“Kevin didn’t respond to his medication the way he usually does,” she replied. “It’s happened before and has nothing to do with you.”
Intellectually Drew knew he wasn’t to blame. But on an emotional level, he couldn’t help but feel responsible. He should have had the courage to face Alison, to face what he’d done. If something terrible had happened to that sweet little boy...
“I’d like to make it up to him,” he said.
“That’s not a good idea. And I really don’t want you to feel obligated.”
He glanced over at her, saw the anger, the wariness, the way her eyes sparkled in the dim light. “I don’t feel obligated. I want to make it up to him. I mean it, Alison. I feel terrible for not showing. For not calling.” He glanced down at the little boy. “He’s a great kid.”
For the first time her eyes softened. “Yes, he is.”
“I just... What happened between us earlier...” He grappled for words. “I didn’t know how to handle it. Then I got busy with the tour.” He shrugged. “It was easier to stay away.”
She contemplated him with a cool gaze and a silence that was as cold as ice. At that moment, Drew thought he’d never felt so much like a reprobate in his entire life.
“This isn’t about you, Drew. It isn’t even about me. It’s about Kevin.”
“I know. I screwed up. I’m sorry.”
“If you’re doing this out of some sense of guilt, don’t bother. Don’t feel sorry for him because he has asthma. Don’t feel sorry for him because he doesn’t have a dad. He’s happy. He doesn’t need your pity.”
He considered her words, accepted them because he knew she was right. “I don’t feel sorry for him, Alison.”
She let out a shuddery breath, and some of the tension eased.
“I want to make it up to him,” he said after a moment.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know. I want to. If you’ll let me.” He looked over at Kevin, thinking of his own childhood, then shot Alison a steady look. “Has he ever been deep sea fishing?”
“Oh, um, his uncle Roger—my brother—took him fishing once when we went to visit him in San Diego.”
“So he knows the basics?”
“He knows how to hold the pole.”
“Good enough.” He studied her, suddenly aware that they were in a small bedroom with the lights dimmed—and that her protective older sister was undoubtedly hovering in the hall with a shotgun. “Can he go out on a boat with the asthma?”
“As long as he takes his medication, has his inhaler on hand and a backup.”
“Sounds doable. I mean, as long as it’s all right with you.”
When she didn’t respond, he looked over at her. She was still pale, but her lack of color didn’t diminish the power behind her vivid blue gaze. She was protecting her son, and that had brought out a sharp edge in her he hadn’t seen before. An edge he admired very much.
“Kimberly has to get to work at the hospital.” She started toward the door.
Drew followed her into the living room, wondering if she was going to let him make things right with Kevin, wanting that, he knew, more than was wise.
“He’s sleeping,” Alison told her sister.
Kimberly looked up from her place on the sofa. “Good.” Her gaze went from Alison to Drew and then back to Alison. “You didn’t get dinner. You should get something to eat.”
Alison started to wave the statement away, but Kimberly stopped her. “Why don’t you two go get a bite to eat?” she suggested.
Alison frowned. “Don’t you have to get to the hospital for your shift?”
“I just called my supervisor. The day shift nurse is filling in for me, so I can stay with Kevin long enough for you and Drew to go out and get a bite to eat.” Kimberly shot Drew a pointed look. “She hasn’t eaten since breakfast. She faints when she’s hungry.”
“Faints?” Drew echoed.
“I do not faint,” Alison snapped.
“I remember at least one occasion—”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, that was in high school.”
Kimberly raised her hand and pointed at Drew, daring him to argue with her. “Take her to get something to eat. Kevin will be fine here with me.”
Drew shrugged. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m not hungry,” Alison said.
Kimberly rolled her eyes. “You haven’t had dinner, Al. You skipped lunch.” She looked at Drew. “She doesn’t ever get out. She loves seafood. Take it easy on the wine. She’s a lightweight.”
“Kimberly, I don’t want to leave Kevin—”
“If you can’t leave your son with his aunt—who happens to be a registered nurse—then you’ll be in big trouble when the time comes for kindergarten.” Rising, she shooed Drew and Alison toward the door. “I think I have it covered, guys.” She glanced at Drew. “The Reef serves food until eleven o’clock. I recommend the grilled snapper. Stay away from the Caesar salad—the dressing’s a bit too strong.”
After the cool reception Drew had received from her a few minutes earlier, he was surprised by the way she was practically pushing them out the door. Either she’d changed her mind about him or decided that she’d made her point clear enough so that he would think twice about screwing up a second time.
Considering the way Alison looked in that dress, he wasn’t quite as optimistic.
CHAPTER SIX
Alison let herself be shoved out the door, then stood on the front porch staring at the closed door for several seconds, trying to decide if she was angry or amused or both.
“I think we’ve just been ordered to go to dinner,” Drew said.
“Looks that way.”
“After meeting your sister I’m surprised she let you out of the house with me.”
She glanced over at him, and chuckled. “She raked you over the coals pretty thoroughly?”
“Well done on both sides.”
“She’s a little overprotective. I mean, since Rick.”
