Unbound Faith (Bulletproof #1)

by J. L. Baldwin

  I nod listening to her babble on as she takes a large bite from her apple. Leaning across the granite countertop, I grab a banana for myself. “Yeah it is, but mom didn’t have to take off. There are other ways to handle stress and grief than to run away from it. I don’t know where she is right now and to put it quite frankly, I couldn’t care less. She’s better off where she’s at.” My anger starts to boil at the mention of my good for nothing mother. Most girls would dream to have their mothers in their lives but not me. Aunt Clara and Sarah were the only take charge women figures I needed in my life. The ones who helped me keep my head on straight when I was falling down the path of confusion. That path was a rocky hell the few hundred times I went down it.

  Sarah nods in understanding while she transfers her coffee from her mug into a travel mug before turning to me. This time, she’s wearing her ‘lecture’ face. Oh boy, I know what’s coming. “Jayde honey, people grieve in many different ways. Some can’t handle the pain that follows death. Mom was one of those people. So she thought running away and abandoning her children was the best way to handle that. Clara even said she was a coward for ditching us but she wouldn’t have it changed. Aunt Clara and Uncle Roger loved having us there. They took really good care of us too.”

  I nod slightly, beginning to peel my banana back before taking a small bite. “Yeah, you’re right. Maybe it was meant to happen that way. I still miss her sometimes. But not enough to want her to come back.” I say around a mouthful of banana goodness.

  Sarah scrunches up her nose slightly in disgust. “Ugh, don’t you have any manners at all? I thought we all raised you better than that.” She must be referring to me speaking with my mouth open and full of food. I smile widely, not caring at all what she sees.

  Sarah returns back to her lecture after the initial disgust has passed. “I know you do, and if it makes you feel any better, I do too sometimes. But I keep telling myself if she loved us, she would be here. And she’s not so that should tell us something.”

  With another glance at her watch, she rushes around the counter and starts pushing me forcefully towards the front door and we’re out and in the car before another word gets spoken. Sarah’s always been sort of the matriarch of the family, even when my mother was still around. Because of her, I was able to do normal kid stuff which continued into middle school. Our Aunt Clara and Uncle Roger may have taken care of us and provided for us, but Sarah took charge most of the time. Since I had those three in my life, school wasn’t bad. Once I got into middle school, it got a little worse. Bullies would constantly tease me about my weight and I hated it. So many popular girls would say nobody would ever want to date the fat girl. I put a stop to that when I was sixteen and won over the heart of the star football player and made out with him behind the bleachers of the championship football game. Oh, he was an amazing kisser too. And he knew exactly where to put his hands on my body to make me shiver. Todd Bryant was his name. And I’ll never forget how he made me feel.

  We broke up when he went to college across the country, leaving me heartbroken even though it was a mutual understanding. We remained good friends after he left. Last time I spoke to him was about two years ago, and he was calling me from prison. Something about taking money from the senator of California which earned him a quick twenty-five years in federal prison. I told him right then and there to stop contacting me, no matter how much it hurt.

  On into my senior year, I very much enjoyed and excelled in school, which earned me an almost perfect GPA so I was able to get into almost any college I wanted to anywhere in the country. Oxford University also was an option before I settled for UCLA. Making friends came easy to me during my senior year. I was never a bad student or rebellious, just your typical good girl who did everything she was supposed to do. I had many friends that way. Some were fake, but most were real. Anna was the only friend I had at the time. When we were kids, she was insanely jealous, and she often pointed it out. I was sad when she moved away but I got over it quickly. Flash forward into high school, and there she is sitting across the cafeteria. I walked up to her and before I said a single word, she apologized for how she acted as a kid. We instantly clicked back together and were inseparable ever since. Upon finding out I was getting bullied by one of my “fake friends,” she beat the ever loving shit out of the kid.

