Surrender My Love(15)

Shit. Her past. She had to be honest with them; otherwise she’d feel like she was abusing their trust. With her gut tangled in a knot, she knew she had to suck it up and come clean.

“Definitely,” Tempe said. “They all want beach bodies, and everyone knows that girls need their confidence to be grounded in more than just their looks. I’d love to take part. I’m not at all athletically inclined, but I’m great with kids. I could, I don’t know, talk with the girls, help organize. I would just love to be a part of it.”

“You could be the water girl,” Shannon suggested. When Tempe made a face that Leesa read as, Very funny, Shannon added, “I’m serious. Everyone loves you, Tempe. You’re great with kids and adults, so the parents would probably feel good knowing that you were part of the group, too.”

“Then it’s settled.” Tempe wrote something in the notepad. “We’ll start a Girl Power group! I’m excited.”

Oh shit. She had to nix this. She didn’t even know if she was here to stay or not. She had to push past her fear and tell them the truth, but she was scared shitless. They’d only just accepted her into their inner circle. What if this changed everything? Her eyes slipped over each of their excited faces, and she realized that even if it meant losing her new friends, she couldn’t lead them on.

“You guys are really great, and this all sounds really exciting, but I’m not even sure how long I’ll be in Peaceful Harbor.”

“Oh.” Disappointment filled Tempe’s voice.

“I have to tell you guys something.” All eyes were on her. The anticipatory silence magnified in her ears, as if it had a pulse all its own. She explained to them what had happened in Towson, and when she’d told the whole story, including the part about losing Chris, she sat back and awaited judgment.

The look on their faces was something between empathy and disbelief. Leesa held her breath, unsure if that disbelief was about her or the situation.

“He left you?” Shannon said with a heated gaze. “What a dick.”

“Yeah, he’s a definite loser,” Tempe said. “But more importantly, how are you now? Being accused of something so horrible must have made you feel awful. Especially after your boyfriend ended the relationship. And without your dad there to support you?” The sadness in her voice cut straight to Leesa’s heart.

“I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through. It was. It was worse than losing my father, because at least when he passed away, I could grieve. There’s healing in grieving, as you probably know all too well,” Leesa said to Jewel.

Jewel and Tempe both nodded in agreement.

“But with that whole mess, I couldn’t grieve for my job or the students I had to stop working with. I was too busy trying to keep my head above water.”

Shannon reached for her hand. “But you did, and you’re here now, and that’s what matters.”

“Yes, now you can start over with a new support system,” Tempe said. “Maybe moving here is the right thing to do. Your best friend is here, and I can help you get a job as a tutor with some of the kids I do therapy with.”

Leesa’s eyes dampened at her generosity. She glanced down at the marina, her eyes immediately finding Cole. Their parents must have done something right, because she’d never before met such accepting, supportive people. She looked at Jewel and felt an instant kinship from having experienced similar losses. Her future had begun feeling less bleak and lonely when she was with Cole earlier in the day, and now it seemed to bloom in the company of these amazing women.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready to jump back into tutoring again, and I have a teaching job waiting in the wings back in Baltimore,” she explained. “But thank you for offering. To be honest, I’m still watching my back, waiting for someone to call me out. I’m trying not to get too comfortable or to let my guard down.”

“Well, that’s no way to live,” Tempe said.

“What’s the worst that happens? Someone says they heard about what happened and you explain that the accusation was unfounded.” Shannon leaned back in her chair, her eyes and tone serious. “In today’s day and age, false accusations like that seem to happen way too often.”

“What happened with the boy who accused you?” Tempe asked.

Leesa shook her head. “I haven’t seen him since that last tutoring session. I wanted to go see him, because he and I are the only ones who really know what happened, but my attorney and my boss advised me not to. I worry about him a lot, though. I can’t believe that he would have done what he did if he ever thought things would go so far. He’s just not a mean-spirited kid.”

