“Damn things chased him right into the lake.”
“Got stung over a dozen times.”
“Couldn’t sit down for a week!” Kirby’s belly jiggled when he laughed. Sucking a soothing breath through his teeth, he stared at the cabin through faraway eyes. “I sure did enjoy helping him fix this place up.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Kirby plopped a meaty hand on Dean’s shoulder and squeezed. “He’d be real proud of you, son. Real proud.”
“Thanks, Kirb.” Dean traded an uneasy smile with Evy. “I get the feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other from here on out.”
“I sure hope so. I really do.”
“Wait.” Evy removed her shades. “You…own this place?”
Flashing a devilish grin, he bobbed his eyebrows at her. “We…own this place.”
Kirby laughed even harder and set a warm hand on Evy’s forearm. “Let me tell you something, Evy…it’s a beautiful thing watching the generations roll through these cabins over the years. Families come and go, but one thing always stays the same: this lake’s power to heal. There’s magic in these waters and the memories you make here will last a lifetime. Trust me, I’ve seen it a thousand times.” Gazing out over the water, he exhaled into the breeze, his mind’s eye tripping over something significant in the past. “Well!” he said, as if just realizing where he was. “I’ll get out of your hair and leave you two lovebirds at it. Boat’s in the slip and purrs like a kitten! If you need anything, you have my number. I’m in a smaller place now on the other side of the lake.”
“I appreciate everything.”
“Oh!” He snapped his fingers. “We got a berry shortage round here this season so keep your food and garbage under wraps like your daddy taught ya. The bears been comin around lookin for scraps at night and you know how they can smell that stuff a mile away.”
Dean nodded his understanding and the two men hugged it out again. Evy extended her hand and Kirby pulled her into a warm embrace smelling of Old Spice and cheap cigars. Standing side by side, they waved as the caretaker put the old truck in gear and motored away, disappearing into the woods with a trail of dust hot on his heels.
Using her hand as a visor, Evy peered up at Dean, a faint smile tugging on her lips. “Bears?”
Chapter Three
SARAH
The inside was just as Dean remembered, injecting him with sweet memories of a painful past. His dad’s favorite recliner still sat parked in front of the fireplace, looking out over the lake, the kitchen just as spotless as his mother left it over a decade ago. Framed pictures adorned the wood walls and shelves like somebody still used the place. Like when cooking s’mores and catching Northern Pike were life’s biggest challenges. Growing up, this place defined his summers and he didn’t realize just how much he missed it until now. Dean studied a picture of he and his parents eating lunch on the picnic table out front. His mother’s smile turned his eyes to glass. She was beautiful and he took her for granted. Thought she would always be there for him to come home to. Exhaling a forlorn breath, he turned to a vintage telescope standing in the corner. How much time had slipped through his fingers? How long had it been since he’d been here? A pang of hurt squeezed on his chest like a vise. He could’ve been close to them here. Could’ve smoked his dad’s tobacco or smelled his mother’s perfume, but he feared their ghosts would rip him apart. He wanted to sell the place but could never bring himself to pull the trigger. There was comfort in just knowing he could come here anytime he wished – that a part of them was still here.
“I can’t believe it,” Evy murmured, stopping on a bear skin rug laid out in front of the fireplace. He gave the telescope a light spin, watching her examine the pictures on the mantel. The sunlit one of Dean and his parents atop a snow-covered mountain brought out her smile. The shot of Dean and his dad fishing in an old-fashioned boat made her laugh. “You were so skinny!” Bending closer, she admired one of Dean’s favorites: the cabin lit up at night, windows glowing like gold.
Turning, she set a soft hand on his chest. “Thank you for bringing me here,” she said, planting a warm kiss on his lips that tasted of strawberries. “I feel like I’ve gotten to know you more in the last twenty minutes than the entire time we’ve been together.”
“Sorry, I guess I don’t talk much about my past.”
