ONCE THEY’D GOTTEN back in the truck, Anna felt her shoulders relax. Of course she and the twins had to interact with other people, for things like getting groceries, but she wanted to keep to themselves as much as possible. Not forever, but for now.
They cruised down the town’s main street, where clusters of people chatted outside pretty little mom-and-pop storefronts. A man with an enormous Saint Bernard–type dog stopped to greet a woman with a Chihuahua, and the two dogs sniffed each other like old friends.
Someday, maybe the twins and I can have a dog, too. And friends.
Another block down, and there were two dark-haired women, obviously mother and daughter, pushing a stroller and chatting nonstop.
She watched, and swallowed a golf-ball-sized lump in her throat. Three generations. A blessing and a safety net she’d never have. The mother Anna only dimly remembered would have loved her girls, and would have provided refuge when things got bad for them and Anna.
Sean turned, and turned again. This didn’t seem like the way back to the Sea Pine Cottages.
Alarm squeezed Anna’s chest. “Where are you taking us?”
“Right here.” He pulled up to a white clapboard church, parallel parked the truck in front of it and turned off the engine.
The girls squealed to see a small, old-fashioned playground beside the place, complete with wooden teeter-totters and a merry-go-round. They wouldn’t speak, of course, not in front of Sean, but they unbuckled their seat belts and leaned forward, tapping her arm and pointing.
A smile quirked the corner of Sean’s mouth as he watched them, and that involuntary response eased Anna’s tension. He had been awfully kind so far. She needed to remember that not every man was out to get her.
The girls tugged at her more insistently. They’d been troupers about the long days in the car, and they hadn’t been having much fun lately. And the playground was safely fenced and carpeted with thick, soft grass. “All right. You can play for a few minutes.” She opened the truck door and let them run through the gate to the play equipment.
She could watch over them easily from the parking area, so she turned toward Sean, who’d also gotten out of the truck. “Are you trying to evangelize us, bringing us to a church?”
“No. Just come inside a minute.”
She crossed her arms. “I can’t leave the girls out here alone. And I don’t want to get mixed up with church people.”
That made him study her with curiosity. “It’s not church people I want you to meet.”
“Then who?”
Instead of answering, he watched a car pull into the small parking lot beside the church. A woman who looked to be in her late twenties got out and trotted up the church’s front steps.
“We’ll be in,” Sean called to her.
The woman looked a little more closely at Anna, then gave Sean a thumbs-up. “Anytime.”
Anna narrowed her eyes at Sean. “What’s this about?”
“It’s a women’s center. For domestic violence.” He paused, and then, when she opened her mouth to protest, he said, “I saw your bruises.”
Heat rose up her neck and into her face and she crossed her arms, trying to hide them with her hands. How had she, the scruffy tomboy kickball queen, become an adult woman who let a man hit her, leaving bruises all the world could see? She tugged down her rolled-up sleeves. “That’s not your business.”
His eyes were steady on hers, holding a depth of what? Wisdom? Compassion? Something kind, anyway. “You made it my business,” he said, “when you holed up at a place I’m responsible for.”
“I’m taking care of it myself.” She said the words firmly, trying to convince herself as well as him.
“Are you?” His gray eyes were clear and steady. “Those bruises tell a different story. How do you know he hasn’t followed you here?”
“He hasn’t.” From the market, she’d texted her friend Sheila and learned that Beau had been seen back home in Montana last night. In their small community, it was easy to check on people.
Though no one had checked on her and her girls, much, during the months that Beau had constricted their lives more and more until he had them in a stranglehold. Maybe it was Western independence. People might know a little bit of your business, back home, might even ask a kindly question or two, but they didn’t persist. Nobody wanted to be nosy or interfere.
And Beau had been careful never to hit her in the face.
“Look,” Sean said, “just get some brochures and say hello.”
“No.”
He did a palms up. “If that’s how you want to live your life. I tried.” He looked away, and then focused on another man, headed up the stairs of a small apartment building down the street. “Hang on a minute. I have to talk to someone.”
