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Rising from the sea floor not ten feet away were a dozen or so sea pens, their feathery bright orange fronds waving gently in the current like so many dyed ostrich plumes. He knew what they were from the book of underwater sea life Brianna had given him last Christmas, but he’d never thought he’d see such an amazing sight with his own eyes.
He swam over to them. After a few minutes of intense observation, he reached out to the delicate curling tentacles. At his touch, water squirted from the central stalk and the colony of animals that made up the pen deflated and sank into the sand. Surprised, Daniel kicked backward.
And bumped into Evan, coming to find him. Evan saw the sea pens and his mouth curved in an appreciative smile around his regulator. For a moment they were united by a common interest. For a moment Daniel forgot his antipathy. Then he remembered. That mouth that smiled in camaraderie had kissed Chloe, the hand that motioned him to “come on” had touched his wife intimately, the eyes that met his had looked upon her naked body.
He and Evan might be dive buddies, but they were about as far from being friends as two men could get.
“Close your eyes.” Daniel held Chloe by the hand and led her up the steps. Piles of offcuts and concrete rubble lay here and there, and the yard was bare dirt, but their new home was ready to move into.
“I’ve walked every inch of this house at every stage of construction,” Chloe said, with a little laugh over his excitement. “I’ve picked out tiles and carpets and paint colors. Why close my eyes now?”
“Just do it,” Daniel urged, turning a key in the lock. This was his moment and he wanted it to be perfect.
Chloe closed her eyes, then immediately opened them. “What about Brianna? We can’t leave her in the car.”
“She’s fast asleep,” Daniel reminded her. “The car’s parked in front of the garage, with the U-Haul truck right behind. She’ll be all right for a minute. Now close your eyes.”
Chloe obeyed. A moment later she let out a whoop as Daniel scooped her into his arms. “Keep them shut,” he warned, nudging the door open with his hip and carrying her across the threshold.
Chloe clung to his neck, shrieking a bit with every unexpected lurch. She felt like a wisp of nothing in his arms even though he’d seen the muscles in her thighs as she balanced on her toes. It was easy to forget how much strength was needed for her dancing.
The first time he’d seen her glide across a stage she’d reminded him of a sleek sea bird skimming over the waves. He’d wanted to shelter her, so he’d built a nest for her and their chick, combining those elements that held meaning for him—sky and sea, a cozy haven, a dwelling place for love.
Chloe would cringe with embarrassment if Daniel were to reveal his clumsy poetic thoughts. So he simply walked into the great room and stood with his back to the wide, tall windows high above the Strait of Juan de Fuca. He wanted her first sight to be the family room and kitchen, the heart of the house. “You can open your eyes now.”
Chloe slid out of his arms and gazed silently at the gleaming appliances and terra-cotta tiles, the warm Mediterranean colors. She turned slowly in a circle, past the breathtaking view, the built-in teak shelving and the stone fireplace, and back to Daniel. Solemn and silent, she seemed about to cry. “You did this.”
“Not all by myself.” There was an enormous lump in his throat. “Do you like it?”
“Oh, Daniel, it’s beautiful.” She put her arms around him, her words muffled by his shirt. “I knew what it was going to look like, but until now it was almost unreal—as if someone else was going to live here. I can’t believe it’s ours. You are amazing.”
Daniel held her, then reluctantly eased himself away. “I’ll go check on Brianna. You look around some more.”
“Wait.” Chloe slid a hand up his chest and curled her fingers around his neck. Balancing on her toes, she rose up to kiss him.
Her mouth opened and her tongue shyly pressed against his, flooding him with heat. Daniel gathered her close, hiding his rush of surprise by deepening the kiss. Chloe so rarely initiated anything. With one hand cupping her buttocks, Daniel gently molded one small, firm breast. To his surprise, she didn’t pull away as she so often had before, but instead reached for his belt buckle.
He glanced over his shoulder. The front door was open so they could hear Brianna if she cried out but…The front door was open.
Anyone could walk in, and the thought excited him.
“Don’t worry.” She was breathing heavily as she slid his zipper down over his bulging erection. “This won’t take long.”
“I don’t have a condom on me.”
Chloe grinned up at him. “We’re married, aren’t we?”
