Sweet Rendezvous

by Danielle Stewart

  Davis ground his teeth together. Paul was the one guy on the force he couldn’t stand and always seemed to be throwing digs his way. “She left without her car. She’s walking somewhere on her own. She’s upset. I’m worried about her.”

  “Makes sense since the last girl you chased out of here didn’t wind up doing too well in the grand scheme of things. Your worry is likely justified.”

  Bringing up Julie’s accident was over the line. “If you think that badge is going to keep me from pounding your head in then you have gravely misjudged me,” Davis boomed, slamming a hand down on the desk and shoving Paul’s feet to the ground.

  “Easy fellas,” Dallas said coolly, his hands tucked casually into his pockets. “My buddy Davis and I were just leaving. No need to grab those handcuffs, Paul.”

  Dallas gestured with his head for Davis to follow him outside, and it took all his willpower to do so without taking a quick shot at Paul on the way by.

  “That’s assaulting an officer you know,” Dallas said, holding the door open to make sure Davis was actually going to leave. When they hit the street Davis felt the urge to run.

  “I’ve got to go man. I’ve got to look for her.” Davis felt his friend’s hand clamp down on his shoulder before he could hurry away.

  “We’ve known each other a long time,” Dallas began, and Davis nearly interrupted, not wanting the lecture. But Dallas didn’t look like he’d take no for an answer. “I was with you when you fell in love with Julie. I was here every single time that girl stomped on your heart.”

  “This is different,” Davis insisted.

  “I know it is,” Dallas nodded. “Because you’re different. And from what I’ve seen of Elaine, she’s a nice girl. My mom really took a shine to her, you two eating breakfast there together every morning. Having us up to your house for dinner. It’s been something, and I can tell how happy you are. She does a nice job for Mrs. Donavan at the florist shop, too.”

  “I need to go find her,” Davis demanded, shaking free of his grip. “We’re wasting time. She’s upset, and she’s off walking to who knows where right now.”

  “You think it’s normal that a girl shows up here the way she does and then takes off the way she just did today? She left her car sitting in your driveway just so she wouldn’t have to face you. What does that tell you?”

  “It tells me she’s upset about something. I can help.”

  Dallas, shook his head in disagreement. “It tells you she’s hurting, and she’s not wanting you to see her right now. Maybe give her a little space.”

  “Bill and Johnny,” Davis said, spinning on Dallas quickly so they were staring each other in the eye, “said there was some kind of video. I don’t want to know about it. I don’t want to see it.”

  “Fair enough,” Dallas assured him. “I’ve heard the whispers about it after this morning, but you know I’m the last person around here to be checking my social media every minute. I think that’s why she stayed here as long as she did, Indigo Bay is isolated. It was easy for her to go unnoticed here for a while.”

  “She should have told me what was going on,” Davis grunted as they started walking again. “I’d have understood. There’s nothing she could have done that would change my opinion of her.”

  “Well,” Dallas said, clearing his throat, “I wouldn’t go committing to that. Give it some time. I saw how she was looking at you. I saw how she smiled every time you came in a room. I don’t think she’ll be able to just run off, and that’s the end of it. But chasing her might make things worse.”

  “I just want to know she’s fine,” Davis groaned, running his hands through his hair in frustration. “We didn’t make any promises to each other. It’s not like there were future plans. But I want to know she is somewhere safe. When I found her that night, she was a mess.”

  “And she was damn lucky it was here, and it was you. Who knows where she could have ended up if not. I hear what you’re saying. I’d be worried too.” Dallas fished his keys out of his pocket and looked thoughtfully down the road. “You said you drove this road all the way south for ten miles? No sign of her?”

  “No, and I drove north the same distance. If she were on the road, I’d have seen her. She couldn’t have gotten farther than that on foot in this amount of time.

  “So maybe someone else picked her up?” Dallas said, wringing his hands as he gave it some serious thought. “I don’t like the idea of her hopping in the car with just anyone.”

