Love by Association

Wayne had filled him in on a few more of the details of the job after Colin had left her hospital room the night before to give them all privacy.

She’d had a job to do and she’d done it. Just as he would have done.

David Smyth Jr. was already in jail, having had his hand wound tended to in the emergency room the night before. Word was he was going to be staying there. Colin couldn’t ask for anything more.

And in the years to come, when he thought of Chantel, it would be with supreme gratitude for what she’d done for them.

Yes. He had it all neatly tied up and was ready to pack it all away to sit in the back of his memory bank, gathering dust.

The only reason he’d asked Julie for more detail about Chantel’s friend’s death, on the way home the night before, was because they’d all been talking about it in the hospital room. Max had been married to the woman who’d died.

He couldn’t imagine being him.

But as he put his clubs in his trunk and looked out to the ocean, deciding a Sunday afternoon sailing his yacht was just what he needed, he was suddenly struck with a vision on the incoming tide. Chantel at fourteen, fighting off a lecherous man she’d trusted.

She’d learned young how to take care of herself.

As had he.

And that there was no one else going to do it for her. That those she should be able to trust most weren’t trustworthy.

As had he.

She was a rock.

Until she was in his arms. Then she’d been a grown-up version of that fourteen-year-old girl. Just before her stepfather had walked into her room and closed the door.

He had no proof of that. Just as he’d had no proof that he couldn’t completely trust her all these weeks.

But he’d been right then.

And knew he was right now.

Just as he knew that he could never, ever be like her friend Max. He couldn’t sit at home, knowing she was out there...in danger...and do nothing.

He just wasn’t that man.

* * *

THE CAPTAIN HAD told Chantel to take as many days off as she wanted. By Sunday afternoon, she was ready to come back, and she called to tell him so.

He said she needed at a least week. She’d had no vacation since she’d been there and had been working two jobs for almost a month. Plus, she’d taken a fairly substantial bump to the head.

She said she’d be in as scheduled the next day.

He compromised with Wednesday.

Pissed, but knowing she was only going to hurt her cause if she argued, she hung up. Then she changed into black leggings and a short-sleeved Lycra shirt and went to the complex gym to work out.

A girl could only eat so much chocolate ice cream.

* * *

THE BOAT DIDN’T make it out of the harbor. Or even away from the dock. Colin boarded her. Did the pre-sail checks. He looked at the back deck and was reminded of Chantel Johnson standing there.

Remembered how much she’d meant to him.

And sat down. Feeling the boat bob on the water.

He’d fallen in love with a fantasy.

Johnson wasn’t going to be easy to forget.

* * *

TWO HOURS WAS about all she could do with only a treadmill and free weights to work with. With a soaked towel around her neck, Chantel headed back to her apartment in the cool afternoon sunshine.

Normally, on duty or not, she’d have noticed the man standing on the sidewalk outside her front door before she was almost upon him.

But nothing about her felt normal.

She only noticed him when she was about six yards away. In light gray chino pants and a short-sleeved light-colored shirt, he stood on cracked pavement and watched her approach.

She wanted to turn around and go the other way. And couldn’t slow her feet down.

Heart beating, she watched him right back. When she drew close enough, she looked him in the eye. “You want to come in?” she said.

Her place was an embarrassment compared to what he was used to. But it was neat. Clean. And she could afford the rent.

“Yes.”

He didn’t ask how she was. Didn’t comment on her sweaty state.

He looked over her body in the revealing workout clothes. And her heart skipped a beat.

* * *

IF SHE’D MEANT to drive him crazy with desire for a woman who didn’t exist, by excusing herself to the shower the second they got inside the door of her tiny apartment, she’d succeeded.

Colin sat on her brown tweed sofa, acknowledging to himself that he liked the way things were arranged on the entertainment center across from him.

“I just had to stop by.” He was ready the second she came out of the bedroom, which was only feet away from where he was sitting. “To make certain that you were okay, and to thank you again...”

She’d left the bedroom door open when she’d gone in to shower. He was fairly certain some of the heat he was feeling was the steam.