A Brambleberry Summer Read online

  She gazed at him, eyes wide. In the dim light of the moon, he saw her swallow and her gaze seemed to slide to his mouth.

  The scent of her, sweet and feminine, with hints of vanilla and berries, drifted to him. He wanted to close his eyes and inhale her inside him.

  “I am glad I could remind you of this,” she finally said.

  He knew he should walk away, turn around and go into the house, to that empty apartment and the even emptier bed. He couldn’t seem to make his muscles cooperate. The pull of her was too strong and he had no tools to withstand this slow, aching desire churning through his blood.

  “I would like to kiss you right now.”

  As soon as he heard the words, he wanted to call them back, but it was far too late. They danced between them like petals on the breeze.

  He thought she would turn and walk away since he couldn’t seem to do it. Instead, she only gazed up at him out of those soft brown eyes he wanted to sink into.

  “Would you?” she finally asked, her voice soft and her accent more pronounced than usual.

  “Yes. Would you mind?”

  After a brief hesitation, as if she was debating with herself, she shook her head slightly.

  That was all the encouragement he needed. He lowered his mouth to hers, his heart beating so loudly in his ears it almost drowned out the ever-present sound of the ocean.

  If he had forgotten how much peace he could find talking with a woman, he had really forgotten how much he loved to kiss a woman in the moonlight.

  Her mouth tasted of strawberries and cream, and her lips trembled slightly. She must have set down the bag she had been carrying because one hand grasped his shirtfront and the other slid around his neck.

  It was the perfect moment, the perfect kiss. He had no other way to describe it. A light breeze stirred the air around them, the ocean murmured nearby and the moonlight played on her features.

  He wanted to stay right here, with his heart pounding and her mouth soft and sweet and generously responding to his kiss.

  Here, he could focus only on the perfection of this moment. Not on the pain of the past or the mysteries that surrounded her or all the reasons they could never have anything but this kiss.

  Chapter Eight

  In her secret dreams, Rosa had wondered before what it would be like to kiss Wyatt. Having him live downstairs from her these last few weeks had only increased her attraction to the man, so, of course, she would wonder.

  She had suspected kissing him would be an unforgettable experience.

  She had not expected it to knock her legs out from under her.

  Rosa closed her eyes, her heart pounding as his mouth explored hers.

  Now, as he kissed her, she could admit that she had been attracted to him for a long time. Long before he had moved to Brambleberry House, she had been nervous around him. She had told herself it was because of his position with the police department. Now she could admit it was because of the man himself.

  His kiss staggered her.

  Why? She had kissed other men, of course. Not counting the awful time in her youth that she didn’t like to think about, she had had boyfriends.

  She wanted to think she had a healthy relationship now with men, with sex, especially after the counseling her parents had insisted on.

  She didn’t blame all men for what had happened to her.

  Even so, Rosa was fully aware that she usually gravitated toward a different sort of man. Someone who was not as masculine as Wyatt.

  Those kind of men were the safer bet, she realized now. They didn’t threaten her. She always had held most of the control in every other situation.

  Not with Wyatt. Kissing him felt like being caught in a riptide, as if she were whirling and spinning from forces beyond her control.

  Sometimes when she saw the intensity between Lauren and Daniel, or her aunt Anna and Harry, Rosa wondered if she had something fundamental broken inside her.

  She had assumed that the scars she bore so deeply inside made it impossible for her to feel that kind of passion.

  Kissing Wyatt in this moment made her question every single one of those foolish assumptions.

  She could want, with a searing intensity that left her breathless.

  She wanted to drag him to the dewy grass and kiss him for hours. And more. She wanted more with him.

  And then what?

  Cold, hard reality seemed to push through the dreamy haze that surrounded her.

  After this kiss, then what? Try as she might, she couldn’t envision a scenario where she and Wyatt could have anything but a few wild kisses. Where they could live happily ever after.

  He was a police detective and she was...herself. A product of what had happened to her and the choices that had led her here to this moment.

  They could never be together, so what was the point in setting herself up for more pain?

  She drew in a breath, willing her hunger to subside. When she thought she had herself under control enough that she could think straight again, she slid her mouth away, cooled by the night air that swirled around them. After another inhalation, she made herself take a slight step back.

  She couldn’t see him clearly, but she could tell he had been as caught up in the kiss as she was.

  He gazed down at her, his eyes slightly unfocused and his hair messy from her fingers. He looked so delicious, she had a hard time not stepping straight back into his arms.

  She had to say something, but all the words seemed tangled up inside her like fishing line discarded on the beach, a jumble of Spanish and English that made no sense, even to her.

  She finally swallowed hard and forced a smile.

  “That was a surprise.”

  He continued to look down at her, his face so close she could see each distinct long eyelash and the fine network of lines etched into the corners of his eyes.

  He released a long breath. “Yes. It was.”

  “I thought you meant a little good-night kiss like a friend would give a friend.”

  “That was substantially more, wasn’t it?”

