Uncharted Waters

He glanced over at the windsock a few yards from the maintenance hangar near the water and gauged the wind speed and direction. The wind was below ten knots and coming out of the south. Perfect for flying, but he knew there would be storms later. Pilots had radar when it came to predicting weather. In the Keys, the storms came like clockwork every afternoon during the summer. Brief downpours that turned the air to steam. Drew had every intention of being back long before the afternoon thunderstorms started.

Standing at the end of the dock, he looked down the narrow gangway where his seventeen-passenger Grumman Mallard seaplane rocked gently in the surf. The quick swell of pride made him smile. An F-18 she wasn’t, but she was a pretty little thing and fun as hell to fly. He’d earned his water landing and takeoff certification right out of the Navy. In the four years since, he’d tried very hard not to look back.

Drew had spent the majority of those years building Water Flight Tours into the small, but lucrative business it was today. He’d turned an idea into a reality and made it work. Pouring his life savings into a charter plane service had been a huge risk. He’d worked weekends and holidays, forfeiting sleep and peace of mind for a stab at success and the American Dream. But it was a risk he’d been willing to take. A risk that, in the end, had paid off.

He liked to think he worked so hard because of his love of flying, his inherent independence, because he was ambitious. But sometimes his mind strayed a little too close to the past, and he wondered if maybe he worked so hard because he didn’t like the taste failure had left at the back of his throat. Maybe his foray into the American Dream was his escape. Maybe he’d spent the last four years running away from a mistake he would never live down. From ghosts he would never forget no matter how hard he tried.

Shoving thoughts of the past aside, Drew started toward the Mallard. Beyond, Emerald Cove inlet shimmered prettily. On the dock, brightly dressed tourists flocked like colorful wading birds fishing for baby shrimp. They came from all over; he’d seen the license plates in the gravel lot behind his office: Georgia, Ohio and a dozen counties right here in South Florida. He would give them what they came for. An aerial tour of one of the most breathtaking sights in the world: the Florida Keys.

He would start right here at Emerald Cove, which was situated just north of Key Largo and boasted some of the best fishing in the world. Then he would fly low over an aircraft salvage yard, known by the locals simply as “the graveyard” and the sunken sailboat just south of the reef where barracuda and shark converged to feed. From there, he would take them south, over John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, south to Key West, then to the Dry Tortugas to the west, and finally back home to base. If all went as planned, he would be home in time to watch the storms roll in.

Holding that thought, Drew headed toward the group for his preflight check, a quick overview of the rules and then he would begin the boarding process. Just another day in paradise.

He could feel the tourists’ eyes upon him as he approached and smiled at the floppy hats, sunburned noses and silly T-shirts. Families. Couples. The occasional retiree out to break the routine. Most of them, he knew, had never met a pilot or flown in anything other than a Boeing 727. The Mallard seaplane was different, particularly the water takeoffs and landings. Drew didn’t offer peanuts or martinis during the flight. He didn’t have to. The scenery beyond the windows held his passengers rapt. Thanks to Mother Nature and some hardworking coral, his customers always got their money’s worth.

Drew loved flying more than anything else in the world. Being a pilot defined who he was, and he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Flying was the ultimate freedom and the supreme challenge rolled into a single feat that never ceased to take his breath away. Flying was the one thing in the world Drew felt passionately about. Four years ago, it had saved him from despair when nothing else could.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,” he said, stepping onto the concrete floating dock. “My name is Drew Evans and I’ll be your pilot and tour guide this morning. Does anyone have any questions before boarding?”

“Hey, mister, we gonna see any sharks today?” asked a bright-eyed boy about eight years old.

Taking the clipboard from inside the plane, Drew smiled down at him, then at his parents. “There’s been a school of hammerheads hanging around just east of Duck Key. How about if I swing out that way and we’ll have a look?”

“Wow! Cool! Mom, did you hear that?”

Grinning, enjoying the moment a hell of a lot more than he had a right to, Drew reached up under the wing and expressed a small amount of fuel from the preflight check reservoir into a clear plastic cup. He knew Jet A by color and smell and could now rest assured the correct fuel had been pumped into the tanks when he’d refueled yesterday afternoon.

