Betrayal Bend

by Andrea M. Long

  “Are you okay there?” a concerned male voice called out. A voice I recognized. Cabin Guy.

  Typical. I’m sure I looked like a femme fatale from my position on the sand with no doubt red-rimmed eyes. It shouldn’t have mattered to me, but it did.

  “I’m peachy, thank you.” I got to my knees. Looking at him, even though I’d rather the sand had turned quick and sucked me away, I sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m having an adult temper tantrum. Ignore me.”

  “Well, I would, but unfortunately I was brought up a little better than that and when someone appears to be in distress, I stop to see if I can help. I’m afraid I won’t be happy until I’ve found out the root of your problems, helped, and sent you on your way.”

  “Seriously?” I eye-rolled him.

  He held up his hands. “What can I say? I’m a good guy.”

  “I already got me one of those,” I said sarcastically.

  “Oooh, I’m sensing where some of your frustration’s coming from. Look, my cabin’s over there. The one on the corner if you can’t remember still after running past it around this time yesterday.”

  Once again, his eyes crinkled with a knowing look.

  “Why would I remember that? I run around here every single day. I live here,” I protested.

  He held my gaze a little longer in challenge before he spoke again. “My apologies. Look, let me check you’re okay and then you can go take your bad temper back to your husband, seeing as I’m guessing it’s him who caused it.”

  I was pissing him off and it wasn’t his fault. All he’d done was come to help.

  I let out a large exhale. “I got a stitch. That was all. But I love running and I need to run, and it stopped me and I’m just so sick of being stopped,” I confessed.

  “I’m guessing we’re not talking about just running here?” Cabin Guy said gently.

  “No. Sorry I lashed out at you. I don’t even know what’s going on with me. Well, I have an idea with some of it. God, I’m rambling. I’m so sorry. I’m not usually like this.”

  “Stop apologizing. Look, let me make you a drink. We can enjoy them outside while looking over the lake. You said you’d never seen a cabin, so now’s your chance. If you want to talk to me talk; if you don’t, don’t. I promise anything you tell me won’t go any further.”

  “Oh yeah? I know nothing about you. You’re a stranger.”

  “Isn’t that the beauty of my being here? Come have a drink. I’ll tell you why I’m here and why I’ll be leaving on Sunday and never returning. We all have our secrets, Coffee Girl.”

  “My name’s Shay. As it said on my name badge, that you looked at in the coffee shop.”

  “I thought we were playing the pretending to have not noticed each other game?”

  “I named you Cabin Guy in my head,” I confessed.

  He smiled, “You don’t want to know what I called you in my head.”

  My breath hitched.

  “Are you coming for a drink, or carrying on with your run?” He reached down for my Brew Love hoodie and handed it to me.

  “I’ll come for a drink, but I can’t stay long.”

  “You have people who worry about you. That’s a good thing,” Cabin Guy answered.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Maybe it’s better you just keep me as Cabin Guy?” he suggested.

  I shook my head. “No, I want to know your name.”

  “You’ll be screaming out the name Miller,” he challenged.

  I smirked. “In your dreams, Cabin Guy,” I said, but I think we both knew it was inevitable.

  It was strange walking along the rest of the beach and not running.

  “Take off your sneakers and feel the sand under your feet,” Miller demanded, holding out a hand for my footwear.

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re so busy running you’re forgetting right what’s in front of you, around you. You need to remember what you love, what you are.”

  Removing my sneakers, I kept them in my own hand, but I slowed my pace, enjoying the feel of warm sand against my soles.

  We didn’t speak for a while and I watched the evening sunlight glitter on the lake, while I realized it was true. I was running through life without thinking about what truly mattered in it. So scared of Cameron planning my future. But it was my future too. I needed to think about what I wanted and when I wanted it. To stop running.

  “Have you been down to Hideaway Beach yet?” I asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “It’s nice there.”

  “It’s nice here. I’ve found no need to venture far yet, but I might.”

  “Let me guess. You’ve been eating a lot of pizza from Fired Up?”

  He patted a belly that wasn’t there. His tight, pale-blue t-shirt strained against what I knew would be a toned abdomen. “Guilty as charged.”

  “My sister loves it there. We’re going tomorrow night.”

  “And another untold story hangs on your face. Pizza should bring you joy.”

  “Huh, am I that transparent? I thought I hid things well.”

  “Maybe I’m just looking harder than most?”

  I stared at him for a beat longer than usual. “You know I’m just going to sit outside your cabin, looking over the lake while I get myself together to go back home, right? Nothing else is happening.”

  “Absolutely. I’m just a friendly stranger helping out someone who looked in need of it.”

  I put my sneakers back on and we walked past the reception building for the rentals. You could hire boats for the lake there and they also had a small café selling waffles and ice cream.

  “Do you want anything?” Miller nodded toward the building.

  “Do you have wine?” I asked.

  “No, but I can walk across to Fired Up and buy a bottle with ease while you sit looking at the lake.”

  “Then I don’t need an ice cream.”

