Like One of the Family

That’s not true, a voice whispered, reminding him of that day…

Stop! Resurrecting a childhood memory wasn’t going to help him deal with the Lora Bell of today, he growled to himself. Annoyance at his own useless mental sojourn down Useless Memory Lane, made him want to do something reckless, like give Lora a piece of his mind for neglecting her family when they needed her the most. But as much as it would feel good to abrade her for her actions, he knew the satisfaction would only last a moment. The Bells would stand by Lora—as they should—and he’d lose out on the only family he’d ever known.

He drew a deep breath but his chest remained tight. Lora had only been back for less than an hour and already she was turning his life upside down. The smart thing would be to keep his distance. If they weren’t around each other, they couldn’t rub each other the wrong way. Sounded like a plan—even if Heath knew following through was going to be damn near impossible. What Lora didn’t know was that Heath had been running the resort in a shadow capacity since Pops had started to show signs of dementia creeping on. He knew more about the day-to-day operations of Larimar than any of the Bell girls. And as soon as Lora found out, he was willing to bet his firstborn, she wasn’t going to like it.

* * *

THE©FOG©IN JACK’S©MIND scared him. Why would Lorie say that her Grams was dead? Why would his sugar bird say something so mean-spirited? He’d known Lorie to be a little on the no-nonsense side, unlike her sisters who were happy-go-lucky most times. “Lana?” he called out again, the silence bouncing back at him scared him more. “Lana? Where are you?” he said, rounding the corner to her favorite sunning spot. Maybe she went to town to get supplies, or even Lorie’s favorite beef pâté from Simon, the guy who made them from scratch in his kitchen and sold them out of his cooler. A smile found him as the explanation for Lana’s absence made sense. Lana always went out of her way for her sugar birds. Of course, that’s where she was. Relieved, he let his fear and confusion melt away and detoured to the shop where he could hear Heath tinkering on something. Jack had known Heath since he was a skinny, starving boy hanging around the resort looking for work.

He entered the shop, smiling as he saw Heath pounding out some nails from a board he was going to repurpose for something else needed for the resort. Heath was no skinny boy now. The boy had morphed into a strong, able man whom Jack and Lana considered family even though they didn’t share a drop of blood. If only Lorie saw what they saw in the man. “Whatcha working on, son?” he asked, forgetting his earlier moment and eagerly looking to Heath. The man was a whiz with his hands. If it could be built, Heath could build it. If it needed fixing, Heath found a way to fix it. Larimar was lucky to have him and Jack knew it.

“Just a new mailbox. I found this in a stack of wood being tossed out. Thought I’d fix the mailbox out front,” Heath answered, his focus on pulling the nails from the wood. But Jack knew the man pretty well and could sense something was eating at him.

“Lorie’s home,” Jack said, brightening. “You ought to see her. She’s pretty as the day is long. You remember, Lorie, don’t you?”

Heath jerked a short nod and continued to work but Jack wanted to chat. The boy worked too hard. “Let’s take a break,” he suggested, smiling. “What’s the drink of the day today? Is it that vanilla rum and banana drink that tastes like a banana smoothie with kick? I love that drink. Very refreshing, yah?”

“You go on ahead, Jack. I’ve got to finish this and then get on home.”

“Stay for dinner at least,” he said, liking the idea of Heath seeing more of Lorie. He and Lana thought the two would make a great couple. Although Lana said Lorie was too focused on her career to ever consider the slow, laid-back life on the island but Jack held out hope. His sugar bird had island in her blood. She just needed to be reminded what made it special.

Heath gave the offer some consideration before shaking his head. “Sorry, Jack. Another time, maybe.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Jack said with mock seriousness. “All right, I’m off to find out if Lana brought home an extra pâté, or two. I’m starved.”

Heath gave him a tight smile and short nod, then went back to pounding nails.

CHAPTER THREE

LORA©CLOSED©THE©DOOR behind her, leaning against the wood. Pops was losing his mind. There was no getting around that fact when the evidence had just slapped her in the face. Her breath hitched in her chest as the pain spiked in her heart. How could she pretend for Pops’s sake that Grams was still alive when she’d worked hard to put that grief behind her so that she could cope with the loss?

