Beachcomber Love
Beachcomber Investigations Novella Book 8.5
By Stephanie Queen
Sample Chapter
Chapter 1
“Are you kidding me?”
That was the last response Dane had wanted to hear from Shana. The question that had elicited the response—which wasn’t exactly a question, more of a suggestion, a recommendation, maybe even a command if you took into account his general demeanor and history of ordering people around—had been ‘Marry me.’
Dane lay in bed staring at the ceiling, alone and getting restless. Contemplating the past few days’ events that had brought him here caused a tic in his right jaw muscle.
He’d passed Shana’s tests. She’d passed his, although she probably hadn’t realized he’d been testing her. Scratch that—because when hadn’t he been testing her?
Luckily for him—lucky for her too, he’d like to think—she’d come around about the marriage suggestion. But it had been rocky. Hell, their whole relationship had been rocky.
Normally he liked it that way. Liked life bumpy and full of challenges. It made a man feel alive. But right now, he was at a peculiar juncture. Dane had some recuperating to do after their last so-called challenge. The case of the dead husband had involved a tough ATF man who turned out to be dirtier than he was tough.
Dane had taken a shot to the head, but the bastard ATF man had been a lousy shot and the bullet only left a groove on the left side of his skull instead of a hole in it. He’d had a concussion or two before, but this time it was taking him longer than his usual mortality-defying quick-healing process. Maybe the doc was right.
You’re no spring chicken. You’ve got some rough mileage on you.
He didn’t want to think about his mileage, and that went double for his age. It inevitably led him to think about Shana’s age—a full ten years less than his own. Not a shocking difference, certainly not a game-ender, but for the first time he felt concern as he sat up in bed and swung his feet to the floor feeling every last minute of his forty years.
You’ve seen far more than your reasonable share of fights and it’s time to pay the piper.
Dane didn’t want to think about what the doctor meant by that either. He already knew he was living on borrowed time, but he’d decided not to question it. Something about a gift horse and looking in its mouth. He waited for the dizziness and nausea to pass before standing up, but the headache seemed to be a permanent guest thudding away at his shell-shocked brain.
Fortified by the smell of fresh brewed coffee—and the hallway wall that he half leaned against—he stumbled into the kitchen. Lover girl was on the phone, but she turned to gift him with her star struck smile as if he were Adonis coming down from the heavens.
Meanwhile, he was dressed in sweats and hadn’t shaved or showered in two days. Maybe she was the one with a head case. He smiled back as best he could, then straightened, without falling over.
*****
“Mum, let me call you back. Dane is up and we’re having coffee.” She maintained her smile in spite of the fact that her heart beat fast with alarm. He looked too pale and too unsteady and decidedly not Dane-like. She had no idea what her mother said but the next voice she heard was her brother Billy’s.
“Hey, sis. Dirk is gonna be real disappointed that you’re cancelling your trip back home.”
She scoffed and turned away from Dane, grabbing the pot of coffee to fill him a cup and cover her insta-tension. Just hearing the name Dirk after three years was still a lightning rod for a whole lot of turmoil and anger. Mostly anger.
“Not bloody likely. We’ve been done for years.”
“About that,” Billy said.
She stepped to Dane, who hadn’t moved, hadn’t tried to wrap her in his arms or sit at the counter or anything at all, but stand there. As if standing there were an accomplishment. She needed to get Billy off the phone.
“I have to go—”
“Hang on—I promised Dirk I’d let you know—”
“Know what?” She put the cup in Dane’s hands. He took it and stepped to the counter, looking as if he were made of paper, and leaned there.
“He still carries a torch and when he heard you were coming back home for a visit he was above the moon. He wants to take you out on the town and woo you all over again.”
She laughed and turned away from Dane to finish the call. The Dirk-induced tension disappeared. “Tell your friend he can take a dumper. I’m not coming back and you know better.” She lowered her voice. “You know I’m engaged. I’m marrying Dane in the spring. So you can both—”
“Okay, cool off. I get the picture. Leave it to me to console him.”
“Forget about consoling Dirk. You’d better be up to consoling Ma. Tell her I’ll call her later or tomorrow.”
She’d never told Dane that Dirk was one of the reasons she’d accepted the job with Scotland Yard and left Australia in the first place. She’d barely admitted it to herself. Dirk had been a friend of Billy’s from University. He’d been two years her junior, tall, handsome, and wealthy—and a little too full of himself in the end.
She shut down the phone and tossed it on the counter then swung around to focus on Dane.
He’d been sipping his coffee, his eyes sharp in his pale face. That was a good sign. Or was it?
“Dirk?” he said.
She waved a hand. He caught it in his with his pre-concussion quickness in full force.
The knot of tension returned to her gut. It was still about Dirk, but with a layer of Dane on top. She might need to go for a run, in spite of the frigid weather, to work it off.
“Tell me.”
“An old flame.”
“Of course. He’s disappointed?”
“I see the concussion didn’t affect your supersonic hearing.”
He gave her a half smile. She adored that half smile. Normally. She didn’t enjoy it as much when it was applied to put her on his hot seat.
“You never mentioned him.”
She sighed. She’d like to ignore him, dismiss the subject. Walk out the back door and go for her run. But in truth, Dane deserved to hear the story, and it was a short one. Dane had shared his past with her in spite of how painful it had been—or maybe because he’d been in so much pain about Elena and what he’d thought had been her betrayal.
Compared to that, her stupid story about Dirk should be easy. Or would have been if it wasn’t so embarrassing.
She shrugged and sipped her coffee, noting Dane’s ability to concentrate had not been compromised based on the way he stared at her. She knew he could wait her out, even in his less than 100% muddled condition.
“We dated for a while. It didn’t work out. I left Sydney to get away and start over.”
“You took the job with Scotland Yard thousands of miles from home and your promising career as a detective in Sydney to get away from this guy.”
“You could say that.”
He reached a hand out and took a lock of her unruly long hair between his fingers and played with it. She noticed the tiny vibration in his fingers. The bottom went out of her stomach and whatever embarrassment or regret or whatever she felt about her fiasco with Dirk disappeared. Dane was not well, not himself. Not yet. But he would be.
Had to be.
“What was wrong with him?”
“He was too full of himself.”
He laughed. “Exactly your type. What happened?”
“I guess he couldn’t back it up. He wasn’t all he cracked himself up to be. His arrogance was unjustified.”
“Tough girl.” He let go of her hair and moved his hand to her chin. He heard the unspoken words. Unlike you. The slight tremor was still there, but he held her and concentrated until she felt it stop. It was as if he had willed the tremor to still.
He spoke low and slowly so that his words sounded like a purr. A menacing purr. “What happened?”
She pulled herself from his grip, but not from his spell.
“I thought better of it—decided not to go through with the marriage.” Her chin jutted up, but she held her hands at her side, albeit in fists, determined not to turn herself into a completely predictable stereotype. He would notice.
She waited a few beats for his response, staring into his purposely blank eyes. She hated when he did that—held back from her, putting up that mask. She couldn’t help herself and crossed her arms across her chest. His eyes flicked to note her posture, then the tiny lift in his mouth and the crinkles at the corner of his eyes softened his face into a smile.
“You were engaged to Dirk. And now he’s disappointed you’re not coming for a visit.”
She nodded though he hadn’t asked for her confirmation. He’d understood the score perfectly well.
“I think you need to tell me the whole story. Give me a reason why I shouldn’t punch his lights out if he—”