  “I hope not,” Davis said, shaking his head. “Lots of people pass through here. Truckers, transient people of all kinds. I’d hate to think she was so desperate to get away from me that she hopped in the car with someone who had less than admirable intentions for her.”

  “I’m sure she’d be on her guard,” Dallas offered, but it sounded hollow. “She might be upset, but I think she’s a sharp girl. She wouldn’t get in just any car.”

  “If something happens to her because she couldn’t face me,” Davis edged out. “If she felt like she needed to run from here just because of what I would think, I can’t live with that. I can’t live with another woman—”

  “Don’t make me knock your lights out right now,” Dallas said, cocking his fist back. “You don’t get to put all of this on you. I’ve spent too many years watching you do that. This is different. Elaine and Julie are nothing alike. She’s going to be fine. I have an idea.”

  Dallas hopped in his truck and rolled down the window. “If she wasn’t on the road and didn’t hop a ride with someone, maybe she walked down the shoreline. I’ll go to the cabins and get the four-wheeler. I’ll drive it south, down the shoreline and see if I can spot her.”

  “I’ll come too,” Davis said, relieved to at least have a plan.

  “No,” Dallas said, quickly pushing the lock button before Davis could reach for the handle to let himself in. “Go back to your place in case she comes back. Keep yourself busy. I’ll call you if I see her. I don’t intend to bother her; I’m not going to plead your case to her. I’ll let you know if she’s doing fine or not.”

  “You’re a good friend, Dallas,” Davis said, patting the hood of the car as he backed out. It killed him to be left behind, but if Elaine showed up at the cabin he wanted to be there.

  “I raised a pretty good boy,” Caroline said, rounding the corner and tucking her hands into the pockets of her overalls. There was an easiness about her that Davis always craved in moments like this. She could give advice or sit quietly in support. But what made her special was knowing exactly when to do which. “My boys have good friends too. We certainly lucked out with you staying here in Indigo Bay all this time. I know how many times you’ve helped Dallas. I know how often he relies on you. I’m glad he can be around to pay back the favor. Though I don’t really appreciate when you have fistfights in my café.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” Davis apologized, running his hand over his brow and kicking a stone by his foot. Caroline could make him feel twelve years old again. She might as well have been scolding him for taking a cookie from the jar. “I shouldn’t have hit him. I know violence is not the answer.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Caroline corrected, wearing a wry smile. “Those guys were asking for it. But I wouldn’t have minded if you’d dragged him outside first. There’s always next time.”

  “Right,” Davis grinned, grateful for her forgiveness and the levity in a moment where everything around him felt as though it were crumbling.

  “Do you know what that was all about this morning?” Caroline asked as they began to walk down toward the water. “I know you two were getting close, but you looked blindsided.

  “I was,” he groaned, embarrassed to have to admit the woman he was falling in love with also happened to be a stranger to him. “Apparently she’s famous, or infamous I should say. The guys this morning, they saw her on some kind of video. I don’t know what’s on it; I just know Bill and Johnny felt compelled to post about it. Some kind of big deal, I guess.
She clearly didn’t want anyone to know. She was spooked. I reacted to what I thought she wanted.”

  “I never liked social media. Mostly because it doesn’t seem to be either of those words. They should call it mobile distraction that’s essentially negative.”

  “Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.” Davis chuckled, filling his lungs with the sea air and wishing he’d asked Elaine more questions along the way. If he’d have pressed for the truth earlier, he could have protected her from this. Or he could have protected himself from losing her.

  “You control everything,” Caroline explained, patting his back maternally, “or at least you try. I know you have been keeping yourself shut off from the world, and you finally let someone in. Don’t let this derail you. I liked seeing how happy you were with her. Elaine is a lovely girl. If she ends up being the woman you sit across from and smile that big smile, wonderful. If she doesn’t, don’t tuck that happiness away for quite so long this next time.”

