Adrift

by Robin Wainwright

and relaxed in his arms as he rained gentle kisses on her hair and face.

  “I’d love to lay here all night with you in my arms.”

  “Then why don’t you?”

  Daniel whispered in a sweet voice, “Scuttlebutt sweetheart.”

  “Argh, “Heather groaned as she buried her face into Daniel’s chest.

  “Plus I have a breakfast date with a hot red head.”

  “Two-timer.”

  “Yep. Stay where you are, you look so relaxed and content.”

  “I’m not sure I could move, even if I wanted to.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment. You’re welcome, my lady.” Heather just smiled a relaxed and sexy smile and watched Daniel get dressed with hungry eyes.

  “Heather if you keep looking at me that way I may end up back in bed with you.” Heather giggled and patted the bed. “You, beautiful lady, are a temptress.” Daniel said as he leaned over the bed to give Heather a big kiss.

  “How do you feel about pizza?”

  Heather was thrown by the change in topic. “Pizza?”

  “Well I know we’ll both be busy tomorrow, but what if I bring over a pizza for dinner. We could relax, out of the public eye, and enjoy an evening together.”

  “That sounds wonderful.”

  “Good. Then I’ll see you tomorrow night.” Daniel gave Heather one last lingering kiss and then went out the front door locking it behind him.

  16

  Heather couldn’t believe it was possible, but the next day was even busier at Java Junction. A continuous stream of customers flowed in and out of the café, and the addition of Jennifer’s niece, Sally, was a big blessing.

  After locking the doors that night, all three of them collapsed into chairs and gave each other exhausted smiles.

  “Sally, if you’re willing to come back tomorrow I’d like to hire you on a part time, as needed, basis.”

  Sally smiled, “I’d like that.”

  “Good. I’ll get your employment papers, once I have enough energy to move that is.”

  “Tonight, let me get the coffee.” Jennifer said as she stood up and moved over to the counter. She returned with three mugs of coffee and the tip jar.

  Jennifer placed a mug in front of Sally, “Heather won’t take her share of the tips, but I hope you will.”

  “I’m not too proud,” Sally laughed. “Do you have any idea how much college costs?”

  Heather smiled and sat back to relax and watch Jennifer and Sally tally and split the money in the tip jar.

  “Nice haul,” she said.

  “Yep, we would have cut you in for a share, but…” Jennifer replied as she scooped her share of the tips into her purse.

  “No worries. You two worked for every cent.” Heather stood up and headed for the back room. “I’ll get that paperwork Sally; you can fill it out and bring it back tomorrow.”

  “Sit down and relax for a while, there’s no rush.”

  Just then, there came a knock on the door and they looked up to see Daniel standing at the door with a pizza box in hand. “Well tonight there is, you see I’ve got a date with a pizza delivery guy.”

  Daniel sat down and shared a cup of coffee with Sally and Jennifer while Heather finished her paperwork and bank deposit. Then hand in hand, Heather and Daniel headed up to her apartment.

  “I think our secret is out,” Daniel said. “Now that both Sally and Jennifer have seen us headed up to your place your reputation is shot.”

  “Then I guess I might as well enjoy the notoriety,” Heather said as she pulled him in for a passionate kiss. Daniel started to lead her back to the bedroom and she laughed.

  “Not so quick there. Don’t you know that a girl likes to be wined and dined?”

  “Well I’ve got the dined part covered, sort of,” Daniel said looking at the pizza box.

  “Then I guess I’ll handle the wined part. Have a seat at the kitchen table and I’ll go open some wine while you tell me about your meeting with Sarah.”

  “Our meeting went well, at first I think I made her head spin with too many options, but by the end of our breakfast I think she had some solid ideas about which direction she wanted this project to go. I really like her Heather. She is a little wild, very funny and a fantastic cook. Plus, we share a definite passion about the renovation of the lighthouse.”

  “Did she tell you why she feels so strongly about the lighthouse?”

  “About her mother? Yeah she did. It’s a great story and one I think your village could capitalize on. The paranormal is pretty hot right now and many tourists plan their vacations around paranormal hot spots.”

  “I’m surprised you would consider that a positive.”

  “If a paranormal angle adds to the number of tourists, and thus to the likelihood of the lighthouse getting the attention it deserves, then what could be bad about that? Plus I’ve been on a couple of ghost hunts myself.”