No, Grams, no…I can’t pretend you’re still here…it’ll kill me… Lora sank to the floor and clutched her knees to her chest, hating how lost she felt. Losing Grams had been far more painful than losing her own mother, if that was possible.

She remembered her mother’s funeral as if watching a scene from someone else’s life. The memories she had of Lisa Bell were fogged and distorted, snatches of a life she barely recognized. At one time, her mother had laughed with joy but the Lisa Bell Lora remembered had tears in her eyes from her husband’s abandonment. Lora hated her father for that. Cancer had taken her mother, but Lora always believed that a broken heart had been the true killer.

Lora shuddered, gulping against the tightness in her chest. She was stronger than this, she told herself fiercely. Get up! Get off this floor and stand tall. There were people depending on her to figure things out. Wiping the tears from her face, she struggled to her feet with the fragile resolve of someone pulling themselves together with little more than grit and determination. This, too, felt familiar.

Snatches of her earlier conversations with Heath came back to taunt her without mercy. Why did he bring out the worst in her? Granted, she wasn’t a girl who was known for her niceties but there was something about Heath that had always made her snarl.

But even as the thought ran through her head, something nagged at her. No, she hadn’t always disliked Heath. In fact, once… She shrugged off where her mind was going. It was so long ago, she could hardly remember how she’d felt then about Heath Cannon. All she knew was that today he rubbed her the wrong way. And he seemed stuck to her family like a pervasive mold.

Lora dragged her luggage to the bed and swung it on the bed. She popped the lock, slid the zipper open and threw open the top. Everything was packed with military precision, making it easy to find what she was looking for—her bikini and cover-up. Grateful to get out of the constricting and smothering business attire she wore for the plane, she made quick work of slipping into her island clothes, then put away her packed clothing into her dresser. She didn’t plan to stay long but she never kept her clothes tucked in her luggage. She liked everything to be where it belonged, if even for a short visit. After she’d hung her blouses and put away her luggage, she took a quick survey of her room. Nostalgia tugged at the corners of her mind but she pushed it away. She’d spent half her childhood here, in this room. Her mouth softened as a small smile threatened. She closed her eyes and drew in the soft scent of coconut suntan lotion that seemed a part of the wicker furniture and let the peace that followed permeate her soul, if even for just the barest of moments. She would allow herself that small comfort.

The sound of her youngest sister’s voice echoed below in the terrace. Lora’s eyes opened. She needed to speak with Lilah immediately and seeing as Lilah had failed to meet her at the ferry, that told Lora her baby sis had deliberately avoided her to circumvent a confrontation. Well, time to get this out of the way… .

Lora headed downstairs to have a chat with the youngest of the sugar bird Bells.

* * *

LILAH BELL©HAD©WATCHED her sister disembark from the ferry from her perch at the Rush Tide Bar and Grill. She’d pleaded with Heath to go and pick up Lora for fear of what her older sister might say to her in light of her failure. Lilah chewed the side of her cheek, her stomach gurgling in distress at the turmoil causing havoc in her intestines. She’d always had a persnickety tummy, as Grams used to call it, which had resulted in Lilah being the pickiest eater. Lilah knew she gave off the impression of being frail, so most people continued to baby her, except Lora.

And while Lilah sometimes chafed at the way people coddled her, Lora had made her realize that people babied her because she was incapable of handling a true crisis. Her failure at being able to navigate the obstacles facing Larimar and necessitating the SOS call to Lora only served to deepen her own disappointment in herself. And frankly, her oldest sister was the last person she wanted to see right now. She certainly didn’t need to hear Lora berate her for letting things get this bad.

So, she’d begged Heath—who had his own issues with Lora—to get her from the ferry. Yes, it’d been cowardly, but Lilah hadn’t cared.

She could only imagine the fireworks that’d accompanied that car ride.

But Lilah knew she could avoid Lora for only so long because the island was a mere nine miles wide and eventually, the odds were that they’d bump into each other.

And that moment had come, she realized as Lora descended from the private section of the resort to meet Lilah’s wary gaze. If it’d been Lindy, Lilah’s twin, there’d at least be hugs and exclamations of affection before the shouting. At twenty-eight, Lilah shouldn’t be afraid of her oldest sister, but her stomach was roiling even as she forced a smile.

