by Cyndi Raye
Tears welled in the kid’s eyes. Jake even choked up a bit seeing him begin to hit rock bottom. He noticed Danny began to shake a bit because his body was telling him he needed a fix. “We have to go now, if you want to get some help. Before your body can’t say no, you need to do this, okay?”
Jake waited for him to nod, because the only way he could help the teen was if he wanted the help. He knew no one could force any kind of rehab if he didn’t agree. After a few minutes of serious contemplation, Danny agreed. “Okay, then let’s get you to your house. Where do you live?”
They got back in the car and he gazed at Maggie, who knew something was wrong. He reassured her with a look that told her he’d fill in the blanks soon. She didn’t question him but sat in the front seat, her gaze straight ahead. Then she turned back to the boy. “It’s all right. I figured out what the problem is when I was in the store. Ready to go home?”
The pink Impala went about thirteen miles out of its way to drop the kid off at home. Jake walked to the front door and waited for his Mom to answer. After several rings, she yanked open the door and tears of joy filled her eyes when she saw her son. Jake spoke with her and then left after handing her one of his cards.
He got back in the Impala and dropped his head to the steering wheel. Maggie was silent beside him but he knew she was there. A gentle hand rested on his shoulder. He breathed deep and let it out slow, then turned to her. “How did you guess?”
“Research. It dawned on me when I was in the store he could be an addict. My mystery romance series had a character involved with drugs and after realizing he could be an addict, I looked out the window. I saw you examining his arm and the look on your face confirmed my suspicions.”
He nodded. “I hated to threaten him with the cops but it was the only way to get him to go home. It looks like his Mom will heed my warning and get him some help today. She said she’s been struggling with his addiction for almost a year.”
“Do you think he’ll make it through? He’s a nice kid otherwise.” Maggie ran a hand up and down his arm.
“I don’t know. He said there are guys after him wanting money. Josh is doing what he does best so we’ll see if it’s true. If so I’ll pay them off if he agrees to go to rehab.”
Maggie’s eyes widened. “Jake, you can’t pay off drug dealers. Let them get their what for with the police. Even Danny has to serve time for his stealing or whatever he’s being chased for.”
It was obvious she never dealt with this type of stuff before. “I know they’re drug dealers Maggie. The problem is these guys are after him and they won’t stop at much to get their money back. His life could be in danger. It’s why he ran. They’ll get their money back and think it was from him. The kid can wipe his hands of them and start over.”
He could feel her eyes stare at his profile. He didn’t look over but shifted the car and headed towards the hotel they planned to stay at. “Maggie, I know it sounds bad, but he needs someone to help him. I won’t let him go without paying the money back. He can work for me and get his life back. Think of it as an investment in his future.”
She calmed down after he told her about his employee. “You are one of the kindest and most generous men I’ve ever known. I worry about you, Jake. I want to do something super fantastic for you.” She snuggled closer to him, even though they were in bucket seats. “I wish this console wasn’t here.”
Jake laughed. “Baby you’ve given me the best time of my life. I’ve worked non stop for the last thirteen years of my life. Since I was twenty years old, I built this company without taking a second breath. I’m glad you insisted on this vacation. I need you.”
Maggie picked up his hand from the gear shift and pressed her mouth to his skin. She held it there for a moment while a tear slipped down her cheek. It landed on his hand.
“Maggie, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“It’s happy tears. That’s the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”
“I know you want more. I will someday, I promise.”
“I know Jake.”
“I guess maybe it’s time I talked about why I have a hard time with some things. You deserve an explanation.”
She reached over and placed her finger over his mouth. “Shh, not now. How about tonight, under the stars. This hotel is the perfect place to spend the evening talking.”
Jake nodded, then growled. “I don’t plan to talk much baby, if you know what I mean.”
She giggled. “I don’t plan to do much talking then, either.”
<><>
The Driftwood Resort sat along the Atlantic Ocean, it’s original beach house made of board and antique exterior walls with wood shingled gable ends and some of the most elaborate decorative truss work ever. Jake made his way around the property, intrigued with the rustic balcony railings and drift wood.
Maggie laughed as she tried to keep up. “It’s said the driftwood comes from old ships of days gone by. There was even a story of using old barn wood to build some of the walls.” She double checked the notes tucked in her pocket. “Yep, that is what its made of.”
“Nice touch,” Jake mentioned as he walked through a stone wall in to the courtyard. Two rustic cannons, embedded on each side of the walls, were most likely from the days of the civil war. A breeze way stood at the end of the ceramic tiled courtyard.
She followed Jake up a set of steps with rustic wooden railings. A few different types of old bells hung on the walls in various areas, giving off a rustic, beachcomber ambience. Maggie loved the old wooden rockers in front of their room on the balcony. They could sit out and watch as the sun went down this evening. That’s if they weren’t busy with other things.
