Red Tide (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

He laughed as he tossed the notepad on the table and turned back to Jenna’s open arms. “Now, where were we?”

She smiled. “Right about here.” She pointed.

Sami and Matt beat the charter passengers to the boat the next morning. Once the charter passengers arrived, Mitch and Ed loaded their gear and were soon idling down the channel. Because of low tide, Mitch guided the
Sun Run
from the flybridge. Even after her many years of navigating the channel, she still didn’t know the locations of all the rocks. Sometimes, she thought, new ones grew when no one was looking.

It was going to be a beautiful day. A slight breeze had kicked up from the west, but forecasters predicted the afternoon storms would hold off until later that evening, more than likely until after they returned to port. Her paying customers were two vacationing couples from Michigan. Fortunately, they wanted to do underwater photography and not spearfishing, which would allow her and Ed a chance to put some fish on the boat. Mitch checked out the divers’ logbooks, and while they had plenty of freshwater diving experience, their ocean diving was sorely lacking. Mitch and Ed decided they would take turns accompanying them during their dives.

Better safe than sorry.

Sami climbed up the ladder and joined Mitch. “Want some company?”

Mitch smiled. “Sure.”

Sami sat on the bench, next to Mitch. “So, have things started to quiet down from this weekend?”

“I suppose so. We’ll see. I may be going from the frying pan into the fire.”

The quizzical look on her friend’s face prompted Mitch to explain. “I’m filing for divorce.”

Sami hugged her. “Congratulations. Or whatever the right thing to say here is. It’s damn well time you did.”

“I don’t know what to think. I don’t love him anymore, haven’t in several years. I still feel like I failed or something.”

“Hey, don’t feel like that. You weren’t the one in bed with that bimbo.”

Mitch made a slight adjustment to the wheel to avoid a small runabout anchored near the channel. “What did you feel after…” Mitch didn’t know how to phrase her thoughts and wasn’t sure where to go with that thought after she started it. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Sami’s eyes focused far away on the horizon. She didn’t talk about her first husband very much. At least, not about the last several weeks of his life. When Sami finally spoke again, her voice sounded weary and full of old emotion. “Mitch, I loved Steve. I truly did. But the man I loved and married died before he ever fell into that lake. That wasn’t Steve that day. Steve had died days, maybe even weeks before.

“It was hard for me. I loved Matt, you know that. I’d already decided my marriage was over. Steve had started drinking again, was lying to me about it even though I didn’t know it at the time. After the first intervention, I swore I’d never put up with that again. Matt and I spent all those years apart and hurting because I made a really dumb mistake and married a man I loved, but wasn’t
in
love with. All because I thought I wanted something that in the end, didn’t really matter. I was fortunate that Matt didn’t give up on me and still wanted me after all that time.” She turned to Mitch.

“Don’t make the same mistake I did, Mitch. You’ve got Ed, and he loves you. I can see it in everything he says and does. So can Matt. You need to take the chance and open up to him.”

Mitch mulled over Sami’s words for the rest of the afternoon. Whenever Ed wasn’t looking, Mitch watched him and weighed her options. She was getting too old to be playing teenage dating games, but she didn’t want to lose her best friend in the process.

Or her heart.

* * * *

Later that evening, before Ed arrived for dinner, Mitch checked the messages on the answering machine and listened to Donna relay John’s message. That reminded her that she’d forgotten to get the papers from Ron. She looked up Ron’s number and called him.

“Hey, can I come by in the morning and pick those up?”

“Sure, hon. No problem. Have you talked to John yet?”

“No. He was ‘out of the office’ today,” she sniped.

“Now, now, Mitch,” she heard him chuckle. “Be nice to him until that agreement is finalized. Once he signs it, bash the fucker all you want.”

“I know, I know. I’m going to try to see him tomorrow. I hope he doesn’t put up a fight. You know how obnoxious he can be when he wants to.”

“Well, that’s an ad guy for you.” He laughed. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

They said good-bye. Mitch was left to think about her soon-to-be ex as she prepared dinner. John’s advertising business was very successful, so he claimed. He’d even bought himself a brand-new red Porsche Carrera the previous Christmas. Besides his local clients, he had prestigious accounts with firms in Miami, Tallahassee, Naples, Palm Beach, even in the Bahamas and on Grand Cayman. When dating, he didn’t try to impress her with his money, but he would never allow her to pay for a single thing when together. He even wanted to pay off her Bronco for her, but she insisted on buying it with her own money. In retrospect, she was glad she had. It was now paid for, but he had no claim to it whatsoever.

When they bought their house in Carrollwood, the financing paperwork went through with amazing ease. She later found out it was because he’d put down a fifty-thousand-dollar cash payment. And she meant
cash
. The money was directly transferred out of an account she didn’t know about.

She finally decided she wouldn’t worry about the status of their finances because the bills were getting paid, he didn’t appear to be doing anything illegal, and they filed separate IRS returns anyway, so if he got audited it wouldn’t affect her.

She hoped.

She heard Ed’s truck in the drive and let Pete out to greet him. Ed appeared in the door a minute later with one arm hid behind his back and a grin on his face.

Mitch couldn’t help but smile. “What are you up to?”

He shook his head. “Uh-uh. Close your eyes.”

“Ed?”

“Close ’em.” She did, and she heard the freezer door open and shut. “Okay, you can open them.”

“What did you do?”

“Just don’t open the freezer until after dinner. I got you a surprise.”

“But—”

“Promise me.” The look on his face melted her heart. She smiled and promised she wouldn’t peek.