A jolt of pure joy shot through Daniel. He slid his hands beneath her denim skirt and eased down her panties. She was slick and hot beneath his probing fingers. Down onto the brand-new carpet they fell in a tangled heap, Daniel’s jeans halfway down his legs and Chloe’s skirt up around her waist. A button popped open on her blouse, exposing a swelling curve of flesh. Daniel sucked on the rosy nipple and felt Chloe’s legs spread beneath him. The submissive gesture, the giving way, the welcoming, flipped a switch in his brain and all the months of control slipped away as he entered her.
“Sorry,” he panted, withdrawing instantly. “Too hard?”
“Harder,” she said, teeth gritted, back arching.
Their coupling was short and fierce and sweet beyond measure. Afterward Daniel raised himself onto his elbows, taking his weight off her glistening body. Her eyes were closed, her smile dreamy with contentment. “So,” he said. “A new house is a big turn-on for you.”
Chloe tilted her head back and laughed, her slender throat vibrating. “It’s you, you big, sweaty lug. You’re the turn-on.”
Grinning, Daniel stuck his nose into an armpit. “That good? Maybe I should bottle it.”
Then her eyes opened, and Daniel was surprised to see them mist over as her laughter faded and was replaced with a tremulous smile. “Thank you, Daniel,” she whispered. “You’ve made us a family.”
“Brianna made us a family,” he replied gruffly.
Chloe ran her hands over his shoulders and down his arms, tracing the hard outlines of his biceps. “You are the bricks and mortar, the solid foundation of our lives. I really love you.”
The way she said it, she could have meant she loved him as a friend. Foolish or not, however, Daniel chose to interpret her words in the most positive way. He dipped his head to kiss her lightly on the lips. “Now that’s something to build upon.”
Daniel went out to the car and brought Brianna inside. The one-year-old rubbed her eyes and blinked sleepily at the unfamiliar surroundings. “She was just waking. If you want to take her, I’ll start bringing in our boxes.”
“Let’s look through the house together first,” Chloe said. “Decide where we want to put everything.”
“That’ll be an easy decision,” Daniel replied. “Since we don’t have much.”
The design of their house was elegant in its simplicity, and above all, it was functional. All the rooms were large and spacious. Their bedroom, like the living room, faced the ocean and had its own deck. Directly across the hall was Brianna’s room, then the bathroom and linen closet, and then a much larger room. Daniel had called it a rec room during construction, but now its true purpose was revealed.
Chloe stopped short in the doorway to survey the bare floorboards. “Where’s the carpet?” Then she noticed the barre and the wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling mirror.
He waited, hands clenched, for her reaction. Why the hell hadn’t he discussed it with her first? He’d wanted to surprise her, that’s why.
Those mirrors had cost a fortune, but damn it, he wanted to give her this. He wanted her not to regret giving up her dancing along with her lover when she’d married him.
Brianna was wriggling in his arms, so Daniel set her on the floor. She toddled into the room, saw herself in the mirror and giggled with delight. With graceful steps, Chloe took the little girl’s hands and twirled her in a pirouette. She glanced over her shoulder at Daniel, her face alight. “This is wonderful. Thank you.”
Daniel felt the tension seep from his shoulders and he leaned against the doorjamb, watching his girls spin and twirl. Winning Chloe’s smile made the extra work and expense worthwhile. “I thought you could teach here, until you’re ready to rejoin the ballet company.”
Chloe’s steps slowed, and she surveyed the room as she examined the possibilities in her mind. “There aren’t many children around here, but Sooke isn’t so far away. Teaching might be just the thing.” Then she crossed the floor, to tug on his hands. “Come on, dance with us.”
“I’m no good at that stuff.” He loved the way Chloe celebrated life through her love of movement, but next to her he was big and clumsy.
“Yes, you are. Come on,” she urged, twirling under his arm. Her clear, sweet voice lilted in a wordless melody as she encouraged him to sidestep across the room.
Daniel felt like an idiot clunking around in his heavy boots, but Chloe’s smile was contagious and after a moment he laughed and gave in, hamming it up when Brianna started to clap. A rush of happiness caught him off guard. His wife had made love to him and his baby daughter adored him. Life was good. He picked up Chloe and Brianna in his arms and spun around until they were all dizzy and laughing.
Finally Chloe, gasping for breath, pounded on his shoulders. “Put me down.”
Daniel stopped spinning and set them down, still smiling. “Guess we’d better get to work.”
