Falling For A Stranger Read online

  "That's all logistical stuff. What is really bothering you?"

  "I don't know if I'll be a good mother. I thought my mom was good, but after her death, I discovered all the secrets she'd kept from me. What kind of mother keeps such big secrets? And God knows my father was a disaster as a parent. He was cold and judgmental and made me feel terrible most of the time. My house was not a happy place to grow up. What if I take after either or both of them?"

  "Sara, stop. You are neither of your parents. You are the best of both of them. And even though your mom had her secrets, she loved you, and she tried to make up for your dad. But none of that matters. I know that you will make a great mother. You're smart and kind and you have a lot of love to give." She paused. "And before you completely freak out—"

  "Too late," Sara said dryly.

  Emma smiled. "You need to find out if you're actually pregnant. Why haven't you taken a test?"

  "I'm not sure I can handle the answer."

  "Have you told Aiden?"

  Sara shook her head. "I don't want to say anything until I'm certain."

  "Maybe you should say something before he goes out and buys a boat he can't afford."

  "He really wants that boat. He told me he has great memories of going out on the bay with his grandfather. I don't want him to miss that because—"

  "Because you're having a baby?" Emma interrupted. "Trust me, Aiden will put family over a boat, but let's take it one step at a time. After the party, we'll go to the drugstore and get you a test. You can take it in my apartment. Max is working all day. We'll be alone."

  Sara smiled, relief in her eyes. "Thanks, Em. Just talking to you makes me feel like everything will be okay."

  "Of course it's going to be okay. It will be amazing. We could use another kid in the family. Give Brandon a little cousin." She glanced over at her nephew, whose attention was focused solely on the task in front of him. "I wonder if he's understood any part of our conversation."

  "I don't know how Nicole deals with him. She's so strong."

  "Mothers do what they have to do."

  "Yeah, I'm hoping a lot of being a mother is instinctive." Sara paused. "I can stay with Brandon if you want to get some food."

  "I'm not that hungry. I'll hang out here awhile longer."

  "Okay," Sara said as she stood up. "See you later."

  As Sara left, Drew came into the room. Emma was both surprised and happy to see him. Drew wasn't big on showing up for family parties.

  "Hi Em."

  "Drew."

  "Happy birthday, Brandon," Drew said.

  Brandon didn't lift his gaze. Drew gave her a questioning look, but she just shrugged. "What are you doing up here?" she asked.

  "Looking for you and Brandon. How's it going?"

  "Fine. We're hanging out. I'm doing a lot of talking. He's ignoring me." She smiled. "Kind of like the way you and I used to interact."

  He laughed as he sat down on the carpet next to her. "I listened sometimes."

  "I don't believe that for a second. Sara told me that you might be buying a boat with Aiden and Burke?"

  "I just heard about it. I haven't agreed to anything. We're going to take a look at it later today."

  "You'll agree," she said with confidence. "There's no way you'll let Burke and Aiden do this without you." She gave him a mischievous smile. "You always loved it when they let you play."

  "I'm a little too old to worry about playing with my older brothers," he said dryly.

  "Yeah, but it has to feel a little good to have them include you."

  He shrugged. "I think it's my money they want."

  "They're not that cold. Although, sometimes I think Burke put his heart into the freezer after Hailey's death, and I don't know what it will take to thaw him out."

  "He has to grieve in his own time," Drew said quietly.

  Drew knew a lot about grief. He'd lost a lot of friends in his eight years in the Navy, not that he ever talked about his time in the service, but it had taken a toll on him. She was glad he was home now; she just wished he'd open up a bit more. Maybe working on the boat with Aiden and Burke would help him reconnect with the family.

  "I don't ordinarily like to encourage family activities that don't include me," she said. "But I think you should buy the boat. It would be good for all three of you. Actually, it would be nice if you could include Sean, but he's barely surviving as a musician. I'm sure he doesn't have extra cash. And Colton is perpetually broke. Shayla doesn't have time and Nicole has her hands full trying to save Brandon and her marriage."