She perched on a low concrete wall beside the playground. The girls ran from one piece of play equipment to the next, talking their twin language, their voices low, but excited. It was good to see them having fun.
She glanced down the street to where Sean and the other man now stood talking. The other guy was handsome, too, though in a different way than Sean, not as huge.
If she could appreciate a couple of handsome guys—at least from a distance—she must be doing better.
Was that wrong? She was still married to Beau.
Or actually, not.
Anxiety tugged at her gut, making her stomach roil and churn, but she pushed the feelings away. Instead, she focused on the Saturday-morning world around her: the sound of birds singing, of kids riding bicycles down the street, shouting. From the open window of a nearby house, she heard a squeaky sound. Someone playing a scale on a violin, badly. Probably a kid’s music lesson.
Behind her, she heard the door of the church open, and the lady they’d seen before came out. Great.
“Hey, I’m Yasmin.” She sat down on the ledge a couple of feet away from Anna and pulled a bagel out of a paper bag. “Breakfast. I like to eat it outside. Cute girls,” she added, gesturing toward the playground with the bagel.
Anna nodded, not wanting to get into a conversation where she had to reveal things about herself.
“I haven’t seen you around before. Anything I can help you with?”
“No. We’re fine.” Anna fumbled to button her shirt higher and softened her abrupt words with a smile. “He thinks we’re not,” she said, waving a hand toward Sean, “but we are.”
“Sure thing,” Yasmin said easily. “I can take off my professional hat, then. I’m not in the business of forcing people to use our services.”
“Thanks.” The complete lack of pressure in Yasmin’s voice was refreshing. She looked over at the woman in time to see her frown at Sean and the other man.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Men.” Yasmin’s voice was disgusted.
“What?” Then Anna was distracted by Hope, who’d run over to the fence and was waving to get Anna’s attention. “What’s wrong, honey?”
Hope pointed to where Hayley stood balancing on the middle of a teeter-totter, arms spread wide, tilting to make the ends clank to the ground.
“Hayley! That’s for sitting.” Anna stood and waited, and Hayley jumped off. “Why don’t you go teeter-totter with her?” she said to Hope. “You sit on the other end and go up and down. Show Hayley how.”
Hope smiled and ran toward her sister.
Pitiful that her girls had never been on a teeter-totter before. “Take it slow, Hayley, okay?” Anna called.
Hayley nodded reluctantly and raised her end of the teeter-totter so Hope could climb onto the other end. Soon they were going up and down, laughing.
Like normal kids. Her throat tightened and she looked upward to keep the tears from forming and falling. The sight of the clear blue sky reminded her to say a quick prayer of thanks.
Yasmin was watching Sean and his friend, and that made Anna curious. “So what’s the scoop on those two guys?”
Yasmin blew out a breath. “Not my circus, not my monkeys.”
“But it’s kinda my circus, since I’m staying near him and letting my girls ride in his truck.”
“You’re Sean’s friend?”
“I just met him yesterday. I wouldn’t call us friends—I’m not attached to him or anything.” But I’d like to know a little more about him.
Yasmin hesitated, then shook her head and bit her lip. “Okay, I know they’re foster brothers, but I have some reservations about that man.”
“Why? What’s the problem?”
Yasmin crossed her arms. “His name’s Tony, and he and his wife used to have terrible fights. She even pressed charges against him, although she dropped them pretty quickly.”
Indignation burned in Anna’s chest. “Why’d she drop them? Did he threaten her?”
“No, no, she’s gotten in a lot of legal trouble herself, and all her lawsuits against other people were just making her look bad, like she was spoiling for a fight.” Yasmin shrugged. “I’m usually on the woman’s side, but this time I’m just not sure.”
Anna’s heart had started thumping as the other woman talked, and now it settled into a steady, uncomfortable rhythm. She was sure, and she didn’t even know the two people involved.
“He does seem to be making changes in his life,” Yasmin continued, “but I wouldn’t necessarily put a lot of trust in him. Sean has, though—he’s given Tony all kinds of help.”