Of course, Lora looked stunning as she always did, if it weren’t for the grim set of her jaw. Lora had changed from the plane into island clothes, though she didn’t look local. Too much time in the corporate world had sharpened Lora’s gaze as if she were constantly looking for the angle people were trying to use to their advantage. It saddened Lilah to see how much her sister had changed—and not for the better. In that moment, she deeply missed Lindy, but her twin was off in Hollywood, well on her way to becoming famous.

“How was your flight?” she asked, trying for some sort of civility before the fight began. Lora’s lips pressed together before she cocked her head to the side with an expression of exasperation. Lilah sighed. “So no small talk first? Okay. I missed you, too. We should probably go into Pops’s office to do this.”

Lora nodded and turned to pad barefoot into Pops’s tiki-themed office. Lilah had always loved Pops’s laid-back style to business, but now that she’d been thrust into the management department, she’d realized a more orthodox style would’ve been easier to step into. As Lora would discover, Pops had left a nightmare to untangle when it came to the books. But as they entered, they found Heath sitting in Pops’s chair. This wasn’t an uncommon sight for Lilah, but it certainly was an unwelcome shock to Lora, as evidenced by her hard stare.

“What are you doing?” she queried sharply to Heath, and Lilah sent him a silent apology for her sister’s rudeness. Lora looked to Lilah for an answer, crossing her arms and looking sorely vexed, as the islanders would say. “Last time I checked you were a handyman…now you’re sitting in my grandfather’s chair? I want an explanation and I want it now.”

“God, Lora, stop treating Heath like he’s a criminal or something,” Lilah muttered, knowing Lora wasn’t going to like the explanation. Heath had been stepping in for some time to help and Lilah had been terribly grateful. He’d always been like the older brother she never had and she cared deeply for him. The fact that Lora had treated him as if he were beneath her notice had pissed off Lilah. “He’s sitting at Pops’s desk because he’s been helping me keep Larimar afloat. You know I don’t have a head for business and Heath does.”

“Oh, really? Since when? I hardly consider doing odd jobs as having the business acumen necessary to run a high-end resort,” Lora answered back, focusing her laser stare on Heath who only stared back, the heat between the two enough to fry an egg. “You can bet that I’m going to have a chat with Pops about this but something tells me you probably convinced him—in his current confused state—to let you take over as you saw fit. Well, I can tell you right now, that ends now.”

“Lora!” Lilah exclaimed, horrified that her sister would imply such a thing. If she only knew… “You haven’t been here. You haven’t seen what Heath has done for Larimar. Maybe if you took a phone call every once in a while I wouldn’t have had to ask for Heath’s help. Unlike you, he found the time to take an interest in what’s been going on.” Tears stung Lilah’s eyes and she couldn’t hold them back. She’d never been good at yelling at someone, least of all one of her sisters, but she couldn’t sit there and allow Lora to believe the worst of Heath when he’d been nothing but kind to this family. Lora looked unmoved by the sudden show of tears, as if she’d expected some sort of reaction from Lilah, and the knowledge that her older sister knew her that well only served to pour salt in the wound. Seaming her mouth shut, Lilah spun on her heel, only too eager to get away from the ugliness in the room. If her sister wanted to be a coldhearted bitch, then she could deal with the fact that no one liked her or could stand her company for more than five minutes—including her sisters. “I’m sorry, Heath,” she muttered as she ran from the room. Whether she was apologizing for abandoning him in the moment or because Lora was such a she-beast, Lilah wasn’t sure. She just knew she was sorry.

* * *

HEATH©WATCHED LILAH©FLEE the room and he felt compelled to follow, if only to see if she was okay. Lilah was like his little sister and the fact that he felt more protective over her than her own flesh and blood only served to stoke the banked anger.

“You sure know how to alienate every single person you come into contact with. Tell me, is this how you conduct yourself in Chicago at your big fancy corporate job?” he asked with a calm he certainly didn’t feel. He wanted to put his hands around her slim neck and shake some sense into her, but he willed that white-hot anger into an icy calm, using a tactic he’d seen Lora use more than once.

