The Beach House

by Vicky Jones

  “Oh my,” Shona managed to squeeze out between breaths.

  Chloe span around, covering her modesty. Seeing it was Shona, she relaxed and smiled back. “I thought I’d treat myself.” She looked up at the wardrobe door where the dress was hanging. “You like it?”

  “I love it. But do you have to put it on right now?” Shona walked closer, the roses hidden behind her back.

  Chloe heard the rustling of the pink paper they were wrapped in. “What’s that behind your back?”

  Shona brought out the flowers. Chloe reached forward and took the huge bunch. “For me?”

  “No, for Cooper. Of course they’re for you,” Shona joked, then swept a strand of hair out of Chloe’s bright eyes. “You like them?”

  “You know I do. They’re my favorite, but what’s the occasion?”

  “Can’t I treat my gorgeous girl without there needing to be an occasion?” Shona’s grin melted away to a more sober expression. “I wanted to say I was sorry. About everything that’s been going on lately. With Lucy? I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night, but I swear nothing happened.”

  “I know. She told me everything.”

  Shona recoiled. “She did?”

  “Yes. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for her. To let you go. I couldn’t do it.” Chloe stroked her fingertips over the soft petals of a rose.

  Placing a finger underneath Chloe’s chin, Shona lifted her face to meet her own. “I could never want anyone else other than you, Chloe. You’re my heart. You always will be, no matter what happens or who comes along.” She wrapped Chloe’s semi-naked body in her arms and kissed her. “So, about that dress? Can you try it on in a little bit?”

  “David might come in,” Chloe giggled as Shona edged her backwards in the direction of the bed.

  “He’s playing with Cooper. We’ll be fine for five minutes.”

  “Five minutes, huh?”

  “Well, maybe ten,” Shona replied with a cheeky wink as she pushed Chloe down onto the bed. She lay on top of her, feeling the warmth of Chloe’s skin on her fingertips. “I wanna make it right.”

  “I was worried when I saw Lucy.” Chloe paused and fiddled with the point of Shona’s shirt collar. “She’s so beautiful, Shona. I was worried you’d want her now, not me. My body’s changed since I had David. I’m not…”

  Shona leaned back on her elbow and stroked Chloe’s hair. “Your body is as perfect to me as it ever was.” She let her palm slide over Chloe’s naked chest and stomach, finally coming to rest on her hip. “Even more so now it’s produced the second most beautiful thing I’ve ever had in my life. Chloe, how could I ever want any other woman? I was just so surprised to see her, and after she explained what happened, I was so confused. But not about my feelings for her. It was more I was confused by thinking one thing for so many years, then finding out it wasn’t how it really happened. It threw me off, that’s all. I needed to work that out in my head.” She cupped Chloe’s cheek in her palm. “But I could never want anyone like I want you. We’re a family now and I won’t ever let anything take that away.”

  “Nothing ever will. I promise. No one, not even ghosts from the past will ever break what we’ve got here, Shona, I swear to you. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Chloe.” She lowered her lips to kiss her. “So much.”

  “Davey, are you sure you can carry that?” Shona said with a raised eyebrow as he heaved up a breakfast tray from the counter. As he did so, Chloe’s coffee cup and toast plate slid into each other. His heart in his mouth for a second while the crockery settled on the tray, David then walked with short steps out to the back porch swing where his mother was sitting enjoying the early Saturday morning sun. From inside the kitchen Shona heard an entirely predictable crash of crockery hitting the deck. Rolling her eyes, she picked up a dish cloth and headed outside.

  “Uh-oh,” David said, staring down at the shattered coffee cup and plate. Chloe looked up at Shona trying to keep a straight face.

  “Takes after you, that one,” she said before releasing a loud burst of laughter.

  “You got that right,” Shona agreed, shaking her head, then bending down to pick up the broken pieces. After she had stacked them back on the tray, she grabbed David and tickled him, then wiped his hands clean of splashed up coffee and brushed him down.

  Chloe watched her son and Shona cuddle together as Shona set about reassuring him they weren’t mad at him. “I’m so lucky to have you both,” Chloe murmured.