  Anna was such the polar opposite of me and still is. Always so rebellious and moody, but we became good friends and eventually graduated together and started out in this big, bad, and beautiful world together. She would still call me a goody two shoes and I would call her an asshole just like old times.

  Driving down the road towards work, we’re both jamming to the sultry voice of Adele with her new single as the beautiful South Carolina coast passes by with every turn. The coast line is too beautiful to miss out on. Since I have a new piece I’m working on, getting some really clear shots of the beach will work. I suddenly point up ahead of me towards the beach, signaling for her to pull the car over at remembering I need to capture some shots before heading into the office.

  “Awe, dammit. I forgot I have to go by the beach on my way to work. Do you mind dropping me off?”

  Sarah rolls her eyes and gives me this ‘how are you going to get to work?’ look. “Why do you need to go to the beach?” She asks but she’s already pulling off the highway towards the beach road. Holding up my small black camera, I smile waving it around. “I have a piece I have to type up by tonight and I have to get some shots of the shoreline. The piece is titled ‘Soulmates of the Shore.’ It’s about losing yourself before you find yourself and using the seashore as the crutch in order to do so. Come on, you can stick around and watch.”

  For once, Sarah seemed almost interested. It wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t stick around. Since I absolutely love taking pictures and writing stories to go with them, she doesn’t like that path I took. I wanted to get into journalism. She thought it was silly but I have a good feeling she’s finally warming up to the idea. She laughs softly while putting the car in park beside the beach, and the instant smell of salty sea air fills my nostrils which relaxes my whole body.

  “As fun as that sounds, I am late to work as it is. So you have fun and I’ll see you at home tonight?” I nod while letting out a sigh in defeat. “Sure, I’ll grab a few shots and then walk the rest of the way to work. It’s not too far.” I gather my things and step out of the car into the muggy southern air. South Carolina is always humid this time of year. Which is no different than any other time. “Alright, I’ll see you tonight.” I yell back into the car. She smiles and then pulls away leaving me to do my thing.

  When my feet touch the soft sand, calmness washes over me and I’m as relaxed as finally lying in my bed after a hard day at the office. The sea has always been my second home. No, I’m not one of those half human, half fish people everyone call’s mermaids, but I grew up around the ocean, so it’s my home. I go there to unwind and to let my hair down so to speak.

  As I walk along the shore, the water laps at my feet washing away all the negativity that has happened in my life. The summer season has already passed so the water was still relatively warm which was quite pleasant. My camera is in hand, ready to pick up any shot that would be worth taking back to the newsroom. I pull my camera up and snap a few shots, capturing the beauty of the shore. Pictures don’t even do it justice. The beaches are lined with seashells and they were beautiful with all kinds of shapes and colors.

  The shells are too tempting to avoid rummaging through so I stash my camera in my purse and my hunt for the perfect shell begins. Walking along the length of the shore, my eyes are looking down at the sand, not able to help myself from seeing if I see any seashells worth grabbing before the sea pulls them back out and they are lost forever. One of my many hobbies, aside from writing of course. My eyes were looking down scanning the sand, hoping to catch a gorgeous shell I can take home and cherish forever so I didn’t even look where I was going until I hit something hard, and
surprisingly warm. My ass hits the ground hard, almost knocking the wind out oy my lungs. Whatever it was, the sudden contact made lightning shoot from my toes to the top of my head and all around my body. I’ve never had such a foreign feeling before. It’s like I’ve been struck all of a sudden with something electrifying. I can’t explain it.

  “Hey asshole, you need to watch where you’re….” I stop mid-sentence when my eyes look up and lock onto the most beautiful pair of blue eyes I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The beautiful stranger looks down at me with a knowing smirk which only makes my anger boil over more.

  But. Oh. My. God. His beautiful six four frame stood there, towering over my very curvy five three one, and I all of a sudden felt shy. He still wore, from what I’m assuming is his stupid signature smirk and I couldn’t stop my eyes from checking him out. Beautifully chiseled, sculpted and tan. Not to mention very easy on the eyes. I could stare into them for days. My cheeks reddened from the embarrassment of me falling but I guess he pretended like he didn’t notice. I looked back up into his eyes to see him snap his back as if he was checking me out too but that wasn’t possible.