At the mention of her career, he almost thought he saw a bit of an inward wince, but that was impossible. Lora Bell was a shark who ate guppies that had the misfortune of wandering into her pool. A show of vulnerability wasn’t in her nature. “Nice try at deflection. Now that the hysterics are over, can you tell me what the hell is going on here?”

“Simple. As I told you earlier, your grandfather started to lose time about a year ago and when that happened, he forgot to pay bills. Of course, no one knew this until the water and power was shut off one day. I discovered months’ worth of bills that had been stuffed into your Grams’s in-box, which at first I thought your Pops was simply using as an easy place to remember where to put the bills, but then I realized, he was following what he used to do when your Grams was alive.”

“She always paid the bills,” Lora finished in a murmur, her fingers massaging her temple. “So how many bills were behind?”

“Everything,” he answered, sugarcoating nothing. “And that prompted me to look a little more deeply into the finances and the taxes. He hasn’t paid in years. The government started sending letters six months ago. That’s when I started calling you. When we received this—” he picked up a letter from the desktop and tossed it to her “that’s when I sent the certified letter to get your damn attention.” He paused a minute to let her read the letter. “Because I’m not family and I don’t have power of attorney on the estate I couldn’t negotiate on Pops’s behalf. Unfortunately, we needed you for that.”

He knew the letter word for word. It said that if the back taxes weren’t paid in full by the end of the quarter, the government would seize the property for payment against the debt.

“Oh, God,” Lora breathed, true distress on her features. He wished he could feel some sort of satisfaction for her finally admitting that the situation was serious, but he was too worried to feel anything but anxiety. For him, there was more at stake than his loyalty to the Bells. Two years ago he and Jack had went into business together and Pops had invested a fair amount of capital—money that Pops didn’t have to give, which Heath didn’t discover until it was too late. Pops had taken money socked away for the estate taxes and given it to Heath instead. Once Heath had discovered the source of the money, he’d felt sick inside. In essence Jack had banked Larimar’s future on the belief that Heath’s business would thrive. At least, that’s what Heath wanted to believe. But there was a dark shadow of doubt that lurked, that Jack had already been slipping in his mental abilities when they’d struck the deal, and if that were the case, it would appear to Lora that Heath had taken advantage of her grandfather. The very idea made him ill—but he knew he’d have a helluva time trying to convince Lora otherwise. He braced his knuckles against the desktop and stared at Lora. “Listen, we can stand here and snipe at each other all day but it’s not going to solve anything. We both want the same thing—to save Larimar. I say we work together to that end and put the personal stuff aside.”

Her stare narrowed at his suggestion and he felt filleted. “Why do you care so much? This is my family’s problem. Not yours. I can’t imagine that you’re so attached to being a handyman. Surely there are other handyman jobs out there that you could get.”

His temper rose but he choked it back until he could talk without shouting. “Why does it matter? I care. Whether you like it or not, I love this family. And if that doesn’t jive with how you think I should behave just because I don’t share DNA, then too damn bad. I don’t care. I love them. Deal with it.”

She stared as if shocked by his admission but when she could find no fault with his statement, she backed down—if only incrementally. “Thank you for your help,” she managed to offer with a stiff show of gratitude and he knew it must’ve cost her soul to utter. She straightened and crossed her arms across her ample chest, which only drew his attention to the full swells barely contained in her bikini top hidden beneath the gauzy white cover-up. He jerked his gaze away as if what he saw had the ability to turn him to salt, and he mentally berated himself for looking at all. Lora held up the letter. “If I’d known it was this bad…I would’ve come sooner.”

It was as much of an apology as she was going to offer but frankly, it wasn’t enough. Her self-absorbed act needed to go. “You need to talk to Lilah. You’re too hard on her.”

“I’ll thank you to keep your nose out of my business with my sister,” she said, but he wasn’t afraid of her and continued.

“You knew when you put her in this position that she wasn’t up to the challenge. Hell, Lindy would’ve been a better choice and you and I both know that Lindy is as flighty as a butterfly on the breeze, but at least she wouldn’t have cracked under the pressure.”

“Lilah is a grown adult. I wish everyone would stop treating her with kid gloves,” Lora snapped, but he saw guilt in her eyes. “Besides, she’ll get over it. Nothing bothers Lilah for long.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. It’s really sad that you don’t know your own sister.”

