by T. I. Lowe
Dillon cocoons us with my quilt, and we eventually drift back off to sleep for a little bit longer.
I leave Dillon in bed later this morning and sneak off to see Will. I miss him too, and I needed to relieve some of my guilt. I had breakfast with Will and saw him off for his day before making my way to the office. This is the most time we have ever been apart since he entered my life and I can tell he’s not taking too kindly to it.
Today is Friday, so I need to make sure all the weekend bookings are squared away. I have the paperwork set before me, but I’m having a hard time focusing on it.
The morning drags by with me booking sites over the phone and helping Jen figure out the schedule. We have moved on to writing up late notices that she’ll hand deliver later today. There are quite a few, and it’s disheartening. I’ve even been helping some of the residents find jobs. I can’t tell you how many single moms I have hooked up with condo cleaning on the other side of the lake. It’s hard work, but it pays well and the poor women don’t have to work crazy late hours. I help out where I can with babysitting and being lenient on rent, but there’s only so much I can do myself. It’s a hard time to be living in this country. People are hurting all around, and it can feel right hopeless.
I’m lost in these hopeless thoughts and am pulled out of it abruptly. The door is yanked open all of a sudden with Dillon storming in, and my stomach plummets with fear that he has found out about Will on his own. He places his hands palm side down on the counter and leans towards me with a glowering stare. I can’t even swallow.
“Where are they, Jillian? What did you do with our sheds?” He’s called me Jillian, and we all know he means business.
Relief washes over me and can’t help but laugh. Jen joins in, and this is rubbing Dillon wrong something fierce.
“It. Ain’t. Funny,” he slowly says.
“Did you really think this place stood still while you’ve been off living your life?” I put away the paperwork before returning my attention to our angry guest.
“But those were our sheds!” He snaps, losing his patience. He looks as though he is near tears, so I need to let him off the hook.
I grab a set of golf cart keys and pull him towards the door. “I’ll be back later, Jen.” I escort this brokenhearted rock star to the cart and drive him into the back of the woods, to a new clearing where two new storage buildings sit hidden. I stop in front of them. “All you had to do was nose around a little bit more and you would have found them, busy breeches.”
“What happened to the other ones? And why is there a big cabin in their place?” He still doesn’t sound happy with the changes.
“I wanted a bigger place, and where the sheds sat was the only place the county would approve it to be built.” I climb off the cart seat and open the shed door. “All of the old stuff has been moved here. I threw only what wasn’t salvageable out. I couldn’t fathom not having a place to treasure hunt.” We look around at the packed space, brimming with the craziest assortment of stuff. “I even hired some guys to move most of it so I wouldn’t discover all the treasures.” I smile and glance back towards my sulking company. “The old sheds were rotting down too, Dillon. It all had to be moved regardless.”
Dillon trails behind me and seems to be calming down a bit, so I reward him with a treasure I found for him last year when I was moving everything. I reach in a trunk and pull out a ukulele. “I got a treasure for you,” I say as I hand it over.
He takes it and studies it. “This is from the mid-nineteen hundreds,” he says reverently as he inspects it. I had it polished up and restrung before I hid it back in the shed.
“How can you tell?” I ask as we both eye the honey-toned instrument. It looks so tiny in his large grasp.
“I’ve taken some music history lessons online and I’ve had a private music teacher who didn’t mind tagging along on the tour. I finished high school that first year through private tutors and completed my Masters in music.” He says this as though it’s no big deal. He begins strumming and stops to adjust the strings until they sound just right.
“Dillon, that’s really impressive.”
He shrugs his shoulders. “The twins ended up graduating, too.” He’s still trying to downplay how remarkable his accomplishment is. I really thought he was done with school the day he left this place. I’m totally impressed.
He starts strumming a song that sounds like it should be heard on a Hawaiian beach and grins. “I’m really digging my treasure. Thanks.”
“Why are you grinning so big?” I ask as I continue to watch him bring the petite instrument to life.
