Moondance Beach

  Mona knew his pain was because of Lena. Hadn’t she known this storm was a possibility? There was no way that Duncan could fall in love without it causing great conflict inside him. He had his life all planned out, and his brush with death hadn’t caused him to adjust his course. Love, home, and family did not have a place in his world, and he would fight anything that tempted him in that direction. He saw the need for connection as a weakness, and he was terrified of ever being weak again.

  And Lena had done far more than tempt him. From what Mona could tell, Lena had captured his heart.

  Once Duncan was done with the front yard, he sheared away at the arbor. Though Mona knew a good trim was necessary to promote new and continued growth, she winced at the sight of all those blooms hitting the ground. When he finished the arbor, it took just fifteen minutes to trim back the boxwoods. When all was said and done, they appeared puny but far less traumatized than the roses.

  He tidied up, dumped all the trimmings into the mulch pile behind the shed, then cleaned and put away the equipment. Mona watched him make his way through the side yard with his shoulders rounded and his head down, which was unlike him.

  “Duncan.”

  He looked up. Because she’d caught him unaware, she saw the depth of his sadness and confusion, and it just about broke her heart.

  “Are you all right?”

  He nodded. “Fine.”

  “You can tell me anything. Your secrets are safe with me.”

  He chuckled, shaking his head. “You know, Ma, I’m learning I’m just not cut out for deep conversation. It never seems to end well for me.”

  “Do you love her?”

  Mona wasn’t sure what kind of reaction she expected from her son, but it certainly wasn’t the one she got. Duncan nodded slowly, his face twisted in agony.

  “Oh, honey.”

  “I don’t know what I’m doing, Ma. Suddenly my whole life seems up in the air—what I want, what is most important to me, where my duty lies. I’m questioning everything.”

  Mona tried to hide her shock. Unless she was reading something into his words, Duncan had, for the first time, expressed doubt about returning to active duty. Before she could comment, he began speaking again.

  “And the way this whole thing happened with Lena is too much for me to accept”—Duncan knocked on his own forehead—“in here. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Mona smiled at her son. “Love doesn’t always make sense up there.” She pointed to her heart. “Only here.”

  He shook his head and looked away.

  Mona stepped closer to him, placing her hand on his large forearm. Sometimes it seemed like only yesterday that this big, burly man had been a sickly little boy. But never had she seen him as low as he was at that moment.

  “Does she love you?”

  He nodded again.

  “Then a way will reveal itself. You simply have to have faith.”

  Duncan laughed, pulling her in for a quick and sweaty hug. “Thanks, Ma. You just hit the nail on the head—I don’t have that amorphous kind of faith everybody talks about. It’s not how I’m wired. And Lena, she’s—” He cut himself off. “You know, at first I thought she was a flake, all dreamy and artsy and off in her own la-la land. And, Ma, I swear to God, at one point the thought even crossed my mind that she was an actual mermaid. How crazy is that?”

  Mona felt her eyes widen.

  “But it turns out she and I are alike in a lot of ways.”

  Mona didn’t dare interrupt. This was more than Duncan had ever shared with her on any subject at all, let alone his thoughts on love. She was afraid to breathe.

  “Lena’s hardworking and determined. She pushes through the boundaries most people assume are impassable. She’s beautiful and smart and funny, and I’ve never known anyone like her. But she’s . . .”

  “She’s what?”

  Duncan took a big breath. “Lena sees and feels things I do not. She goes places I can’t go. Lena believes in mystical forces and signs and destiny, you know, the kind of gibberish I’ve always heard from you.”

  Mona laughed.

  “It’s just not going to work between us.”

  She carefully weighed her response. Duncan was teetering on the edge of discovery, but he had to do it his own way, at his own pace. “Different doesn’t always mean incompatible.”

  He turned away and looked out toward the cliffs. “There’s absolutely no way, Ma. Even if I could love her, I couldn’t be in a relationship with her—I’m already in a relationship with the U.S. Navy’s Special Warfare Command, and she’s one hell of a jealous lover.”

