Simple Perfection (18 page)

Woods

I had drunk three cups of coffee that morning to prepare myself for the early tee time I had with Nile. After Della had told me about her dream last night and shared her memories, I hadn't been able to sleep. I'd wanted to hold her and watch her sleep. The idea of her having another dream like that and my not being awake to stop it scared the shit out of me.

That was fucked up. What she'd lived through was more fucked up than I could even imagine. She worried that she wasn't strong enough, but, damn, anyone who had lived through what she had and still functioned normally day to day was strong. Della did more than function. She laughed, she made friends, she enjoyed life, she made me smile, and she completed my world. She was the strongest person I had ever met.

"Sorry I'm late. The girls woke up early and I was trying to get them something to eat so they could watch television and let their mother sleep late," Nile said, interrupting my thoughts.

With his dark hair and blue eyes, he looked so much like Della that it was hard for me not to stare at him. There was no arguing that this man was her father. "No worries. I haven't been here long," I assured him.

"You want a caddy?" I asked. I never used one but most members did.

Nile glanced over at the golf cart I had already pulled around with my clubs and a set from the clubhouse. He had mentioned last night that he hadn't brought his clubs with him.

"No, I think I'd like it to be just us," he said with a smile.

He wanted to talk about Della. I figured as much. Which was why I hadn't already had a caddy on standby.

"All right, then we're ready to go. I have water in the cooler but if you want something more, a cart will be around by the time we get to the third hole. We can order something from it if you prefer."

"Water's great. Too early for anything else," he replied.

I drove us to the first hole. "Della is looking forward to meeting the girls and your wife down at the beach today." They had planned a beach day. Nile was going to join them after our game. I was going to go work and give Della time alone with them.

"The girls can't wait to see Della again. They really took to her. Jillian adores her, too."

I parked the cart. "Della's hard not to adore," I said before getting out.

"Yeah, she is. She's much like her mother . . . uh, Glenda, that way."

I hadn't met Glenda but I wanted to. Della looked like her birth father but she didn't have his personality.

Nile pulled his driver from the bag. "Della seems happy here," he said.

"She is," I replied.

He didn't move to set up his shot. He studied me instead. "You haven't proposed to her. And I couldn't help but notice she didn't make it sound like marriage was in her near future last night when the girls were questioning her."

Not a conversation I had expected to have with him today. I pulled my driver from the bag and tried not to get pissed by this line of questioning. "We haven't talked about marriage yet."

Nile nodded. "I see," he said.

What the hell did "I see" mean? I was going to marry Della.

"I'm going to shoot straight with you, Woods. You're a good man. You have a bright future. When the woman you want to marry walks into your life, you will know it and you will want to be married to her. So, seeing as how you aren't thinking of marriage to Della just yet, I know, as a man, that you aren't sure she's the one for you. I was going to wait but I have decided to ask Della to move to Phoenix and live with us. Jillian is on board with this idea. We stayed up most of last night talking about it. We have an extra bedroom and Della can finish school. She's only twenty. She needs a family around her."

I could hear what he was saying but I felt like I had just stepped outside of myself and was watching this conversation happening. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real. This man was not suggesting taking Della away from me. I shook my head before he finished talking and he stopped midsentence.

"No," was all I managed to say. He had blindsided me. I hadn't expected this.

"No?" he repeated as if he didn't understand that word.

"No," I repeated. "You're not taking Della away from me. I'll follow her. Anywhere she goes I will follow her. She's it for me. She isn't going to Phoenix. She's staying here with me. I'm going to marry her. No, I haven't proposed yet, but I intend to. She just came back to me. She's finally facing the horrors of her past and letting me help her heal. She's mine, Nile. She is mine. She's not going anywhere."

Nile studied me a moment, then he nodded. A smile touched his lips. "That's what I wanted to hear," he said, then turned and walked to the tee as if the conversation were over. It wasn't fucking over until he told me he wasn't asking Della to move to Phoenix.

"What does that mean?" I demanded.

Nile glanced back at me over his shoulder. "You showed passion and determination to keep her. You want her forever. I wanted to make sure. Now I just need to make sure she wants the same thing."

"You mean you lied to me to get me to admit I was going to marry her?" I asked. I wasn't sure I liked this man anymore.

