Page 55 of Served
I sipped the iced cold Blue Moon. It was even more refreshing after playing in the water.
“This is great. Do you guys come out here a lot?”
Ann took another swig before answering, “I’ll bring the kids some afternoons, but we all come down on the weekend unless we have somewhere to be. Ethan leaves early and works all day, so he usually isn’t up for it when he gets home. But we do enjoy it. Why, you wanna move in?” She sat up straight in her chair with a wild excited look. “Oh my gosh how fun would that be?”
I laughed. “I think you had a few while I was swimming.” We clinked our bottles, and both took a huge swig. “Anyway, I have a job. And an Amy.”
“Is that all that’s keeping you there?”
The beer and the heat were catching up with me. I looked out to the water watching my brother playing with his kids in the water. I looked back up at his pretty wife sitting on a beach where they lived. I even had flashbacks of when they first met. When they were married. Announced their first pregnancy. All of it. They were happy. Even before they had the big house by the ocean. I wanted that kind of happiness.
“Ann, there is something else. But I messed it up. Really bad. And now,” my voice trailed off as I stopped myself to keep the tears at bay.
“You’ll figure it out. Is that what you were writing about?”
I nodded but looked down at the sand, still trying not to cry. Ann grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard before she stood.
Ann shouted to the kids and Ethan, “Hey guys, time to head back. We’re losing daylight.”
I cleared my throat and watched as Ethan grabbed the kids like footballs and ran toward us.
“Hey, I may sit here for a while if that’s ok with you.”
Ann smiled and nodded.
“Of course. Want me to leave this down here?” She asked, pointing to the cooler.
“No, but I will take one more before you go.”
She handed me another Blue Moon then grabbed towels to dry off the kids and handed one to Ethan.
“Don’t be too long or I’ll have to send your brother down after you.”
I laughed but Ethan wasn’t amused. I watched as they took the wagon and left up the wooded walkway.
I went back to the water briefly to put my feet in, but as the sun started to go down, I decided to go sit and pull my work in progress back out. Maybe that’s how I could show him how I felt.
I dried off and pulled the book, the paper, and pen out. I opened my last beer then sat and sipped as I read over what I had, trying to add to it and make it into a workable song. Occasionally I’d look up to watch the waves crashing the shore and the sun turning into vibrant shades of pink, purple, and orange the more it sank into the water.
I looked down at my paper as I sipped and for a moment thought I smelled tobacco and vanilla as the breeze picked up. I knew it was just my imagination, so I tried to brush it off but then I thought I smelled it again. I looked out to the water and looked left and right but of course didn’t see him. Maybe one of the men still lingering around the beach had the same cologne.
I looked down again and had the pen in my hand when I heard something that stopped me completely.
“Whose idea was it to serve glass bottles on the beach?”
My buzz was destroyed. Adrenaline quickly filled my veins.
That voice. It wasn’t far behind me. My heart was racing even though I knew it couldn’t be him. But I had to turn to be prove it to myself. I moved my body in the chair to see behind me and when I looked, I stood quickly at the sight behind me, losing my papers in the wind.
Chapter 28
Lucy
Beer was running on my foot from where I dropped the bottle I was holding when I stood and turned around. Everything was moving in slow motion. I wondered if I had been in the sun drinking too long as I watched my papers flying around. But that wasn’t the sight that stopped me in my tracks.
If it wasn’t real, it was the best mirage anyone had ever hallucinated. He was in his Braves hat, jeans, and t-shirt, jumping and running around the sand in sneakers.
I stood frozen watching Jason chasing my papers as they drifted between us in the wind. I couldn’t move but my heart was racing, and I felt pressure building behind my eyes. I watched as he grabbed two pieces of paper, but the rest had been carried down the beach, probably into the water. He bent over, hands on his knees, looking in the direction of the lost papers. He finally stood and turned toward me.