“I want to know all of you, Dean. The good, the bad, the everything.” She fell quiet, realizing how much last night must’ve stung watching her laugh and dance with the amazing parents she still had. The ones that, undoubtedly, remind him of the two he lost in a horrible car accident just three days after his nineteenth birthday. Barely in college and alone forever. Evy filled her lungs with a somber breath, accepting his heartbeat into her palm. “This is a new beginning for both of us but I don’t want you to forget the past.”
He swallowed thickly. “I won’t.”
Evy pushed her lips off to the side. “Except for the Megan part. You can forget all about that shit.” Eyes widening, she rushed across the room, stopping at a set of French doors overlooking the sprawling lake out back. “Oh my God, there’s a Jacuzzi!”
Dean laughed. “Wait’ll you see the boat.”
Watching a red and black striped sailboat slide past in the distance, she sighed, fogging the glass. “This view is amazing.” She noticed his reflection and her cheerful smile dropped like a bag of wet cement. “What’re you doing?” she gasped, spinning around.
Sliding the sling off his arm, Dean threw it onto a worn, leather couch. “I’m not wearing this thing the whole time. Fuck that shit.”
“But your arm!”
“My arm is fine,” he said, wincing as he moved it around. “It’s my shoulder that’s hurts.”
“Yeah, that’s because you have a bullet hole in it.”
“It’s just a graze.” He pulled her to him and kissed her hard, their tongues dancing to the beat of their pounding hearts.
Evy broke for air, dizzy on her feet. “Whew!”
“Let’s pack a lunch and hit the water. I’m dying to get that boat out.”
She smiled up at him. “Okay,” she said in a soft voice, kissing him again.
In the kitchen, they slapped together some ham and swiss sandwiches, grapes, chips, and homemade chocolate chip cookies – courtesy of Kirby’s terrible cooking. Dean felt like a kid all over again except now he was the man of the cabin and, like his father before him, he would forge new traditions starting right here and now. Rolling a cooler on wheels to the French doors, his jaw hit the hardwood when Evy strolled from the hallway in a red bikini that left little to the imagination.
“Sweet home Alabama,” he whispered through his teeth, dropping the cooler handle.
Holding a beach bag, she did a quick spin in her sandals. “You like?”
“Like? Try love.”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
He stepped closer and put his mouth to hers, fingertips finding the strings dangling down the middle of her back.
She twirled away from him. “Ah-ah, not yet lover-boy.”
“Oh, come on!”
“Not until tonight.”
“Tonight? You can’t be serious.”
Evy reached down and gave the bulge in his Quicksilver boardshorts a quick pump, prompting him to reach for her strings again. Spinning away with a high-pitched shriek, she burst out the French doors. Dean gave chase, towing the cooler across the patio tiles and into the grass. Racing past an axe stuck in a tree stump, he followed Evy down to the water’s edge, flashes of the past tailing him like a cold black wind. She skidded to a stop on the dock, staring aghast at the boat parked in a covered slip.
The cooler wheels clacked against the planks as Dean caught up. Dropping the handle, he rested his hands on his knees. “Thanks for the help,” he panted. “I’ve got a bum shoulder, remember?”
“This is your boat?”
He looked up to the boat gently rocking in the water, the shiny mahogany
reminding him of his father. Steven liked to keep it clean. Nostalgia shot through Dean at breakneck speed. Fishing, wakeboarding, and his first beer. All on this boat. The good times rushed through his mind like a tornado, followed by a cyclone of bad ones with crooked smiles. He hadn’t seen this boat in how many years now? Too many. After the accident, he came here one time to grab some personal effects but left the next morning. In the end, the memories were too raw. His parents haunted the cabin at night, fretfully pacing the stripes of moonlight slipping through the windows. Dean could remember lying in the spare bedroom and hearing things out in the kitchen. Soft whispers. The creak of an old floorboard. Cupboards quietly opening and shutting. That was one of the longest nights of his life and he dared not relive it again.
Until now.
“This is our boat,” he clarified, proudly resting his hands on his hips. “A fully restored1942 Chris-Craft Barrel Back.”
