Page 11 of Mine Forever
FOUR
chase
A couple of hours later,the four properties I own on the island are ready for whatever the incoming storm has to offer.
I drive along the beachfront road, and glancing around, it looks like a storm would be the last thing to worry about with the sunshine and high white clouds.
But the winds are picking up and the sea is beginning to get choppy. Far out on the horizon, purple clouds are beginning to show themselves, making the air heavy.
At the rate the storm is moving and growing, it won’t be long before we see how bad it is.
The dashboard clock says I have a little over an hour until Eden will be at my house.
Knowing her, she’ll be early, and since my own place needs some prep work, I point the truck toward the end of the island.
My stomach is in knots with the thoughts of having Eden near my sanctuary.
Why the hell did I say to meet at my house?
Just one more time I weaken for her even when I think I’m in control.
All I want is to be left alone on the island that’s my saving grace. Live out my days in the sun, managing my properties and keeping up with the handyman business I’d started to keep me busy.
Be that grumpy old bastard sitting at the end of the bar, watching the out-of-towners bake themselves like lobsters and drop a month’s worth of pay into our local economy.
I don’t date or go out much on purpose. Sure, I’m still a guy and want to get laid on occasion. I injured my million-dollar arm, not my dick.
But the truth is, I haven’t gotten laid in over six months. A long-ass time for the guy who’d once had any willing woman at the snap of my fingers.
I’d had a “friends with benefits” arrangement with a local woman for a while, but she moved to Miami six months ago. Since then, it’s been just me and my hand.
But I’m content to leave my celebrity back on the mainland—even though high season on the island brings out the cleat chasers—and simply be a guy who fixes things around town and is a respectable, contributing member of the community.
I enjoy drinking a beer sitting on my back deck overlooking the Atlantic, being out of the limelight, and not dealing with the dating scene.
It was part of the reason my arrangement with Tess had worked so well before she moved.
Was I alone? Sure.
Was I lonely? It didn’t matter. I had everything I needed.
Whenever I’d wanted more, it had always blown up in my face. The last time I tried having more, it was built on lies, had ended two lives, and my career had gone down in flames.
I’m disinclined to try again with any woman. Even the one who still owns me all these years later.
A weight lifts off my shoulders when the land dotted with houses and condos becomes open beach and trees.
It means home is near.
At the very tip of Cape Sands Beach, I built my fortress.
Surrounded by oak and palm trees on one side, the Atlantic on the south side, and the Intracoastal Waterway on the north side, it isn’t like I can’t be found.
But I don’t make it easy with the high white block walls and wrought iron security gate, not to mention the best hidden camera and security system money can buy on my property.
It may sound like overkill, but after everything that happened four years ago, the paparazzi has been insane.
Even though I’m not a celebrity athlete anymore and most of the vultures have lost interest, occasionally a stray one shows up looking for a morsel to dig up the scandal again.