  "How is that going?"

  She shook her head. "I have no idea. I don't think she and Ryan are even talking right now. They haven't officially filed for divorce, but someone is going to have to do something soon."

  "I haven’t seen Ryan in a few months," he murmured. "Maybe I can talk to him."

  "It couldn't hurt."

  Drew idly picked up a block, rolling it between his fingers as he watched Brandon. "What is he building?"

  "I'm not sure, but Brandon has a good sense of structure. He loves to work with the blocks. It keeps his attention for hours."

  "I used to love building stuff. Burke and I built almost an entire city in our bedroom one summer."

  "I remember. Then Daisy knocked it over," she said, referring to their golden retriever.

  He smiled. "I forgot about that."

  "I'm pretty sure Aiden threw something into the room so that Daisy would go after it," Emma said dryly. "He was bored with you."

  "I wouldn't doubt it. Good old Daisy."

  "Maybe you should get a dog to keep you company."

  "I have plenty of company."

  "Do you?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

  "Yes. Speaking of company, where's your fiancé today?"

  "Max is working."

  "How are you two doing?"

  "Still happy. Still engaged. Life is good," she said, which was really quite an understatement for how fabulous her life was now with Max.

  "You deserve it after that douche bag you were with a few years ago."

  "Don't remind me." She paused, giving her brother a thoughtful look. There was a familiar weariness in his eyes. She'd thought for a while he was just recovering from his years in the Navy, but there was something else going on. "What's wrong, Drew? You look tired."

  "I haven't been sleeping well."

  "Is it that woman again? The one you thought was dead? Did you see her again?"

  He frowned. "I wish I'd never told you about her. And, no, I haven't seen her again."

  "But you're still thinking about her."

  "Mind your own business, Em."

  "You're my business. You're my brother." She cocked her head to one side as she studied his expression. "She meant something to you, didn't she?"

  "I don't know what she meant to me. She died before we had a chance to find out."

  "You've never told me what happened. Was she someone you were trying to rescue?"

  "I did try to save her, but I wasn't on duty. I was just nearby when she was involved in a boat accident."

  "I'm sorry." Despite Drew's claim that he didn't know what the woman meant to him, Emma knew that there was some kind of strong connection. Drew had been in the search and rescue business for a decade. He was hardened to accidents and even to death. He'd spent years building a hard shell around his heart. While it saddened her to see, she suspected that wall was what kept him from losing his sanity.

  "I don't want to talk about her," Drew said.

  "If you change your mind, I'm here. And I might be able to help."

  "How could you help?"

  "Well, I could help you take your mind off this woman by setting you up with one of my hot, single girlfriends."

  He groaned. "No set-ups. I can get my own dates."

  "I know you can, but you don't," she said pointedly. "You haven't brought a woman around the family in a long time."

  "For good reason. I don't need you sca
ring them off with the third degree."

  "I wouldn't do that."

  He laughed. "Sure you would."

  "I care about you, Drew. You've had some rough years. I know you won't talk about them, so I'm not going to ask. But I want to see you happy, maybe even settle down with someone, have a long term relationship."

  "Just because you're engaged you want everyone else to be matched up."

  "Okay, that's sort of true, but not completely."

  "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

  "You always say that."

  "Because it's true."

  "Well, if you're not going to have a social life, then I guess you'll be one less sibling who needs to bring a guest to my wedding."

  "No way. I'm not coming solo to your wedding. You'll put me at the singles table. I'll bring someone."

  "Who?" she asked with a challenging smile.

  "I don't know yet."

  "Well, you have almost five months to figure it out," she said on her way out the door.

  Chapter Four

  Drew followed Aiden and Burke to the marina just after three o'clock in the afternoon. He'd opted to take his own car, so he wouldn’t have to drive all the way back to his parents house. And he'd also wanted to have a few minutes to think about what he might be about to commit to.

