Heart Doctor's Summer Reunion
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Janice Lynn
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10
CHAPTER ONE
FLIPPING ON THE LIGHT, Dr. Charlotte Fairwell breathed in the familiar surroundings of her grandmother’s South Carolina home, a plethora of comfort, art and bright colors that all told of the sea.
Walking to the kitchen island, Lottie ran her fingers over a smooth piece of bird-shaped driftwood that her grandmother had twisted rusted wire around and mounted on a pedestal. Lottie had visited last year over the Christmas holidays, but her grandmother’s artwork was constantly in flux, and she wanted to wander through the house to reconnect with every nook and cranny of the two-story home. Her red-eye flight out of Boston that morning was taking its toll, though. She’d shower, then sleep. With Gram in the hospital, the next few days weren’t going to be easy.
Placing her suitcase in the room she’d claimed during the summer she’d spent with Gram when she was eighteen years old, Lottie stripped off her clothes. The en suite bathroom was as uniquely decorated as the rest of the house with its colorful decor. Nothing matched, yet it all blended in a way that somehow fit. Just like Gram.
The tension in her shoulders relaxed beneath the shower’s hot water. Gram was going to be fine. Yes, she’d shattered her foot and ankle in multiple places—how had she done that with a simple fall?—but she would heal and be back to combing the islands for “treasure” that she repurposed into artwork. Everything would be fine.
Wet hair brushed back and body wrapped in a towel, quite possibly one she’d used as a teen as her earth child grandmother wasn’t one for replacing anything that had remaining life, Lottie headed toward the kitchen, planning to search for something to appease her growling belly. Other than the pretzels on the plane that morning, she hadn’t eaten. Gram wasn’t much of a cook, but always kept a generous supply of the salted caramel, chocolate and the pecan candies that were her weakness. A weakness Lottie had inherited.
Click.
She hugged the towel tighter. Had that been the front door’s lock turning, then opening?
Sweat broke out on Lottie’s skin. Someone was in her grandmother’s house! Had the hire-car driver who’d driven her from the hospital in Beaufort to Fripp Island returned and jimmied the lock to let himself in? She hadn’t gotten a bad vibe, but one never knew.
Too bad she hadn’t picked up Maritime, Gram’s dog, from her neighbor’s. A sixty-pound dog being in the house might have caused the intruder to reconsider.
Trying to quietly retrace her steps down the hallway to her room to dig a can of pepper spray from her purse, Lottie bumped into a metal canister that held a variety of colorful glass bottles Gram had rescued from the sea and poked over a large driftwood piece’s roots and branches. Clang! She grabbed at the bottles, loosening her towel, which took immediate precedence. In her efforts to grasp the fabric, she hit Gram’s piece again. Metal, wood and glass crashed onto the tile. Clackety-clank-clank! Glass shattered about her feet.
So much for whoever was in the house not knowing she was there.
Intending to make a run for her pepper spray, Lottie took a step. A sharp shard sliced deep into her bare foot. “Ouch!”
She couldn’t suppress the excruciated cry or the tears that prickled her eyes.
Ignore the pain. Get to your purse.
She’d barely taken two hobbling steps when the hall light flicked on and a ghost from her past stepped into the hallway.
At Jackie Dunlap’s request, Lincoln Thomas stopped by her place to ready the house for what would hopefully only be a few days of sitting empty. Unfortunately, he suspected she’d be away from her beloved Fripp longer than she’d claimed during her call. Then again, Jackie was just stubborn enough that it wouldn’t surprise him if she’d found a way home that very evening.
Hearing movement in the hallway, then the loud crashing of Jackie’s art piece onto the floor, had him pausing long enough inside the foyer to grab a sea-weathered oar from where Jackie had hung it. It wasn’t much of a weapon but would still deliver a good whack. Crime was rare on Fripp, but word of Jackie’s hospitalization may have gotten out. Had someone broken into her home with plans to search out easily removed valuables while the house sat unattended?