  “I’m only sorry she didn’t feel like she could tell me what was going on. Didn’t she trust me to help her?” Davis felt his muscles tense as he remembered Elaine darting out of the café like a spooked rabbit whose twitching ears had picked up the rumbles of impending danger.

  “It’s not a lack of trust in you that kept her quiet,” Caroline corrected. “It’s the scary idea that something might change when you see that part of her. At the beginning, when you’re just starting out with someone, you know how it is. It’s all the shiny parts. Having something out of your control force you away from the joyful beginning part of a relationship is downright unfair. I’m sure she believes something she’s done might be the reason she loses you.”

  “I don’t cut and run,” Davis said, knowing he was defending himself to the wrong person. Caroline had seen him grow up, and in turn, she’d been witness to every piece of him being slid into place. During every phase he awkwardly passed through, she was there on the sideline, cheering. Watching. Even sometimes wincing. “I can deal with the tough stuff; she just has to give me a chance.”

  “You don’t cut and run,” Caroline smiled, her face oozing with the obvious irony. “But she does. You’ve got to make peace with that and figure out what that means for you. It’s who she is right now. A runner. So now what?”

  “I have no idea.” Davis sighed as they stepped down the long path onto the sand. “For the first time in a long time I have no idea what tomorrow is going to bring. That’s frustrating.”

  “No son, that’s exciting.”

  Chapter 14

  Dallas’s car pulled up outside, and his headlights hit the bright purple cabin. Davis had planted himself on the porch swing with no intention of going to bed that night. The arrival of his friend, and whatever pestering came along with it, wouldn’t change that. Sleep was for the peaceful. The happy. Sleep was not for tormented men who’d let the best woman they’d ever known slip away.

  “Did you find her?” he asked, popping to his feet and flying down the steps of the porch. “Any sign of her?”

  “Yep,” Dallas said, pulling off his baseball hat and fidgeting with the brim. “She’s all right. She made it about seven miles down the beach, and I saw her going in the front door of a bed and breakfast. Looks like she’s staying there tonight. I asked about her in the little seafood shack, and a waitress said she was on the phone with someone, asking them to ship her purse and a few of her belongings.”

  “Ship them to the bed and breakfast?” Davis asked, his voice loaded with excitement. “That’s good then. She’ll be there at least a few days. Which place is it?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Dallas said firmly. “Let her be for a while. It’s not like she’s really going to just leave her perfectly good car right here. Let her get her stuff and give her some time to cool off.”

  “She could come for her car while I’m at work. Then who knows where she would end up? I’d really lose her then.”

  “Don’t you think maybe that’s a sign?” Dallas offered. “If she’s ready to leave you in her dust, maybe you should let her.”

  “If she doesn’t care about me, I’m fine with that,” he lied. “But what I won’t do is let her run away because she’s worried about what I think. If the only reason she’s not here is because she can’t face me, I want to deal with that head on. I’ll look her in the eye, and if she doesn’t feel the way I do, I’ll let her walk away.”

  “Fine,” Dallas said, tossing his hands up in defeat and looking unconvinced. “But not tonight. Not tomorrow either. Give her at least that. I think it’ll be better that way.”

  “And I’m supposed to just sit here?” Davis asked, gesturing over to the porch swing. “I’m off work the next two days, so what am I supposed to do?”

  “For heaven’s sake, man,” Dallas scolded. “Do something for you. Do something that isn’t work, or sleep, or exercising. Try to remember back when life was easy, and you weren’t trying to fill up every second just so you don’t have to feel anything. Do that for a couple days and maybe you’ll both be in better shape when you talk.”

  “When did you get so deep and insightful?” Davis asked, climbing back up the steps and sinking into the cushions of the porch swing. He couldn’t help but cast a sarcastic look at Dallas, whose face was red with frustration. “I feel like you actually have your act together now.”