Dinner was a fun affair. Mitch felt a playfulness between them that hadn’t been there before. Several times their eyes met. She wondered if Ed felt the same surge of emotion she did each time it happened. After the dishes were done, Ed sent Mitch to the living room to watch TV while he prepared her surprise. A few minutes later, with a very proud look on his face, Ed walked into the room carrying two tall sundae glasses filled with vanilla ice cream and crème de menthe sauce.

She squealed with delight. “Mint parfaits! You remembered!” She took hers as he sat down next to her on the sofa. Before she realized what she was doing, she kissed him on the cheek. “I haven’t had one of these in years.”

Ed blushed with pleasure. “I thought you’d enjoy a little treat.”

They finished their desserts in front of the television, sitting in companionable silence as they ate. She offered to take his empty glass into the kitchen, but he got up instead and took hers. “You sit here and relax,” he said.

He returned and they sat side by side with Pete on the couch next to them, his head resting on Mitch’s lap. Several times Mitch started to talk about the things Ron and Sami had said to her, and each time she chickened out. When eleven o’clock rolled around, Ed stretched and yawned before standing.

“I really need to go, hon. It was a long day, and I’m worn out.”

She walked him to the door, an invitation for him to stay the night welded fast to the tip of her tongue.

“Good night. See you tomorrow.”

“Good night, hon.” He kissed her on the forehead. Then he paused, looked at her, and kissed her again briefly, almost chastely, on the lips. She was frozen by the heat of it. Before she could respond he smiled, turned, and left.

She closed the door behind him and rested her head against it, groaning in frustration.

“Why the hell can’t I do it?”

When Mitch awoke at dawn the next morning, she knew there was no way she could go back to sleep. Tangled pictures that she couldn’t decipher once morning took the edge off them filled her dreams. She knew they were comprised mostly of images of Ed. She sat up and looked down at Pete, who lay curled up on the floor next to her bed.

“Feel like a run, boy?”

He looked up at her and thumped his tail once. Definitely not an enthusiastic response. She walked out to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. While she waited, she stood at the sliding glass doors to watch the grey horizon out behind the cypress marsh to the east of Aripeka. As the smell of coffee filled the kitchen, Mitch’s stomach growled. She decided to get her run over with so she could grab a bite to eat.

She quickly drank a cup of coffee and set off for the spring with Pete in tow. The morning felt slightly cool, the humidity low, and the scent of salt water and night-blooming jasmine hanging in the air. She felt light. She imagined her feet barely touched the ground as she jogged and was almost surprised when she looked back and saw footprints behind her.

It was full daylight when she returned to the house and stepped into the shower. She knew she had to call John’s office. She wasn’t looking forward to that, or her eventual talk with him. But she did, however, look forward to seeing Ed.

Mitch scrubbed the sweat and dust off and thought about Ed again. She wanted him, but she didn’t want to just jump into bed with him, as pleasant as she found that image. She wanted to explore developing a closer relationship with him, but didn’t want to force it along. She wanted to break through the barrier so that if something was destined to develop, it would have the freedom to do so.

She also wanted to quit being such a chickenshit but didn’t know how.

Mitch was dressing when the phone rang. A glance at the clock and she saw it wasn’t quite eight. She instinctively knew it was Ed. “Hello?”

“Good morning.” She could almost hear the smile on his face. “What are you up to?” he asked.

“We just went jogging. Pete’s not happy.”

Ed laughed. “He doesn’t like it when you wake him up this early to pound the pavement. When will you get to the shop?”

“I need to call John’s office. If he’s going to be in, I need to go see him and talk to him about filing the papers. If I don’t do it, it’s not going to get done.” She wondered if Ed would comment on that.

“Okay. See you when you get here.”

Mitch tried to read something, anything into his words and tone. “It shouldn’t take long if I do,” she added.
Come on, give me a bone. Anything.
Not knowing how he felt about her gnawed at her.

“I hope it won’t,” he said. “I hate that son of a bitch. The less time you have to spend with him, the better.”

Not exactly the reaction she wanted, but she’d take the win. “I know. Thanks for being there for me.”

He paused. Did she imagine his tone changed, deeper, perhaps? “I’ll always be there for you, babe,” he softly said. “I’ll see you later.”

She hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment longer, praying she wasn’t making a huge mistake going after Ed.

* * * *

Mitch settled down at the breakfast bar to do some paperwork while waiting for nine o’clock. As she worked, her thoughts turned to the more unpleasant business she had in front of her. She wasn’t at all looking forward to seeing John again, even if to formally end their marriage.

She had spent the better part of a year and a half living with him. Knowing that he knew every inch of her body and at one distant time had known how to make her shudder with pleasure unnerved her when she had to be face-to-face with him. It wasn’t that his eyes wandered her body when they were together, but she felt as if his mind was.

That gave her the creeps.

She poured herself another cup of coffee and turned on the morning news to kill a few minutes, then finally gave in and called John’s office. The phone rang five times before he answered.

“Gulf Coast Images.”

She had to swallow before she could speak. “Hello, John? This is Mitch.”

“Oh, hi, Mitch. Donna told me you called. What do you want to talk about?”

She took a deep breath and took the plunge. “I want to go ahead and file divorce papers. I think it’s time we finally ended this for good. Let’s face it, we don’t have a marriage. It just doesn’t make sense for us to continue like this.”

There was a pause from the other end that took her by surprise. John was a man rarely at a loss for words.

“I certainly won’t say this is sudden, Mitch,” he eventually said, “but it’s not really expected. What’s up?”

None of your business
, she wanted to say, but what came out was, “I just want to go on with my life, that’s all. This is unfinished business. I think we both need to get it cleared up.”