Leave it for the Rain: A Love She Couldn't Remember—A Woman He Couldn't Forget (Grayson Brothers Book 6) Read Free

minute Adam said nothing. He simply let his gaze take in the tavern that had become a second home to him in the absence of everything he’d left behind in Fredonia. His friends met nightly in this two-story building of worn pine floors and high tin plated ceilings. They shared stories and secrets and sometimes just solitude. They played cards and billiards at the farthest end of the large room, each game approached with the same gusto the men gave to their work in the sawmill and to building ships.
    Around him, men lounged at low wooden tables, leaning their chairs back on two legs until Hiram slapped them across the head with his bar towel. Tonight it was Walter who got smacked.
    “You break my chair, you buy it, mister,” Hiram warned.
    Adam exchanged a grin with Leo. “How many times have we heard him say that?”
    “At least ten times a night every night I’ve been here.” Leo planted his elbow on the table and leaned in to be heard over the piano. “You sure you’re all right?”
    That Adam’s jangled nerves were so apparent was disturbing, but something had happened in those final minutes underwater that he couldn’t seem to shake. Rather than try to slough it off, he told Leo the truth. “I didn’t think I was going to make it.” He told Leo about his struggle, about his fear of failing the boy, about the temptation of letting the ocean rock him into death. Adam shook his head. “I thought I wouldn’t save the boy... that I’d break Rebecca’s heart.”
    Leo gripped Adam’s forearm. “Well, you did save him and you’ll be going home to Rebecca tomorrow just like you promised you would. And for the record, Adam, I was about to jump in after you, and would have if I hadn’t spotted your fist punching up between the timber. You wouldn’t have been alone for long because I’d have fought a shark or a hurricane to find you.”
    Adam didn’t doubt Leo for a second “That explains why your boots were tumbling around the bottom of the skiff. It seemed odd at the time, but my brain was filled with seaweed and I couldn’t think clearly until after I’d warmed up and drained the ocean out of my ears.”
    Leo grinned and sat back in his chair. “I was about to shuck my dungarees and jump in when I saw you surface.” He shook his head. “Hard to believe you’re going home tomorrow. Sure won’t be the same without you here.”
    Adam nodded. “I’ll miss this place, and even your nightly harassment.”
    Leo tugged off his hat. His hair—three inches below his collar and as dark and straight as the native Penobscots that worked for the mill as river drivers—swung freely across his shoulders. He slanted a wry grin at Adam. “You sure want to give all this up for a woman ?”
    “I would give up everything for Rebecca, and you know it.”
    Leo sobered, his dark eyes filled with understanding. “She’s worth it,” he said, “but I’ll miss having you around every day.”
    Adam would miss Leo’s daily heckling and friendship. He and Leo had grown up together in Fredonia. Both of them had found their way out of hard times into loving families, and later into an apprenticeship at Crane and Grayson that any man would envy. If not for Leo’s friendship, Adam’s time away from Rebecca would have been unbearable.
    He emptied his mug. “We should go.”
    “Agreed,” Leo said. “Elias Crane is expecting us at seven o’clock.”
    Adam met his eyes. “He’s expecting us?”
    “Yes sir. While you were draining your ears, Elias sent a man to request our presence at their home this evening.”
    Adam’s stomach rolled. “Is Micah... did the kid... ?” He couldn’t even say the word.
    Leo got to his feet. “His man didn’t know, but I sure can’t wait any longer to find out.”
    o0o
    Adam and Leo followed the right fork of the river to Elias Crane’s mansion. The Crane River began high in the mountains, cut its way across the land, and split into two smaller rivers—the Doe and the