“He wouldn’t.” Josh said, echoing what they all hoped.
But Wes and I knew better. “He would.” He said for them both.
The three stepped outside and were immediately slammed by wind and rain. Wes motioned for them all to go back inside and they did.
“Listen, we don’t know where he went.” He said. “I’m going to go to the right. You to go to the left. Don’t stay out long. If he’s there… and he probably is… he can’t have gone far.”
They stepped back out and found themselves drenched moments after they’d gone out. The tables and chairs normally set out in the area had already been secured by staff, or else they would have been tipped over and blocking their path. As it was, it was a challenge to work their way down to the beach and the water’s edge.
Echoing their bar visit, Josh cupped his hands to Laura’s ear. “We need to split up a little bit further to cover the ground. Go that way!” He motioned away from the water.
It was incredibly hard to see ahead, but they both stumbled and fell several times as they walked up the drenched sand. The water was high, narrowing the beach significantly. Wild waves could be spied further out in the water. Josh pointed towards the water; they both knew they didn’t want to be out there any longer than was absolutely necessary.
As they moved up the beach, she noticed that the ground was rising beside the beach, forming something of a cliff. She hadn’t really noticed it before, so enraptured with her time spent with Josh that she hadn’t really noted the features of the beach. But as they walked further and further, she realized that there were places near the cliff where someone could potentially take some degree of shelter.
She soon found that a rocky area did, in fact, have an overhang. There she found Jim, huddled and terrified, staring back at her. He threw both arms out as she approached, and she quickly grabbed him up and tried to shield him from the elements.
As they started to walk away, part of the cliff face fell.
“Laura!” She heard Josh shout, saw him running towards her, but didn’t know why. Clumps of brown dirt and pebbles showered over her and she crouched involuntarily, covering Jim with her body. A moment later she was covered in the stuff and felt something heavy and hard connect with her ankle.
There was a snap. It was horrible, so horrible, that pain. But the worst part was, as she looked and wondered, that she saw a small boulder had landed on her foot and ankle, pinning her down.
Josh was next to her and shouted into her ear. “Are you okay?”
“Take Jim! Go!” She shouted back.
Josh looked torn, unsure of what to do. He delayed in his uncertainty, but she grabbed his shirt. “He’ll die out here- he’s freezing!”
“Damn it. Damn!” He cursed, frustrated. “I’ll be back as fast as I can. Hang on, do you hear me?” Once he’d made up his mind, he wrapped the child in his arms as quickly as he could and started to run in the direction of the resort.
Laura tried to move the boulder, but it wouldn’t budge for her. He felt strangely tired. Had she been hit in the head? She felt like she might have been. She reached up and touched her head, and found that there was blood washing off her hand as she looked. Her vision blurred as she looked.
“Tired.” She said quietly, laying down and no longer feeling the rain, the cold, and the break.
---
“There she is!” She slowly opened her eyes. Two faces greeted her; the first she was very glad to see. It was Josh. He was sitting next to her bed, holding her hand.
The second was Wes. He was standing nearby, a smile on his face.
She looked around, not recognizing her surroundings. “Where am I?” There were a lot of flowers.
“Sorry. You’re in the hospital, hon.” Josh said, clearly happy to see her awake. “You took a really bad hit. How do you feel?”
“Mmm. I’m not sure. My leg aches.”
“That’s a break, I’m afraid.” Josh explained.
“You’re parents are on their way.” Wes piped up. He looked embarrassed to add, “Don’t worry, they didn’t pay. I took care of it. Everything will be taken care of.”
“Okay.” Laura felt somewhat grateful, but didn’t think too much of it. She was too busy feeling strangely high and tired at the same time. “I must be on meds or something?”
“No, that would have been dangerous. You’re still coming back from being out. You were out all night.” Josh said. He pets her face gently. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Jim?”
“He’s completely fine. Shaken up, scared, and worried about you. Both the boys are. But Jim will be okay. You’re going to be fine too.” He assured her.
Wes went around to the other side of the bed. “Listen- I want to tell you on behalf of Sue and I we know it’s not your fault Jim left. We’ve been hard on you, but you… well, we owe you everything. I want to repay you. We’ll talk about it when you’re feeling better. For now, get better and don’t worry about taking care of the kids.”
“All right.” She yawned mightily. “I need to sleep some more. Will you be around?” She asked Josh.
He shook his head. “Absolutely. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
“He’s hardly left your side.” Wes said, but his voice trailed off as she felt warm and safe, drifting into calm dreams.
---
Laura and Josh looked over the freshly painted wooden sign. He was holding a brush in one hand, his other hand on his hip as they looked down at it.
“It looks nice.” She decided. The words on the sign were in a lovely, flowing script- “The Willow House, Bed and Breakfast.”
“You think it’ll work?”
“Absolutely! Let it dry and hang it this afternoon, okay?”
“Yes, Mrs. Philips.”
“This afternoon, Mr. Philips. Don’t forget!”