Oar at the ready, Linc mentally prepared himself for whatever was about to happen. Rounding the corner, he saw the one thing—the one person—he could never fully be prepared to face even though he’d imagined seeing her again hundreds of times over the past twelve years.
“Lottie.” Saying her name out loud had his heart hammering even faster. Maybe he’d rounded the corner and he’d been the one hit in the head. His was certainly spinning enough he’d believe something had hit him. Outside of his dreams, he hadn’t set eyes on Lottie Fairwell since he’d been nineteen and so in love with her that he’d barely been able to think for how his heart had pounded when near her. His heart was pounding crazy right now.
Lottie!
“Linc!” Green gaze wide, eyeing his still raised weapon, she hugged the towel, which barely covered her midsection.
“What are you doing here?” they asked in unison.
Not that Linc couldn’t guess. She’d returned because of her grandmother’s fall. Jackie hadn’t mentioned Lottie’s return when she’d asked him to check her place. Had she known her only grandchild was home? He’d thought it was odd that she hadn’t asked her next-door neighbor, who’d taken Jackie’s Carolina dog home with her the night before, to ready the house, but he’d agreed to go by as soon as he’d finished sanding the bathroom walls he’d spackled earlier that week in his dream house. Well, he was working to transform it into his dream house.
Lottie was on Fripp.
Linc fought to keep his eyes on her face rather than the body that had haunted his dreams for over a decade. Maybe one’s first love always set the bar by which to measure all others. Either way, he’d gotten over that nonsense years ago. It was just the adrenaline rush of not knowing who was in the house that had his heart slamming against his rib cage.
But that didn’t keep his insides from stirring at the fact that, except for the flimsy towel, Lottie was naked and less than ten feet from him. How was that supposed to not resurrect memories? Her toned body had filled out a little with age but was otherwise just as he recalled. Although a busy cardiologist in Boston, she obviously took time to stay in shape. With her wet blond hair combed back from her makeup-free face, she looked much as she had the summer they’d spent every spare second together. The summer they’d fallen madly in love with one another. Summer love. Teen love. Real and yet, not.
“Linc, I—Am I imagining that you’re here?” Shifting her weight, she grimaced, as if in pain, then arched her right foot, its nails painted bubblegum-pink, and balanced on her toes.
“You’re cut.” Guilt hit that he’d been so stunned at seeing her that he’d missed what should have been obvious.
Taking in the blood trickling onto the floor, she lifted her gaze back to his. A pleading emotion shone in the green depths of her eyes for the briefest second before they went blank. Her lids closed and, skin losing all color, her body went lax.
“Lottie!”
“You always were one for dramatics, but I never expected you to fall into my arms first thing.”
Lottie recognized the voice. It was one she’d never forget. How could she when it belonged to Linc? Her sweet, sweet Linc, with whom she’d spent hours exploring Fripp the summer before she’d left for university.
She hadn’t heard his voice outside of her dreams in more than a decade. The events of the past twenty-four hours swirled through her consciousness. Gram had broken her foot and was in the hospital. Lottie had flown to South Carolina and was in Fripp. A noise had startled her. Had she fallen and hit her head and because of where she was, where she’d spent that magical summer prior to her leaving for university and his working a construction job on the island, her brain was filling in that Linc was there?
No, she hadn’t fallen. Strong arms wrapped around her, carried her. Linc’s arms. Eyes still closed because they were too heavy to open, she breathed in. Her senses exploded as he filled her nostrils. He smelled the same, all spice, sea and man. With his teasing tone mixed with concern, he sounded the same. He’d always teased her, made her laugh at herself and the world. He felt the same, too. Better. His boyish nineteen-year-old body had filled out, his chest thicker, his shoulders broader, his arms stronger. Lottie swallowed the lump forming in her throat. How long had it been since she’d been so aware of a man? Brian certainly didn’t elicit such strong responses from her senses. Not that he’d tried in eons. These days they felt more like friends than a couple.