Within a couple of hours, they’d carried in the few pieces of furniture they owned—a brand-new bed with matching side tables, Brianna’s crib and chest of drawers, Daniel’s tallboy and a bookcase he’d had before they’d married, a couch and matching chair upholstered in maroon corduroy and a pine coffee table they’d bought at an auction. The only good piece of furniture they owned was a round oak dining table that Chloe’s parents had given them as a wedding present.
“Our furniture looks a bit shabby now that it’s in our new house,” Daniel said when they’d arranged the pieces. “And sparse.”
“It’s fine,” Chloe insisted, tucking her hand through his arm. “We’ll have more as we go along.”
Daniel covered her small hand with his larger one. In the year and a half that had passed since they’d gotten married, this was the first time she’d talked about the future with any sense of permanency.
“What’s important is that it’s a new beginning,” Daniel said, almost to himself.
Eyes shining, Chloe turned to face him and took both his hands in hers. “Yes. A new beginning.” Then her face dimmed a little and she bit her lip. “Daniel, I should tell you, I’ve been doing something I shouldn’t. You see…”
“Don’t.” He squeezed her hands, not wanting to hear the words spoken aloud. “You don’t need to say anything.” He hadn’t found any new letters in several months and he’d assumed that she’d finally gotten over the Australian doctor. He might have known for sure if he’d actually read the correspondence, but he’d refused to invade her privacy.
Her forehead creased in a worried frown. “But…”
He searched her face. “You meant it when you agreed this is a new beginning, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” She gazed back steadily and an understanding passed silently between them. With a tentative smile she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek to his chest. “I swear I’ll be a good wife to you.”
Daniel stroked her hair, savoring the closeness. “Don’t be silly. You already are. Do you want to take a walk on the beach?”
Chloe’s glance shifted to the window and the bright blue sky. She hesitated and then she said, “Not right now. I’d like to unpack some of those boxes, and Brianna’s going to need something to eat soon. You go.”
Daniel followed the path he’d cleared on previous walks through the salal bushes down to the small beach. The coastline curved outward in either direction to a rocky point where waves surged and foamed. Here in the center of the cove, the water was calm. A breeze ruffled his hair and brought the tang of salt and seaweed close. Brianna would learn to swim here, the way he’d learned to swim on the west coast of the island near Tofino where he’d grown up. The water was cold, but that just made a person strong.
He walked along the shoreline, his boots crunching in the loose shells and gravel, stooping now and then to pick up an abalone shell and admire its opalescent inner surface. A crow flew overhead, cawing, and settled with a noisy flap of black wings high in a fir tree at the edge of the beach.
As Daniel rubbed a smooth stone between his fingers, thoughts of Chloe flitted through his mind. The sweetness of her smile, her eagerness as she surged beneath him, her passionate feelings for their new house. Just when he thought he was beginning to understand her, she surprised him. It would probably always be that way with them. The fact that she was his wife at all was still astonishing.
Daniel stopped and looked up at the house and felt his heart fill with pride and hope for the future. This was their home. His and Chloe’s and Brianna’s. Someday there would be more children.
He frowned and blinked. Was that a wisp of smoke coming from the fireplace chimney? Daniel stared hard for another minute, then shook his head. The sky was perfectly clear. He must have been imagining things.
Pocketing the abalone shell to show Chloe and Brianna, he headed back to the house.
Humming the celebrated pas de deux from Swan Lake, Chloe twirled across the kitchen floor between the fridge and Brianna’s high chair, setting a small tub of yogurt on the tray with a flourish. Brianna rewarded her performance with a giggle and a clap of her sticky fingers.
“You like that?” Chloe said to her. “You should have seen me dance the solo.” She mimed the dying swan princess, folding her crumpled wings and slithering to the floor where she rested motionless, collapsed. Brianna leaned over the side of her high chair, watching intently to see if her mother would rise again.
Chloe lifted her head and Brianna smiled.
“Ah, Brianna, if only…” Chloe slowly rose to her feet. If only what? Her audience wasn’t a fourteen-month-old child? Her life hadn’t telescoped from opening nights and nationwide appearances to diapers and vacuuming? She loved Brianna and adored the house and Daniel was an angel, but there was no point in denying that her life lacked excitement.