He held up his hands in protest. “When have I ever let you down, dear?”
She laughed and put an arm around his waist. “Okay, fair enough. You have been doing good work around here.”
They looked over their little plot of land. It was shady, tree-lined neighborhood in small town, coastal Maine. The ocean was still another three miles away, but the historic little town had a great antiques district, and tourists were big fans of the stop on their way to Bar Harbor and parts north. The Willow House was already booked through the summer, and their first day in business was still a week away.
“You know the DeVilliers will be our first guests, right?” He said, with a note of warning to his voice.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. You can hardly blame them. They’re our main investors, after all.”
“A little more than that, I think. Pretty much our only investors, other than the money we kicked in which- let’s be honest- wasn’t that much.”
“Uh huh. Don’t remind me!”
He gave her a kiss on the forehead. “It’s not forever. We’ll get them paid back before you know it.”
“I’m sure. Still, it’ll be nice to see the boys.”
He nodded in agreement. “I’m glad Sue and Wes are spending more time with them. I hate to say it, but they were kind of-”
“Self-involved jerks?” She laughed.
“You said it, not me! But yes. Well, before the accident. Yes.” He shrugged.
They walked around front and climbed up the short stairway to the porch. She fell into the porch swing and held a hand out to him. “Not too tired to sit and rock with me a minute?”
“Never.”
He snuggled next to her and put an arm around her shoulder. “I bet you never thought you’d be here this quickly. How’s your ankle today?”
She held it up her foot and turned it slowly. “It’s not given me any pain in a week. I think it’s finally past.”
“About time!” He pets her knee. “I think I could just sit on this swing forever and not move.”
“Forever is a long time.” She mused, turning to meet his eyes. She rested a hand on her hus
band’s chest. “Maybe not long enough.”
“Nope.” He said quietly, leaning down to kiss her. “Not enough time by far, babe.”
THE END
Seeking Obsession
You know what I always found to be annoying? Imagining the future. Yes, that’s right I think it is only ends up in unfulfilled expectations and disappointment. Why? Well, it’s simple. When we’re younger we tend to think that when we get out of one situation, our next phase in life will always be better, things will always go our way and the issues that do get in our way will be so infinitesimal that they wouldn’t even matter. That is of course, until we get to that new phase and reality sets in. The reason that I say this is because I’m no different from the other ten million other teen hopefuls that pack up their lives hoping that college will be the key to their awesomeness. I thought moving away was going to be the key to everything that I had been missing in high school, but the sad truth was I was just as mediocre, if not more, than I was back home. There were no awesome keg parties and I wasn’t the big “sister” in some big name sorority, and I definitely wasn’t SGA material. In fact, the only real fun I had was these crazy book club meetings that I’d go to with Sharae my roommate. But wait a sec…I’m getting way ahead of myself. Let me start from the beginning.
My name is Miranda Marie Hartwell—Mimi for short. I’m originally from St. Paul Minnesota, the world’s coldest place both physically and socially. I came from a family of really straight-laced people. Dad was a bank accountant and Mom was a kindergarten teacher; seriously boring but great parents. Needless to say, my life was equally dull. This was mostly due to the ever-powerful social ladder that ruled high school in Minnesota. Where I come from, the jocks were the ones that ruled the schools, they and their skinny perky-tit cheerleader girlfriends were the crème de la crème and whatever they wanted they were locked down for it. Next were the band kids, followed by the theatre geeks, then the color guard, and what category did I fit into for those four excruciating years of my life?…The other category. Yup, that was me; I was one of the others, part of the outcasts of high school. Simply an uninteresting girl that got great grades but was certainly invisible, which was kind of ironic seeing as how I was two hundred and fifty eight pounds. This was the shittiest part of all because while a few people had been able to change their rung in the high school social ladder by dying their hair or wearing a super padded push-up bra, I had nowhere to socially progress. For girls like me, if you were fat before High school and during high school, then it was clear that you were going to be fat after high school, so often times no one gave me the time of day. No one cared about us bigger girls-- that was of course unless you were smart, then you were valuable until after finals.
During these four years of agony I never had a boyfriend, in fact the only guy I did get along with and had a crush on was one of the most popular guys in school. Unfortunately, that died out the night of prom when he took me out of the school gym and kissed me. The reason I say unfortunate is because after he kissed me, I was so happy and giddy that someone as hot as him was actually into me, and then that happiness was ripped out of me when I heard him scream that he wanted his money for having to kiss me. Turns out it was a stupid bet conjured up by his stupid friends as a final joke at my expense. After that I was determined that when I walked across the stage the next week at graduation I was going to leave all of that negativity of high school behind and go to college to start fresh. I decided that I wasn’t going to be the invisible girl that everyone saw as something to play with any more. In fact, I was going to start my life completely over.
