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Chris shook Jay’s hand and offered a strained smile. “Thanks.” He released his hand and turned to Cat. “Were they all from the holiday park?”
She straightened, her cop face sliding into place. “Twelve from the park.”
“The others?”
“People camping at Fairgrove. It’s a nightmare. When I heard you were...” Her voice cracked.
He rubbed his hand down her arm. “I’m okay. Does Mum know?”
She nodded. “She’s okay. I told her I was coming down here and I’d get you to phone her straight away.” She pulled her cell from her pocket. “Here.”
Chris waved it away. “Not yet. I still need a bit of time.”
Cat’s determined stare locked on his. “She’s okay, Chris. This isn’t going to set her back.”
His gut knotted. It was no wonder Cat was a cop. She read minds like a damn psychic.
“I know.” Chris closed his eyes and pushed his hand into his hair. “I’ll go and see her as soon as we leave here. It’ll be better for her if she sees me alive and kicking rather than talking to her over the phone.”
Cat’s eyes softened. “Good.”
Chris looked around the hall. People sat on the floor, chatting and hugging other survivors. Others walked around looking dazed and unsure what to do next. He turned to Cat and planted his hands on his hips. “So, what happens now? Do you need any help? Volunteers?”
She blew out a breath and followed his gaze around the hall. “Not yet. This is a matter for the police and the authorities for the time being. Until the big cleanup starts in the next few days, of course. Then it will be all hands on deck. I’m sure the holiday park could use your help when the time comes. We have to wait for the water to recede and then make sure it’s safe for the public to go back in there.”
Chris moved his hand to the back of his neck, the muscles strained. “Right. Okay, well, in the meantime, do you have a spare bed at your place?”
She smiled. “It’s where I wanted you in the first place.”
Guilt that he’d rejected her offer in favor of being alone niggled at his conscience. He grimaced. “In hindsight, it might have been worthwhile to do that.”
She shook her head, her gaze lighting with pride. “Nope. I think God put you exactly where you needed to be, don’t you?”
He raised an eyebrow. “In the middle of a flood? Gee, thanks.”
Cat laughed and punched him playfully on the arm. She looked at Jay. “Can you believe him?”
Jay grinned. “She’s right, you know, Chris. It’s pretty clear why you were at that park.”
Angela Taylor leaped to mind and he turned away from their gazes to look across the hall. “Hmm, maybe.”
Jay laughed. “Good God, man. You’re so damn modest, it’s kind of sickening.”
Chris looked from him to Cat. “What?”
“The people you saved, you idiot.” Cat smiled. “If you hadn’t been at that park, I’ll wager the death count would be higher than it is now. You’re a local hero, my big brother.”
Chris exhaled and pushed his hand into his hair. “Yeah, well. That’s not the way I see it.” He turned toward the table set up with tea and coffee. “Anyone else use a cup of coffee before heading out of here?”
Cat turned to Jay. “I really need to stay for a while. It will be good for people to see me here. I want to try to reassure as many families as possible that the police are doing all they can to reunite loved ones.”
Jay pressed a kiss to her temple. “Sure. You go to talk to some people. I’ll keep Chris company.”
Cat lifted onto her toes and kissed him before throwing a sympathetic smile at Chris and moving toward the crowds of people waiting in line for food and water. Chris smiled when Jay patted Cat’s backside before she was out of arm’s reach. She threw Jay a glare over her shoulder, but her cheeks flushed pink with pleasure.
“She’ll kill you for that later.” Chris laughed.
Jay grinned. “I have to show her who’s boss somehow.” He threw his arm around Chris’s shoulders. “Come on. Let’s grab that coffee and you can tell me all about your heroics.”
Chris rolled his eyes. “That’s not what it felt like when we were up on that roof.”
“Well, you’d better get used to it. It’s taken us over an hour to find you among all these people. Cat was flashing your photo around like a madwoman. Anyone who looked at the picture recognized you as ‘the guy who helped my daughter’ or ‘the guy that ripped off the roof.’ Don’t try to go all modest on me, my friend, because I ain’t buying it.”
Jay walked ahead and Chris followed, waiting for a sense of pride to drift over him. Something to tell him he’d done all he could. Nothing came but a profound sense of sadness. Sadness for the lives lost, for the countless number of people who’d go home with nothing of what they came with to Templeton. This was just the beginning. Lives would have to be rebuilt and loved ones mourned.
Swallowing hard, he pulled back his shoulders. Tomorrow was another day and Chris vowed to just be grateful he had somewhere to stay with Cat and Jay. He wasn’t ready to go home. The need to stay in the Cove awhile longer and lick his wounds after Melinda’s betrayal still lingered. He had zero intention of returning to normal life until they were healed and no amount of salt could filter them.
