The Family Man (2 page)

Sara’s heart squeezed at the thought. She wasn’t ready to believe he was beyond her help yet. “He’s
young and has limited funds. I don’t think he’s gotten very far. That’s just a gut feeling though.”

“Well, I’ve been at this long enough to respect a gut feeling.” Pierce rapped his knuckles against the edge of her desk. “Keep working it, but don’t let the other stuff go.”

She nodded before he turned to walk away, leaving her to heave a sigh and look at the pile of work on her desk. How did detectives in larger cities handle it? Horizon Beach was far from a metropolis or a hotbed of crime, and still she stayed busy from the moment she came on shift until the moment she left. And sometimes beyond that.

The picture of David went back into the manila folder that held all the information about the case, though that was precious little. With only a few minutes left on her shift, she decided to tackle the pile of mail and pulled out a letter opener. Among the items that went directly into the trash and those that she deposited in various case files, she found two tickets to the Helping Hands Ball, the annual dance and auction to benefit special programs hosted by the police and fire departments.

She sighed as she stared at them. It seemed as if she’d attended the ball only weeks ago instead of months. And she was no closer to finding the right man now than she’d been then.

The image of Adam Canfield popped into her head, making her snort at the very idea of him in that
role. She shoved the tickets back into their envelope and then into her desk drawer. That she was even thinking about him again annoyed her. Her common sense rebelled at the idea that she found him attractive, that it had taken all her willpower not to turn around to see if he was watching her as she’d left the Beach Bum earlier.

Of course he hadn’t been. She wasn’t the kind of woman Adam made the effort to watch.

She pushed the unwanted thoughts away and glanced at the framed photo of her daughters sitting on the corner of her desk, huge smiles stretching across their faces. Her number-one priority remained being the best mother she could be to Lilly and Tana and finding them a good, solid father who could love them, dote on them, as her father had loved her.

“Isn’t your shift over?”

Sara jerked out of her thoughts and looked up at Captain Pierce where he’d stopped on his way out.

“Um, yeah. Just cleaning up a bit of mail before I leave.” And trying not to fantasize about what Adam Canfield looked like with water glistening on his naked chest.

Captain Pierce left, but Sara still took a couple of minutes to get her brain back in correct working order. She used the ten-minute drive home to get into mommy mode and leave inappropriate daydreams behind.

After parking her car in front of her little yellow
bungalow, she crossed the street to the home of Ruby Phelps, the girls’ babysitter. As soon as she stepped inside the door, three-year-old Lilly squealed, “Mommy!” and ran over to give Sara a hug and a big, sloppy kiss. Sara never got tired of hearing her adopted girls say that.

“How’s my little peanut?” Sara asked as she hugged her daughter back.

“Nummy.”

“She just had an oatmeal raisin cookie. Come in and have one.” Ruby stood wiping her hands on a towel in the doorway to the kitchen.

“Sounds good. I’m running on fumes.” Sara was suddenly glad it was Friday afternoon and she was looking at two days off to spend with the girls.

Ruby motioned her into the kitchen. “I made plenty, so help yourself.”

Sara followed the older woman into the cheery kitchen and snagged a fresh cookie from the plate in the middle of the table. Tana sat at one end of the table with a cookie in one hand and a pen put to notebook in the other. Sara looked at her thirteen-year-old with affection. Tana’s adoption paperwork had yet to be finalized, but Sara already thought of the three of them as a family.

“Hey, how was school?”

“Good. I have a project to do for science this weekend, but I need to go to the pier to do it.”

Sara cringed inside. The memory of nearly losing
that little boy today caused her to abandon the cookie.

“Can’t you go somewhere else?”

“Nope.”

Sara sighed. The last place she wanted to go on her day off was the pier where Adam Canfield ran the concession, taking the money of locals and tourists who wanted to fish or walk on the pier that jutted into the Gulf of Mexico. The pier that happened to be next to the Beach Bum, his home away from home. The pier where she’d had wildly inappropriate thoughts about him. If she hadn’t believed in fate having a wicked sense of humor before, she did now.

“What kind of project?”

Tana looked up, her dark eyes serious. “I have to spend an hour at the pier and list all the types of fish reeled in by the fishermen. Then I have to research the details about their populations and migration patterns.”

“Seventh grade sure has changed a lot since I was there,” Sara said.

“Well, yeah. That was ages ago.”

Sara tossed a cookie crumb at Tana. “It wasn’t
that
long ago, smarty-pants.”

Tana just smiled and took another large bite of her cookie.

“We’ll go in the morning, before it gets too hot.” Might as well get it over with. Maybe Adam would be too sleepy or hungover to even know she was there.

