Page 15 of Fire Island (Fire Island #2)

Fourteen

CALLUM

I ris meets us on the sidewalk by the café.

Em drags the cap from his head, giving her his best smile.

I see some things never change. She wraps me in a hug before taking Eve inside.

Probably wants to quiz her on my every move.

She won’t get much out of the woman. We’ve ate together most meals, but apart from that, we stay out of each other’s way.

“I have to head back to the watchhouse, Cal. But I’ll be back to take you to the appointment in an hour.”

“I can take my damn self, Em.”

“Sure, but humor us, will you? If anything happens to you, I don’t think those two wou—” He snaps his gazes away, cursing under his breath. “Iris would have my balls, bud. Just play nice, okay?”

“Whatever.” I wave goodbye and walk through the front door of the café. Iris and Eve sit at a table, heads together as I assumed they would be. “My ears are burning, Irry.”

She flips me off, not breaking her stride as she quizzes Eve on the last week.

I lift the lid to the muffin display case and snatch one up. Blueberry, my favorite.

I round the counter and mess with the coffee machine. Only because I know it gets under her skin. I have no idea how to work this fandangled thing. I’d probably break it before I get a cup of coffee out of the contraption. “Irry, your machine’s acting up.”

“Hold on,” she says to Eve, rising from her chair with a sigh.

“You break that and I’ll have your hide, Callum.

Step away.” She waves me off. Her fingers fly over the levers, gadgets, and buttons, and a moment later, the thing steams before dark, rich liquid pours from a tiny spout over the mug she placed under it.

“When it stops, add your cream. Then get out of my kitchen.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She narrows her eyes. “I know what you’re up to, and it won’t work.”

“No idea what you’re blithering about.”

She slaps my arm and returns to the table.

Eve looks up from her phone as Iris settles in to talk some more.

They chatter away, laughing as hand gestures fly with the escalating storytelling.

I wander outside and leave them to it. Outside, I sit on the step.

Sipping my hard-won coffee, I take in the marina.

The small, quaint town I’ve lived, loved, and bled in my entire life.

With the hour up, Em arrives in his truck, and we head to the hospital for the scan. I’m in and out in under fifteen minutes, and the doctor is happy with the results. I’m free to go until the twelve-week checkup, as long as someone is with me.

Great. No escaping the pretty little twentysomething.

Sarcasm drips from my own syllables, like maple syrup seeping into my grey matter.

Huh.

Not getting attached, are we, McCreary?

My life is good. Full, almost. But it’s like the last three years included one thing I can’t put my finger on.

The one thing that would fill the void that’s been growing since I got home with Eve at arm’s length.

I’m grateful for her company. She’s no trouble, having slipped into the way of life and routine easy enough.

And it will be too quiet when she leaves.

Em pulls the truck over at the café, and I climb out, sending him off with a wave.

I cross the sidewalk and push through the front door.

Iris meets me at the door. “You should stay the night. Em’s going to be hours and then he’ll be exhausted.

Stay, please?” Her hands are pressed together in a prayer-like position.

Good lord, Irry.

“You don’t have a sofa, Iris. Where are we supposed to sleep?”

“Eve can snuggle up with me again.”

She tilts her head, smiling up at me like that will make me agree.

“Fine.”

“Yay! Dinner’s on me. We’ll get takeout, save cooking. I’ll see if Em wants to come over.”

She whizzes back into the kitchen, bubbling something to Eve. She talks fast when she’s excited, always has.

Em arrives hours later as the sun is setting, and we are sent to collect the takeaway. Nicely played, little sister. We stand outside Bay Shore’s only Chinese restaurant in a comfortable silence. So, I decide to obliterate it.

“You and the author, hey?” I ask.

Em looks up from his phone. Something like shock fills his face before he schools it back to aloofness. “Nah, just being a good friend, is all.”

“I mean, she’s a little young for you, bud.” I hold his gaze.

“You could say that.”

“How’s Iris feel about it?”

Now his face falls, the slight amusement that it held over the past minute fading.

I raise an eyebrow. “She’s her friend, isn’t she?”

Let the inquisition commence.

“No.” He shakes his head now. Seriousness claims his face.

“No, they’re not friends or no, you and Eve aren’t a thing?”

“We—”

“Order up!” the little lady in the takeout window calls. Em frowns as he turns back to collect the food, thanking the woman.

“Drop it, Cal.” Em’s mood has swung like the weather on the open seas.

So, they are a thing?

Well, fuck.

I can’t help the slither of jealousy as it heats its way down my spine. Dammit.

Not getting attached.

