Page 17 of Fire Island (Fire Island #2)

Sixteen

CALLUM

T he bell to the diner door jingles overhead, but inside is oddly vacant.

I look up to find my sister standing shy of the door.

Her face is a war between upset and anger.

Evie files in behind me. I couldn’t leave her on the island by herself.

Besides, she said there’s no way she was staying out there alone.

I search the room and find Em sitting at one of the tables toward the back. His face looks as vacant as this room, as if he’s in shock, his focus fixed on one spot across the room.

“Hell, if you tell me Errol died, Irry, I’ll shout for the after-party.”

The grin that splits my face with that particular thought fades when her expression doesn’t change. Em clears his throat, fighting with his cap in his hands, and I track his gaze to where it hasn’t moved from since I stepped inside.

What I find has to be some kind of sick dream.

One I’m sure I will wake up from any second now.

Maybe I never survived the rescue after all, and this is simply a screwed-up version of the afterlife.

Because the woman sitting at Iris’s counter should be dead.

She stands, straightening her shirt as she offers up a tight smile.

She’s older, but I would recognize that face, that blonde hair, and those blue eyes anywhere.

Only now, she has the same aloof air about her that her mother did.

Her hair is cut shorter, just above her shoulders, and it’s straight, not wavy like it used to be.

A single string of pearls sits around her neck above a beige top over dark jeans, a prim-looking handbag hanging from one slim shoulder.

With... rings on her finger. And not the one I gave her.

“Ava,” I choke out.

Iris spins back to glare at the woman we all thought was dead and gone. “If you don’t want her here, say the word and I’ll shove her sorry ass onto the curb faster tha?—”

“Callum,” Ava says, moving closer. A chair scrapes to my right. I glance back to see Eve sitting at a table with her hand over her mouth, shock etched into her face.

I open my mouth to say god knows what, but every last thought I have isn’t fit for human consumption. The realization she’s standing here, alive, means she lied. The entire fucking town lied to me, then treated me like a goddamn criminal. Blamed me for her death. For the tragic death of our...

I stumble back and hit the closed door.

The ridiculous bells jingle.

I mourned for her. I grieved for years.

Fucking years.

I turn and rip the door open. It slams into the wall as I stumble onto the sidewalk and stalk toward the marina. The wood clacks under my boots. Everything blurs as I make Firefly’s slip.

Then I’m in her cabin, firing up the engines.

I’m out on the water before I can bother to remember I’ve left Eve behind. I contemplate going back, but the sight of Ava has me push the throttle forward.

Fire Island comes up in what feels like a moment later, and I slip her up by the jetty, kill the engines, and tie her off.

The tower I call home blurs as I stagger toward it.

Grass meets my knees as the burning in my lungs and the squeeze in my chest take me down.

I crash into the grass, sobs keening from my throat.

I haul myself to my feet and wander in a circle, hands tugging through my hair.

“Fuck!”

Did Em know? Iris?

This entire fucking time?

The roar of the Coast Guard boat drifts in, and I turn back to see it dock on the other side of the jetty. Eve flies from the boat, sprinting for me. Her face is as devastated as my own.

I collapse under the weight of the sight of her. She’s on the ground with me a heartbeat later, holding me as I chug through each horrendous breath.

“Oh, Cal,” she sobs, hands running over my hair.

“Bud, I’m so sorry.” Emmett comes to my side.

I pull out of Eve’s hold, scrambling to my feet. I’m on him a second later. “You knew!”

He’s shaking his head furiously, emotion twisting his face. “No. Cal. I had no idea. Nor did Iris. We are just as shocked as you are.”

I scoff a harsh laugh. “Yeah, right. I’m just the idiot the entire town pulled a fast one over. Then treated me like the fucking animal who killed her for their own entertainment. And what about the ba?—”

Fuck. I can’t even say it.

Em stares at me as he rubs a hand behind his neck. “Ava should be?—”

“No! You tell me. Tell me something, Emmett. Just one thing!”

I’m in his face.

It’s not his fault. I know that. But he’s here, and I’m so damn fucking angry.

“I would if I could,” he breathes.

I roar at him.

His jaw feathers, but he stands his ground.

I falter backward.

Ava . . . Un-fucking-believable.

Now, I want to be anywhere but this godforsaken island. I want to rail Ava until she gives me every fucking answer I want. I want her to understand the suffering she put me through. The toll she took on a man by faking her goddamn death and that of our baby.

Did they survive?

It suddenly registers, heavy and unrelenting... I may have a child.

I fall to the ground, legs tangled underneath me. Finally looking up, I find Eve waiting, tears coursing down her cheeks, sobbing breaths chugging from her like this cuts her the same as it does me.

I bleed, she bleeds.

In this one moment, I understand what she is to me.

Everything.

It only took the worst blow of my life to figure it out.

I reach for her, and she drops into my lap. I fold her in my arms, and she palms my face before dropping her head to my chest. I let the tears fall over my cheeks. They soak into my beard and then into her hair. Neither of us moves from the spot when the Coast Guard boat rumbles to life.

I should apologize to Em.

It’s not his fault.

