The Beach House (31 page)

The walk back to the house seemed impossibly long. She went inside to check the locks on the doors and windows, then stood on the deck to watch the last bit of sun disappear. Reason told her it was time to leave, but sentiment made it almost impossible. She'd already lost so much, it was hard to see this, too, end.

Finally it was the cold that got her to move. Resisting the temptation to make one last walk through the house, she crossed the living room and went out the front door.

She drove by Peter's house slowly, hoping he would be outside or standing at a window and that she could wave a final good-bye. He wasn't either place. Having anticipated that she would feel loss, she wasn't surprised when it came. What she hadn't expected was that it would be so powerful or be accompanied by a haunting sense that she'd left something undone.

Ten minutes later she was on the highway when she glanced up and saw the sign for the last exit to Santa Cruz. Another half mile and she would be headed inland on 17, the ocean a memory.

More on reflex than conscious thought, she left the highway and turned around, not sure why, only that she couldn't leave until she'd seen Peter one last time.

He didn't answer her knock. She tried again and waited. Still no answer.

Then, almost as if he'd left her a note, it came to her where he was. She headed for the beach, stopping at the top of the stairs to look for him. A three-quarter moon reflected off the water, drawing her eye to a solitary figure on the shore.

 

Peter looked up and saw someone walking across the soft sand in his direction. He stopped and stared and mentally dismissed the idea that it was Katherine. He continued to refuse to let himself believe she'd come back until she was standing so close that he had only to reach out to touch her.

Katherine looked intently into his eyes. “Tell me about the painting. I want to hear it in your words.”

Peter's heart did a roll and then slammed against his ribs. “What is it you want to know?”

The words didn't come easily. She started and then stopped, then started again. “What was I looking at so longingly?”

“Me. . . .” The declaration was like opening a door to his prison. He was free of the secret that had kept him there all these years. Now there was no going back, no possibility of resuming their old friendship, no more dreaming of what could never be.

“How long have you felt this way?”

He gave her a rueful smile. “I think it was from the first day I saw you.”

“I didn't know. I never even suspected.” She frowned. “But I must have. At least on some level. If you hadn't been here, Peter, I think I would have stopped wanting to come a long time ago.”

He'd never felt more alive or more on the outside. The confession didn't unlock any doors or open any windows that would let him into her life. It was nothing more than a confession. It gave him no rights, it solved no problems. “Funny how things turn out, huh? Now you're probably thinking it's a good thing that you're not coming back.”

She didn't say anything for a long time, and then, “Brandon and I are separated. We're getting a divorce.”

He couldn't breathe.

“I'm seeing a lawyer as soon as I get home.”

“Is this what you came back to tell me?” he asked carefully.

“Yes.”

“Why now?”

“I don't know. I think maybe I was afraid I'd lose you as a friend if I told you before.”

So much rested on the answer, he hesitated asking the question. “And now?”

She swayed toward him. “I know you'll always be my friend.” She added softly, “No matter what happens.”

He put his hands on the sides of her face and slowly brought her to him. Their lips touched in a tentative kiss. The second kiss was more confident. Their tongues met, their breath mingled. Then came a sigh, and then a deep-throated groan, as Peter put his arms around her and lifted her off her feet, turning in a slow circle.

When he put her down again, Katherine broke the kiss and looked at him. “This is happening so fast. I need time to think, Peter.”

He'd had years of practice letting her go, it shouldn't be hard to do it again. But that was before. “I understand,” he said with great effort.

She laid her head on his shoulder. “Please wait for me.”

He held her close, oblivious of the sounds of the ocean echoing off the cliffs, the waves lapping at their feet, the cold wind swirling around them. “If it takes forever, I will be here,” he said softly.

PART FIVE

September

Chapter 1

Josi uncurled from her sleeping position on top of Eric's manuscript, rolled over, and stretched her full length, knocking a pencil holder to the floor. Eric leaned forward in his chair, picked up the oft-dropped pencils, and put them back on the desk. He absently scratched Josi's chin and noted the loud, rumbling purr of response, his sole sense of satisfaction at something well done that morning.

Certainly the chapter wasn't going as well. But then none of them had since he'd returned from New York. It seemed there was nothing like a couple of million dollars' advance to instill a crippling case of writer's block. Before the book sold he'd been writing for himself. If a sentence or paragraph or chapter pleased him, that was all that counted. Now he found himself trying to please an entire publishing house by second-guessing what they had liked in the first half of the book.

