She hopped into the rental car, sped down the white pebble driveway, then down the long road that lead to the beach. She drove all the way to where he was staying and parked her car in the public drive. She couldn’t explain how she knew where he would be, she just did. Maybe Beau had been right when he said that once you knew what you wanted, everything else was easy.
She saw him standing on the pier, holding his camera. Her heart did a triple beat, caused her to catch her breath.
If she had made any other choice, she would have been like the manor—some part of her going over and over the secret she kept within. One day, that secret would have eaten her alive and it would have destroyed others in the process, too.
He turned as if he had heard her and studied her. When she smiled, a genuine one that came from her heart, he walked toward her. It was then that the deepest part of her heart—the place where Beau had always lived—broke free. There was no more hiding any part of what she felt, least of all from herself.
“How did you know where I was?” he asked once he was close.
“This is where you proposed to me,” she said.
“I love you,” he whispered when he gathered her into his arms.
“I love you, too,” she said.
They walked arm and arm, barefoot on the sand. She explained that she had already spoken to Ira, that he was on his way back to Boston without her. “I felt terrible about hurting him and breaking the engagement. But I would have felt worse if I had chosen to live a lie. I know he would have, too. And I have a feeling that as soon as my boss finds out he’s available, she’ll probably give him a call.”
She thought about one of the last things that Ira had said before he left, that he needed to figure out why he chose women who were unavailable. She knew he would work that out.
“Won’t that be odd?” he asked. “Working with her if she’s pursuing him? By the way, am I moving to Boston? Because you realize I would follow you anywhere.”
She picked up a perfect sand dollar, ran her thumb over its delicate surface. “Actually, I’ve been offered a new opportunity, a local one, and I’m going to accept. This will give me the chance to have my own consulting business, and the client is a big one. I’m already getting some really good ideas on how to help them.”
“Local?” he asked.
“Yeah. I’m excited about it. They need me and helping them is the right thing to do. Being here is the right move for me as well.”
He lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes. Kissed her gently on the lips.
“What about you?” she asked when they started walking again.
“What about me what?” His smile was sly, and she nudged him.
“How does local work for you?”
“Local works just fine for me, as long as you’re here. As long as we’re together.”
She wrapped both arms around him and studied his brilliant blue eyes that always had too much gypsy in them. The fire was back, fueled by a bright happiness, but his need to roam had settled.
“My split-apart,” he added and kissed her.
She thought that was about right, and she laid her head on his chest. “Mine, too.”
They walked to the pier and looked at the deep water glistening in the afternoon light.
“What will you do while you’re living local?” she asked.
“My mother is setting up a fund for Horace. She feels awful about what my dad did to Ruby and their family. So, I’m going to help him get back on his feet, make sure he has whatever he needs. Then I’m going to get back to my first love—well, both of my first loves.” He kissed her hand. “And I’m going to open that photography business.”
“My new client needs a good photographer. When I pick up other clients, I’m sure they will, too.”
“If your new client is who I think it is, I won’t be shooting with any antique cameras.”
“I appreciate that, actually.”
He stood behind her and she leaned against him, his solid strength supporting her. “This feels really good, not to be running from anything.”
“Yeah, it really does.” He kissed her temple, squeezed her in a firm hug.
She had the sense that they would be doing the exact same thing fifty years from then—holding one another, looking at the ocean and making plans for the future. The tide forced the waves against the shore, one after the other.
Gently, he turned her around, lowered himself to one knee, and held both of her hands in his. “Peyton, I knew from the first moment I saw you that I loved you, that I would always love you. Nine years later, you are still the most beautiful, brilliant woman I’ve ever known. And that will never change. Marry me. Be my wife, my partner, my soul mate. Forever.”
She looked at him for a long time, cherishing the moment. “Yes. Absolutely, yes.”
He stood and pulled her close. “Promise me this,” he said between kisses.
“Anything,” she said.
“That we’ll never have to spend another day apart.”
She snuggled closer. “I promise.” The special place in her heart where she had always kept him near solidified within her, creating a permanent home. Because of the connection they shared, she knew they had never been fully separated, not really. And she knew, with a love this strong, that they never could be.
