Kellen's Moment

by Robin Alexander

  Kellen’s Moment

  By Robin Alexander

  Kellen’s Moment

  © 2018 by Robin Alexander

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  ISBN 13: 978-1-935216-88-9

  First Ebook Edition: 2018

  This Ebook Is Published By

  Intaglio Publications

  Walker, LA USA

  www.intagliopub.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  _______________________________________________

  Credits

  Executive Editor: Tara Young

  Cover design by: Tiger Graphics

  Dedication

  For all who are romantic at heart.

  Acknowledgments

  This spot is always reserved for Tara Young and my editorial crew who after all these years still have incredible patience with me and my comma addiction. I love them so much—my team, not the commas...okay, I’m pretty fond of them too.

  Prologue

  August 1995

  Kellen McLin drove slowly and switched her headlights off as she neared her destination. There were only a few lights on inside the office buildings that lined the street on both sides, but it was nearly two o’clock in the morning, and she knew no one was inside any of them. She glanced at her twin brother riding in the passenger seat and noticed the sheen of sweat on his face. “Get it together, Kyle,” she warned softly. “We’re almost at the town hall. Keep to the plan and make it quick.”

  “I’m not cut out for crime.” Kyle shook his head emphatically. “I’m gonna shit your seat.”

  “You do that, and you’ll have a lot more than the police to worry about. Oh, and, dude, the black face paint, so not necessary.”

  “I didn’t have any paint, so I used grease.”

  Kellen sighed. “Great.”

  Kyle was panting as he took off his ball cap to smooth back his sweat-soaked hair. “I’ve never killed anything in my life except bugs.”

  “Pretend he’s a big ol’ fire ant that just bit you on the balls,” Kellen said coolly. “As soon as I stop, you get out and knock his head off or at least smash it.”

  “We’re gonna get caught this time, I know it.” Kyle rocked back and forth as panic set in.

  “Come on, Kyle! Get it together. I’m about to stop. Get out, smash his head, and we’re gone. Give it all you’ve got, pretend you’re hitting a baseball out of the park.”

  “I’ve never played baseball, that’s you. I should be driving, and you should be doing the murder.”

  “It’s too late for that. I’ll keep watch, go now,” Kellen ordered.

  Kyle started whispering apologies to their intended victim as soon as he opened the door. Kellen alternated keeping watch in her rearview mirror and on the street ahead of them. She heard a solid thud followed by a couple more and grinned as she whispered, “That’s right, beat the shit out of him.” She heard Kyle grunt and glanced his way. It took her brain a few seconds to make sense of what she was seeing. Mr. Sealy, the target of their wrath, was sitting in the passenger seat smiling at her, and Kyle was putting the seat belt around him.

  Kyle closed the front door and opened one in the back. “Go!” he said as he dove into the seat.

  “You were supposed to knock his head off!” Kellen yelled as she stomped the gas pedal.

  “I hit him, and he rolled off his stand. My whole body is vibrating right now from the impact, and my arms feel like they’re full of ants.”

  Kellen glanced at the bronze smiling seal. “Why is he in my fucking car?”

  “I don’t know,” Kyle cried. “I wasn’t expecting him to fall off, and my brain kinda went blank. I just grabbed him, and he’s really heavy. I shit my pants a little when I picked him up, I really did. I couldn’t leave him lying there injured in the cold.”

  “It’s August and eighty degrees in the middle of the night. Now we have to get out of this town with stolen property riding up in the front seat like Miss Daisy!”

  “Watch the movie again, she always rode in back.” Kyle set his ball cap atop the seal’s head. “There you go, buddy, you’re in disguise. What’re we gonna do with him?”

  “He’ll be my date for the prom,” Kellen snapped. “I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do. As soon as we get back in our town, I’m gonna drop him in the woods and beat his ass into bronze sheet metal.”

  “Don’t say that in front of him, and I don’t want to see you murder him.”

  Kellen lost it. “Just because he’s smiling doesn’t mean he’s alive! If you don’t believe me, check his pulse!”

  “I don’t know how to take a seal’s pulse,” Kyle retorted. “Stop yelling at me, and you’re driving too fast.”

  “I’ll slow down once we get out of the Sealy town limits,” Kellen snapped but slowed down anyway.

  “I hate fighting with the Sealys. I know you like it, and I’m sorry, but it’s dumb. We’ve been raised to hate people we don’t even know over something that happened when dinosaurs were around. This is bullshit, and I’m tired of having stomach cramps.”

  “Don’t you let Walt hear you say that, or you’ll get a history lesson on the war between the McLins and the Sealys that’ll last for days,” Kellen warned. “Hey, and don’t forget the whole reason we did this is because the Sealys busted the windows out of the diner.”

  “I know, but I just wanna tell them, ‘Stop your shit, and we’ll stop ours.’”

  Kellen shook her head. “That’s never gonna happen.”

