by Violet Paige
“What?” She was fired up.
“Where’s Maggie?” His voice was quiet.
Blair thought for a second. Would she be selling her friend out if she told him? Maggie’s words from their earlier conversation played back in her head. If she had experienced half of the torture Blair did in Texas, then she needed help too.
“She’s in Charleston. I’ll give you the address, but on one condition.” She peered at him.
“I think I know what you’re going to say. Bring it.”
“Don’t you hurt her, or I will be chasing your ass to Charleston and back. She doesn’t deserve to have her heart broken again.” Blair scribbled Maggie’s address down from the contact screen on her phone. “Here.” She handed it to him.
“Thanks. And I don’t know what I think about everything with Denny Zeal yet, but I need to talk to her.”
“Yes, you do.” Blair reached up and hugged him.
“What’s that for?” He looked at her puzzled.
“Because you’re going to need a whole lotta luck.” Blair giggled.
“You’re telling me.” He shoved the address in his pocket. “Hey, I know I’ve been kind of an ass, or as you called me so many times, an asshole, but could you do me a favor? Just for the night.”
“What’s that?”
“Please don’t tell Maggie I’m on my way. I need to talk to her and—”
Blair smiled. “And you’re worried if I tell her you’re on the way she might not want to see you.”
Reid looked at his feet. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“Ok, but same goes for you. Don’t tell Justyn I’m headed to the Dock House.”
Reid extended his hand and laughed. “We better shake on it.”
Blair looked at the clock on the wall. “I need to go if I’m going to catch him.”
“Aw, you’ll be fine. He’ll be there ’til closin’ time.” Reid winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth.
Blair’s smile changed quickly. “What are you saying? He stays out all night?”
She tried to keep the jealousy and suspicions out of her voice, but it was hard to forget the fan girl groupies who were always waiting for Justyn after his shows. Any one of them would be more than happy to go home with him, if he gave them the chance. A sour pit formed in her stomach.
“You’ve been gone a whole month, girl. I think you need to get down there and see for yourself.” Reid walked to the office and turned off the lights.
Blair fumbled with the doorknob and walked out, the briskness of October wrapping around her shoulders. Reid was right behind her. She looked at the rental car and thought of the twenty-minute drive to the Dock House. She wasn’t sure she could make it there; her emotions were all over the place.
Reid patted her on the shoulder before walking to his Jeep. “Enjoy the show. It was good seeing you.” He climbed in and peeled onto the road before she could pepper him with more questions about Justyn.
Dammit. I better get this over with. I didn’t come just give up Dallas for nothing. She sent the car into drive and made her way to Beaufort, to Justyn.
Three
Blair
Tuesday nights in October were a far cry from the crowded summer nights Blair was used to. She pulled into an empty parking space close to the Dock House sidewalk. Justyn’s truck wasn’t here, but Reid had told her this is where he was for the night.
This was the last place she should be. The absolute last place. She woke up this morning in hot and dusty Dallas, and now she was standing outside of the Dock House while boats rocked in their slips.
Her heel made a hollow sound as it hit the parking lot pavement. She slammed the car door behind her and inhaled, taking in this place and all the memories they had made.
The wind whipped through her hair. She hesitated. This was all wrong. She shouldn’t be here. But she had to know. She had to see him again.
She pushed open the door, her heart in her throat, her palms dewy with perspiration, her breath fevered.
Was any of it real, or was it all just a flash of summer heat?
She didn’t know whether to run into the bar screaming his name or sneak in like the spy Reid had accused her and Maggie of being. Right now, nothing made any sense.
She took a deep breath and walked through the door, opting for the less dramatic entrance choice. The lights were low and candles dotted the tables. From behind the bar, she saw the bartender leaning on her elbows, eyes fixed on the stage. Blair scanned the room, skipping over the locals who were listening to the performance. There he was, sitting on the stage, holding his guitar. She walked in as the song he was playing ended.
The handful of drinkers started clapping.
“One more before I take a break, y’all.” Justyn spoke into the mic. “This is something new I just wrote. So just indulge me for a minute. I’m bearing a little of my soul tonight.”
Blair’s throat tightened. She stepped one foot in front of the other and slid into an open seat.
“Whoooo, baby. You sing whatever you want!” one of the fan girls shouted from a nearby bar stool.
Blair shot her a death stare.
Justyn’s laugh filled the bar. “Calm down, Cora. I’ll play your song in the next set.”
Blair thought he winked at the girl. Maybe this was a mistake. A huge mistake. One note launched into the air, followed by another, then Justyn started to sing.
Summer winds in your hair
Feeling more than the salty air
I should have known when you smiled
That you were taking my heart
When you left this sleepy town
So why did you have to kiss me like that?
Girl, why did you have to kiss me like that?
With our feet in the sand
And your body in my hands
There was no way to keep from
Falling under your spell
So why did you have to kiss me like that?
Girl, why did you have to kiss me like that?
Summer rolled out like a wave
You’re gone, but I still see you in this place
So why did you have to kiss me like that?
