Gage, Ronna - The Search is Over (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Ronna Gage

  For two weeks, he took the position on the chair, drank coffee, ate breakfast, and waited for her to come out. When his curiosity got the better of him, he decided to take some action and started making inquiries about her. The amateur investigation skills paid off, and the small trailer community did have a lot of information. On the two drunken nights he spent with the park’s landlord, he’d learned her name was Candice Patterson, but she called herself Candi. Not Candy with a Y but with an I.

  “Pour some sugar on me,” he mimicked, as the words of the song blared from the stereo. Twenty-two years old, a high school graduate from a small town in west Texas, she attended medical assistant classes at the community college during the day. She worked nights as a bartender and waitress at a small bar on the south side of San Antonio to earn money before she went to the university for her Physician’s Assistant accreditation.

  Unfortunately, there was a boyfriend—a Marine. Lucky bastard! They lived in the trailer next to his with another couple, who, as it turned out, was the Marine’s father and girlfriend. He gained all this knowledge and for some unknown reason he’d never approached her. Why?

  Why indeed? She wasn’t anything like the women he had dated before—blonde bombshells, exotic brunettes, and that one stacked redhead. Candi was average. Her tanned legs ran all the way up to a pert, heart-shaped ass that he longed to fondle. Her hips tapered up to a small waist, and her breasts appealed to him. She wasn’t flat by any means. She had small breasts. Well, experience tells me that anything over a mouthful is a waste. He liked to fit the whole of a woman’s breast in his hands and taste her salty flesh on his tongue. His throbbing erection strained against the fly of his denim shorts. He realized that concentrating on her face was less painful than on her assets.

  She is definitely easy on the eyes, but as the song went, would she be hard on the heart? Candi, you are definitely cute, no doubt about it. You have an angelic smile, and after overhearing you last night, a voice of one, too. Her soulful song immediately caught his attention. It sounded as lonely as he felt, and it struck a chord. The lyrics were packed with her emotions. The slow and bluesy song whispered to his soul, telling him she did have something special. He’d fallen in love with her singing voice almost instantly.

  Thinking about the incident, he came to one reason for her sudden silence. She’s probably shy when it comes to her singing. I don’t know why. The moment her roommate told her she had a phone call, Candi stammered to silence, shutting off the melodic and heartfelt words. Kneeling on the bed, he caught a glimpse of her as she walked into the house to answer the phone. Her head lowered when she passed her roommate. To his surprise, she didn’t stay in the house to take her phone call, but came back outside. He enjoyed the carefree way she reclined against the step, dangling her flip-flop from her tiny foot. She burst out into laughter at something the caller said. The sound was so infectious he couldn’t help but smile.

  “Asshole. You’ll go prison if you don’t stop watching her.” The criminal act of invading someone’s privacy had reduced him to an eavesdropping Peeping Tom. Yet, he couldn’t stop. When her morning routine was complete and she went back inside, he’d be filled with a superficial satisfaction at best and the longing for her abated for a few hours at least. Then he would long for more all over again.

  He scrutinized her body language and found it odd. “Something’s different about her today,” he realized out loud. She seems tense. Her shoulders are bunched up to her neck. Her back is erect as a rod, and she’s restless. Sitting at the table, he silently watched her set the empty basket on the porch, and his heart sank with disappointment. He knew her routine to the letter. She would lie on the lounge chair next, read the newspaper, drink her coffee, and wait for the clothes to dry. He waited anxiously with his eyes glued to her every move as she poured the sun tan lotion into her hands, and then his gaze followed her hands up and down her body as she rubbed a liberal amount onto her skin. The shiny slick surface of her body enraptured him. He reached out to help her and found her skin warm to his touch as he smoothed the oil onto her breasts.

  He shook his head, looked down, and realized he rubbed his own chest and arms. “You perverse, sick bastard.” He turned away from the window for a distraction. He stomped across the kitchen to the refrigerator and jerked the door open. Spotting a tall pitcher of cold lemonade, he grasped its handle and brought it out. Turning to the cabinet, he avoided her image just outside the window. He grabbed a glass and filled it with the yellow liquid. Tart on his tongue, the drink quenched the dry spot in his mouth, and his taste buds contracted and burned from the fluids, but his thirst for her wasn’t so easily doused.

  Looking out the window once more, she rolled over, giving him a fleshy view of her breasts, not completely exposed, but the shifting position did add a lift to them. An hour and a half later, dread settled heavily in his gut when she sat up from her lounge chair, folded the laundry and packed it in her basket. She turned to the newspaper beside her chair, folded it, and stuffed it in the recycle bin. She drained the last of her coffee cup, and gracefully walked into the house.

  Damn! My favorite pastime is over.

  He knew one thing, whether to conquer his fear of rejection or feed the longing deep inside him, he had to figure out a way to get close to her. “Be damned with the Marine. It’s all in the timing.”