  “Oh, my!” Mona melodramatically placed the back of her hand on her forehead as if she were on the edge of fainting. “Who are you and what have you done with my son?”

  He scowled at her. “Say what?”

  “I won’t listen to this—what did you call it? Gibberish?” Mona rested her hands on her hips. “Since when are you a quitter? Since when does Duncan Flynn walk away from a challenge and give up before he’s even started?”

  His eyes flashed.

  “Now.” Mona led him out of the yard and knew she had to change the subject before he could refresh his argument. He had heard her, and the barb was set, even if it did take a while to reel him in. “I have a very big favor to ask you.”

  He squinted at her. His apprehension made her laugh.

  “I want you to be my escort to the Mermaid Ball tonight.”

  Both of Duncan’s eyebrows arched. He stared at her without a word.

  “How many Mermaid Balls have I insisted you attend since you graduated from high school?”

  “Zero.”

  “And how much longer will you be with your family here on the island?”

  “Not long.”

  “Good, then you see where I’m headed with this.” She slid her arm inside his and walked with him. “It’s formal attire, just an FYI.”

  “Oh, come on, Ma.”

  “Good thing your dress whites are hanging pressed and clean in your closet.”

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Duncan’s date for the evening wore a colorful sequined tail, coral jewelry, and a modest coconut and sequined bikini top with matching jacket. By the time they arrived, the crowd had already begun to assemble under the fairy lights. The public dock had been transformed into a wonderland of gauzy decorations, portable fountains, floral arrangements, and even a disco ball. Two giant rain tents had been hoisted up over the dock, one for the dance floor and bandstand and the other for tables, chairs, and food and drink. The evening was warm, with an occasional gust of wind, but so far the weather was holding up.

  Clancy, however, was not.

  Duncan watched him juggle his cell phone, radio, and pager, pacing in front of the bandstand—pointing to Main Street and sending Chip off in a panic. He looked like a man on the edge. When Duncan caught his little brother’s eye, Clancy waved him over.

  He hung up from the call and said, “Whoa. Lookin’ good, Lieutenant. Where’s your date?”

  Duncan pointed. “Over there. By the potted ferns.”

  Clancy frowned. “That’s Ma.”

  “Yep. She’s my date, and she’s one of the loveliest mermaids at the ball.”

  Clancy lolled his head around in exaggerated disbelief. “So where’s Lena?”

  “I don’t have the slightest idea.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” He pulled Duncan by the sleeve of his dress whites and took him around behind the huge bandstand speakers. “What happened?”

  “It’s really none of your business, but I’ll give you the executive summary: it’s not going to work out. Our lifestyles don’t mesh.”

  Clancy shut one eye and glared at Duncan with the other. “Hold up. It is my business if I see you about to make a colossal mistake, and brother, what you just said is bullshit.”

  “I better go back to Ma.”

  “Bull. Shit.” His brother pointed two fingers toward his own eyeballs, the
n at Duncan’s, and back and forth several times. It was quite dramatic. “Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not falling in love with Lena.”

  “Can’t do that.”

  “Then what happened?”

  Duncan laughed. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because Evie, your wife, is a very levelheaded woman. She lives in the real world. Lena is as airy-fairy as they come, and I can’t deal with it. Call me what you want—a prick, a bastard, a dickhead—but love only goes so far after your girl tells you she believes in mermaids.”

  For a moment, Clancy’s mouth froze in the shape of a small O.

  “Yeah.”

  “Wait.” Clancy thought for a minute. “Lena told you she believes in mermaids?”

  “Not directly. But she implied as much. And then she implied that she might be one herself.”

  “Okay. Well, that’s different.”

  “Yeah. Crazy different.”

  “So you just threw her overboard?”

  Duncan sighed. “We had an adult discussion and then I left. Can I get back to Ma now?”