He looked away at the mention of Rick.
“She doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s just that after Mom died she sort of appointed herself my guardian. She’s never caught on that I don’t need one.”
“Maybe she thinks you need protecting from men like me.”
“Do I?”
“Probably.”
Her heart beat a little faster as she contemplated him. “She must have liked you.”
He looked away for a moment, then turned his gaze back to her. “You don’t really faint when you haven’t eaten, do you?”
“It happened once. But it was a long time ago.”
“Maybe we ought to get something to eat. Just to be safe.”
“I am a little hungry.” She shrugged, trying to get comfortable with the idea of having dinner with Drew, but not quite managing. How did a woman have a comfortable dinner with a man who’d kissed her totally senseless just hours earlier?
“It’s not like this is a date, or anything,” she said.
“Definitely not a date.”
“It’s just dinner between two friends.” Two friends who’d shared a kiss hot enough to melt the lipstick right off her mouth.
“Exactly.” He motioned toward his truck parked curbside. “Shall we?”
Mustering a smile, Alison started down the sidewalk. Drew fell into step beside her. She was keenly aware of his size. The scent of his aftershave on the balmy night air. His proximity. When her heart began to dance a jig beneath her breast, she reminded herself that this was just a simple dinner. They could get caught up on a few things. Discuss the fishing excursion Drew had in mind for Kevin. Maybe even do a little reminiscing about the old days.
If only she could stop thinking about that blasted kiss...
* * *
The Reef was an open-air restaurant on the south end of Biscayne Bay. It offered a stunning view of the water, an atmosphere that was distinctly South Florida and the best grilled snapper in the state. Alison’s stom
ach rumbled at the aromas of exotic marinades, fresh-baked bread and sizzling seafood.
It was exactly the kind of restaurant she would have frequented if she ever took the time to dine out. Elegant without being snobbish. Comfortable without losing its class. It was a place where people came to enjoy the atmosphere as much as the food. After what had happened between her and Drew this afternoon, she found herself wishing it weren’t quite so...intimate.
The maître d’ led them through a set of French doors to the wood plank balcony at the rear of the restaurant where a scattering of tables overlooked the vast expanse of Biscayne Bay. The lights from downtown Miami shimmered silver and gold on the water. Alison could smell the earthy scent of the sea. She could hear the slap of a restless tide against the piers. She could see, a few yards out, the red and green running lights of a large vessel as it slid gracefully through the water, its engines rumbling like distant thunder.
“This is nice,” Alison said, once their waiter had taken their orders and left.
“I’ve never eaten here, but I’ve heard this is where the locals come for the best snapper in town.”
The waiter returned to pour sauvignon blanc into two long-stemmed glasses, waited for a nod from Drew and then hustled away from the table.
Inexplicably nervous, Alison leaned against the back of her chair and ordered herself to relax. This is Drew, she told herself. Solid. Predictable. Honorable. The same Drew she’d known for six years. But the internal reassurance did little to calm her frazzled nerves. She couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. The way he’d looked at her when he’d held her face in his hands. The way her own body had responded.
“Just how serious is Kevin’s asthma?” Drew asked as he broke off a piece of bread and dipped it into peppered olive oil.
Alison tried not to notice the way the candlelight flickered in his eyes. She tried even harder to quiet her heart because it was jumping around in her chest like a fish in a hot skillet. “He has what the doctors refer to as ‘intrinsic’ asthma. That basically means his asthma is active most of the time. There is no specific stimulus such as allergies or exercise. Ever since he was a baby, he’s been sensitive to lots of different things: additives in food, pollution in the air, even citrus foods.”
“I didn’t know his was intrinsic. That’s a tough break.”
“He’s actually a very healthy little boy. The only problem is that his lungs stay inflamed most of the time, so he can easily be triggered into an attack.”
“What about medication?”
“He’s on two different preventative medications that work by keeping inflammation down and keeping the body from reacting so severely. They’re called corticosteroids and are inhaled.”
“So what caused him to have the attack this evening?”
“He didn’t respond to the medicine the way he should have, the way he usually does. But that’s very rare.” Alison could still see her child gasping for breath. It had been one of the most terrifying moments of her life.
“How often does that happen?”
“Not often, thank goodness.” She drank a little bit of the wine, felt her nerves begin to settle. “This was his third trip to the emergency room in the last two years.”
“You’re sure it’s okay for me to take him fishing...”
“I’ve always been a firm believer that it would be worse for him to go through life missing out on things like that. Already, I have to limit his exercise, on the outside chance that labored breathing could bring on an attack.”
“What if he has an attack out on the water?”
“There are precautions I can take for a half-day trip. I’ll make sure he takes his oral meds right before he leaves. Then I’ll pack his inhaler, along with an extra just in case something happens to the first one.”
“If it’s any consolation, I kept my EMT certification up after I left the Navy.”
For the first time Alison realized that if there was anyone in the world she trusted with her son’s life, it was Drew Evans. “Even if you hadn’t, I know he’s safe with you.”
