Seventeen Days

by D. B. James

  Fuck!

  I’m so fucking confused.

  Which is exactly why I need these few months on my own at Columbia. Time away to find myself. Time to answer these questions running around unanswered in my mind. Time to also get to know Julian. More time to get to know Harrison. Even if both are done from a distance.

  Having found a few simple answers in the sunrise, I grab Dog’s ball and toss it as far as I can. We’ll play catch for a few minutes before I get dressed and call my aunt. I’d like to see if she can take me to buy a dress for my date with Harrison tonight.

  “Dude, where the fuck is my beer?”

  It’s the first thing that comes out of Gentry’s mouth as I step out of my truck. Good morning to you too, assface.

  “Number one, I don’t have any beer laying around to bring to you. Number two, who the hell sells beer before dawn? Number three, good fucking morning to you too.”

  Seriously, I did not leave my woman in my bed this morning to deal with his shit. If this is how my day is starting, who’s to say how it’ll fucking go? All I know is it’ll end in heaven. My date with Red will be perfect. There’s no question about it.

  I’m taking her on a sunset cruise of the gulf. Only her and me. Dinner is being catered, but I’m not bringing anyone along. I’ve arranged to pick it up, and I’ll keep it warming below deck for when we're ready to eat. Not wanting to lose a minute with her, I planned every second to be with only her. No one else. I’m not sharing her.

  She’s leaving me in the morning.

  Granted, it’s only for the weekend, but when she does come back, it’s only for a few days and then she’ll be gone again, and unless I can arrange it, I won’t see her till December. That’s months. Not days. Not hours. Not minutes. Fucking months.

  It’s only been weeks I’ve known her, but it feels like a lifetime. It’s enough to know I don’t want to spend another day without her in it. I’ve been thinking about saying “fuck it” and proposing to her tonight, but I know she’d fucking run off to New York and never come back. She’d leave me far behind. Not only me but her aunt too. Maybe Julian too.

  My beautiful, stubborn, scared, emerald-eyed, red-headed beauty.

  “Hey, where’d you go, man?” Gentry asks while waving a hand in front of my face.

  “Nowhere. Thanks for taking over the books for Red. And in essence, Dave. He’s not coming back, by the way. Guess I better look into hiring a permanent replacement. His mother has taken another turn for the worse. Y’all might want to go visit or send flowers. Whatever.”

  He called last night, I felt like shit for not answering his call, but I never heard my phone go off, I was too wrapped up in my woman. When I heard his message this morning, it was all I could do not to pull off the road and cry. Fuck, I know what he’s going through. Poor kid.

  “Yeah. Sure, no problem. I’m going to go help Thad get both boats ready, Steve is inside,” he says while taking off toward the docks.

  I’m so fucking not here today; I shouldn’t have bothered to come in. If I wouldn’t have missed so much time already by going to Paris, I wouldn’t have. My head isn’t here. It’s back at my place with Red. Shit, it’s with Dave. If I’m being honest, my heart isn’t here today, because my heart was left at home in my bed.

  Walking inside, I see Steve sitting at the desk drinking his coffee. “Morning, boss.”

  “Morning, Salty. Mind if I take over that seat? I need to get out a few emails quickly before the customers start to arrive,” I ask. He gets up, and I quickly sit down at the computer and swiftly send out an email to the local newspaper to run an ad asking for help. Not only do I need to hire a few experienced fishermen, I need to hire a new assistant. An office manager, I guess.

  “Morgan’s not coming in anymore?” Steve asks as I’m writing the last email.

  Maybe Gentry hasn’t told anyone anything? Figured he’d have blabbed his mouth to everyone by now and told them all what he knew? Which is next to nothing, but he does know about Dave now, and about Morgan not coming back. He wouldn’t have had time to tell Steve about Dave, but he’s his dad for fuck’s sake, I figured he would’ve told him everything about her.

  “No, she’s going to New York in the morning for a few days. She’ll be back here for a week or two before returning there to attend classes at Columbia. In the future, she should be around more, but I’m not sure if she’ll be working here or not.” Taking a moment to myself, I get up and grab a cup of coffee. “There’s more to tell you, Steve.”

