“81BAYSHOREDRIVE,” MYoffice manager, Roxie, repeated into the phone. “Must have been one hell of a good time in Charlotte this weekend for you not to comprehend a simple two-digit address. I’ve told you three times already. If I’d have known you were going to literally fuck your brains out, I wouldn’t have pushed you so hard to go.”
I heard her the first time she said it, so my “what” didn’t have anything to do with my hearing, comprehension, or the lack of blood flow to my brain from banging one hot blond guy after the other over the weekend. It was said in disbelief and maybe the correct question would have been “why.” As in, why now or why me?
So many memories of the house and the occupants of 81 Bayshore Drive – otherwise referred to as Elijah’s Landing – flashed through my mind. I had placed the memories deep inside a vault in my heart that I refused to unlock in order to preserve my sanity. Once, those memories were the only thing that kept me alive. Now, it hurt too fucking bad to remember how happy I once was and how all of my young dreams were shattered. Yet, of all the places I could have moved to last year, I chose Beaumont, North Carolina. I was either a glutton for punishment or I had finally decided to stop running and start looking for happiness again.
“Got it,” I finally managed to respond. “Have the team meet me there in thirty minutes.” I disconnected the call without saying goodbye – a move I was certain she’d smack me upside the head for later. Roxie MacLeod was a fiery redhead who took no shit off of anyone, especially me.
I wouldn’t be able to escape her by dodging her at my office, because I rented the large apartment over her garage. Pissing off my landlord and office manager was a very unwise decision. I decided to call her and apologize later before she showed up on my doorstep. Right then, I needed to put all of my focus on schooling my expression into my typical mask of indifference when I met my team. I would not – could not – allow them to see how I was affected by being back in that house.
I had avoided Bayshore Drive for the year I had been back in Beaufort. There were many times when I had a bit too much to drink at Rusty’s Tavern that I thought about strolling along the beach behind the houses that used to be mine and the boy I could never get over, no matter how hard I tried.
Fuck, life was so simple then. I had three loves: baseball, ice cream, and Noah McKinney. If I had done a better job of hiding one of those things, then maybe my early adult years wouldn’t have been as fucked up as they were. Regret was an evil prick who stole every ounce of happiness a man could muster after he dug his way out of the hell he’d found himself in when he was too young and too stupid to know better. It lingered behind every achievement and waited to pounce and bring you back to your knees time and time again.
If I let it, regret would choke me until my very existence was removed from the face of the earth. There were times during my darkest hours that I would’ve welcomed the end and no more pain, only the memory of blue-green eyes looking at me with such adoration stopped me from going through with my plans.
I was ashamed at how badly my hand shook when I removed it from the steering wheel to flip on my turn signal. I didn’t have to put myself through this, I could’ve easily put my foreman in charge of the project and saved myself from the wave of memories that would surely flood my brain the moment I crossed the threshold. Instead, I put off the arrival of my team so I could allow myself time to go through the house in private and make sure I had my shit together before my team was onsite.
I released a shaky breath as I turned onto Bayshore Drive and slowly approached Elijah’s Landing. Just thinking the name brought a quick smile to my face as I recalled all the ghost stories we would tell about Elijah during our numerous sleepovers. The majority of the time, we scared the fuck out of ourselves and ended up cuddling together in one bed instead of utilizing the top and bottom bunk.
“Let’s use the top bunk,” Noah had said once. “That way we can jump over the ghost if he comes to get us.”
“I don’t think it matters which bunk we choose,” I replied sagely. “He’s a ghost and can go wherever he wants to go.” Noah cuddled closer to my taller body and I wrapped my arms around his thinner frame. Hell, we were only eight or nine at the time and our innocent actions were those of scared kids. Several summers later, our cuddling was a lot less innocent. Elijah’s ghost had nothing to do with the reason I had Noah naked beneath me in his bed that last summer we had together.
I shook my head to get my thoughts back on the job and away from things that would only lead me back to a dark, angry place I refused to visit. I was better and stronger than I was back then and I would find a way to face my own personal ghosts head-on and not lose my shit.
I pulled into the driveway and just sat in my parked truck for several minutes. The exterior of Elijah’s Landing had not changed one bit, except for the boarded up front door. The siding, the wraparound porch, the shutters, and even the fucking flowers were the same as they were when my family ran like thieves in the night. It felt like déjà vu, as if I had never really left.
The banging of the screen door on the house that used to be mine pulled my attention away from my thoughts. My old house had undergone a serious makeover and didn’t look at all like the one I lived in. A man in his mid-sixties approached my truck with a friendly smile on his face. I wondered if he knew just what kind of evil used to live in the house he now resided in with his family.
“The name’s Willis Monahan.” He pushed his hand through my open window and I shook it politely. “You did some work for my sister, Patsy Jackson, a few months ago. You did beautiful work and I couldn’t think of anyone better to call when I realized what had been done to Mr. McKinney’s house.”