“I’ll give you a little slack since that’s a nasty cut on your foot,” Linc continued. “But I’m positive there’s some rule that doctors aren’t allowed to pass out at the sight of blood.”
Her throbbing foot registered. She’d stepped on broken glass. Heat flooded Lottie’s face. She was never opening her eyes. She was practically naked and in Linc Thomas’s arms within seconds of seeing him. Some things never changed. It sure hadn’t taken him long to have his way with her that summer. Or had it been her who’d had her way with him? The specifics blurred, just that they’d been young, healthy and in love. That their relationship had been so physical had seemed a natural progression of the sweet nothings they whispered to each other. Linc had been her first and she’d never regretted that, not even after they’d ended things. Or maybe she had wished she’d never known what it felt like to be with Linc so she wouldn’t have such high expectations and could possibly move forward with her relationship with Brian without wishing she could describe his kisses as more than just so-so.
“I think I recognize this towel,” Linc continued. “It looks like the one we used to take to Pritchard’s with us and that the wind caught that time. I had to wade out into the water to retrieve it, remember?”
There had been nothing so-so about the kisses she’d gotten that day. Goose bumps prickled her skin as she recalled lying on a blanket with Linc, the ocean playing a song just for them and their bodies dappled with moonlight. With his fevered kisses and gentle touch, he’d coaxed her body to the ultimate in pleasure. Whispering his affections, he’d promised to love her forever. But by forever, he’d clearly meant only until summer’s end.
“Ah, there’s some color in those lovely high-boned cheeks of yours.” His tone was teasing, as if he knew she was conscious and purposely keeping her eyes closed. Did he also know where her mind had gone? That part of her wanted to beat her fists against his chest that he’d ended things, that when she’d thought she might die from missing him, he’d ignored her heartfelt voice mail declaring her love and desire to come back to him? Saying that she was willing to go to university close to wherever his next construction job took him?
“I was beginning to wonder if you were going to come to on your own,” he continued, his arms strong around her, “or if I was going to have to do mouth-to-mouth to wake you.”
Face hot, she opened her eyes, looking into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Eyes that seemed to look right through to her very soul. She’d once bared all she was to him, which hadn’t been difficult since he’d always known what she was thinking, anyway. The way his eyes sparkled had her wondering if he still had that power. Did he know her body had instantly come alive at his nearness? Did he have any idea how many nights she’d cried herself to sleep because he’d said it was better for them to end things rather than try to maintain a long-distance relationship and end up tainting their perfect summer together?
Why didn’t you call me back?
“No mouth-to-mouth.” She wished she could bury her face in his chest rather than reveal to him whatever it was he saw in her gaze.
As those all-seeing eyes continued to search hers, one corner of his mouth hiked up. “Too bad.”
Seriously? Anger and frustration hit.
“Put me down!” She put a hand protectively over the towel to make sure it didn’t slip. Why was he still holding her? Why was he even there?
More and more senses popped to life as the feel of his arms against her bare legs registered, as the once tightly tucked towel now rode up her hips. If there had been anyone else in the room, they’d have gotten an eyeful.
“So that you can bleed on Jackie’s floor?” Shaking his head, he set her on the kitchen countertop.
Lottie kept her arms tightly around herself, making sure the towel stayed in place as she crossed her legs to try to decrease how exposed she felt. Why hadn’t she wrapped two or three of the things around her? Or better yet, gotten dressed? Then again, she hadn’t known she was going to be face-to-face with anyone, much less her past.
Linc examined the bottom of her foot. His blue eyes, fringed with dark lashes, lifted. For the briefest of moments, it struck her that his eyes no longer held the adoration that they had in the past when he’d always gazed upon her with passionate love. Deep loss hit. Ridiculous. It’s been over for twelve years. She did not expect Linc to gaze upon her with adoration—but the fact that he wasn’t was doing odd things to her that felt akin to grief, as though she’d lost something precious. Bringing up things she’d grieved long ago and gotten over, moved on from.