  “Okay?” he ponders.

  “Dave, isn’t coming back. His mother probably won’t make it much longer. He called and left a message last night. That’s why I had to send out an email, I needed to place an ad for his replacement. Hopefully I can have a temp here by tomorrow morning. Figured you’d like to know so you can go visit them.”

  He falls back into the chair across from the desk with a loud thud. He used to date Dave’s mother. At one point, I thought he may actually be Dave’s dad. But the timing doesn’t make sense. Besides, Dave looks too much like his dad for Steve to be any relation. But fuck if they don't act alike. Gentry and Dave even share a few of the same traits, which is another reason why I questioned it.

  “Theresa is a good woman. It’s a shame she has cancer. It’s worse that it’s killing her. Excuse me, son.” He gets up abruptly and exits the office. Could swear those were tears I saw in his eyes.

  Drinking my coffee in three quick gulps, I rush out to help the guys finish getting things ready. Thad greets me with a head nod and that’s it. The customers arrive shortly after and I lose myself in teaching them the rules of the sea before casting out.

  The hours fly by, and before I know it, we’re back and I have less than an hour to rush home, get ready, and pick up Red for our date.

  Running in the front door, I almost trip over Dog on my way into my bathroom to grab a shower. He’s snoring away in the middle of the living room and didn’t bother to stir. Little shit. Seeing him, I detour into the kitchen to make sure his food bowl is full and give him fresh water while also making a quick mental note to run to the store to grab him more kibble.

  When I finally make it out of the shower, I see a freshly-laundered and ironed shirt laying across my bed. God bless Savannah. That woman, I swear. It’s like she knew I wouldn’t remember to iron anything myself. Figures she’d pick a light-blue shirt. She always tells me to wear that or gray. She says it brings out the color of my eyes. It probably does, but I’ve never paid much attention to my own eyes. Morgan’s eyes? Yup. I’ve paid attention to those beautiful jade depths. That’s different, though. Hers shine so bright it’s hard not to notice them.

  Once I’m dressed, I make it out to my truck with five minutes to spare. Which means I’ll make it to Savannah’s without a minute to spare. Not like Morgan will pay that close of attention but I will. Fuck, I want to spend every second I can with her until her flight leaves tomorrow. If I could, I’d walk her onto the plane and belt her into her fucking seat. Not like that is going too far.

  Every woman I’ve ever known before Morgan fails in comparison. Her beauty, her compassion, her loving nature, her fierceness, her quirkiness. She’s everything.

  She even tried to rename my dog I’ve had pretty much my entire life, and I almost let her. She’s basically lived with me since the day we met and doesn’t bother me or scare me. Not in the slightest. And it should. I’ve never had a serious relationship before and she’s eighteen and was lost when she came here but as soon as her eyes met mine I felt like I was found.

  So that’s why I’m not scared. It’s also why I want to propose to her tonight, but it’s also every reason why I can’t. She’s a runner. She’ll run away, and all I want her to do is run to me.

  Before I can manage to put the truck in park, she’s making her way down the steps. Which puts a damper on my plans. I honestly wanted to do this right and pick her up at her door. But it’s okay. She’s wearing a dress as green as her eyes.
If I wasn’t already braking, I probably would’ve crashed my truck right into the back of Savannah’s. I’m sure my fucking tongue is hanging out. I feel like a damn cartoon dog.

  “Hey, Captain,” she says while jumping up into the truck. Fuck, I didn’t make it out to open her door.

  What a real fucking gentleman, Harrison.

  “Hey yourself, Red. You’re absolutely stunning tonight. Did you buy a new dress?” She’s never worn that color for me before. But I recall I all but begged her to buy a similar color in Paris.

  “Yeah, it is. Do you like it?”

  “Fuck yeah, I like it. Didn’t you see my tongue hanging out when you climbed into the truck? Jesus, woman, I almost slammed into the back of your aunt’s truck. If I wouldn’t have already been braking, I probably would’ve. You leave me breathless, babe.” Grabbing her hand, I place a kiss on the back of it and place it on my knee.

