by Rachel Hanna
“Ma’am, can I help you with something?” he asked.
“Oh, sorry. I’m looking for Blake,” she said with a smile. This guy wasn’t the most pleasant person in the world, but right now he was her only link to Blake so she felt a fondness for him just the same.
“Blake who?” Her stomach lurched.
“Blake Wells. He lives here.”
“No ma’am, he doesn’t live here and I’ve never heard of him.”
“I’m confused. Blake and I talk all the time. And this is the address he gave me.” Truth be told, she never sent anything to his address, but he’d given it to her once simply by sending her a postcard. It had the little return address sticker on it, but they spent most of their time talking on the phone or texting so she never had any reason to send him anything in the mail. That’s when it dawned on her. Maybe he had moved recently and just hadn’t told her for some reason. Why would he do that?
“Well, I don’t know why anyone would do that. I’ve lived here for fifteen years all by myself, and I’ve never heard of anyone named Blake.”
All of a sudden, the world started spinning and the next thing she knew everything was black. When she opened her eyes again, her head was resting on some pine straw in the bushes beside the front door and the older man was hovering over her.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” the man said, shaking her shoulders with his hands. God, had he eaten an entire onion for breakfast?
“I’m fine. What happened?” she asked as she slowly sat up with his assistance. He was huffing and puffing, red faced and sweaty. The last thing she needed to round out this terrible day was for him to have a heart attack and land on top of her. She’d probably just will herself to have a heart attack as well at that point.
“Well, I assume you got overwhelmed when I told you I don’t know Blake. Should I call the ambulance?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I must’ve just gotten a little overheated.” She got up to her feet, and although she still felt a little bit woozy – probably because she hadn’t eaten that morning yet – she didn’t feel she had a need for medical attention. Right now, she just wanted to go back to her room and curl up in the fetal position.
“Thank you for your time,” she said as she started to walk down the sidewalk.
“I hope you find who you’re looking for!” the man called to her. She hoped so too.
Molly hobbled back to the bed and breakfast, still a little bit dizzy headed and more than a little bit confused. Her heart was breaking, knowing that there was a possibility that Blake didn’t live in January Cove anymore and maybe wasn’t even real. She kept trying to figure out the reason why he didn’t live in that house and never had. Why would he send her a card with a return address if he never lived there?
All of these things were running through her mind as she walked up the sidewalk towards the bed and breakfast. She wanted to go inside, shut the door and sit in the dark for a few hours. She ambled up the steps, opened the front door and heard a loud “ouch” and then a crash.
And then there was a man laying at her feet.
“Are you okay?” she said as she looked down at the man that seemed to come out of nowhere. He was laying flat down on the floor of the porch, arms and legs sprawled with a paintbrush in his hand. Where had he come from?
“Are you blind or something?” he asked as he turned over and sat up, tossing his paintbrush aside. He came up to his feet, put his hand on his hip and stared at her. “Hello?” he said, waving a hand in front of her face.
He was a jerk. A cocky, arrogant jerk. But to be fair, she had just thrown him on his face somehow, although she still didn’t know how she did it.
“What happened? I didn’t see you…”
“Well, obviously. You were walking up the stairs like you were some kind of ghost. You didn’t even look my way. I can’t believe you couldn’t see me down here beside the door painting this trim. Never expected you to knock me on my face with a screen door.”
“I’m really sorry. Obviously, my mind was somewhere else. It certainly wasn’t intentional.” She didn’t really know what else to say, but right now she was on the verge of bursting into tears and it wasn’t in her plans to do that in front of a perfect stranger. Plus, he was the most handsome person she’d ever seen, but also seemed to be a big jackass so she wasn’t in the mood to deal with that right now.
“Maybe you need to get your eyes examined,” he said before turning around and picking up his paintbrush.
Molly knew she should’ve walked away, left the guy alone, but she just couldn’t do it.
“You know, has it occurred to you that maybe I’ve had a really bad day and just wasn’t paying attention. Or are you this much of a jackass to everybody you meet?” She stood there in her little red sun dress with her arms crossed and her hip jutted out.
He looked at her with a crooked smile, which was extremely sexy but irritating. “I’m this much of a jackass.” And with that, he turned and went back to painting the trim without a word.
“Well, I can believe that!” she shrieked before bursting into tears and running into the bed and breakfast. Yes, it was an embarrassing way to handle it, but her emotions overtook her.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at her door. If that was the jerky guy, she was going to pull her hair out by the roots.
“I’m busy right now,” she said through stifled tears.
“Molly, it’s Addison. Are you sure you don’t want to talk?”
Molly opened the door slowly, her eyes puffy and red. Addison said nothing but pulled her into a hug. After crying on Addison’s shoulder for a few minutes, Molly finally pulled back and laughed.
“You must think I’m a crazy person.”