  “Oh yeah.” He laughed and rolled his eyes. “I’m thinking of launching my own talk show any day now. Just tell me you have beer in the fridge and that my mom sent you home with some cookies or something.”

  “Yep, help yourself,” Davis said, gesturing into the cabin. “No one knows how to heal a broken heart like your mom and her baked goods. It’s the least I can do for all the sage wisdom you’re offering me.”

  “That’s true,” Dallas called from the kitchen. “As a matter of fact I’m taking some of these leftovers, too. I’m on point with this advice, and it makes me hungry. Being brilliant burns calories.”

  Davis closed his eyes and listened intently to the crashing waves at the foot of the dunes. He had bought this place from Dallas as a gift for Julie. He’d painted it purple to win her over, to convince her to stay. The guy who had done all that, who had become nearly unrecognizable to himself just to persuade a woman he loved to stay, was gone. Davis wasn’t that kid anymore. He knew love was not a trap you set in hopes of snaring an unsuspecting heart.

  He was different. Elaine was not Julie. And this was not a high school love he’d hung on to like favorite shirt long since outgrown. There was a spark between him and Elaine. An abstract connection that couldn’t be summed up easily, which was a scary prospect. But it also couldn’t be quickly swept aside and forgotten. His only hope was that she felt the same way about what they’d shared. If not, he’d let her go.

  Chapter 15

  The bed was rock hard. The pipes rattled in the walls. It was too hot, but with the window open, too cold. Elaine could think up a thousand excuses for why she couldn’t sleep, but they were just that. Excuses. The real reason her eyes wouldn’t stay shut was because etched on the back of her lids was the contents of a video she couldn’t outrun. Even in sleepy Indigo Bay. Davis had seemed to be so shocked by how cruel the world outside his little town could be. Elaine, on the other hand, knew what a cut throat world it was out there. Especially in her career field. All it took was someone wanting what you had and it could be snatched away in the blink of an eye.

  She’d fallen prey to that. Letting her own guard down, she was swept up in the lies she normally would have been able to see right through. She’d forgotten the best advice she’d been given: being kind doesn’t guarantee you kindness in return. It only increases your odds of being betrayed.

  The pipes rattled again, and Elaine wished she were back at Davis’s perfectly quiet purple cabin. Being with him was more than just an escape from the things that had hurt her. It was the first time in her life she’d felt completely relaxed. Calm. At peace. Every moment together they were
the only thing that mattered. Somewhere along the way she realized the stress she’d packed onto her life wasn’t the result of growing up. It wasn’t a natural consequence she had to deal with. She’d burdened herself with goals for a life she’d imagined, stacking more and more weight on her already sinking body. And out of nowhere, Davis had cracked his knuckles, bent his knees, and lifted it all off her body. A wonderful gift, but temporary. Now she was faced with saddling herself once more with the reality of what she’d done.

  Pulling the itchy blanket over her face, she let the tears drip down her chin. How could running away be so easy and so terribly difficult all at once?

  Chapter 16

  Elaine knew Davis would be home. It wouldn’t have been hard to wait one more day for him to go to work and try to avoid him. But that wasn’t what she wanted. He deserved better than that. She expected to find him tinkering on a boat engine, or watching a game on television, but what she found was far more surprising.

  “You’re painting?” she asked, folding her arms nervously across her body as if the solo hug might keep her from imploding. Davis was on a ladder with a brush in his hand and a bucket of white paint balanced at the top. The purple on the front of the cabin was nearly gone, eaten up by stark white with every stroke from his brush.

  “The purple wasn’t really me,” Davis said, not turning around to see her. “I thought it was time to make this place my own again.”

  “It looks good,” she said, feeling utterly exposed and self-conscious. “I’m sorry I ran off. You deserve better than that. You deserve the truth.”

  “You don’t owe me a thing, Elaine,” Davis said, still focused solely on the job at hand. “If you don’t feel for me what I do for you, I’m not going to chase you.”