The Sweetheart Bargain (A Sweetheart Sisters Novel) (27 page)

“Yeah, I know, Mom. Quit treating me like a baby, will you?” Jackson dropped onto the bench of the picnic table, back into angry teenager mode. Miss Sadie got up, padded over to Jackson’s feet, and laid her little body beside his black-and-white Converse sneakers.

Frustration pinched Diana’s features. She started to say something, changed her mind, and instead crossed to the grill. “Can I help you?” she asked Mike.

“You bet.” Mike broke into a grin and handed her the platter.

Luke sidled over to Olivia, reaching into the cooler behind her for a beer. He held it out to her. “Peace offering.”

“Thanks.” She popped off the top but didn’t drink.

He slid a leg over the worn board that formed the bench of the picnic table and sat beside her. “I didn’t mean to bite your head off earlier. I just get . . . sensitive when people try to help me. I’m not used to needing help.”

“Asking for help doesn’t make you weak, you know. It makes you smart.”

Wise words. Words he knew he should take to heart. But for a man who’d spent most of his life being independent, doing for himself, and being the leader, hard words to accept.

“Yeah, well, I haven’t been that very often either.” He set his beer on the table and wrapped his hands around the icy amber bottle. “Anyway, I just wanted to say I was sorry.”

She held his gaze for a moment, then nodded. “Apology accepted.”

Two words, but they eased something in Luke, allowed the tension in his frame to uncoil. He took a deep sip of the beer, and it hit just right, cold, smooth, satisfying. For the first time all day, he felt like things would be okay. Olivia sat beside him, in the kind of comfortable silence that came with knowing someone a while. He liked that.

A lot.

A cold nose nudged Luke’s elbow. He reached over and scratched Chance behind the ears. “I swear this dog is here more than he’s at your house.”

She grinned. “He likes you.”

“Clearly a sign he’s not the brightest dog in the world.” The masochistic part of him wondered if the dog’s owner liked him just as much. Granted, she’d been naked and in his arms just a couple of days ago, so it was probably a safe bet to think yes, she did like him.

He liked that, too.

A lot.

Olivia laughed. “I don’t know about that. Dogs are good judges of character.”

Luke kept on rubbing Chance’s ears. Easier to do that than to discuss the kind of character the dog was judging. If Olivia knew the truth about Luke, about what kind of man he’d been when people needed him most, neither she nor Chance would come within ten feet of him. The golden groaned and leaned into the touch, unconditional love. The damned dog was growing on him. “I think he’s just buttering me up for another walk.”

“He loves those walks. Soon as he sees the leash, he gets all excited.”

The two of them exchanged a heated look, the memory of their moonlit walk and where it almost led charging the air. Olivia blushed and glanced away.

“Tell me you’re talking about leashing the dog, not Luke. There are certain things that are definitely TMI in my world.” Mike laid the platter of chicken in the center of the table, then took a seat beside Luke. “From what I hear, that leashing thing is all the rage in literature these days.”

Diana grinned and settled onto the bench beside Olivia. “Oh really? Is that where your reading tastes lie?”

A sexy grin slid across Mike’s face. “Any time you want to see my library, I’d be glad to show it to you.”

Diana shook her head. “Men. Always looking for sex.”

“And what exactly is wrong with that?” Mike asked. “Sex is a healthy expression of one’s body.”

Luke snorted. “Now there’s a pickup line that’s sure to win over the ladies.”

“Oh, are we talking winning over ladies?” Mike asked. He leaned across the table. “Because if so, I have a tale to tell.”

“Don’t.”

Olivia glanced at Luke, then at Mike. “What tale?”

“Don’t do it,” Luke said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stick to the PG version for the kids.”

“I’m not a kid,” Jackson said.

“No, you’re not,” Mike said, his voice lowering into common respect, “but there are ladies here, so a gentleman keeps the story clean.”

Jackson shrugged, appeased. “I get that.”

“Did Luke ever tell you the story about the time he rescued a cat in a tree?” Mike said to Olivia.