“No, I get the feeling you are a person who’s in love with someone and something has gone terribly wrong?” Molly nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“I came here because I wanted to surprise the guy I’ve been talking to online for over year. I know it sounds silly, but he proposed to me recently. I lost my job, so I decided to take a chance on romance. I packed up everything I own and drove all the way here from Washington state.”
“Wow! What an amazing story. So what’s wrong? Did he reject you?”
“No. It’s just that I’m not sure he exists.”
“I don’t understand,” Addison said as she sat down next to her on the bed.
“I went to the house where he supposedly lives and a man answered the door. That man has lived there, alone, for fifteen years.”
“Oh no. Maybe he just moved…” Addison tried to make her feel better.
“I don’t think so. I think I got played.”
“Well, I know everyone in town. I grew up here and have basically lived here my whole life, so I can definitely tell you if I’ve heard his name.”
“Blake Wells is his name,” Molly said, the last remnant of hope attached to her words.
Addison took a deep breath. “No, honey, I’ve never heard that name.” Molly’s dreams were shattered in that instant. It was obvious that somebody was playing a trick on her, but she had no idea who would do such a thing.
Molly started crying again, devastated at the turn of events. She’d picked up her entire life and gone all the way across the country, and there was no way that she could go home empty-handed. Her parents would throw this in her face for the rest of her life, and Olivia would be right. She’d be a total idiot, trusting anyone who told her anything. How could she have been so stupid?
“I guess I need to pack my things,” Molly said as she stood up. Addison stood up and faced her.
“You’re welcome to stay here as long as you want. Maybe you didn’t come all the way here for Blake.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe the love of your life is actually here but his name isn’t Blake. Maybe fate brought you here for a different reason and you should stick around long enough to see what it is.”
Addison was ob
viously a romantic. Either that or she was just trying to make Molly feel better.
She thought about it. Maybe she was right. There was nothing back home for her except memories of being picked on and parents who didn’t think she was smart enough to make good decisions.
She decided to stay in January Cove, at least temporarily, until she could figure out what she wanted to do with her life. One thing was for sure – she wasn’t going to let her parents or Olivia know that Blake probably didn’t exist. So if nothing else, January Cove provided a great hiding place until she could figure out her plan B.
Chapter 4
Austin stood at the job site, which was right next to the ferry dock, and looked out over the land. He wasn’t sure what Mr. Ballard was thinking when he bought this property. It was small, long and narrow, and although it was beautiful overlooking the water, he couldn’t figure out exactly how they were going to build a restaurant and have enough parking space.
If there was one thing that January Cove was short on, it was land. And they certainly weren’t making any more of it. He’d called Mr. Ballard that morning, and the older man had promised that he was sending along the survey soon to show exactly how he wanted it laid out.
And he wanted Austin to stay in January Cove for at least the next several months to make sure that the property was built to his specifications. This was an unusual deal because Mr. Ballard wasn’t just developing the land. He planned to have someone on his staff actually run the restaurant because he was using it as a retirement investment.
All Austin knew was that he needed to do his best work to impress Mr. Ballard so that maybe he could move up within the company and one day help to run it with his best friend, Eddie. That was his long-term goal anyway, but he had no idea if Mr. Ballard had the same thing in mind.
“So when does building begin?” someone said from behind him. It was Clay, the owner of the bed and breakfast where he was staying. Clay seemed like a nice guy, a man’s man with a kind demeanor.
“Oh, good morning. We’re hoping to start in another couple of weeks. Just waiting on the surveys and permits to be finalized. What are you doing here so early?” Austin asked as he shook Clay’s hand.
“I run the ferry. Not a lot of activity going on at this time of the year, but I’m always here in case someone needs to run to the island or over to Savannah.”
“The island?”
“Yeah, there’s a little uninhabited island that a lot of people like to go to, pick up seashells, picnic. You know the drill.”
The truth was, Austin hadn’t done a lot of looking around yet. He was pretty hyper focused on his goal – do a good job for Ballard and make a name for himself in the business. Money wasn’t even his focus. Lord knows, he’d grown up without any of it himself. He just wanted to be his own man and chart his own course.
“I didn’t know you ran the ferry. Seems like that would be a very seasonal job,” Austin said.
“It is, but it’s just a little side business and something I do because I enjoy it. It definitely wouldn’t pay the bills,” Clay said with a smile. “So how are you enjoying January Cove?”
“I actually haven’t had a lot of time to look around yet. Been pretty focused on the plans for this place,” Austin said, pointing at the land in front of him.
“Well, if you need a little tour, be sure to let me know. I’ve been here my whole life.”
“I can’t imagine growing up someplace like this,” Austin said. “I grew up in the city.” The way he said it made it sound like he grew up in some magical place, but the part of the city that he’d grown up in wasn’t exactly what he’d refer to as magical.
“I’m more of a small-town guy,” Clay said with a laugh. “I’d be like a fish out of water in the big city.”