“You aren’t going to like this,” he warned, still holding her foot, “but I need to clean off the blood to see if there’s glass in there.”
Yeah, he was right. She wasn’t going to like that. Nor did she like that her brain was more aware of his strong, yet gentle fingers holding her foot than it was of the glass that was definitely still in there.
“I can do it,” she insisted, feeling more and more self-conscious. She’d imagined seeing Linc again more times than she could count. They’d bump into each other. He’d see the accomplished cardiologist she’d become, that she’d moved on and had a great life, and he’d realize how wrong he’d been to let her go. Not once in those imaginings had she been soaking wet, wrapped in a towel and bleeding while he looked like hunky male perfection.
“Letting me would be easier.”
True, and yet, nothing had ever been further from the truth. Nothing about Linc was easy. Not the way he held her, not the way his eyes no longer held affection, not the way he sounded so immune to her presence, when she was so off-kilter.
“Turn so that I can rinse off your foot in the sink,” he requested. “And hang on to your towel.”
No worries there. Lottie clung to the towel for dear life as she scooted to where she could drop her foot into the ceramic basin. Linc flipped on the faucet, then checked to make sure the temp was okay. When satisfied, he took the nozzle, sprayed her foot and gently cleansed away the blood.
Watching him, a hundred emotions hit. This was Linc. The young man who had been her first love. Her first lover. Her first heartbreak. Linc.
“I’m sorry you’re having to do this. I really could have.” Sitting on the kitchen countertop with her foot in the sink, wearing only a towel, was about as awkward a reunion as she could imagine.
“It’s not a big deal.” He shrugged as if it truly wasn’t. He’d clearly forgotten her long ago, writing off what they’d shared as summer love that had been wonderful, but never meant to last.
His fingernail scraped over the glass, sending a sharp pain all the way up her leg.
“Ow.” She jerked free from his grasp.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
But you did. Hating her thoughts, she closed her eyes, counted to ten, then opened them to find that he was watching her.
“You okay?”
No. Yes.
“Fine.”
“Good. There for a second I thought you were about to black out again.” Reaching into a nearby drawer, he pulled out a dish towel. He gently wrapped the fabric around her foot to prevent blood from dripping, taking care not to put any pressure over the area with the glass so as not to push it deeper. Moving to the cabinet that contained Gram’s odds and ends, he rummaged until he found her first aid kit, which had been buried beneath boxes. He removed gauze and alcohol pads. “I need tweezers to get the glass from your foot. It’s deep, but I can see it and can hopefully grab hold without having to dig it out. I can’t imagine Jackie not having at least one pair in her art supplies. I’m going to go look. I’ll disinfect them prior to removing your friend, there.”
He obviously wasn’t going to leave until he’d extracted the glass.
“There are tweezers in my makeup bag in my bathroom. They’re inside a little travel kit.”
His brow arched. “Is it okay if I get them?”
Realizing he was asking permission to go into her private bathroom, Lottie nodded. It wasn’t as if it made sense to tell him no. She had glass in her foot. He was planning to remove it. No matter how many mind games her head was playing, it was really nothing more than Linc being helpful the same as he’d have done if she was a complete stranger.
When he returned, he didn’t comment, just lifted her foot and after a few failed attempts that had Lottie gritting her teeth and clenching her fists, he pulled out a chunk of glass.
“There. Got it.” He placed the tweezers and offending blue glass on the countertop, then pressed gauze to the wound. “Hold that while I find an adhesive bandage. There weren’t any in the first aid kit.”
“Gram’s forever nicking her fingers while working on a project and keeps them out. They’re—” She paused as he searched the cluttered built-in desk to one side of the kitchen. “You remember where she keeps them.”
