Trusting His Promise (Love on Sanctuary Shores #5)

Chapter 13

Jo tried to keep her heart from ramping into panic-mode. She knew she should have taken the charter group out this morning, despite Dad’s protests that being cooped up at home was killing him.

“Jo, wait up.” Footsteps pounded the pavement behind her, and her heart bumped at the voice that was all-too-recognizable, but she kept walking, her eyes set on the marina a few blocks ahead.

Sam looked over her shoulder. “Mommy, Mr. Beckett wants you.”

Jo shook her head and tugged Sam ahead faster. She didn’t have time for whatever Beckett wanted.

Yes, she appreciated the way he’d swept in to rescue Sam from Henry’s bullying—though the irony of that wasn’t lost on her—and yes, she had been prouder than punch to see Sam thrive in the scene she had filmed with him. But that didn’t mean she wanted him to—

“What happened? What’s wrong?” Beckett fell in next to her, breathing heavily.

Ambulance sirens screamed into the marina, and Jo nearly choked on her own breath.

“The ambulance?” Beckett repeated her thoughts.

Though cars weren’t allowed in the town, they had an ambulance and fire trucks for emergency purposes—but they were rarely used. If they needed an ambulance for Dad—

“What happened?” Beckett repeated.

“I don’t know.” Jo was losing the battle against the panic. “Arthur called and said that Dad fell on the dock and was a little disoriented, but I didn’t think . . .”

“He’ll be okay,” Beckett said, as if he had some inside channel into what was going to happen.

“I know,” Jo snapped, though she had never been less certain about anything in her life. “You can go back to the square. We’re fine.”

Beckett didn’t answer but kept walking alongside them.

Jo hated that she was glad about that.

The ambulance was blocking their view of the pier, and Jo tried to tamp down her frustration that her daughter couldn’t move any faster.

“Hey, Sam, you want a piggyback ride?” Beckett asked.

Jo huffed a little to herself. What was it about this guy and being able to read her mind?

But when he swung Sam up onto his back, they were able to move at twice the speed, and she couldn’t help but be grateful for that.

They skirted around the ambulance, and Jo’s eyes fell on the cluster of people kneeling around a motionless form at the end of the pier.

A tiny cry escaped her lips, and she felt a small squeeze of her hand. It took her a moment to realize it had come from Beckett, not her daughter.

“Do you want me to keep Sam over here?” he asked in a low voice.

She nodded, pressing her lips together, then made herself step onto the pier.

“Is he okay?” she called in a wobbly voice when she was close enough for the gathered group to hear her.

Arthur stood, but before he could say anything, Dad called, “I told you not to bother her. She was on a field trip with Sam.”

Jo rolled her eyes and let out a shaky laugh. “That answers that.”

The crowd parted, giving Jo a glimpse of Dad, who looked gray and small as the volunteer first responders placed a brace around his neck and eased him onto a backboard.

“Is that necessary?” Jo swallowed hard. “Is he—”

“I’m fine,” Dad insisted. “I could get up and walk right now if these fellas would stop fussing.”

“I’m sure you could,” Sydney Parks soothed. “But just humor us. We’re going to get you over to Dr. Brunswick, and he’ll decide if you need to go to the Havensport Hospital.”

“I’m not going to the mainland,” Dad grumped, moaning softly as Sydney pulled a strap over him.

“You are if the doctor says so,” Jo shot back. Thankfully, the new town doctor happened to be engaged to her friend Angelica, and she trusted him implicitly. “What happened anyway?”

“Nothing I want to talk about,” Dad answered, wincing as the paramedics lifted the backboard.

Jo looked to Arthur. The retired gentleman, who spent almost as much time at the marina as Dad and Jo did, shrugged. “Looked like he was standing on the casting deck one second, and next second, he was sprawled on the pier.”

“Could it have been a heart attack?” Jo asked Sydney.

The paramedic shook her head. “I don’t think so. His heart sounds good.”

“It wasn’t a heart attack,” Dad interjected. “I got a little dizzy, that’s all.”