As if on cue the waiter brought their food. Grilled snapper marinated with key lime juice, Puerto Rican rum and pureed mangoes. Alison thought she’d never smelled anything so delicious in her life. For several minutes an easy silence fell between them as they delved into their food.
“How are we going to handle the other thing?” Drew asked after a moment.
Alison looked up from her plate, a little jolt of dread twisting in her stomach. “What other thing?”
“You know.” He cleared his throat. “The kiss.”
Her heart did a couple of hard thumps. Getting kissed by Drew Evans was kind of like a tiny island getting hit by a category-five hurricane. “I don’t think that’s an issue, is it?”
“Only if you want it to be.”
“I don’t.”
“Neither do I. I mean, since we’re just friends.”
“I don’t want it to affect our friendship.” She shot him a sober look. “I mean it. We’ve been through a lot together.”
“Yes, we have.”
“I don’t want it to change anything between us. I don’t want us to be uncomfortable with each other. I don’t understand exactly what happened—”
“I was out of line.”
“I overreacted,” she said simultaneously.
“It takes two to tango, Alison.”
Her gaze met his. “I haven’t been with anyone since Rick died,” she blurted, then, mortified that she’d said something so incredibly personal, she lowered her head and put her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
Drew shifted in his chair, then looked out over the water. “What happened today wasn’t your fault,” he said after a moment. “It was my fault. I kissed you because I wanted to. You’re attractive, Alison.” He shrugged. “I’ve noticed. But I respect you too much to put you in that kind of position.” When she didn’t respond, he added, “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Spreading two fingers, she peeked at him with one eye. “So you don’t think I’m an idiot or a lost cause?”
“I think you’re a terrific person.”
The heat in her cheeks began to recede. “But I kissed you back.”
Surprising her, he reached out and took her hand, his gaze seeking hers. “You’re healing. You’re human. You’ve been alone for four years. That’s a long time.” He shrugged. “I just happened to be there. It was a spontaneous, impulsive, instinctive thing. You don’t have to feel bad about that.”
She looked into his eyes, and in their blue depths Alison saw understanding and empathy and deep-rooted respect that moved her a lot more than it should have. It made what had happened between them all right, and she felt as if a boulder had been lifted from her shoulders.
“I’m glad we cleared the air,” she said.
“Me, too.”
Feeling lighter than she’d felt all day, she laughed. “Do you remember the time you and Rick and I went camping in the Smoky Mountains?”
“Right before you two got engaged. It rained the entire time.”
“And that black bear wandered into our campsite in the middle of the night?”
“How could I forget?” Drew chuckled. “I didn’t know Rick could run so fast buck naked.”
“I think the bear was more scared than he was.” She giggled. “It was hard to tell, they were both running so fast.”
“I think it was those red boxers I was wearing that finally scared it off.”
Alison laughed so hard, tears squeezed from between her lashes. “Both of you were determined to keep me safe. And I slept through the entire ordeal.”
“Yeah, Rick and I definitely knew how to handle Gentle Ben.”
Alison wiped her eyes. “It’s strange thinking back on those days now.”
“It seems like such a long time ago.”
“You know, back when I first met Rick, and the three of us used to hang out, I used to have a
crush on you.”
Drew stopped chewing, watching her carefully, then swallowed hard. “You’re kidding?”
“I thought you were the hottest thing since Matt Damon.”
“Now, there’s a tough act to follow.”
“In the beginning, you were one of the reasons I went out with Rick.” Remembering the early days of her relationship with two men she’d loved, but in very different ways, she smiled. “I didn’t know Rick would be the one.”
“He was a good man, Alison, and he was crazy about you.”
“I know. God, Drew, I loved him so much. I still miss him.”
“Me, too.” His gaze met hers with a seriousness that cut. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you after...the accident.”
She’d spent the last four years wondering why he’d run away to South Florida, but didn’t press him about it. She knew Drew well enough to know he’d had his own demons to slay. From what she’d heard from some of Rick’s Navy friends, Drew had spent a lot of months blaming himself. At the time, Alison had been so immersed in her own grief, she hadn’t stopped to wonder how the accident had affected the man who’d been looking into Rick’s eyes when he’d fallen on that terrible night.
“I wasn’t the only one grieving,” she said. “It took me a while to realize that.”
He looked away. “I should have been there for you.”
“You did what you had to do. I don’t begrudge you that in any way, Drew. Everyone deals with grief differently. That’s okay.”
“You know I’m here for you now. Kevin, too.”
“Of course I do.” Reaching across the table, she squeezed his hand. “And it means a lot to me.”
“Me, too.”
Alison smiled, but it felt sad on her face. And she knew she was only trying to mask the lingering grief that squeezed her heart every time she thought of Rick. She hadn’t wanted to think of him tonight, but even after four years sometimes the grief sneaked up on her. Like an early frost on trees not yet ready to shed their leaves.
Drew raised his glass in a toast. “It’s good to see you smiling, Alison. I’ve missed that.”
She picked up her glass. “Here’s to new beginnings.”
“And old friendships rekindled,” he said and clinked his glass against hers.