The Big 5-Oh! (25 page)

A spear of yellow light shone through the opening in the curtains, seeming to point the way straight to the corner of the bed. Liv got up, stretched, and pulled open the drapes.

She looked up at the blue canopy hovering overhead, not a cloud in sight. What a strange dichotomy Florida was! The tail of a hurricane had walloped Sanibel Island overnight, and yet this morning—blue skies and sunshine. The only evidence of the storm was the disarray stretched out across the neighbor's lawn.

An overturned trash can rested at the foot of a tall palm tree, the grass beyond it littered with its one-time contents. Crumpled paper, a used coffee filter, and the top of a pineapple were just a few of the items Liv identified. Broken branches, several uprooted flowering plants, and a broken planter blanketed the rest of the debris.

The fragrant song of brewing coffee called to her suddenly. Liv hurried into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash away the sleep from her eyes, but the reflection that greeted her in the mirror was enough to give pause to her efforts.

She’d been covered in mud and slime after her wrestling match with the downed tree, and she’d taken a warm candlelight shower before turning in. Drying her hair with a towel rather than an electricity-powered blow dryer had been more of an effort than she had the strength to undertake, and so she’d let her head hit the pillow before her curls were completely dry.

They’re dry now!
she thought.

Fuzzy spirals poked out in every direction like a confused scarecrow pointing the way. Liv frowned in disappointment as she realized the coffee (and Jared) would have to wait a few extra minutes while she pulled herself into a form that was fit for human consumption.

Thirty minutes later, she emerged with freshly diffused curls and a couple of dabs of makeup, wearing her favorite faded jeans and a pale blue, sleeveless cropped shell sweater with white enamel buttons. Her bright-white Keds were tied up with islet laces, and Boofer batted at one of them with her paw as she followed Liv to the kitchen.

“Jared?”

An empty mug waited on the counter beside the coffee pot, and she filled it before meandering over to the window above the sink. The patio was uncluttered, but a few stray leaves dotted the surface of the pool.

Jared was hard at work at the top of a stepladder in the far corner, repairing a portion of the screen that the winds had torn away from the steel frame.

Liv decided to get some breakfast started while he completed his task. She remembered a canister of cinnamon rolls she’d spotted at the back of the top shelf in the refrigerator. Fresh-baked and warm, they might make a nice addition to some scrambled eggs and sliced cantaloupe.

She’d hoped to have it all laid out on the dining table before Jared came inside, but she was still icing the rolls when he opened the glass sliders.

“What is that wonderful smell?” he exclaimed, and then leaned across the counter to have a look.

“Breakfast,” she declared. “It's just about ready.”

“I’ll go wash up.”

She didn’t want to go so far as to light candles, but Liv pulled down Josie's best china and loaded the plates with all the careful precision of a sculpted masterpiece. She poured chilled orange juice into crystal wine goblets. When Jared reappeared, she was just filling two flowered porcelain cups with coffee.

“I could certainly get used to having you around,” he said, standing beside the table. Liv's heart leapt.

“Back atcha.” She tried to sound casual. “Thank you for fixing the screen.”

As they chatted over breakfast, Liv was reminded once again how simple things were between the two of them. She tried to look back at the beginnings of her relationship with Robert so many years ago, but she couldn’t remember how long it took before they found the simple groove they’d eventually slipped into. One thing she knew for sure, though, she’d never experienced with anyone the kind of heat that Jared inspired.

It was odd to be so attracted and yet so comfortable. He set butterflies to fluttering just by looking at her, sparks to blazes with his touch, and yet they could amiably converse for hours on myriad subjects.

Jared Hunt was as much an enigma to her as the Florida weather. From electrical storms to sunshine and back again.

And just then, as their eyes met across Josie Parish's mahogany table, in the hollow just above her ribs and below her heart, Liv felt the beginning rumblings of one of those electrical storms.

Jared had been standing in front of his bedroom closet, tying his tie, for more than fifteen minutes. His focus wasn’t on the light blue silk tie Rand had given him for Christmas, and he wasn’t really even thinking about his son's nuptials, now just a little more than an hour away. Jared's thoughts were next door, on the other side of their two back-to-back swimming pools, beyond the glass sliders.

Relief had washed over him like a wave out in the Gulf when Liv called her employer and left the voice mail message.

She’d opened with, “Becky, I’m so sorry,” and followed with a concise summation of her canceled flight, the hurricane, and the damage to Josie's house. But it was her closing that had Jared's gut in knots.

“I know I said I would be back to work tomorrow, but I’m just not able to do it. I’m going to try and rebook my Tuesday flight back, and I’ll be in touch to let you know when I’ll arrive.”

Jared sat down on the corner of the bed and started over with new determination toward his necktie. When it was knotted at last, he walked over to the mirror on the back of the door and adjusted it, allowing his mind to meander back to Liv again.

She was so resolute about going back to her old life despite their obvious connection, and every one of the reasons she’d spelled out for him made perfect sense. Just one thing stood boldly out of place, and that was the love that had developed between them.

Jared was reminded of a game Rand used to love when he was little.

“Which of these pictures doesn’t belong with the others?” Rand's mom would ask him, and Rand would wrinkle up his face like a prune until he figured it out.

It was hard to believe that same little boy with the furrowed brow would now be making vows to his chosen bride. Where had the time gone?

Jared slipped into his navy blue jacket and fastened the buttons down the front. He’d bought this suit for the medical conference in Cincinnati and had worn it only once. It had been hanging in the garment bag when he met Liv on the plane.

Funny how everything always seemed to circle back around to Liv these days, even his navy pinstripe suit. He’d known
her such a short time, and yet she was planted, even rooted, into every aspect of his life as if she’d been there all along.