“You’ve been waiting for me to come back.” He holds the ukulele up as evidence and then returns to strumming the strings. “I knew you still loved me.”
I lean against a wooden totem pole and grin back at him. Don’t ask me how this eclectic collection came to be. It’s the oddest bunch of stuff I have ever seen, but it sure is fun to sift through. “Loving you was never the issue,” I say.
This statement causes him to cease playing, and he captures my eyes with his. “Then what was? Why did you leave me?”
“We’ve already been over this, Dillon. I would have held you back. We were too young and stupid.” I hold my hair off my neck as this space seems to be getting warmer by the minute.
Dillon takes advantage of this and runs his fingertips along the dewy length of my neck, leaving a trail of tingles. “Well, I’m older and wiser now, and I still don’t see your reasoning.”
“Music was your dream and I didn’t want to hold you back in any way.” After his fingers leave me, I drop my hair back down.
“Music has never been my dream, Jewels. It’s my adventure, sure. But you have always been my dream. I’ve loved you all my life, pretty girl.” He shakes his head at my foolish reasoning. “Like I said yesterday, all I wanted was for you to go on my adventure with me just as God did. He never got in the way of it. He only helped to keep me on the right path.”
Tears slide down my cheeks at this. “God also knew I needed to stay here. Aunt Evie… She would have died alone if I had gone with you.” I tremble as Dillon wraps me in his arms and holds me gently.
“I’m sorry. I know,” he whispers while still holding me.
There’s more than just the loss of Aunt Evie that has glued me here, and I should be apologizing to him. We’ve both lost things we can never get back, and I worry we may not be allotted a second chance.
He sets the ukulele down and eases me over to the couch that was just delivered yesterday. It’s wrapped in moving blankets. The floors in the cabin will be completely dried by tomorrow I’m told, so things can start being moved in by the start of the week.
Dillon sits down and straddles me over his lap while pulling my head to his chest. He is so much bigger than me, and I fit quite nicely in his embrace. I feel so safe and protected in his arms. Eventually the holding moves to caressing and continues to accelerate from there until we are back to kissing and losing ourselves into one another in this moment. It’s like we can’t get close enough. The easiest thing I have ever done is love this man. It comes so naturally, even when I fight so hard against it. I don’t realize how incomplete I am until he shows back up and makes me whole me again with his unconditional love. The way he loves is uninhibited and with abandon.
“You’re mine,” he says in a growl against my lips. All I can do is agree. I am completely his.
* * * *
We drifted asleep, wrapped around each other on the couch for a while as the morning moves forward without us. Eventually we rouse back up and spend more alone time together, not wanting to leave the bubble we’ve formed while hidden away in this treasure trove.
A little later I have no choice but to leave Dillon to treasure hunt alone while I go back to work. I need to clear my head so I leave him the golf cart and walk back. It’s not even lunchtime and this day has just about overwhelmed me. It takes me fifteen minutes to get back to the office and another fift
een to snap out of the funk I’m in. Jen eventually demands I straighten up or go away.
We are propped back up at the front counter when a massive Formula Sun Sport boat is hauled in with two Yamaha Waverunners. These babies are custom built and are all sleek with the same paintjob. Black and silver dominates with sharp blues. I’m thinking this delivery is on the wrong side of the lake. But then I look closer and can see Bleu Streak’s custom band logo embedded near the rear of each toy. The logo itself would make a killer tattoo with the words in an edgy font. There are all sorts of scrolling lines blazing in and out around the words, and if you study the logo long enough, you will see hidden art. The T in Streak is actually a cross and each band member’s name is camouflaged in a scrolling line. The well thought out creativity in the logo alone is just mind blowing. When the truck turns the corner, I see that the boat’s name is painted across the back of it. My Jewel, of course.
“Good grief. We might as well send out a full blown invite for the media now,” I say. “This place is going to be swarming with chaos.”