“Nope.”

“I don’t think—”

Mike waved off Luke’s objection. “We’re up in Kodiak, waiting around for the next call. Some days are so busy, you think you’re going to turn into a human tornado; other days are so slow, you’re watching soap operas in between playing cards.”

“A closet
Days of Our Lives
fan?” Olivia asked Luke.

“Not me. Mike was the one who got weepy watching
Days
.”

“I plead the fifth.” Mike put up his hands. “Anyway, while we’re out on a regular patrol, this call comes in from this lady who docked her boat on one of the little islands off the coast. Doing some bird-watching or something like that. Anyway, her cat got loose, climbed a tree, and wouldn’t come back. Weather’s on its way, and the lady’s sister, who was along for the ride, can’t talk the woman into leaving until she’s got the cat back.”

“She brought her cat along when she went bird– watching?”

“Probably made the whole thing more interesting,” Luke said.

“Luke and I decide what the hell, we’re not doing anything, so we head on over there. It’s not far from the base, and the weather’s good. Visibility’s four miles, low clouds in the sky, but the forecasters say there’s a storm coming in fast from the east. Before we can get to the lady, the weather kicks into overdrive. Ops is on the radio, saying there’s a boater in distress a few miles away, so we abort the cat mission and the patrol to head for the Mayday call. It’s a sailboat, caught in some rough water out on the east side of Kalsin Island. Whitecaps everywhere, twenty-five-knot winds. The captain’s inexperienced—”

“And a little drunk—”

“And trying to impress these two cute brunettes who are with him by pretending he knows what he’s doing, but he’s in over his head. One of the girls was smart enough to call the Coast Guard soon as the boat started taking on water. The wind is getting vicious, the ocean is snarling, and the danger quotient goes from one to a thousand in seconds. Luke’s the PIC—pilot in command, his first day in the chair—but he’s cool as a cucumber, holding the helo steady. We lower down the swimmer and pluck all three people off the boat just before it went down. A few hairy moments at the end there because the boat started listing bad, but Luke kept calm, got us in and out fast.”

“Quit making me sound like Superman and General Schwarzkopf all rolled into one.”

“Just telling it like it happened.” Mike grinned. “But I left out the best part. Once we got the helo on deck, the two girls wanted to thank the man who saved their lives. They climbed right over the crew and up into the cockpit to give Luke-boy here a Doublemint-twin hug.”

“Damned near suffocated me. It was your job to keep them in the back.”

Mike shrugged. “What can I say? I was blinded by beauty.”

Luke scoffed.

“Oh, I forgot the best part. On the way back to base, we buzzed the island and scared the hell out of the woman’s cat, which leapt out of the tree and right into her arms. You couldn’t have written that ending if you’d been in Hollywood.”

Olivia and Diana laughed. Jackson gave Luke a look of guarded respect.

“That’s incredible,” Olivia said. “Quite impressive, too. Saving multiple lives in one swoop.”

“Just doing my job.” Luke shrugged, pretending he didn’t care that Olivia was impressed.

“But what really made Luke a legend was what happened the next day,” Mike said.

“Mike—”

Mike ignored Luke’s interruption. “The sailboat folks had a touch of hypothermia from being out in the wet and cold for so long. We took them to the hospital after we got them off that boat, and that night, the boat’s owner had a heart attack. Because he was in the hospital when it happened, they were able to save him, get him into surgery and put in a stent. If he’d been out on the water, he wouldn’t have been that lucky.”

Luke shrugged it off. “Coincidence, nothing more.”

“We started calling him Double after that. Not just for the Doublemint twins—”

Luke scowled, and shifted in his seat. He wished Mike would just shut the hell up, but both Olivia and Diana were hanging on his every word. Even the kid had his attention glued to Mike.