God, I’ll get around to it as soon as I take care of my girl. I hold her tighter, breathing her in.

Ava can go die in a hole for all I care.

But hell, I want to know what became of the baby.

So much it twists my heart on its axis.

How many years did I wish to the heavens I’d just met this kid? Had the chance to hold my baby. To be a father.

I toss and turn through the twisted sheet. My mind is racing at light speed, and I have no hope of slowing it down. Every interaction, every moment I thought I remembered right is under scrutiny. How the hell did an entire town lie to me, and not one person slip up?

It seems impossible.

I’m alone. Eve insisted she still sleep in the hut until my memories return. But all I want is to be close to her. The memories would be nice, but now I understand who she is to me. At least, I think I do.

I guess I won’t truly fathom that until my mind rights itself. That’s what eats me, gnawing its way down to the bone. After all I’ve lost, it feels right that what lies between Eve and I was something... deep.

“Urgh! Fuck me.” I sit up, rubbing my hands down my face. “Christ above.”

I wander downstairs to grab a mug of water. The small lantern hanging in the hut is still on. I glance at the time on the wall clock by the bookshelf.

Midnight, or near enough to it.

Eve’s up late.

I head for the door before I realize I’m only wearing boxers and it’s the middle of the damn night. Hesitating, I turn back and head for the stairs. The last thing I want to do is force something that may or may not be between us.

The second my head hits the pillow, memories of Ava file in, contrasting with the woman I saw this morning.

The shock rattles me for the hundredth time around.

And I wonder how much of a choice she had when we were young.

She was barely seventeen when we got pregnant. Still a kid in most people’s eyes.

How much of her disappearance was her parents?

Knowing the way things went down, she probably had as much say in it as I did. But why wait twenty fucking years to come back? Why come back at all?

I fully intend to have my questions answered the moment I calm down enough to have a civilized conversation. The moon shines her silvery beams over the wooden floor, and I finally relax, weary from the day’s drama.

Heaviness creeps in, and I stretch, willing myself to surrender to it.

My eyes shutter closed. I turn my head to the side, and oblivion finds me.

I’m floating. No—lying on Firefly’s deck. Something touches my hand. I turn to find her. The sun is setting to the west, lighting the sky up with its pastel pinks and oranges before it changes to gold.

The boat slips away, and I stand with my hands by my sides, my breathing labored from the axe that is in my grip. Bare-chested, a journal at my feet, I am frozen in the moment, entranced by the woman calling me out. By the fire I see in her eyes for the first time since she came to my island.

Something between my ribs snaps.

Fireworks float overhead as the realization she’s defending me against the town swells.

The ground spins, and I’m lying on Iris’s tiny fucking spare bed. Eve’s warm body is pressed into mine, her ass against my hard cock. A heartbeat passes. I can taste her. Thighs spread wide, my hands the ones holding them back.

My surroundings flip, and I’m on my feet. Brown eyes, lined with silver, look up at me. Her mouth—my cock sunk deep between her perfect pouty lips.

Heady and raw, I groan, out of breath—trees flying past me—so desperate to get to her. My name, a scream, carries on the wind through the forest.

The fishing hut closes in around us, and I can’t fight what aches inside for her any longer.

Then we’re spinning. Happiness exploding from the epicenter we’ve made.

A beat and I’m naked.

Wet.

She stands in my shower, brown eyes pleading. Unable to rein in my control for what I know is the umpteenth time, I take her, slamming her heaving shoulders into the tiled wall, mouth crashing over hers.

Whimpers pour through her lips.

My heart splinters in my chest.

Mo nighean.

I’m choking. Hands reach for me, closing around my jaw. Her lips brush over mine. Dark hair falls around me. I look up to her strung-out face, her need for me etched all over her face.

Tomato juice trickles from my lips. The beautiful dark-haired woman sitting on my lap laughs, her head tipping back. The scene wobbles and...

She’s leaving the dock with Em, who carries her bag. My fucking broken, tattered heart trailing along behind her, leaving its bloody stain in her wake. I can’t move from Firefly’s cabin. I can’t even say goodbye. Air in my tight lungs turning to ash...

I’m suffocating.

Burning swallows me whole. I jolt awake with a painful groan. Sitting on the bed, I stare at some inane point across the room as the last nine months or so flood back into my reality. I?—

Eve, she . . .

Evie.

Fuck.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I cry.

I jump off the bed like it’s on fire, stalking a short distance before turning back. Repeating the route, I run my hands through my hair.

I told her to leave.

I love her.

And I made her promise to leave me.

But . . . she’s still here.

Tears burn my eyes as the room blurs. I groan.

What have I done, baby girl?

My—

Mo ghràdh.

Irry told me she’d been in an accident. What fucking accident? Where was she for two whole damn weeks while I was held up in the hospital, clueless?

She—

I fly from the bedroom and stumble my way down the stairs. The front door slams against the wall behind me as I send gravel flying, crossing the small path from the house to the shack.

Halting abruptly at the door, I find her light off.

I rest a palm on the door.

My heart flings against my ribs. I can’t spend another second without her.