Back at Iris’s, we sit at the table as she dishes out takeout onto our plates like the mother hen she is. Em sits by her side opposite Eve and me.

“The wine,” I blurt out.

Iris stills, looking over to me with the spoon suspended over the plastic container. “Wine?”

“There was wine . . .” I breathe.

Holy shit.

Fucking hell.

Eve is staring at me.

Em is staring at me.

Iris sits and drops the spoon onto the plate. By the look on their faces, this was a memory. Trying desperately to reclaim the sliver that drifted through my mind a second ago, I close my eyes.

But as hard as I try to envision what could have possibly unfolded around this table involving wine and these people, I can’t find the thread again.

“It’s okay.” Iris lays a hand over mine as she leans over the table. “It’ll come back, I know it.”

Tears line my little sister’s eyes.

“Excuse me,” Eve utters, pushing up from the chair and leaving the dining space. She treads upstairs, and Iris rises, following after her.

“Em, just tell me. Please?” I beg.

His face twists a little like he’s holding back emotion, but he simply says, “I can’t, Cal.”

We eat our food and leave some out for the girls. When Em leaves for home and I head upstairs, they still haven’t come out of Irry’s room.

I knock on her door. “You want me to pack the food away?”

Murmurs slip under the door. It opens a second later, and my sister’s face fills the gap. “No, I’ll be down in a minute to fix it up. Go to bed, Cal.”

Yes, ma’am.

I nod and wander to my room. How can one fragment of a memory trigger such a dramatic effect? What the hell was going on here before I went on that damn rescue call?

I shower and slip under the covers in my boxers. When the heaviness of sleep calls for me, I let it take me down.

“Cal!”

I jerk awake.

“No! Please, stop... No, no.” Someone is screaming, and it doesn’t sound like my sister. “Callum!”

I’m off the bed and out the door before the next heartbeat. Iris meets me in the hallway. Her worried gaze alternates between me and the woman tangled in the blankets.

A heartbreaking wail leaves Eve’s restless body.

Iris steps into the doorway, shaking her head. “No.”

“Callum, plea—No!” Eve screams.

FUCK .

“Move, Irry.” Every inch of my being is strung tight with the need to get to Eve. I have no idea where this protectiveness is coming from, but it’s burning me the fuck alive.

“Help, ple—Cal, I’m sorry...” she sobs, tossing violently.

I shove my sister aside and crawl up the mattress until I’m level with Eve.

Her tank top is askew, her hair messed all over her face and over the pillow.

Her belly is bare, the small sleep shorts barely covering her hips.

Her body trembles, her hands curled like claws as she grips the sheet beneath her. A strangled cry tumbles from her lips.

I lift her shoulders, brushing the hair from her face. “Evie, baby. I’m right here.”

Evie, baby.

Where the hell did that come from?

She struggles in my hold. Her hands fly up, swatting at me.

“Wake up, Eve.”

Her palm connects with my cheek.

“Enough. Open your eyes,” I growl.

I’m someone else.

I’m me.

I—we are . . .

Her eyes fly open. She cowers back instantly.

Did I hurt her? Is that why everybody’s holding out on me?

God, fuck, no .

My hold on her slips. I can’t breathe.

No wonder my sister didn’t want to tell me what happened. I would never...

I don’t understand.

“Cal?” Eve gasps.

“Right here,” I manage past the stone filling my airway.

She sits up, crawling into my lap.

She’s not scared of me. So, my last theory’s out the window. Something shuffles on the carpet to my right. I glance over to find Iris leaning on the doorframe, tears running down her cheeks.

. . . And it hits me.

Em isn’t with Eve.

I was.

That’s the part I was missing. The part I can’t remember one moment of. So, she’s not some friend of Iris’s. She’s my... I have no idea what she is to me. How far this thing between us went.

Fine hands press against my chest. I haul in a breath.

To know but not remember.

“You good?” I ask Eve.

She moves off my lap, and the realization of what just happened sends her face falling. “Cal, I’m...”

“It’s fine. Go back to sleep.” I step off the bed. Iris moves, letting me leave.

I stalk back to my room.

I shut the door, locking it behind me. How the fuck can a man forget someone like her? What the hell is wrong with me?

I sink onto the edge of the bed and shove my head in my hands, tugging at my messy locks.

It makes sense now, the way she knows her way around the island and took up the routine so easily.

Why her things are in my bathroom. Because I’m not just a man on his island anymore, I’m a ‘we.’ We must have had a life there together before the accident.

Her accident . . .

What’s that all about? Did she go out looking for me after the rescue? Was she coming home and got into a car wreck?

God, I wish someone would fucking tell me what the hell is going on.