Also by Alyssa Richards
THE FINE ART OF DECEPTION SERIES
THE FINE ART OF DECEPTION, UNDOING TIME
SOMEWHERE IN TIME
LOST IN TIME
THE FINE ART OF DECEPTION, BOXED SET
THE ALCOTT MANOR SERIES
THE HAUNTING AT ALCOTT MANOR
A MURDER AT ALCOTT MANOR
A STRANGER AT ALCOTT MANOR
THE CHASING SECRETS SERIES
CHASING SECRETS
CHASING SECRETS, BOOK 2 (coming soon!)
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Chasing Secrets - A Romantic Thriller
Chapter One - sneak peek!
“You’re lying.” Barbara narrowed her eyes at her husband.
David raised his glass of champagne and broadcast his perfectly white, nearly electric smile that could have won an election. “Everything’s fine.”
She raised an eyebrow to scold him; he was evading. “I didn’t say things weren’t fine. I said you were lying.”
He cleared his throat and gestured with his glass. “To our second anniversary, to yet another clean health report, and to the baby we weren’t supposed to conceive.”
He placed his hand over his jacket pocket. It was an unconscious move. She knew that’s where he kept a photo of himself at the age of eight, his head resting across his mother’s chest, her head wrapped in a colorful scarf, her skin pale and drawn against the white sheets of the hospital bed.
Barbara survived the cancer, his mother hadn’t.
She ran her hand through her hair, grateful to have hair again. Grateful that it came in twice as thick as she once had, grateful that it didn’t come back gray as she had been told that it might.
The ring of their champagne toast sounded clear in the quiet outdoor restaurant. She took only a tiny sip. A few cars drove by slowly, their engines relatively soft. A man whizzed by, standing on an electric-powered scooter, which hummed like the motor of a sewing machine.
He kissed her hand.
She studied his assuring smile and his soft expression that was full of love and secrets. She never could read him clearly when his lips were on her skin or when he smiled at her in that way. In fact, she couldn’t read him well at all. Not in the way she read other people.
“I saw another stack of medical bills come in this week,” she said.
He looked at her hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m making all the money we’ll ever need to overcome wh
atever life throws at us. Don’t you worry.”
“I don’t know how you do it.” She cast him her most scrutinizing stare, the one she planned to use when their child was a teenager.
“I can do anything, when it comes to you.” David tucked his napkin in his lap, his smile widening as if he were pleased with himself. “And as far as not being able to read me the way you want, you’re just going to have to trust me instead.”
“I’d rather be able to read you.” She arched her eyebrow again.
He leaned across the table and kissed her.
She’d never been able to figure out that little glitch with her gift. With anyone else, and on the simple mention of their first name, she could know quite a bit about that person. It was a skill she really appreciated because, oddly enough, she didn’t read people all that well otherwise.
When she realized she couldn't read David, her first instinct had been to stay away from him. But she fell in love with him. She couldn't help herself. He treated her like a queen, never gave her any reason not to trust him. Problem was, the more she overrode her instincts so that she could trust her husband, the less she trusted herself.
“One day soon I’ll tell you why,” he said.
“You know why I can’t read you?” she asked.
“I have a theory.” David sipped his champagne, kept his eyes on hers, as if he were prepared for her question. Knew what she was going to ask and when. Everything he did was deliberate and full of care.
“Then tell me, because this has been driving me nuts for years.”
“I will. Soon,” he said.
“Now. Please.”
“Soon enough.”
David was a planner. He always had a plan A and a plan B. Sometimes a plan C. Always thinking ahead.
She grunted in frustration. “Fine. Then you should know that I’ve been hiding something, too.”
“What? You’re not capable of keeping secrets from me.”
“Actually, I am.”
“Are you feeling okay? Is the baby alright?”
She pressed her hand to her still-flat stomach. “We’re fine. Perfectly fine.”
“Okay, good.” He gave a little exhale. “Then read a name for me first?”
“No, David, what I have to say is really important.” She heard a whine in her voice she hadn't expected. He had spoiled her over the years and now she whined. She would have to break herself of that.
“Just real quick. Then I want to hear your secret. Okay?”