  Clancy began laughing. “Look, I got so much crap to deal with tonight—the Weather Service just changed their forecast and we’re going to get hit. It might hold off until after the dance is over, but it just as easily might not. So we’ll have to talk about this later.”

  “I think we’ve pretty much covered it.” Duncan turned around to look for his mother, but she wasn’t where he’d last seen her. He wandered around, said hello to a few people, then picked up an ice tea from Rusty, who was bartending.

  “Woo-wee, Lieutenant Flynn! Aren’t you all shined up for the occasion?”

  “Cheers, Rusty.” He raised his plastic cup. “Have you seen my mother?”

  “As a matter of fact, I have.” He pointed beyond the food and beverage tent to the promenade of the public dock. “She just walked over thataway with the mayor.”

  Duncan jerked his head back in surprise. “The mayor . . . of Bayberry? My father?”

  “Yes, sir. They just strolled by hand in hand. Couldn’t have been more than two minutes ago.”

  Duncan thanked Rusty for the intel and headed in that direction. There were plenty of strolling couples on the promenade—mermaids and sea captains, mermaids and pirates, mermaids and mermen, mermen and mermen—but he didn’t see his parents. Duncan found a bench near a decorative birch tree and decided to pop a squat.

  He thought about what his brother had just said. It was true that Lena hadn’t come right out and claimed she believed in mermaids. Or that she was one. But Lena had made roundabout indications to that effect. Hadn’t she?

  He raised his eyes to the cloudy evening sky and sighed. What exactly had she said?

  Just then Duncan heard a familiar voice. “Oh, Frasier! Why in the world did you wait twenty-five years to tell me this?”

  “I . . I didn’t know myself until recently.”

  Duncan turned his head just enough to see his father, in his Mermaid Ball tuxedo, down on one knee in front of his mother. She was crying.

  Duncan didn’t move.

  “I knew you’d given up on me, Mona. I could see it in your eyes—you saw me as a failure as a man for what I’d done.”

  “Frasier, that’s not true! I never blamed you for the collapse of the business. I never said you were a failure.”

  “But you thought it.” Frasier sniffed, and his lip trembled. “You took charge of the family like I was incapable of the job.”

  “Oh, Frasier. You silly man.” Mona grabbed Frasier’s face and pulled it to hers and kissed the daylights out of him. “You gave up on yourself,” she said. “Only you believed you were a failure—no one else did. It was all in your head. And because of that, you shut everyone out. You shut me out and locked yourself away from me! I took charge of the family because you’d given up on us!”

  “Oh, God, Mona. I did. I know I did. I felt so much shame that I just curled in on myself.”

  “I couldn’t get to you!” Mona began crying harder. “Sweetheart, I tried for years and years and you slammed the door in my face! My God, you are such a stubborn bastard!” She gripped his father’s big body to hers, and for the first time ever, Duncan saw his father cry. He cried like a baby into Mona’s coconuts.

  “I could lose a thousand companies before I would ever want to lose you again,” Frasier said. “I can’t live without you any longer. You are my joy. You always have been.”

  “You don’t have to live without me. I miss you so much.”

  “Forgive me, Mona. Take me back.”

  “I already have forgiven you, and of course I will take you back.”

  Duncan turned away. He shouldn’t have witnessed that, but he supposed his parents couldn’t be overly concerned about their privacy if they decided to have a gut-wrenching talk in the middle of the promenade. But now he’d leave them alone.

  He rose from the bench, wondering if he might have more in common with his da than he’d ever imagined. Shame and guilt. Shut off and locked away. Feeling unworthy.

  A tidal wave of emotion washed over him, and he knew if he didn’t pull himself together, he was in danger of an outburst like the one he’d had during the night swim or after the dream. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress-white trousers and wandered through the crowd. Laughter spilled out from each little group of people. The band was assembling on the stage. Chip ran by, and when he saw Duncan, he looked relieved.