Of course he had. Men stuck together in this type of situation.
“For Sean, family is everything, I get that.” Yasmin stood. “Tony might be innocent, but then again...” She spread her hands, shrugged. “I’d better stop gossiping and get to work. Let me know if I can do anything for you, okay? It was nice to meet you.”
Anna stood, too, her hands clenching into tight fists. The twins had moved to the swings, and as she watched them dangle and twist on their tummies, kicking the dirt, she fumed inside.
She’d forgotten, for a minute, just how cautious she needed to be.
She’d accepted a ride from Sean. That smacked of dependence, something she’d vowed to avoid.
She knew, from Beau and his friends, how closely men could stick together. Beau’s friends had a disregard for women, didn’t even really think of them as people, but rather as lower beings designed to serve as cooks, sex workers and punching bags.
Even though Sean O’Dwyer had been really nice to them, she couldn’t depend on him. She needed to stand on her own two feet. Starting now.
SEAN FIST-BUMPED HIS foster brother Tony, older than he was by a couple of years but still, in some ways, trying to find his way in life. “Come look the site over whenever you want. I’ll get you a key.”
“Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this,” Tony said. “I’ll work hard. I just want to pay you back and put this behind me.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Sean was glad he could help his foster brother, who’d done so much for him when he was a hurting young teenager. “Just, you know, stay away from her.”
“Believe me, I plan to. See you later.”
As he made a quick detour to the bakery and then headed back toward the church, Sean thought about Tony. If there had been even the slightest chance that he’d beat up on his wife, Sean would never have given him a helping hand.
But Brandi, Tony’s wife, was a notorious liar. Besides, Sean knew Tony, knew his values. Tony had a few issues, but he was the type who’d pick up a spider and take it outside rather than kill it. Hitting a woman was out of the question.
Back at the church playground, Sean looked around for Anna and the girls, but they weren’t there. Had they gone inside? Or had something happened to them?
Worry hammered his chest, and he barged into the church too forcefully. Yasmin raised an eyebrow. “You done aiding and abetting?”
“Brandi dropped the charges and changed her story. Now she’s saying Tony is a wuss who can’t stand up for himself. Which isn’t true, but I know it’s not in his nature to hurt his wife.”
Yasmin sighed. “You’re probably right, but considering what I see every day here at the women’s center, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a little skeptical.”
He had no time to argue with Yasmin, to tell her that he’d have Tony’s hide if the man had laid a finger on a lady. “Did you see that woman I was with? The one with the blonde twins?”
She took her time straightening the paper clips on her desk. “What are your intentions toward that mother and her twins?”
“I don’t have any. I was just planning to give her a ride back to the cabins where she’s staying—temporarily. If you have a better offer for her, I hope you’ll make it. Seems like she could use a hand up.”
She studied him skeptically, but seemed finally to see something honest in his eyes. “They’re at Shorty’s.”
Shorty’s car repair. Okay. At least they were safe. He strode across the street and down a block in the other direction, only to find Anna filling out paperwork while the twins sat in adjoining chairs in the waiting room, avoiding the friendly townspeople’s attempts to speak to them.
In the adjacent auto bay, a couple of Shorty’s uniformed workers looked at Anna with open appreciation. Without thinking twice, Sean stepped closer to block their view.
“All right, we’ll be out tomorrow morning and do the repair right there,” Shorty was saying to Anna as she signed a paper and counted out cash.
He saw the tense line of her shoulders and guessed that the price of new tires hurt. “You might be able to get insurance to pay for it,” he suggested.
She turned toward him, her face closed down. “It’s all figured out.”
Over in the waiting area, one of the twins got up, marched to a chair across the room and sat down, crossing her arms, lower lip out in a pout.
“You ready to go?” he asked Anna.
“Shorty said he could give the twins and me a ride.”
Sean frowned, wondering why she was being so curt.
“But you’d have to wait awhile, ma’am,” Shorty said. “We’re understaffed. If he can give you a lift...”
She frowned. “No, it’s okay.”
