Chapter 15
“You don’t look so hot,” Andie said to Selena the next day. “Are you okay?”
They were on the patio at the Shell Shack four days before Macey’s wedding, assembling favors.
Selena was painting “Derek and Macey,” along with the wedding date, on the sides of miniature tin buckets, while Andie filled the buckets with fire-helmet-shaped chocolates and tied on dark red ribbons that would match the bridesmaid dresses.
Selena held on to the side of her belly and winced. “Braxton Hicks is all. False labor, I think they call it, but I’m here to tell you, if this is false, I don’t have any interest in seeing what true labor is like.”
“How do you know it’s false?” Andie asked skeptically.
“It’s been going on for over a week. I’ve been to the hospital twice thinking this is it. But no. It’s practice.”
“A week? That’s cruel.”
“I’m just praying I can make it through the wedding without my water breaking or something equally embarrassing.”
“Isn’t this a little early for the baby to show up?”
“Three weeks. So yes, early, but not dangerously so. I hope. I’m ready to get rid of these ankles.” Selena held up one foot for Andie to see. “My legs look like elephant legs. Not really how you want to feel as a newlywed.”
Andie laughed. “From what I’ve seen, Evan loves you so much you could turn purple and sprout horns and he wouldn’t blink an eye.”
Selena’s expression said she felt the same way.
“Everything’s happened so fast. Last year at this time, I was still on the East Coast. Single.
My biggest worry was my brother, who’d been hurt in the Middle East. When I came down here, I never planned to stay forever.
More of an extended getaway. Now I’m married, own a business, and am decorating a nursery. ”
“I’ve always been of the belief that the most interesting things come along when you don’t make detailed plans. Shit, who am I kidding? Any plans.”
“It was true for me. Maybe next year at this time, you’ll be knocked up and married too.”
“Let’s not go overboard,” Andie said. “You’ll make me hyperventilate.”
“How’s it coming, ladies?” Macey’s mom, Cheryl, who’d been working with Kathy, Derek’s mom, on centerpieces, wandered up to their table and pulled out a chair. Both women, plus Derek’s father, had come into town yesterday to help with last-minute details.
“Making progress, as long as the paint girl doesn’t go into labor before she’s done with her job.” Andie glanced at Selena again to make sure she was okay.
“You poor thing,” Derek’s mom said as she joined them. “I remember those last few weeks of pregnancy well.”
She told them how Derek had gotten the hiccups several times a day during her last month. That prompted Macey’s mom to add her own late-pregnancy stories.
Andie kept working as she listened. How completely bizarre to sit here chatting with a bunch of women, about such domestic topics as babies and pregnancy—and to not be bored out of her skull.
And tying ribbons on little tin buckets?
If anyone who really knew her saw her now, they’d think she’d lost her sweet mind.
Of course, there wasn’t a single person she could think of who really knew her.
Her cell phone buzzed on the table in front of her, and, okay, her cousin Jonas knew her as well as any. Maybe her thoughts had conjured him up.
“Hey, Jonas, what’s going on?” She set down the ribbon she’d been working with and stood.
“Nothing good. He’s MIA, Andie. No one’s seen him for a week. I think he blew town.”
Her heart stopped and she turned away from the table. Without a word, she walked to the stairs leading to the beach.
“Andie?”
“I’m here,” she rasped out. She walked along the sand, unseeing. Reeling.
“You’re hundreds of miles away. He has no idea where.”
“As far as you know.”
“No one else knows your whereabouts, do they? He may have asked around, but there’s no one who could tell him. You need to be alert, but, Andie, I’m assuming he’s not supposed to leave the state.”
“He wasn’t supposed to beat the crap out of the woman he claimed to love either,” she said as she slid her back down the sea wall and settled on the sand a couple hundred feet up the beach from the bar. “He doesn’t put too much stock in what he is or isn’t supposed to do.”
“Like I said, be alert. I’ll keep my ears open.”
“What if he finds me?” It was as if no time had passed and yet again she had to spend every waking moment figuring out how to navigate Trevor’s moods so she didn’t set him off. Her body was a ball of tension, her muscles already aching with it, cold with fear.
“What’s he going to do, Andie? You can hold your own now, physically. Remember what I taught you. You’ve got distance. You won’t be sucked in again. Right?”
Her most painful years were with Trevor.
Growing up with an abusive father had nothing on falling in love with and trusting a man, as an adult, who should’ve been the best part of her life.
She’d learned young that her father veered toward inhuman anytime he drank, which, after her mother died, was most of the time.
She’d figured out to avoid him as much as possible.
With Trevor, she’d chosen to trust him. She’d been old enough she should’ve seen a sign of the trauma that was to come.
“Andie. Quit it, honey. He doesn’t have any power over you now.”
She opened her eyes and focused on the incoming waves, a reminder she was far, far away, both geographically and mentally, from where she’d been when Trevor had hurt her.
“This is what I’m afraid of, Jonas. Just the mention of him and I lose my damn mind, turn into this scared mouse. It makes me sick to my stomach.”
“Well, get over it. There’s no way in hell he could ever do the same thing to you again. Would he track you down to hurt you?”
She’d thought about this often, especially lately, ever since Trevor’s possible release from prison. “I don’t know. All-out force was never the way it started. But he has such a temper… I’m just not sure.” It could get ugly. He’d proven he had no qualms about hurting her.
“The good news is you have a door. With a lock. You’re out of that goddamn tent.”
“For now.” Thank God for her new dead bolts. Nothing would make her relax completely, but they would help.
“Andie, I know it makes you crazy to stay put, but maybe that’s the best place for you. At least for a while.”
“Maybe. Look, I gotta go, Jonas. Keep me posted.”
“Yep.”
He disconnected and Andie felt all alone on a beach full of people.
She sat there for several minutes. When she finally stood, she was pissed.
Bottle-crushing, plate-throwing pissed. Fortunately, there were no bottles or plates in sight, so she had nothing to shatter or draw attention to herself with.
She kicked at the sand several times, jaw and fists clenched, swearing to herself.
After a few minutes, she worked at calming herself down so she could head back to the patio to help Selena.
As she approached, she was relieved to see that Selena looked better, not as pale, and engrossed in painting. Andie commented on the improvements when she sat back down in her chair.
“Yeah, they’re gone for now,” Selena said. “What happened to you though? You look upset.”
Andie forced a smile. “If it’s false labor, then I’m in trouble.”
Unfortunately, she didn’t believe there was anything false about the possibility of Trevor trying to track her down. She could have weeks before he caught up to her…but maybe not. And the only thing she could do about it was keep an eye out for trouble.