  She could feel the imprint of his mouth on hers, could still taste him on her tongue—the wine and mint, the strawberries and cream from the dessert his sister had made. She shivered a little, wishing she could lean in for another kiss.

  “Indeed.” She hated this awkwardness between them, especially after the closeness they had shared on the walk from his sister’s house. She shook her head.

  “I’m sorry if I turned the kiss into more than you wanted.”

  “You didn’t. That is the problem. I want, though I know I should not.”

  He gave a slightly raw-sounding laugh, as if startled by her honesty. “Same. I want. And I know I should not. What are we going to do about that?”

  Rosa spent a delicious moment imagining what she would like to do. She wanted to drag him up two flights of stairs to her cozy bedroom under the eaves and spend the entire night exploring all his muscles and hard edges.

  That was impossible, for a hundred reasons. The biggest one was right now at the house they had come from.

  “I don’t know what you will do, but I will go inside, take a soak in the tub and try to focus on something else.”

  A muscle worked along his jawline as if he was trying to keep himself from responding. He finally nodded. “I suppose that’s for the best.”

  Rosa managed a smile, trying to pretend she wasn’t fighting with everything inside her to keep from doing what she longed to do—tug him back into her arms and kiss him again until they both forgot all the shoulds and should nots.

  “Good night to you, Wyatt. I enjoyed the evening...and the kiss.”

  “Rosa...” he began, but she didn’t wait to hear what he said. She hurried up the steps, unlocked the front door with hands that trembled and rushed up to her
apartment.

  As she took the stairs quickly, she thought she felt an odd cold spot on the stairs and had the strangest feeling that the house or its inhabitants were disappointed in her.

  She and Wyatt had decided not to take the dogs with them because of Carrie’s spoiled and rather unfriendly cats. Inside the apartment, Fiona rose to greet her, giving her an unblinking stare, as if she knew exactly what Rosa had just been doing in the moonlight with their downstairs neighbor.

  “Not you, too.”

  Fi snorted as if she had plenty to say but only regretted that she did not have the words.

  “What do you want me to do?” she said aloud to her dog. “You know I cannot invite the man up. He is a police officer. He would not be interested in me, if he knew the truth.”

  Fiona whined. She needed to go out, but Rosa wasn’t eager to go down the stairs again and risk meeting up with Wyatt. Her dog’s needs came first, though.

  “Don’t be like that,” she said as she hooked up Fi’s leash. “You know it is true. I have too many secrets I cannot tell him.”

  The dog didn’t look convinced.

  “I cannot,” Rosa insisted. “You know I cannot. They are not only my secrets. I cannot tell him.”

  Wyatt was a good man, A decent, honorable man, she thought as she walked down the stairs again and outside into the moonlight. To her relief, she didn’t see any sign of him.

  He reminded her so much of Daniel, who would always be her hero for rescuing her in her darkest moment.

  She loved her adopted father dearly so she supposed it was only natural that she would be so fiercely drawn to a man who had all of Daniel’s best qualities.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said. She didn’t feel foolish carrying on this conversation with her dog. Fiona was the best possible confidante, who listened to all her inner thoughts and only judged a little.

  She didn’t tell the dog that she suspected she might be falling for Wyatt, though she knew he would never feel the same. Not if he knew the truth.

  She knew he was still grieving for his wife. Even if the two of them shared a few kisses, she knew Wyatt wasn’t in a good place for anything more.

  She wanted things to be different. If only they were both free of their pasts and had met under other circumstances. But she knew she wouldn’t have been the same person without all that had happened to her and she thought the same of Wyatt.

  She would not kiss him again. What would be the point? Nothing could come of it and she would only end up with more pain.

  * * *

  With the Oregon coast in full tourist season, Rosa didn’t have time to think about that kiss more than about two or three dozen times a day at random moments.

  Over the next week, she made several day trips out of town to the central coast and to Portland to pick up inventory from some of their vendors.

  Today she was busy revamping her window display a week after Independence Day, adding in the new products she had collected to feature, while Jen worked the cash register and assisted customers.

  Rosa was thrilled at the change in her friend. Jen had come so far over the past few weeks. She was far more relaxed with the customers. She smiled and chatted easily and seemed to have lost that haunted look she used to wear at random moments.

  “Thank you. Come back again. We have new inventory all the time,” she told the final customer at her register. A few other browsers were looking at their selection of T-shirts, but they didn’t seem in any hurry so Rosa left the window to walk over to Jen and check on her.

  “How are things going?” she asked.

  “Great. Really good.” Jen smiled, looking far more like the woman Rosa remembered from their college days together. “It’s hard to be in a bad mood when the weather is so glorious, isn’t it?”

  They really had been blessed with unusually sunny weather. It was good now, but made her worry about forest fires later in the season.

  “You seem to be more comfortable with the customers.”

  “I am enjoying the work, but to tell you the truth, I’m starting to miss teaching. This is the time of year when I would usually start thinking about my classroom decorations for the next school year and working on lesson plans.”

