by Rachel Hanna
"Good morning," Aaron said as he absent mindedly looked through receipts that had accumulated in the five days he was gone.
"You're back early. How was the trip?"
"Boring."
"Wasn't that the point? To get some quiet time away from the chaos here?"
"Didn't work," Aaron said still not looking up. If there was one thing he'd learned in his life, it was that his blue eyes always gave him away. It was better to hide them by looking down. "So, update me on what's been going on around here since I left."
"The Morgan family finally left," Paul said holding his hands up to the sky as if he was thanking God for that fact.
"Thank goodness. They were such a pain. Who stays at a tourist RV park for six weeks anyway?"
"And who has ten kids packed into an RV?" Paul said shaking his head. "Those were some of the worst kids we've ever had here."
"What else did I miss?"
"We got a new woman here about four days ago. She's next to your cabin."
"Yeah, I met her dog last night," Aaron said through gritted teeth. "She came out in the rain and got him."
"I only met her briefly when she checked in. Her name is Dawn, I think."
"Dawn," Aaron repeated without thinking. "She doesn't look like a Dawn." The comment was odd, even to Aaron himself.
"She keeps to herself. In fact, I haven't seen her come out since she got here."
"Why would you rent a space at the beach and then stay in your camper?" Aaron asked.
"Don't know. We might want to watch her, though." Aaron knew what Paul was referring to. They'd had a fugitive stay at the park one time. He had killed his girlfriend and used the park to hide out from the police for almost two weeks before they located him.
"Well, I'm in a great position to do that since I'm right next door," Aaron said.
"Maybe she's just trying to get some quiet time, unlike some people I know," Paul joked. Aaron didn't laugh, but grumbled instead as he went back to looking at receipts. Paul knew enough about him to know that it was best to leave well enough alone when Aaron was in a bad mood.
As Paul walked out, Aaron realized that his mind still wasn't relaxed enough to look through the receipts, so he decided to take a walk on the property. There was always something to do at the campground, and he liked to fiddle around looking for the next project or repair.
He walked outside, glancing first at the mystery woman's camper to see if she was outside. No such luck. He wondered for a moment if Paul was right. Could she be some kind of fugitive? She sure didn't look dangerous. With her voluptuous curves showing themselves through her wet, clingy clothing, she looked like a woman he could definitely snuggle up to at night. Shooing the thought away, Aaron groaned as he made his way up the path closest to the store.
Chapter 2
"So, those are the numbers for the quarter so far," Aaron said as he slid the papers across the table to his mother. Adele Parker, the town's most revered business woman and mother to five kids, smiled at her son as she slid her glasses down her nose.
"Sweetie, you don't have to sound so business-like with me. I'm your momma," she said with a chuckle.
"I'm well aware of that, Mom, but this is our business." As soon as the words had escaped his mouth, he regretted them. They'd almost lost her to a mild stroke recently, and the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel bad. "Sorry. It's been a rough few weeks. I'm still not myself, I guess." He reached across the table and patted her hand.
"I understand, baby. When you lose the one you thought you'd spend the rest of your life with, it rocks your entire world. Don't rush things. All I ask as your mother is that you don't close your heart off to those who love you."
"I promise. So, how are you feeling?"
"Good. Now that I have Jenna here helping me, things are working much better. She's a smart cookie, that one."
"I'm glad she and Kyle found their way back to each other," Aaron said forcing a smile. He was happy for his brother, but he couldn't help but be a little jealous at the same time.
Aaron finished up his meeting with Adele and then headed back to the campground. As he pulled in, he could see the mystery woman behind her camper wrestling with her dog. She looked like she was losing, and Aaron parked just in time to see the big dog standing over her on the ground.
"Come here, buddy!" he yelled in an attempt to get him off of her. The dog ran straight toward him, and Aaron grabbed him by the collar. As he did, the woman timidly made her way toward him. She seemed almost scared to come closer to him. "You okay?" Aaron asked looking up as he held onto the dog.