  “You truly take my breath away. Trust me when I say that. There hasn’t been one moment where I haven’t been left breathless by you, but in the best possible way.”

  A tear makes its way down her cheek. Shit, I didn’t mean to make her cry.

  “That’s by far the single sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me before.”

  “It’s the truth, babe.” Reaching down, I place my hand on hers only a moment ago I placed on my knee and grasp it. Choosing to drive with only one hand, it’s worth it to have this connection with her.

  Taking a deep breath, she pulls herself together. “Aunt Savannah took me into Fairhope today to a few shops to search for something to wear. The result was this dress. Which turned into my needing new shoes, so we ended up in Spanish Fort. I didn’t know my aunt was such a shopper. She wore me out! After buying the dress, everything else was all her idea. Every new thing we bought snowballed into something else until she couldn’t think of anything more.” Whispering, she adds, “I also have on a new bra and panty set.”

  Fuck, I’m going to crash my truck.

  “So, um … How was your day?” she asks all innocent-like. She whispered she had on a new bra and panties and then asked me about my day, like she expects me to not reply about her new bra!

  “What color?”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t play coy with me, babe. What color?”

  Mumbling as if to herself, she says, “Green.”

  You’ve got to be kidding me. She’s wearing green from head to toe? Everything? This I have to see. Sooner rather than later.

  “Everything is green, babe? Panties? Bra? Tell me these things, or better yet, show me.”

  “Excuse me? Show you? How, Harrison, you’re driving? We’re basically in public!” she all but screeches.

  “Use your imagination. Besides, we’re almost to the docks. You can always show me once we’re on the boat. But I’d like to see them now.” Yeah, I’m daring you, babe.

  Licking her lips, she moves her hand out of mine and off my knee. Giving me a sideways glance, she pulls in her bottom lip and bites it. Fuck she’s sexy.

  She’s turned on. I should’ve known from the club in Paris she likes doing risky things in public. My little vixen. From the look in her eye, I can tell she’s thinking about how to show me without actually showing anyone who passes us by.

  Her bra should be easy enough. She starts by doing exactly what I thought she would. She pulls one strap of her dress aside revealing the strap of her emerald toned bra. Shit, it matches her dress and eyes perfectly.

  “Can you see it?”

  “Yeah, babe, I can see it.” Maybe we’ll skip dinner and go straight to the making love portion of the evening. We can always eat later. I’m hard as a fucking stone. Putting her dress back into place, she spreads her legs and gently pushes her dress up her creamy thighs.

  “Can you see them, Harrison?”

  “No, but I like what I can see.” Which is all creamy goodness. “Go a bit higher, babe. No one can see.”

  “Are you sure? Not even if a semi passes us, they won’t be able to see?”

  “Promise babe.”

  She goes a step further than I ever dreamed possible and pushes her dress all the way up to her waist revealing her matching panties to me. She hooks her hands into the sides and pulls them down her legs, one side gets caught on her shoe, but it doesn’t stop her for more than a second. She quickly tosses them at me while tugging her dress down at the same time.

  Fuck. Me.

  Now that was what I call a tease. And here I thought I was hard as stone a minute ago.

  “Morgan?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be ready ‘cause I’m going to fuck you hard as soon as we make it one step inside the office door. You'll be screaming so loud we may break the windows. I’ll be backing you up against those said windows you like so much and screwing you senseless. I planned on being on the boat at sunset, but now I’ll be inside of you instead. I want you to know it’ll be a hard fucking and not soft. My need for you is so bad I can’t fucking see straight, we’re lucky I can still drive this truck.”

  “If I didn’t want it hard, I wouldn’t have thrown my panties at you.”

  It’s all the reply I need.

  My little vixen wants it rough tonight. And I’m going to oblige her.

  Two hours later we finally made it out on the gulf. We saw the sunset all right, exactly like Harrison promised while he was inside of me, making me scream. We set off our own fireworks.

  Knowing I had to talk to him tonight about a few things, I may have sidetracked him a bit by tossing my undies at him. After getting over my initial shyness about someone seeing me, I was turned on by the idea that someone may.

