The thought had never crossed Ben’s mind, but the suggestion gave him a jolt. If someone from town — anyone — had seen what was going on down there on the beach, word would spread through town fast. He’d definitely get teased about it tonight at The Local if he showed up.
Then again, someone already knew he was interested in Julia. That’s why he’d been threatened the other night.
“If they did …” ” Ben smiled, remembering some of the things that had done to each other. “I guess we gave them quite a show.”
“Tongues will wag,” Julia said with a light laugh.
They stood for a long time, kissing and clinging to each other, their hands touching … rubbing … feeling … caressing … exploring soft and firm curves beneath clothes. Ben felt himself stirring again and was more than ready to drop down to the ground right there and go at it, but Julia broke off the embrace. Panting heavily, a mischievous gleam lighting her eyes, she said, “Don’t get started now, lover boy. Save it for later.”
Ben smiled and shook his head, thinking: Good … There’s gonna be a “later.”
“Oww, the things you do to me, woman.”
They turned and, hand and hand, started along the path back to where they had left Ben’s car.
“What’s the name of this place — the beach, I mean?” Julia asked.
“Sand Beach.”
“How original.”
“Quaint, even,” Ben said.
“Do many people know about it?”
“Just us locals. It’s one of those places we don’t like the summer people knowing about.”
“What, you think they’d ruin it?” Julia glanced back down the trail, a wistful look flickering in her dark eyes.
“You haven’t lived here long enough to see what’s happened to this town. Hell, even in the short time I’ve been away, I can’t believe how much it’s changed.”
“A lot can happen in four years.”
“Yeah, but if tourists knew about this place, then where would we go to make love?”
Julia laughed.
“I’m sure we’d come up with something,” she said, and then she leaned forward and kissed him on the mouth. Ben grabbed her and hugged her close, making the kiss more passionate as he pressed his hips against her until she began to breathe hard.
“It’s our place now,” Julia said once the kiss was over, and she was snuggling against him, reveling in his body heat. “Do you know who owns the land?”
Ben considered for a moment.
“I’m not really sure, now that you mention it. It might belong to one of the Nelsons.”
“So what do you say we buy it and build a house out here?”
Ben knew from her reaction that she immediately regretted saying something so sappy, but he actually found it endearing.
“Couldn’t afford the taxes,” he said, and then they continued to walk, their fingers laced together like ivy. Through a break in the woods, Ben caught a glimpse of the roof of his car, parked at the end of the dead end dirt road. At first, he didn’t register the meaning of the faint cloud of dust being whisked slowly away by the breeze, but then they broke out of the woods, and he saw that his car was sagging heavily to one side as if the driver’s side wheels were stuck in a rut.
“Goddamned son of a bitch!”
“What is it?” Julia asked, but he didn’t answer. He started running toward his car, all the while staring in amazement at the tires on the driver’s side, front and back. Both of them were flat. The hubcaps were almost touching the dirt road.
“Whoever did this just did it.”
Ben looked down the road. Seething with anger, he watched the swirling dust settle to the ground and drift into the woods like a cloud of yellow smoke. It was the last trace of the culprit’s escape, but there was still a sense of a nearby presence.
“Fucking son of a bitch!”
He kicked the dirt, and a spray of gravel and dirt peppered the side of the car like a scattering of buckshot.
“Is it safe to assume you don’t have two spare tires in the trunk?” Julia said, trying to sound reasonable to counterbalance Ben’s anger.
“They must have heard us coming and taken off.” He looked back the way they had come and then at the road again. “I bet they would have done all four tires if they’d had time.”
“You keep saying ‘they.’ Do you know it was more than one person?”
“No!” Ben shouted.
He turned to her, his eyes flashing like summer lightning. He tried to suppress his rage, but he clenched his fist and pounded the top of his car. The impact sounded like he’d hit the bottom of an empty oil barrel and was hard enough to dent the metal.
“Don’t do that,” Julia said, her voice wavering. “They’ve done enough damage as it is.” It took effort to keep her voice calm. She knew she had to maintain calm here, but she was starting to panic because she was suddenly convinced this message was directed at her as much as Ben. After the conversation she’d had last night with Tom, she had a pretty good idea that he might have done this, but she didn’t want to believe that he — a town cop — was capable of such a thing.
“Why the hell didn’t we hear them?” Ben sputtered as he massaged his wrist. He started pacing back and forth beside the car, staring down the road as if he could somehow will the culprits back into view.
“I dunno. Maybe it was some punks, you know?” Julia said. She hung back, unnerved by the intensity of Ben’s outburst and afraid he might turn it on her. “Maybe the … the trees blocked the sound. The wind was maybe blowing in the wrong direction or something.”
“What if …” Ben swallowed hard, trying hard to control his anger. His hands were aching, the knuckles of his hand standing out as he clenched his fists, squeezing them like he was strangling a live snake. The muscles in his forearms swelled like pressurized hoses. “Damn … What if one of them was watching us the whole time?”
“You mean standing guard?”