Eric leaned back in his chair as Josi shifted position again, her tail taking possession of the letter he'd received that morning from Charlie Stephens. Charlie had written to thank Eric for putting him in touch with Chris, whom he'd talked into helping out at the South Los Angeles Athletic Center coaching a freestyle wrestling team. Chris came whenever he had time off from his preproduction responsibilities for the movie. Almost as an aside, Charlie had ended by mentioning casually that he and Chris's mother also happened to be seeing a lot of each other and that there would be an update in his next letter.

As always when Eric allowed his thoughts to drift from the book, they found their way to Julia. He hadn't seen or heard from her since the day he'd stopped by to pick up Josi, a little over a month ago. He'd had her number half-dialed a dozen times but always changed his mind at the last minute. When he'd told her the next move was hers, he'd had no idea she would take so long. The wait was damn near killing him.

At least he'd heard about her from Peter and knew she was doing okay. She'd gone through with her plans to sell the beach house to him, and from what Eric had seen since, it appeared Peter still intended to use it as a rental, at least temporarily. That past week the woman who'd been there in August had come back for several days. Eric had run into her and Peter on the beach a couple of times, but they'd been so focused on each other that they'd walked right by without noticing him.

Planting his feet on the floor and rolling his chair back, Eric got up and went to the kitchen to pour his fifth cup of coffee that morning. Unsurprisingly, it tasted the way it smelled, burned and bitter. He poured it down the sink. Grabbing a soda from the refrigerator, he walked around for several minutes, rolling his shoulders and stretching his back before sitting at the computer again.

A half hour later he was still staring at the blinking cursor at the top of an empty page, his hands planted on the arms of his chair, when Josi opened one eye and swiveled an ear toward the front door. She stayed that way for several seconds before she opened the other eye and raised her head.

Eric listened but, as usual, heard nothing.

When she rose to a sitting position, he pushed back his chair and stood. He'd stopped questioning Josi's psychic connection to the FedEx truck weeks ago.

Which was why it took his mind a full five seconds to register that it wasn't someone from FedEx standing on his front porch, but Julia. She was wearing a full-skirted, navy-blue-and-yellow dress that had narrow straps over the shoulders and buttons down the front. Her hair was loose and a bit wild, as if she'd been driving with the window rolled down and had been in too big a hurry to bother with repairs.

This was not the Julia Huntington he'd come to know, but he found the changes exciting—and promising.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I imagined a lot of greetings on the trip down, but that wasn't one of them.”

“Let me try again.” He folded his arms and leaned against the door frame, making every effort to hide how seeing her again made him feel. “You look—” His gaze swept her. There was no getting around it. “There's only one word, incredible.”

“Thank you. I feel pretty incredible, too.” When she smiled, her eyes hinted at more surprises to come.

“Am I to assume you came all this way just to see me?”

“I hope you don't have a problem with that.”

Finally he returned the smile. “The only problem I have is, what took you so long?”

“I had some things I had to do first. If you'll ask me in, I'll tell you about them.”

He moved out of the doorway.

“Is she your muse?” Julia asked, spotting Josi and going over to give her an affectionate scratch.

“If she is, it's time I traded her in for one that works.” He couldn't believe Julia was actually there. Nothing had prepared him. It had been a perfectly ordinary morning; the sun hadn't shone any brighter, the ocean had been its usual blue.

She turned to look at him. “The book isn't going well?”

“It'll keep. I want to hear about you first.”

“So much has happened I don't know where to begin.”

He held up his hand. “Wait. Before you say anything more, there's something I think we need to get out of the way.” He put his hands on her arms and brought her to him. He took a minute to study her face, to note the sparkle lighting her eyes, her slightly parted mouth, before he came forward slowly and brushed his lips against hers. But one chaste, welcoming kiss wasn't enough. It never would be for them. He kissed her again and then again.

She put her arms around his waist and with a sigh said, “Wow—just like I remembered.”

“I love you, Julia.” There it was, unplanned, unexpected, and impossible to take back. “I know it's too soon, that we have a hundred things to learn about each other, and that the odds are against us. But nothing can change the way I feel about you, and I guess a part of me figured it was time you knew.”

“You're right. It is too soon, and we do have a lot to learn about each other, but I'm pretty sure I love you, too. No, I'm very sure.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “How would you feel if I moved in next door for a couple of months? I think it would help if we were a little closer while we're trying to work things out, don't you?”

“I thought Peter told me you'd sold him the house.”

“I did, but he let me back out of the deal at the last minute. He said he didn't need another house anyway. It seems Katherine is going to be staying at his place when she visits from now on.”

“What about work?”

“Mine?” she said innocently.

“Yes, Julia—yours.”

“That's all taken care of, too. I put the company up for sale three weeks ago and sold it to the highest bidder two days later. There's a ton of paperwork that still has to be done, but basically it's a fait accompli.”