“With what you said about his parents, who knows what he faced once he made the accusation,” Tempe said. “Given what you said about him, I’m sure it’s affecting him in some way. It’s a shame that it happened at all, especially to someone as nice and caring as you.”

Leesa soaked in her compliment, but she didn’t want to wallow in what shouldn’t have happened, because there was no changing the past. There was only moving forward. And the hope of somehow building a new life. Her eyes sought Cole again and found him heading up the hill with Nate and their father. He had a shirt in his hand, and as his gaze met hers, he waved. Leesa watched as he pulled his shirt over his glistening body, covering up all those muscles that made her belly go a wonderful kind of crazy. She noticed Ace’s limp again, and her heart ached for what he must have gone through when he’d lost his military career. She wondered again about the tightness in his brow as he climbed the steep incline, and when she realized the girls were watching her, waiting for a response, she brought her attention back to the conversation.

“It is a shame, but it’s done, and I’m ready to focus on a more positive future. I’m not ready to start a Girl Power group here, because I don’t even know how long I’ll be here.” Her stomach clenched again at the thought of walking away from Cole and her new friends. “Maybe we should wait a few weeks, just to be sure?”

Tempe waved a dismissive hand. “Life is way too short to spend waiting to be sure of anything. I think we should at least talk about it. In case you stay. You’ve got us behind you.”

Cole stepped onto the patio, his eyes on Leesa. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, his hand settling on her shoulder as he said, “Hi, beautiful.”

“Hi.” She heard the breathiness of her voice and wondered if everyone else did, too.

“Looks like you’ve got Cole behind you, too,” Shannon said with an approving smile.

“She sure does.” Cole squeezed her shoulder.

Nate leaned down and kissed Jewel. “Hey, babe.”

Jewel reached up and stroked his cheek. The love between them was palpable. Then again, the love between each member of this family was evident.

“It’s nice to see all my girls together,” Ace said as Maisy came out the door and reached for his hand, pausing only to touch Cole’s back and blow a kiss to Nate.

“How’s the boat coming along?” Maisy asked.

“She’s getting there,” Ace said. “The boys got hungry.”

Maisy’s eyes moved between Cole and Leesa, and an approving smile reached her blue eyes. “Sit and chat. I’ll grab some sandwiches.”

For the next hour, they talked and laughed like old friends while the men ate lunch. By the time Leesa left, she and Tempe had made arrangements to meet Friday to discuss putting together a Girl Power group even though she wasn’t interested in doing it right away, and she and Cole, through hand-holding and stolen glances, had become impossibly closer.





Chapter Eight


WHEN COLE ARRIVED to pick up Leesa for their date, he was surprised to find her sitting on the front stoop of Tegan’s house. She rose as he approached, looking sexy as hell in a white spaghetti-strap dress and a pair of sandals.

“Hi.” He placed a hand on her hip and kissed her softly. “Everything okay?”

The bangles on her wrist slid up her arm as she pressed her hand to his chest and smiled. “Yeah, fine. I was just too nervous to wait inside.”

He lifted her hand from his chest and kissed her knuckles. “I was nervous, too. It’s been a long time since I’ve been nervous about going on a date.”

Her long lashes swept over her green eyes as he laced their fingers together. The front door swung open and Tegan joined them on the porch. The physician in him did a quick visual assessment of her gait.

“Hey, Doc. How’s it going?”

“Great, Tegan. How’s your ankle?”

She lifted her walking boot and wiggled it around. “Almost good as new, thanks to the best doctor in town and a best friend who makes me do those physical therapy exercises. You guys make a great team.”

Cole glanced at Leesa. “Thanks. I think so, too.”

Tegan shooed them off the front porch. “Go on, get out of here. Bring her back late, or not at all, please. She needs to have some fun.”

“Tegan!” Leesa laughed.

“Sorry,” Tegan said to Leesa, then mouthed, Late or not at all, to Cole.