Girl, why did you have to kiss me like that?
The small crowd erupted in applause. Justyn looped the guitar strap over his head and placed the instrument next to his stool.
Blair had no words. Her heart pounded in her chest. He had written everything she had been feeling for the past month. All of the things she tried to escape and ignore in Dallas, he had managed to capture in a song—an amazing, beautiful, heartbreaking song.
The butterflies in her stomach were now a full flock of seagulls. If she didn’t talk to him, she was going to explode.
Blair stood, ready to intercept his path at the bar. As he made his way off the stage, he shook a man’s hand and then, in an instant, Cora was next to him, handing him a beer. He squeezed her shoulder before taking a few swallows.
Blair stopped in mid-stride. Cora was planted under his arm, smiling and looking right at him. Her dark, pixie haircut was perfectly styled—too perfectly, thought Blair as she exhaled. This whole thing was a disaster. Complete disaster. Ugh! Why hadn’t Reid been a little more forthcoming with the details of Justyn’s Dock House nights? She decided then that, even if he and Maggie patched things up, she would definitely punch him the next time she saw the swimmer.
The exit to the Dock House was about twenty paces behind her. Maybe she could turn and walk out before Justyn saw her standing there like a total idiot. This didn’t have to get any worse than it already was. She reached down for her purse and slung the leather bag over her shoulder. Justyn looked content with his arm draped around the fan girl. He hadn’t noticed Blair was there. Good, he won’t even notice I’m gone.
She walked toward the door with every intention of going straight to her car. However, she couldn’t help it. As much as she wanted to walk right out the door, she needed one last look. One reminder that
he had moved on and she was the one holding on to a summer crush. One more snapshot of Justyn to remember. One more reminder that this was exactly why she had vowed way before the summer not to let anyone in her heart again. This moment needed to be preserved.
As she pivoted on her heels and looked across the bar, he saw her. Shit! Panicked and flustered, she slid through the narrow entrance and ran to her car. Oh my God, where are my keys? Blair fumbled through her oversized bag in front of the driver side door and dropped the keys on the pavement.
“Shit.” She crouched down, searching under her car for the keys.
“Blair?” Justyn walked over to where she was a shaking, nervous wreck. He dropped to the parking lot and scooped up the keys from behind the front wheel.
“Hey.” She let a nervous reply eek from her lips as she tried to stand.
Justyn hopped to his feet. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I …” None of the prepared speeches she had rehearsed on the plane or in the car seemed to fit this moment. Seeing him with Cora had changed all of that.
“I don’t even know what to say.” He stepped closer to her, causing her senses to buzz from the nearness.
“I should get going. Just popped by to say hi.” She reached for the keys that were in his fist.
Justyn scanned her eyes. “What? That’s it? I haven’t seen you in a month and you’re just out of here?”
Four
Justyn
Justyn had no idea what was going on with this girl. He thought he had seen a mirage when he looked over at the bar door and locked eyes with her. Nothing was going to stop him from running after that blonde, just in case it was Blair. He knew he had it bad. He thought he saw Blair everywhere he went. The girl he spun around in the grocery store yesterday almost clocked him. Even his cousin, Cora, had started teasing him about it. The music helped; singing about Blair helped. When those notes were in the air and he could sing about her, his heart didn’t hurt quite as much for that one song. Now here she was, rolling out of town, and she hadn’t been here five minutes.
“I shouldn’t have come. Big, big mistake.” She fiddled with the door handle, suddenly very clumsy.
Justyn reached around her and took the keys from her hand. “Say something before you leave. Have a beer with me at least?” He realized he might be begging a little, but this was crazy.
“I think you’ve got that covered.”
Justyn laughed. Once it started, he couldn’t stop. He wiped the tears that started squeezing from the corners of his eyes.
“I’m glad my humiliation is so funny to you.” Blair stood, looking disgusted as he tried to control the jolts of laughter.
“You-you’re mad, because you think I’m with Cora.”
“Aren’t you?” She sputtered the question.
“No, she’s my cousin. She’s here every week with her friends.” He stopped laughing long enough to brush a lock of her hair away from her face.
Blair’s eyes softened. “So, you’re not with someone else?”
Justyn’s hand moved along her neck and snaked its way through her hair. “No, didn’t you hear that song I wrote about you? I am not with anyone else.” He was still trying to wrap his head around her being here.
“Oh my God, I thought you were with someone, and I flew here and quit my job for nothing.”
Justyn’s wide eyes conveyed all the surprise he was feeling. “Quit your job?” She kept the surprises coming.
“Yeah, talk about it later?” She bit her lower lip.
Talking could wait. There was only thing he wanted right now, and the more he played with her hair, the harder it was to deny.
He didn’t need a second invitation. He pulled her into his arms and pressed his mouth against her. Blair wrapped her hands around his neck and moaned. Did I let her walk away? I am an idiot. She started to giggle as he picked her up, and her legs wrapped around his hips.