  It had been a long time since he'd done something with Burke and Aiden, and this would be a good opportunity to reconnect. But a boat? He'd always been about planes, then helicopters. He'd spent some time on carriers in the Navy, but that was just in between flights.

  He'd certainly never thought of himself as a boat owner. But why not? It could be fun—something different, something to take his mind off the woman who haunted his dreams every night.

  Shaking that thought out of his head, he turned into the crowded parking lot by the marina. The morning's storm had completely disappeared and the sun was bright in the sky, bringing out the locals and the tourists. After squeezing his black SUV into a compact parking spot, he got out of the car and walked toward the Bayview Yacht Club. Aiden and Drew were waiting for him on the sidewalk.

  They walked down the dock together. The boat bobbed gently in the water in a slip at the far end of the marina, a beautifully proud and a little weathered thirty-foot sailboat.

  They hopped on board and walked around. Drew hadn’t been on the boat in years, but as he took a quick look downstairs at the galley and sleeping berth, he flashed back on some happy daytrips with his grandfather at the helm, and his dad showing him how to rig the sails.

  "It's not in bad shape," Burke said, as Drew came up the stairs. "What does the interior look like?"

  "Fine, a little aged," Drew said. "But not unacceptable."

  "I agree," Aiden said, excitement in his eyes. "We have to do this." He waved his hand toward the bay, the majestic Golden Gate Bridge in the distance, Alcatraz and Angel Island. "Look where we are—in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The Pacific Ocean is just beyond the bridge. We've all been working hard for a long time. Our jobs have big stakes, life and death. The pressure is tough. We need to relieve that tension every once in a while. This boat is the perfect solution. We can cruise, we can race." He paused. "We can entertain the ladies."

  "You're getting married, that's lady singular to you," Drew said with a grin.

  "Well, you and Burke can go crazy then. Look, I can do the dance and tell you all the reasons why we should do this. And then Burke can tell us all the reasons why we shouldn't. But bottom line—I'm buying this boat," Aiden said. "I want to partner with you both, but if you're not in, I'll keep looking. So what do you say? Are you in or are you out?"

  "I'm considering it," Burke said. "Give me a minute."

  As Burke went to check out the galley, Drew's attention turned to a small sailboat pulling into a slip two rows in front of them. As the woman jumped off the boat to secure the lines, his chest tightened, and his heart skipped a beat. She was slender, wearing jeans and a navy blue windbreaker. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

  Two teenage kids got off the boat. They exchanged a few words with the woman, and then took off. As she turned around, Drew saw her face.

  "Oh, my God," he muttered.

  "Drew?" Aiden asked. "What are you looking at?"

  He heard the question but he didn't have time to answer. He had to get to her before she disappeared again.

  He jumped off the boat and ran down the docks, hearing Aiden call after him. He didn't even glance back. He was not going to let Ria get away again.

  But she was already walking down the dock toward the yacht club.

  "Ria," he shouted as he ran after her.

  She glanced back and stiffened, then turned around and quickened her pace.

  What the hell?

  He broke into a jog, catching up to her in the parking lot. "Ria, wait." He grabbed her arm, hoping he hadn't completely lost his mind and was about to scare the life out of a total stranger. But it wasn't a stranger staring back at him. It was Ria.

  Her brown eyes widened, and she sucked in a quick breath of air.

  "It is you," he said, feeling confused, relieved and amazed all at the same time. "You're alive."

  Her hair might not be blonde anymore, but her brown eyes with the gold lights were the same, as well as her lightly sunburned cheeks, and her lips—her soft, full, pink lips that made his body tighten in memory.

  He was suddenly slammed with a montage of images from the night they'd spent together. Every one of his senses came alive. He could smell the orange blossoms in her hair when he kissed her neck. He could taste the heat of her mouth. He could feel her breasts swell under his hands as he licked her nipples into peaks of pleasure. And the way she'd come apart under him, on top of him—he could still hear her soft cries of uninhibited pleasure.

