At first, the Senator denied knowing anyone by that name. His tone had been gruff and impatient, but Jacob pressed, preferring crumbs to nothing.
“Wait, hold on. Call me back in about twenty minutes. I’ll go upstairs and grab my mom’s stuff from storage.”
The Senator ended up finding a letter between Patricia and his mother. As it turned out, during the last year of her life, she’d taken a woman as a lover, after her husband had passed.
Now there he was, at the door of Pat’s home on Matinicus Isle to see his ex-wife. He stiffened when he heard her voice on the other side of the door and braced himself to see her for the first time in a year.
Though she swung the door open, she kept shoving items into a bag, focused only on her phone conversation. It gave him time to study her. Her hair was short, the long, curly tresses he remembered now gone; the cut looked cute on her. She wore no makeup and he could see the sprinkle of freckles she used to hate and hide them from him. Tiny scars peeked out from the curls on her forehead and the long puckered one that ran down her cheek still pulled the eye down slightly. He took in her sweats and loose t-shirt covering up her curves instead of emphasizing them. But he could tell from her shape and her face that she’dput on weight, and it looked good on her. She’d been slim with curves but now her hips were a bit broader and her small, pert breasts were a handful now. Her voice still sounded the same, light and soulful. He preferred this voice over the manufactured cute and sultry sound she’d put on in public.
When she finally raised her eyes to his, he once again found himself captured in their dark depths. Her eyebrows arched up in surprise and her plump lips separated into an o shape. He heard her intake of breath, and he took a step out of the rain and into the threshold; she moved back instinctively, and he saw when her face grimaced in pain. She winced as her left leg began to shake suddenly and she almost lost her balance. He caught her elbow, steadying her.
“I have to go, Jacob’s here.” She said into the phone. Then she pulled away from him, taking slow and steady steps to the side, letting him enter into her home. The lights winked in and out. He glanced at her, and she shrugged.
“It happens when the wind gets strong here. We have a backup generator if the power lines go down.”
“You know why I am here?”
“Yes.” She said to him, simply.
“The person on the phone?” His interest peaked and annoyance flooded in—someone had been keeping tabs on him and Kaitlyn. She was breaking her promise.
“Yes. But I didn’t know she was doing that.” Sierra explained, seeming to read his mind. She shifted from one leg to the other and he wondered if it was to help with her other leg that had been shaking. But that was not his concern; he came here to get her and leave.
He said coldly. “Are you ready to go then.”
“Yes, but Jacob, what is happening to Kaitlyn?” She pressed her lips together, looking concerned.
“Your friend didn’t tell you.” He shot back sardonically, thinking she had no business looking worried.
She scowled and was going to say something, but he saw she thought better of it. “Not everything. Just that Kaitlyn has leukemia and has been in and out of the hospital.”
“We can talk about it on the way back. The boat is waiting to take us to the city, and I was warned we need to hurry to avoid the second severe storm that’s brewing. The captain wants to get ahead of it.”
She nodded. “You can wait in the kitchen. I have juice or water in the fridge, if you are thirsty. I am almost ready to go.” When she turned to walk past him, her scent teased his senses. It smelt like she was wearing cocoa butter and something else. It was lighter than what she unusually wore. Maybe more like soap than perfume.
Jacob was still standing in the hallway when she disappeared into a room, then he decided to take off his boots. He was a bit parched, but he was also curious to see the place that she now called home.
The kitchen was small and compact, just enough for two people to use and dine in. He then made his way to another room off to the side of the kitchen that had the light on. He stepped into a tiny office and was surprised to see a cot instead of a small couch. He figured Sierra sometimes slept here and wondered why. There was a desk with a small chair, but nothing was on it. He approached the massive bookcase that took up most of the space in the room; his gaze rolled over all the books there, some biographies, but also romance, horror, fantasy, cooking and travel books. He pulled out one that looked to be a thriller; heknew of this book because Marissa read this one and was reading the second one in the series. She loved it and told him he should give it a try. He was not into books, especially ones that looked to be more romantic in nature. He guessed Sierra must like them, assuming they didn’t belong to Pat.
He put it back and left the room, turning off the light. He could hear Sierra still moving around in her room.
Jacob turned around and went into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, popping the cap and slaking his thirst. His eyes wandered and he saw a cupboard door slightly ajar. A burning memory of his drawers being left open when Sierra was looking for a drink had him in front of it. Glaring, he pushed the doors all the way open. All he found was tea boxes. Not mollified, he continued to search.
The dull thud of her suitcase hitting the ground brought him out of his investigation. For a moment, she just stared at him. When he said nothing, Sierra turned away. “I’m ready to go if you are. I can’t carry all my bags because I will need to use my cane to get down to the docks. Can you help me when you are done searching my cupboards? Don’t forget under the sink too.”
“Do you blame me?” He snapped at her back. Though guilt crept over him for going through her kitchen, he didn’t think he was wrong for searching and being skeptical.
She paused and her shoulders slumped. “No, no I don’t. I get it.”
Even though she acknowledged his need to search, he still didn’t like the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew he had to rein his emotions in. She was only here to be useful and help his daughter get better and nothing else.
Chapter 13
Both of them hadn’t spoken since leaving Sierra’s home. During the boat ride back, he had sat on the opposite side of her, staring out the window of the lower deck, brooding. She had also stared outside the window, losing herself in the pitch of the waves and the howling of the wind. Because if she didn’t preoccupy herself, she would end up staring at her ex-husband and taking her fill of the way he looked now. And that way would end in pain for her and possibly risk his contempt and ire.
When she’d seen him standing outside her home, it was as though time had stopped between them again, and when he’d stepped toward her, time had rushed back in. Once he’d lowered his hood, she noticed the changes. His hair was now shorter and more layered. He now sported a trim beard and mustache, the dark hair making his icy blues stand out even more.
He seemed bulkier under the raincoat and wondered if he had taken up weights along with the running he’d liked to do. His tan was faded as it always did when it was starting to get colder outside. When he moved toward her, she’d taken a startled step back; her left leg hadn’t been prepared for that and almost buckled, but when his hand steadied her, the warmth of his touch flooded her with memories, how she’d loved his hands on any part of her body. She moved away as quickly as she could to break the moment before it went too far.