His doorbell rang just then, and Jared glanced at his watch. Five minutes early. He wasn’t sure he’d ever known a woman as consistently punctual as Liv.

He opened the door to a spring bouquet on three-inch heels. She was exquisite in a straight, pale pink skirt and a silky floral blouse with fluttery ruffles framing her neck and wrists.

“You are stunning,” he told her, and it thrilled him to no end that she blushed in reply.

In the car Jared queued up his favorite Michael Bublé CD and then punched through the options until he landed on the perfect song—
Everything
. The one that had reminded him of Olivia Wallace ever since the day they first met. These days, he often woke up humming it, thinking of red hair and green eyes.

Bublé continued to serenade them with an array of tunes on the drive toward Captiva, and Jared reached across the seat and grasped Liv's hand, his finger tapping out the rhythm of “their song” on her knuckle when it came up again on the menu.

Shelby's family home on Captiva was impressive. Jared navigated the curved driveway toward the large white house at the top of the hill. Stately white columns and an expansive porch lent Southern charm to the inviting architecture.

“Not a palm tree in sight once we turned off the main road,” Liv noted. “It looks like it's straight out of
Gone with the Wind
.”

“Welcome home,” Jared teased. “To
Tah-rah
.”

“I’m thinking your son is marrying into some old Southern money, Jared.”

“I’m thinking so too.”

Jared pulled into line behind the last car in the driveway and shifted into park.

“Are you ready for this?” Liv asked him.

“Not really.”

Liv chuckled. “Well, that's honest.”

“My son is getting married,” he said with a sigh. “He hasn’t even known her for a month, and now he's marrying her. What am I supposed to do with that? Tell him to wait? He won’t listen. And he's old enough to make the decision for himself, with or without my approval. So what do I do?”

She exhaled a groan and shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess you support him. You love him. And you hope and pray that he won’t fall. But if he does, you’re his dad and you pick him up and brush him off.”

Jared's heart pinched inside his chest, and he turned toward her. “You would have made a great mother. That's excellent parental advice, Olivia.”

She grinned at him and shrugged. “If that's true, it's all yours. But don’t expect any more of it because that's all I got.”

He laughed, squeezed her hand, and nodded in the direction of the house. “Ready?”

“When you are.”

When they reached the front door, Liv slipped her arm through his, and Jared's pulse rapped against his throat. It had been such a long time since he’d felt like part of something. When Rand's mother was alive, he had another half. He was whole. He’d forgotten until the very moment he felt Liv's arm link with his, and suddenly, a missing puzzle piece snapped into place again. The thought of losing that after waiting for so long to find it—

“You must be Rand's daddy!”

The woman who opened the door was tall and thin, with an elegant smile that seemed to twinkle. Her golden hair was pulled into a loose bun at the back of her head, and expensive
silver earrings dangled from her lobes to the shoulders of her lavender suit.

“Jared Hunt,” he said as she shook his hand. “And this is Olivia Wallace.”

“Vivian Barnes, Dr. Hunt. It's such a pleasure to meet you, and you, Miss Wallace. Please come in.”

Vivian led them across the marble floor of the foyer into a great room with a wall of windows that looked out over a long, rolling green lawn. Rows of brass chairs faced a flowered arch where the bride and groom would stand. A dozen ornamental standing candelabras were placed behind the arch and ran down both sides of the room, each of them decorated with garlands of red roses and white ribbons.

“Oh, it's beautiful, Mrs. Barnes!” Liv exclaimed. “Just beautiful.”

“Call me Vivian. Thank you. We didn’t have much notice to pull it all together, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a light in our Shelby's eyes like I’ve seen since she met Rand. Her father and I just wanted to make sure their wedding was special.”

Jared wanted to ask her how she felt about the announcement when she first heard it, or what Vivian thought about her daughter traipsing off to England in a few days. He wanted to know whether she was concerned about her daughter, the way he was concerned for his son.

“Oh, good,” Vivian said, motioning to a lean man in a black suit. “Honey, come here and meet Rand's father. Jared Hunt and Olivia Wallace, this is my husband, Jasper Barnes.”

The niceties bounced between them like a tennis ball before Jared finally asked them where he might find Rand.

“I was hoping to spend a few minutes with my son before the ceremony.”

“Of course,” Vivian replied. “Up the stairs and down the hall, the second door on the left.”

Liv gave him a nod, and Jared excused himself. Once he reached the circular staircase, he took the stairs two at a time and hurried down the hall and rapped on the door.

“Oh, thank God!” Rand exclaimed when he saw his father standing in the doorway. He flicked the ends of his loose bow tie. “Help me, Dad.”

Jared laughed and backed Rand into the room before shutting the door.

“Stand still,” he said, and then he set about tying his son's tie. “How are you feeling? Nervous?”

“You’d think I would be, wouldn’t you? But I’m really not. More excited than nervous, you know?”

“Yeah, I think I get that. No doubts then.”

“Doubts about Shelby? Are you joking? She's perfect, Dad.”

“It's a little hard to label perfection after two weeks, Rand.” Jared tapped his son's shoulder twice and told him, “There you go. Done.”

“Thank you,” Rand said, and then he sat down on the bed and motioned for his father to sit beside him. “Dad, look. I know this has all happened real quick. But I feel like me and Shelby, you know, we were meant to be. She gets me. And I get her.”

“Well, that's important.” Jared tried not to let on how worried he really was.

“How long did you know Mom when you proposed? Something like a month?”

“Three months,” Jared corrected.

“But you knew. You were sure. How is this so different? I’m sure. I can’t see going back to England without her just because I haven’t been sure
longer
. I don’t want to be without Shelby. Can you understand that?”