nuts,” he said. He cocked his head, regarded her for a beat. “I think you’re everything Morrie said you were.”
She wondered exactly what Morrie had told him.
They reached the marina and he returned the bucket. There was a sink for hand-washing, and after they finished, he held the door open for her again. Great. He was gorgeous, rich, nice and polite. She needed to find some faults, quickly. She reminded herself that she barely knew him and had no reason to trust him. She brushed by him, back into the harsh glare of the day.
“I need to get back to the bar,” she said.
“I thought you didn’t have to be back till later.”
No, damn him. “I could show you the books.” Anything to cut short their outing. “You don’t want to spend too much time in the sun right away,” she added, trying to think of more reasons they should go back to the bar. “I’m used to it, but you’re not. The sun here is seductive. It’s stronger than you think. You can tell the tourists because they’re the ones who are sunburned. And by the way, don’t swim after dark. That’s when the sharks are most active. The mosquitoes here are ferocious, too. And you need some sunglasses—the kind that protect against ultraviolet rays—”
She stopped. He was watching her with his curiously level gaze shuttered and hard to read now. But he could read her, apparently. And she hated that. It made her heart thump and pound, and she wanted to run, hard, fast, until she couldn’t think or feel.
“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he said. “Or take up too much of your time. Let’s go back.”
All he did was make her feel uncomfortable. But now she felt like a jerk.
“No, I’ll walk you into the town. Morrie asked me to do anything for you that I could, and I owe him…everything. If you’d like me to show you around some more—”
“And take me shopping for sunglasses?” The teasing note returned to his voice.
She felt her cheeks heat. “I really wasn’t trying to ditch you,” she lied.
He didn’t believe her, she suspected, but he didn’t confront her about it, either.
“Good thing,” he said. “Because I’m not going anywhere. I’m here to stay.”
That was exactly what she was afraid of.
Chapter 4
He wanted to move a hell of a lot faster, but she wasn’t ready.
Roman sat in Morrie’s office, the bar’s account books spread out around him, pretending to give a rat’s ass if the bar was making money or not. All he really cared about was why Leah was so scared—not just of him, but of everything. She was scared of the water. That had blown his mind. Leah loved to swim. She’d been the one who’d insisted he take diving lessons, get the required certification before they’d come to Thunder Key. She’d been fearless. They’d explored the coral channels and canyons together, snorkeled and bodysurfed and played like kids in the calm waters of the barrier-reef-protected shore. She’d made him— stuffed shirt that he’d been—play, too.
Now she was afraid of the very thing she’d loved most. Water. Did it go back to the accident? That had to have been harrowing, her car going over the bridge that way. He couldn’t even imagine. Hell, he didn’t want to, but he couldn’t stop. What had really happened to her? It wasn’t just water that she feared, and that made him wonder if something worse than he had ever imagined had occurred on that fateful night. It was as if she feared life itself. She held back. His Leah had never held back.
He was going to have to go easy with her, and that would be the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life. He wanted to charge in, take control. That was what he’d been born and raised to do in every aspect of his life. But that had never worked with Leah.
They’d gone ahead and walked into the town before coming back to the bar. Thunder Key the town was like a miniature New England village, with twisty palm-shrouded lanes and predominantly shotgun-style wooden houses mixed in with other styles, most with the unifying gingerbread trim that formed the backbone of the Keysy conch architecture. Leah kept up a steady stream of information as they walked. There were bike rental shops and art galleries alongside little bars and restaurants that clearly catered to the tourist crowd.
“The Shark and Fin is more a local thing,” she’d said. “Morrie liked it that way. Of course, you could really beef up the business if you wanted to do a little advertising.”
“I want to keep the Shark and Fin just the way it is,” he’d reiterated. “If making a million bucks a year was all I cared about anymore, I’d have stayed in New York.”
That was as personal as the conversation had gotten.
Roman shut the books. The bar did a good business. The bills were paid up-to-date, and the staff didn’t appear to have much turnover. He didn’t want to rush into the deal, though. What if Leah left Thunder Key? He had no guarantee she’d stay on after he bought it. For now he got the sense she felt an obligation to Morrie to watch over the bar while he was trying to sell it.
No way was Roman rushing this deal.
Morrie wasn’t in a hurry, either. It was clear he was concerned about who bought the bar and what would happen afterward. In particular, he was worried about Leah. Morrie had carefully avoided giving any personal information about Leah to Roman, but the older man clearly respected and cared deeply about the woman he’d left in charge of his bar. Smart, hardworking, reliable…the list of compliments for Leah had gone on and on. And glad as he was that there had been a kind, caring person to watch over Leah when she’d needed it, it still bugged the hell out of him that it had been a stranger.
Why hadn’t Leah come to him? She’d lost her memory, yet run to Thunder Key. Why?
It drove him insane to think about it. There was a place in his heart that wanted to believe she’d come here instinctively, drawn by the happy moments they’d spent on Thunder Key together.
But she’d still blocked him out. She’d come to Thunder Key, not to Roman.
The office phone rang but he didn’t pick up. It was connected to the same line that was in the bar, and he had no reason to expect a call. Then Joey stuck his head in the door and told him the phone was for him.
He should have known.
“Hey, bud.”
“Mark.” He should have known his mother would get right on the question of what Roman was doing giving up all readily accessible means of communication and buying a bar in the Keys. And since his parents and sister had made no headway with him, she’d turned to his brother-in-law to do the job.
“So it’s true. You’re buying a bar in the Keys.”
“Yes. I’m buying a bar in the Keys,” Roman said mechanically. “Anything else I can help you with, Mark? I’m pretty busy here, actually.”
“Just checking on you. There are people who care about you, you know. And we worry.”
Yes, he knew. “I appreciate that, Mark. But you can tell everyone that I’m not ready for the straitjacket yet. I’m making an investment. That’s all. Just doing business.”
“I hope that’s all it is,” Mark said. He hesitated a beat. “Roman, those questions you were asking me the other day, about amnesia…”
Roman tensed. “What about it?”
“Why were you asking those questions?”
“I don’t have time to talk, Mark.”
“Roman, I know sometimes when people are going through the grief process, there’s a part of them that wants to look in every face and see the person they’ve lost. They never found Leah’s body and that was hard for you to deal with. But she’s dead. There’s no way she could have