That Unexpected Kiss

by Tamara Ferguson

  He felt the tension inside her coil, felt her tighten beneath him, her thighs gripping his as release flickered and beckoned. Her ragged breathing filled his ears, a soft sound overlaying his own raspy breath.

  Julie reached for him, trying to pull him closer as they came nearer to release and fulfillment. Passion swirled before they fell.

  Julie sighed with obvious contentment as Dylan wrapped an arm over her shoulders.

  Satiated and boneless, Dylan laid with his eyes closed beside Julie hearing her breathing turn steady as she fell into sleep. Eventually, he pulled down the covers, gently tugging her underneath, before wrapping his arms around her and falling asleep beside her.

  * * *

  When he awoke near dawn, Dylan gazed through the window where the clouds were hanging low over the lake like mist. Dylan looked at Julie, who was thrashing against him, moaning out loud.

  She must’ve been having a terrible dream because she suddenly screamed, “Mommy!”

  Dylan immediately attempted to awaken her. “Julie.” Maybe he’d been right about her having memories? “Julie, wake up,” he roared, seating her upright and pulling her into his arms.

  Tears were running down her face when she finally seemed to realize where she was. “Oh, Dylan. It was awful,” she cried.

  “What, Julie? What did you see?”

  “I remember being somewhere, like in an office. I was really young. There were file cabinets around me and there was a man with me—an older man. I remember I was really sleepy and I could hardly stay awake. A woman came through the door and she was really upset.” Julie closed her eyes. “Oh, God, could it have been my mom?”

  Julie eyes came open again and she stared at Dylan. “It was,” she said abruptly. “And she came walking towards me and the man.” Julie hesitated. “She was yelling. But not at me—she was yelling at the man. Keep your hands off her, she said. And the man hit her. More than once.”

  Julie started crying harder, and she clung to Dylan as her cries escaped in gulping heart wrenching sobs.

  “It’s alright, Babe,” Dylan reassured softly, patting her on the back. “I’m here. Don’t worry, we’ll figure it all out.”

  “The last thing I remember Dylan, is that I was shaking her.” Her eyes went wide in terror. “There was blood everywhere, and she wouldn’t wake up.”

  CHAPTER

  NINETEEN

  To find someone she was able to trust and lean on was more comforting than she could ever say. This is what it feels like to really love someone, Julie thought, and to be loved in return. She blinked, trying to hold back her tears, but all at once they were impossible to stop. She’d sensed right away that the events she was seeing in her mind had really happened.

  What to do next?

  All she knew was that she felt reassured in Dylan’s arms and it was right where she belonged.

  Dylan’s question came out in a rumble. “Are you feeling any better now?” He gave her a wry smile. “Somehow, I don’t think you’re ready to go back to sleep.”

  When she nodded her agreement, he stood up from the bed. “I’ll get the coffee going first. I have a feeling we’re going to be spending the day reading over the files and trying to figure our next step.”

  Dylan continued holding her gaze for a long lingering moment, she figured, to determine whether she was really doing alright.

  When he finally seemed reassured, he made his way from the room.

  Julie went into the bathroom and got the water running for the shower. Look at everything that’d happened in the last two days, Julie thought, letting multiple shower heads spray over her body on full blast. She spun the handle from hot to cold, to wake her brain a little faster.

  She was shivering by the time she stepped out from the shower and began getting dressed.

  Wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Julie brushed through damp hair, deciding to let it dry on its own.

  When she finally walked into the kitchen, she discovered Dylan was already drinking coffee while talking on the phone, which was probably why he’d never returned to join her in the bedroom like she’d half expected.

  His expression was grim when he disconnected the phone. “Sit down, Babe,” he said gently. Reaching for the coffee pot, he poured her a cup. Leaving it resting in front of her, he went to the fridge for the milk.

  Dylan added a little milk to her coffee and after putting it away he sat down beside her. He obviously had something to tell her, cause he seemed to be very hesitant.