“But for the double save, too. Remember what Joe used to say? That Joe, had a saying for everything.” Mike shook his head and smiled. “He said you—”

The mention of Joe’s name was tinder to a simmering flame. Luke jerked to his feet. What had he been thinking, agreeing to this insane barbecue? He didn’t need people around, reminding him of what used to be and how he had screwed that all up, not just for himself, but for Joe, too. A man who’d killed his best friend was no hero, and Luke wished Mike would understand that.

“Quit telling these bullshit stories,” Luke said. “The man who did all that doesn’t exist anymore. So let him go once and for all.”

* * *

No one said a word for a good thirty seconds after Luke stalked into the house and slammed the door. Miss Sadie jumped up into Olivia’s lap, as unnerved as the humans at the table.

“I thought maybe he was getting better,” Mike said. “But I guess I was wrong.”

Olivia had seen this same wall in patients. Their anger, frustration, from the hand that fate had dealt them, made them put up a stack of emotional bricks and lash out at those who loved them.

“I asked him about what happened, but he won’t talk about it.”

“He should,” Mike said. “It’s a story I think he
needs
to tell. He hasn’t talked to anyone about that day, and I’m no psychiatrist, but I think just getting it out there will help him a hell of a lot.”

In Mike’s deep blue eyes, she could read concern for his friend, as well as an unbreakable bond of loyalty. Luke was lucky to have such friends. She glanced at the closed, dark house and wondered if he realized that, too.

The three of them cleaned up while Jackson tossed a tennis ball with Chance and Miss Sadie in the yard. Miss Sadie, who had little interest in fetch and more interest in catch, ran after the golden, who did all the hard work of retrieving the ball. Jackson kept the distances short, which allowed Chance to trot after the ball without too much effort.

Olivia came up to Diana, the two of them loaded with dishes and condiments. They were standing by the back door, watching the boy and the dogs. From time to time, Jackson’s annoyed-with-the-world expression would flicker into a smile. “He’s a good kid,” Olivia said.

“He’s a challenge, that’s what he is.” Then a smile, much like Jackson’s, curved across Diana’s face. “But yeah, at his heart, Jackson is a good kid.”

“He loves animals. Does he work with you?”

Diana let out a laugh and turned to open the door, waving Olivia in first. “God, no. We’d probably kill each other. He’s your typical teenage boy who is going through a very long I-hate-my-mother phase.”

Olivia opened the fridge and stowed the ketchup and mustard inside. She found plastic wrap in one of the drawers and started stowing the leftovers. Mike headed down the hall to find Luke. Deep inside the house, Olivia could hear the low murmur of the television.

Diana and Olivia worked together well, dividing up the kitchen duty without a word, making something as simple as cleaning up from dinner a quick and easy task. It wouldn’t seem like a big deal to most people, but to Olivia, who had never shared anything with a sibling, the event was a giant step forward.

“Once the renovations are done, I was thinking of getting the shelter back up and running,” Olivia said. “Maybe Jackson would like to help with that. It would give him something to do, and a sense of accomplishment. There’s plenty he can help do until then, just clearing out the place and getting it ready to be fixed up.”

Diana wrapped up the chicken and tucked it in the fridge. “I think he’d like that. And it would keep him out of trouble.”

Olivia plucked a brownie from the platter and took a bite. She leaned against the counter while behind her, warm water filled the sink. “I went through a difficult phase when I was a teenager. My mom talked me into volunteering at an animal shelter, partly to keep me out of her hair and partly to teach me about caring for something other than myself. I worked there on weekends, walking the dogs, feeding the animals, all the way through high school and college, and even after I graduated and was working in a horrible retail job. I would go there, and whatever stress I was feeling from work or my marriage would disappear.”

“Is that what led you to what you do now?”

“Yep. I met a woman who did animal-assisted therapy when she came in to adopt a rescue mutt one day and she told me about how rewarding it was, not just for the patients, but for the dog and the handler, too. Then someone dropped off Miss Sadie and the rest, they say, is history. I started going to night school to get my therapist’s license, joined a group that did animal-assisted therapy so I could get licensed as a handler, and got the job here.”