The Chesapeake Diaries Series 7-Book Bundle: Coming HOme, Home Again, Almost Home, Hometown Girl, Home for the Summer, The Long Way Home, At the River's Edge (78 page)

“Nonsense.” Emilio stormed down the pier like a freight train, pushing the Madison family out of the way. “There’s no need to punish him. He was just being a boy. Come here, son, and let Daddy hug you.”

Cody froze at the sight of his father.

“I’ve missed you so much, son.” Emilio lifted the boy off his feet, apparently not noticing that his son was stiff in his arms.

Cody looked over his father’s shoulder to his mother, his face white and his eyes wide with uncertainty. When Emilio started to carry him toward the front yard and the gathering of reporters near the end of the drive, Cody’s uncertainty turned to fear.

“Emilio, put him down,” Dallas said softly. “You’re frightening him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Dallas,” Emilio called over his shoulder. “He’s just surprised to see me, aren’t you, Cody?”

“Put me down,” Cody begged. “Put me down,
please.”

Emilio stopped, hesitated, then lowered Cody to the ground. Cody broke the grip his father had on him and ran to his mother.

“He isn’t a thing to be paraded around to the press, Emilio. He’s a little boy.” Dallas unconsciously smoothed back Cody’s wet hair from his forehead.

“He’s
my
little boy, Dallas. I was just as panicked as you were when he went missing. I have as much right to be here as you do.”

“Actually, no, you don’t.” A tall dark-haired woman came through the crowd that had gone silent on the dock as the drama had begun to play out.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Emilio looked at the woman as if she were a bug to be stepped on.

Norma Bradshaw positioned herself between Emilio and Dallas. “As Dallas’s friend, I took the first flight I could get out of L.A. to give her emotional support. As her attorney, I had a feeling you were going to show up as well and thought perhaps I should be on hand to remind you of the way things stand. You signed an agreement very recently in which you gave full custody of your son to your ex-wife. That would be Dallas. So no, you don’t have every right. Actually, you have very few rights here.” She paused as if considering, then added, “Probably none.”

“I am entitled to see my son,” Emilio protested. “My God, you don’t know what it’s like to find out that your only child has gone missing, that he’s been lost—”

“Cut the drama. Spare everyone.” Norma lowered her voice so that Cody couldn’t hear her words. “Holding on to your properties was more important to you than holding on to your son.”

“Cody, say good-bye to your father for now,” Dallas
told him before more words could be exchanged. “You may see him later, if you wish, but only if you wish. Right now, I want you to go into the house with Berry and get warm and cleaned up and get something to eat. I’ll be in very shortly.”

“Come along, Cody. You must be starving after not having anything to eat since yesterday morning.” Berry held out her hand, and he took it.

“We had something to eat. We had peppermints.”

“Peppermints?” Dallas frowned.

He let go of Berry’s hand and stuck it into the pocket of his shorts. “See? The ones Aunt Berry threw to us from the parade car.”

“Say good-bye to your father, child.” Berry’s eyes had misted.

“Good-bye,” Cody muttered. He had still to look Emilio in the eyes.

Paige came out onto the back porch, and the dogs followed her.

“Fleur!” Cody took off across the lawn, all else seemingly forgotten.

“You’ve turned him against me,” Emilio said angrily. “You’ve alienated his affection.”

“Oh, please. You’ve never had time for Cody. You totally underestimated how your behavior affected your son,” Dallas told him. “He’s having a problem forgiving you.”

“He’s too young to have known about … any of that.” His eyes narrowed. “Unless you told him. I’ll bet you showed him all those stories to turn him against me.” He looked at Norma and added, “You’ll be hearing from my lawyer. I’m going to go to court and ask that my rights be restored.”

“I don’t think you want to do that, Emilio,” Norma told him. “You’ll only end up looking worse than you do now.”

He waved a hand as if to dismiss her. “There was only that one incident. Anyone can make a mistake.”

“We both know there was more than one video,” Norma said meaningfully.

“What are you talking about?” He frowned.

“Oh, I think you know.”

He eyed her suspiciously.

“I represent a lot of people in your world, Emilio. You’d be very surprised if you saw the names on my client list. Some of whom you know.” She paused. “Intimately.”

He tried to stare Norma down.