  Julie drank some coffee, and after resting her cup back on the table, she said, “Spit it out. I can tell by looking at you that something’s wrong. Please go ahead and tell me what it is?”

  Dylan sighed heavily. “It’s this trafficking ring, Julie. We’ve always suspected there were people in town involved. You realize that they weren’t just kidnapping women, don’t you?”

  Her eyes went wide, as she stared into Dylan’s. It couldn’t be? Could it? Had she been targeted as a little girl?

  “I need to look at what happened to your mom extra carefully now.” When Dylan slammed his fist into the table, Julie jumped onto her feet. She was feeling extra stressed since she hadn’t slept well.

  Plus, she’d never seen Dylan act like this before.

  “I’m sorry, Babe. Please sit back down.”

  She nodded, dropping back onto her seat.

  After running his hand through his hair, Dylan bent down before her on his knee. “Can you remember anything else?”

  Julie shook her head no, refusing to look into his eyes.

  “Well, we’re going to go over the files thoroughly. We need to figure out exactly what happened to you that day, and interview every single person who claims they saw your mom with you that day. I just hope that you were never...” Dylan shook his head, looking dazed. “Let’s not get your father involved in this yet. I have a feeling he’s battling with some tremendous guilt anyway for not being around when your mother disappeared.”

  Julie swallowed and then nodded her head in agreement.

  * * *

  They spent the rest of the day scouring every page of the file. Or rather Dylan did anyway. Since Julie had recalled bits and pieces of that particular day, she was beginning to have flashbacks from her childhood. Now that she’d allowed herself to consider the possibility that her mother hadn’t intentionally left, some of her memories were returning.

  Julie attempted to focus on what Dylan was asking.

  “My grandparents?” Julie repeated.

  “Yeah, we’ll need to talk to them. Apparently, you were returned to them by one of the kids who lived in town. Strange, it doesn’t say who it was in the report. But, yet again, whoever it was might have been a minor, so that’s understandable I guess.”

  Julie sighed. “I can’t concentrate Dylan,” she admitted, staring down at the pages from the file she’d been attempting to read through.

  “You want me to go over everything with you?”

  “That sounds good.”

  “First tell me what you know about your mom and dad’s relationship?”

  “Okay. I pretty much know all the basics.”

  She went on to tell him that she’d heard from people in town that her parents seemed to be happy the short time her father had been around, the few times he’d been home on leave. Her mother had been six years younger than her dad, and had only been eighteen years old when they’d been married. Her dad had been in the Army and had been stationed in the east when he’d met her mom. But when he’d been informed he was going to be shipped overseas shortly after Julie was born, he’d brought his wife and daughter to Crystal Rock to live with his parents, since Leanne had no other family.

  Julie continued wryly, “But supposedly my grandmother didn’t get along very well with my mom, according to my grandpa. He’s always felt bad about that. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t know as much as I do about my parents’ relationship if my grandfather hadn’t talked everything out with me when I was young
er.”

  Dylan looked thoughtful. “Your dad has never talked about your mom? That’s sure got to be difficult, Babe.”

  Julie grimaced. “Yeah.”

  Dylan looked down at the notes he’d made. “Okay. Apparently it was a Saturday on a hot sunny day in July, almost exactly twenty-one years ago. Supposedly, in the summer, your mom would regularly take you to the beach in the morning. Can you remember that at all?”

  Julie pursed her lips. “Maybe.”

  Dylan nodded and continued. “That morning, your grandma dropped the two of you off. Your mom and you would walk into town since it wasn’t too far away, and supposedly that was what happened that day. A bunch of people remembered seeing you and your mom at the local Dairy Queen.”

  Julie sat up and her eyes went wide. “You know what? When it was just Dad and me after he finally came home, he used to ask me where I’d want to go and eat, and I’d always say Dairy Queen.”