  I nodded and said ‘hello’ to a few people as I walked around to Miller’s rental cabin. I held my head up high while I did so, showing them I had nothing to hide. I was just bubbly, friendly Shay from Brew Love, chatting with a tourist. Residents here would think nothing of it; it was part of the community spirit, being friendly to those who visited, pointing out places of interest where they might visit, might go spend their vacation money.

  But I looked around before I walked through the door of Miller’s rental.

  “I’ll go get that wine. You can be opening the doors onto the veranda. Take a seat.”

  “Aren’t you scared I’ll snoop?” I joked.

  “I have nothing to hide. Or nothing I’ve brought here that would tell you anything I’d want to keep secret anyway. Here I’m vacation Miller. I won’t be long.” He walked off towards the restaurant and I walked further inside the rental and closed the door behind me.

  The cabin interior took my breath away. Dark stained wooden floors, pale ceilings, beams. An open plan living space had a brown leather sectional. It faced a rustic brick wall housing a television unit and a built-in fire. The wall screened off much of the luxury kitchen behind it. But as I’d walked in, the thing that had drawn my eye was the long dining table set in front of huge floor-to-ceiling windows. The windows slid back to open onto a decking area looking over the lake. I couldn’t wait to get out there, but first, while I was alone, I wanted to see the rest of the place.

  The bathroom was surprisingly smaller than I’d anticipated, making the most of the space. A circular Jacuzzi bath in front of another lake view window. You could relax in the tub and take in those views. It was a room in need of champagne and strawberries on the sill.

  The master bedroom was flooded with light from three wooden framed windows on two walls. The bed was a King and wooden framed. The nightstand also made from reclaimed wood. The place was everything I thought it would be and more.

  I returned to the living space and slid open the doors. Outside on the deck were a table and chairs. Steps ran off the right-
hand side where you could walk down a sloping path toward your own private jetty. The rentals were far apart enough, with landscapes built and planted carefully, so that you weren’t aware of your neighbors unless you were on the lake. This meant if I kept to the shadows of the private deck, I was okay. I could drink my wine with Miller and maybe talk about what was on my mind.

  Taking a seat at the table and looking out over the lake, I began to take stock of what I’d done. I’d walked into another man’s home. Yes, it was a temporary home, but it still belonged to a stranger. A man who was not my husband. And I didn’t know why I was here. Whether it was to talk or whether I was going to take my fantasies and make them a reality.

  I was on that slope to the jetty. A dark and slippery one.

  But I wasn’t prepared to leave just yet. I’d drink my wine and live on the darker side for a while. See if I liked it there.

  “I honestly thought you’d have left,” Miller said, bringing the bottle and two glasses he’d collected from his kitchen en route.

  “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider it, but it’s too pretty to leave just yet.”

  “Oh, so you’re just here for the view…”

  I turned to look at him, breaking away from staring at the lake that had me mesmerized as always. “Maybe.” I let my eyes flicker over him lazily, from head to toe. “It’s too early to say.”

  He poured us a glass of wine each and took a seat at the side of me.

  “So tell me why you were on your knees on the beach.”

  I sighed. “It’s the anniversary of my mother’s death tomorrow. Four years since I walked into her trailer and found her dead of an overdose.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged. His apologies didn’t help me as much as his wine did. I took a sip. It was a good wine.

  “My sister was only twelve at the time. I was eighteen. I became her guardian.”

  “That’s a lot of responsibility at that young age.”

  “She’s a good kid and she’s never been any trouble, even with what happened. But I married young and I have Becca and it’s always made me feel like I’m trapped, even though I’m happy. Does that make sense?”

  He took a drink of his wine. “Why do you think I’m here?”

  “Really? Are you escaping a happy life too?”

  “I have a great job. A very busy job. One that has me travelling all over the world. But my job is looking for fantasy living for my clients. I come and source homes, but it’s always for other people and then I return to my own and feel inadequate because although I do very well for myself, I am in no way as accomplished as the people I work for.”

  “So you’re here to look at property?”

  “I thought I was and then I walked into this rental and decided that what I really needed was to think about the rest of my life, and this was the ideal place to do it. I love my job, but it creates unhappiness in me. It’s a juxtaposition, just like yours.”

  “So what do we do?”

  He picked up his glass again. “We sit here and drink wine and we look out over this beautiful view. We only think about right here, right now, and then you go back home to your husband and sister, and you think about what you have.”

  “And if it’s not enough?”

  “Then you think about what you want.”

  He held out the glass in his hand, and I picked mine up.

  “What are we toasting to?” I asked him.

  “To new friends and feasting the senses,” he replied.

  We chinked glasses and then I turned to look back over the lake, because Miller’s gaze was so intense it was like looking directly into sunlight.

  Five

  Shay

  I’d done absolutely nothing wrong and yet I felt like I’d betrayed my husband by just sitting outside and drinking a glass of wine with Miller. By the time I’d reached our home, my mood had lowered further, frustration gnawing away at my insides.

