I tipped the driver, thanked him, and pulled out the key that had been secured in my wallet. I opened the front door and lugged my luggage inside, smiling at the familiarity of this place and all the fond memories it brought through the years.
My parents co-owned it with neighbors of theirs who had been friends of theirs since before I was born. I headed to the bedroom that I knew would be mine, the one all the girls slept in as kids.
It was as if nothing had changed. The peach and tan bed covers that matched the curtains at the window were both new, but the same color and style as the ones that had been here all those years ago.
The house smelled like it had been freshly cleaned and not locked up for years. I was glad that Mama had called a service in to take care of things. After I put my luggage in my room, I headed to the front to take inventory. I needed to see what all I would need immediately versus what I could wait for. I wasn’t in the mood to go grocery shopping at the moment, so I prayed that there was something there.
I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the refrigerator to find that both it and the cabinets were fully stocked with fresh food.
I headed back into the room, showered, and changed into my swimsuit. The only thing that I wanted to do was walk down to the private beach and recall all the good times we had.
Thirty minutes after my arrival, my toes were digging into the hot sand, and I was inching my way to the cool water. I took a swim to relax, and when I emerged from the tepid ocean water, I felt like a new woman.
I sat down on my beach towel and wiped my face just as my phone rang. I frowned at the unknown number. As much as I wanted to ignore it, I couldn’t, because it could have had something to do with my business.
“Hello?”
“Babe.”
“Why are you calling me, Neal? I asked you to leave me alone and stay away. I have found peace and happiness that I could never have with you. Please let me live my life.”
“I am your life, Dove. I have been for the last couple of years. I love you, and you mean the world to me. How can you easily forget about what we had?”
His words had me heated. I jumped up from the towel as though I had been burnt. I paced back and forth, trying to compose myself, but it was a struggle.
“You mean the way that you did? You conveniently forgot about those feelings and that love when the media found out about us, and you left me out to dry by myself. I had to figure out my next moves, I had to speak up, and I had to defend myself!” I exclaimed, jabbing my finger against my chest as though he could see me. “You were nowhere to be found, not even in my rearview. Only my family stood by my side throughout that ordeal. I sure as hell didn’t feel the love then, Neal.”
“I was trying to keep my family intact.”
“Why, when you promised that you and her were going through a divorce because there was nothing left to salvage?”
“My kids. M-m-my life was changing quicker than I expected, and I-I-I could barely hold onto my world. I couldn’t lose my kids, Dove. I was confused for a while about what I wanted most, but I know now that it’s you.”
“Why? Because you lost everything anyway? Well, you know what? You lost me too. No, you gave me up, but that’s fine. I didn’t want or need to be a kept woman anyway. Forget my number. Forget me. Don’t ever call me again!”
I jabbed the end button on the phone and sank back down into the sand. I lay there for several minutes and allowed the tears to fall down my face. After several minutes, I stood, gathered my things, and slowly walked back up to the beach cottage.
My heart was ripped out of my chest, and the only thing I wanted was to make the pain go away. I had come out here to escape the heartache and the memories, thinking that this place would bring back warm memories and healing. I’d be damned if on the first day here, Neal hadn’t managed to ruin that.
I tried to push the thought of him out of my head, but it was difficult, until I realized that I wasn’t alone in the cottage.
“Dove? Damn, girl. Where you been?”
I jerked my teary gaze up from my phone. I had been deleting all the pictures of Neal and me, pictures that I had been reluctant to let go of because, like an idiot, I still wanted to believe that what we shared was special while we were together. I had wanted to believe that all the memories couldn’t be tainted.
“Reighvyn!” I shrieked at the sight of my old friend standing at the refrigerator with food in his hands. My heart damn near exploded in my chest, and joy and peace filled every part of me.
“I missed you, li’l bit,” he greeted warmly as his warm nut-brown eyes glowed with happiness. He chuckled and set the items on the counter as I ran to hug him.
Shock poured through me at the sight of him. His dark, massive arms wrapped around me in a warm embrace, and the fresh scent of his crisp, airy cologne made me want to stay right where I was.
Reighvyn squeezed me and held me tightly to him. He rubbed my back and rested his face on the top of my head. “I missed you so gahdamn much, girl,” he whispered in an emotion-filled voice.
Eventually, I pulled back and looked him up and down the same way he did me, both of us smiling like fools. While he hadn’t grown taller since I last saw him, a lot had changed in terms of his muscles and all the tattoos. At six feet, three inches, he towered over me by nine inches.
His walnut-colored skin was covered with full sleeve tattoos on both arms and legs, hiding the burns he suffered from the childhood fire he had been trapped in. He wore his thick, tightly coiled hair braided into a bun on his head and faded on the sides. The trimmed mustache, soul patch, and beard had grown in thicker than when we were teens and highlighted his broad forehead and triangular-shaped face. His full, heart-shaped lips crooked up into a sexy smile that somehow translated into him lifting one slightly arched eyebrow at me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