  “Yep, probably psychological.” Dylan looked thoughtful. “You know, from everything I’ve read, there’s not a reason in the world for you to think that your mom didn’t love you very much.”

  Julie was becoming teary eyed.

  Dylan asked gently, “You sure you want to go on with this right now?”

  “Yes,” she answered firmly. “Besides, I just found out yesterday that I actually have to report for work already, two weeks from Monday. I’m not sure how much I’ll be around. Unfortunately, there’s some extra time-consuming work I’ll have to do to get ready for each of my special needs students, that a regular school teacher wouldn’t have to do.”

  Dylan laid down the report. “I bet you’re a fantastic teacher.”

  She grinned. “How’s that?”

  Dylan was giving her an unusually tender smile. “It’s the first place I ever saw you, you know.”

  She tried to think about the first time she’d met Dylan. “Where?”

  “At Crystal Visions. Jake was giving me a tour before I moved here. You were there with the kids.”

  Julie’s jaw dropped. “But that was…”

  He continued where she left off. “Before Kate? Yep, sure was. You noticed me too, didn’t you?”

  She nodded her head slowly.

  “Like I said, I fell for you the first time I saw you.”

  Julie stared down at the files she was holding in her hands.

  Walking over and tugging the pages from her lap, Dylan laid them on the table. “C’mon. Let’s take a break.”

  She smiled, looking into his eyes. “Where to?”

  “I’ve got that speed boat sitting out there on the rack that I’ve only used twice, since I’m always cruising with the work vehicle anyway.”

  “We could drive by my family cabin, and I could show you where your mom is going to live?”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Dylan answered.

  Approaching them from the kitchen and whipping his tail up high, Buster sat down staring at Dylan.

  “Oops. Sorry, Buster. I forgot all about feeding you today. Haven’t I?”

  “Meow,” Buster answered, and Julie laughed watching Buster follow Dylan into the kitchen.

  * * *

  Later that night, Dylan studied Julie closely. There was some color in her face now after they’d packed up some snacks and spent a few hours cruising on the lake. Until she’d mentioned her new job, Dylan had completely forgotten she’d be needing to be rested up and ready to go on Monday. With everything that’d happened in the last few days, not to mention the hours that they’d spent making love during the night, she had to be beat.

  Dylan laughed softly. He sure was.

  Julie saw his smile. “What’s so funny?”

  “I was thinking that if I was this exhausted, you had to be too.”

  She began to laugh. “Yeah, I am pretty tired. So much has happened.”

  “Let’s just watch a movie and get some sleep tonight. We can take up where we left off tomorrow. Basically, all I need to do is go over the names of everyone the police talked to back then, to see if you remember any of them, and you can tell me how reputable you think each of these people are.”

  Julie was staring at the big screen TV that hadn’t been running at all for the last few days.

  Dylan switched on the TV and handed her the remote. “Pick out something you’d like to watch.” He grimaced. “I really need to work out tomorrow.”

  She looked at him curiously “Where do you do that?”

  Dylan blinked. “I’ve never taken you down into the basement, have I?”

  “Basement?”

  Dylan grinned. “I have a family room downstairs. A bar, a sauna and hot tub along with a huge workout room.”

  Julie looked shocked. “But you’ve already got so much space up here. The ground level had to be like four-thousand square feet.”

  Dylan cleared his throat. “Five-thousand actually.”

  Julie looked dazed. “But how can you afford all that?”

  “Well, about that...” He hesitated, searching for words. “Our family has a lot of business investments.”

  She still looked puzzled. “Business investments? Like what?”

  “Uh, four or five resorts, five or ten hotels, oh, and there’s also the restaurants. We have like twenty or thirty of those. You’d have to ask my mom or one of my uncles, or maybe my grandfather. I’ve kind of lost track through the years.”

  Julie just stared at him.

  Dylan grinned. “Julie? Are you okay?”

  She kept on staring.

