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Within moments, all three had piled in.
“Thank you, sir,” the other guest babbled. Now that he was close enough for me to see his face, I remembered him as Doug. “I thought we were dead out there. The storm came out of nowhere—”
“Kendall?” Lauren demanded, her voice high and confused.
I half turned, an order for them to take a seat and shut up but was stopped by Deacon.
He charged across the small room and took me by the shoulders. A grin stretched his lips, and his eyes were so bright that it looked as if they had been lit with light from behind.
“We got them,” he said. “You did it, Kendall. That was amazing. You were amazing.”
And in front of his ex-wife, he bent and kissed me.
Lauren made a terrible gasping noise. I didn’t care. Deacon’s lips were warm against my own, and I didn’t even realize how strung out I had been with stress until it was washed away under his touch.
We broke apart. No one had ever looked at me the way Deacon did now. As if I were worth something—as if I were the center of his world.
“Oh my God,” Lauren screeched. “You’re gay?!”
Deacon stilled and we drew apart, the moment shattered in the face of reality.
“That makes so much sense,” Lauren continued before Deacon had time to reply. Then she turned to the other guest. “Doug, wasn’t I just telling you that he never loved me the way I should have been loved?”
My gaze met with Deacon’s, and I saw exasperation there, but strangely, no new emotional pain. He simply rolled his eyes.
It seemed as if Lauren’s gratefulness for being saved had been short-lived. I didn’t know why I expected anything different.
Hiding a rueful smile of my own, I turned my attention back to the boat. The wind was with us. The return trip wouldn’t take long.
* * *
The wind and rain started to abate by the time we pulled into dock at the pier. I radioed the good news ahead. Andy, Tommy, and several porters were there on hand in rain slicks to help us tie off Big Bessa and congratulate us on our success.
Andy got a grim look on his face when I reported that the sailboat was lost, and by the swift look he shot Doug and Lauren I suspected he was considering tacking the cost of the lost vessel onto their bill. Not my problem.
“You did good today,” Andy said, turning back to me. “We’ll take it from here. You should go rest.” He glanced at Deacon who was watching our conversation from a few feet away. He increased his volume. “Actually, why don’t you take the rest of the day off.”
Well, no doubt about it. Andy knew. And at this moment, I did not care. Not about my manager and most definitely not about Lauren.
“I’ll do that,” I said. “Thanks.”
As if to punctuate my words, Deacon slid an arm around my waist. I leaned into him.
We were quiet as we walked back to Deacon’s villa, soaked and exhausted. The adrenaline crash had left me strangely content.
“Thank you for your help today,” Deacon said as soon as we stepped inside. “I know Lauren will never admit it, but if it wasn’t for you, they wouldn’t have made it long enough for other rescuers… You saved both of their lives. I’ll never forget it.”
There was an odd note in his tone. “I didn’t do it for her,” I said, looking up into his eyes.
He closed the small distance between us and kissed me, fiercely.
I started to return the kiss, but something was bugging me. A thought still nagged at the back of my mind, and I had to get everything out in the open. “I know—I’m sorry if this makes me a bad person, but you were so upset when you found out Lauren was gone. Deacon, I need to know… Do you still love her?”
Deacon went silent for a moment, doing me the courtesy of thinking through his answer. “I do still care about Lauren. We shared our life together for years, and we had a lot of good times. She wasn’t always like… the way she’s acting now.” He waved his hand vaguely towards the direction of the pier. “I still don’t know what happened, and I’ll be kicking myself if I’m the one at fault for her change in behavior. Yes, I still care about her as a person and maybe as a friend.” His eyes met mine. “But I’m not in love with her. I’m starting to question now if I ever was.”
It was exactly what I had wanted, what I had needed and longed to hear. We came together again.
He kissed me softly, almost reverently. I knew he was thinking the same thing as me: I could have lost you today. We could have lost each other.