"No. I'm very serious. If Della wants to move to Phoenix with us, then I'm taking her. I will spend every damn dime I have making up for the fact that I was a kid when she was born and didn't know any better. I will give her a family and I'll make sure she feels loved and a part of my family. But I needed to know that if I leave her here, then she'll have someone who loves her with the passion that forever requires."

Wait . . . he was still asking her to move to Phoenix? "Della isn't just mine. I belong to her."

Nile nodded. "Good. If she feels the same way she will tell me no when I ask her to move to Phoenix. If she does, I will know that she has a happy future ahead of her. I will also expect an invitation to the wedding."

"She won't leave me," I said with more force than necessary.

"I guess we will see. Won't we?" he said before giving his complete attention to his swing.

Della

Jasmine may have only been a couple minutes older than Jocelyn but she seemed years older. She laid out on a towel as if she were a teenager and talked to me about name-brand clothing, which I knew nothing about, but I tried hard to follow along.

Jocelyn and July asked me to build a sand castle with them, then we played in the waves until seaweed wrapped around July's leg and sent her screaming to the shore.

Jillian and I talked when the girls gave us a chance, but I preferred playing with them. They were so full of life. Nile had been a good father. They loved him. They all called him Daddy, which I thought was endearing.

"Are you going to come live with us? I heard Daddy talking to Mommy about it late last night. They thought I was sleeping." Jasmine watched me carefully.

I wasn't prepared for that question. She had waited until her mother had gotten up to take July to the restroom. I couldn't figure out why Nile would even think to ask me to come live with them. I was happy here. I had a home.

"I have a home here," I told her.

She nodded. "Yeah, but Daddy said you aren't engaged and it didn't look like you were going to get engaged. He was thinking you could live with us and go to college. We could be your family."

I was pretty sure Nile had never meant for me to know about this conversation. "I don't think we should be talking about this. If your dad wants me to know about it, then he will talk to me about it."

Jasmine rolled over and looked up at me. "He's going to. Just so you know."

Was this kid really nine? She acted like she was fifteen.

"Here comes Daddy now," she said with a smirk.

I glanced back over my shoulder to see Nile walking toward us in a pair of blue and yellow plaid shorts and a white polo shirt. He looked like he'd just walked off the golf course.

"Daddy," Jocelyn squealed from next to her attempts at another sand castle, and went running to him. He reached down and picked her up and hugged her. Then he pretended to care that she'd gotten sand on him. It was cute.

"Hey, Daddy, what did you shoot?"

"Seventy-nine. I'm rusty. Woods shot a seventy. It was impressive."

I was glad that they'd gotten to spend time together. Nile and his family were going home tomorrow. I wasn't sure if, or when, I would see them again.

"How have you girls fared out here on the beach?" he asked, sitting down beside me.

"Other than the time July got seaweed on her leg, I think we've done brilliantly," I told him.

Jasmine laughed. "It was epic."

Nile looked over at her and grinned. "I can only imagine." He looked around. "Where are Jillian and July?"

"Restroom," I explained.

We sat there a few minutes and didn't say much. Jocelyn kept calling out to us to look at her sand castle, but other than that we all remained quiet.

Finally, Jasmine and July returned and July plopped down in Nile's lap and told him every second of everything he'd missed. He listened to her like he was hearing the most intriguing story ever told. She expected it, too. She was secure in the fact that her dad wanted to listen to her. He wanted to know what she had to say.

"Girls, let's go down and get our feet wet and leave Daddy to talk to Della for a few minutes," Jillian said, standing up and holding her hand out for July to take.

I glanced at Jasmine, who was giving me an I told you so look before she stood up and followed her mother and sisters down to the water.

"Why don't you and I go for a walk?" Nile suggested, standing up and holding out his hand for me to take so he could help me up. I didn't need his help but he was wired to be a gentleman, so I let him.

We began walking and I waited for him to say something.

"I want you to move back to Phoenix with us, Della. We have an extra bedroom over the bonus room. It would give you privacy and you would have a separate entrance into the house. You could go to school out there and we could all get to know each other better. The girls love you. Jillian thinks you're great. We all want you to come live with us, though I know you have a life here."

"Della!" Woods's voice broke into Nile's surprising offer and I stopped and turned around to see Woods running toward me. What was he doing here?

"Well, I'll be damned," Nile said beside me with an amused tone. I didn't have time to focus on him and his offer. Woods looked upset.

