Chapter 18
Garrison
The sermon hit home after another night riddled with terrifying nightmares that had me up in a cold sweat more than once. I was sitting on a boat in the middle of a furious ocean. Each angry wave that slammed into the boat brought about a memory.
Of the times my parents were so high they forgot I existed.
Or worse, when they remembered.
Of the night I found them, wide-eyed and pale, cold as the tile they were lying on.
Of my first time in combat.
Of my last.
One after the other, they hit me, harsh reminders of all I’ve lived through.
But just as it always does, dawn broke.
The sun rose.
And God is still good.
Beside me, Katelyn wears a beautiful blue dress that shows off her curves and incredibly long legs. She’s styled her hair in loose waves and dusted some color across her eyelids.
She’s stunning, and the battle to keep my gaze off her has been a fight that I keep losing. What am I supposed to do from here? Because remaining just friends feels like a mission I’m going to fail. Will I lose her when I do?
“May God’s peace be with you all,” Pastor Daniel Reeves announces as he smiles out at us.
Where moments ago, the church was silent, now it’s full of chatter. Happy voices as people get to their feet and make their way toward the exit. I stand, reaching down to offer Katelyn a hand as I do.
Since, thanks to my sleepless night, we were nearly late this morning, we’re seated toward the back of the church.
“That was excellent,” Katelyn says as she beams up at me. “I can’t believe I haven’t made an effort to get here before today.” She closes her eyes and draws a deep breath before opening them again. “I feel so full right now.”
“Me, too.” I smile down at her, and for a moment, the rest of the world fades away. Lord, what am I doing here?
“Garrison, Katelyn! It is so good to see you.”
We both turn at Linda’s greeting. She pulls Katelyn in for a hug first.
“It’s so good to see you, too, Mrs. Knox.”
“Please, honey, call me Momma Knox. This is my friend Marlene.” She smiles kindly as she tugs an older woman up to her side.
Marlene’s brown eyes crinkle at the corners when she takes Katelyn’s hand.
“It is so good to meet you. Linda speaks very highly of you and your son.” She glances up curiously at me.
“I have to say, I’m quite impressed you managed to catch this one.
He’s been dodging my set-up attempts for years now. ”
Even as heat spreads along the back of my neck, embarrassment coloring my cheeks, I force a smile and try to play it off.
“You mean all those blind dates you keep trying to set me up on? I told you, Marlene, you should have just asked me yourself.” I wink at her, and she throws her head back, a throaty laugh erupting from her.
“Please, we all know I am not afraid to put myself out there.” Someone calls her name, so she glances over, then returns her attention to us. “I need to catch her before she leaves. It was great meeting you, Katelyn. Garrison,” she adds with a purr and a wink, then walks off laughing.
“You just made her day,” Linda tells me.
“Good. She’s a nice lady.”
“The nicest,” she replies.
“Nah, Momma Knox, I think you take that one,” I tell her.
Linda’s cheeks flush with color. “You, sir, are a smooth talker.” She turns to Katelyn. “Will I see you at lunch?”
“Yes, if that’s okay. Garrison invited me.”
“Sweetie, it is more than okay. In fact, I insist. I’ll see you both there in an hour.”
“That sounds great.” Katelyn slings her purse over her shoulder as Linda waves at someone off to her right, then rushes off to greet them, too.
When I glance over to ask Katelyn if she’s ready to go, I see that she’s checking her phone.
“Anything?”
She smiles sheepishly up at me. “Not since this morning. I think he’s just having too much fun.”
“I bet he is.”
She slides her phone back into her pocket. “Well, we have almost an hour. That should give me time to get another load of laundry washed before lunch.” She starts toward the door.
“Or—” I start.
“Or?” she glances up at me as I hold the door open for her to move through it.
“We could go for a walk. Weather is good.”
Katelyn’s answering smile is everything. “A walk would be good.”
“Great.” Relief rushes through me in a tidal wave as I change course and head for the beach steps rather than the parking lot. Katelyn stops at the bottom of the steps and removes her shoes, so I take time to do the same, then roll up my pant legs enough that the water won’t saturate them.
I may prefer the waterway where we kayaked yesterday, but the beach certainly has its charm. The moment my bare feet touch the sand, a peace washes over me. A calmness that likely also has a lot to do with the woman beside me.
“So how did you like the service today?” I ask as we start walking toward the ocean. Wind pulls at my clothes and flutters her thick curls.
“I loved it.” She takes a deep breath. “You know, I’ve lived in a lot of places, Garrison, and nowhere has ever felt as much like home as Stormwatch Landing.”
“Good.”
She glances over at me, eyebrow raised.
“I wouldn’t want you to have settled down anywhere else.”
She laughs. “You didn’t know me then.”
“I would have known something was missing,” I respond instantly. For a moment, her expression darkens like the sky right before a storm.
Did I say too much?
But before I can counter to try and lessen the weight of my words, Katelyn faces forward again.
“So that woman—Marlene, she set you up a lot?”
“I only let it happen once.”
“That bad?” She laughs.
“It was horrible.”
Katelyn laughs again. “Really?”
“Really.”
Cool water rushes around our ankles as a wave comes in.
“How bad?”
I grin down at her, so happy to see that she’s looking up at me, too. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Not a chance, Demo.”
“Fine,” I reply with a soft laugh. “Well, since it was a blind date, we met at the restaurant.”
“Naturally.”
“I opted for Steel then there’s being downright obnoxious. She was definitely the latter.”
I snort. “Yeah, I stopped letting Marlene set me up after that.”
“Can’t say I blame you there.” She shakes her head in disbelief, then pauses and turns toward the ocean.
“How about you? Any horrible dates?” I question after a beat of silence.
“Dates? No. I mean, I had my cute teenager dates. Dinner and movies, things like that. But they were normal and awkward. Then I—” She trails off, and darkness clouds her expression. “Well, I didn’t get the chance to date much.”
The heaviness of her tone settles on my heart like thick chains. I want to reach out and pull her into my arms. Want to assure her that she’ll never suffer another day so long as I’m around.
I want to tell her that I’m falling helplessly in love with her even though I promised the both of us that I wouldn’t.
But doing so could ruin what we have, and nothing is worth that risk.
And just like that, I understand Sawyer’s predicament with Anastasia.
I would laugh at the irony if it weren’t so frustrating.
“I’m sorry.”
She shrugs and turns toward me. “It is what it is. Or, as Thomas says, ‘It do be what it do be.’”
I snort at the teenage slang, but my smile dies almost immediately when I see the hurt reflected in her eyes. “You deserved better. You both did.”
She swallows hard and nods. “I’ve always known that Thomas did, but it took me a long time to realize that I did, too.”
My chest aches with the pressure of all I’m holding in.
“I knew better than to stay, though. But I did because I was afraid.”
“Of him?”
“That,” she nods. “And of what others would think of me.”
“What do you mean?”
We start walking again, and Katelyn falls silent. Instead of pushing for more or changing the subject, I simply keep cadence beside her, grateful for her company.
“I didn’t—” She stops and turns toward me. “I’ve only ever told one person this before.”
“Your secrets are safe with me, Katelyn, but if you don’t want to talk, that’s okay, too.”
“I don’t remember the night that I—” She closes her eyes. “That Thomas was conceived.”
Anger, hot and fast, flashes through me at the implications of what she’s saying. Was she raped? I bite back the questions and shove my free hand into my pocket so she can’t see how white my knuckles are.