“Should I book some security guards?” Jen asks as we walk over to the computer to look them up. We are about to pick up the phone when a super-cute guy with auburn hair walks in. He’s probably just twenty, if that. I look over at Jen and notice she is enjoying the view.
“Hello ladies. I’m Tate O’Ferrell.” He extends his hand, so we use our southern manners and shake it. I’d rather strangle him and his boss at the moment.
“I’m Jen,” she says, almost purring her introduction.
Before I can introduce myself, Tate beats me to it. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet Dillon’s Jewel.” He smiles widely.
I smirk at this. I can see Mr. O’Ferrell thinks of himself as a lady’s man. “Okay, buddy, what can we do you for?” I ask.
“Well, you see, it’s my job to see after Dillon’s best interests, and I hope you don’t mind if we bring in our personal security crew.”
This man has just made my day. So now I’m over the whole strangling idea. “Okay. What does that entail?”
“A guard at each gate and one to patrol the grounds should do it.” He’s scrolling through his smartphone as he talks. “They’re on their way.” He looks up from his phone with another flashy smile.
“Who’s gonna keep the daredevil safe with all those toys you just hauled in?” I ask skeptically. Tate laughs like I just made a joke. “I’m not joking.” As I say this I watch the daredevil in question zoom up on the golf cart. He jumps off before the cart completely stops, climbs the side of the trailer, and hops into the boat. I can see the dimples from here as he checks things out. He disappears below deck for a few minutes and then bolts over the side quickly to exchange some words with the driver. I watch as the driver pulls a CD case out of the cab and hands it to Dillon to sign with a Sharpie. After Dillon autographs it, he shakes the driver’s hand with a manly slap to his back and jets inside where we are all watching him.
“Jewels is mine,” Dillon says as he eyes me excitedly. He likes saying that, I do believe. “Tate, my man, you need to help Jen for the rest of the day.” He’s already pulling me towards the door before I can protest.
“The pleasure will be all mine, boss,” I hear Tate say. Jen giggles at this. Good grief.
“What are you doing, Dillon?” I ask as we head over to my cabin.
“Today is our day and we are celebrating.” He looks down at me with a bit of apprehension. “You didn’t forget, did you?”
“No, Dimples. I didn’t forget.”
He leans over and kisses my cheek. “Good. Because we got a lot of celebrating to catch up on, pretty girl.”
Once we are inside the cabin, he points to my small armoire. “Bathing suit, preferably a bikini.” The excitement is radiating off Dillon as he rummages through a shopping bag I hadn’t noticed before and pulls out a pair of board shorts. Without thinking twice about it, he is naked and redressed before I can tear my eyes away. And there is nothing boy about that body anymore. Just let me tell you. I feel my face grow red from the peep show. “You like what you see, pretty girl?” he asks as he pushes his long bangs out of his eyes and stares at me seductively.
I let out the breath I was holding and shuffle over to the armoire to grab a bathing suit. I scurry off to the bathroom without answering him. The man can totally fluster me, even after all of this time.
“No need to be shy now,” I hear him say with a chuckle before I close the door.
I change into the suit and make a quick call to Leona. “I need some more time.”
“Okay. Will’s going to start wondering what’s going on. It’s getting hard to keep him distracted enough to not want to head over there to see you,” she says.
“I know,” I whisper. “I just need one more day. If I can, I’ll break away later and go see him.” I end the call and shake off my guilt before heading out of the bathroom to see what the plans are for the day. It’s been a hot spring, so a day on the lake sounds heavenly. I am a bit excited about the boat ride. It looked pretty impressive from afar.
Within thirty minutes, we are cruising along the crystal clear lake in style. Dillon can drive anything with an engine and is at the helm like he was born to be. He is wearing only the dark-blue board shorts and a tattered hat low on his head. His dazzling eyes are masked behind a pair of designer sunglasses. With his tattoos on full display, he looks tough and untouchable. He is definitely drool-worthy.
People are gawking as we pass. Some have been trailing us and taking photos. I nudge Dillon. “Dimples, you know you are broadcasting with this boat. Why would you want to put your brand all over it?”