After a great dinner at the bar and grill adjacent to the breeze way, Maggie suggested they take a long walk along the private beach. It was a quiet night along the water as the sun set. They strolled through the sand, their arms wrapped around each other. Amber lights from the resort lit up the area, giving off a serene old world charm. “Are you glad we stopped here?” she asked him.
“This is a great piece of history that intrigues me. I’m glad we’re here baby.” He stopped and kissed her, a long, sensual kiss that promised more before the night was over. “I’m so in love with you Maggie. I need you to understand what’s going on inside of me,” Jake admitted.
Maggie gazed at him. The night was perfect. A clear sky with the moon gazing down on the water as wave after wave rippled across the ocean. She snuggled in his arms. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”
“It isn’t you. You’re not the reason I can’t say the words you want to hear.”
Maggie held her fingertips over his mouth. “You don’t have to tell me.” Why did she say those words? Of course she wanted to know!
“I can’t help thinking that if I marry you then I will jinx things and I’ll lose-”
Jake stumbled over the last word, unable to finish. The desperate look in his eyes told her to tread light or he would close up.
It dawned on Maggie why he was so afraid. He thought if they got married sooner or later she would die too, like his Mother. “Oh my love, you can’t have those kinds of thoughts!”
“They haunt me.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his face to hers. “Look at me,” she demanded. He gazed into her eyes, his fear an open book, chipping away, breaking him down so he couldn’t function. “It is not your fault your Mother died and you can no longer let the fear of her death keep you from going on with your life. What you are doing to yourself is coming up short of what she would expect of you. Do you realize your Mother would not want you to have those kind of thoughts?”
Jake jerked away from her and stared at the ocean waves as they slapped against the sandy beach drowning out his next words. She had to take a step closer to hear. “It’s so heavy on my shoulders baby. My Dad told me he didn’t blame me and I needed to get over the pain of blaming myself. I know it too, but it still haunts me every single d
ay.”
“You have to forgive yourself.”
He looked at her as if she spoke in a foreign language. “That’s the problem. As long as I live, I doubt I can ever forgive myself for leaving the house and forgetting to tell my Dad she needed him.”
Maggie shook her head. “You did tell him! The moment you remembered you ran as fast as you could and told him. I doubt it would’ve made a difference.”
Jake ground his foot into the sand. He shoved hands deep in his pockets. “What if it had made a difference? She could be alive today. I won’t put your life in my hands, Maggie. She’s my Mother, but what you are to me, is my whole reason to exist. It would knock me down and I’d never get up again if I let you down.”
Maggie’s face began a slow burn. Her lip hurt when she realized she bit down hard. “What you said right now tells me I’ll never hear a proposal from you. What I hear is if we get married, we’re jinxed? Is that what you want to believe? It’s stupid and so far from the truth of you and me. We’re made for each other. You’re the one I want and I know good and well I am the one for you! So get over your fears and take a chance on the best thing that you’ll ever have!”
She didn’t realize her hands were fisted on her hips and her foot stomped the sand. “I’m going to our room and you’d do well to let me alone so I can cool down!”
Maggie McCoy was on a roll.
Chapter 7
Maggie was right. He needed to stop bringing negative thoughts to their relationship. Except she didn’t know how it felt to feel responsible for your own Mother’s death.
Jon explained the type of aneurysm that killed her already did its damage even before the moment she fell to the floor. No one at that point could save her, even though they tried. Jake believed his brother, Jon was a great doctor and did extensive research. He reassured Jake day after day but after a while, Jon even stopped talking about it to him because he was tired of Jake dwelling on such negative thoughts.
Although those negative thoughts drove him to create one of the biggest real estate development companies along the southern Florida coast and Keys. Foster, Inc was the company to rival what he created. It was an older company and Jake strived to top what they could do and he would in due time. At least those were his thoughts a few months ago, before Maggie.
All of his thoughts centered around this incredible woman who was angry and upset and stomped away to their room on one of the most exciting trips of his life. She made him feel free, of guilt, of the heavy burdens he carried. She wrapped her arms around him and the rest of the world didn’t exist. He looked out at the water again, it’s foam covered waves crashing against his feet. Jake needed to fix this. He couldn’t let Maggie get away, there was no other woman for him.
He took in the salty air in one long, drawn out deep breath. He would fix this right now. If she wanted a proposal, then that’s what he would do to keep her in his life. He wasn’t about to let her slip away.
His head became clearer with each step he took towards the hotel. Jake crossed the courtyard’s ceramic tile floor and marched up the wooden stairs, determined to make Maggie a bride before their trip was over. All she had to do was say yes and they could find a courthouse and be married in no time. It would be simple. He had to do this now before he changed his mind and let the negative energy back in.