After a couple minutes of chitchat with Ruby, Sara ushered the girls across the street to their own house. She wanted nothing more than to shuck her slacks, dress flats and button-up shirt and sink into a warm bath. Well, perhaps there was something she wanted more than that, but realistic expectations topped out with a foamy, hot, scented bath. First she had to make dinner and spend some quality time with the girls.

A knock on the door turned out to be Ruby. She held out Lilly’s favorite Winnie-the-Pooh blanket as she stepped inside the front door. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to get her to sleep tonight without it.”

“Thanks.”

Ruby tilted her head slightly. “You okay? You seem like you have something on your mind.”

“Just a long day.”

Ruby made sure the girls weren’t close by. “I heard about what happened at the pier. That little boy okay?”

“Yeah.” Thanks to Adam. He might not be the guy for her, but he’d saved a child’s life today. “But I spent most of the day looking for a fourteen-year-old runaway who seems to have disappeared into thin air. I looked for that boy everywhere, and no one’s seen him.”

“People who don’t want to be found have a way of staying hidden. Wonder what he’s running from.”

Sara examined the other woman’s lightly lined
face as Ruby pushed her chin-length silver hair behind her ear. “You’re the second person to say something like that today.”

“Who was the other?”

Sara waved off the question. “Nobody important. Main thing is that I couldn’t find the kid, and at best he’s spending tonight out there alone somewhere.”

“Sweetie, you can only do so much.”

Sara heaved a sigh. “I know.”

Ruby patted her arm. “You need to plan a day off just for yourself, maybe do something crazy like go on an actual date.”

“I go on dates.”

Ruby crossed her arms and gave Sara a hairy-eyeball look from behind her rimless glasses. “When was the last one?”

Sara opened her mouth to answer but then realized she didn’t know what to say.

Ruby tapped her forefinger against Sara’s hand. “My point exactly.”

“Horizon Beach doesn’t exactly have a huge dating pool.”

“Maybe your parameters are too strict,” Ruby said with a twinkle in her eye. “Loosen up a bit. It’s dating, not lifetime commitment.”

As Ruby turned to leave, Sara bit down on a reply that she knew what she wanted, so why should she waste time with guys who didn’t fit the bill?

And Adam Canfield so didn’t fit the bill.

Adam’s street was quiet and dark when he rolled in to his driveway after work. Of course, it would be at nearly two in the morning. The only sounds that met his ears when he stepped out of the car were the distant waves and the hum of air conditioners.

This wasn’t the first time he’d arrived home at this hour, but being on the opposite side of the bar added a great deal to his fatigue level. Not to mention way too many questions from patrons when they’d found out he was the one who’d dived off the pier after that kid. How many days until Zac came back?

Okay, he needed to suck it up and just deal because Zac and Randi deserved a nice, long honeymoon after everything they’d been through. Arson, false accusations, damn near getting killed.

Sure, it was odd having his best friend be a married man now, but damned if he wasn’t happy for him. He guessed it would be nice to know you could
go home to someone who loved you every night, sleep in late tangled in the same sheets.

That image pulled Sara Greene back into his thoughts. Ugh. He needed to get some sleep, not get worked up about a woman he’d already decided not to pursue. He rubbed his hand over his face and headed toward his front door. But a noise from the side of the house caused him to stop and listen. When he heard it again, he edged along the front until he reached the corner.

Movement at the back of his property caught his eye. It looked like someone hurrying from his backyard into that of his neighbor on the next street. He crossed the lawn to the point where he’d seen the shape, scanned his neighbor’s property, but saw nothing. Considering he was way too tired to give chase even if he did see someone, he retraced his steps to the house.

His doors were locked, but he still searched the house to make sure no one was inside or that anything was missing. After a few minutes, he was satisfied whoever had been out there hadn’t broken in. Good, because he was too exhausted to deal with cops and police reports for the second time in a day. He just wanted to fall into bed and sleep for twelve hours. Too bad he only had five.

He pitched his sweaty T-shirt into the laundry basket in the corner, but when he started to take off his shorts he remembered the business card in his pocket. He pulled it out and sank onto the side of the
bed. Sara Greene’s phone number taunted him, seeming to pulse an invitation to call it.

For a moment, he considered his prowler might have been young David Taylor. Then he would have a legitimate reason to call Sara. But with nothing to support his wild theory, he tossed the card onto his nightstand and flopped back on the bed, his feet still on the floor.

Why was his brain refusing to let go of her image? Sure, she had dark, shiny hair, dark eyes and nice curves, but he’d seen her several times before and not reacted this way.

Had to be fatigue. Or some crazy nonsense like the lure of the unavailable.

Or the fact she’d leapt off the pier after him to save a child. He might want to steer clear of women who put themselves in danger, but it evidently didn’t mean he couldn’t be wildly attracted to one in the aftermath of that danger.