He’d just stepped off the pontoon after checking the aileron flaps, when a woman standing at the end of the dock caught his eye. He couldn’t see her features from where he stood, but her silhouette was starkly familiar. It was a silhouette he would never forget no matter how many years or miles he put between them. No matter how hard he tried.

The sharp pang of recognition shook him, sent his heart hard against his ribs. Denial that it could be her rose inside him. There was no way she could have found him. Not that he’d been hiding, he assured himself. He’d simply moved on with his life. He’d hoped she had, too.

A small boy, maybe four years old, stood at her side. Drew took in the blue cap, baggy shorts and skinny legs and tried not to remember, tried even harder not to feel. He’s the right age, a cruel little voice pointed out. And Drew was suddenly, utterly certain it was her.

What in the holy hell was she doing in Emerald Cove?

Thankful he was wearing sunglasses, he stared at the woman, trying hard not to let his shock and disbelief show. His eyes did a quick, dangerous sweep of her, taking in her tiny waist, the curve of her hips and athletic shape of her legs. She was casually dressed in khaki shorts, a sleeveless yellow blouse and sandals with flat heels. But Alison Myers didn’t look like a tourist. She didn’t blend into the crowd. She stood out, like a brilliant diamond surrounded by rough-cut stones. She sure as hell shouldn’t have looked sexy, but she did. Alison always looked sexy. And Drew had always felt like a son of a bitch for noticing.

The old attraction tugged hard at him, a big fish snagged on a barbed hook and fighting for its life. It shouldn’t have surprised him that even after four years and the hell of losing his best friend nothing had changed. The reality of that disturbed him. He knew it was unreasonable, but he suddenly felt incredulous and a little angry that his hormones would betray him now.

He’d tried desperately to forget her. To forget what he’d done, not only to her, but to her son. How could she do this to him now?

She smiled and waved upon realizing he’d spotted her. Drew knew he should smile back at her but, God help him, he couldn’t. He couldn’t do a damn thing except stare at her and feel the memories tangle with dread and augment like a big sour ball in his gut. Her hair was shorter, but the color was the same sun-streaked blond. She’d cut it into a sleek style that swung like a curtain of silk against her jaw when she turned her head. She’d lost some weight—a little too much if he wanted to be truthful about it. Drew preferred more substantial women. The kind who wore tight jeans, a quick smile and had a weakness for pilots. Alison Myers had never been that kind of woman to him. But that had never mattered.

Drew approached her, praying he was wrong, that the woman walking toward him with a smile on her face and a little boy at her side wasn’t the woman he’d spent the last four years trying to forget. But he knew it was her. He would know her anywhere. He would know her by scent alone, by the sight of her legs, by the rise of tension inside him whenever she was near, though he’d never had a right to think of her in any of those terms. He may have put six hundred miles between them, but he’d dreamed about her too many times in the last four years not to recognize her now.

For an instant, Drew felt like turning around and walking straight back into his office and locking the door behind him. Not the kind of conduct one would expect from an ex-Navy officer. But Alison Myers was the last person on earth he wanted to see. He did not want to talk to her. God forbid, he did not want to look into her son’s innocent eyes, knowing what had happened to his father. Alison represented a past he wanted to put behind him forever.

He didn’t want her here, dredging up all the memories he’d been working so damn diligently to forget. Why couldn’t she just leave the past behind and let him move on with his life?

Feeling as if he were about to face the firing squad instead of a chat with an old friend, Drew held his ground just outside the hatch. Because he needed something to do, he looked down at the clipboard in his hand and scribbled something meaningless. Vaguely, he was aware of sweat breaking out on the back of his neck, his heart pounding in perfect rhythm with his head. He felt trapped and annoyed and a little mean. The urge to run was overpowering. But if he’d learned anything in the last four years, it was that running didn’t help. It was the fastest route to nowhere, and memories had a way of following a man no matter how far or how fast he ran.