  I headed straight for a shower, glad that Cameron hadn’t greeted me at the door, because I think I’d have screamed at him to back off, to let me get through a fucking door without a greeting or being questioned, no matter the good intention behind it.

  While the water rolled across my body and off, my mind whirled like the water draining. I had never truly been alone, never had time to myself. Before Mom passed, everything had been keeping one eye open to make sure she was okay because my dad’s alcoholism affected us all. I’d mother my mother and do my best to protect my sister from it all. When I’d first met Cameron, he’d been my little slice of heaven, an oasis of calm away from family hell. There for me, just me. I’d loved him for it then and I loved him for it now. I was happy, my life was amazing. But me, it must be just me, wanted more. To be free, even for only a little while.

  The run that usually shook off these frustrations hadn’t happened properly, and I felt the need to unleash something. Switching off the shower, I wrapped myself in my robe and I padded downstairs to the living room where Cam sat watching sports, a bowl of potato chips at his side.

  I walked in front of him and went to open my robe. He moved his head past me to see the screen.

  “Shay, what a time to stand there. Give us a sec, and then I’ll be with you.”

  The moment was broken. He hadn’t even realized what I was about to do. I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “No worries. I just came to say goodnight. I’m going to head to bed as I have a bit of a headache.”

  “You want anything, just text, honey.”

  “Thanks.”

  Every step back upstairs became firmer underfoot as my temper grew. I had to get rid of this feeling and there was only one way I could think of dealing with it.

  I crawled under the covers and imagined it was Miller I’d just walked in front of. Miller who’d just seen me remove my robe, and Miller who’d devoured me like a man starved. As my frustrations ebbed away courtesy of my own fingers, I felt peace, enough that I could sleep. I just prayed that in the morning that peace was still within me.

  I woke to a note from Cam.

  You looked so peaceful. Given your headache last night, I thought it best to let you sleep. Come into the shop when you’re ready. I’ll handle the rush somehow!

  Cam.

  As I grabbed my cell off the nightstand and looked at the time, I swore under my breath, and dashed out of bed. The morning rush would just be getting under way and maybe Miller would return. Despite running late, I made sure to put on some light makeup, and then I grabbed my purse and headed to the shop.

  Cam’s honest expression of just how happy he was to see me both lifted my spirits and made me feel guilty at the same time.

  “You feeling better?”

  “Much,” I replied as I grabbed my apron and began serving customers. While working, a potential business idea came to me and I mulled it over in my mind, until the rush ended.

  “I’m just going in the back for half an hour to work on something. You okay to stay counter side for a while?”

  “Sure. Anything I need to know about?”

  “Not yet. Just some thoughts. If it comes to anything, I’ll let you know.”

  “Okay.” Cam turned to the next customer and I escaped into the office, where I worked out pricing and strategy for my idea.

  When I came back out, actually two hours later, I felt amazing. Cam strode straight over to me. “What’s put that smile on your face? I’m jealous.”

  “So...” I brought out my notes from behind my back. “I’ve been thinking some more about the online side of our business…”

  “Go on.”

  I laid my papers out along the counter near the tills. There was no one waiting at the moment which was perfect timing.

  “We do a monthly ‘Brew Love Box’. Inside we have a selection of our range, maybe some of the merchandise, and in keeping with our ethos I thought perhaps a used book from Harborside. To start with, we can pack them ourselves and get Becca involved for some extra pocket mone
y. If the online side takes off, we set someone on to do it all. But I just adore the idea of someone opening a box and there could be that month’s blend, a re-usable item, and a gift. Bringing Brew Love!”

  “That’s an incredible idea,” Cam picked me up and swung me around. “My clever and beautiful wife.” He slid me down his body and fixed his mouth on mine. I knew the customers would be watching and it made feel alive. Then the door pushed open, the bell giving out its familiar ding and we broke apart. It didn’t break my mood though. I had thought up something of my own, something in our business that would be mine, borne from me, a small root from me to independence.

  That evening I sat on my laptop in the living room, my hair piled on top of my head in a messy bun and I got our logo and ordered a protype recyclable box. I’d escaped for an hour just before we closed to head to the bookshop where I’d picked a selection of pretty covered used books. I’d also designed a spoon engraved with ‘Brew love’. I’d make a sample box up and put it on our website and see how the orders went. If it didn’t work out, I wouldn’t have lost much in investment, just some pride. But Cam believed in my idea and that made me feel more confident.

  You’re feeling like you need Cam’s support again. You can do this on your own, I told myself. If it went wrong, I’d just have to admit defeat with that idea and try something else. But one way or another I would do something, achieve something, by myself.

  “What’re you doing?” Becca came in and flopped onto the couch at the side of me in that way a bored teenager did. It must be bad if she’d come downstairs to spend time with us.

  “Shay’s helping with my online plans for Brew Love’s world domination,” Cam told her.

  “These are my plans,” I snapped.

  He looked at me for a beat before raising a brow at Becca. “I’ve been wanting to expand Brew Love’s online shop and Shay has had an amazing idea of something that could end up being a major part of things if it’s done right.”