believing in me.”
“You have Andrew’s blood in your veins. You could no more be a traitor to your country than he could. Considering all that happened, I’m glad Holloway remained in Key West when he could have left.”
Swan sat up straight. “Wasn’t David on assignment?”
“Not the entire time. His assignment officially ended when he sent that ink in to be analyzed and we discovered it was tainted. I told him that he no longer had to stay in the Keys since by then we knew you weren’t involved and we would take over the investigation from there.”
“Then why did he stay?”
“To protect you.”
“He told you that?” she asked.
“Yes. I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. I told him he could consider his job assignment complete and go home to Texas and enjoy the remainder of his leave. But he said he wanted to hang around Key West for a while.”
Her godfather paused. “I asked him if the reason he wanted to stay was because he thought your life might be in danger. He said he felt that as long as Duggers and Jacinto didn’t know they were suspects, then no, your life wasn’t in any immediate danger. He informed me that the reason he wanted to stay was because you had come to mean a lot to him. I told him in that case how he spent the rest of his leave was his decision. And, Swan?”
She drew in a deep breath. “Yes?”
“As his commanding officer, I felt the need to remind him that although he was no longer on assignment, since the issue that had started with you was an ongoing investigation, he could not tell you anything.”
When Swan didn’t reply, her godfather asked, “You’re still there, Swan?”
“Yes, Godpop 2, I’m still here.”
“Did you not know how Holloway felt about you?”
“No. I thought I was just an assignment.”
“You were at first and I’m glad you were. Otherwise you would be in jail wrongly accused of a crime you hadn’t committed. But on the flip side, I’m also glad that when you stopped being an assignment, Holloway had the insight to stay and look out for you because he cared for you.”
Long after her telephone conversation with her godfather ended, Swan remained seated at her desk, leaning back in her chair and sitting in silence while thinking about what Candy, Jamila and her godfather had said.
Some people never got betrayed, but she had been, a lot. William, Rafe, Horacio, Rosie, Georgianna and even Jamila. No one had been who she’d thought.
She remembered David and replayed in her mind all the time she’d spent with him since that day he’d first walked into her shop.
Was anything he’d told her true? Did he really come from a huge family? Was his mother even celebrating a birthday? Did he honestly have three sisters-in-law?
One thing was for certain, both Candy and Jamila were right. David hadn’t pushed her into sleeping with him. In fact, Swan was the one who’d invited him to dinner at her place with the full intent of having sex with him.
She got up from her desk and walked over to the window. She knew from Jamila that David had left the island with his friends after that first week, after he’d completed all the questioning by naval intelligence. Was he back home in Texas? Did his parents really own a medical supply company? What parts of what he’d told her were true and what parts were fabricated for his assignment?
And why did she still love him so much it hurt...even when she didn’t want to love him? Even when she didn’t know how he felt about her? He might have told her godfather he cared for her but David hadn’t told her anything. Shouldn’t he have? But then, had she given him a chance to do so?
The answer to that flashed in her mind quickly. No, she hadn’t.
He had saved her life that night, swam across the ocean to do so, and then she’d told him she didn’t want to talk to him. And he had honored her wishes...for that one night. Then he had called her almost every single day since, and yet she had refused to take his calls.
He hadn’t called today.
Did that mean he’d given up and wouldn’t try contacting her again? Was she ready to put her heart on the line and contact him?
She wasn’t sure. But what she was certain of was that they needed to do what they hadn’t done before. They needed to get to know each other. She needed to know which parts of what he’d told her about himself were true and which were false.
She wanted to get to know the real David Holloway.
Then what?
Hadn’t she convinced herself she wanted no part of a man in the military? And what about her decision to never to get seriously involved in an interracial relationship like her parents had? Why did all of that no longer matter to her when she thought about her and David deciding to have a future together?
Maybe that’s how love worked. It made you see the possible instead of the impossible. It made you want things you told yourself were not good for you because you were afraid to reach beyond your comfort zone.
Taking a deep a cleansing breath, she decided to call David tonight before going to bed. She had no idea what she would say to him but the words would come.
She doubted he would want to come back to the Keys anytime soon, so she would let him know she would come to him if he still wanted to talk. She would see what he said before asking Jamila if she could take care of the shop while Swan was gone. David might very well tell her that it was too late, that they had nothing to talk about. But there was a chance he would embrace her words. Embrace her.
Her mood suddenly lightened, knowing that was a possibility.
* * *
Flipper entered the hotel room and tossed his luggage on the bed. Different hotel but same city. He had given Swan two weeks and now he was back. They needed to talk and clear up some things. She hadn’t accepted his calls, but now he was here and he wouldn’t be ignored.
He shook his head when his cell phone rang. “Yes, Coop?”
“Have you seen her yet?”
“No, I just got here. In fact, I walked into my hotel room less than five minutes ago.”
“Okay. And there’s another reason I called. Bristol is pregnant.”
“Wow, man. Congratulations. I didn’t know you guys were trying.”
Coop laughed. “We’re always trying. But seriously, we figured it was time Laramie had a playmate.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“I hope things work out with you and Swan, Flipper.”
“I hope so, too.”
“And do me a favor.”
“What?”
