"My what?" Taylor practically screeched. For a woman who had never screeched a day in her life, the sound was not pretty, but nothing about her felt attractive at the moment, so she did not care.
"Your Do Over. Your chance to start your life over with more maturity and a better understanding of who you are and what you want out of life. And, lucky you. You don't have a lot of baggage that a house full of children would have brought."
"Thank you so much for reminding me how lucky I am to have had all of those miscarriages. I would not want to be loaded down with a ton of extra baggage as I start my new life. And who said I wanted a new life anyway? I was doing just fine with the one I had."
Sighing loudly, Joules shot back, "Now, who's the big liar? We both know that was not true. And I didn't mean the baggage comment the way you took it. I am just trying to help here. You havebeen only half living for so long. I miss you. I miss my friend. Over the last few years, you have become closed off. You know what I am talking about. This is me, TJ. Be real with yourself if you can't yet be real with me. Take the next few days and spend some time thinking, really thinking, about your marriage and where you want to go from here. Bennett will be calling. When he does, I expect you two to talk like adults." Joules was trying to be patient, but Taylor was acting like a brat. A hurt brat, but a brat nevertheless.
After a moment, Taylor said, "Fine. Whatever."
"I will fly down early on the jet Saturday and bring you back for the gala. I hate to do this, but I have to go. We have another strategy session that is about to begin. Ever since Edna Stone took over, all we do is meet. She is a force to be reckoned with. I may have to take some lessons from her because she has all of us running around doing her bidding. We will talk soon. If you need anything, call. Oh, and TJ, I really do love you. Please don't be mad at me for being honest with you. I only want the best for you."
"I know you do. And I love you, too. I am not mad at you. I am just…" Taylor's words faltered, and her voice cracked. Holding back tears, she said, "I don't know what I am." After a few more seconds, she added, "You go and deal with the sharks. I'll be fine. Talk to you in a few days. Love you."
Joules said, "Love you too." Then she hung up.
Taylor sat staring at her phone for several minutes, lost in her thoughts.
In one fell swoop, her life had been turned upside down again. She did not know exactly what the next stage of her life would entail, but she was no longer a little, lost orphan girl of twenty-two. She was done with knights in shiny armor. She had depended on that fantasy once before, and look how that turned out. Nope, no more Prince Charming for her. Whatever came next, she would face it on her own.
Chapter 6
Stone Cottage
Gulf Shores, Alabama
March 2012
After hanging up with Joules, Taylor gave Edna’s little magic food number another call. This time, she ordered a grown-up meal, salmon, asparagus, and a salad. She resisted the urge to order another ridiculously sugary, inappropriately named drink. Instead, she opted for the most expensive Chardonnay they had. The restaurant agreed to drop the food off at her cottage, so she packed up and headed back to shower.
She had just finished dressing in her last set of clean clothes when the doorbell rang. Taylor thanked the delivery boy and gave him a stupid, crazy tip. Now that she knew Bennett was footing the bill for her little hideout pity party, she wanted to spend as much money as possible. The more it cost him, the better.
This was the first real meal she had eaten in days, and luckily, she only drank two glasses of wine. A vast improvement over the last few days. She watched a sappy rom-com and then turned in early. She was emotionally exhausted and physically spent. She slept like a baby and woke the next day starving. Taylor contemplated calling Edna’s magic number again but decided against it. Better to getherself together and start taking responsibility for feeding herself. Dressing quickly, she made a list of what food staples she would need for the rest of the week and headed back into town.
There, Taylor hit up a local grocer and stocked up on several healthy meal options. She still had several more days at the beach, so she bought enough food to see her through. The shopping center also had a sporting goods store next to it. As Taylor headed back to her car, loaded down with bags of food, she walked by the store window and spotted her favorite brand of running shoes. After putting her bags in the car, she went into the store and was pleasantly surprised to find not only a new pair of running shoes but also all of the running gear, sports bras, and socks she needed to run at the beach.
Back at the cottage, Taylor put away her purchases. She fixed herself a quick lunch and then found a spicy romance and read for a few hours. It was not the type of book Taylor typically read as it was quite explicit, bordering on smut. She knew that Joules would say she was being a prude. The more she read, the more shocked she became. She was unsure if she was more shocked that the book was Edna Stone’s cottage or what the characters were doing to each other. She wondered if Edna had read it. Taylor could not imagine the stuffy old lady reading such a racy book.
As she read, images of Bennett and Poppy began filtering through her mind. Slowly, their faces began to replace the images of the characters in the book. Seeing Bennett and Poppy doing all the various explicitly described acts suddenly made Taylor sick to her stomach. Throwing the book down, she went to her room and quickly put on her new running gear. She did some light stretching and then took off down the beach, trying to outrun the sexual images of Poppy and her husband dancing through her head.
Usually, Taylor ran about four miles a day without any problems. But not today. A quarter of a mile into her jog, she had to stop. Sheliterally could not breathe. With her hands on her knees to support herself, she was gasping for air. Her chest hurt, and her heart was racing. She was sweating like she had just run a marathon.
Suddenly, there was a roaring in her ears. For a second, she was afraid she was going to faint. All around her, the ocean roared ashore, and the sun was softly setting. Yet, she was not aware of any of it. It took every bit of concentration she had just to put one foot in front of the other. The emotional upheaval of the last few days was physically affecting her ability to breathe.
After a few minutes of trying to catch her breath, Taylor put her hands on her hips and tried again. Only this time, she was walking. She could not believe that the one time in her life she needed to run, she couldn’t. Suddenly, the pain in her chest hurt so bad that she clutched it. She could feel herself falling face-first into the sand but could do nothing to stop it. And then there was nothing but black.
Gulf Shores Regional Hospital
Gulf Shores, Alabama
March 2012
When Taylor came to, she was lying on a hospital bed. All around her, machines were beeping, and lights were flashing. She was still wearing running shorts and shoes, but her T-shirt was gone. Her bright pink sports bra was still in place, but it was pulled so far down that her breasts were fully exposed. The wires attached to her chest were connected to one of the machines that was beeping loudly. She tried to sit up, but a sharp pain cut across her chest.
“Ouch, that hurts,” she groaned, lying back on the bed, holding her chest.
“Easy there, sport.” At that moment, the most beautiful man Taylor had ever seen stepped over and patted her arm.
“Where am I? How did I get here?” Taylor looked around the room, trying to remember what had happened as the pain in her chest began to subside.