“I’ve worked hard, Jewels. I should be able to enjoy it all I want.” He grins and those darn dimples take my breath. “I owed my woman a boat, and I want no one doubting who she belongs to.”
“But, what about the photos?” I look out over towards the shore and spot a few professional looking cameras aimed our way.
“Let them have their pics. There’s nothing I want to hide. I want the world to know you’re mine,” he says proudly, but it makes me nervous. Good grief. There he goes with the whole you’re mine caveman attitude again. If he wanted me to be his so badly, then why on earth did it take him so long to come home and lay claim to me? I want to ask him this, but I keep quiet. I’m not ready to stir up the trouble the both of us will have to face soon enough.
I keep my sunhat pulled low and don’t take off my own designer sunglasses Dillon gifted me earlier. I definitely do not take off my bathing suit cover-up either.
As the day strolls along, Dillon drops anchor right in the middle of the lake and heads below deck. He reemerges carrying a picnic basket. I’m instantly impressed. Or I am until he starts pulling a tub of pimento cheese, pork rinds, a loaf of white bread, and RC colas out. I have to laugh as he sets up our white-trash picnic. He’s grinning too.
“I really missed this stuff,” he says as he spoons some pimento cheese in his mouth, before assembling us a sandwich.
“I’m surprised you don’t have it shipped to you in California,” I say as I take my first tangy bite. It is really good stuff.
Dillon just shakes his head and gives me a knowing look. “Some things are worth waiting for, Jewels.” And I believe those words.
My throat thickens at this statement. “What took you so long?” I whisper and am thankful he didn’t hear me.
Dillon eats two sandwiches, and then uses the pork rinds to dip out the rest of the pimento cheese from the tub. He then digs us each out a double-stuffed moon pie. The gooey, chocolaty, marshmallow goodness is heavenly with the icy cold cola.
We stretch out and snooze in the late afternoon sun afterwards. Dillon has been stroking my finger on my left hand for quite some time. He has taken his hat and glasses off so I watch him stare at my bare finger. I know what he’s thinking, and soon he tells me bluntly as only he can. “You need to put your ring back on where it belongs.”
“You’re such
a caveman.” I laugh, causing him to growl. He sounds like one too.
He leans over and starts tickling me. “You. Mine. Ring. On. Finger.” He is now mimicking a caveman and I’m laughing so hard my sides ache. I’ve missed him so much.
I laugh until an image of Will trying to tickle me in the same manner pops in my head and my stomach flip flops. I still all of a sudden and am baffled by how easy it has been to forget all about my troubles.
Dillon senses my sudden change and pulls me close to his side. He skims his nose along my neck and stops at my ear to places a kiss there. “What’s on your mind, pretty girl?”
I should probably protest him calling me this, but I don’t. He’s either called me Jewels or pretty girl all my life. I like his little names for me. I like it even better because just last year his band released a ballad that won them a Grammy for song of the year. The song is titled “Pretty Girl on My Mind”. I know the song was to me, and I cried off and on for a month after its release. Will thought I was losing my mind.
“We are going to need to have a serious talk. It doesn’t have to be today. Today can be our day. But there are things we need to discuss soon.”
He peels my shades off and finds me near tears. “You’re worrying me.” His brows are pinched with concern.
I pull him close and kiss him with all the longing and regret I can pour into it. “Tomorrow. Not today. Love me completely today,” I murmur against his lips. I take his words that he spoke to me all those years ago and give them back to him.
He takes them willingly. “Tomorrow,” he says, and doesn’t ask about it for the remainder of our day.
We try to sunbathe with boats constantly passing and passengers calling out to Dillon. He’s a good sport and waves at all of them. He seems to know just how much attention to give the fans as well as making his boundaries clear at the same time. The man is a pro. With the sun setting, Dillon glides the boat back to the dock. When we arrive, Tate is there waiting to take over the task of tying the boat down for the night.