  All the air left my body in a rush as lust instantly flooded my veins. I. Wanted. Him. I’ve never wanted somebody so much and I’m about two seconds away from begging him to take my virginity right here on this very spot, which is something I never do. Offering myself up like bait would be grounds for disaster. Before my brain could register what or who I was looking at, the Adonis leaned down and held his hand out to help me up. I reluctantly gave him my hand and he helped me to my feet. That same electrifying feeling returned upon our hands coming into contact with each other. My whole body felt like it was engulfed in fire as our skin made contact. I’ve never had this happen to me before.

  “My apologies miss. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Please forgive me.” He says in a soft voice as I get to my feet and brush the sand off my clothes. Even his voice was beautiful. There’s no way a guy like this was real. I have to be dreaming. The way his voice sounded, he sounded local but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I caught a hint of a northern accent but my judgement could be wrong. My eyes drift downward at the base of his abs and the happy trail that trails downward to…wow, I need to stop staring right now. I bend over and picked up the bag of seashells I had collected before he could catch wind of what I was trying to look at, which I wasn’t. Or maybe I was.

  My heart continues to beat wildly out of my chest as if a hundred horses were galloping through at record speed at having him this close to me and the only thing I do is smile like a damn idiot and don’t say a word. Smooth Jayde, just smooth.

  “Can you speak?” He asks with that adorable accent and I shake my head as to clear my thoughts. Great, now he thinks I can’t speak. Duh, of course I can speak. I was too busy checking out your outrageously gorgeous body to focus. Okay, yep. Words.

  “Oh…umm sorry. It’s okay. Really, it was my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. I’m rambling. He chuckles and my cheeks flush a bright crimson. He thinks it’s cute. Great, I went from clumsy to cute. We’re making real progress here. He reaches to the top of my shoulder and brushes something off and my whole body tenses up at the sudden gesture which makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  “Sorry, it’s just some sand. Didn’t mean to invade your space.” He says, returning his hands to his sides. I can’t get over his adorable accent. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a damn cute accent in all my life. That has to be a city boy accent. I have to find out where he’s from or else I might implode. But should I ask somebody I ran into on the beach such a personal question? No because that would be creepy and if the constant annoying staring didn’t already creep him out, asking him such a personal question would.

  Quickly kicking that little fucking angel off my shoulder, I brave up and ask. “May I ask, where you are from? You don’t have the typical South Carolina accent. I would know, since I grew up here.” The Adonis smiles at me and shakes his head slowly, causing me to smile in return. “No I’m not from here. I’m actually a little further away…a little further north. New York to be a little bit more precise.” He says which doesn’t stop my racing heart. Damn, were there races going on in there? So he wasn’t from around here.

  The mysterious stranger looks down at his feet feeling the sudden loss of his personal information was too much. I can see it in his eyes. “So Miss umm…”

  “Burgess, Elizabeth Jaydelyn Burgess...” I blurt out. Who is this new brave girl and why is she blurting out personal information like nothing? The little devil and I are going to have a little talk later.

  “So Miss Elizabeth…”

  I stop him suddenly at the use of my first name. Nobody has called me Elizabeth since my mother and I’m not about to start now. “Please, just Jayde. I don’t like when people use my first name. It sounds too formal.” I quickly add. A little white lie never hurt anybody. My father used to call me Elizabeth too, and I swore I wouldn’t ever let anyone else use my first full name ever again.

  “Right, sorry. So Jayde are you from around here?” He asks, smiling a megawatt smile which doesn’t stop the sweet warmth from filling my body. That feeling is so alien to me, I’m not sure how to handle it. “Yes I am from here. Born and raised right here in South Carolina. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I love living here. The food, atmosphere, people! God, it’s so heavenly.”

