Page 103 of Fire and Rain
“Hey.” She took his hand. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
Anya moved a chair closer to the bed. “Here you go. Just pretend we’re not here.”
“Thanks, Anya.” Sean sat, ran his thumb over the back of her hand, his gaze moving over her swollen cheek. “How do you feel?”
“My head hurts. Light bothers me, too. They said it’s a concussion.”
He glanced up at the lights. “I see you’re keeping the lights dimmed. Are they giving you anything for pain?”
“Just acetaminophen.” It wasn’t doing much. “They’re keeping me overnight because I was unconscious for a while and because I also had hypothermia.”
That had scared Sean as much as the head injury. “How’s your core temp?”
“I think it’s normal again, but I’m not giving up these heated blankets any time soon.” She drew them up to her chin.
Her sisters laughed.
Then Baba stood. “I think we should let Sean and Eden have some time alone, yeah? I’m sure they have things they want to say to each other.”
Eden’s mother stood, too. “We’ll be right downstairs if you need us.”
Then, one by one, they all hugged Sean again, Baba going last.
She patted his cheek. “I knew you were a good man. You brought my granddaughter home to her family. That makesyoufamily now.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” His response was so formal that Eden had to smile.
“You can call me Baba or Granny.” Her grandmother left the room.
Then she was alone with Sean.
“You incredible, brave woman.” Sean raised her hand to his lips, kissed it. “If you hadn’t thrown that EPIRB overboard and set off that personal locator beacon, you’d have been stuck on the boat with him until he reached Homer.”
“I didn’t throw the EPIRB into the water. Charlie did.” Eden told him everything that had happened from the moment Charlie had appeared out of the cabin until the helicopter had arrived. “When he threatened to shoot me and the helicopter disappeared into the clouds, I was afraid you’d decided to turn back. Then the helicopter reappeared at my stern, and I saw the man with the rifle leaning out. It meant so much just to know I wasn’t alone anymore.”
“I’m sorry we didn’t get there sooner.” His brow furrowed as he spoke, and she knew her time as Charlie’s hostage had been hard on him, too. “The plan was to send a cutter with an FBI hostage negotiator to rescue you when you reached Homer. When the PLB signal came in, Walcott authorized a search-and-rescue.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t wait.” Tears blurred her eyes. “Charlie kept talking about handing me over to his buddy. He said he’d seen this guy slit someone’s throat before and said he’d have him do the same to me. I was sure their plan was to kill me and take my boat. I was afraid no one would find me in time.”
Anger flashed through Sean’s eyes, but when he spoke his words were gentle. “I am so sorry, Eden. If it had been up to me, we would have followed you from the moment that EPIRB signal came in, but I’m not in command.”
“Orders, not options.”
“Exactly.”
Then Eden remembered what she’d wanted to ask him. “I must be remembering it wrong, because I thoughtyoupulled me out of the water.”
“I did.” Sean explained how Trey had badly injured his knee and wouldn’t have been able to swim. “There was no way I was going to leave you to die. We could have asked Santee to maneuver the Sea Nymph closer and try to throw you a line, but in heavy seas, you could easily have missed the rope or been injured. So, I traded places with Trey, left him on board to manage the hoist, and swam after you.”
Eden was stunned. “Oh, Sean.”
His face crumpled. “I couldn’t see you. I couldn’t see your strobe. Zeke put you in the Trakkabeam, and I just swam toward the light. I’ve never been more afraid in my life, Eden. If I’d lost you… God!”
Eden raised a hand to his cheek. “I don’t think I had much longer. Something happened, something I can’t explain. I… I saw Justin.”
Sean didn’t laugh. “You saw him?”
Eden’s throat went tight, and the tears came. “There was a light—it must have been the Trakkabeam—and then he was there. He was wearing ODUs and looked like himself. But he wasn’t wet. He looked worried. He told me I needed to wake up and stay alert. He told me that he would always love me and asked me to take care of Maverick. Then he said, ‘Be happy’ and faded away. I reached for him. Then he was gone, and you were there, right where he’d been.”
