Page 32 of Art of Love

Chapter Ten

Finding a few things out about Dylan Roselyn Beck hadn’t been too hard. He’s started by asking around town about her. Everyone in Pride knew who she was and exactly what she had been doing for, well, her entire life.

From what he found out, young Dylan had been a loner who was bullied. Her mother had taken off shortly after her birth, leaving her and her father all alone. Her dad, who had been the town vet, had been almost forty years older than Dylan’s mother, which had caused quite a stir in the small town. Dylan had apparently paid the price of all those rumors for most of her young childhood.

Everyone in town also mentioned the friendship between Dylan and Lucy McDonald, now Lucy Gilbert after she’d married Troy Gilbert, an engineer up at the Coast Guard base. They thought it was a shame that Lucy had treated Dylan the way she had, considering how close they’d been early on in school.

That could account for why Lucy had changed her life around after she had children of her own.

After graduation, Dylan left town and headed to Portland, where she worked for a small PI firm while going to college. Shortly after graduating, she’d started her own firm. She’d only returned to town for a few months last year to look after her dad until he passed.

There were other small bits and rumors, but nothing everyone could agree on.

Still, he felt as if he barely knew her at this point. When they’d been in the barn, she’d opened up to him for the first time and he had to admit, he desperately wanted it to happen again.

He’d guessed that it had been her who’d broken into the house after finding out what she did for a living. Besides, when he’d seen her run on the beach, he had recognized her as the person he’d seen running across the dark field. When she’d confirmed it, he wasn’t mad. Oddly. She hadn’t disturbed anything and, after finding out that her main goal was to find out what had happened to Kara, how could he be mad? After all, he had been desperate for answers for years himself.

After he’d walked Dylan to her car the night before, he’d tried to muster up some anger towards her the whole way home. But none came. Instead, an eagerness to work with her had sprung up. The excitement about possibly solving the riddle that had torn his heart apart all those years ago had him flying high.

More importantly, the thrill of seeing her again outweighed any anger. The fact that Dylan had made his broken heart beat rapidly for the first time since Kara tickled the back of his mind.

The next morning, he rose before the sun, while the sky was still bruised in shades of deep navy and violet. He pulled on a sweatshirt to ward off the salty morning chill, grabbed his worn notebook and guitar case, and made the slow trek up the spiral stairs of the lighthouse. He’d wanted to watch the sunrise from up there from the moment he’d seen the place and figured it was the perfect spot to write what he’d been feeling for the past few days.

The salty breeze bit at his skin as he stepped out from behind the protective glass walls. The view at the top, miles of ocean stretching in every direction, made it worth every step.

He sat down on the chair he’d dragged outside and, with the ocean to the right and the rising sun to his left, settled down. After tuning the guitar, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

While the first sliver of light broke the horizon, he strummed his guitar and started playing a new melody that had been circling in his subconscious.

The lyrics came slowly at first.

A woman made of shadows and smoke,

with eyes that promise, but words that lie.

Her lips are like wine, shakes me like thunder.

Will she ever truly be mine.

Mystery woman,

Questions and riddles,

She’s a midnight flame in a world gone cold,

Slipping through fingers I thought could hold.

Every kiss burns, every glance deceives,

But I chase her still, ’cause I need to believe.

Oh, mystery woman, don’t disappear,

Tell me your truth or whisper your fears.

He stopped occasionally, writing down each line. He didn’t think too hard, just let everything flow out of him.

Dylan. She was everywhere in this song. In the longing, the uncertainty. In the ache behind each word.