Silent Run - Barbara Freethy [39]
As he gazed at her, the breeze blew strands of her hair across her face. Sarah didn’t seem to care. She was absorbed in the moment, her eyes closed as she lifted her face to the breeze and the sun. She was right. The sun wouldn’t last long. It was already slipping over the horizon.
On impulse he took off his shoes, pulled off his socks, and joined her on the sand. She slipped her hand into his, her eyes still closed, and said, “I never want to forget this feeling. You and me together on a perfect sunny day.”
“There are going to be a lot more perfect days,” he said, turning her around to face him.
Her eyes opened and she smiled at him, but her smile wasn’t nearly as bright. “I hope so, but you never know what’s around the corner.”
“Good things—that’s what’s around the corner.” He didn’t know when he’d turned into an optimist, but there was something about Sarah that made him want to believe in the future in a way that he’d never felt before. He’d spent most of his life concentrating on building a career, making sure he could support himself and whoever else in the family might need his help. He hadn’t thought much about making a life with a woman—until he’d met Sarah.
“I hope so, Jake, but if not, we’ll always have this moment. Sometimes that’s all you have. I learned that a long time ago.” Sarah put her hands on his shoulders and leaned in for his kiss. Her mouth was warm, soft, inviting, and he couldn’t stop kissing her until the sun went down, and she shivered as the cold ocean breezes kicked up off the ocean.
“We’d better go,” she whispered. She put her finger to his mouth and wiped off her lipstick. “Was it worth it?”
“Absolutely,” he said.
“Jake?”
He blinked, realizing Sarah’s voice no longer had the dreamy quality of the past. He glanced over at her. “What?”
“Where were you?” she asked, her eyes curious.
“In a dream,” he said. “But it’s over now. All over.”
Chapter Nine
Dylan pulled up in front of a small clapboard cottage perched on the edge of the sea at Pismo Beach in San Luis Obispo. The house was white with blue shutters and a mix of colorful flowers in two long window boxes. As Dylan got out of his car, a blast of wind blew a chill through him. The sun was out, but the air was cold, and tall waves broke along the beach, the ocean still turbulent from the storm two days earlier.
He had mixed feelings about the sea. Some of his best memories were of his family’s house on Orcas Island in the San Juan Island chain just off the coast of Washington state. But that house was also the last place he’d been with his mother. When they’d returned home his father had told him they were getting a divorce. The next day his mother was gone.
It was strange that Jake had once again suffered from a woman’s quick and unexplained departure. Hadn’t once been enough?
And Sarah hadn’t just left; she’d taken Caitlyn. That baby was his brother’s heart and soul. Dylan was going to get Caitlyn back for Jake if it was the last thing he did.
Walking up to the front of the cottage, he rapped sharply on the heavy wood door. He heard some dogs bark in the yard; then a moment later the door opened just a few inches, a gold chain in place. A woman peered out at him, but she remained in the shadows, and he couldn’t get a good look at her.
“What do you want?” she asked warily.
“A little information. My friend was on the news last night. You called the police to say she looked familiar to you.”
“The woman with amnesia?”
“That’s right. We’re trying desperately to figure out who she is.”
“The deputy I spoke to didn’t think there was a connection,” the woman replied. “And my friend’s name is Jessica. He said this woman’s name