He scanned the crowd. Angela was still nowhere to be seen.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SMELL OF bacon and fresh coffee drifted under the bedroom door. Tired and hungry, Chris inhaled. He’d been awake for over an hour, unable to drag his aching body from the comfort of his sister’s spare bed. If he didn’t move soon, he’d seize up completely. He’d worked every damn muscle yesterday.
Pain shot across his shoulder blades and Chris grimaced. He clearly wasn’t in as good of shape as he liked to think. Then again, swimming back and forth, hauling food and drink and helping hundreds of people into a hovering helicopter wasn’t your run-of-the-mill workout. With a curse, he heaved upright. His legs muscles screamed in protest as he swung them out of bed. He planted his feet on the hardwood floor. Damn, even his toes hurt.
He stared at his jeans hung on the back of a chair in the corner. His T-shirt had been washed and ironed and was now folded atop the chest of drawers, his boxers and socks beside it. Had Cat crept in his room in the night and put them there? He stared down at his naked body. God, the woman didn’t care. Get Things Done. That was his sister’s motto. To hell with the consequences...or whether someone was naked or dressed.
Trouble was, the consequences always turned out to be what was needed at the time and her instincts were spot-on. Unlike his. Everything he touched got messed up.
Standing, Chris ignored the crick and pop of his tired bones and hobbled toward his clothes. He’d managed to navigate his legs into his boxers and cover his manhood just as the bedroom door flung open on its hinges.
“Jesus, Cat.” He scowled. “Can’t a man have some privacy?”
She waved a newspaper in front of his face, clearly not bothered by his state of semidress.
“Look at this.” She held the paper out in front of her and wiggled her eyebrows. A smile curved her lips. “And explain.”
“What?” Shooting her a glare, he snatched the paper from her fingers.
He stared at the double-page spread reporting the flood. Or should he say the double-page spread of him and Angela, seemingly side by side for the entire duration of the ordeal. His stomach tightened. This was what she’d been talking about. This was the anticipated situation that filled her chocolate-brown eyes with tears and turned her olive skin gray.
“Well?” Cat’s voice cut through his reverie. He met her expectant gaze and inwardly groaned. His sister’s eyes were lit up like they had damn fairy lights behind them, and her grin was as wide as her face.
He shoved the paper at her. “It’s nothing like that.”
She laughed. “Nothing like what? Look at your face. Woo-hoo. You like this woman big-time.”
Spinning away from her, Chris headed into the bathroom. “I don’t like her. I don’t even know her.”
He slammed the door and tried to concentrate on emptying his bladder. It wasn’t easy when his little sister hammered on the door before he’d even got going.
“Cat, for God’s sake.”
“She’s gorgeous. Even with her hair all messed up and her face streaked in mud, she looks beautiful. Puts my tomboy ass to shame.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Chris tipped his head back. How could he argue how beautiful Angela was? She was gorgeous. More than gorgeous. She was intelligent, savvy, caring...and scared.
A moment’s silence and then Cat’s voice drifted under the door as she read aloud. “Listen to this, ‘Angela Taylor, the Good Time Holiday Park manager, was the last female to leave the roof and taken by helicopter to safety. Survivors talk of her bravery and care during this horrendous time.’
“‘Together, with her comrade-in-arms, lone holidaymaker and swimming teacher Chris Forrester—pictured here comforting Miss Taylor—have been referred to as the dynamite team by many survivors we interviewed.’ Wow! Dynamite team, huh? Certainly some sparks between you, looking at this picture. Jeez, just kiss the damn woman, would you?”
Snapping his eyes open, Chris flushed and turned the faucet on full blast as he washed his hands. Cat banged on the door again, but he ignored it. He needed some time to figure out what he was going to say to her. How he’d explain the dumb-assed look on his face captured for eternity on camera. He looked like a bloody idiot staring into Angela’s eyes when chaos reigned supreme all around them.
When chaos reigned inside her.
Angela’s face and voice when she told him about her ex-husband had been too real to ignore. Too raw to be exaggerated. Chris gripped the edge of the sink. He wanted to run again. Get the hell out of Dodge before this woman’s problems seeped any deeper into his mind and morals. Shame coursed through his veins and panic sped the beat of his heart.
How could he not get involved? She’d told him something profound about her life and then turned away. Her face and the timbre of her voice still haunted him. He hadn’t wanted to push her. His perpetual fear of involvement and getting it wrong swelled up like the river that flooded the park. So he’d taken the easy way out and walked away.
Turning off the faucet, frustration swarmed into his blood, hot and unwelcome. “Goddamn it.”
Slapping the edge of the sink, Chris turned and marched to the bathroom door. He yanked it open. “Can we talk about something else, please?”