"Woods?" I searched his face to see if there was something wrong. Was someone hurt?

"Don't leave me," he said, grabbing my arms and taking a deep breath like he had been running for a few miles.

"What are you talking about? I'm not leaving you."

He looked over at Nile, then back at me with determination in his eyes. "I love you. You're my one. My all-in. Don't leave me."

Had Nile told him he was going to ask me to leave with him? If he had, then why would Woods even think I would go? Had I made him feel that insecure about us? Of course I had. I had run off and left him with nothing but a letter. I reached up and grabbed Woods's face and looked into his eyes. I needed him to hear me.

"I'm not leaving you. Ever. You'll have to send me packing to get me to leave, and then I plan on fighting back. I will handcuff myself to you and refuse to budge. Nothing will make me leave. Nothing." I brushed my thumbs over his cheekbones; it was really unfair how they were so perfect.

"He's going to ask you to go to Phoenix," he said, watching my face.

"I know. He just did. Doesn't mean I'm going," I told him, and smiled up at his beautiful, troubled face.

"So, you're not leaving me?" he asked.

I shook my head and dropped my hands from his face and turned to look at Nile. "The fact that you and Jillian and the girls would be willing to accept me into your family so easily is humbling. I am touched. I want to get to know you and them. But I won't be leaving Rosemary. I won't be leaving Woods. He's my family. The people here are my family. I don't need another one. I have what I need here."

Nile didn't look hurt or ready to argue. Instead, I could see a pleased expression light up his face. "As much as I wanted you to come live with me and give us a chance to become a family, I'm thankful that you have someone who loves you like that," he said, nodding his head at Woods. "I can trust him to take care of you and know you're okay. I didn't take care of you when you needed it. Now that I've found you, I want you to be happy and safe. I believe this man can give you that."

Woods pulled me against him.

"He can. He does that and so much more," I replied.

Woods

It was time for the end-of-summer beach bonfire. The past two months had been perfect. Della was sharing more and more of her past with me and her dreams were starting to completely go away. She'd woken me up in the middle of the night the week before last to tell me she'd had a dream about us. That we'd been having sex on the kitchen table. She'd been so excited to have a dream that didn't contain the horrors of her past that she'd been ready to play it out in real life.

It was a pretty damn good way to wake up.

I watched as she held Nate and danced around with him as the music pumped through the speakers. Blaire was in Rush's lap and they were watching Della with their son. She was beautiful. I wanted to see her dance around and laugh with our baby. I wanted her to have a child to love the way she was never loved. I wanted to know we had created something from the love that bound us so tightly together.

"She's happy," Jace said.

"She's perfect," I replied.

Jace laughed and slapped me on the back. "Just go ahead and do it. You know you want to. Put that little ring on her finger."

"I'm planning it. Has to be special."

Jace sighed. "Yeah, I'm planning it, too. Bethy and I've had a hard summer but things are looking better. She's stopped running off to bars. I think she just had a dark time there for a while. She's been spending time with Blaire and Della again. That helps."

Jace hadn't shown up on my doorstep upset about Bethy in two months. I was hoping things were better. "Good. Glad you two are working it out."

"Oh, shit. Is that Nan?" Jace said, pointing her out to me. "I thought she left and went to Paris for the summer. Seeing Nan is gonna send Grant into a tailspin again." Grant wasn't at the party; he was out of town. That was happening a lot lately. He would show up for a couple of days then leave again. I was just glad he wasn't wasting time with Nan.

"Grant has moved on. If Nan's back, then he'll be fine. She was a bad mistake. He knows that now."

Jace let out a low whistle. "She's with August Schweep. What, did she bring him back from Paris with her?"

"No. August is our new golf pro. We needed more than just Marco. When August hurt his rotator cuff his pro career was over. He wants to retire here, so he bought the Spencer house. He's working for me now."

"Looks like Nan is all over that."

"Good. At least it's not Grant."

Jace snorted. "Ain't that the truth."

I was going to get Della and take her for a walk. The dark beach was a great place to get her alone. Turning, I glanced out over the water and saw Bethy staggering out to the waves. She knew better than that. There was a red flag up. Had been all week. The riptides were intense and it was dark. You don't swim in the gulf in the dark.

"Jace, man, what's Bethy doing?" I asked, afraid to take my eyes off her.