"Me? Um, sure. I was just giving him a bath..."
"With all due respect, it looked more like he was about to maul you."
"Beau wouldn't hurt me. He's my buddy," she said smiling as she reached out and rubbed the dog. "He just got too excited."
"If you say so," Aaron said standing up. The woman quickly clipped the dog into the leash. "Aaron Parker. I own this place." He reached out to shake her hand, but she stared down at her feet.
"Nice to meet you," she said without looking up. "I better go." She started to walk back to the camper.
"And you are?" he called to her.
"You own this place, so I am sure you know my name," she said as she turned around and smiled. Her dark hair had a shine under the sunlight streaming through the tall trees surrounding the campground, and the curve of her neck sent chills up his spine. She had a natural, rare beauty unlike the women he saw walking up and down the beach everyday.
"Remind me," Aaron said with a fake smile. She was starting to both arouse and irritate him.
"Dana," she said as she walked into the camper and shut the door. Dana?
* * *
"And you're sure she said Dawn?" Aaron asked Paul from across the counter.
"Positive. See? Here's her paperwork," Paul said sliding it across the countertop.
Aaron stared at it for a moment and then sighed as he slapped it back down onto the hard surface. "Why is this lady lying?"
"Maybe you should ask her."
"But she hasn't done anything wrong while she's been staying here, so don't you think it would be a little odd for me to ask her? I mean, there's no law against using a fake name. She paid cash, right?"
"Yep. She paid cash in advance for three weeks. After that, I have no idea where she will go or if she'll pay more to stay here."
Aaron ran his fingers through his hair, a common stressed out trait of the Parker men. As he thought through his options, he realized that he couldn't just go and confront a woman for not being overly friendly. Maybe she didn't want people to know her real name out of an abundance of caution for some reason. Either way, he had enough to deal with in his own life, so he opted to leave her alone for the time being.
"So, have you heard from Natalie lately?" Paul asked. Just the sound of her name crossing someone's lips made Aaron sick to his stomach.
“No, and I don’t want to. Don’t mention her name again, okay?” Aaron said pointedly as he looked into Paul’s eyes. Paul swallowed hard.
“Sorry. Just making conversation.”
“Well, she’s no longer a topic of conversations that include me. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Paul said as he watched his boss’s face finally relax.
“I’ve gotta run. I need to check on some things around the beach area,” he said as he slipped his sunglasses onto his face and walked out the door.
* * *
Tessa wiped the tiny counter, cleaning up random bits of tomato sauce from her attempt at making a decent meal of spaghetti. She feared that her son would never know what good food tasted like as she wasn’t the best cook in the world, and when she wasn’t damaging his taste buds with her own cooking, he was eating from a can or a jar.
“Mommy? Go to the beach?” Tyler said with his pleading blue eyes. He’d been asking for days now. It had been impossible to keep him from seeing the ocean waves out of the tiny camper windows.
“Not today, sweetie,” she said patting the tuft of blond hair on his head. It was the same hair his father had. The same head of hair she’d fallen in love with and subsequently come to fear. Maybe Tyler’s hair would darken as he got older. She hoped so, and that made her feel guilty for wanting anything about her son to change.
“Why not?” he asked with tears welling in his eyes. How could she tell him that they were in hiding? How could she explain that it wasn’t worth the risk to go outside more than they had to, even though they were hours from home.
“Honey, it’s getting late. It’s after dinner. We need to get baths…” she said. He started to cry. She knew this was hard for him. He’d been uprooted from everything he knew, even if what he knew was violence. His toys were gone. His room was gone. Guilt rose like bile in her throat, and she turned away from him to stop her own tears from escaping.
The truth was that she couldn’t give Tyler a real bath anymore. The old vintage camper had a small stand-up shower with a handheld hose. When she bathed her son, it felt like she was giving her dog a bath. What kind of mother was she? Every option she'd weighed hadn't seemed safe. The only way to be safe was to be alone. She’d learned that the hard way. But Tyler was now paying the price for her poor decisions from long ago.
