Dear Mystery Guy (Magnolia Sisters Book 1) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Casey was swimming in a pool. It was at the Tropical Place Hotel. She was in Jamaica for vacation. She hadn't wanted to come with Josephine and leave Barnes behind but her Daddy had insisted.

"Casey, we have not had a family vacation in forever. I am working on a big case and we just got a significant breakthrough. If I don't take this vacation now, I probably won't be able to until next year. I will give Barnes to Mrs. Williams next door. He is used to her. It's just a short stay."

She surfaced from the water and there was that guy again, the one who she had seen at the airport. He didn't look friendly. There was something about him that she disliked. He made her skin crawl. He was sitting near Josephine in red shorts and a floral shirt. He waved to her and she made a face.

Josephine was reading a magazine and didn't even see that he had waved to her. It made her uncomfortable. She pulled herself out of the pool and avoided walking directly past the guy. Instead, she walked around to the deeper end of the pool and the bar area, where she ordered a pineapple juice.

And all the time he watched her.

She sat beside Josephine in her lounger and then poked her on the hand. "That guy in the red shirt is watching me."

"Huh?" Josephine lowered her magazine and then looked across the lounge. The guy had disappeared.

"There was a guy. And he was watching me." Casey insisted.

Josephine snarled, "Listen brat, if you want conversation wait until your father gets here. I don't particularly want to hear your made-up stories today."

Casey again relaxed in the lounge chair and cut her eyes at Josephine.
She was such an airhead.
She wondered what on earth her father had seen in her. She wasn't even all that pretty, at least not like her mom had been.

Her mom had been a member of the royal family in Arabia. She had always called Casey a princess. Tears burned her eyes when she thought about it. She missed her mom, sometimes desperately. Her mom would have hunted down the red shirt man and told him off for making her uncomfortable and not treated her as if she was a child to be seen and not heard, as Josephine was doing.

"I am going to my room," she told Josephine sourly.

"You know where it is, brat?" Josephine said, her head in the magazine once again. "Your father should be here today. Thank God. I can get you off my hands."

Casey made a face at her and headed to the bank of elevators. Their rooms were on the third floor in a two-bedroom suite overlooking the sea and the mountains. It was really a pretty place.

She didn't even get the chance to press the elevator button. A rag was clamped over her nose and she smelled something strong on it. It burned her throat and she couldn't scream.

*****

She was in the hospital. She could always tell when she was in a hospital; it had a certain scent. She fought to remember what was present and what was past. There was a whispered conversation going on at her bedside.

She heard a man say, "Mr. Givens, we are giving her the best possible care. This is a state of the art facility."

"Are you sure this is just a coma and not some internal bleeding?" She heard pacing. "Are you guys sure that she will wake up?"

"Well, nothing is sure with comas, but we know that she is not bleeding internally. We checked."

There was a silence and then, "Would you like a DNA test to confirm that this is indeed your daughter?"

"Don't need one," was the gruff reply. "This is Casey. She has a birthmark on her hand in the shape of a heart, right where I have mine, and she looks like her mother."

That was when it registered with Casey that they were talking about her. That was when the floodgates of her memories opened up and they all came back in a rush: her childhood, her time at Magnolia House, Luca, her journal.

She opened her eyes.
Where am I? Another dream?

There was her father, an older version of him. He was clean-shaven and looked stouter around the middle.

And Luca? In a doctor's coat?

And Patricia? A concerned look on her face?

Patricia was the first one to realize that she was awake. She jumped up from the chair. "Her eyes are open!"

Her father stopped pacing and swung around. "Casey?" He had a look of fear and joy in his eyes.

"Dad!" Casey mouthed excitedly.

Chapter Twenty-Three

"How is my patient today?" Luca asked, letting himself into Casey's room.

Once again her heart did that weird jumping thing that it did when he was around. She hadn't gotten the chance to be alone with him so far, whether by design or accident, she didn't know.

Maybe he was avoiding her because of what he read in the journal. She felt like such a fool now. She liked him and he knew she liked him and maybe he didn't want to disappoint her with the fact that he found her completely unattractive.

He was the one who worked out who she was. She still couldn't quite believe that things had worked out the way they did. Yesterday, a police sketch artist had dropped by to get the description of the guy she had seen at the poolside.