Opening one of the bandage strips, he placed it across her cut, then applied pressure to the area with his thumb. “I remember a lot of things.”
Her heart thudded to a halt, then jerked hard. “I, uh, that’s good.”
His gaze locked with hers; he lifted his brow. “Is it, Lottie?”
Why did she get the impression he wasn’t referring to where her grandmother stored things?
He glanced back at where he held her foot. “You’ll be a little sore, but you should be good as new within a few days.”
“Thank you.”
“I should be thanking you for the glimpse at my past.”
Heat flooded her face, and she adjusted the towel, making sure not to uncover her top while trying to fully hide her bottom as she crossed her arms over her chest. “A gentleman wouldn’t look.”
“I actually meant—” He shook his head, then losing his serious expression, he chuckled. “That wasn’t what I meant, but don’t sweat your terry cloth fashion statement, Lottie. It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
More heat infused her cheeks.
“That was a long time ago.” She hadn’t expected to see Linc while in Fripp. Not once over the years since her preuniversity summer had their paths crossed. Originally from northern Florida, he’d only been on Fripp for his job. Yet, she never came back without wondering what it would be like to see him again.
Ha, who was she kidding? It didn’t take visiting Fripp to make her wonder about Linc.
“Yep. It was.” His gaze stayed locked with hers, almost as if he was searching for the girl she’d once been, the one who’d run into his waiting arms and showered him with kisses with complete abandon. Maybe it was that pure happiness she’d felt that summer, her world had been right, carefree, that had made them seem so perfect. So much had changed since then that it was no wonder her psyche clung to that summer as the happiest she’d ever been.
“But, like I said—” Linc’s thumb eased its pressure against her foot “—I remember a lot of things.”
Linc certainly hadn’t forgotten Lottie. Not that he hadn’t tried. He had. Especially in the months following when she’d first left South Carolina. Sometimes, he thought he’d gone a little crazy during that time. Maybe he had, especially after her phone call. But she’d been an upper middle class young woman about to leave to start school at Harvard, and he’d been nothing more than a poor kid working a construction job to help put himself through community college. He hadn’t needed her mother to point out those stark differences to him.
Memories had his jaw clenching and he fought sighing. Things had worked out as they should have, though. He and Lottie had both gone on to become the people they were meant to be. Her a cardiologist as she and her parents had wanted. And, although he hadn’t known at that time that it was what he wanted for his future, he loved being a physical therapist. Ending things and leaving them ended had been the right thing. But holding Lottie, feeling her skin against his again after so much time, even under such innocent circumstances, was blurring the lines of the present and the past.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve removed something from your foot.”
She bit into her lower lip.
“We’d been walking on the beach,” he continued, letting the past wash over him, “and you stepped on a shell, crushing it. A piece stuck in your foot.”
“I really need to learn to wear shoes, eh?” She stared down at where he held her foot. “You carried me piggyback to Gram’s. I could have walked, but you wouldn’t let me.”
“She wasn’t home. You thanked me with a kiss.” More than a kiss. Much, much more.
A strangled noise came from deep in her throat. “I wouldn’t expect a repeat of that.”
Was she remembering how they’d ended up in her room, in that bed that flooded him with memories when he’d gone after her tweezers earlier? He’d made love to her, told her his dreams, felt her cup his face as she told him how being with him was like living a fantasy.
Being on Fripp that summer had been a fantasy. Unfortunately, they’d both had to return to reality. Lottie’s reality hadn’t included someone like him. Everyone had known that except her.
“No kiss?” Why was he pushing? Teasing her? He didn’t want or expect a kiss of gratitude from Lottie, or anything more. “Good thing I wasn’t.”
Linc refocused on her foot. Lifting his thumb, he was glad to see she hadn’t bled through the bandage. “Looks as if you’ve stopped bleeding. My work here is done.” How mundane they sounded. Then again, why wouldn’t they? Picking up the used gauze and tape, he tossed them into the trash bin beneath the cabinet.