I’d gotten accepted into several colleges all over the country, and a few here in Minnesota. After serious deliberation, I chose to go to the University of Southern California. The one place in the world where I thought that people loved you just because you were breathing and it wasn’t hard to be the life of the party, my goal, after all, was to be a leading expert in psychology and that was the best place for it. No one would know me or even care about the crappy life that I left behind. A fresh start, in a new environment would be just what I needed. It was hard convincing my parents that it was the best move, but I knew they would cave. After a busy summer, I packed up everything I owned and high-tailed it to Cali just knowing that my world was going to change. Yeah right; cue reality check.
Now here I am in present day, sophomore year and I’m just as fucking sad as I had been back home, in fact to be honest, it was worse now. The first few moments that I stepped foot on this campus last year I felt like the life that I left behind had gone down the toilet and my life was destined for greatness. I had everything planned, I was going to start going to all the campus events— parties, campus functions whatever. My goal was to have my face seen and to socialize with anyone and everyone, even if it meant volunteering my time at some function sponsored by campus, I wanted new people to see my personality and really get to know me. I even had plans to lose some weight and finally drop below two-hundred in order to be healthier. If I was lucky, I would be able to meet a hot guy and get something going. Needless to say none of it happened, after I got here I didn’t realize that most of the money I needed for tuition still had to be split between paying for housing every month and paying for food. Since I didn’t have enough money, I wound up having to work two jobs just to stay afloat so that gave me no time for a social life, and as far as losing weight - epic fail. The only club I did manage to join was the “freshman fifteen”, due to all of the pizza and sub sandwiches I’d been eating everyday on my way to work. Even though I’d gotten along with people, no one knew me and just like at home, I was once again fading into obscurity.
I went home for the summer feeling like an absolute failure, and my mom tried to convince me that maybe there was some divine reason as to why I wasn’t noticed and gave me her whole speech about how good things come to those who wait. Of course that was right after she gave me a five month supply of diet pills. I hated feeling like a failure and going back home, however brief it was, it was just another reminder of how uninteresting my life was. The whole summer vacation I did the same things I did at school, plopped in front of the couch after a busy day at work and watched TV, clutching a pint of my favorite ice cream. Even now I hate thinking about that, mostly because I’m already a month into sophomore year and I’m doing the exact same thing. I’m stuck in this awful pattern, just aching to break free.
I am back in one of the world’s most traveled states and I’m just sitting around going about my unoriginal life. So far there have been no college parties, and besides school, working was dominating the majority of my time. I couldn’t help but feel a little depressed, because every day it was the same routine and I felt almost robotic like I’d been preprogrammed to do this same thing over and over. I needed something new in my life, something exciting, and that pissed me off because that was the whole point of me moving out west so I could introduce flash and excitement, and so far – nothing. The crazy part is, I was one month away from my twentieth birthday and my parents were going on vacation, reliving the days before my conception when they were free as birds, and I am completely on my own.
Once again, me being alone was not that unusual. After all I’d spent most of my life as a loner, and the only boyfriend I’ve ever had is a four inch vibrator that I sneak from under my pillow every other night around two in the morning when I’m sure that Sharae can’t hear me. On those nights, I lie in my bed with my legs spread wide, pretending that my toy was the man of my dreams. He was always a tall man with arms that rivaled Hercules and legs thicker than tree trunks that he used to pin back my legs as he entered me slowly and made love to me sending me into a whirlwind of passion and ecstasy. I would envision piercing eyes the size of saucers and the color of rain. I would imagine that his big hand was caressing my cheek while he told me how much he loved me and then he would slowly cover my mouth so that my moans wouldn’t disturb my roommate. It was always the most amazing and tender sex that
anyone could ever imagine and I could just hear all of the dirty things that he would be saying to me as he drove me to a leg quivering, toe curling orgasm. Then I would come back to reality, my eyes would open I would be alone in my room with nothing but the television on. I really needed to get a damn life. I couldn’t do this for the rest of my life, and I certainly didn’t want to be forty years old and still stuck in this rut, living life like a frumpy old maid. There was no way that I could even spend another two to three years at this beautiful campus and not take advantage of everything it had to offer, I needed to get out there. .
Usually Sharae and I didn’t hold too much conversation, not because we didn’t get along, but mainly because I was always gone. She was a really nice girl, born and raised in the Los Angeles area, so she knew all that there was to know about California life. Sharae was also a year ahead of me and an active part of the school, a big sister in her sorority and her face was plastered on several campus news bulletins; everyone knew her. To be honest, sometimes being around her made me feel a little uncomfortable because she was so popular and pretty. Even though she wasn’t overly tall she had the presence of a goddess. Her beautiful dark skin could make any guy fall for her and her amazing tight body could bring them down to their knees. I wished I was more like her, beautiful and outgoing, but I wasn’t, so I tried my best to steer clear of her. Which is why it’s so surprising that she’s knocking on the door right now.
ROMANCE: CLEAN ROMANCE: Summer Splash! (Sweet Inspirational Contemporary Romance) (New Adult Clean Fantasy Short Stories) Page 126