  “What’s that?” Shona said, looking up.

  “Oh, nothing.”

  “Come on, Cooper, let’s go play in the water,” David called out to his dog who came bounding over. The two of them ran off down the boardwalk and across to the water.

  Both Chloe and Shona watched on in admiration of their carefree playing. Then Shona’s eyes darkened. “Say, did you hear that on the radio just now? They’re marching again in protest over domestic violence. I don’t know how a march is gonna do any good in ending it. The government need to pass a law or something making it illegal. Men. Goddamn bullies.” She sucked in her cheeks. “Thinking they can go around beating up women—it’s disgusting.” Shona had continued with her tirade not noticing how quiet Chloe had become during it. “Baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to remind you…”

  “It’s fine, I know you didn’t mean it. I hardly think about it now.”

  Kneeling in front of her, Shona placed her hands on Chloe’s knees. “You’re safe now, OK? You believe me, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. So, what are we gonna do today?” Chloe replied, catching David in her arms as he ran back from the beach, Cooper closely following him, his fur soaked in ocean water. “How ‘bout a picnic? We could take the boat out, maybe? Shona?”

  “Yeah, sure, great idea. I’ll go bring it out.” Shona jumped over the rail around the veranda and landed on the sand a few feet below. As she began to walk over to the boat, they heard the doorbell ring.

  “Can you get that, sweetie? I’ll go prep the boat,” Shona called back over her shoulder. Chloe rose off the porch swing and headed through the back door into the house. David and Cooper trailed behind her playing tug-of-war with a piece of rope.

  Opening the door, Chloe froze. Her legs almost buckled underneath her.

  “I believe you have something in here that belongs to me,” the smart-suited man drawled, taking one more step up towards the door. He was six feet tall, with jet black hair and horribly familiar dark eyes. A sly grin was draped across his clean-shaven, handsome face.

  “What the hell are you doing here, Kyle?”

  Chapter 38

  Shona flipped over the little fishing boat that was stored behind the shed and brushed off the loose sand that had collected around the rudder. Picking out the shells David had collected last time they’d gone out together, she grabbed hold of the two paddles and began pushing it down across the sandy path that ran the length of the house and towards the beach. Stopping for a moment, Shona looked out to the horizon and took in a huge lungful of sea air. It was as if the ocean was calling her. Its waves were the calmest she’d seen for a long time, the morning sunbeams dancing over the surface.

  “Now, this is freedom,” Shona said to herself before continuing on to the beach with the boat. Moments later, Cooper appeared in her path, jarring her out of her tranquility by barking in a way she’d never heard him bark before.

  “What’s the matter, boy?” Shona sank to her haunches to pat him, but he quivered and began to whine. With Cooper now pulling on the hem of her white undershirt, Shona strode up to the back door and into the house where at the end of the hallway she saw Chloe standing motionless facing the front door with David clamped behind her, wriggling. “Chloe, what’s going…?” Shona’s puzzled smile dropped off her face the instant she saw who their visitor was.

  “Well, Shona Jackson, as I live and breathe,” Kyle’s smarmy voice began. “It is so good to see you looking so…healthy.”

/>   Bile began to rise in Shona’s throat at the sight of the man who had caused so much pain to the people she loved and nearly killed her. “What the fuck are you doing here, you murdering son of a bitch?”

  Kyle recoiled theatrically and tutted. “Please, Shona. Not in front of my son.” David popped his head around the back of Chloe and locked eyes with his father.

  Kyle looked down at his son and for the first time Chloe could recall, his coal-black eyes glinted with light. “Hey boy, come here. Come meet your father.”

  “No, David. Shona, can you take him? Please?” Seeing Shona’s reluctance to leave her in Kyle’s presence, Chloe continued to assert herself in front of the man who’d violated her. “I’m fine. I can do this.”

  “I’ll be in here, OK?” She led David into his bedroom, then turned back to shoot a look of pure contempt at Kyle. “Don’t you try anything or I swear I will finish you.” The door remained open but Shona had disappeared from view.