What had happened while they’d been apart, that she didn’t want anything to do with him now? Sean skimmed back over the last half hour and realized: Yasmin. The shelter director must have said something about Tony’s supposed crime and his connection to Sean.
Which was fine. In Yasmin’s line of work, she saw the bad side of men, and it seemed like Anna had reason to share those views.
So maybe Yasmin had talked some trash about him, but he didn’t feel right leaving Anna here to deal with Shorty and his men, alone. “Come on. I’ll take you back. It’s no problem.”
“I don’t...”
A sob and the sound of ripping paper came from the waiting area, and they both looked over to see one of the twins holding a magazine away from the other, who was grabbing for it. Tears ran down both faces.
The girls had to be tired and hungry. “Your groceries are in my truck,” he said. “And their booster seats.”
She blew out a sigh. “True. Fine. Thank you.”
He held out the little bag he’d been carrying. “Okay if I give them each a cinnamon roll? Might cheer them up for the ride home.”
Her eyebrows came together as she studied him, and he could read the questions in her eyes. She was wondering what his game was, and understandably so.
He opened the bag and held it out, waving it a little. “Local specialty. We’re all addicted. I got you one, too.”
She inhaled, and her eyes widened. “Wow.”
“Sean O’Dwyer. Did you go to Jean Carol’s and forget to bring me something?” Shorty’s receptionist leaned out from behind her computer and threw up her hands. “Where is the justice around here?”
“Sorry, Maria. Next time.” He was still holding the bag out toward Anna.
“You better grab ’em while you can,” Shorty advised Anna. “People have committed larceny for Jean Carol’s rolls.”
The twins came over and pressed against Anna’s legs, watching the adult banter, wide-eyed.
Anna put a hand on each blond head. “Mr. Sean has a treat for you girls. But you can only have it if you use your good manners and don’t fight.”
They both nodded rapidly.
Anna turned to answer a question from Shorty, so Sean knelt to get down at the girls’ level. “These are the best cinnamon rolls on this side of the Mississippi River,” he said gravely. “There’s one for each of you, and one for your mom. I already ate mine.”
Timidly, they each took a roll from the bag he held out to them. The bolder one, Hayley, took a big bite. Hope nibbled at hers.
Identical expressions of childhood ecstasy appeared on their faces. Sean got a warm feeling right at the center of his chest.
Apparently, Shorty did, too, because he leaned over the counter, smiling. “Welcome to Safe Haven, little ladies,” he said.
“It’s nice to share,” Maria added in a joking voice.
Hope glanced at Hayley and then walked over, holding out the rest of her bitten cinnamon roll to Maria. Hayley quickly took a couple more bites and then did the same with her considerably smaller piece.
“Oh no, sweeties, I was kidding. But aren’t you dolls for being willing to share.” Maria looked over at Anna, who was signing paperwork. “You’ve raised up some lovely little girls.”
“Thank you.” Anna’s quick gaze at her daughters was full of motherly pride.
In the truck on the way home, the girls fell instantly asleep. Once Sean saw that, he spoke quietly to Anna. “What happened, that you didn’t want to ride with me?”
“I... Never mind,” she said, and turned to look out the window, and then her phone buzzed. She looked at it, frowned. “Hello?” she said, and then, “Yes, that’s me.”
There was a lot of talking on the other end. Anna’s fingers gripped the edge of her shirt tighter and tighter. “It was for their safety!” she said finally.
Sean kept driving, glancing over at her from time to time.
“It turns out we weren’t married, although he defrauded me into thinking so.”
Not good. Sean kept his eyes on the road.
She went on talking into the phone. “Being married to two women at once is illegal. And I don’t see how he has any claim on my children.”
Sean’s head jerked to stare at her for a split second. Bigamy? Really?
She listened some more. Frowned and glanced over at Sean. “How about if I can prove abuse?” she asked quietly.
There was a long period where Anna didn’t talk. Then: “He’s not a safe man, Mr. Rubin, and if you’ve gotten to know him at all you’d realize that. If not, I’m happy to provide physical evidence. All you need is a subpoena.” She clicked off the phone and stared out the window.