Jake slipped through the French doors on the balcony into their hotel room. The bedroom door no longer stood open and his heart thumped against his chest. It was now or never. Determined, he strolled to the door and twisted the knob. Locked. His hand beat on the door. “Maggie. Open up, I have something I want to say.”
No response.
“Maggie, please open.” He heard a scuffle and knew when she was right on the other side. Except she wouldn’t unlock and when he tried the door it wouldn’t budge. “Baby, let me in. I love you. Let’s get married, tonight, tomorrow. I don’t care when, let’s do it so we can put this behind us and move on.”
Nothing.
He leaned his forehead on the door. “I know I messed up, bad. I’m a fool and so sorry.”
Her quiet words stilled his heart. “I want to believe you. But I don’t want to feel as if I forced a proposal out of you. No, Jake, I’m sorry too. I want to be alone tonight. I have a lot of thinking to do. Good night.”
Jake heard her move away from the door. He grabbed the knob and jerked on it. It didn’t budge. He could break in to her room if he wanted to. But she didn’t want him right now. Maybe it was better this way.
He went back out to the balcony and plopped down on a chair. Was he determined to ruin this relationship? He rocked back and forth, the slow, steady rhythm and the moonlit night soothing his soul. The far away sounds of party goers from the bar and grill drifted up towards the second floor. Jake drifted off then, his thoughts crowded with ideas on how to win back Maggie’s heart.
<><>
The shuffle of feet inside woke him up. He stretched and shook himself. Maggie came outside on the balcony, dressed and ready to go. He glanced inside and saw the set of luggage she brought up yesterday sitting by the door.
She handed him a cup of coffee and sat on the chair beside him. She rocked back and forth and sipped on her coffee, the silence of the early morning soothing his tortured soul. “I’m sorry I locked you out of the bedroom. Things don’t seem as bad in the light of the morning, do they?”
“I’m not sure how to answer baby. I’ve said too much to piss you off.” He stared straight ahead out over the balcony’s rustic railing. The sun began to lighten up the world.
Her sigh filled the air. “Oh Jake. I thought long and hard all night. I doubt I slept much at all. I’ve been pressing you to marry me-”
“I offered to marry you last night.”
She held her hand up. “I’m not even sure now why it’s so important any more. Maybe it’s because I want a family to call my own. When I saw how much you struggled with all of this, it wretched my heart out when I realized how hard your life has been. It’s not fair to force you into something you’re not ready for. I see that now.”
He took in a long, deep breath. “When we first met I told you we’d see what tomorrow brings. I thought you were okay with taking things slow. Now I realize I want more than what tomorrow brings. I want you Maggie, every single inch of you with me forever.” He closed his eyes. Would she leave him after all of this?
“Oh Jake. I feel the same way but this road trip was for us to figure out what we wanted. We’ve had such a great time. It won’t be long before we’re back home and we’re both working like demons again. I did plan this trip in the hopes you would propose to me but now I am determined that we spend more time working on our relationship before jumping into something that big. I guess it took this trip to make me aware of our true feelings.”
“What! You changed your mind again? Maggie, I do want to marry you!” He slipped to the wooden floor, a thump as his knee hit the deck. He picked up her hand and kissed the back of it.
She shook her head and smiled. “No love. Not this way. I can’t accept your proposal any more.”
Jake could not believe her. “One minute you’re dying for a proposal, next day you refuse. Do you know how hard it was for me to realize you were right all along?” He stood up and went to the railing, his hands gripping the wooden rails.
“I want to back up a bit Jake. Let’s move back to when you said to see what tomorrow brings. We’ll date more and take time off from our work. Get to know each other all over again.”
Jake pushed away from the railing. He knelt beside her, eyes direct with hers. “Maggie McCoy, I didn’t acquire a multi-million dollar company by allowing someone to toy with me. My company started from years of sacrifice and hard work. I’m not a pushover and if you think for one minute you can manipulate me, you can’t.”
She blinked at him. “I’m not trying to manipulate you. Jake, I want you to see that we are made for each other. If it takes starting all over again, let’s do it
because I will never, ever stop loving you.”
Jake growled and picked her up off the rocker, coffee mug in her hand. It clattered to the floor. “You will marry me, Maggie McCoy. If it takes the rest of my life, I’ll convince you that I am ready.”
“No. I won’t marry you Jake. Not right now.”
Jake slid the French door shut, determined to love her so thorough she would cry out his name before the morning was over.
<><>
“Well?”
“It was nice.”
They were loading up the Impala and Jake closed the passenger side door. He leaned in and caught her mouth with his own. “It was more than nice, Maggie. You screamed my name so loud, I thought the people in the other room would break down the door.”
