CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Edward
As I drove the rental car from the airport back towards Cara’s townhouse, I hoped she wouldn’t think I’d lost my mind for not getting on the plane. Hell, maybe I had. But it felt so wrong when she dropped me off. I just… couldn’t leave.
I’d called Declan and double checked with him that he wouldn’t mind checking in on things at the orchard for me for a few more days. He assured me all was fine, and that he’d be happy to do it.
“To be honest, man,” he’d said, “I’ve been hoping to hear that Cara’s happy again for a long time. If it’s you that puts that smile on her face and brings more to her life than just dance, then you could stay gone for a month.”
I’d thanked him profusely and double-checked with all my department managers. All was going well in my absence. I’d taken hardly any time for myself since my father died. They all seemed pleased I was taking some now.
The last person I had to call was my mother, and I had some things to run by her.
“Hey, Mom,” I said when she picked up.
“Hello, darling.”
I grimaced. I loved her a ton, but she was always so formal.
I guessed that was just who she was. I had thought some of that would change after my dad died, but most of it hadn’t.
She hadn’t suddenly quit wearing suits and started wearing flowing floral caftans or anything like that.
She was still pretty much the same as she’d always been.
“So, I’m not coming home just yet.” I heard her sharp intake of breath. “Cara dropped me off, but I just couldn’t get on the plane, Mom. I decided to rent a car, and I’m driving back to her place to surprise her. I thought I’d stay a few more days.”
There was a brief silence. “I… I guess I’m surprised, Edward. You’ve never been this way about anyone. Well,” she amended, “anyone except Cara Hargrave.”
“I know. Believe me, I know.” I navigated the early afternoon traffic.
It was a beautiful day, and I wondered if Cara would be up for another trip to the beach after her practice.
I’d do just about anything to see her in a bikini again, I thought, grinning.
Then I remembered I was talking to my mother and quickly changed the direction of my thoughts.
“Are you sure you’re not moving too fast, son? Maybe this is just a case of first love, you know? It could be that the only reason the two of you respond to each other so well is the shared past you have. But what if that’s all there is?”
I shook my head. I knew she was wrong. This was more than first love. Much more. Then it struck me that Mom might have never really known love with my dad. At least, not the kind of love that I felt for Cara.
“Mom, were you ever in love with anyone other than Dad?”
She paused. “Um, well,” she sounded embarrassed and wistful all at once. “I guess you could say that I was in love once.”
“What happened?”
I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it, but I wanted to know. And I wanted to make her understand how I felt about Cara.
“It… well, it just didn’t work out. We wanted different things.
He was going off to college and wanted me to come with him.
But my parents sent me to an all-girls school in Macon.
He was disappointed in me for not standing up to them,” she admitted.
“We wrote each other letters for a while and called each other. But long distance was too hard, and we grew apart.”
I thought she was finished and was surprised when she continued.
“You know, I saw him again a couple of years later around town. We started talking, and I found out that he hadn’t gotten married yet. He asked if I was seeing anyone. I had to tell him I was engaged to your father. And… that was it.”
I frowned. “Does he still live in Wixby?” I thought she’d say that she didn’t know, that she’d lost track of him a long time ago. She surprised me again.
“Yes. I see him from time to time around town.”
My mouth dropped open. “He’s still around? Is he married?”
“No. He was divorced years ago. He didn’t tell me. Someone from the country club did.”
“Mom, have you ever forgotten him?”
“No,” she said quietly. “I always thought… Oh, it’s silly. Never mind.”
“I want to know,” I insisted, shocked that my mom had a secret this big.
“I always thought he was the one I should have married instead of your father,” she blurted out. “But that’s ridiculous. You wouldn’t be here if that had happened, and you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“That’s sweet, Mom. But have you ever thought maybe you should reach out to him? What if he’s felt the same way you have all these years?”
“I doubt that. He was very angry with me all those years ago.”
“I think thirty years would probably take the edge off the anger.”
“There’s no need to be sarcastic, Edward,” she said, but I could hear the smile in her voice. “Besides, it was just young love. It wouldn’t have stood the test of time, I’m sure. And that’s what I’m afraid of for you and Cara.”