“So don’t even try to sell me that ‘only one video’ bullshit. I know there are many more than one.” She chuckled. “Actually, I own more than one. I suspect I could make a nice chunk of change if I put them up for pay-per-view on the Internet.”

When his face went white, she added, “Trust me when I tell you that my clients owe a much greater allegiance to me than they do to you.”

“Are you blackmailing me, Norma?” he asked.

Norma shook her head. “Not at all. But I am suggesting that now is a good time to walk away. Leave Dallas and Cody alone. When—if—your son wants to see you, I guarantee that Dallas will certainly permit him to do so. Otherwise, stay out of the picture. You’ll be much better off if you do.”

Emilio took two steps backward, then turned and walked swiftly up the drive.

Dallas turned to Norma. “Do you really have more tapes?”

“No.” She shrugged. “But I figured if he was stupid enough to have made one, he’d have been stupid enough to have made others.”

“Way to bluff.” Dallas hugged her.

“I think Cody’s body language spoke volumes,” Norma said. “He clearly was uncomfortable when he saw Emilio and didn’t seem to have anything to say to him.”

“I almost hate to say this—all things considered—but I’m sad about that. I had a great relationship with my dad, and it hurts me to know that Cody doesn’t have that.”

“It’s Emilio’s fault, not yours, that his son doesn’t seem to have much affection for him. Emilio is a classic narcissist.” She pointed toward the street, where at that moment Emilio was addressing the crowd that had gathered. “Even now, it’s all about him. He’s using this to get good press, Dallas. It’s his platform to try to salvage his sunken career and rehabilitate himself in the public’s eye. Look, someday, maybe he and Cody will be able to have a decent relationship, but that’s up to Cody. He’s a smart boy. He’ll let you know when he’s ready, and you’ll permit him to make that decision on his own.”

Dallas nodded and turned back to the crowd that was still celebrating the boys’ return. Grant was speaking with Agent Turner, and when he looked her way, he smiled. She all but ran to him, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him soundly on the mouth.

“I haven’t thanked you yet,” she said, kissing him again.

“I’ll let you thank me later. Right now, Agent Turner is chewing me out, and I don’t think he’s quite finished,” Grant told her.

“It was reckless of you,” Turner said. “Instead of this great reunion, we could just as easily be trolling the Bay to recover your body right now.”

“With all due respect, I’m not stupid, Agent Turner. I was pretty sure I could row from Hal’s boat to the shore and make it. I rowed in high school and I rowed in college. I’ve rowed in storms every bit as bad as the one we had last night,” Grant explained, “and I’ve been a very strong swimmer all my life.”

“Still, you should have left it to us.”

“We did try to call you.” Beck stepped up. “The calls weren’t getting through, and we had no way of knowing how much longer you’d be down in the marsh. The agent you left here with Dallas was tied up with her ex-husband and the entourage of press he brought along with him. Once Dr. Wyler figured out where the boys might have gone, we needed to go immediately in case the storm got any worse. I made the decision to go, Agent Turner. I take full responsibility for making that call.”

“Would you have taken responsibility if Dr. Wyler had drowned?”

“Yes.” Beck nodded without hesitation. “I would have.”

Mia came up behind the agent, with whom she’d worked on several cases when she was still with the
Bureau, and poked him in the back. “Lighten up, Vic,” she whispered. “All’s well that ends well.”

“You know I’m going to have to speak with both of the boys before I leave.” The agent did his best to ignore her.

Mia held up her left hand, using her thumb and forefinger to form an
O
.

Vic Turner shook his head, rolled his eyes, and walked away.

When the agent reached the end of the drive, Beck turned to Grant. “That really was one hell of a stupid thing to have done.”

“Hey, you just said—”

“That was because the FBI was standing there, ready to read you the riot act.” Beck stood with his hands on his hips. “If anyone’s going to ream you out, it’ll be me.”

The two men stared at each other.

“Frankly, we were afraid you weren’t going to make it,” Beck said.

“I appreciate that,” Grant told him. “But you have to understand that there was no way I wasn’t going to try.”

“You should have let me come with you,” Beck said.

“So we both could have drowned?” Grant shook his head no. He hastened to add, “Not that I really thought that was going to happen.”

“It was really that bad out there?” Dallas put her arms around his waist.

“Nah.” Grant shook his head. “Everyone likes a little drama. Even Beck.”