He was dumbfounded at the news. “I don't understand. You were so worried about what would happen to the employees if you sold. How did that change?”

“Well, it didn't actually. I just arranged things so it didn't matter whether they lost their jobs or not.”

“Okay, I'll bite. How did you manage that?”

Her excitement spilled over into an ear-to-ear grin. “I gave them half the money from the sale. Now they can keep working or take a couple of years off or even take an early retirement. They have the same freedom I do.”

He couldn't believe he'd heard her right. “You did what?”

She laughed. “It was so obvious. I don't know why I didn't think of it before.”

Eric hated bringing in a cloud to mar her brilliantly blue sky, but it had to be asked. “What about it being Ken's business that you sold?”

“That's absolutely amazing. You never met Ken and yet you talk about him with the same deference that everyone else does, as if he were still alive. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”

She was right, they did have things to work out. More than he realized. “I didn't mean it the way it sounded. I know what losing him meant to you. It was just my clumsy way of asking if you'd found peace with your feelings.”

“A part of me will always love Ken.” She fixed her gaze on the front of Eric's shirt as she talked about the man she'd once believed she couldn't live without. “Can you understand that? I guess what's more important, can you live with it?”

“I learned a long time ago that love isn't something you turn on and off, Julia. I know that Ken will always be an important part of your life.”

“There's more.” She hesitated telling him what came next, then just plunged ahead. “Do you have any idea what you're up against with my friends—with everyone who knew Ken?”

“If the hostility Peter has shown me since you and I became friends is any example, I have a pretty good idea.”

She gave him a wry smile. “Actually, Peter is beginning to show signs of coming around. He said he no longer thinks it's impossible for me to find someone who could make me happy.”

“How kind of him.”

“His attitude is precisely the kind of thing I'm talking about. It's what you'll be going up against with everyone who knew Ken. There isn't one of his friends who thinks there's anyone who can take his place. They might forgive my reaching out in my loneliness, but they'll never forgive you for thinking you're good enough for me.”

She wasn't looking for an easy answer or casual reassurance. What they were facing was a real problem and had to be acknowledged. No matter how bigoted her friends might be toward him, they were the people who had stood by her and helped her through the most devastating period of her life. They were important to her; therefore they had to be important to him.

“I can take it, Julia. The people who know and love you—and that includes me—only want one thing, and that's for you to be happy. When your friends see that happening, they'll come around.”

“I really do love you,” she said as she touched the side of his face. “I never thought I'd hear myself say that again.”

“So, when will you be moving in?”

“My bags are in the car.”

The trust she'd put in him stole his breath. She'd walked away from the only life she knew, the only emotional security she had, to take a chance with him. “I promise that you'll never look back and question what you did today.”

“I came here because loving you is something I want, not something I need.” She looked at him long and hard. “Do you understand what I'm trying to say?”

“That you love me with your mind as well as your heart?”

“Well put.” She snuggled closer. “But then you are the writer of the family.” Looking up, she added, “Now that we have that out of the way, I think we should do something to celebrate.”

“Make love?”

She smiled. “That, too.”

“But first?”

“It can be put off for second,” she said in a husky, inviting voice.

This time when they made love it was unhurried and tender. Eric slowly and purposefully explored Julia's body, imprinting her feel and look in his hands and mind.

When he entered her she was warm and wet and eager, lifting her hips to match his thrusts, wrapping her legs around his waist, calling his name as he reached between them and brought her to an explosive climax.

Afterward, his hand resting on her belly, her head nestled on his shoulder, he asked, “I don't want you to get the idea we're through with this celebration,” he said, his lips touching her temple, his breath caressing her flushed skin. “But why don't you tell me what you had in mind for us to do next.”

“I want to meet Jason and Susie—and Shelly. I was hoping she would let the kids stay with us a couple of weeks so we could get to know each other.”

He would have sworn nothing could make him happier that day. He'd been wrong. “Jason's in a year-round school and has a break coming up next month, I'm sure we could work something out with Shelly to take them then.”

“Do you think they'll like me?”

She wasn't looking for an easy answer about this, either. “Susie will be easy. She loves everyone and sees no reason they shouldn't love her back. Jason's lost too many people in his short life. He's slower to trust people. But he'll come around. And when he does, the two of you will be terrific together.”

She propped herself up on her elbow and looked at him. “I want us to have children, too, Eric. I'm tired of empty rooms in empty houses.”

“Was this a project you wanted to get started on right away?”

She laughed. “I think it can wait a while—but not too long.”

He put his hand on the back of her neck and brought her to him for a kiss. No matter how many books he wound up writing in his lifetime, he would never be able to come up with a better ending.

But their story wasn't an ending—it was a beginning.