It had been two long months since they’d moved in. Daniel reveled in the wildness and solitude of the ocean and the forest, but Chloe missed people—especially during the work week when her friends were all busy in the city. She still missed walking out of her apartment and strolling down the street to the corner café or going out to a concert in the evening.
She was foraging through the sparse pickings in the fridge for her own lunch when the doorbell rang.
“Who could that be?” She tugged on her tank top to smooth it down and pushed back the wisps that straggled from the twist of hair at the back of her head. Her mother and father always called before they visited, and besides they only came on Sundays.
Chloe hurried down the hall to open the front door. “Oh, my God,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Chapter 4
Evan presented her with a dozen red roses wrapped in gold paper and gave her his trademark brilliant smile. “Is that any way to greet your long-lost love?”
She cradled the blooming flowers in the crook of her arm. Primly, she said, “You’re not my love now.”
He laughed and kissed her quickly on the mouth. A whiff of his aftershave, leather and sandalwood, caught her unaware and transported her back to the past. To a brief but intense history of tumbled beds and Sunday brunch in fine hotels, to violin concertos and kisses in the rain.
Flustered, she backed away. “I’d better put these in water.” Seeing Evan sling his canvas-and-leather satchel down inside the door, she added in alarm, “You can’t stay here.”
“I know that.” His lighthearted Aussie drawl always made it sound to Chloe as if he were on the verge of laughter. “Your lumberjack would chop me up for kindling.”
“Don’t call him that,” Chloe said. “Daniel’s a good man.”
Her heart beating rapidly, she walked briskly back to the kitchen. She could feel Evan’s gaze on her bare legs and his powerful presence in her house. Daniel’s house. Dropping the bouquet in the sink, she faced him. “Didn’t you get my last letter?”
Evan’s light blue eyes burned into hers. “The one where you told me not to write anymore?” A sound from the high chair made him glance past her shoulder. His deeply tanned skin paled. “Is this your daughter?”
“Brianna.” Chloe found a tall, square vase in the cupboard and filled it with water. “She’s—”
“Fourteen months old last week,” Evan said. Chloe stepped aside and he walked toward the little girl who was smearing strawberry yogurt around her tray. “G’day, Brianna,” he said softly. “How’s it going?”
Brianna lifted a round trusting face and displayed her yogurt-covered fingers for his inspection. Evan studied her intently, then turned to Chloe. “She looks just like you.” He paused. “I can’t see anything of me or Daniel in her.”
Chloe busied herself arranging the roses. “Naturally, she’s like Daniel.”
“So you’ve had a DNA test?”
He sounded disappointed. Did he really wish Brianna was his? Fear clutched at Chloe. What if he contested the issue of paternity and sued for custody? Daniel would be devastated and Brianna would be traumatized. “Y-yes, yes, we have,” she faltered, not looking at him. “She’s definitely Daniel’s child.”
Evan tipped up her chin and searched her face. “Liar.”
Chloe blushed and pulled away. “All right, we haven’t, but this is her home and Daniel is her father.”
“Do you really imagine I’d try to take her away from a stable, secure family?” Evan shook his head. “What would I do with a toddler, anyway? A refugee camp is no place for a child. At least not for fortunate kids like Brianna who have a home.”
“Have you finished your stint in Sudan?” Chloe rinsed a cloth in warm water and wiped Brianna’s hands. Relief flooded through her. He wasn’t going to upset the fragile balance she’d finally achieved in her life, in her marriage. Anyway, she wouldn’t let him. “I thought you were there for two years.”
“They let me off a month early for good behavior.” Chloe’s eyebrows rose and he admitted the truth. “I got a recurrence of malaria, a bad bout. I went to Paris to recuperate but the City of Lights isn’t much fun when you’re sick and on your own. So then I decided to head home, stopping on my way to visit my brother in Victoria.”
“How is Jack?” she said.
“I haven’t seen him yet. I came here straight from the airport.” Evan moved closer and stroked his knuckles lightly down her arm. “Did you really not want my letters? Or did the lumberjack force you to put me off?”
“Don’t call him that!” Chloe shivered at Evan’s touch. Unsettled, she slipped sideways out of his reach. “Daniel doesn’t even know about our correspondence. I made the decision to stop writing myself. In fact, I burned all your letters the day we moved here.”
He winced. “That was cruel.”