Ben nodded, and Julia’s eyes widened as she hugged herself and looked back down the trail, still feeling as though the threat hadn’t gone away. The skin on the back of her neck crawled with the sensation that — even now — unseen eyes were watching her from the margins of the woods. She moved closer to Ben and slid her arm around his waist, hugging him protectively. When he put his arm around her shoulder, the tension inside him vibrated like electricity in a high voltage wire, but she felt reassured as he held her tightly.
“I’ll call for a tow truck to come out and help us.”
“Damn,” Julia said as she glanced at her wristwatch. “This really screws things up. My dad’s expecting me back by now. It’s suppertime.”
“Fuck! … Fuck! … Fuck!” Ben kicked a divot into the dirt. “If only we’d come back thirty seconds sooner!”
“Getting angry won’t solve the problem.”
Ben looked at her, his expression as hard as a stone carving.
A thought suddenly hit her, and she rushed over to the car and looked inside. Relief washed over her when she saw her purse undisturbed where she had left it on the floor on the passenger’s side.
At least she hadn’t been robbed.
Ben fished the car keys from his pocket, unlocked the door on the passenger’s side, and took his cell phone from the seat. He dialed his home number, not really expecting anyone to answer, and was surprised when Louise picked up.
“Hey, Lou-Lou Belle” he said with forced cheerfulness.
“Hey yourself. Where are you?”
“Out.”
“Well, Pops was looking for you earlier.”
“Really?”
“He wanted you to help him haul today.”
Ben glanced at Julia and shot her a smile. He almost blew her a kiss but stopped himself before he did anything that “quaint.”
“Why’re you at the house?”
Louise hesitated for a moment, then said, “I stopped by to see if Pops was home.”
That didn’t ring a
t all true. Ben knew she was probably trying to get away from Tom again, but he decided to let it pass … let her be the one to mention it.
“Look — ahh, do you have the phone book handy?”
“Hold on a sec.” After a short pause followed by the sound of things being shuffled around, Louise said, “Yeah. Got it right here.”
“Can you look up the number for Skip’s Garage and call him for me?”
“What’s the problem?”
“Flat tire. I want him to pick up my car.”
“What, you can’t change a flat?”
“Give me the number. I’ll call him,” Ben said. He didn’t for a moment consider telling her the truth. Word would get out eventually about him and Julia, but there was no sense starting it.
“No … No … I’ll call. Where are you?”
“Parking lot for Sand Beach.”
“What are you doing out there?”
“Taking a walk.”
“All right … who is she?”
“No one.”
“You’re not with Kathy, are you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Come on … You can tell me,” Louise said, adopting the pleading, pathetic voice that had always worked so well on him when they were young.
“There’s nothing to tell. I’m not with anyone. Are you gonna call Skip’s or not?”
Ben narrowed his eyes and shook his head as Julia came up close to him and, resting her hand on the crook of his elbow, leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. He stared past her at the sky. The sun was setting, and darkness crept across the land. In the west, a low band of purple clouds streaked the sky like old scars.
“Yeah,” Louise said. “I’ll call. Anything else?”
“Just make sure there’s plenty of cold beer in the ’fridge when I get home, ’kay?”
“Roger that,” Louise said, and then she cut the call. Ben was grimacing as he closed the cell phone and turned back to Julia.
“You’re not with anyone?” she said. There was as much hurt as anger in her eyes. “You didn’t think it necessary — you didn’t want to tell her you were with me?”
“It’s not like that,” Ben said. He had to look away for a moment to collect his thoughts.
“What is it like, then?”
“I didn’t — It’s none of her goddamned business what I do,” Ben said. “I’m sorry, but … people will talk …”
“So what if they do?”
Ben wondered why he hadn’t come right out and told Louise he was with Julia, and he couldn’t come up with a good reason.
Besides, what did it matter?
It certainly wasn’t like he’d be embarrassed to be seen with her. If anything, he was glad that a woman as attractive as Julia had even given him a second look. She sure seemed to be pursuing him as fast as he was pursuing her.
Julia wasn’t convinced, but even though her feelings were hurt, she decided to play it all off as a joke. Hooking her arm around his, she pulled him toward her so fast he almost lost his balance.
“Oh, I can’t wait to meet the rest of your family,” she said, and then she blew softly into his ear, making him shiver. As angry as he still was, Ben finally relented and kissed her on the mouth. Julia slid her hands around him and held him as close as she possibly could. When they separated, both of them were smiling.
“Someone’ll be out to get us … eventually,” he said. He was considering trying to get her to go off into the woods with him for a quickie, but there was no telling when Skip would show up with the tow truck.
Julia pursed her lips and regarded him for a long time in silence. She could all but read his mind. It was as clear and open as any man’s.
“What?” Ben finally said, suddenly uncomfortable under her steady gaze.
“I’m going to have to walk home,” she said.
Ben frowned at her, then shook his head.
“No way. Skip’ll be along soon enough.”
“But my dad.” She shrugged. “I should be there.”
Worry gathered in her eyes like an approaching thunderstorm, and he felt another surge of fury because right now, there wasn’t a damned thing he could do to help her.
“I’ll go with you. I can leave the keys in the car. Skip will know what to do.”
