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Chapter 35
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Seasmoke Friends Chapter 36
SummerI drummed my fingers on the steering wheel as I made the last turn for home. It had been a struggle to focus on the drive so I didn't kill myself in a violent wreck before I was able to confront Sharon.Again. When someone had tapped my arm as I was leaving the benefit and Sharon stood there, that last hold I had on sanity pulled away like a rug under my feet. Just like the first time Sharon had shown up, it had taken me a moment to realize who I was looking at. She'd made the effort to come and I felt trapped. Not wanting to cause a scene, I'd told her to follow me back to the house.Headlights in my rearview mirror informed me Sharon had stayed close. I pulled into the drive, exited the car, and walked to the front door. I didn't say a word when Sharon silently followed me into the house. Making my way through the living room to the kitchen, I flipped the lights on and set a kettle to boil. Unsure what to do, my head was a mess, I turned away from the stove to my mother
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 37
SummerIf someone had told me three months ago my long-lost mother would be coming back to see me, that it had been Daddy's choice to keep her away, that Ian Memmer was in love with me, that Matt Holcomb would ask me to marry him, and that I'd be opening my own studio, I would've committed them to the loony bin, complete with a straight jacket, padded walls, and crafts on Sundays. But, there it was. That's exactly what had happened. And my head reeled.Leaning back on my elbows, I breathed in the early dawn from my porch steps and listened to the crickets fade into the morning. Cicadas buzzed. Leaves rustled with a caressing breeze. I hadn't slept a wink. Not. One. Wink.Ian and I had it out after I'd gone upstairs last night. He'd been sick with worry and I'd reassured him. We'd had angry sex, and then made love. We'd talked into the hours about what I planned to do about Sharon. He'd been unusually mum on the subject. Awhile ago, I'd left him sleeping in my bed in order to wai
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 38
SummerWithin moments of Ian leaving, my cell rang. If I hadn't been so shocked, I probably would've ignored it. But at that point, I was still numb, staring at the door, shaking uncontrollably. "Summer, it's Elizabeth." The elementary school principal. Why was she calling on a Sunday? In summer? "I'm sorry to report Jon Melbourne died late last night."I stared at the kitchen doorway, at the pictures my students had made for me posted on the fridge. Jon's was right on top. A cute scene of us holding hands in the grass. In the picture, he'd given himself back the hair chemo had stolen. It took me three attempts to find my voice and thank Elizabeth for calling. My phone fell from my limp fingers.Everything seemed to wash through me in that moment. Every single thing. Daddy. My mother. Jon and all my other students. Ian. It all erupted from that cavern where I shoved things, stored them away to compartmentalize. Tears brimmed my eyes until the room swam in splotches of color and
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 39
SummerI'd taken Mom to my studio to show her around and it dawned on me how much time we'd already wasted. Over lunch, she had tentatively asked how I felt about her moving back to Wylie. The next day, she'd flown to Houston to make arrangements to put her condo up for sale. I'd spent the next two days idly, painting or cleaning or anything else to get my mind off of Ian.At the cemetery, I breathed humid air and watched Jon Melbourne's tiny casket as it was lowered into the ground. There wasn't a sadder sight on earth than a coffin that size. I stood alone, behind the family as they mourned a child taken too young. A child who would never have a first kiss or fall in love. Who would never go to college or grow up and become a man. How many years had I wasted being scared? How many years had I not lived? Loved? Ian hadn't returned any of my phone calls. I'd tried to go over there to tell him about my mother and everything else, wanting to show I wasn't afraid to talk to him and,
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 40
IanDee came back into the room, her eyes suspiciously wet, phone clutched in her hand. She sat next to me on the couch in their living room and deflated."What's wrong?"She waved her hand. "Nothing. Pregnancy hormones."I didn't believe her, but I kept silent.My knee bouncing, I stared at the front door, willing Rick to walk through. The three of us had decided it was best for Rick to attend Jon Melbourne's funeral. In my effort to keep my distance, to let her stand on her own, I'd had to hear through the grapevine that Summer's student had passed away. And about her mother moving back to Wylie. It had taken everything in me not to race to her side and verify with my own two eyes she was all right. Strangely, the need wasn't out of a sense to protect her, to unload her burden for her, but because I just wanted to be there for her. Next to her. For support, not as a knight. A hard habit to kick, but I'd done it. I guessed that meant the week we'd been apart had done more than kill m
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 41
SummerHe strode forward two steps and stopped, still several paces away, as if remembering why he'd left me alone and forcing himself to stay back. His mouth firmed into a thin line, eyes darting back and forth between mine. The night sky let out a flash of lightning and he broke the connection to look up. "You left me." Dropping his gaze back to me, the tortured, wrecked pain there told me how much it had cost him to do that, to walk away from me. "Thank you."His lips parted, eyebrows furrowed. Raindrops poured off his dark hair and over his face. He was the most glorious thing I'd ever laid eyes on. The muscled contours of his body were wrought tight with tension, his eyes pleading.I nodded to his silent question. "Thank you. I know how much it killed you to leave me, but you did. You trusted that I'd still be here when you came back." I pressed my hand to my heart. "I love you."He seemed to stop breathing. "How can you be sure?" I shook my head, not understanding.He stepped
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 42: Prologue
VOLUME TWO: WINTER'S PATHMatt HolcombLate JulyI knew before I even started my car this morning and made the two-hour trek to her house that today was not going to end how I'd hoped. Summer Quinn was supposed to be my salvation, and though she wouldn't be my ruin, the loss was going to thrust my life right back to what started my downward spiral in the first place.From Greensboro to Charlotte, I passed the rolling Carolina countryside with my head in a fog, my heart clutching hope. Pine trees grounded in thick red clay passed by in a blur. Scatterings of wildflowers flashed color under the heavy, hot sun. I drove my reliable sedan that I'd purchased for my reliable life to go in the garage attached to my reliable house.That was me. Reliable. The good southern guy. Boy next door.Except I wasn't. Not really. Hadn't been in two years. Two years to this very day, to be exact. When my flirtation with skating the edge inadvertently put a girl six feet under. Up to that point, I'd been p
Seasmoke Friends Chapter 43
MattLate OctoberTomorrow was the big move. I'd be uprooting my life in Greensboro and transplanting myself in Myrtle. The past couple months, I'd been darting back and forth, helping the firm set up the new location and transferring some of our clients' files who'd be following. It had been tedious and exhausting. Trying to put my things in order here hadn't been pleasant either. My folks weren't all that pleased with my decision, but they understood. It wasn't as if I were moving to Timbuktu. But we'd always been close, in proximity and as a family. Though I loved them, they were a big factor in my relocation. Sometimes, it was just so damn hard to look them in the eye knowing I wasn't that good son they thought I was. Perhaps I was once, but that ship had sailed. The guilt was unbearable to live with most days, and I just couldn't hack their adoring affection.Sighing, I laid the back of my head against the living room wall, where I'd been sitting on the floor the past hour. B
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