Evy dropped the beach bag to the dock with a dull thud. “Wasn’t this in a Kid Rock video?”
Dean turned a Brewers ballcap backwards, silver trunks flapping against his legs. “I think that one was a reproduction but yeah, my dad had a thing for the classics.”
“It’s looks brand new,” Evy said, hoisting the beach bag into the bench-style backseat.
“You should see the Thunderbird I have in storage back in Milwaukee.”
Slowly turning to him, Evy took off her sunglasses. “You have a Thunderbird?”
“1957 convertible that’s just as red and sexy as that bikini.” He paused to look her over. “I’m scared to drive it, let alone park it out in public.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “The car or the bikini?”
“Both. Don’t want somebody dinging either one.”
“You should’ve told me, Dean! I would’ve married you a lot sooner had I known you owned a convertible Thunderbird and a boat.” Walking alongside the vessel, she ran her fingertips along the glossy surface, breathing in the sweet scent of red mahogany. “It’s so shiny.”
“It’s been in storage for years but I had Kirby take it in to the marina last week and get it tuned up.”
Evy stopped to study the barrel-shaped rear end. “Sarah,” she whispered.
Stopping beside her, he stared at the black letters swirling across the backside, history tugging at his heart strings all over again.
“Your dad must’ve really loved her.”
Everything turned blurry and Dean was thankful for his sunglasses. “Well, it was either Sarah or Aqua-holic, so…”
Throwing her arms around his neck, Evy stood on her tiptoes and whispered in his ear. “Thank you for bringing me here,” she said, kissing his cheek.
“Careful, or you’ll end up with your name back there next.”
“Stop.”
A smile bloomed on his lips. “So, are you going to help me load this cooler or what?”
After depositing it into the backseat, Dean untied and climbed in next to Evy up front. The leather bench seat was soft and warm, like his wife’s flawless skin, and Sarah started up on the first try, coughing white smoke out the exhaust pipes. A few strokes later it evened out into a soft purr, just like Kirby said. Dean revved the throaty engine, nodding his seal of approval. “Nice, huh?”
“Can I drive?” Evy’s smile brightened his entire world, filling the hole inside his heart with something warm and tingly. Something he thought he’d never find.
“Nope,” he replied, pulling away from the dock and giving it full throttle. Evy screamed and sank into the seat while Dean howled at the sun with the wind rushing in his face.
Just like old times.
Chapter Four
THE PICTURE ON THE MANTEL
Melting into a wicker couch on the back patio, Evy watched the flames dance through glassy eyes. The cold Corona’s went down like water on the boat but when darkness began clawing at the sky, a change was in order to help numb her sunburnt shoulders and throbbing legs. Even though she was firmly planted on dry land, it still felt like she was moving and Evy couldn’t wait to do it all over again tomorrow. But for now, it felt good to get out of that bikini and slip into a pair of jean shorts and a purple V-neck.
Still in his boardshorts, Dean strolled through the open French doors, a glass of red wine in one hand and a cold bottle of beer in the other. “My lady.”
“Thank you,” Evy said, loving the way he stole a peek down her top.
Dropping onto the couch, he kicked his bare feet up onto an espresso-colored coffee table. “Can’t ask for better weather than this,” he said, staring out over the moonlit lake.
“It’s so pretty out here at night.”
“Sure is.” He wrapped an arm around her. “Until the bears come out anyway.” The warped look on her face made him smile. “How’re your shoulders?”
“Sunburnt,” she admitted, glancing into the trees.
“Me too.”
“My legs feel like wet noodles.”
He tucked a loose strand of bangs behind her ear. “Wakeboarding will do that, especially when you’re not used to it.”
She set a hand on his thigh and squeezed. “I wasn’t talking about the wakeboarding.”
“Oh,” he said, a proud glimmer haunting his eyes. “That.”
A log shifted in the fire pit, spitting embers up into the purple sky. “You were supposed to wait until tonight.”
“With that bikini?” Dean exhaled into a comfortable silence broken only by the crickets singing a lakeside love song.