As his eyes drifted shut, he imagined what it’d be like to run his hands through her hair and kiss her lips. That image accompanied him as his consciousness gradually gave way to sleep. The feel of her silky hair, the wetness of her kiss, some flowery smell that seemed to cling to attractive women, the softness of her skin moving against his.

It felt so good. His body flamed in response as he wrapped his arms around her. Shielding her from
whatever was lurking out there in the dark. Because something was lurking, trying to steal the joy enveloping his heart.

Images flew at him, each one more frightening. Each one causing him to wrap more fully around Sara, protecting her. No, not Sara. But it wasn’t enough, he thought a moment before the explosion, before the pain.

Adam jerked awake, shaking and sweating and his leg on fire from the pain.

Remembered pain.

He shoved himself to a sitting position and stared at the scar lining his thigh, a forever reminder of that day that refused to die in his memory.

Damn it. He dropped his head into his upturned palms and pressed against his eyeballs in a vain effort to make the images go away. He’d been having such a nice dream. Why the hell had it insisted on flowing into the nightmare that haunted him like a curse?

Because maybe he needed the reminder to stay away from women like Sara Greene, no matter how nice the daydreams about her were.

Tomorrow he needed to find a simple, carefree date, someone to make him forget about Sara Greene and his inexplicable reaction to her.

He sighed and ran his fingers back through his rumpled hair. And tried to ignore a little voice that whispered doing so wouldn’t be as easy as it should be.

L
ILLY SQUEALED
in delight as she ran through the sand on the beach. Sara smiled and her heart expanded as she watched her daughter enjoy every moment of life and its many exciting sights and sounds. Lilly was a little bubble of sunshine and joy who had no idea her life had started out so sadly, that her birth mother had abandoned her at the hospital when she was only a couple of days old.

“Oh, big bird!” she said as she pointed toward a pelican diving toward the surf.

“It should be against the law to be that chipper this early in the morning,” Tana said as she trudged along beside Sara. “I demand you arrest her.”

Sara laughed and wrapped her arm around Tana’s shoulders. “What’s not to like? It’s beautiful, the breeze is nice and cool, the beach isn’t crowded yet.”

“That’s because normal people are still asleep.”

Sara ruffled Tana’s short chestnut hair. “It’s not like I got you up at the crack of dawn.”

Tana’s guttural response made it clear she didn’t like the hour, no matter its proximity to the break of day.

As they approached the pier, Sara scooped up Lilly so she wouldn’t lose her off the edge or in the throng of early-morning anglers. The idea of Lilly falling into that murky water chilled Sara all the way through. She pulled money from her shorts pocket to pay the pier walking fee and prepared herself to face Adam again. When she stepped up in front of
the concession stand, Adam stared back at her from sleep-heavy eyes. She stifled her laughter.

“Hours not agreeing with you?” she asked, fighting a smile.

“Can you get early mornings outlawed?”

“Seems to be a popular idea. I’ll get right on that.”

Sara glanced around the interior of the small shack, at the small TV muted on ESPN, at the stack of magazines on the table next to a tall stool, the casual shirt and cargo shorts Adam was wearing. He definitely looked like a beach bum, but the best-looking one she’d seen in years. That thought erased her mirth.

Why couldn’t Tana’s science project have required them to go to the Gulfarium or something?

“At least this is an even less taxing job than standing behind a bar,” she said.

“Just the way I like it, nice and easy.”

Not a lot of ambition in that statement, but that wasn’t news.

She lowered her gaze and thought of Ruby’s words from the day before. The way her senses were sparking, she did need to find a date soon. But if she was going to spend even more time away from home and the girls, she had to find a more likely candidate. Someone who might turn into something more for her, Tana and Lilly. The idea of Adam Canfield as a family man was laughable to the point of being ludicrous.

“So, I’m guessing from the lack of rods and
tackle boxes that you all are just walking the pier this morning?”

Sara nodded as she handed over the pier walking fees. “Tana has a school project to work on here.”

“Hmm,” he said as he put the cash in the register. “Can’t remember any homework that allowed me to be outside on a pretty day.”

Sara sensed the “old” comment was on the tip of Tana’s tongue, so she spoke first. “Evidently we’re ancient and school has changed a lot since cavemen were grunting at each other.”

Tana snickered. Sara pushed her playfully on the shoulder.

Adam leaned forward on the counter lining the front of the small building. Sara’s eyes went straight to his tanned, sinewy arms and imagined them pulling her to him. Oh, good grief, she shouldn’t be having those kinds of thoughts with the girls right next to her. But how was she supposed to not have them when he stood there looking like the cosmos’s gift to sex-starved women?