"What is she doing now? She was drinking tequila shots earlier and I cut her off. She'd had enough . . . shit!"

"She's getting too deep," I said, taking a step toward the water. Jace took off running toward the water. I followed behind him. I heard someone scream from the crowd as Bethy's head went under the water. No. This couldn't be happening.

Jace dove into the waves and took off toward her. I pulled my shirt off, afraid it would slow me down, before I dove in after him. I wasn't letting my best friend go into this alone.

Bethy's gurgling scream filled the air.

"Relax, baby! Relax. Don't fight it. Please don't fight it. You'll go under and won't have the strength to rise back up," Jace was yelling as he swam toward her.

I saw him grab her just as the deathly pull of a rip current grabbed him. This wasn't happening. No.

"I need you to take her, Woods!" Jace yelled over the water's roar.

"Give me both your hands!" I shouted.

"No! Take her. I got this. Take her, dammit! It's strong!" Jace yelled.

How was I supposed to take her and leave him out there? "Come with me, Jace!" I demanded.

"Woods, listen to me---" His head went under and he came back up as he held a panicking Bethy in his arms. "You have to take her or we'll all die. I'm not gonna let her drown. Help me!"

I nodded. I had to do this. He could get out of the current. He was strong and he was smart. We had grown up knowing how to fight rip currents. I reached for Bethy as she screamed Jace's name.

"I love you," he told her as he let her go. She cried as she clung to my arms.

"Don't say that!" I yelled at him. "You're getting out of this. Don't fucking say that."

"Just get her out of here!" he yelled, pushing her away from him and toward me as he held on to her arm.

I could feel the pull getting closer. If I stayed here much longer I was going to get pulled into it, too. I wrapped my hand around Bethy's arm and pulled her out of the current, then tucked her under my arm and I started swimming back to shore.

Rush came swimming up to us and relief surged through me. I was going to be able to help Jace.

"Give her to me," Rush said as he reached for Bethy.

"Go get him," she cried as Rush pulled her from my arms.

I didn't wait for them to leave before I turned back around to get Jace.

But Jace wasn't there.

I glanced back at the shore to see if he'd made his way back up there and I'd missed it, but all I saw was Rush carrying Bethy out of the water.

I turned back to the dark waves. I was met with silence. Nothing.

He was just here. I just saw him. He isn't gone. It didn't happen that fast.

I went under and forced my eyes open in the salty water, but all I could see was the darkness. I needed light. I reached around me, feeling for anything. My lungs started to burn. Kicking up, I broke the surface and took a deep breath. I heard my name from the shore. They were yelling for me. I also heard Jace's name. I couldn't go back without him.

I went back under. I had to find Jace. I couldn't lose Jace. Not like this. Not now. We were supposed to be grumpy old men together. I fought back the panic starting to set in with each second that I couldn't find him. I swam underwater and fought the pull of the current as I reached out for some sign of him. Anything I could get my hands on.

When my lungs couldn't take it anymore, I swam back to the top, only to be taken back under by a wave before I could breathe. I wasn't going down like this. I had to find Jace.

Two arms grabbed ahold of me and jerked me to the surface as I started gasping for air and coughing.

"Dammit, Woods. Come on. You're gonna drown in this. He's gone, man. He's gone. I'm not letting you drown, too." Rush's words sent a shock through my system. He's gone? No. No! He isn't gone. I fought against Rush's hold on me.

"Stop it! Della is up there in a crumpled mess, crying. Do you want to leave her? Is that what you want? To leave her like this?"

Della. Oh God. Della. I couldn't leave her. But I'd lost Jace. I had lost Jace.

Rush pulled us out of the waves and when my feet hit the sand he let me go. We stood there staring at each other and breathing hard. We knew what had happened and what we were going to face. I would have been gone, too, if Rush hadn't come after me. I would have left Della behind.

I turned to see her getting up from the sand where she had been on her knees. Her face was red and soaked with tears. All she said was, "Woods," before she threw herself into my arms.

I watched in a daze as Blaire stood holding a hysterical Bethy. Sirens wailed in the distance. Sobs and cries filled the beach. And I stood there. Della clung to me. Her sobs eased but her hold never did.

Rush walked over to take his crying son from Nan's arms. He held him to his chest, and although he wasn't crying the loss and pain were in his eyes.

Me . . . I just felt empty.