“Let’s bring everyone inside and see if Berry has a bottle or two of champagne to open to celebrate everyone’s safe return. I plan on spending the rest of the afternoon hugging my son.”

“Good luck with that,” Grant told her. “Cody and Logan are feeling like pretty big boys right about now. The way they see it, they had a pretty damned great adventure. Sailed out in a storm, got shipwrecked on a deserted island, slept out in the great wild with only the rowboat for shelter. Lived on peppermint candies. They’ll have a hell of a great story to tell when they get back to school next month.”

“Well, good for Cody, but his mother is still a quivering mass and needs to hug her boy,” Dallas said.

“I think the press would like a statement.” Steffie came across the yard and threw herself on her brother. “The story is all over the news. They’re all calling you a hero, you big knucklehead.”

Before he could protest, Dallas said, “My hero.” She linked her arm through his. “I always wanted to be able to say that to someone in real life …”

The celebration lasted until both exhausted boys suddenly and simultaneously fell asleep on the living-room floor. Clay Madison lifted his sleeping nephew and carried him to their car. Dallas hugged Brooke and her mother, then she and Grant walked them to the car. There was still a cluster of reporters gathered on the sidewalk, but Clay drove past them without comment.

Seeing Dallas in the driveway, they called to her,
hoping for a quote to go along with their coverage of the story that had a happy ending rather than the worst, as had been expected.

“Dallas, can we have a minute?”

“Dallas, how’s Cody?” At this, she gave them a thumbs-up, and someone snapped a picture.

“You should go speak with them,” Dallas told Grant. “You’re the story here.”

“Not my style.” He shook his head and took her hand and together they went up the steps and into the house.

“The phone is still ringing off the hook,” Berry told Dallas when they went into the kitchen. “I’ve been letting it go to messages but then I heard Wade’s voice but couldn’t get to the phone in time to answer it and he hung up. And now I can’t get him to pick up. Infuriating.”

“Did he leave a message?” Dallas went to the machine to play it back.

“I’m afraid I inadvertently hit erase while I was trying to get the call before he stopped talking.” Berry was clearly exasperated. “But he said something about coming home soon and that he had a surprise and we needed to brace ourselves.”

Dallas laughed. “We always have to brace ourselves when it comes to Wade. I can’t imagine anything he’d do that could that would cause more than a lift of the eyebrows at this point.”

“Well, I suppose we’ll see soon enough.” Berry yawned. “Steffie, would you like another glass of champagne? Some tea, perhaps?”

“No, thank you, Miss B.” Steffie seemed suddenly
subdued. “I should get back to the shop. Paige, are you going to work for me this afternoon?”

Paige shook her head. “I think I want to wait until Cody wakes up.” She turned to Dallas. “If it’s okay with you …”

“Of course,” Dallas told her, knowing how much Paige had worried about her little friend.

“I guess I’ll see you in the morning, then.” Steffie tapped Paige on the top of the head. “Eight o’clock. Don’t be late.”

Grant turned to Dallas and said, “I need to take a hot shower and get into some dry clothes. And I probably have a bunch of appointments to make up as well.”

“There is no way I can ever thank you for what you did today. You saved my son.” Dallas took his face in both her hands and looked deeply into his eyes. “No matter what happens, I will never forget that you risked your life for Cody. I will be indebted to you for the rest of my life.”

He kissed her, then turned and walked out the door.

“Have you calmed down enough to talk a little business?” Norma asked Dallas when the two of them were the last in the kitchen, Berry having gone upstairs to take a nap.

“Sure. Let’s take our coffee into the library.” Dallas stood to lead the way. “I’ve appropriated it for an office. It’s a wonderful space to work in.”

She opened the door for Norma to precede her into the room.

“I can see why you like to work here,” Norma said as she seated herself in one of the oversize leather chairs. “Great light, great atmosphere. And very comfy chairs.”

Dallas nodded. “I spend the better part of every day in here. My screenplay is almost finished.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“I figured as much.” Dallas took a sip of coffee, then placed her cup on the table that stood between her and Norma’s chairs.

“I’m not having much luck getting backing for your project. I’ll tell you flat out that if you were starring in it, and someone else directing, it would have been sold last week for numbers that would make your head spin. As it is, everyone thinks you’re playing with them.”