Her friends complimenting her about her home was overshadowed by their concern for her well-being, and she knew for certain her decision to move to Coates Island was one of the best she’d ever made. Leah, once she was discharged from the hospital, left Richmond to come to Coates Island to recuperate. Kayana and Derrick had welcomed her with open arms and insisted she live in the apartment above the restaurant. Cherie was certain if she’d been attacked in Connecticut and had fled to the island, Leah and Kayana would do the same for her: offer her their protection and sanctuary.
“You guys do whatever you do in the kitchen.Mi casa es tu casa.I’m going upstairs to get a scarf to cover up my neck. Every time I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror, I can’t help but think about that monster choking me.”
Kayana washed her hands in one of the double stainless sinks. “Derrick told me that if Reese hadn’t come along when he did, you probably wouldn’t be standing here talking to us.”
Cherie nodded. “I was close to blacking out when I heard Reese threaten to shoot the bastard.”
“And he would have,” Kayana confirmed. “Reese spent more than twenty years in the military as an Army Ranger. And I can assure you he wasn’t issuing an idle threat.”
“You should think of the man as your guardian angel. He was at the right place and at the right time,” Leah said, giving her a sidelong glance.
Cherie nodded again as she recalled Reese talking about destiny. He’d believed he was destined to be in that parking lot at the exact time she was being attacked. “Either guardian angel or superhero.”
Leah angled her head. “If he’s a superhero, who would he be? Superman? Batman? Captain America or Spider-Man?”
“Black Panther,” Cherie said, “because not only is he a superhero, but he’s also a king.”
Kayana dried her hands on a paper towel. “I would have to agree with you. Reese’s family is considered black royalty on Coates Island. Like my ancestors, his were also free people of color even before the Emancipation Proclamation. He also comes from a long line of master carpenters. Maybe one of these days, he will tell you about his folks and their contribution to the island.”
Cherie wasn’t certain she wanted or needed to know more about the deputy. She’d consciously shut herself off from the opposite sex, yet there was something about Reese Matthews that whispered she was lying to herself. Notwithstanding his gorgeous face and body, she’d experienced flutters in her stomach whenever he entered the restaurant. It was as if she had been watching and waiting for him to come, and when he did, she had to call on all her self-control to pretend to be interested in her tasks rather than give him furtive glances. If their eyes happened to meet, he would affect a half smile with a barely perceptible nod of acknowledgment. She didn’t know why, but she was mesmerized by his deep, soothing voice and entranced by the scent of his masculine cologne.
Thinking about him quickened her breathing and elicited a wave of heat that began in her face before slowly working its way down to her chest. Then, without warning, her breasts grew heavy, and she swallowed a moan as the region between her thighs pulsed, and she couldn’t believe what was happening to her. Yes, it had been years since she’d slept with a man; she’d encountered men that had expressed an interest in dating her, yet none had affected her like Reese Matthews. Why him? she mused. What made him so very different from the others?
“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Her statement was breathless, as if she’d run a long, grueling race.
She had to put some distance between herself and her friends before they noticed the flush suffusing her face. She did not want to dwell on Reese because she feared losing focus and the reason she’d relocated. She had left Connecticut to put her past behind her. And that included exorcizing a personal relationship that nearly destroyed her emotionally. It had taken a while for Cherie to admit that the aptitude she’d exhibited academically was vastly superior to her ability to choose wisely when it came to a romantic liaison.
She found a blue silk scarf in a drawer with several others, looping it twice around her neck and then tying it in a neat bow over the sweatshirt with the fading Yale logo. She left the bedroom and walked into the en suite bath. She picked up a wide-tooth comb and pulled it through the tangle of damp curls. Now she felt better prepared to interact with her friends without them staring at the angry red bruises. If she’d known in advance that she would have visitors so early that morning, she would have applied ice and concealer to minimize the puffiness and dark circles over and under her eyes.
Cherie turned off the light and went downstairs. Although she hadn’t expected Kayana and Leah to show up, deep down inside she was happy they’d come to check on her. Because that’s what real friends do.
Chapter 9
Cherie recovered from a fit of hysterical laughter and dabbed the corners of her eyes with as napkin. “Was your husband really naked?” she asked Kayana, after she’d given her update about an incident that had occurred when they’d sailed down to the Florida Keys.
“As naked as the day he came into the world.”
Kayana revealed that Robert Duvall was Graeme’s favorite actor, and he’d memorized every line of the actor’s dialogue fromApocalypse Now.Leah and Derrick were still asleep in their cabin when Graeme got out of bed, butt naked, and went up on deck just as the sun was coming up and yelled, “I love the smell of the ocean in the morning.” And when someone yelled back that they liked it too, he lost his footing as he scrambled down the ladder and wound up with bruises on his legs, lower back, and abrasions on his scrotum. And when she’d asked him about them, he claimed he hadn’t wanted to talk about it. It was after they’d returned home that he finally confessed to her about the incident.
“Was he aware that your boat wasn’t the only one moored at the island?”
Kayana took a sip of the mango-infused champagne, her eyes crinkling in a smile over the rim of the flute. “There were no other boats around when we’d dropped anchor off Bahia Honda key late that night, so he must have assumed we had that side of the island to ourselves.”
“When Kayana told me about it, I laughed so hard that I actually peed my panties,” Leah said, grinning. “Derrick told me I was wrong to laugh, but you know how guys stick together when it comes to jokes about their family jewels.”
“And Graeme’s were gloriously on display that morning,” Kayana added. “I wanted to ask him if he’d learned his lesson but didn’t want to add more embarrassment to injury.”
Cherie liked the former widowed high school math and economics teacher who had moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina because he’d found himself drawn to the co-owner of a restaurant on an island that barely made the map. And it was apparent he knew what he’d wanted and gone after it, unaware that Kayana wasn’t interested in becoming involved with a man—at least not romantically. Cherie didn’t know what the tall, gray-eyed man had said or done, but apparently it worked: within six months of their first date, they’d become husband and wife.
She wondered what it was about vacationing on Coates Island that had changed lives and futures. The first year Graeme Ogden visited, his idea was to rent a bungalow and enjoy his summer recess. The following year, it was to retire from teaching, purchase a home on the island, become romantically involved with the co-owner of the Seaside Café, and marry her.
It had also taken Leah Kent two trips to the island to realize she had to change her life and find a man who not only loved but respected her. Cherie had begun to believe the island was restorative because she too, after two trips, had decided to make it her forever home.
And she was looking forward to their book club discussions, where she experienced a satisfying camaraderie with the two women in their late forties, a closeness that she’d been unable to achieve with women her age. She didn’t regard Kayana and Leah as mother figures but as mentors for how she should try to live her life.
Kayana’s twenty-year marriage had ended once she’d discovered her husband had fathered a child with another woman, and Leah was finally willing to give up her glittering lifestyle as the wife of a judge, to walk away after thirty years of marriage to a much older man who’d controlled every phase of her life. Cherie knew that if they were willing to give up men they’d loved and married, then it should’ve been a no-brainer for her to completely exorcise her former lover from her heart and her head. And now she felt comfortable enough to admit to her friends that she was a work in progress.
“Have you guys decided where you’re going to celebrate Christmas this year?”