  Chapter Four

  Candi had gotten up early to do the laundry while Jesse slept. She tiptoed out of the bedroom and shut the door with armfuls of dirty clothes. She had a lot on her mind and wanted time to think and sort things out for her future. She turned on the coffeepot, started the load of clothes in the washer, and then sat and waited for the load to finish. A half hour later, careful of any noise, she slipped out of the house with a large mug of coffee and the basket of cleaned clothes. Her mind bounced around an array of top-priority tasks, what bills to do without, how much money to save for deposits, and of course, the first month’s rents. Finally, the clothes on the line, she sat on the lounger, poured herself a cup of coffee, and made some soft-set plans or ideas in case her and Jesse’s relationship did go bad. Feeling the burden of a headache, she smoothed on some oil and rested. “I’ll take a quick nap before going in tonight.” An hour later, she woke with an ache in her leg. The metal frame of the lounger dug into her skin. “Great!” She checked the clothes and found they were dry. One by one she took them down and folded them neatly into her basket. The task complete, she walked inside the cool trailer. “That feels great!” She headed toward the bedroom, her mind still making mental plans for the near future. She opened the door and froze in the entrance.

  Jesse looked up at her. “We need to talk.” He sat on the bed, his eyes fastened to hers. He showed some dread in his expression, but not much.

  Shot the idea to take a nap all to hell. “About what?” she asked simply, setting the laundry basket by the bed. This is it. It’s going to be over now.

  “I have to confess something. I felt a little homesick while I’ve been living in Texas, and when I went home to visit. Well, I think I am going to be moving back soon.”

  She didn’t even try to feign heartbreak or even disappointment. “Well, it makes sense. Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

  He nodded. “Yes, this is what I want. And I want us to break up.”

  Candi figured that would be next. She put away the clothes and avoided eye contact until he finished with his off-the-cuff breakup.

  “And there’s some else.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You need to move out.”

  Candi stared at him in disbelief. “Jesse, you can’t be serious?” She slammed two folded T-shirts into the basket. “I don’t need this shit right now. You know, ever since you came back from your mother’s house in Idaho yesterday, you’ve acted strange. I’ve waited for you to tell me all about what really took you up there.”

  “There’s nothing sinister about me going to see my mother,” he shot back wit
h irritation.

  “Yeah, I know!” Back off girl. You’ll blow it. Although Jesse couldn’t stop talking about his trip and how much fun he’d had in the northern country, he still kept mum about this Stephanie woman, or the fact that he’d been talking to her for weeks.

  He yawned. “And I don’t need you staying around here messing things up for me.”

  She looked at Jesse with bitter contempt. “I suppose the fact that I lived here first doesn’t matter.”

  He shook his head.

  Damn it. Of course I have to be the one to find another place to live. All because his father is screwing my roommate. Candi shook her head. “No, you move out.”

  “Candi, come on, damn! This relationship isn’t what either of us wants. It’s going nowhere,” Jesse pointed out rather quickly.

  The bunched muscles of his arms jumped out at her as he rubbed his hands down his face. He wore nothing but a pair of black physical training shorts. His bare chest was covered with a thick mat of dark brown hair that swirled in opposing circles to cover his nipples. His waist narrowed to strong hips and thighs. He still had the body of a Marine—a discharged Marine, but one all the same.

  Candi couldn’t hold back any more. She waited for the real confession that never came. Well, I guess I will get this ball rolling...

  “I know this relationship isn’t what you want. If it were, you wouldn’t have gone to see your new girlfriend.” The shock on his face was priceless. “Didn’t think I knew about her, did you?” Candi waited for Jesse to lie, but he stood in the small bedroom looking at her as if she’d just grown a third boob on her chest. “Too bad you couldn’t at least have the balls to tell her the truth.”

  “Why hurt her?”

  His cavalier statement took her by surprise. The remark also killed any remaining feelings she had for him. The moment of silence that settled between them, filled with things left unsaid. Just as well, there were too many things to make an amends for, and she didn’t intend to fight another woman for him.

  “Look, Jesse, I will be moving out in December. Minerva and I agreed that I could stay until I finish school.”

  By the look on Jesse’s face, he hadn’t anticipated that bit of news either. “I’ll be out August.”

  Candi could feel her patience running out, but she didn’t let it show. She refused to give him the satisfaction, knowing that he could get to her. “That means you will be out before me.” He thought about that a moment.

  Odd that he’d wait five months to be with her. “Why so long?”

  “If you must know my business, I need to gather money to move back home.” He took a step toward her. “I think since it’s my dad’s trailer, you leave.”

  “Considering that mine and Minerva’s names are also on the lease and I pay my part of the rent, and it’s on time, you’ll have to endure it until I either find a place I can afford and still go to school, or I finish. Either way, I’m not leaving anytime soon.” Candi squared her shoulders and walked toward the door. She looked over her shoulder. “You were a Marine once, adapt,” she said before she slammed the door in her wake.

  A couple should never go to bed angry. They should never argue out their problems in the room that will be there to create the better times of a relationship. In that second, the advice her mother once gave her echoed in her mind, and she almost burst out laughing. She usually took that piece of advice to heart, but not this time.

  The midmorning heat wave forced Candi to turn on the small air conditioning unit in the window. It worked almost beyond its means to cool down the small living room. Roy, a pain in the ass, insisted it only be used when someone stayed home and could tend to it instead of keeping it on a lower setting all day to keep the house cool.