“Oh, and suddenly you’re an authority?” she mocked.

“More so than you,” he said bluntly.

“Watch it, Heath,” Lora murmured. “You’re treading on dangerous ground. My Pops may have a soft spot for you but I don’t suffer from the same feeling. In essence you’re my employee. I could fire you right now.”

“Do it, then,” he dared her in a silkily dark tone. “But let me tell you something else, so you can make an informed decision. If you do that you’re going to have a shit-storm on your hands that not even you will be able to handle. I’ve been running Larimar for the past year but beyond that, I own the gift shop downstairs and Larimar doesn’t have enough money to pay me off.”

She stared, shock in her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

He shook his head. “Why don’t you take a moment to really look at Larimar and see all the changes that have been made since you’ve been gone. Someone had to do something to start making some money because the one with the marketing degree…well, she was unavailable.”

With that, he stalked past her. He was done with her for the day. If he stood another minute in her presence he’d choke on his own frustration—or choke her.

CHAPTER FOUR

LORA©DIDN’T©KNOW©WHY but the weight of Heath’s judgment sat heavily on her shoulders. Why should she care what Heath thought of her relationship with her sister? Clearly, Lilah had Heath believing she was helpless, just like everyone else. Lora refused to feel guilty over her decision to make Lilah take on more responsibility for once. So what if Lilah had no real business sense, was it so hard to write a check and pay some bills? Lora silenced the ongoing argument in her head, annoyed that Heath had managed to make her feel culpable and wrong in the same breath.

She sat in Pops’s chair with a huff and started shuffling papers, looking for some semblance of order. She didn’t know where to start. She looked in the files and found folders with marked headings written in a clearly masculine hand. She knew Lilah’s handwriting was flowery and her Pops’s handwriting was an illegible scrawl that only her Grams could decipher, which meant Heath had sorted these papers and put them in order. She pushed away that acknowledgment, not ready to make amends with Heath just yet. It was childish and worse, she knew it, but she couldn’t quite deal with the feelings that rose when she thought of Heath’s honest admission.

He said he loved her family. Obviously, she was not lumped up in that admission. Lora sniffed. Who cared? She didn’t need nor want to be included in Heath’s affections. She had enough family, she didn’t need more. She paused. And what did he mean that he owned the gift shop? She put aside the tax file for the moment and started sifting through the other files. She found the gift shop and pulled it.

After she finished reading the paperwork pertaining to the business arrangement between Pops and Heath, she leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. She’d found the reason Heath had been so involved in her family’s affairs and it wasn’t so much altruistic as it was self-serving.

It shouldn’t surprise her. In the corporate environment, no one did anything without a reason—and it was usually because they served to benefit from the action. Why was she surprised Heath was no different?

Maybe because a part of her—locked away deep inside—hoped the man Heath had become had remained that trustworthy island boy who had watched her with furtive glances and rare smiles.

This paperwork showed that he was just a man—like any other—looking out for himself.

And for reasons she wasn’t interested in pursuing—it hurt.

* * *

HEATH©CAUGHT LILAH©AS©SHE was leaving, her eyes red but otherwise dry. She stopped and gave Heath a look of apology but shrugged. “I guess I knew that wasn’t going to go well,” she said, her voice scratchy yet soft. “I let her down. I knew it was coming.”

“You didn’t let anyone down,” he disagreed, still hot. “She put you in a position where you were doomed to fail. Don’t let her off the hook so easily. She has to shoulder some of the responsibility, too. It’s not right for her to make you assume the role you were never groomed to take. Pops always made it pretty clear that he thought Lora would take over the running of Larimar, which is why she’s on the estate paperwork.”

Lilah nodded, but she was plainly still miserable. His heart broke for the young woman and even though she was an adult and clearly not a little girl anymore, he gathered her in his arms and hugged her tight. “Don’t let her get to you. She’s all bark and no bite,” he assured Lilah, and she shuddered against him, clinging to him like a spider monkey. “She has a tendency to lash out when she’s backed into a corner. She’ll come to her senses and realize what a royal—well, for lack of a better word—bitch she’s been and maybe if an apology isn’t in her vocabulary she’ll at least show with her actions that she’s sorry.”