As Tessa looked outside, she saw the sun starting to set over the ocean. Maybe they could sneak down to the shore and Tyler could play in the ocean for a little while without anyone noticing. Most people would be near their motorhomes and camp sites getting dinner ready. Deciding that it was worth the risk, she turned to Tyler.
“Okay, bud, I’ve got a surprise for you!” she said smiling as Tyler’s eyes got bigger. “We’re going to put on our swimsuits and play in the ocean for a little bit before it gets too dark.”
Tyler squealed with delight as he jumped up and down. Within minutes, he was buck naked running to the tiny bedroom on the other end of the camper, throwing the few articles of clothing in his rolling suitcase up in the air. Tessa giggled as she watched him. It was the first bit of normalcy she’d felt in a long time, and she prayed that showing their faces on the beach wouldn’t prove to be a big mistake.
* * *
Aaron sat on the small front porch of his cabin with a beer in one hand and his cell phone in the other. He wasn’t expecting a call, but it was a habit of his to keep his phone close ever since his mother’s stroke. Plus, running a campground meant that anything could happen at any minute, so he liked to be reachable.
As he swigged a sip of his beer, he leaned back in his chair and surveyed the beautiful sunset view. He couldn’t help but look at the old camper next to his cabin and wonder where the beautiful, if not secretive, woman and her unruly dog were. Were they inside, cooped up like convicts? Or had they finally gone somewhere. It seemed awfully quiet over there.
Tired of sitting still, he got up and walked toward the beach, dropping his bottle of beer into one of many receptacles along the way. The last thing he wanted was for any of his patrons to see him chugging alcohol as he walked around the campground. Most of his customers seemed to be near their campers, firing up their grills for dinner time.
What he saw next stopped him in his tracks. It was her. She was wearing a pale pink two piece bathing suit, and the orange glow of the sunset radiated off her skin even from far away. The gentle sea breeze was lightly blowing her long hair across her shoulders, and she seemed relaxed for the first time since he’d seen her. As she ran her fingers through her hair and stared into the ocean, he couldn’t help but feel like she was haunted by something. Or maybe someone.
As he moved closer, he crouched behind a dune. Feeling a bit like a stalker, he decided that he needed to at least know what was up with this reclusive woman staying on his property. Suddenly, he heard a child’s voice screaming and crying, and she began to run toward the outcropping of jagged rocks near the shore. He froze in place for a moment as he saw her, panic-stricken, running across the sand toward the sound of a small child crying.
Without thinking, he ran from behind the dune to find her crouched next to a rock and scooping a small boy up into her arms. She clutched him close to her, and Aaron’s legs felt like they were in quick sand as everything seemed to go in slow motion. He knew he was running, but he couldn’t get to her or the child fast enough for his taste. What was that about?
With no time to think too hard, he called out to her. “Is he okay?”
“I don’t know!” she said through tears as she looked back at him with a terrified look in her eyes. Aaron finally made it to her and fell to his knees beside her. There was a big cut across the boy’s forehead, but at least he was crying. Still, the mound forming behind the cut was threatening to open it up even larger.
“We need to get him over to the urgent care center,” Aaron yelled above the sound of the waves crashing against the adjacent rocks. “Come on!” he yelled as he stood up. He carefully took the small boy into his arms and she stood up beside him. They ran toward his cabin with the boy crying all the way. As they reached his cabin, he unlocked the Jeep with his remote and carefully placed the boy in the back seat, buckling him in and trying to assure him everything was going to be okay.
“It’s going to be okay, Tyler,” she said, trying to soothe him through her own tears as she sat close to him in the backseat. “Thank you for taking us. My camper… it doesn’t really…” she said pointing to the beaten up old clunker that she and her son were living in.