“You know we can’t continue to have a relationship.” She wrapped her arms around her waist, anchoring her fingers in the waistband of her skirt. “How did you find me at this address?”
“Your husband runs a business out of his house and he’s listed in the Yellow Pages. It didn’t require Sherlock Holmes to track you down.” He glanced around at the warm maple cabinets and the granite countertop. “It’s nice. Daniel’s a good builder, I’ll give him that.”
“I was just going to have some lunch,” she said, softening her tone a little. She went to the cupboard and took out a can of tuna. “Will you join me?”
“Yes, but put away the canned fish.” He brought his satchel into the kitchen and proceeded to pull out a portable feast. “Remember how we used to talk about going to Paris?” he asked Chloe, placing a luscious circle of brie and shrink-wrapped pâté on the counter. “Since we didn’t get there together, I’m bringing Paris to you. Pain de campagne,” he went on, handing her a heavy round loaf. “Olives. Italian, not French, but still…Dried muscatel grapes and—” with a flourish he produced a foil-capped bottle “—real Champagne.”
Chloe burst into delighted laughter. “Evan, you are the limit! But this is just what I needed today.” She got Brianna out of her high chair and set her on the floor with some toys. Then she cleared the newspapers and flyers off the dining table. She started to bring out the everyday plates, then changed her mind and got a stool to reach into the top cupboard for the set of good china her grandmother had given her as a wedding present. Real champagne all the way from France deserved crystal flutes.
“Do you have an ice bucket for the wine?” Evan asked.
“I have a plastic bucket in the laundry room.”
For some reason this struck them both as hilarious. Suddenly a party atmosphere had taken over, as they unwrapped the food and poured the wine together. Conversation and laughter bubbled along with the champagne. Chloe ate ravenously and drank with abandon, as if this might be her last meal. She hadn’t felt so alive in months. Maybe not since Evan left, a tiny voice whispered. She brushed the thought aside and let him refill her champagne glass. His tales of adventure ranged from Sudan to Istanbul to the glittering restaurants and theaters of Paris.
Chloe took in his chiseled features and golden hair. His thin V-necked cashmere sweater looked sophisticated and sexy over designer blue jeans. She watched his long fingers restlessly toy with the cutlery. Fingers that had brought her unparalleled pleasure had also saved lives and comforted the sick.
“What was it like in the refugee camp?” she asked. “It must have been awful.”
Shadows filled his eyes, hinting at never-to-be-forgotten scenes of horror. “It’s like nothing you can imagine. Hell on earth. Patients arrive in a continuous stream, and the suffering is beyond imagining—limbs hacked off, women raped almost to the point of death, mutilated children, disease, starvation…We do what we can, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, but there’s no respite.
“Horrible as that is, I could cope with it. But it’s what I couldn’t do that tormented me, the hundreds of people I had to turn away because the clinic simply didn’t have the resources to treat them all.” He tilted his glass to his lips, but he’d already drained it dry. “Have you got anything else to drink?”
“I’ll go see.” Chloe got up, staggered a little and laughed. “I’m not used to drinking in the afternoon.” She wagged her finger at him. “You’re a bad influence.”
“Good,” he replied with a wicked grin. “You look as though you could use shaking up.”
“I do not!” she said hotly. “I have a great life. A wonderful husband and a beautiful child.”
Suddenly remembering Brianna, she glanced around the room in a panic. Her heart flooded with relief. The baby was playing quietly with her activity center. Feeling her mother’s gaze on her, Brianna looked over and raised her arms to be picked up.
“There you are, pumpkin,” Chloe cooed, gathering her into her arms. “You’re being such a good girl.”
“Unlike her mother?” Evan drawled.
Chloe ignored that and went to the fridge with Brianna still in her arms. “There’s some Chateau Cardboard,” she said, eyeing a box of white wine wedged between the milk and the orange juice.
“Oh, my, you have come down in the world,” Evan teased. “I suppose it’s better than nothing.”
Chloe felt her cheeks flush. “Or there’s Glenlivet.”
“That sounds better,” Evan said. “A couple fingers of scotch ought to cure what ails me.”
Chloe got down the bottle of expensive whiskey with a feeling of misgiving. This was Daniel’s one luxury: he allowed himself a single drink before dinner on the weekends. Still, she couldn’t let Evan think her marriage had dragged her down—although by comparison to his life her surroundings must seem boring and hopelessly provincial.