An uncomfortable quiver ran the length of him when she shoved her sunglasses onto her crown and waylaid him with eyes the color of the Caribbean and a fourteen-karat smile. “You’re a hard man to run down, Drew Evans,” she said, a little breathless, a little ruffled and a whole lot sexy.

Drew didn’t know what to say to that, so he said nothing.

She reached him a moment later, the little boy’s hand clasped tightly in hers. Drew looked dumbly at the child, then at Alison and felt another wave of disbelief wash over him. He hadn’t thought he’d ever see her again and the shock of it was like a punch right between the eyes.

“What are you doing here?” he managed to ask after a moment.

Her smile faltered, and he silently berated himself for sounding so harsh. He hadn’t intended to sound snappish. But didn’t she realize she had absolutely no reason to smile at him like that? Didn’t she know what he’d done?

“I wanted to surprise you.” She laughed, but now seemed uncertain. “It looks like I succeeded.”

“It’s okay,” he said a little too quickly. “I mean, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Nice, huh?” When he didn’t move, she rolled her eyes. “Well, there’s an enthusiastic welcome.”

Drew knew what was going to happen next. And for a split second he very seriously considered walking away and dealing with the consequences later. But he was aware of the little boy watching him, of his customers all around, of Alison Myers smiling at him and his body responding in a way that was worse than inappropriate.

He stiffened when she leaned close. Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. He felt the brush of her lips against his face like the meeting of heaven and hell, a silent explosion that was as devastating as any bomb. The worst part about it was he couldn’t do a damn thing, except stand in purgatory and watch it happen.

“It’s really good to see you,” she whispered.

Drew barely heard the words for the hot rush of blood through his veins. How was it that after four years of hell, she could still look at him as if he were her husband’s best friend and not the man who’d played a major role in his death? Where was the outrage? The hatred? And for God’s sake, how could he stand there knowing what he’d done to her and still want her?

The questions pelted him like jagged stones. Drew endured the brief contact and the pounding questions in stoic silence. He made no move to touch her. He might not be able to control his response to her, but he could damn well control his motor functions. He’d had his fill of guilt; he wasn’t going to do anything to add to it.

But in the instant when her lips had been pressed chastely against his cheek, he’d closed his eyes against the quick rise of heat. The rush of blood to his groin. The agony of knowing his lust for his best friend’s wife was still as strong as the day he’d first laid eyes on her.

She smelled like tropical fruit, rich and sweet—and definitely poisonous—to him, anyway. All he could think of was that he couldn’t think of a better way to go....

Grappling for composure, Drew disengaged from her, took a quick step back and tried to get his bearings. Because he was having a hard time meeting her gaze, because that kiss had done something he wasn’t proud of to his body, he looked down at the little boy at her side. But if Drew thought looking at her child would be any easier, he was wrong. The little boy looked up at him with big brown eyes that were hauntingly familiar. His father’s eyes, Drew thought, and guilt rose like nausea.

“This is Kevin,” Alison said cheerfully.

Hoping he didn’t look as shaken as he felt, Drew stuck out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Kevin.”

The little boy grinned and shook his hand vigorously. “I’m four. Are you a real pilot?”

“I was the last time I checked.”

Kevin’s brows went together and Alison chuckled.

He had his father’s smile, too, Drew realized. He wondered how Alison had dealt with that. He wondered if she’d done a better job of dealing with Rick’s death than he had.

“You ever flown in a plane before?” Drew asked the boy.

“Me and Mommy flew in a plane from Washington D.C.”

Rick’s parents lived in D.C. Last he’d heard, Alison was living with them, had been since Rick’s death. Having lost her own parents in an automobile accident ten years earlier, she hadn’t had anyone else to turn to. Drew had wanted to check on her and her kid a hundred times, but in the end he’d always decided they would be better off if he just stayed the hell away.

“Seaplanes are a little different,” he said.

“Mommy said we might see a coral ruff.”

“Uh, coral reef.” Drew looked over at Alison and smiled. She smiled back, and he felt another punch-in-the-gut tug of attraction. “I’ve got to finish up my preflight.”