  “What are you doing here, Kyle?” Chloe asked turning back to face him, her heart thudding.

  Kyle took out a letter from his top jacket pocket. “You sent your mother this. Oh yeah, we still keep in touch,” he added after seeing Chloe’s eyebrows raise.

  “But how…?” Chloe stared at the letter in complete confusion.

  “I can’t believe someone as smart as you, Chloe, would make such a rookie error.” Kyle sniggered as he stared at her, shaking his head.

  “What?”

  “The postmark. You posted it from here, didn’t you? It wasn’t hard to track you down when it says ‘Sunnybrook, California’ on the envelope. And the way you talk about this beautiful beach house with its gorgeous white paint and blue window frames. Why, you make it sound almost unique, which it is. All the other houses along this street have green windows.” He leaned back and spread his arms out wide. “So, it was hardly a challenge, darling. I did watch this place for a few days, just to make sure I was right, before I came to visit my son.”

  Chloe couldn’t decide who she was madder at right that second, Kyle for being here or Shona for forgetting to put her letter to her mother in Elbie’s envelope.

  “I want you to go. Now,” Chloe demanded.

  Kyle took another step forward until he was standing toe-to-toe with Chloe, his six-foot frame towering over her. “No,” He snarled, curling his lip.

  She took a step back, her whole body trembling with the memory of what he’d done to her that night. “But how can they have let you out? After what you did to all those people. What you did to Cuban? What you did to Shona?”

  “Oh, you were hoping I’d get the Yellow Mama, right?”

  “If there was any justice in the world, you would have, but even an electric chair isn’t enough for you—it’s too quick,” Chloe spat back.

  Kyle laughed. “That was never gonna happen. They couldn’t convict me for half of what they charged me with. The evidence seemed to just…” He blew in his hand and waved it away. “Those cops saw sense in the end, along with the dollar signs, when my mother came to visit me. Who says money don’t talk, huh? It’s amazing how me promising to be a good boy can reduce a prison sentence. Six years, that’s all.” His tone turned darker. “But it was long enough to cause me to miss my son growing up. You had no right to take him away, Chloe. No right at all.”

  Chloe erupted in quiet anger. “You wanna talk about rights? After what you did to me? You can’t scare me anymore, Kyle. It’s a new decade now. I got rights of my own.” She set her lips and gripped the door, ready to slam it in his face. “If you don’t get off my property, I will call the police.”

  “And tell them what? The husband you said was dead is now on your doorstep asking to see his son?”

  Chloe’s face froze.

  “Oh yeah, I’ve been in town a few days now asking about you. Poor little Chloe, struggling to raise a child alone with only her sister for company. Which story was it again? I was ‘away in the war’ or I ‘was dead’.” He licked his lips as he taunted her. “Oh, I’m sure that will go down very well with the police when they find out you’ve been lying to everyone.”

  Shona burst out of David’s bedroom and went to grab Kyle’s suit lapels, but Chloe pulled her back just in time. “No. Shona, don’t. That’s exactly what he wants you to do. Kyle, get off my property now.”

  Seeing Cooper bare his teeth behind Shona and David’s wide, confused eyes, Kyle stepped backwards down the porch steps. “I’m staying at the motel on the highway. I want to see my son. I will see my son,” he said, pointing his finger at Chloe as he paced backwards towards his brand new shiny black Lincoln Continental.

  Chloe turned to Shona, her eyes red and filled with angry tears. All Shona could do was stare back, heartbroken.

  “I am so sorry, Chloe. I’ve fucked up.”

  “You promised me we would be safe here. You swore you’d keep me safe.”

  “I know. I know. Argh, I’m so, so sorry.” Seeing Shona crumble with complete desolation over what had just happened, she called David over and wrapped her arms around both of them, embracing them in an impenetrable hug.

  “We’ll fight this. He won’t win,” Chloe assured her family.

  Chapter 39

  “Hey sweetie, how was your weekend?” Bill Everett said to his daughter who’d just walked through the door with a strange expression on her face. “You OK?”