Austin was feeling much like a fish out of water these days. He felt antsy for some reason, almost like life was passing him by and he had to run and chase it. All of his friends were getting married, starting families, and he felt like he was still at the same place he’d always been. Alone and looking for something. He just didn’t know what it was.
Molly successfully avoided phone calls from Olivia that morning. She felt terrible about it, but at least she sent her a text and told her that everything was okay but she hadn’t had time to connect with Blake yet. Olivia would only believe that for so long because she knew full well that Molly would’ve gone straight to Blake’s house as soon as possible.
But she’d figure that out later. Right now, she was more interested in securing a job for herself since it looked like she’d be in town a lot longer than she expected.
She wanted to do something with animals again, but for the time being she figured that the job at the coffee shop would be her best bet. As a teenager, she’d had experience working in retail, so it would be a smooth transition.
Addison gave her the details on finding the place, which was called Jolt and run by a lady named Rebecca. She walked down the sidewalk in the quaint little town, the sound of the ocean just off in the distance. Even though she’d grown up near the ocean herself, this place was different. Cozy. Full of families. Full of promise.
The square was like something out of the 1950s, complete with a barber shop and antique store. January Cove felt preserved in time, and the people were a part of that too. Everyone she passed along the way spoke, smiled or waved at her. She knew everybody had their own set of problems, but you’d never know it here because most people were all smiles and Southern charm.
She walked through the door of Jolt, a little bell dinging to signal her arrival. Rebecca was behind the counter, or at least she assumed that’s who it was by the description that Addison gave her of a woman with fiery red hair.
“Welcome to Jolt!” she called with a smile.
“Thank you. I’m Molly. Addison told me to come,” she said, hoping that Addison had told Rebecca who she was.
“Oh yes. I’m so glad you’re here. I had a teenage girl working here for a couple of weeks, but she sort of flaked out. My son was helping me out behind the counter, but he’s really busy in high school and playing football, so I need some help.”
“Well, I’m glad because I need a job,” Molly said, feeling a little awkward. Rebecca seemed nice, but she definitely didn’t want to make a fool of herself and ruin her chances.
“So when can you start? I need someone who can work the morning shift until lunchtime. It’s five days a week and maybe the occasional Saturday.”
“You mean I have a job?”
“If you want it,” Rebecca said with a laugh. “The pay is ten dollars an hour. I know it’s not much, but I think it will cover your living expenses at the bed and breakfast at least.”
“That works fine for me. I’m looking forward to starting!” Molly said, and she really was. Surprisingly, she was looking forward to this new chapter in her life and having something to call her own without any interference from her family.
Molly had been thinking about what she could do on the side that would bring in some extra money, and dog walking seemed to be a good option. Addison explained that they had a lot of tourists coming into the area at different times of the year, and hiring a dog walker would be of interest to those people as well as the locals.
But for now, she’d focus on the coffee shop and worry about starting a business later.
After chatting with Rebecca for a few more minutes, they decided that she would start the next morning. Molly was looking forward to it, but what she wasn’t looking forward to was explaining what had happened with Blake to her family and friends. She had no idea what she was going to do about that, and she still wasn’t completely convinced that he didn’t exist… somewhere.
If there was one thing that Molly couldn’t figure out, it was whether or not Blake actually existed. At first, she was certain that he didn’t when she saw the man standing at the door of the house in January Cove. But now, she wasn’t so sure.
He had been texting her every day, like
clockwork – just like he always did. Because she wasn’t sure who she was dealing with, she hadn’t mentioned that she was right there in town. She wanted to see if she could get any additional information.
But now she was more confused than ever. She had asked him for an address to send him a care package, something she hadn’t done in many months. But he told her he was busy traveling with his family because his grandmother was sick.
The only problem was, she thought his grandmother had died. She could’ve sworn he already told her that, but some of their older text messages had already been erased so she couldn’t prove it.
On the off chance that he was real, she just went along with things until she could prove it one way or another. Maybe the love of her life was really out there, going to see his sick grandmother in South Carolina just like he said he was.
But that still didn’t explain why the old address that she had written down wasn’t where he lived. In fact, he had never lived there at all. She was having a hard time getting around that in her mind.
Maybe she had written the address down wrong. Since the old text message was gone, she had no way to verify it. And she had left the old postage slip back home, opting instead to write it down on a piece of paper before she left town.
She certainly couldn’t call her parents and ask them to look through one of her boxes to find the slip. They would know then that something was up for sure.
So she continued on, acting normally, hoping against hope that he was real.
One day soon, she would tell him where she was and that he needed to come find her. She just had to work up her courage first. And every fiber of her being hoped that he would arrive on a white horse, whisk her into his arms and show the world he was most definitely real.
As she stood behind the counter on her second day of working at Jolt, she was easing into the slower paced lifestyle of January Cove. And, she was starting to like it.