She cocked her head, questioning him with those clear blue eyes, and he knew she was wondering why he didn’t linger for a moment to talk. Drew didn’t want to explain. Hell, he wasn’t sure he could. When it came to Alison, he’d never quite understood what was going on in that so-called brain of his. Of course, his body made no bones about how he felt physically, and that made everything infinitely more complex.

There was no way in hell he could make small talk with a woman who could turn him on with nothing more than a chaste kiss. She’d been his best friend’s wife. A man Drew had watched die. A man Drew hadn’t been able to save.

Holding that thought, he turned and started for the seaplane without saying another word.

CHAPTER TWO

Alison had imagined her meeting with Drew Evans happening a number of different ways. All of them had included warmth and laughter and the kind of easiness she’d always shared with her late husband’s best friend. The man she’d just met wasn’t anything like the Drew Evans she’d known four years ago.

She tried telling herself he was simply busy with the tour and his customers. That his standoffishness and quick getaway had absolutely nothing to do with her personally. She’d surprised him. That was all. He simply didn’t have time for chitchat, regardless of the fact that they’d once been close.

But as much as she tried to justify his reaction to her, she sensed there was something more behind it. His reaction hurt. Not only because he’d brushed her off, but because he’d done the same thing to Kevin. That, she realized, disturbed her more than not understanding why.

She’d expected changes. People didn’t go through life without growing and maturing. They certainly didn’t go through something like what she and Drew had endured four years ago without traces of it being left on their souls. Maybe his response to her now was a result of that.

She’d kept tabs on him through a co-worker at the Department of Defense where she’d worked up until a week ago. Alison had been proud of Drew upon hearing that he’d bought a waterfront home in Emerald Cove. Even prouder when she’d learned of his decision to go into business for himself and open Water Flight Tours. But while she’d silently been cheering him on, she’d also been hearing about the darker things that were happening in his life. Things that had surprised and dismayed her and left her hurting for him.

She hadn’t wanted to believe that someone as strong as Drew could be on a slow downward spiral. That he’d isolated himself from friends and family. She’d always been able to come up with an excuse for him as to why he hadn’t kept in touch with Rick’s parents—or her for that matter. But now that she was here and had seen him face to face, it was obvious all was not well.

Drew Evans looked like a man who was as alone as a man could be and still be alive. He looked like he was spending too much time with his thoughts and not enough with people who cared for him. He looked troubled and isolated and so deep into denial he didn’t even recognize what was happening.

Physically, he was the same handsome pilot he’d always been. Tall and as solid as a mountain. Thinner than she remembered, but it wasn’t for lack of muscle. He used to keep his raven hair cut into a short military style. Now it looked as if he’d gone several months without a trim. His midnight-blue eyes seemed a little bit more haggard than she remembered. A little more knowing. Maybe a little more cynical.

There was a hardness in a face that had once been full of wit and mischief. Distance in a smile that had once been warm and charming. A coolness in a voice that had once been engaging and hard to resist. Where was the happy-go-lucky pilot she’d once known? Once upon a time he’d been easygoing and fun as hell to be with. She and Rick and Drew had spent many a carefree day together. Rick had cared deeply for Drew and so had she.

What had happened to him?

“Mommy, do we still get to fly on the plane?”

Realizing she was standing in the hot sun fretting about something she had very little control over, she knelt before her son and pulled his cap down to keep the sun off his face. “Of course we do, big guy,” she said.

“Is he mad at us?”

Alison grappled for an appropriate response, amazed that a four-year-old child could be so perceptive. Looking into her son’s innocent eyes, she took little comfort realizing she wasn’t the only one who’d noticed all was not well with their surly pilot.

“He’s not angry, honey. He’s just...busy with other customers.”

“Is that why he was looking at you so funny? ’Cause he was busy?”

Alison wasn’t sure “funny” was the right word. Drew had gone downright pale upon seeing them. She didn’t have the slightest clue how to explain his reaction because she didn’t understand it herself. She was saved from having to try when the turbo engines rumbled to life and the props began to spin.

“Mommy! Wowee! Look at the big propellers! They’re spinning around just like on TV!”