  “I’m going to miss the water when I’m back in the city.” I might have only been here for a few weeks but I’ve gotten used to being within a stone's throw from the ocean. No smog, either. Breathing in clean air is amazing. I’m sure my lungs will hate me for going back—they’ve enjoyed the clean air.

  “You could always stay. Go to school here in the winter. Take a semester off. Lots of people do that.”

  “Trust me, I’ve thought of it myself already.” Reaching across the table, I grab his hand. “But I can’t. There’s a few things I’d like to tell you, if you’d like to hear them. They’re not behind my reasons for leaving, but they’re part of who I am. My reasons for leaving have to do with having to find the answers for myself and have nothing to do with you, Harrison. Or my feelings for you.”

  Breathing in deep, I gulp in as much fresh air as I can. Shit, why did I think it was a good idea to open up to him more tonight? Why couldn’t I wait until I was back in New York and we were talking on the phone? I’m such a wuss.

  “Of course you can talk to me. I’ll always be here for you. No matter what. Forever if you’ll have me.”

  Forever?

  Do I want to spend forever with him? Yeah, I think I do.

  “You know how I lost my virginity already. This is connected … in a way.” Using my free hand, I start twisting my hair around my fingers. Shit, I’m nervous.

  “You may have guessed a bit of it already. I’m not sure what all you overheard when Sienna was here. Nothing in my life was free. Ever.” Letting go of my hair, I grab my glass of wine and take a deep gulp. “Whenever I wanted anything or needed anything, food, clothing, whatever … I paid for it mostly in sex.”

  There. It’s out.

  Take a deep breath, Morgan.

  Breathe in. Breathe out.

  Breathe in. Breathe out.

  He isn’t saying anything and my hand he’s holding is turning purple he’s grasping it so hard.

  I gasp while yanking my hand away. “Ouch. Harrison, you’re hurting me.”

  He pushes away from the table abruptly, and his chair falls over hitting the deck with a loud clatter. It’s the only sound besides my heavy breathing. He hasn’t acknowledged hurting my hand yet. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him face to face. He’s pissed. Does knowing this change the way he feels about me? The w
ay he sees me? Does he see me as tainted now? Damaged goods? It’s the way I see myself, after all.

  You always seem to fuck things up, Morgan. Anything good in my life, always goes to shit.

  “I’m going to fucking kill her,” he shouts. He’s gripping the rail almost as hard as he was gripping my hand. His hands are turning white. “Did you fucking hear me? I want to kill her.”

  Well, shit. He’s not mad at me, he’s mad at her. My bitch of a mother. He needs to calm down before he does anything stupid. Like actually find her and kill her. Good thing we’re in the middle of the ocean.

  “Harrison, you can’t. You’ll go to jail and I … I need you. Please don’t ever do anything about this. I’m safe now and it’s all that matters. You have me now. I’m with you. Always.” Getting up, I reach him and pull him into my arms. He’s crying. “Baby, don’t cry for me. It’s over. I lived through it and it brought me to you. It was a living hell, but I’d do it all over again if it meant I got to have you in the end. You're my angel at the end of a long line of demons.”

  It may have taken me until right in this moment to realize it but Harrison is my angel. He’s been worth everything leading up to this exact moment. He is worth living for. Trust me, I’ve thought about ending it all before. But now, I know why I never could. He was waiting for me.

  Would I trade my life for another? No, not now. Not after knowing how wonderful life can be with a man who truly loves you. No questions asked. A man who wants nothing from you in return. Whose love is given freely without strings. My God, how I love this man. Why on Earth do I want to leave to find myself? Because, Morgan, you have to know if this is real, and the only way to know for certain is to leave for a while.

  Right?

  I’m not sure how much time passes but I hold Harrison until his tears dry it’s only then I realize I had been crying, too. It’s like our tears drying together helped heal our hearts, together.

  “Baby, have you ever shared this with anyone else? Amanda or Celene, maybe?” he asks.

  Obviously, I haven’t. It’s not like I go around sharing my innermost secrets with the world. I’d never have shared such horrors with Celene or Amanda. It’s like deep down I knew they weren’t truly my friends.