  Chapter 1

  Present Day

  “You’re the only one who ever hears me out and doesn’t make me feel stupid for having hope.” Kellen sat on the floor with a bowl of cereal. She waved her spoon as she spoke. “There are countless songs, movies, and books about the moment, and they’re dismissed as romantic fluff, but if it’s all bullshit, then why are so many people fixated on it? Hear me out on this, be open-minded.” She stuffed a spoonful of cereal in her mouth, chewed quickly, and swallowed.

  “I think anyone can have the moment, we’re just too impatient to wait for it. We meet someone, they’re attractive, we have some things in common, we date, then we get to the point where we think this might work. It’s hormonal and I would say cerebral, but it’s basically settling with someone who makes you horny that you’re willing to share a dwelling and finances with. We get so caught up in being paired off with someone, so we can live happily ever after, and we don’t.”

  Kellen took the last bite of her cereal and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “The moment is an entirely different experience. Two people meet, and they’re just drawn to each other. Yeah, hormones play a part in that, too, but the real draw is something deeper. It’s like a…GPS! They both have a GPS inside of them that’s programmed to find the other, and on some deeper level of consciousness, they both know they’ve arrived at their destination when they find each other. That’s what I want. That’s what I’ve been waiting for after trying to force the moment with so many women that just didn’t have me programmed in their GPS, and they weren’t in mine, either.” Kellen sighed as she set her bowl on the floor. “That’s why I’ve given up on dating. I’ve made so many mistakes, broken hearts, had mine torn out. I just want her, and I know she’s out there. We’ll find each other if we just be patient and let our internal GPS lead us to each ot
her.”

  Kellen stood, picked up a blanket, and threw it over Mr. Sealy’s head. “Thanks for listening,” she said and closed the door to her hall closet.

  *******

  “Look at this,” Joan Sealy said testily. “This cabinet door broke right off the hinges. I told you we needed to remodel this place.”

  “Mom, I’m only staying here temporarily,” Stevie said as she set a box of canned goods on the counter.

  Stevie’s father, Dave, took the door from his wife and stared at the broken hinge latches. “Joan, you didn’t have to yank the screws out of the wood like a barbarian.”

  Joan rolled her eyes. “I barely tugged on it. Did you fix the toilet?”

  “What was it doing again?” Dave looked confused.

  “Nothing happens when you push the flush handle.” Joan threw a hand on her hip. “I’m telling you right now, if things in this cottage aren’t in working order by the time the movers unload the van, I’ll have someone out here tomorrow to remodel the entire place. Stevie is uncomfortable.”

  “That’s not true,” Stevie began. “It’s fine, a broken cabinet door isn’t the end of the world.”

  “You’ve been angling to remodel anyway,” Dave argued. “If we fix this place up nice, then Aunt Meryl is going to want to move in to it. Think about that. She’ll have you over here twice a day to rub her feet.”

  “I can fix the toilet,” Stevie interjected and was ignored by her parents.

  Joan went straight for Dave’s soft spot. “The Alfords have a guest cottage, and it has a pool. Think about the statement that makes to their guests. When people stay here, they think they’ve been put out back with the garbage.”

  “When did they get a pool?” Dave asked, looking completely taken aback.

  “This past summer,” Joan said with a slight smile, knowing she’d won the battle.

  Dave chewed his bottom lip for a moment. “Maybe you’re right. Our guests do need to be made comfortable. What’s wrong with the toilet again?”

  “I’ll show you.” Joan led him out of the room.

  Stevie shook her head slowly as she opened the box containing her coffeemaker, thinking if anyone did an Internet search for the term “keeping up with the Joneses,” her parents’ picture would be next to the explanation. Their house had to be the biggest, their cars, clothes, and furnishings the finest. Her father was wearing a sport coat, and her mother had designer boots on her feet and a lamb’s wool vest on her back. They considered that casual.

  Christine, Stevie’s older sister, let herself into the cottage and sighed dramatically. “Please tell me you have coffee.”

  “I’m unpacking my pot now,” Stevie said.

  “Where’re Mom and Dad?”

  “Working on the toilet in the master bath if you can believe that.” Stevie rinsed out her carafe.

  Christine snorted. “I doubt Dad has ever seen the inside of a toilet tank. Is that really your coffeemaker?”

  “Yeah, why?” Stevie asked with a frown.

  “It’s an antique. I’m getting you a new one tomorrow, and we’ll have a funeral for that dinosaur.”

  “It’s less than six months old, and it brews just fine, thank you very much.” Stevie patted her coffeemaker lovingly.

  “Well, crank the handle or do whatever you have to do to get it to make coffee. I’m dying for caffeine here. Moving always wears me out.”

  Stevie gazed at Christine in amazement. “You haven’t lifted one thing. The movers are doing that.”

  “I know, but the whole idea of moving overwhelms me.” Christine sank into a chair at the kitchen table. “Boxes stacked everywhere, things to be put in their places, it numbs the mind. Hey, are you okay?”

  “Yes, manual labor doesn’t scare me.”

  “I mean, did leaving your old house for the last time stir up any emotions? You haven’t talked about Randy at all. Do you have any regrets about the divorce?” Christine asked softly.