Mr. McKinney?Was he referring to Noah or his father? Instead of asking, I said, “I appreciate your referral, Mr. Monahan.”
“Just Willis will do.” He stepped back so I could get out of my truck. I put on my tool belt and grabbed my portfolio where I kept a notebook, pencil, and calculator before I walked up the front steps of the porch. “I boarded up the front door to try and keep more vandals out. It’s a real damn shame what some punk ass kids did to this beautiful house. Mr. McKinney is on his way down to take a look at the damage himself. He said he’d arrive sometime after midday. I’ve never met him, but he seems like a really nice young man.”
It had to be Noah then since Noah’s dad was Willis’s age or older. Every bit of saliva dried in my mouth and I had to work hard to swallow down the lump of emotion that rose in my throat. After twenty-two years, I would finally be seeing him again. I was certain that I had the upper hand, because it was doubtful that his wildest imagination wouldn’t conjure up me as his contractor. I just needed to decide what to do with my advantage.
I steadied my nerves while I used my hammer to pry the nailed boards off so I could enter the house and have my first look at the damage. The first thing I added to my mental list was replacing the plywood with a new door. The original door had ornate stained glass windows and would not be easily replaced, but I could get a temporary one from my door and window supplier until a custom replacement could be made. I was positive that my guy could duplicate the original door if he was given a picture of the door I remembered.
“I won’t follow you around the property and drive you crazy,” Willis said, interrupting my thoughts. “I just want to show you a few things.” I held out my hand and gestured for him to proceed me into the house. “The electric lines weren’t cut, but some of the water lines were. Luckily, my dog Nellie heard the commotion when the little assholes ran out of there like their hair was on fire and yelling about ghosts. Too bad ole Elijah didn’t scare them off before they caused water damage to the property.” I followed Willis to the downstairs half bathroom. “I turned off the main water valve to prevent the house from being flooded before I called the police and then Mr. McKinney.”
Even with his quick action, there was a lot of water damage to the bathroom that spilled over into the hallway. The entire floor of the bathroom would need to be replaced as well as portions of the walls. We weren’t talking inexpensive materials either; Elijah’s Landing had plastered walls and solid walnut floors. I hoped that Noah had the appropriate endorsements on his insurance policy or he was going to be really upset, and possibly broke.
“You did a good thing.” I patted Willis on his shoulder.
“Thank you. I was just trying to be a good neighbor. Do you want me to show you the rest of the damage or do you want to look around for yourself?”
“If you don’t mind, I’ll just take a look at each room to make sure nothing gets missed.” I turned and offered him a pleasant smile so he wouldn’t think that I was dismissing him. I appreciated his help, but I really needed to be alone to face my own ghosts.
“No problem, Maverick. It was nice to meet you.” He shook my hand again and left me alone with my memories.
Every step I took turned the lock on my vaulted memories. I could almost hear the tumblers turning as the numbers in the combination engaged and prepared to release the secrets it held inside. My body hummed with awareness as I walked through every room and made a note of the damage. The spray-painted graffiti on the walls burned my ass and made me furious. Did these punks have no respect at all?
Like I suspected, memories of a young Maverick and Noah flooded my brain to the point I almost heard the happy laughter echoing off the walls of the house. I saved Noah’s room for last and found myself holding my breath outside the closed door. I wanted the room to look the same as I remembered it the last time I had been in it. I’ll never forget the serene look on Noah’s face as he slept. I had kissed him one last time before I climbed out of his bedroom window and down the trellis. If I had known that I’d never see him again then I would have stayed longer, maybe woken him up with kisses that led to more sex.
I could feel sweat break out over my body as I pushed open his door. I opened my eyes and saw that the room was exactly the same as I remembered it. Noah had outgrown the bunkbed several years before our last summer and it was replaced with an antique iron bed. I could almost picture us tangled in a sweaty heap as we came down from our orgasmic high. It was too hot to cling to one another, but neither of us had been willing to let go.
I catalogued the rest of the room and noted that there wasn’t any damage to his room. My eyes caught on the old, ornate register on the bottom of the wall across from the bed. It was Noah’s secret hiding spot and I wondered if the skeleton key we had found in the attic was still hidden there. I walked over and knelt in front of the register and lifted it away from the wall. I was disappointed when I reached inside the wall and my search came up empty. I heard noises downstairs and I quickly replaced the register on the wall.
“Maverick, you in here?” My foreman, Mack Henry, hollered from below. My team had arrived and it was time to focus on the present and get to work.
I felt a cool breeze on my neck as I walked down the hallway toward the stairs, but I wasn’t afraid. The touch was that of an old friend. “Hello, Elijah,” I whispered with a smile.