She wasn’t supposed to know their baby’s gender, yet. But the nurse had slipped and told her during the last ultrasound. David would flip when he found out they were having a girl. She wanted his undivided attention when she told him. She cleared her throat to make sure the whine was gone. “Fine. Shoot.”
“Elias.”
“Elias…Elias…” Barb repeated the name in her mind and felt her awareness drawn in a specific direction. As if she had plugged exact coordinates into an energetic navigational system, her gift followed the energy of that person's name, and knew exactly where to take her. The details were fuzzy at first—a general feeling about the person, then the finer points would sharpen.
David used to question how she did this, how she could find someone's story by just tuning into the energy of their first name. “How can you tell one Steve from another? I mean, everyone's different.”
“A person's unique energetic narrative is attached to their given name. Because I can read energy, once I know that name, I can read them like a book. And you're right. No two names carry the same story, because no two people are alike."
He never really understood her gift, but he rolled with it because the information she found was so accurate. He even came to depend on her insight, because she could see things about people that he couldn't.
“Ah, okay, I’ve found him… He’s um, wow, all about money…on a search for something…he has a really dark vibe. What do you want to know?”
“He works with one of my customers. I think there’s something off about him.”
She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and softened her focus. The images she saw now were not in front of her, but in her mind. They started to form and flow. “I see him wearing a black ski mask, picking a lock. He’s good at breaking into places. He’s searching for something. I would increase the security at the warehouse if I were you, make sure the cameras are working. I see him with a gun. He spends a lot of time at the shooting range; he’s a marksman.”
She saw him extending his arms, aiming the gun. She felt the gun kick as if his arms were her own. She watched someone fall in the distance and felt his sick satisfaction flow through her that he had ended a life, that he had played God. "My gosh, David. I think this man has killed someone before.”
David's complexion paled. “Okay. Enough of him. I’ll get rid of that customer.”
She exhaled hard to help clear her mind of the man’s energy, and focused on the cars that drove by as a distraction. “You need to stay away from him. Keep him away from your business. I mean it.”
He raised his glass of champagne. “I will. Another toast. Then I want to hear your secret. To your continued good health. And a wish on this, our second anniversary: May our next fifty years of marriage be as wonderful as our first two.”
“And a lot healthier.”
“They will be.” He pressed his hand against the breast pocket of his blazer again. “I’ll make sure of it.” Their glasses clinked in a toast. “Now that you’re healthy, I want to reopen the conversation about shutting the business down for a while so we can travel. We need to see the world while we can, just like we always wanted.”
“Oh, David.” They had talked about traveling the world together almost from their first date. But now that her mother had passed and her father had had his second heart attack, things had changed. “I can’t leave Pop alone for that long. You know he depends on me.”
“Then we’ll plan a long vacation, to celebrate your recovery. Just a few months. I’ll explain it all to you once we’re away, but it’s important.” His eyes were wide and intense. His hands were tucked into tight fists on the table, the skin stretched taut over his white knuckles.
“A few months, David, that’s—does this have something to do with that Elias person you just had me read?”
The brown sedan that drove toward them slowed down enough to catch her attention. The driver wore a trucker’s hat and aviator sunglasses, and he stared straight at them.
“David—” She pointed to the driver. At the last second, he raised his arm level and straight and pointed a gun at them.
David turned, then quickly stood to hover over her.
“I love you, Barb! Go to the—” David’s words were cut short by several loud pops. Blood spattered across her face and covered her glasses. Her husband’s body jerked violently, then collapsed on the ground.
Restaurant guests screamed, dishes crashed. Searing pain ripped through her shoulder and knocked her to the floor. Barbara crawled beneath the table, yanked her husband’s arm and tried to pull him to her. But he was dead weight, unmoving.
“NO!” she screamed.
Blood poured from the back of his head, his eyes wide open and unseeing.
To Continue the Adventure…Click here!
>>>>Chasing Secrets Book 1
Acknowledgments
With deepest gratitude…
to my husband for his undying enthusiasm,
to G & G for their love,
to Peter Senftleben, my amazing editor,
and to Lucinda for her loving support.
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A Stranger in Alcott Manor Page 25