  “Chris, we weren’t married, and even though we lived together for four years, only one of those years was decent. Splitting up was the best decision we made in a very long time. No offense, because I know y’all are worried about me, but I’d feel a lot better if everyone would stop treating me like a wounded animal. I feel free to live my life just the way I want to, and that makes me happy.”

  “Yeah, you’d better check your definition of free because if it includes privacy, you’re screwed. When we found out we had bad drywall and the house had to be basically gutted, we had to stay here for a little while. Mom was like a shadow. I’d wake up, and she’d be in here cooking breakfast for the kids. I don’t know if the washer and dryer work because she never let me do my own laundry.”

  Stevie sighed as she set up her coffeemaker to brew. “We’re gonna have to have a little chat then. Since I work at home, I can’t have constant interruptions.”

  “Yeah, I tried talking to her, too, and in the middle of the conversation, she went to her Fleetwood Mac happy place and started singing Landslide. Has Dad given you the lecture about how a Sealy is to conduct themselves while in town?”

  “What?” Stevie asked with a laugh.

  Christine waved a hand. “I’m not gonna spoil the experience for you by telling you what to expect. You haven’t been home in a long time with the exception of holiday visits, but just let me say that Dad thinks we’re some sort of backwoods royalty.”

  “He always has,” Stevie said dryly.

  “Well, we couldn’t fix it,” Joan said as she returned to the kitchen with Dave close behind.

  “Is the chain connected to the handle?” Stevie asked and watched as her parents exchanged looks.

  “What chain are you talking about?” Dave asked.

  “The one that connects to the handle and the flappy thing that makes the toilet flush,” Stevie replied. “Did you open the tank?”

  “We did, but there was water in it, and neither of us is touching that. I’ll call a plumber in the morning. Until then, you’ll unfortunately have to use the guest bath.” Joan glanced at the coffeemaker. “Honey, how old is that thing?”

  “It’s new, but apparently, coffeemakers are evolving faster than cellphones,” Stevie said dryly.

  “The movers are putting your bed together now, then they’ll be done.” Dave opened the pantry and looked inside. “Should we expand this?”

  Stevie held up a hand. “Okay, wait just a minute. I’m only gonna be living here for a few months, so I’d greatly appreciate if y’all would wait to remodel. As y’all know, I work from home, and I won’t be able to concentrate with a construction crew tearing up the place. The move has put me behind on a couple of projects, and I need to catch back up. I can only do that without interruptions.”

  “I don’t understand what your hurry is,” Joan said and folded her arms. “With your job, you could work anywhere. I think you should take your time and really experience Sealy again. Our little town has grown a lot since you moved away, and you may find that you love it here now.”

  “People are moving out of the cities. They’re too crowded and too dangerous,” Dave added. “Sealy has a lot to offer, you wait and see. That brings me to the topic of decorum.”

  “Here it comes,” Christine said gleefully.

  Dave ignored the remark and continued. “This town is named after our family, and as Sealys, we set the standard. That’s why our town is growing by leaps and bounds. People want to live in a place that’s clean, safe, and well managed. A good example of what I’m talking about is less than five miles down the highway. The McLin family is trash, and their town is, too. It’s a mud hole full of lowlife swampbillies. They dress like slobs and go into public wearing rubber boots. It’s a disgusting sight, and that’s why a Sealy always makes sure their appearance is impeccable before they leave their homes.” He pointed at Stevie’s jeans and hooded sweatshirt. “That might’ve been acceptable in Thornwood, New York, but not here.”

  “Before you walk out the door, re
member you represent more. Make sure your hair, makeup, and nails aren’t epic fails. You’re not feral, prove that with your apparel.” Christine grinned. “I made that one up.”

  “Wait. Y’all expect me to sport business casual to run out for a gallon of milk?” Stevie asked.

  Joan nodded. “You’re a Sealy.” She frowned as she removed the clip holding Stevie’s long brown bangs back from her face. “Take more pride in your appearance, and highlight this hair, it’s all one drab color. Frankly, I think you’d look better as a blonde. The color works really well on Christine.”

  “Have y’all been watching too much of the Stepford Wives?” Stevie asked with a laugh that no one joined in on.

  Dave set his hand on Stevie’s shoulder. “The entire family abides by these rules. We all accept our role as beacons of this community, and as a member of our family, we expect you to uphold the Sealy decorum. Also, the rule that stood when y’all were children still stands today: The town of McLin is strictly off limits.”

  “Seriously, you don’t want to go there,” Christine said with an ominous tone. “If they recognize you, you’ll end up with a handful of tickets for traffic violations. That’s if you’re lucky, but more than likely, they’ll come up with a reason to arrest you.”

  “You definitely don’t want to cross the paths of the twins,” Joan added quickly. “They’re homosexuals, both of them. Kellen is the mayor. I don’t know what Kyle does, then there’s Walt McLin. He’s still alive, and I know you remember him.”

  Stevie’s brow furrowed. “Actually, I don’t.”

  “He’s the one who told your father…” Joan looked around and whispered, “To kiss his ass in the crack.”

  “Right,” Dave said with a nod. “They’re very crass people. They don’t come here, we don’t go there. Stay out of McLin.”