  Jen had been a third-grade teacher in Utah and had loved her career. That was one of the things that angered Rosa the most, that her friend had been forced to leave all that she loved in order to escape.

  “I can understand that.”

  “I was actually wondering if I could take a day off tomorrow. I know it’s short notice.”

  “Of course,” Rosa said immediately. “I can rearrange the schedule. If I cannot find anyone to cover for you, I will work myself. That should not be a problem, especially now that the holiday weekend is over.”

  “Thank you. You won’t believe this but I already have a job interview lined up!”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful!”

  Rosa knew Jen had recently finished the process to certify her Utah teaching license in Oregon and that she had started applying in the area.

  “The first school I contacted called me today and want to talk to me tomorrow. It’s at Addie’s school, which would be ideal.”

  “Oh, that is so exciting. Of course, you can have the day off. Or more than that, if you need it.”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure if I should apply. If I found a job, I would have to quit working here before the tourist season is over in September.”

  Rosa waved a hand. “Don’t worry about that for a moment. I have temporary seasonal workers who have asked for more hours, so I can give them your shifts if you get a new teaching contract. I’m just happy that you like it enough here in Oregon to think about staying for a while.”

  Jen hugged her and Rosa was happy to note that she had started to gain weight again and seemed to have lost that frail, hunted look.

  “It’s all because of you,” Jen said. “I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done since I moved here. Giving me this job, a place to live. You have been amazing.”

  Rosa was only happy she had been in a position to offer help.

  “I have been grateful to have you and Addie here. You would have a job here at the store as long as you want, but it would be wonderful for you to return to teaching. You were made to be a teacher.”

  The T-shirt customers came over to ask a question, distracting them from further conversation. The door opened and more customers entered, so Rosa moved to help them.

  A constant flow of traffic moved in and out of the store over the next few hours and she was too busy to have another chance to talk to her friend about her interview.

  Finally, things seemed to slow near the end of Jen’s shift. One of the other seasonal workers, Carol Hardesty, came in a little early for her own shift and Rosa was about to tell Jen to take off for the day when she suddenly heard a loud crash.

  Rosa jerked up her head, instantly alert, to find Jen staring out the window, the shards of a broken coaster scattered at her feet.

  Fortunately, it was a fairly inexpensive one in a design that hadn’t been particularly attractive, anyway.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, when Jen continued to stare out the window.

  Her words seemed to jolt the woman back to her senses. Jen looked down at the mess, a dawning look of horror on her features.

  “Oh, no. I’m so sorry.”

  Rosa moved quickly to her. “You look frightened. Are you all right? Has something happened?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know. I just... I thought I saw...”

  “A ghost?” Carol hurried up with a broom and dustpan and started sweeping in her no-nonsense way. “We get those here in Cannon Beach. Once, I swear I saw a man all wrapped up in bandages walking around the side of Highway 101. When I slowed down to see if he needed help, he was completely gone. Spooky!”<
br />
  “Yes. It must have been...something like that.”

  Jen looked like a ghost herself with her suddenly pale features.

  “And the really creepy part is,” Carol went on, “when I mentioned it to a few people, I found out Bandage Man is kind of a legend around here. There was even a stretch of the old highway called Bandage Man Road. Weird, right?”

  Jen hardly seemed to hear her, still staring out the window.

  “You need to sit down for a minute.”

  “Yes,” Carol urged. “I’ve got this mess and I’ll handle any customers. Don’t worry about a thing.”

  Rosa guided a numb Jen to the back room she used as an office, which was also where most of the employees took their breaks. Jen sagged into a chair and Rosa crouched beside her, holding her hand.

  “Who did you see? Was it the man you fear?”

  Jen shook her head. “Not him. But maybe a friend of his. I can’t be sure. I only caught a glimpse of him through the window, but I think he was looking at me as if he knew me.”

  Her panic was only too familiar to Rosa. She knew just how it felt to be hunted. The memories crowded into her mind but she pushed him away.

  This was not about her. This was about Jen and her fear and the man who had made her life hell for months.

  Rosa did not offer platitudes because she knew how useless they could be.

  “What do you need? Do you want me to call the police? You know you can trust Wyatt. Detective Townsend. He is a good man.”

  For a moment, Jen looked as if she would consider doing just that, then she shook her head. “What would I say? That I think I might have seen a man who might be friends with a man who scares me but who has never actually touched me? He will think I’m crazy.”

  “He will not think you are crazy.” Rosa did not know how she knew this so completely, but she had no doubt that Wyatt would take Jen’s concerns seriously. “Stalking is against the law in Oregon, just as it was in Utah. I believe Wyatt will help you. He will want to know what you think you saw.”

  Again, Jen looked tempted. Rosa even pulled out her phone, but her friend finally shook her head firmly. “I’m imagining things. I’m sure of it. It was only a man who looked like someone from our town. I don’t want to bring Wyatt in.”