“Reckon I’ll have to take your word for it. How’s everyone else doing?” Doc knew LT and Olivia would probably spend the duration of the storm having sex. It seemed to be all theyeverdid when they were alone together in their room. And he tried not to hate them for it while simultaneously wishing there was a way to add more insulation to walls. So his question was really about Dana. He decided to make that clear. “Is Dana okay?”
“I’ll keep her with me.” John’s mustache hid what Doc determined was a shit-eating grin. “She’ll be fine and dandy.”
“Youlikeher.” Doc pointed an accusatory finger at John’s lecherous smile.
“’Course I do. What’s not to like? But before you go givin’ me shit for havin’ a heart-on for a gal, you better look in the mirror.”
Doc choked. “Did you really just sayhard-on?”
“No.” Uncle John shook his head. “I ain’t that crude. And I ain’t that shallow. I saidheart-on. I like Dana for a whole helluva lot more than what’s she got goin’ on between her legs. Same way you like Cami.”
Doc quickly glanced over his shoulder to make sure she was still asleep. Turning back, he hissed, “You mind keeping it down?”
“Why?” John snorted. “It’s not like it’s any big secret. We all got eyes in our heads, boy. We see the way you look at her.”
“How do I look at her?”
“Like she’s the north star and you’re a sailor lost at sea.”
“For shit’s sake.” Doc gave his earlobe a hard tug.
He would’ve felt better had John said something like,You look at her like you’re a starving man and she’s a twelve course meal. Becausethatwould’ve implied he looked at her with nothing but lust. But the north star and a sailor lost at sea? That meant he looked at Cami like she was his salvation.
“What’s holdin’ you back, boy?” John interrupted his musings. “Why haven’t you made your move yet? And don’t gimme none of that crap about her not lettin’ you ’cause she’s your lawyer. We all know you could talk her outta that in a heartbeat if you tried.”
Doc couldn’t even begin to explain. All he could do was shake his head.
John sighed and clapped a hand on Doc’s shoulder. “I ain’t never had a wife, so I can’t speak to the loss of one. But I do know somethin’ about the human heart. Its capacity to love is endless. Don’t go puttin’ limits on somethin’ that doesn’t need to have any. And if it was worth it the first time, like you told me it was, then don’t you reckon it’d be worth it a second?”
Before Doc could respond to the hand grenade of profundity John had dropped, John pinched his cheek like he was eight instead of thirty-eight and headed down the hall, whistling a Jimmy Buffett tune.
Shaking his head, Doc softly closed the door and prepared to turn back into the room. Back toward the bed. Back toward the most beautiful woman in the world who just happened to be sleeping there.
But just as he’d feared, no amount of preparation readied him for the impact of Camilla D’ Angelo asleep atop his mattress. That shapely thigh was still out, and the temptation to walk over and pick up where he’d left off was unlike anything he’d ever known.
Then, after I’ve run a hand down her silky leg, I’ll join her under that sheet. I’ll pull her close and hold her safe while the world rages around us.
At least that’s what hewantedto do.
Which was why he shuffled over to his closet and took down the shoebox from the top shelf instead.
Sitting in the rattan cane chair in the corner, he opened the lid and pulled out the silk scarf. How many times had he done this? Sat alone with this shoebox in his lap?
Too many times to count. And yet, not at all recently.
The realization made the empty space inside him grow wider, deeper. It renewed the ache that lived there.
Holding the soft material to his nose, he inhaled the familiar scent of his wife. Just that easily, the memory of her was no longer fuzzy. It was as sharp and as shiny as a new scalpel. It cut just as deeply.
Familiar tears clogged his throat. But he screwed tight his eyelids and refused to let them fall.
Chapter 5
12:45 PM...
“A goddamn pisser if ever there was one.”
Will opened his mouth to assure Brady it wasn’t as bad as all that. But the words stuck in his throat.
