“Marian Foster arranged it. I was the last baby she helped place.”
Nothing he could have said would have surprised her more than this. If there wasn’t even biology connecting him to his dad, she understood his hostility better. “I don’t know what to say.”
“There’s nothing to say. It’s not like it makes any difference. My mom was my mom, and nothing will ever change that.” He looked sideways at her, then turned his attention back to the road.
There was a beat of silence in which Jess saw Rick differently. He was clearly grieving for Roberta, and the way he spoke of her proved that he’d loved her very much. “What about your birth parents, Rick? You might have family out there somewhere.”
“That’s not really on my radar at the moment. Maybe down the road I’ll reconsider, but I doubt it.” He stopped at a stop sign, and looked over at her again. “Being in the Marines taught me to look at things by taking them down to the lowest denominator. To keep things clear and straightforward. And the truth is that she was my mother. No one else. And that’s all there is to it.”
And his declaration drove home the point that he was now all alone. She kept quiet, knowing the last thing he’d want was her pity.
“Well, no decision has to be made right away. It’s probably better not to rush this sort of thing. Make rash decisions and all that.”
He paused, and then blew out a big breath, relieving some of the tension that had marked their conversation. He winked at her. “Hey, haven’t you heard? Rash decisions are what I’m good at.”
Jess blushed and looked away, staring out the window. It was no secret that Rick had enlisted out of the blue on his twenty-first birthday, surprising the heck out of everyone. Roberta especially had been distressed as he was her only child. But she’d been proud, too. Proud of him for serving his country. As they all were. He’d come home on leave, dressed in his uniform, looking heroic and strong and invincible.
And then he’d come back after being discharged and rented a place, which wasn’t much more than a dump, instead of moving in with his mom. And proceeded to spend the majority of his disability pay at The Rusty Fern.
This was the closest she’d been to Rick since before he’d enlisted. She swallowed. The cab of the truck suddenly felt much smaller as Jess stole glances at Rick’s strong profile out of the corner of her eye. His jawline was firmer now, more masculine, and he’d grown into his features.
Jess’s gaze lingered on his lips. That feature, however, had remained the same. It had been graduation night. She’d been eighteen and had gone to a party at Fiddler’s Beach, just down the bay from where her cousin Tom’s cottage now sat. Rick had been there, two and a half years older, wearing jeans and a white T-shirt and looking dangerous. She’d met his gaze over the flickering light of the fire and something in her had stirred. That same stirring was happening now, only she was looking at the man he’d become. He was harder, tougher, and if possible, more handsome now than he’d been back then.
“Oh, let’s just call it part of your charm,” she replied. He’d deftly changed the subject, and she got the message that he was both done talking about himself and determined to lighten the mood.
“Of course, you never make rash decisions, do you, Jess?” He raised an eyebrow.
Her cheeks heated as she blushed. Thank God he couldn’t tell what she’d just been thinking. “Me? Well, I try not to.”
“That’s right. I can see that Treasures was a well-thought-out, smart business decision guaranteed to succeed. You’re very, very careful, aren’t you? My goodness, you’re just about perfect.” A dimple threatened to pop in his cheek.
“Hey,” she corrected him. “Starting up any business is a gamble, Rick. Besides, I never said I was perfect.” She was far from it.
“Oh, come on.” He chuckled as he began a laundry list of her attributes. “You can’t do any wrong in the Cove. Successful businesswoman, church committee member, volunteer for everything, can make crafts out of bottle caps and wire. Friend to all, a real go-to girl. You really should be in line for sainthood.”
She looked over and saw his lips twitch. Damn him for being so deliberately provoking and sexy as hell at the same time. “Hey, everyone has a skill,” she returned. He grinned at her and her breath caught. They weren’t … flirting, were they? How sad was it that she was so out of practice she couldn’t tell?
“I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “I sometimes think my only skill is screwing up.”
“I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean to get … um … wounded,” she answered.
“Doesn’t mean I didn’t screw up just because it was unintentional.”
Lordy, how right he was. Jess had made her share of mistakes. And they’d been doozies. No wonder she was extra cautious now. Her slew of errors had begun when she’d fallen for the wrong man, who’d turned her life into a place of addiction and violence, while showing a sweet-as-apple-pie face to the world. It hadn’t ended until a few years later … when she’d walked into the shelter looking for help.
“Take the next right,” she said quietly, pointing at a road sign.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked, sparing her a glance. “You got real quiet all of a sudden.”
“Not at all,” she lied. But Rick could take a hint, too. They’d both halted conversation when the subject hit a little too close for comfort.
For the next few minutes she gave him directions to the shelter. The radio played softly in the background. There was so much about him she didn’t approve of, so it made very little sense that looking at him, being this close to him, was still enough to make her pulse speed up a little bit. Their chat today shouldn’t have changed anything—and yet somehow it did.
They were turning into the parking lot next to the shelter when Jess finally asked the question she’d wanted to ask for close to ten years. “Rick, why did you leave and join the Marines? What was so bad that you had to get out of Jewell Cove, leave your mom all alone?”
He considered his answer. “It wasn’t about getting out of town. We all know someone who was touched by nine-eleven. We all remember where we were that morning and the scenes from the news. You don’t forget something like that.”
Rick looked over at her. “I knew I wanted to do something important, though I wasn’t sure what. I wanted to serve my country, Jess. To stand up for what was right. The Marines allowed me to do that. It’s just that simple.”