  Heather looked surprised.

  “I know that seems odd, but the cool thing is that when you go on a ghost hunt at a historic site you get to see and explore parts of the building that the normal tourists never see. As a history buff I loved it.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “Sarah also shared with me the belief that you and I had experienced the haunting of the lighthouse and cottage.”

  Feeling a little embarrassed, Heather smiled at Daniel. “You have to admit that some of the stuff we experienced was a little odd.”

  “But explainable,” Daniel insisted.

  “Perhaps. Did Sarah give you her lecture on just because a thing can be duplicated it doesn’t mean the original was a fake?”

  “Yep. Then she told me to look at your arm,” Daniel reached for Heather’s arm. “Let me see.”

  “The marks are pretty faded,” Heater said as she pulled up the sleeve of her shirt.

  Daniel could see some faint marks and tried gently placing his fingers over each of the bruises. “They do look somewhat like finger bruises, but whoever did it had much smaller hands than mine. You know what they say about men with big hands.”

  Heather burst out laughing, “I thought that was big shoes.”

  Daniel stuck out his foot, “Oh I have those too darlin’. You’ve been wined, and you’ve been dined. Can I sweep you off your feet?”

  “I’m pretty sure you’ve already done that.” Heather smiled. “But I would like a repeat performance.”

  Daniel reached down and pulled Heather from her chair, “Glad to oblige my lady.”

  Much later Heather slept in Daniel’s arms and dreamed. She was standing on the edge of the cliffs in a wedding gown. A priest was standing before her and she heard him say, “You and Steven have agreed to join together as husband and wife and you have pledged your faith in one another by holding this ceremony. May God bless you and your marriage from this day forward. I now pronounce you man and wife.” She turned to look into the eyes of her groom and felt affection and gratitude, but no love. Instead of kissing him, she simply smiled and said, “Thank you.”

  She woke up from her dream feeling unsettled and she rolled out of bed to get a drink of water.

  “Heather?” came Daniel’s sleepy voice.

  “It’s okay, I’m just thirsty.” In her kitchen, she looked out her window at the foggy streets. The fog gave the scene below a surreal air. She half expected a smuggler’s ghost to come stumbling out of it dragging a sack of booty.

  Warm arms slid around her waist and she jumped.

  “Whoa, girl. It’s just me.”

  “Sorry, I was just picturing pirate ghosts in the fog.”

  “Arrr, my beauty, I be keeping you safe.”

  Heather laughed and snuggled deeper into Daniel’s arms.

  “Daniel, you know I’m just here for the summer.”

  Daniel turned Heather around so that he could look into her eyes. “Heather, you know I might be here for just the summer.”

  “Don’t make fun of me.”

  “I’
m not, I just want to hold you and make love to you now and let tomorrow take care of itself.”

  “You sound like Jennifer. She said I should treat this like a summer fling.”

  “I’ve never been anyone’s summer fling before.” Daniel smiled and gave Heather a gentle kiss. “Let’s start there; we’ll be each other’s summer fling. Honey, the majority of my life is so ordered and organized that I don’t want to over think this. I just want to enjoy what we have right now and not worry about tomorrow. Can you do that?”

  “It feels like that’s all I’ve been doing.”

  “And has it turned out so badly?”

  Heather smiled up into Daniel’s eyes, “No.”

  “Then let me enjoy my summer fling one last time tonight before I head for home.”

  Heather took his hand and let him lead her back into the bedroom.

  17

  By the week’s end the café had returned to a normal customer flow, although there was a lot of buzz about when the voting would begin.

  Each night Heather pawed through all the entries and kept the ones that tickled her. She accused Daniel of writing some of the more provocative entries, which were signed with what were obviously fake names, but when she read them to him, he would just laugh and shake his head. He did take credit for Heather’s Surrender, Summer Fling, Mr. T’s Triumph, and Spicy Scuttlebutt but he denied all the others.

  She finally settled on the top five: Spicy Betty, Full Steam Ahead, Sailor’s Delight, Spicy Scuttlebutt, and The Steamroller (an homage to Mrs. Abers that had made Heather grin).

  Heather posted the names she had selected and the winners of round one. As the news spread that it was time to vote, the café was jammed once again.

  Every patron who ordered a cup of the new coffee flavor got a token to place in a jar