“How is it that you know where everything is located in Gram’s home?” Lottie asked from where she still sat on the counter.
Jackie mentioned Lottie to him from time to time. Did she not do the same with her granddaughter? Telling Lottie that he now lived on Fripp? That she’d invited him over multiple times since he’d become her neighbor and vice versa?
“It’s not as if she’s rearranged things since we were teens. Despite being such a creative person, she’s also very much a creature of habit.”
Studying him, she frowned. “That’s true. I guess what I’m really wondering is why are you here, Linc? In my grandmother’s house?”
“She asked me to come by to make sure everything was locked and okay for her to be away for a few days.” His explanation contorted her face. “It’s a bit confusing to me, too, since you’re here, which she failed to mention. I’m guessing she didn’t give you a heads-up, either?”
Lottie’s forehead crinkled. “Gram sent you here? Why would she do that?”
He shrugged. “I assumed it was because she knew I wouldn’t mind stopping by since I’d either be home or go by here on my way home.”
Her eyes widened. “Home? You live on Fripp?”
She looked incredulous. Did she still think him the poor construction worker he’d been at nineteen? That she’d been the only one to obtain her dreams? Granted, her dreams had stayed on track and his ambitions had changed. But he liked his life and was proud of what he’d achieved, both in construction and as a physical therapist.
“I bought the old McMahon place when it was put up for sale this spring.” His bid hadn’t been the highest, but the McMahons had accepted anyway as the higher bidders wanted to tear down the house to build a much larger, modern structure and the family hadn’t wanted that to happen to their late mother’s place.
“I can’t believe you live on Fripp in the house I always loved.” Still sitting on the countertop with her thighs crossed, she hugged the towel tighter over her chest. “For that matter, I can’t believe you’re here and that I’m not imagining you.”
Leaning against the kitchen island, he eyed her. “Why would you imagine me here, Lottie?”
Had she thought of him over the years? Of course, she had. He’d been her first. If nothing else, that would always set him apart from any lover she’d had since. Fingers curling into his palms, he recognized he had no right to feel the jealousy that punched him at the thought of anyone touching what had once been his.
And to think he’d thought he was going to do a quick walk-through at Jackie’s place, then get back to working on his bathroom remodel. Nothing so mundane as that when Lottie Fairwell had returned.
Her lashes lowered, hooding her green eyes. “I, uh, you know.”
Pretending a calm he didn’t feel, he shook his head. “I don’t. Tell me.”
Her cheeks pinkened. “No matter. I don’t know why I even said that. Just poor word choice. Anyway, thank you for coming by to check on Gram’s house, but there’s no need. I’m here.”
“For how long?”
“I’m not sure.” Concern etched itself onto her lovely features and remorse hit at the circumstances that had triggered her return. “As long as Gram needs me and that I can manage away from work. That’s not a problem, is it?”
A thousand problems. More.
“Why would that be a problem? Whether or not you’re in Fripp makes no difference to me, Lottie.” Only, it did. Knowing Lottie was on Fripp, that she was so close, had every nerve ending in his body short-circuiting. “Since you’re here and can keep an eye on things for Jackie, I’ll head home.”
Indecision shone in her green depths. “I... It was good to see you, Linc. Unexpected, but good.”
“Uh, yeah, it was good to see you, too.”
“I’d walk you to the door, but I’m afraid of just how much you’d see if I attempt to get down.”
Running his gaze over her bare shoulders, arms and legs, realizing that if she slid off the counter, the towel likely would shift to reveal the curve of her thighs, maybe more, Linc swallowed and pushed himself away from the kitchen island. “I’ll let myself out. Welcome back to Fripp, Lottie.”
“Just temporarily, though,” she reminded him.
Yet another thing he hadn’t forgotten.
For Lottie, Fripp had never been anything more than an escape from reality.
A wise man would keep that in mind.