“But what if it was more than that, Mom? What if the two of you were supposed to be together? It seems like you both had unhappy marriages.”
She ignored most of what I said, but I knew her well enough to know she’d think about it later. “Just be careful, dear. I don’t want you to get your heart broken.”
“I’d rather get my heart broken than spend the rest of my life married to someone else while I still think of Cara as the one who got away. I want more than that. I want a woman I love completely. I want… Cara.”
Mom sucked in a breath. “If she’s truly who makes you happy, then go after her.”
I smiled. “Thanks, Mom. I’ll call you when I’m on my way home in a couple of days.”
I hung up feeling lighter somehow. Our conversation had given me more perspective than I’d thought it would.
I turned onto Cara’s street, glad to see an empty parking spot near her townhouse.
I got out and hurried down the sidewalk and up the stairs to her door.
I was surprised to notice her car as I walked past. Was she home?
I’d thought I’d leave a note on her door and then go down to the corner store and pick up some things I knew she’d like.
Instead, I knocked.
She opened the door, and her face was blank for long enough, I got nervous that this had been a terrible decision.
Then a huge smile spread across her gorgeous face and her eyes started to sparkle with what I hoped were happy tears. She covered her mouth with her hands briefly, then threw herself into my arms. She was laughing and kissing my neck and face.
“Oh my God, I’m so happy to see you! What happened? Was your flight canceled?”
“I just couldn’t leave you yet,” I confessed, feeling vulnerable.
She pulled back and studied my face, her arms still locked around my neck. “I’m so glad,” she whispered and buried her face in my shoulder.
I picked her up and carried her, bride-style, into the townhouse and didn’t stop walking until I dropped her on the bed.
She tried to sit up, but I crawled over her and pinned her underneath me, kissing her.
Our kisses moved from slow and deep to frenzied, and soon we were pulling each other’s clothes off.
It was no time at all before we were wrapped up in each other’s arms, and I was moving inside her.
“Jesus,” I moaned, as she wrapped her legs around my waist and I slowed my pace.
I wanted to savor her, savor us, and our time together.
“It’s only been two hours that we’ve been apart, and I’m already desperate for you again.
” It wasn’t long, and she was screaming my name as I thrust deep inside her.
Afterwards, I rolled my head to the side to look at her. “Do you want to go back to the beach?”
“That sounds fantastic.” She bounded out of bed.
Before I knew it, she’d packed everything up, plopped a large straw hat with a huge black bow on it on her head, and we were on our way.
If possible, we had an even better time than we’d had the first time.
We had the beach pretty much to ourselves.
It was October, after all. It was still hot outside, but the water was colder than either of us liked.
It had started getting cooler overnight, and the water seemed to hold on to that chill.
Fall was here, though it still regularly hit eighty or above each day.
We were some of the taco truck’s only customers when we decided it was time for lunch. We sat at a picnic table and watched dolphins playing in the waves as we enjoyed shrimp tacos and margaritas.
Afterwards, Cara insisted we walk off some calories. We walked a couple of miles, holding hands, talking, and picking up pretty shells every now and then. When we got back to our things, we collapsed on the beach towels.
Cara laid with her head on my chest, and I bunched up an extra towel and put it under my head to function as a pillow. We were so comfortable lying on the huge towels on the sand, listening to the waves crash against the shore, that we almost fell asleep, drowsy on full stomachs and happiness.
We’d gathered everything up and headed to my rental car when the sun had started to set and the first streaks of a colorful sunset appeared above us.
There was a folded paper stuck under the windshield wiper on the driver’s side. I absently pulled it out and started to crumple it up and throw it into a nearby trashcan.
But then I saw my name on the outside.
“What the hell?” I mumbled, opening it and reading it. It was only one typewritten sentence. But it was enough to send a chill down my spine.
LEAVE HER ALONE
“What does it say?” Cara pulled on my forearm, trying to get to the note.
I held it out to her while I turned around and scanned the parking lot and the beach.
No one looked suspicious. There were a few stay-at-home moms with young kids, a couple of surfer dudes, and a handful of teens.
That was it. And most of them seemed to be doing what we were doing—packing up after a long day at the beach.