Evy loved how he didn’t feel the need to fill every moment with idle chatter. It felt good to just stop and breathe life in. Brooke was pleasantly pregnant, Sugars had lines out the front door, and Dean was finally all hers with no psycho ex-girlfriends to get in the way. She was part of something else now. Something bigger.
Snuggling up next to him on the cream-colored cushions, she leaned her head against his good shoulder. His body heat flushed her side. The fire popped, sending a stream of red up into the night. Evy sighed. “I’ve never seen so many stars before.”
Dean gestured with his beer. “There’s the Milky Way and the Big Dipper, and that bright dot right there is Jupiter.”
“How do you know all that?”
“My dad was an amateur astronomer; always peeking through a telescope at night out here.” He snorted his amusement. “The man was convinced we weren’t alone in the universe.”
“Sounds like he and my dad would’ve gotten along great together.”
“They really would have.” Tipping the bottle back, his eyes drifted to the campfires flickering across the lake where summer vacationers roasted marshmallows and traded ghost stories until somebody screamed.
Evy followed his gaze to the yellow spots dotting the distant shoreline, each one branding a special memory into somebody’s mind. “Tell me another story,” she whispered, sipping some wine.
“Didn’t you get enough of those out on the boat?”
Lifting her head from his shoulder, she sharpened her gaze. “Did your dad really hire Jewel to play a party out here?”
“Right down by the water.” He jerked his chin to the dock. “She got bit by a snake halfway through the performance and had to be airlifted to the hospital for anti-venom.”
Her abrupt laughter scared something off in the woods to the left. “You are so full of it!”
“By the way I forgot to tell you, I clogged the toilet and you’re going to have to start going in the bushes.”
Resting her heavy head on his shoulder, she blew out a slow breath. “You need to stop hanging out with Ben so much.”
He pulled her against him, filling his lungs with the smell of burning firewood. A fish jumped off in the distance, or perhaps a frog. Smoke drifted past in ghostly vines, marching off to parts unknown. “One time,” Dean started, staring out over the glowing lake, “my dad got called back home on business and left my mom and I out here for two days. I was only ten and she was so freaked out without him.”
“I bet she was.”
Adjusting the black t-shirt pulling on his sunburnt shoulders, he leaned back into the couch. “The first night he was gone, a huge thunderstorm ripped through and knocked out power to the entire lake.” He studied the fire pit, watching that night play out against a curtain of flames. “I’d never seen it so dark in my entire life. I mean, you could barely see your hand in front of your face, but the stars…” Tipping his head back, he stared at the night sky. “It was like being inside an electric snow globe.” The hint of a grin tugged on his lips. “I think we tripped over every piece of furniture in the place trying to find a flashlight.”
Curling her legs beneath her, Evy watched shadows jump across his face, hanging on to every word.
Dean ran a hand through his windblown hair. “Next thing you know, my mom had like twenty candles going. Every window in the cabin was glowing and the whole lake smelled like a Yankee Candle factory.”
“That’s the picture on the mantel.”
He nodded. “We cooked hot dogs in the fireplace and played Monopoly all night long.” Blinking, a single teardrop ran down his cheek before he could stop it. Nothing he could do to take it back. “That was one of the coolest nights of my life.”
Looping an arm through his, she rested her head on his shoulder again. “That’s the best one yet.”
“Until a candle tipped over and burnt the cabin to the ground,” he added. “We had to rebuild the entire place.”
“You know how I can tell when you’re lying?”
He frowned at her. “How?”
“When your knee starts to bounce.”
Looking down, he forced his knee to stop bouncing. “Tell me something else about you,” he said, rubbing a heart into the back of her hand. “Something you didn’t tell me before.”
She gazed across the lake, the moonlight planting a glimmer in her eyes. “Well, we didn’t have a fancy cabin like this, but we did have the treehouse.”
“Oh, I remember the treehouse. Your dad made me drink a beer in it last month and I got stung by a wasp.”
Fate Interrupted_Just Married Page 2
