miss you too.”

  “But I can’t wait to hear about everything.” He came to a stand, looped her bags around his shoulder, and took her hand. “C’mon,” he said. “We better get you on that plane.”

  Kira did a mental check of her list after boarding the jet. She’d called everyone in her scheduling book for the next forty-five days and either rescheduled or referred them to one of the backups Gramps had on his list. A few he trusted that were located in Duckdale Hollow. The ones she hadn’t been able to get a hold of, she’d passed on to her new tenant, Alexia. The talented artist had agreed to be her secretary while she was away. In exchange, Kira would waive her rent for the next two months.

  Thank heavens she’d finished up with the senior pictures. She would have felt horrible for missing one of those, since they’d had their hearts set on the whole personalized graffiti thing.

  Luckily, Finny Shea, and Python (she’d have to get used to calling him that) had taken the front corner of the jet and allowed Kira to occupy the opposite corner in back. Forty-five days. Runways, hectic schedules, and time demands. Anthony had told Kira not to wish her time away, said that she needed to enjoy the experience as best she could. She’d try. But already Kira was looking forward to the day it’d all be over. Her name would be cleared, and then she’d be back with Anthony where she belonged.

  Chapter 23

  Anthony sank under the covers and brought the phone closer to his ear. “So you actually shot Abigail Rylie?”

  Kira chuckled from the other end. “In the flesh. But be careful how you say that. Don’t want it to sound like the kind with a handgun.”

  He grinned, sank his head deeper into his pillow. “True.”

  “Did you kick some tail in poker tonight?” she asked.

  “Kicked trash and took names, baby.”

  “That’s my man!”

  Anthony loved when he could hear the smile in her voice. “Don’t you forget it.”

  “Never.”

  It remained quiet as he basked in the moment. Content. They’d done it. Kira had almost fulfilled her contract, and Anthony had stayed behind, run the diner, and not gone insane.

  “Two more days,” she purred.

  The words were ear candy, especially to the tune of that sultry voice. “I know.”

  “I can’t wait.”

  “Me neither.” She sighed. “Oh man, it’s four-thirty. You’re going to have to get into the diner soon.”

  “I know,” he said with a groan. “When you get back, I don’t want to live another day without you.” He rubbed a hand over his face, realizing that sounded a whole lot like a proposal.

  “Then don’t,” Kira said.

  More silence. A peace-filled space that allowed Anthony’s mind to soar to the sky.

  “Good night,” she said.

  He nodded, cleared his throat. “Good night.”

  Chapter 24

  Kira took a sip from her drink and rested her head back on the beach chair. Barcelona was beautiful. The weather was perfect for soaking in a little sun while unwinding from their hectic schedule. Kira had to take advantage of the hotel’s massive pool and cabana at least one day before leaving.

  Finny and Python had been more than civil throughout the tour; it was evident that they were truly repentant after all.

  “Excuse me,” a voice came from behind. A woman, the one who’d brought Kira her drink, stood there. A small apron was wrapped around her waist. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. Hope you don’t mind. But you’re the one traveling with Finny Shea and her fashion team, right? You’re their new photographer?”

  “Yeah,” Kira said with a nod.

  “And you left home to come out here with them, and now you’re headed back?”

  She gave her another nod. “Yes.”

  The woman didn’t have an accent like many on the island did. But her skin held a nice olive complexion. Her hair was smooth and black, and her eyes were the deepest brown. Kind eyes, with a beautiful smile to match.

  “You know, I just want to tell you that … that you’re very lucky to be returning home as you are. A lot of people, they chase dream after dream until they don’t even remember who they are anymore.”

  Kira sighed. “I feared I might do that myself at first, but I fell in love with a man who trusts me. He knew I’d come back. And it gave me the confidence I needed to believe in myself.”

  The woman nodded absently. “This might seem silly, but do you mind if I confide in you?”

  A band of warmth tightened around her heart as she took in the tears welling in the woman’s eyes. “Please,” she said. “I’ve got all day. Have a seat if you’d like.” She motioned to the chair beside her.

  The woman tipped her head to eye the clock in the cabana. “Okay,” she said. “I don’t have all day, but I’ve got a fifteen-minute break. Close enough.”

  Kira sat up, lifted her hat off the glass side table, and rested it on her head. There. Now she wouldn’t have to squint.

  “Years ago, I left a place and a man that I loved, too. I had every intention to return. I thought if I sowed some wild oats, I’d be a better person for it.” She wiped her face, rubbed her lips together before continuing. “The first place I went just … it wasn’t what I hoped it would be. So I tried something else. And then something else. And before I knew it, seven years had gone by. Seven whole years. It was like I’d lost track along the way. I was ready to go back at that point, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. I told myself that … well, that they probably hated me by then. For leaving them like I did. They’d never take me back. Even if my husband hadn’t remarried, which I figure after seven years he probably had, but even if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t want me. Neither of them would.”