“I knew you were still too sick to be out on the water.” Guilt punched Jo in the stomach.

“Now don’t you go taking yourself a guilt trip,” Dad scolded with a groan. “I need you to clean the catch. I told the guys I’d have their fish cleaned by two.”

“Dad.” Jo shook her head in exasperation. “You’re on a stretcher. I’m pretty sure they’ll understand if we don’t get them done until later.”

Dad gave her the young lady look he had perfected when she was a teen.

She sighed and jumped onto the boat, dragging the cooler to the live well. She let out an appreciative whistle as she opened it to find several massive steelhead.

Quickly, she transferred the fish to the cooler, then hoisted it out of the boat and onto the pier. The paramedics had already started toward the shore with Dad, and Jo hurried to catch up, rolling her eyes as Dad tried to bribe them to let him walk to the medical center.

As they approached the end of the pier, Jo sought out Sam, her heart giving an unwelcome bump at the sight of her daughter’s hand locked in Beckett’s. Sam’s eyes were wide, but she didn’t look scared as she waved to her grandfather.

Beckett’s eyes, on the other hand, seemed to narrow in on Jo.

She turned her focus to easing the cooler from the pier to the pavement—something she’d never given much thought before.

“We prayed for you, Opa,” Sam said as the paramedics steered the stretcher past her.

“That’s my girl,” Dad called back as they loaded him into the ambulance. “You make sure your Mommy doesn’t worry, okay?”

Sam nodded gravely. “Yes, sir.”

Jo rolled her eyes, but that brought her gaze a little too close to Beckett.

“Are you going with him?” Beckett nodded to the ambulance. “I can take Sam back to her class.”

“I have to clean these fish for our clients first. Captain’s orders.”

Beckett gaped at her. “I’m sure that can wait.”

It was the same thing Jo had said, but still, it irritated her. He didn’t know the first thing about trying to keep a small business running.

“Actually, it can’t,” she said, her tone colder than the ice in the cooler. “We guarantee we’ll have our clients’ catch ready to go within an hour of the end of their charter. We’re not going to risk our reputation over—”

“Jo,” Beckett interrupted.

She snapped her mouth shut. Even she could hear how ridiculous that sounded, while her dad was being loaded into an ambulance.

“Give me the cooler.” Beckett held out his hand. “I’ll clean the fish.”

Jo tightened her grip on the handle. “I’m not so sure that would help our reputation.”

Beckett chuckled. “You know I grew up here, right?”

“That doesn’t mean you know how to fillet a fish.”

“No, but the fact that I spent every weekend fishing does.”

Jo eyed him. “I never once saw you fishing.”

He shrugged. “I fished off the dock across from our house. My dad was gone a lot, so I needed something to do.”

Something about his tone caught at Jo. Had Beckett Knox been lonely as a kid? She knew his mother had died, but she hadn’t known his dad wasn’t around much. The thought threatened to bore a tiny soft spot in Jo’s heart, but she refused to let it. His childhood wasn’t her concern.

“Come on,” Beckett wheedled. “I promise I won’t massacre them. What do you have in there?”

He bent over to open the cooler and let out the same low whistle Jo had. “Those are quite the beauties. I think I only caught a steelhead that size once.”

“You coming, Jo?” Sydney called from the back of the ambulance.

Jo bit her lip, looking from the emergency vehicle to Beckett.

“Go,” he urged. “Your fish will be in good hands.”

Reluctantly, Jo pulled the keys to the Reel Adventures building out of her pocket. “All of the equipment is inside, and there’s a cleaning station out the back door. I’ll try to be back before the clients come to pick up their catch.”

Beckett shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. You go be with your dad.”

Jo hesitated another moment, then passed the cooler and the keys to him. Their fingers brushed in the exchange, and she thought she heard him inhale but decided it must have been the wind.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“You’re welcome. And I’ll be praying for your dad.”

Jo nodded stiffly and grabbed Sam’s hand. The offer was only for show, she reminded herself.

Still, as she and Sam climbed into the ambulance, she realized—she should probably pray too.