Her father had been around for most of the day too, and she had seen Dr. Faulkner, who had given her throat a thorough check in the morning. He had declared that her problem was very fixable but said that it might take three surgeries.

For the past three days since she had woken up and heard what had happened while she was asleep, she had not really had the time to process everything.

"You mean tonight?" Casey mouthed. "I feel good, really. Except for a tingling of pain when I breathe and laugh, which my sisters were determined that I do. They were just here cheering me up."

"Are you feeling down?" Luca asked, concerned. He was dressed in a green and a black polo neck shirt. His white doctor's coat was opened all the way. He pushed his hands in his pockets and was staring at her lips in the most disconcerting way. He was so handsome. Casey struggled to remember what he had asked her.

"No." Casey shook her head. "I just am a bit ... overwhelmed with all that's happened."

"We have a psychiatrist on staff," Luca said. "He comes in on Thursdays and Fridays."

"I am fine. I just need time...to adjust."

"Your father said he is sorting out your documents for you to go back to the UK."

Casey nodded. "After the surgery we'll see how that goes. I lived twelve years as Della Gold. I am kind of eager to go back to being Casey Givens."

"I know how much this must mean to you." Luca nodded. "I will do your scar revision surgery very soon after Dr. Faulkner does his surgery."

Casey closed her eyes and then swallowed. "I have always wanted to do that. Thanks. About my journal..."

Luca raised an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"I never meant for you to get it. My roommate Keisha was the one who sent it to you. I was packing up from my apartment and left it there. I was reading her text when your brother knocked me down. I wasn't looking where I was going, so I guess I was equally to blame for that accident."

"But he is paying for your surgeries," Luca grinned. "Your dad insisted on him bearing all your medical expenses so that he does not sue. Your dad has him running scared. He is a formidable lawyer."

"He is." Casey smiled. "I really wish I could have remembered him through the years and not just the other day. How is Josephine?"

Luca shrugged. "Fine, I guess. Your dad barred her from seeing you. He blames her for your kidnapping and wants her to stay far, far away from you. Obviously there is still some bitterness there."

Casey wondered how she was going to broach the topic of him and Josephine. She looked at Luca and then looked away.

"What?" Luca moved closer to the bed. "You can tell me anything."

"And I have, just not to your face...This is awkward." Casey put her hand over her face. "I wrote my most intimate thoughts in that journal."

Luca nodded. "That must be why I feel like I know you so well."

"Are you going to marry Josephine?" Casey asked swiftly, before she lost her nerve, but she said it too fast for him to read her lips.

Luca came around to the side of the bed and sat down. "I didn't get that."

"No, it doesn't matter." Casey turned her head away.

Luca took a finger and caressed her satiny smooth cheek and then turned her face his way. He kissed her very gently on the lips, a fleeting peck. She could barely breathe in the seething excitement that controlled her from that one brush of his lips.

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes deeply. "I broke up with Jose at your suggestion. I really didn't know her that well. You were right."

"I didn't..." Casey swallowed.
Oh yes, I did. I had suggested that he break up with Josephine in my journal. That journal. That stupid, stupid journal with my thoughts.

"Yes, you did." He put a finger over her lips. "And you were right. She is not the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. We were not compatible at all."

He got up from the bed. "Goodnight, Casey."

"Night," she mouthed when he got up.

A little part of her was singing. Luca Lawson had kissed her, fleeting and soft, but it had been a kiss. He broke up with Jose and he seemed to like her but just as suddenly as the euphoria sprang up it died down.

She wasn't the girl who wrote to him in that journal. Things were different now. She was different. She was literally different. She had a different name, a different address, and a different life away from here.

Even if by some miracle Luca genuinely liked her, she wasn't sure where he would fit into her life anymore.

*****

Two weeks and one throat surgery later, Casey was playing ludo with her sisters in her living room, but her mind was not on the game. She had finally gotten the all-clear to come home a week ago.

Her father had arranged for her legal papers to be sorted out pretty quickly. He had taken time off and was still in Jamaica awaiting the completion of her second throat surgery and then her scar reduction surgery; after that they would go home.

The entire process was supposed to take two months for healing. Her scar would take longer to fade but Luca had said it would heal in two weeks.