  Kira tipped her head. “I’m sorry, neither of them? So it was more than just your husband?”

  “Maria,” a voice called from deep inside the cabana. “Break’s over.”

  The woman gave him a nod. “Coming.” She turned back to Kira. “Yes, it was more.” Her face scrunched up in a word she could only describe as agony. Like the face Kira probably made when she contemplated leaving Anthony behind. “I left behind a child too. I hate myself for it. But I guess this is just … who I am. I can’t change it now.”

  She hurried to her feet then, wrapping the apron snuggly around her waist once more, and patted Kira on the knee. “You are a very blessed woman. I want you to know that.”

  “Thanks,” Kira said through a teary grin. “I appreciate that.”

  She leaned back in her chair, covered her face with the hat, and let the exchange run through her mind once more. The woman’s story triggered something inside her. Something just barely out of reach.

  Kira couldn’t guess why, but her mind shifted back to the moment s
he and Anthony were at the bowling alley. When he’d described his tattoo. “Three M’s,” he’d said. “For my mother, Maria.”

  Goose bumps rushed over her arms as Kira climbed off the chair, sending her hat to the hot cement in the process. “Hey, Maria?” she hollered before she’d even placed her. Eyes squinted against the bright sun as Kira peered deep into the cabana.

  “Yes?” Her voice came from someplace near the pool.

  Kira spun around. “You said you left a man and a child. Was it a daughter or a son?”

  The woman tilted her head. Smiled softly. “A son. My Anthony, named after his father.”

  Chapter 25

  Anthony had spent a whole lot of his life in the what-if phase. Starting at a young age. What if Mom never comes back? He’d carried that concern with him ever since.

  What if Ruth leaves? Which she had. What if Elsie leaves? Well, that happened too. It seemed as if he spent his life chasing people away with doubt and fear.

  His mind drifted back to a quote Pops had framed and placed on his dresser. 1 John 4:18. “Perfect love casts out fear.”

  Anthony hadn’t understood it back then. Yet somewhere between losing his dad, meeting Kira, and falling deeply in love with her, he’d learned to give up that fear. Not that his love for her would ever be perfect or his trust, for that matter. But he’d grown in both aspects. Just in time to love Kira the way she needed to be loved. He hadn’t done it alone. Besides the good Lord, Anthony figured that Pops and Angelo had something to do with it. After all, how else could he explain the chain of events that had unfolded over the last few months?

  A deeper relationship with Kira. The job offer that came along—the one that led Kira to the woman she met in Barcelona at the tail end of her trip just two days ago. Turned out Finny and Python were sold on the goal of making amends, and were thrilled to assist his mother’s effort to do that very thing.

  Anthony couldn’t get his leg to stop bouncing. Seated in the same place he and Kira sat a month-and-a-half ago, the exact bench, even, he waited to see the two most important women in his life. One who was destined to be a daily part of his future—she’d assured him of that before leaving, and every day since. The other woman, whom he hadn’t seen in twenty years … well, only time would tell what she planned to do. He hoped his mother would stick around and be a part of their lives, but he wouldn’t press her on it. Kira had chosen Cobble Creek. She’d chosen him. And as far as he was concerned, the rest was gravy.

  He shifted his gaze back to the screen, noticing that the flight had landed. He stood and paced behind the bench, his eyes flicking from the scuff-marked floor to the arrival gate then back again. A crowd of people filtered through. A large family with everything from teenagers to babies. An older couple with sunburns and visors. Probably been somewhere tropical.

  “Hey there, handsome,” came that sultry voice he loved.

  Anthony stopped walking, yanked his gaze off the moving crowd, and glanced behind him. “How did you …”

  “I snuck under the dividers.” Kira rushed in and threw her arms around him. “Your mom went to the ladies’ room to freshen up.”

  A mixture of emotions flowed through him. In mere moments, he’d see his mother for the first time in twenty years. But first … he lifted Kira off the ground and spun her in place. Home at last. Warm and loving and everything he wanted in a woman. Kira had come back to him, just as he’d known she would. He breathed in her sweet strawberry scent and sighed. “I missed you so much.”

  Kira pulled back and grinned. “I missed you too.” Suddenly she was kissing his face. Cheeks, forehead, the tip of his nose. Covering every inch in short, hurried kisses. “Mwah. Mwah. Mwah. And …” She brought her lips to his mouth and pressed a kiss there too. “Mwah! Hi,” she breathed against his lips.

  “Hi,” he rasped.

  “This feels so good,” Kira said, nuzzling into his neck. “I missed your face and your voice and your smell.”

  Anthony tipped his head back. “My smell?”

  “Yes,” Kira crooned in that sultry voice that drove him mad. She lowered her chin and looked at him through fluttering lashes. “I’m so happy to be back in Cobble Creek.”