  Candi raised the bottom of her shirt, aimed it at the cold blast of air from the unit and let the blower cool the built-up perspiration that formed on her body. Her nipples hardened in a nanosecond to the changed exposure.

  “I need to get out of here as soon as possible. I won’t go through five months of potshots due to that, that dickhead.” She stood in front of the air unit, with her blouse raised, deep in thought, planning her next move. Step one, save money. Step two, find a place I could afford to live, close to school and possibly work. Candi realized with a sad heart that when she quit her job at the bar, she would be leaving Minerva. Who do I talk to? Laugh with? Plan things out with? I lose her by default, and all because Minerva is stuck in the middle, due to the family loyalty. It made her sick to think about it.

  She felt the goose bumps break out over her arms and the ache in her nipples from the chill. She turned away from the blast and came up short when she caught Jesse standing in the doorway of the bedroom, staring at her with that wolfish grin.

  What was so handsome about him before? She studied him now. Sex? The idea that he kept her from being lonely seemed to be the only logical answer that came to mind. What exactly? Distracted by her thoughts of reassessment, she forgot about Jesse standing there, until he cleared his throat and got her attention.

  The lustful look in his eyes caught her off guard. He approached her slowly. “You know, Candi, there’s no reason we can’t be fuck buddies.”

  The protruding bulge that literally led him by the short hairs disgusted her. She felt like an animal being preyed upon. “I think you have enough…buddies. Besides, I thought you found the love of your life,” Candi reminded him.

  Even a class dunce couldn’t deny the sarcasm in her voice, but either Jesse wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed or he didn’t pay attention.

  Typical.

  “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” he assured her softly.

  His smile, one that Candi knew to be a deal-closing, woman-catching, golden-boy-awarded smile that a fool would use to his advantage, made her nauseated. Softly, his fingertips traced the line of the thin strap of her tank top. The touch that caused fire in her thighs a short time ago chilled her to the bone in repulsion now.

  She pinned him with as cold stare as she could muster. “Why hurt her?”

  The words he threw at her moments before seemed to piss him off now. Angered by her sarcastic rejection, he turned cursing her as he stomped away.

  “You bitch!” He turned inside the threshold. “You will miss me, Candi. No one else will please you like me. Mark my words.”

  “Marked and entered.”

  The parting comment intended to hurt her missed its mark. She stared at the empty doorway leading to the front porch. “Unless Mr. Right comes along and sweeps me off my feet, pretty boys like Jesse are an obstacle in the way to my success. Stay away,” she vowed, making up her mind on the spot. “I’ve planned too hard for an involvement risk.” And, it helped to protect her feelings and heart.

  Only God knew when she would be ready for a significant relationship. Only time will tell. She walked past the window and paused to see him on the porch with a smug smile on his face. “Fucker!” She spat, and then walked by on her way to the kitchen for a cup of hot coffee. It was the thing to warm the nagging chill that settled around her.

  Chapter Five

  The massaging showerhead sprayed hot, pulsating water onto Candi’s shoulders, releasing the built-up tension between the two blades. White bubbles of shampoo cascaded down her body to gather in the drain below, taking the frustration and enigma of the last two days with it. The first setback, her breakup with Jesse, set the tensions within the household to almost unbearable proportions. They avoided each other when possible, and thank God her schedule kept her busy. She lolled her head under the massaging spray and grimaced at the memory in her mind. Working a double shift yesterday, she came home at three o’clock in the morning, barely enough time for a brief nap before her first day of orientation, which had been a chore to get through. Thanks to the eight cups of coffee, she did stay awake long enough to get most of her notes on a mini tape recorder Finally, she went to work yesterday consumed by exhaustion and wanted the day to end as quickly as pos
sible. At work she took a quick look at the schedule and almost burst into tears when the revised schedule showed her to be off this evening.

  “I figured you needed a break,” Minerva whispered in her ear at the end of their shift last night.

  “You have no idea.” Candi hugged her warmly. She could feel the coil of pressure release in the pit of her stomach. “Minerva, you are such a good friend to me, always intuitive to my emotional stresses.”

  “I figure business isn’t going to pick up, so go ahead and go home, get some rest for school, and take tomorrow night off.”

  In her exhaustion, she spoke with heartfelt gratitude. “You are so great with encouraging my plans to continue with my studies.”

  “Oh, honey, you are so welcome. It is my pleasure. You don’t need to be waiting on drunks all your life like I am.”

  “Little things mean a lot to me. Like having an extra night off, knowing that business wouldn’t pick up and…”

  “Look, you need a break,” Minerva said simply.

  Candi appreciated having a supportive friend like Minerva in her corner.

  Bang!

  Bang!

  Bang!

  Startled to the present, Candi jumped at the hammering sound of heavy fists on the door, which intruded the serenity of her shower.

  “I’m in here,” she yelled, hoping to maintain a little privacy.

  “Candi! It’s me,” Minerva answered. “Chandler wants to see you at the picnic tables.”

  Candi rolled her eyes at the ill-timed interruption. “All right.” She reached down and turned off the water. “I’ll be right there.”