The engines were so loud she could feel the rumble all the way to her stomach. “I guess that’s our cue to get in line to board, buddy.”

“Can I sit by the window? Please? Can I, Mommy?”

“If there’s a window seat, you got it,” she said.

Kevin jumped at least a foot into the air, and she laughed outright. Every day he reminded her of Rick a little bit more. From the way he smiled to the way he walked and talked, to the way he approached life, Kevin was his father’s son through and through. She loved him more than anything in the world, and she was so proud of him, her chest swelled every time she looked at him. He was her entire world rolled into a forty-six-pound whirlwind of energy and innocence and a little boy’s unending curiosity.

He’d only been two months old when Rick was killed. Alison had done her best raising him alone, but she knew she held on just a little bit too tight. She’d learned the hard way that no matter how safe and secure her world seemed, fate could snatch it away without warning.

All she’d ever wanted for Kevin was for him to be safe and healthy and happy. She’d been devastated when, shortly after his first birthday, he’d been diagnosed with asthma. She and Kevin’s grandparents had dealt with it relatively problem free. Then Kevin had suffered a severe attack that had put him in the hospital for two days. The doctor recommended she take him to one of two renowned asthma clinics. The Waterton Clinic south of Miami or the Asthma Rehabilitation Center in San Diego. Because of Drew, she’d chosen Miami.

Of course, he hadn’t been the only reason. Alison’s sister, Kimberly, lived in nearby Ft. Lauderdale. And after living with Rick’s parents for the last four years, Alison was ready to strike out on her own. Marybeth and Richard Myers had been more than happy to take her and their grandson in after Rick’s death. At the time, Alison had needed family desperately, and they’d welcomed her and Kevin into their home with open arms.

But as the months grew into years, Alison began to realize that life went on. She needed her independence back. She needed to get on with her life. There was a great big world out there, and she’d been hiding behind the protective wings of her loving in-laws. After four years, the time had come for her to move on.

Two weeks after Kevin was released from the hospital, she’d packed their bags, bid her in-laws goodbye, and headed for Miami, where she’d rented a small bungalow near the clinic. The length of their stay would depend wholly upon the clinic and its doctors, so she’d only signed a one-month lease. The Waterton Clinic had come highly recommended, but if for any reason she didn’t like it, she had the option of moving on to the other clinic in San Diego.

A sharp tug on her blouse brought her attention back to the situation at hand. “It’s our turn!” Kevin said, pointing at the plane.

Alison glanced up to see Drew helping an elderly woman step onto the float and then into the cabin. He looked up when Alison and Kevin stepped forward. But instead of the smile she’d expected, his expression was flat, his jaw tight. Even though she couldn’t see his eyes, she knew they were on her. That he didn’t look friendly unnerved her. That wasn’t like Drew at all. It was as if he were a completely different man than the one she’d known four years ago.

“I want to sit by the window!” Kevin exclaimed.

Drew’s gaze slipped from Alison to Kevin. “I think I’ve got a window seat with your name on it, sprout.”

“Yay! Mommy, a window seat with my name on it? Did you hear that?”

“I sure did,” she said, then glanced over at Drew. “Thank you.”

He looked away. “No big deal.”

An awkward moment descended as Alison contemplated how best to step onto the pontoon and get into the plane. She’d seen Drew helping the other passengers, but when it came to her, he hesitated. Why wouldn’t he help her? Just when it seemed as if he wouldn’t, he very gently took her arm.

“Step onto the float and then go through the hatch. Aisle is to your right.”

“Thank you,” she said, wondering how many times a day he said those same words.

“Are you two just visiting?” he asked, taking Kevin’s hand and guiding him onto the pontoon.

“Yes,” Alison began, but in his excitement, Kevin cut in.

“We might move here. And tomorrow Mommy’s going to take me to the beach.”

Alison smiled tentatively at Drew. She couldn’t see his eyes because of his sunglasses, but she saw his jaw flex with tension. And at that moment, she knew without a doubt that he was not only unhappy about the surprise visit, but about the possibility of her relocating to Florida.