“Don’t be stupid. If the jerk who did this is hanging around, he might do some serious damage to the car.”
She had a point. Still, it would be dark soon. He didn’t like the idea of her walking all the way to Steeple Road from here. It had to be four or five miles, at least.
“What if the jerk follows you home?”
Julia gave him a startled look, but that lasted only a second. She walked over to the car, got her purse, and slung it over her shoulder.
“I think I can take care of myself,” she said, and by the gleam in her eye and the set of her jaw, he was convinced she was telling the truth.
“Are you sure?” he said. I mean … It’s not very gentlemanly to leave a lady stranded. Especially after … you know.”
“Screwing her brains out?”
Ben nodded.
“Jesus, Ben. You’re acting like I’m some kind of moron who can’t take care of herself. I can walk and chew gum at the same time, you know?”
“No, it’s just … I don’t want this to … to …” He didn’t know how to finish, so he let his voice fade away.
“You don’t want this to what?” Julia said.
“I don’t want what’s happened to make things weird between us, is all.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Julia settled her purse strap on her shoulder and stared at him, looking genuinely astounded. Then she came up to him and hugged him so tightly he lost his breath for a moment. When she tilted her head back, and their lips met in a long, passionate kiss, it really did take his breath away. He clung to her, not wanting to let her go, but he knew — eventually — he would have to.
“All right, then,” he said after the kiss ended. “I’ll catch you later. You think we might hook up later tonight?”
Julia looked away, considered for a moment, then shook her head and said, “Not tonight. Tomorrow, maybe …”
“What do you mean, ‘maybe?’?”
She let out a trilling laugh and then turned and started walking down the road. Her figure was indistinct in the fading light, and when she disappeared from sight into the gathering darkness, Ben was left with the unnerving impression she had never been there … that she was an illusion that had now faded, leaving behind a vacuum so cold and empty he found it astonishing.
He covered his mouth with his fist as if stifling a cough, unable to believe the things he was thinking about her, and he scolded himself for allowing himself to fall for her so hard and so fast.
He kept staring down the narrow dirt road long after she had disappeared, knowing that — no matter what kind of second thoughts he might be having — he wasn’t going to back away from following this no matter where it led.
The harsh, white glare of headlights behind Julia washed the side of the road, stretching her shadow out thirty feet in front of her. The muscles in her neck and shoulders tightened like springs as she waited for the car to drive past her.
Please don’t stop … Don’t even slow down …
But when the crunch of tires sounded on the roadside gravel, she knew the car had pulled over to the side of the road and was coming up right behind her.
And she had no doubt who it was.
A mixture of fear and anger filled her as she kept walking. She was convinced Tom was the one who had slashed Ben’s tires.
Who else would have?
The car came closer, its tires crunching on the roadside gravel, the headlights getting brighter. She looked left and right, but saw no place to run. Out of the reach of the headlights, the road in front of her was swallowed by darkness. Suddenly, the headlights swung around her to the left as the car got back onto the road and pulled up beside her. In the corner of her ey
e, she saw that it was a police cruiser.
She kept walking, looking straight ahead, but the driver — she knew, without looking, that it was Tom Marshall — drove along next to her. She heard a faint whirring sound as the passenger’s side automatic window slid down.
“Hold up a second?” he said.
Julia didn’t even glance at him. She kept walking, her eyes fixed on the stretch of road illuminated by the headlights. After she had gone another fifty feet or so, the cruiser pulled ahead and skidded to a stop at an angle in front of her, cutting her off. The headlights slashed across the landscape, clouded by swirling dust that rose from its sudden stop.
Julia was filled with panic, but she told herself not to let it show. For a long time, she stood there wishing she knew which way to run. Then the flickering blue and red emergency lights came on, sweeping the darkness away. She waited for the whoop-whoop of a siren, but it never came.
Balling one hand into a fist and holding it at her side, she raised her other hand to shield her eyes from the flashes. She felt small and vulnerable as she stared at the cruiser, waiting to see what Tom would do next.
The night was warm, and her skin was still sticky with sweat and sand from the beach, but a chill slithered up her back. Her shirt clung to her back and shoulders like clammy hands. She tasted salt when she flicked her tongue over her upper lip and waited.
The driver’s door of the cruiser opened, and Tom Marshall stepped out. He left the car running, and the plume of exhaust spewing from the tailpipe turned a ghastly red in the glow of his taillights and flashing lights. Knocking his police cap back on his head, he walked up to her.
“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing all alone on a dark road like this?” he said.
He might have been trying to inject a bit of humor into the situation, but Julia was frozen. She regarded him with what she hoped was a perfectly flat expression. As frightened and nervous as she was, she also was angry at him and wanted to tell him … to yell at him to leave her and Ben the fuck alone.
But he was right.
She was vulnerable out here all alone. It would have been much safer to stay with Ben and wait for the tow truck to show up.
Her body fairly vibrated with tension, and she was ready to punch and kick him if she had to, for all the good it would do. Tom was at least six inches taller than she was, and he had a good seventy-five to a hundred-pounds on her.
The Cove Page 15