Cat stumbled backward, the paper still in her hand. “Hey, I’m joking. What’s the matter with you?” Her frown was deep, the teasing lilt in her voice gone.
With his back to her, he stalked to the chest of drawers and pulled on his clothes. “Nothing. Like you read, she’s the park manager. I’m a swimmer. I helped her as and when I could. No big deal.”
Silence.
Inwardly cursing, Chris snatched up his belt and threaded it through the loops of his jeans. His hands shook. “Stop looking at me as though I’m some bloody perpetrator, Cat.”
“How do you know how I’m looking at you if you’ve got your back to me?”
He spun around. “Because I know you, that’s why.” He met her eyes. They were narrowed and suspect, her jaw set. “And I was right. Stop looking at me like some bloody perp.” He brushed past her and sat on the bed. “There’s nothing else to talk about. The situation is nothing to do with me anymore. I’ve moved on. Even you’ll back off and let your brother come to terms with the fact he survived a disaster, won’t you?”
She flung the paper on the bed and fisted her hands on her hips. “I was teasing you. Having five minutes of fun. But your reaction tells me there’s a lot more to that photo than my big brother going all googly eyed over a beautiful woman.”
Chris’s hands turned clammy. If he told Cat about this, about Angela, it made it real and it meant he’d heard every damn word Angela said and hadn’t done a thing about it. He came to the Cove to get his head straight, to feel sorry for himself about Melinda for a while and decide what the hell to do next.
“Chris?”
He looked up. “What?”
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
“Talk to me.”
“Goddamn it, Cat. There’s nothing to talk about.”
He pushed off the bed and walked to the dresser. He snatched up a comb and strode back into the bathroom, slamming the door and praying Cat took the hint and gave him some space.
He’d run headlong into more responsibility and now he had a choice to make. There was a time he would’ve run and not looked back. That changed when Cat made him realize the error of his ways and demanded he take care of their mother while she investigated her friend’s murder. Chris tossed the comb into the sink and turned away from the mirror.
Two years ago marriage would’ve been something Chris could never contemplate. But when he’d seen his mother destroying her life through drink and sadness, it had flicked a switch, leaving him yearning for more. It had been that yearning that Melinda said scared her.
“You’ve changed, Chris. You’ve gone from the good-time boy to the serious family man. It’s boring.”
Anger yanked at his chest. Well, watching from the sidelines while his family deteriorated had done that to him. Made him think twice about what was important and what wasn’t. Family. Love. Loyalty. All the things his sister had known and kept sacred for years. He might have been slow to get it, but he did now. He frowned. Boring was who he was and would continue to be, with or without Melinda.
He blew out a defeated breath and walked to the door. Cat would find out about Angela one way or the other. He wouldn’t put it past her to be standing outside the bathroom with her gun pointed at him. He pulled open the door.
No gun...but her legs were planted apart and arms crossed. Her stormy green eyes bored into his. “Well?”
He raised his hands in defeat. “She’s in trouble.”
Her frown deepened. “Who? Angela Taylor?”
He nodded and brushed past her to sit down on the bed. He propped his arms behind him. “In the picture where she has her face in my chest? She’s hiding. She’s not hugging me like you seem to think, though God only knows why you’d think we’d be making out in the middle of a disaster zone.”
Cat lowered herself onto the bed beside him, her gaze full of concern as she put her hand on his thigh. “I’m sorry. You do know I was scared out of my mind the entire time you were up there, right?”
He nodded and forced a smile. “Course.”
A few moments passed. “Who’s she hiding from?”
Chris closed his eyes. Her sister was like a dog with a bone once she set her mind to something she didn’t like the sound of. He sighed. “Her ex-husband.”
“I see.”
He opened his eyes and waited.
Cat stared, her green eyes dark and her jaw tight. “She’s scared of a man. Just like Sarah was before I could do a damn thing to help her.”
Shit. He reached for her hand and squeezed. “Hey, this isn’t like Sarah. Sarah was in a lot of trouble through her own choices. You did everything you could to help her as soon as you knew she was in trouble. Sarah was wrapped up in the first stages of love that blinds us all.”
Cat looked at their joined hands. “Maybe.”
Regret for Cat’s best friend furled like barbed wire in his stomach. “Cat?”
“Uh-huh?”
“What are you thinking?”
She met his gaze. Determination burned like fire in her eyes. “That now I know I’ve got a scared woman running from her husband in my jurisdiction, I can’t ignore it. Neither should you. Sarah ended up murdered, Chris. I won’t stand by and let that happen to someone else.”
His stomach twisted. Sarah had called for Cat’s and Jay’s help far too late. Sarah was already in too deep when she reached out, but Cat still hadn’t forgiven herself for not saving her friend’s life. Although there wasn’t a thing she could’ve done differently.