“It’s okay. Glad to do it. Doc Clayton is the best around here, and he’s usually working at the urgent care center today. They stay open pretty late, so he should still be there.”
“Okay…” she said, obviously tending to Tyler and paying little attention to Aaron. Still, as he drove, he couldn’t help but listen to her genuine love for the little boy. The sounds of a real mother, much like his own. It took him back in time to those days when his mother was the only parent around to soothe him. Every skinned knee, broken bone, broken heart. His father was gone before he ever had a chance to know him. Where was this little boy’s father?
Within a few minutes, Aaron was pulling into the parking lot of the urgent care center. Before he had a chance, she swooped the boy out of the car and inside like she had the strength of ten men. There was just something about the protection of a mother. It left him in awe for a moment as he watched her push the double doors open before he had a chance to open them for her like the Southern gentleman he’d been brought up to be.
“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asked.
“Can’t you see? He has a cut on his head and this bump is forming…” she stammered.
“And your name?” the woman asked, trying to fill out the basic paperwork.
“What does that matter?” she asked in a frustrated, yet almost terrified, tone.
“Ma’m…” the woman started.
“Hey, Kelly,” Aaron said coming up behind her.
“Oh, hey, Aaron!” the woman behind the counter said with a smile. The perky blond was thrilled to see Aaron Parker, especially since he’d been her high school crush for four years. Aaron knew that little tidbit, and he needed to use it right now for some leverage.
“Listen, can you do me a favor and get little Tyler here back to see the doc pretty quickly? We’ve got one shaken up momma here,” he said with a sexy smile.
Kelly stared at him with a smile for a moment and then nodded as she buzzed them back into the triage area. After doing some minor clean up, the nurse put Tyler in a room as Aaron waited outside for him and his mom to finish up.
When she walked out of the room without him, Aaron looked concerned.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. The doctor is just finishing up a couple of stitches. Poor baby just tuckered out, so he’s asleep,” she said with a tired smile. “Thanks for helping me back there…”
Aaron waved his hand. “It was nothing. I heard him scream…”
“No, I mean at the front
desk.” She had a look of knowing on her face. She obviously knew that he knew something was amiss and she wasn’t who she said she was.
“It’s not my place to judge, Dawn. I mean, Dana? What do I call you anyway?” he asked with a laugh.
“Either one is fine,” she said looking down. The doctor reappeared in the doorway.
“All finished up, ma’m. He's got a few dissolving stitches that will take care of themselves in a few days. Now, he’s mighty tired, so I would check in on him several times during the night. I don’t think he’s got a head injury, but when they bang their noggin, it’s always a good thing to check every hour or two. ‘Course, if he starts throwing up or running a fever, you get him to the ER, okay?”
“Thank you, doctor,” she said with a grateful smile as she reached her hand out to shake his. He held it for a moment longer and looked into her eyes.
“You’re gonna be okay, ma’m,” he said and walked off. She stood there stunned for a moment, shook her head and walked into the room to get Tyler. Aaron wasn’t sure what the Doc meant, but it was like he knew that she needed to hear that she was going to be okay.
As they drove back to the campground, there were no words spoken between them. She was quiet, looking out the window as if she was looking into some other realm far away. They pulled into the driveway in front of his cabin and Aaron carefully unbuckled Tyler, carrying him toward the cabin instead of the camper.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Into my cabin,” he said as he unlocked the door and pushed it open with his foot.
“Um, excuse me, but I want to take my child home. He needs to rest,” she said with her hands on her hips in the doorway.
Aaron placed him on the sofa and covered him with a nearby blanket as she stared at him dumbfounded. He motioned for her to come back outside so as not to wake Tyler.
“Listen, I don’t know you very well. Actually, I don’t know you at all. But that’s not the point. The point is that Doc Clayton told you he has to be checked on every hour or two. You look completely exhausted already. There’s no way you’re going to be able to get up over and over for eight or more hours and check on him. What if you oversleep?”