  “Yeah. I think so. Just some guy asking me to get in his car. Real sleazeball he was.”

  “Description?”

  “Black hair, grey suit. Good looking, but just a little creepy the way he was looking at me. I think it was a Lincoln Continental he was driving. A black one, with an Alabama license plate.”

  Everett smiled at her eye for detail. “You really are your daddy’s daughter alright.” He kissed her on the forehead and took the grocery bag from her. “I’ll ask the boys down at the station to keep an eye out for a new guy sniffing around town before I go back up to Portland for the week. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’s just another douchebag who thinks he’s good enough for my baby girl.”

  “Oh Dad, no man’ll ever be good enough for me,” she joked, walking over to hug him. “He was way too old for me anyway, at least forty.” She winked at her father.

  Kyle circled the Sunnybrook town square three times, eyeing up all the amenities like a tourist, before pulling into a parking spot just outside the bakery. Stepping out of his car, he breathed in a lungful of morning sea air and smiled. “I think I’m gonna like it here,” he said, straightening his tie and smoothing down his expensive suit. Sniffing, he caught the scent of freshly baked pie and headed towards the bakery, where he swaggered over to Alice who was sitting behind the counter reading a newspaper.

  “Anything interesting in there today?” Kyle asked, flashing his perfect white teeth.

  Alice looked up, her face unmoved by Kyle’s penetrating stare. “The usual,” she answered abruptly.

  “What’s a stunner like you doing wasting away behind this counter?”

  “Umm…I work here. Can I get you somethin’?”

  “Hmmm, now then, what would I like?” He leaned into her and sniffed at length. “What is it, apart from you, that smells so good in here?”

  “Pie. Pork with apple sauce today.”

  “Sounds good. I’d like one, please… And your number.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a shiny gold pen. Sliding it across the counter to Alice, he let his fingers brush against hers. Immediately, she snatched her hand away.

  “No thank you, sir.” She reached behind her and found the coldest pie she had on the shelf. Sliding it into a brown paper bag, she pushed it across the counter to Kyle, followed by his pen. “That’ll be thirty-five cents, please.”

  Kyle passed her a half dollar. “Keep the change, honey.” As he turned to leave, he looked out of the bakery window, his interest newly piqued as a thought crossed his mind. “That garage. Out of curiosity, who owns it?”

  “Oh, C
lark’s? That’s Shona’s place. Why?”

  “This town has a woman running a garage?”

  “Yeah, she’s real good. Best mechanic this town has ever seen.” Alice’s cheeks flushed with color at the mention of Shona’s name.

  Kyle sniggered. “Really? You mean people actually trust a woman to repair their cars? It’s absurd.”

  Alice glared at Kyle, who mock saluted her and left, eyeballing the garage as he stood on the sidewalk lighting up a cigarette.

  Waiting for Shona at the garage that morning was Bill Everett.

  “Hi Bill, how’s things?” Shona called out as she jumped out of her truck and rushed over to shake his hand.

  “It’s good, Shona, thank you. I got some news. I spoke to the Chief of Police last week about maybe taking up my old post again over there.” He nodded over to the police station. “He’s been unhappy with the way Lawrence has messed up this town the last few years, so he almost bit my hand off when I offered to come back.”

  “Oh, Bill, that’s the best news. We’ve missed you around here.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve missed it too. Dad died last month, so there’s really no point in me staying up in Portland now. His automobile business will be auctioned next week so, once that’s over with, I’ll be back for good doing the thing I love. I was no good at selling car parts,” he added with a wry smile.

  Shona beamed, wanting to hug him.

  “Lawrence wasn’t too happy with the decision, but he’s agreed to transfer to Sacramento when I start back. Oh, they had to offer him a pay raise and the sheriff post over there, but it gets him out of this town. Now, you got any more of those wildflowers out back still?”

  Kyle pulled up outside an elaborate red brick building just over a mile outside Sunnybrook, annoyed that he’d had to wait until two o’clock for his appointment slot. He strode down the hallway, passing room after room and staring in the windows, finally reaching the office where his meeting was to be held.