"Your mind is not even on the game, Casey, formerly Della, formerly Jane Doe." Brigid grinned and pushed away from the table. She ran her fingers through her hair. It was a thick mass of kinky curls.

She twisted it out of her face and looked at them with an impish grin. "Let me see a show of hands of those of you who think that calling Della Casey is weird."

Hazel nodded. "It is a little weird but I am getting used to it."

"I still can't believe it." Caitlin looked at Casey and grinned. "For heaven's sake. You have back your memory, girl, and you have an honest-to-goodness parent who loves you. And yet you still seem sad somehow, like you are not completely satisfied."

"I am not," Casey mouthed. "I am still adjusting..."

"I understand," Hazel said, propping her foot on the table with the ludo board. "You gave your journal to Luca?"

"I didn't, Keisha did," Casey interjected.

"And he is giving you the cold shoulder," Hazel continued. Caitlin and Brigid were nodding in agreement, as if Hazel was preaching a sermon that they agreed with wholeheartedly.

"Not at first," Casey mouthed. "He kissed me. I think he likes me."

"But he is not really showing you his hand and you are conflicted about staying here or going to London because of him. You want to hang around and see if things can work out between you two."

"No." Casey shook her head. "I know I am going to London, I have to see my family there, I just feel ... what's that word.... uncertain."

"Where in London does your father live?" Brigid asked. "You are not going to live there forever, are you?"

"He lives in Notting Hill." Casey shrugged. "I don't know about forever. My life is in flux right now. It's not just Dad. I also have aunties and uncles and two sets of grandparents still alive and living over there.

"My dad says they are so happy that I am alive. My grand-mamma, Mindy, on my mother's side, has an antique shop. She sells Middle Eastern stuff. You know, I used to love going to her shop when I was a kid and hearing stories about Arabia."

"And yet your heart is here, with a guy who doesn't seem to return your affection. Does he know that you are royalty?" Brigid asked, grinning. "That you are a descendant of the royal house of Arabia?"

Casey got up, tears springing to her eyes. "Excuse me."

"Brigid and her big mouth, as usual," Caitlin murmured when Casey slammed the bathroom door. "You need a bridle for your tongue."

"And a hairdresser for your hair," Hazel added. "It's wild."

"And some tact and diplomacy," Caitlin hissed. "You just sounded jealous of Della... er ...Casey. You are right, the names are a bit confusing."

Brigid rolled her eyes. "I say what is on my mind. I talk, okay. That's my thing."

"And being an escort is also your thing," Caitlin blasted. "You were being paid to entertain men over the holidays. I hope you never slept with any of them. Not that you would tell the truth, because you have taken up lying too."

"How dare you!" Brigid screeched. "I was working for my school fee. It wasn't bad being paid to go on dates with professional men. I didn't sleep with any of them! And yes, I admit it, I might be a little bit jealous of Della, Casey whatever. She has a dad. She has a real family now, with principles. She has come out of all of this better than us. I mean look at us, still the old scraggly rejects of Bungalow 7 Magnolia House!"

"Jesus, please do something about her." Caitlin closed her eyes and whispered, "She is short-circuiting."

Hazel leaned over and touched Brigid. "Casey suffered the most. She was mute. Lost her memories. She almost died. God spared her life and he helped her to reconnect with her family. Don't envy her, be happy."

"I am happy for her," Brigid said churlishly. "Really, I am. As Caity said, I just short-circuit sometimes, and I guess mingled in with the jealousy is the fear that we are going to lose her. She'll go to the UK and won't remember us after a while.

"She'll have real family to do stuff with. We'll just be an afterthought. The girls she grew up with in Jamaica when that bad thing happened to her. And when she gets her voice back she'll call occasionally and talk to us in a voice that we don't know..."

The bathroom door opened and Casey stood in the doorway.

"Uh-oh," Hazel said. "She heard you."

"Yes, I did," Casey nodded, "and you are crazy, Brigid Manderson. You three will always be my sisters. I'll always love you. And I will call you so much you will get tired of hearing my voice."

Caitlin got up and hugged her and then Hazel and Brigid followed.

"Let's eat ice cream," Hazel said after their tearful huddle. "And reminisce. Remember Dewy, the gardener?"