“Everyone?” he asks.
“Grams and Deedee and Lu—and they heard it from others.”
He chuckles and grabs my hands again, and he looks down at them clasped together. “I don’t talk about Rose much. Or Miami.”
“I noticed. Why not?”
He fiddles with my fingers, and with his face looking down, all I can see is a bit of his furrowed brow.
“Sorry,” I say. “It’s not my business.”
“No, it’s fine. I want to tell you. I just don’t quite know how to explain it. Or where to start.”
“I personally vote for the beginning.”
He smiles slightly, then lets out a breath and releases my hands. He straightens to look at me. “You know my scar? The one you asked about?”
I nod.
He puts a hand to his stomach and rubs at it absently. “I got it in Miami. I’d been on the force for a few years. But I hated it. It was slowly sucking the life out of me. Every single day was so heavy. The violence, the corruption, the death. I wasthisclose to quitting. But there’s a lot of stigma around cops who quit. It got to the point where I almost hoped I’d get injured on the job. To give me an excuse to be done that people would accept, you know?”
I nod again.
“Anyway, I was working a night shift, patrolling one of the wealthier neighborhoods in the precinct when dispatch comes in about a home invasion nearby. I hurried there—first one on the scene.”
I swallow, listening with rapt attention.
“I was supposed to wait for backup, and I did—until I heard shouting inside. I knew from dispatch that the resident was an elderly woman. I didn’t feel like it was right to wait, so I ran inside and identified myself to the intruder, who was standing on the edge of the living room with his gun drawn. Rose was in the opposite corner in her nightgown. I ordered him to lower his weapon, but the next thing I knew, there was a burst of fire in my stomach. I discharged my weapon and hit the guy in the shoulder. He dropped his gun and fell back. Rose came over and kept pressure on my wound until backup arrived a couple minutes later. It’s all kind of a blur after that.”
“Jeez, Beau,” I whisper.
He sucks in a long breath. “Anyway, she came to visit me in the hospital, and we just…”
“You went through something terrifying together.”
He grimaces. “Yeah. We became friends. Family, even. Once I got out of the hospital, I checked on her regularly—it’s got to be awful living alone after an experience like that. But inside I felt so guilty. Almost like Icausedher that trauma by wishing for that kind of danger for myself. But I also just didn’t want to bein Miami anymore. It was too much for me. I couldn’t hack it. So I came home.”
“Beau,” I say, gathering up his hands. “You saved a woman’s life.”
“Did I? Or did I go into that situation to save my pride?”
I shake my head. “No way. I’ve seen you. I’ve watched you. I havevideo evidence”—I hold up my phone, and he smiles ruefully—“of the way you care for this island. There is zero doubt in my mind you would do the same thing you did for Rose for anyone on this island if you had to.”
His throat bobs as he looks in my eyes.
“Am I wrong?” I ask.
He shakes his head slowly. “No.”
I hold his gaze, wanting to be sure he understands that he’s not seeing things accurately.
“You’re amazing, Gemma,” he says, stroking my cheek.
I turn my head away, but he guides it back gently with his hand.
“You want to know why I’m back early?” he asks. “Because I couldn’t wait another sixteen hours to see you, Gemma. Pathetic, right? You asked for time and space, and I can’t even give it to you. I don’t know how much longer you’ll be on this island, and I felt like I was wasting precious time being in Miami while you’re here.”
I try to breathe normally, but breathing at all isn’t coming easily.