  “Have you seen the mayor? We can’t kick things off until the mayor takes the stage and does his official welcome.”

  Duncan smiled. “The mayor is indisposed at the moment, Chip.” Duncan patted his shoulder. “Where’s Clancy?”

  “He told me he was too busy and to find the mayor.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  Duncan walked up the risers leading to the stage and had a few words with the lead singer. She turned on the mike, and Duncan adjusted the height to reach his mouth. He tapped it to make sure it was operational.

  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am U.S. Navy Lieutenant Duncan Flynn, and on behalf of my father, Mayor Frasier Flynn, I would like to welcome everyone to the . . .” Duncan quickly scanned the area for one of those huge event banners he’d seen displayed near the public dock. He found one. In the process, he also found Lena. She was standing toward the back of the tent with Rowan, Annie, and Evie, and all of them were dressed like mermaids.

  Duncan’s heart nearly stopped.

  Lena stared at him like he’d returned from the dead.

  The wind picked up.

  Duncan regained his focus. “The . . . uh . . . one hundred and fourth annual Bayberry Island Mermaid Ball! Have fun tonight, and enjoy the rest of the festival.”

  Duncan lowered the mike for the singer and stepped off the stage, making a beeline to Lena. He didn’t care how it went. How much worse could it get between them? He knew only that he might have made a mistake cutting himself off from her, and he was man enough to admit it.

  She kept her dark eyes on him as he slipped through the crowd. The closer Duncan got to Lena, the stronger her magnetic tug became, drawing him nearer, pulling him in. Adelena Silva was so splendid she nearly blinded him.

  She was a vision in all black against creamy skin. The mermaid skirt was a shimmering blue-black, all its thousands of tiny iridescent scales appearing slick with water. He had no idea how a fabric could produce such an illusion, but he appreciated the engineering involved, especially since the skirt clung to every dip and swell of her flesh. Only at her dainty ankles did the skirt part, revealing a pair of simple black sandals with heels.

  There was no zipper in that thing. He had no idea how she’d even gotten into it.

  Her breasts were tucked into two large black scallop shells tied around her neck and at her ribs with what looked like a satin cord. Her hair was loose and sleek, draped over one shoulder, her black eyes sparkled, and her skin glowed. br />
  He was stupefied.

  “Hey, sailor,” Annie said.

  Duncan snapped out of his trance. “Oh. Hi. You all look drop-dead gorgeous tonight.”

  Evie giggled. “We were just saying the same thing about you.”

  Duncan was confused. For an instant he couldn’t remember why he had come over here.

  “You look very handsome tonight, Duncan.” Rowan kissed her brother’s cheek, but before she pulled away, she whispered in his ear, “Don’t you dare let her get away.”

  The band started playing, and out of the loudspeakers came a melancholy big-band song. Duncan turned and met Lena’s eyes. “May I have this dance?”

  He could see Lena’s pulse thumping in her neck. Her bosom rose and fell. But she didn’t answer.

  “Ladies, please excuse us.” He took her hand.

  * * *

  When he’d stepped up on that stage, Lena had gasped. She wasn’t alone. Half the women under the tent had some visceral reaction to the sight of a brawny six-foot-two Naval officer dressed in white from head to toe, dotted with gold buttons, and topped off with a stiff white hat with a black brim and gold braid.

  “I think I’m going to faint,” an older woman said.

  “Hubba-hubba.”

  Rowan elbowed Annie for the outburst.

  “Hey, I’m sorry,” she said. “But if ever a man deserved a hubba-hubba, it’s your brother at this moment.”

  “What’s he doing up there?” Evie asked.

  They soon found out. Lena nearly lost her balance when Duncan looked out into the crowd and his eyes connected with hers. She may have whimpered. And when he walked right up to her and asked her to dance, every molecule in her body told her to say yes, but her mind listed the one hundred reasons why she should say no. The most important reason of all: Duncan had turned his back on her.

  The whole situation had a familiar stench to it.