Red Tide (Siren Publishing Classic) by Tymber Dalton Page B

that it was a mistake, but John had started to pull away from her a couple of months after their marriage. Mitch thought he was a wonderful lover, and, at first, he seemed as pleased by her as she was by him.
    She blindly headed to Aripeka, seeking solace and comfort there. By the time she pulled into the marina parking lot, she managed to get herself under control. She remembered the surprise on Ed’s and her father’s faces. When she stepped off the dock and into the stern, her dad closely studied her.
    He put down the reel he’d been working on. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
    That was all it took to start her sobbing. He put his arms around her and sat her down on the stern, rocking her, trying to comfort her. Ed patted her on the shoulder and kissed her on the top of the head before walking up to the dive shop to leave them alone.
    Mitch finally got herself back under control. When she sat up, her dad offered her a clean rag to blow her nose with. He studied her face. “John?”
    Her gaze dropped to the deck.
    He sighed. “Do you want to talk about it?”
    She shook her head and looked back up at him.
    “Okay, sweetie. If and when you’re ready, you can talk to me. Promise?”
    She nodded.
    “You moving out soon?”
    She nodded again.
    He rubbed her shoulders. “I’m going to ask you this, and you better not lie to me. Did he or has he ever hit you?”
    She vigorously shook her head. “No, Daddy. Nothing like that.”
    He nodded. “That’s good. For him .” He sighed. “Are you going to tell your mother?”
    She thought about it. “She loves John. The only thing it’ll do right now is make her try to talk me into patching things up. I don’t want to do that.”
    “You’re right about that. You know you are always welcome to come back home, whenever you want and for as long as you want.” He put his arms around her and hugged her.
    She rested her head against his shoulder. “I know, Daddy. Thank you. Not right now, but maybe in a few weeks or something. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”
    Ed walked back down to the Sun Run and sat next to her. “You okay, hon?”
    She looked up into his blue eyes and saw the genuine love and concern there.
    “Yeah, I’m better, Ed. Thanks.”
    He hugged her, ruffling her hair as he let go, something he used to do when she was a kid. “I’m here for you, too.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Mitch looked out over the saw grass flats behind the house and thought of Ed’s final statement to her that day before she returned to the Tampa house. Unlike John, Ed had been there for her when he promised.
    She put her empty bowl in the sink and spied one of the pictures hanging on the wall at the end of the breakfast bar. Mitch dried her hands and walked over to it, studying it as if she’d never seen it before. It was of her and Ed, taken by her dad a couple of months before he died. She took the frame off the wall and looked at it. She held a fillet knife in her hand because she was getting ready to gut a grouper. Ed had his arm around her, hamming it up, but there was something different now, something she’d never noticed before.
    He wasn’t looking at the camera. He was looking at her, with an unmistakable expression on his face. He had a look of wistful sadness in his eyes. Mitch’s fingers traced the shape of his face as she stared at the picture.
    I’ve been through one marriage. Why would I want to repeat the same mistake?
    Eventually, she replaced the picture and tried to sort out the confused emotions in her heart. On the one hand was the almost irresistible tug to be with Ed, but then there was the caution to protect her heart.
    Pete’s barking on the porch startled her out of her thoughts and she looked out the window. Rick Singer was climbing her stairs. She opened the front door for him and Pete dashed in between his legs.
    “I’m sorry to bother you here, Mitch, but I was over this way and thought I’d stop by. Am I interrupting anything?”
    “No