  He settled in beside her on the couch and gave her a nudge. “C’mon, silly. Pick out a movie.”

  She blinked, still looking dazed, and shook her head fiddling with the remote.

  Finally, she muttered, “What am I getting myself into?”

  Dylan snickered, wrapping an arm over her shoulders.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The next day went by in a blur. Julie had been so exhausted the night before, she’d dozed off during the movie and had fallen asleep immediately after climbing into bed.

  She and Dylan had eaten at the Tap since they were open for weekend breakfasts, and Julie had checked in with her dad. Once they’d returned home, they’d gone over all the names in the files. Quite a few people had seen her and her mother that day, and Julie was familiar with about half of the individuals on the list. The police chief back then had looked into the matter of her mother’s disappearance straightaway, and Dylan told Julie it was probably because no one had believed her mother had truly abandoned her.

  Dylan decided he’d wait until he’d talked to some of the people on the list before he’d have Julie contact her grandparents about what had gone down that day. Once the cat was out of the bag, he and Julie would certainly have some explaining to do to them as well as to Julie’s father. Dylan had spoken with Jake a few more times on Sunday, and it was decided that Sam Danielson, the current police chief, would be going along with Dylan to ask the questions. After all, why would a game warden be asking them in the first place?

  It made sense, Dylan thought. He wouldn’t be able to act in any official capacity if he wanted to keep his cover under wraps. Jake had decided to share Dylan’s identity and purpose with Sam since he was a very good friend.

  While Dylan worked out that day, Julie began finalizing her first week’s lesson plans to go over with the school’s administrator on Monday. Julie had mentioned to Dylan that when she’d arrived in town she’d received files for half a dozen kids she would have in her class. She would be working with the youngest kids, which were usually a little less difficult to handle.

  Dylan grinned at Julie when she walked into the kitchen dressed in a skirt paired with a pretty, short sleeved blouse. “You look nice,” he said, handing her some coffee.

  She grimaced. “I want to make a good impression with the other teachers. This is an institute day and all the staff will be there. My every day wardrobe will actually be jeans and T-shirts, and I’ll get to wear sneakers too,
since I’m going to be spending just as much time doing sensory work with the kids on the floor as I will determining their educational skills.” She sipped her coffee, sitting at the table as Dylan laid a plate in front of her. She stared at the eggs, bacon and toast. “Thank you. I’m not sure I’ll be able to finish this. I’m a little nervous today.”

  “You’ll do great,” Dylan answered.

  They ate in silence for the next few minutes and shortly after she’d finished her coffee, Julie stood up, grabbing her bag and purse.

  Dylan walked up to her and gave her a kiss. “Have a nice day.”

  Julie grinned.

  She paused, before walking out through the back doorway. “You’ll give me a call if you find out anything that’s important?”

  Dylan nodded firmly. “Of course I will.”

  She gave him a wry smile before rushing through the doorway.

  * * *

  Several hours later, Dylan was sitting with Sam in his office at the Crystal Rock Police Station when Jake knocked lightly, strolling through the door.

  “How’s it going?” Jake asked, pulling a chair near Sam’s desk and sitting down.

  “Slow,” Dylan and Sam answered simultaneously.

  Jake frowned. “Here, Dylan,” Jake said, handing over a briefcase along with a USB device. “I’ve compiled files and current DMV pics for your mom to begin sorting through. These men are living in more of a widespread area, and they roughly match the age and description of the guy you’ve been looking for. I’ve flagged the names you’ve already given me.”

  “Thanks, Jake. I appreciate that. It’s kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack, but Mom is sure she’ll recognize the guy if she runs into him.” Dylan grimaced. “Since it’s been over twenty years, she claims he has certain mannerisms, which would make it easier for her to identify him in person.

  Jake looked thoughtful. “I can understand that. Want to fill me in on how it went today? How many people actually remembered the day that Leanne Thompson disappeared?”