“I missed you.” He growled into her neck. “More than I can say in words or in a song.”
Blair leaned into his body. “Then let’s not talk. Wanna get out of here?” She bit the lower part of his ear.
“Hell yeah, I wanna go. No one needs to hear that second set. They’re getting pretty tired of hearing all your songs.” He placed Blair’s feet back on the ground and took her hand. “Come on.”
Blair looked at her car and then back to Justyn. “You want to take my car?”
“Girl, you have been gone way too long. You know the best way to travel around here is by boat.” He flashed her a smile. “We’ll get your car later. Come on.” He tugged on her hand.
Blair followed him down the boardwalk to the slip where he had tied up his boat.
“Let me untie the ropes, and I’ll shove her off. Hold on.” He held out a hand to Blair. Before she boarded, she glanced down at the side of the nameless boat they had cruised on so many times over the summer.
“Carolina Girl?” She smiled.
If it hadn’t been so dark, he knew she would have seen him blushing. “Yeah, well she needed a name. And I needed a way to remember.”
Blair settled into the bench next to Justyn’s captain’s seat. “I think it’s the perfect name.”
He tossed the ropes into the boat and started the engine. “I thought you might say that.” He leaned down and kissed her.
“Where are we going?” Blair gazed into the creek and hugged her sweater a little closer around her arms.
“You have to ask?” He laughed. “I’m taking you to the cove.”
The boat picked up speed, and the fall night encircled them as he cruised out onto the open sound.
“Don’t get me wrong, that’s pretty much all I’ve thought about since I’ve been gone, but won’t we be cold? It’s October,” Blair asked.
He leaned down and whispered over the roar of the engine, “Baby, I’ve been thinking about you for a whole month, and trust me, I have plenty of ways to keep you warm.”
He watched as the words registered. Thank God, she left Dallas. He wanted to love her and show her everything he had been too stubborn to admit over the summer. After all, it was fall now.
Five
Reid
The windshield wipers were on high, and still Reid could barely make out the road. The rain had started falling in sheets before he hit the Cooper River Bridge. Normally, he would be able to see church spires and two-hundred-year-old buildings dotting the Charleston skyline, but the downpour hindered the historic city’s visibility.
He eased the vehicle down the narrow street while he strained to listen for turn directions from his phone. He squinted to see the green signs through the rainstorm. If memory served from his short Coast Guard stint in South Carolina’s oldest port town, the narrow streets and alleys were right on top of each other.
It was going on three in the morning, and he was almost at his destination. What he was going to say when he arrived on Maggie’s doorstep, he had no clue. I just have to talk to her. That thought had been running through his head since Blair confronted him in the boathouse.
Blair wasn’t the only one who had tried to convince him Maggie wasn’t a master manipulator, but for the past month, that was all he could focus on. He wasn’t an idiot; that bubbly innocent act couldn’t possibly be for real. But for the first time since that shitty morning, he wanted to talk to her about it. He wanted answers. He needed them.
Reid rolled his neck to work out the knots six hours of nonstop driving had tied in his muscles. Over the last few weeks, he hadn’t let himself think about how Maggie’s face had fallen or how the tears streaked down her cheeks that morning. Instead, he focused on her calculated betrayal, buried himself in spreadsheets, and sanded the hell out of juniper beams.
After one blow up fight, he and Justyn had an unspoken agreement not to talk about the girls anymore and what happened. They settled into a routine of sanding by day and drinking beer by night. Reid even cut back on fishing trips to the cape. Somehow, seeing the lighthouse up clos
e always created an unwanted tightness in his chest. It was easier to stay in the boathouse and retreat occasionally to one of their watering holes.
“Turn right in four hundred feet.” Siri’s voice snapped Reid into the present moment. He turned onto the street lined with traditional Charleston-style row houses painted in assorted pastel colors. Maggie lives here; this is her street.
Glancing at the street numbers, he realized her apartment should be a couple blocks down on the left. He pulled into a parallel space across the street, and stared at what his GPS map said was her front door. How was he going to do this without scaring the hell out of her? He clutched the steering wheel. He could always wait a couple hours until daybreak. No way, man. You drove all night to get here. You gotta do this. Before he could let himself think about it any further, he hopped out of the Jeep and ran into the rain.
Reid checked the address number one last time before knocking on the door. He couldn’t see inside. Other than the streetlight, it was completely dark on the small porch. He banged on the door again and waited.
Dammit. She hadn’t answered any of the calls he made on the drive down. Maybe she wasn’t even in Charleston, or worse she was spending the night with someone else. He ran his fingers through his rain-wet hair. He hated the idea of driving back to the island without any answers, but this was a stupid idea anyway. Shoving his hand in his pocket to retrieve his keys, he turned from the door, and started down the stairs and into the heavy rainstorm.
“Reid?”
He had made it to the sidewalk before he heard her voice. The water washed down his face. “Hey.”
She stepped on to the small porch, wrapping a long, thin cardigan around her chest. “Get out of that mess.” She waved him onto the porch.