  He seems to absorb every word I say as if it intrigues him like his information intrigued me. The way his face would soften at the mention of the passion I have for my home state makes me wonder why he is so far away from his home state.

  “May I ask what brings you to South Carolina? We are a hop, skip and a jump away from New York.”

  The stranger reaches down and picks up a shell I hadn’t even noticed before and twirls it around in his hand before tossing it into the ocean, to be washed away with the waves. “I’m here on business. A job if you will.” He replies without looking me in the eyes.

  “Oh okay. What job?” I don’t stop myself before blurting out something that is clearly none of my business. As a journalist, I need to know certain details so prying is part of the job description. Prying is all part my job. If I don’t pry, then I’m not doing my job correctly.

  Instantly, as quickly as it came, his smile is gone. Replaces it is a hard deeply almost annoyed expression. “That’s none of your concern.” He says with a bite to his voice which makes my body tense up at the sudden sternness and I find myself taking a step back, which he notices then his expression softens at my retreat. If he’s an asshole, then I should run away now and fast.

  “Ahh fuck, I mean…damn I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get rude, I don’t talk about my job that much sweetheart. I just…” He runs his hands through his sandy brown hair and I notice the taut muscles of his abs flex as he moves. Why does a single, involuntary movement do crazy things to my insides? I’m going to lose myself around this guy before I even have a chance to get to know him. And I don’t even know his name…yet.

  Taking a step back, he groans then reaches into his pocket and pulls his phone out. He must be late for an appointment of some sort. Before I had a chance to ask, his phone gets slid back into his pocket. The posture of his stance instantly changes as he seems to shift back into running mode. “Sorry Jayde, I hate to cut this short but I must run. I have a prior engagement I must attend to.”

  The instant he said the word ‘engagement’ my mind did all sorts of crazy things. Engagement. Wedding. He’s engaged to somebody else. So why is he being all flirty flirty with me then? Slow down, I don’t even know his name! I need to make note of that before I leave.

  “Wait, I don’t even know your name.” I say as a matter of fact. Surely he won’t leave without giving me his name in return. My breath catches in my throat when he leans in to whisper softly. Gone was the sweet and soft features of his face and what replaces it is a hot, pos
sessive stare. The kind of stare a lion looks at its prey before he pounces, devouring on site. Again, why does his stare do all kinds of crazy things to me? I should be so fucking terrified I would want to run away from him and stay away.

  “You’ll get my name when I damn well feel like giving it to you. And I’m not going to do that right now.” The sudden threat struck me as sexy, erotic and slightly intimidating. I see he is going to play hardball. I don’t like when guys play hardball but for him, I’ll make an exception.

  Ugh, this shit made no sense to me whatsoever. All these mood swings are giving me a headache and I don’t have any aspirin. My mind was a whirlwind of emotions right now. One minute he’s sweet and soft, the next he’s domineering and stern. I tell myself I like both sides of him. Maybe I’ll try to guess his name. Kind of like when Eric tries to guess Ariel’s name in The Little Mermaid. But I don’t have any talking crabs to help me out with this. I’m all on my own. Taking my hand in his, he brings the back of my hand to his lips and gently kisses it and my whole body tenses up at the brief contact. I’m sure he can tell my skin has instantly warmed over completely.

  “I would like to continue this so can I call you Jayde?” He asks straightening back up as he pulls his phone from the pocket of his swimming trunks. He proceeds to reach for my phone and I hand it over to him, smiling the entire time. Typing a few times on the keypad, he hands it back to me. His number was saved in my phone under the name ‘Z.’ Nothing fancy, just a single letter to put to his messages.

  “You have the most beautiful eyes.” His compliment catches me off guard as I shyly tuck a strand of stray hair behind my ear, avoiding his gaze. Something struck him as odd to me, but beautiful at the same time.