Whatever problems she had must have just gotten worse. He looked over at her, and when she brushed the back of her hand over her cheek with an angry gesture, he realized she was crying.
Oh man. Crying women turned him to mush. “Where will you go when you get your car fixed?”
She cleared her throat. “That’s the million-dollar question.”
“You know,” he said, against his better judgment, “there are worse places to be than Safe Haven. There are good people here, and Yasmin runs a decent women’s shelter. Tourist season’s heating up, so there are jobs.”
She didn’t answer, but her stillness told him she was listening.
“Look, I don’t have the right to offer you shelter at the cottages myself, but I can check with management and see if we can let you slide by for a while. Maybe in exchange for some work.”
She sniffled and blew her nose, not answering.
What was he doing? He needed to be kicking her out, not inviting her to stay.
It was the wretched tears, plus the fact that her situation mirrored what he’d gone through as a kid a little too closely for comfort. Women in trouble, especially those with kids, tugged at his heart extra hard.
He pulled up to the gate, got out and unlocked it. When he came back toward the truck, he realized that one of the twins had woken up and was talking. “Can we go to the library like that lady said, Mommy?” Sean heard her say.
Now that he’d realized she didn’t like to talk in front of people, he paid attention. Her voice sounded sweet through the open truck window, and she was perfectly articulate. No speech impediment, no vocabulary problem.
“I don’t know, honey.”
“I want to go, Mommy! I want to stay here and go to the library and play on that playground.” The voice was getting sulky now. “And have friends. And not have to stay in the house all the time. And Hope does, too.”
Sean blew out a breath, watching as Anna closed her eyes for a second, like she was gathering her strength. He wondered about her past, what she’d lived with, what the girls had lived with.
Protective urges surged inside him, but he had to be careful. He’d had the same feelings toward Gabby. He’d been so protective that, one day when she wasn’t feeling well, he’d gone back home midday to check on her.
And he’d gotten an eyeful that he dearly wished to forget.
Anna’s plight got to him, which was natural given his own history. But trusting her—trusting any woman—was a risk he wasn’t quite ready to take.
Knowing what he did about his own father, he’d made the decision early on that he wouldn’t have children himself. The bad blood he carried would stop with him. And that meant he needed to steer clear of a woman like Anna, whose very identity centered around her kids.
Because the tug he felt toward her and her girls wasn’t just the ordinary kindness you’d show any person in need. Anna and her girls touched his heart, and that was dangerous.
So he’d check with Eldora about whether she could stay on awhile, even do some work around the place, but if Eldora said yes, Sean would keep his emotional distance from Anna.
The whole thing was a confusing mess, just what he’d come out to the marshes to avoid. He got back in the truck and heard the tail end of a word. Then the twin who’d been talking clamped her mouth shut.
He frowned, concerned against his own will. The twins’ talking issue needed fixing. And he had the feeling that Miss Violet, or Yasmin, would have some good ideas about how.
When he dropped them off at Cabin Three, she told the girls to run ahead and then turned back to him. “Look, I appreciate your help with the groceries. And if you can talk to the people who own this place about my staying in exchange for work, I would be grateful.” She paused, her hand clenching on the doorjamb of the truck.
“But...” he prompted, and watched her fish for words. Even in the bright afternoon sun, her skin shone flawless—except for faint dark circles under those big green eyes. She glanced toward the cabin, gave an encouraging smile and a thumbs-up to Hope, who sat on the little porch step, watching them.
Anna was so young to have so much on her shoulders. His heart seemed to expand, wanting to reach out toward her.
“Look,” she said, “I’m going to get the girls settled and fix them some food. But there’s something—someone—I need to discuss with you before we could even consider the possibility of staying. Can we talk later today?” When he nodded, she spun and marched toward the cottage and her girls, her back very straight.
He should be glad to hear that she had reservations about staying, because he sure had his share of reservations about getting more involved with her.