  Kira slipped her palms down Anthony’s arm and sandwiched his hand between hers. “She’ll be coming out that doorway any minute. Can you believe it?” She nodded toward a nearby lavatory, the wide walkway adjacent to the men’s room.

  The noise and chaos might have marched on, but Anthony tuned it all out. Channeling the few memories he had of the woman. Loving memories. Her lovely face as she slid a root beer float across the bar, the foamy layer tilting like sea foam on an ocean tide. “It’s all yours, Tony boy.”

  And then there was the memory of being at the pond with her. She’d spread out a blanket so the two could watch ducks bathe in the water. The memory centered around one particular moment when she tossed her arms over her head and declared, “Watch out, world, here I come!” And then she plopped back onto the blanket, grinning wide. “Come on, Tony boy. Try it.” In his memory, he’d done just that. Tossed his arms up, hollered those same words, and then flattened onto his back, where the two giggled. He couldn’t remember what came next. But he used to imagine that she reached out to test all those ticklish spots Dad used to poke at to make him laugh whether he felt like it or not.

  Through the vision of his musings, a woman striding from the indicated doorway came into clear focus. Black hair. Oval-shaped face. And a lifetime of mystery behind her eyes. Her. It was unmistakably her. The face from those memories.

  “Oh, my Tony boy,” she whispered as she neared. With trembling hands, she reached out to him, patted his face as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Do you mind … I mean, is it okay if I hug you?”

  He nodded, working to hold back emotions of his own.

  At once her arms were wrapped solidly around him. “I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry for leaving you.” She held on to him as she wept a moment more, then seemed to remember herself. When she pulled away, she patted his arm before glancing over at Kira.

  “How about we grab our luggage and get to the car,” Kira suggested. “We can catch up some more there.”

  They did that very thing, the conversation flowing comfortably between Kira and his mother. Simple things. A joke about the contrast between the private jet that had taken them from Barcelona to LA, and the commercial flight they’d taken to come to Wyoming. It struck him just how human his mother really was. Crazy.

  In the truck, she started up where she’d left off. Seated in the far passenger seat while Kira sat buckled in the center, Maria spoke of her regret.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when your father died. You don’t know what it did to me when Kira told me he’d passed.” She wiped tears from her face as she said it, her words choked out by sobs. She explained that for the first few years, she was caught up in herself. But for the last thirteen-plus years, she thought about coming back every day, yet feared it was too late. That he and his dad would hate her.

  Anthony stopped her there. “We never could’ve hated you.” It might have come out low and mumbled, but he’d meant it.

  His mother had offered words that would take years for Anthony to digest. But in the moment, among all the emotions and tears, one word stood out like it’d been wrapped in construction orange: fear. He hadn’t been the only one held back by it over the years.

  Yesterday, while telling the guys about Kira’s discovery, Benny asked if Anthony was mad at his mother. The answer hadn’t been simple. After struggling over the question for a bit, Anthony finally said that he wasn’t sure.

  But now, with the woman he loved by his side, expelling awkward tension like there’d never been such thing, a strong spirit of forgiveness took over. When they had more time to talk, he’d make sure Maria understood that very important truth. He wasn’t interested in holding grudges and dwelling on the past. Instead, Anthony was focused on his future.

  Chapte
r 26

  Kira zoomed in on a brightly colored Easter egg as Harper led a cluster of toddlers toward a hidden egg. Holding tight to one hand was Phillip, Maddie and Bear’s nephew. Dressed in a white shirt and bowtie, a chocolate smear over his lip, he was the perfect match for the toddler gripping on to Harper’s right hand: Benny & Darcie’s little girl. Sure, the dainty one had on a frilly dress with lace gloves and a matching hat to go with it, but that little lady wasn’t messing around. Her small face scrunched as they neared, her eyes fixed on whatever part of the egg she could see.

  Kira twisted the lens, bringing the tiny blonde into focus, and snapped a few shots. She zoomed out enough to capture a colorful egg in soft focus at the forefront, the small treasure tucked into a gnarled bend of a bark-covered tree. She captured more shots as the child rested the egg in her grass-heaped basket, only to have it tumble right out and onto the ground. Little Phillip came to the rescue, though, swooping it up with messy fingers and pressing it back into her basket where it belonged.

  Marissa, who’d attempted to watch from the sidelines, had been dragged into the action by a curly-haired Callie, a little gal related to a woman who helped run the B&B. Kira’s mom and dad had come into town with her sister this time, which made the holiday even more special. Her parents had surprised her by helping the bunch color eggs at Tony’s Diner the day before. They also agreed to meet with the volunteers early that morning to hide them all at Lakeview Park. Of course, not all of them were actual eggs. Many were plastic eggs stuffed with goodies and stickers, press-on tattoos of baby chicks and fluffy bunnies. That was part of the magic of Cobble Creek: empty nesters, single adults, newly marrieds, or someplace in between, there was a place for everyone.