  Damn!

  His breath came so fast he started to feel dizzy.

  He'd wished a thousand times for people to come back from the dead, but it had never happened—until now.

  "Drew," she said finally, biting down on her bottom lip, as she tried to come up with something else to say.

  The silence went on far too long. He'd seen her in his dreams so many times he had to tell himself that he wasn't dreaming now. But he was holding her arm. He could feel the heat of her body. He could hear her voice. She wasn't a ghost.

  "I don't understand," he said, shaking his head in confusion. "I thought you were dead. Everyone did."

  "So you heard about the fire on the boat?" she asked slowly.

  "Heard about it? I saw it. I was on the dock when the explosion almost knocked me off my feet." He could still hear the thunderous roar in his head and taste the terror that had run through him as he and Juan had sailed toward the destruction.

  "You were on the dock?" Her eyes widened in surprise. "I thought you were on your way to the airport."

  "I had a few more hours before my flight. I was down there looking for you."

  She shook her head. "I didn't know."

  He stared back at her. "How did you survive? The boat was blown to bits."

  "I jumped off before it blew up." She licked her lips. "I swam away, and eventually I made it to one of the small islands nearby. I was there for several days before anyone found me."

  Her words were logical, but there was something about her story that sounded practiced.

  "What about the other people on board? Did they make it?"

  "No, I don't think so."

  He didn't understand why she was acting so guarded. There was fear in her eyes, but she hadn't been afraid of him on the island. Why was she now? Why wasn't she smiling, laughing, telling him about the adventure she'd had, the miraculous escape from death?

  "Ria, what's going on?"

  "Could you let go of my arm? You're hurting me."

  He hesitated, then released his grip. "Sorry. Why did you run away from me just now? You heard me call your name."

  "I didn't want to talk to you. It's—awkw
ard."

  "Why?"

  "Because it is." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "We had a one-night thing a long time ago. I don't know what you want me to say."

  There were a lot of things he wanted her to say, and none of them were coming out of her mouth. "Your explanation of your escape doesn't make sense to me. Juan took me out to the scene of the explosion. There were dozens of people looking for you and your passenger. I was one of them. I was in the water searching for you. I don't see how you could have swum away."

  Her face whitened. "I didn't know you were part of the search. Why were you out there?"

  "Because I wanted to save your life."

  "Oh. Well, that was generous of you."

  "That's it?"

  "I didn't know you looked for me. I'm touched."

  "I waited on the island for two days. I know search parties went out in boats to the neighboring islands. They came back empty."

  "I was on a really small island. It was very far away. I'm sure most people wouldn't have thought I could swim that far. But I have strong survival instincts."

  He gave her a long look. She avoided his eyes. "I don't believe you," he said. "Why are you lying to me?"

  She stiffened. "I don't care if you believe me. You asked me what happened, and I told you. So we're done."

  "Hold on," he said forcefully. "We are not done. I thought I saw you on Fisherman's Wharf right before Thanksgiving. And now I'm sure it was you."

  "I don't remember seeing you."

  She was lying again.

  "After I saw you," he continued. "I called Juan at Sea Charters, and I asked him if you or anyone else on your boat had been rescued after I left. He said no and that the tragedy still haunted him."

  She stiffened. "I wish you hadn't done that."

  "Why?"

  "Because it's complicated."

  "The fact that you're alive when you're supposed to be dead is complicated? Yeah, that's an understatement."

  "I didn't go back to the island after I was rescued. I wasn't particularly close to anyone there, and it was time to come back to the States." She paused. "Did you call anyone else besides Juan?"

  "I also spoke to Martin at the bar. He said he'd made peace with the fact that you'd died doing something you love. I wonder how they'll both react when they find out you're alive."