He nodded to both girls and met Tana’s gaze. “So, what kind of homework does one do at a fishing pier?”

Sara couldn’t help watching Adam as Tana explained her assignment and he pointed out the best fishermen to ask her questions. He actually paid attention to Tana, talked to her as if she was an adult. Something about that surprised Sara, wormed its way past the negative view she had of Adam.

Lilly squirmed in her arms. “Down.”

Sara smiled at her little pixie as she lowered Lilly to her pink-sandaled feet. Lilly didn’t like to be confined. Trying to harness her almost constant motion for very long was a bit like corraling a tornado. But Sara refused to let go of her hand.

Considering she didn’t know what else to say to Adam or how she felt about what had just transpired, Sara ushered the girls toward the end of the pier where fishermen were already reeling in redfish, pompano and ladyfish. Tana jumped right in asking the lucky anglers about their catches, especially the ones Adam had pointed out. She looked like a miniature reporter with her pen and spiral-bound notebook.

Lilly soaked up all the activity around her, but Sara didn’t allow her to venture farther than a couple of steps from where Sara sat on a bench enjoying the salty, warm air. Sometimes it seemed as if she’d lived here forever instead of only three years. The two times she’d gone back to Memphis, she’d felt trapped without the sea air and the sound of the waves. Odd since she’d spent the first twenty-five years of her life in the home of Elvis, blues and the mighty, muddy Mississippi River. But she’d fallen irrevocably in love with Horizon Beach’s stretches of sugar-white sand overlooking blue-green water.

She loved her home, her job, her girls. Only one thing was missing. If she stopped looking for the right guy, would he walk into her life?

Momentary weakness made her look toward the building on the other end of the pier. No Adam in sight. She didn’t know if she was glad or disheartened by his absence.

She redirected her gaze to a ship on the distant horizon, likely a navy vessel headed toward Pensacola. An unbidden wave of loneliness hit her. Her watch showed she had to sit where she was for another forty-seven minutes. How had only thirteen minutes of the hour Tana was required to stay at the pier passed? She glanced in Adam’s direction again and saw him talking to a family loaded down with fishing gear.

This morning sure would be easier to endure if Adam Canfield were three shades of ugly.

But he wasn’t. Far from it.

She pulled her gaze away from the concession hut and back toward the people lining the pier. Most were men. Perhaps one of them was the type of date she sought.

Some she scratched from the list because she simply wasn’t attracted. Others wore wedding bands or showed evidence of habits she didn’t like and refused to have her daughters exposed to. That left only a couple remotely attractive candidates, but she had no idea how to actually meet them.

Maybe it was time to give online dating a try. A disgusted sound escaped her as she considered the possibility.

“That bored, huh?”

Adam’s voice was as sexy as the rest of him. Her torment was complete.

She pointed toward the long line of fishermen. “Not really my thing.”

“You ever tried it?”

“Not in the ocean. But I went with my dad on the river, a couple of lakes.”

“Not the same. The fish here give you more of a challenge, a bigger workout to reel them in.”

“Last thing I want to do on my day off is fight with something.”

He stared at her for a beat before saying, “Right.”

Any hint of his fun-loving self disappeared, and Sara mourned its loss. Now he was all business as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “It might be nothing, but I had a prowler at my place last night.”

“Patrol typically works thefts.”

“Nothing was taken. House wasn’t even broken into. But I saw someone running out of my backyard, and for some reason I thought of the kid you were looking for. He still missing?”

Lilly bumped into her knee, and without looking Sara pulled her daughter up onto her lap, held her close as if talking about one missing child would make her own disappear.

“Yes. Did you get a look at the person? How big was he?”

Adam shook his head. “I couldn’t see him well, couldn’t even swear it was a him. Didn’t follow
whoever it was. Too dead on my feet. I doubt I could have caught a turtle at that point.”

“Plus, not a good idea to chase unknown prowlers into the night.”

“True,” he said. “I looked around the backyard this morning but didn’t find anything.”

“I’d still like to take a look.”

“Be my guest.” He said it as though he didn’t expect her to find anything, either, and he might be right.

Still, she had to search for herself. When her brain had been fixating on him and her hormones, she should have been trying to figure out where else to look for David Taylor.

“Sometime later today?” This was a serious matter, and yet a sizzle passed through her when her eyes met his.

He didn’t say anything for a few seconds. When he finally broke eye contact, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Sure. I don’t get off work until one, but you can go by without me there. It’s 715 Conch.”

She nodded.

“Well, see ya later.”

At his goodbye, Lilly gave him a big smile and an enthusiastic wave. “Bye-bye.”

He looked startled by Lilly’s gestures, but he gave her a half smile and a little wave back. He couldn’t have looked more uncomfortable if he’d tried.