Sunsets & Second Chances Page 2

  “Really? Great. I’m excited. It’s a fun party, and you’ll get to meet more people around here.”

  Maybe he was just taking her to meet people. Maybe he wasn’t planning on kissing her at the stroke of midnight. Why did she care so much? It wasn’t like she was back in high school, hoping the cute boy in her math class was going to ask her out. He never did.

  “Can’t wait.”

  “I’ll pick you up at eight. Sound good?”

  “Sounds great!”

  “Okay. I’d better run. I agreed to have an early dinner with William on the mainland.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. And I have a lot of questions for him.”

  Julie smiled. “Don’t get put in jail. I need a date for this party.”

  Dawson chuckled. “I’ll try. No promises, though.”

  Chapter 2

  Dawson sat at the table near the water’s edge and stared out over the vast ocean. He loved this place, his home. It was in his blood. He couldn’t imagine ever living anywhere else. And now that he knew Julie, he couldn’t imagine her living anywhere else either. She didn’t seem like a city woman anymore. At first, she’d definitely seemed like a fish out of water, and he liked to think he had something to do with her transformation.

  She was special. It made him nervous to think about just how special she was to him. No one had made him feel this way since Tania, his late wife. But, lately, he’d been having such vivid dreams of her, looking at him in a way that made him feel guilty for finally thinking about moving on. Had his son, Gavin, survived his birth, he’d be in high school now. It made him sad to think about it, but he couldn’t avoid it sometimes. The memories just came like unwelcome guests, setting up house in his brain and making him feel things he’d rather not.

  Imagining what it would be like to play football with him in the yard. Teaching him how to tie a tie for his first homecoming dance. Giving him unwanted, cheesy Dad advice about girls. He’d missed out on so much.

  After losing his child, he’d never had the desire to have more kids. Something in him just died that day. Maybe it was the part that was excited about becoming a father. All he knew was that the only child he’d ever have was Gavin, even if he was his guardian angel now.

  “Hey.” William’s voice broke his concentration. He stood beside the table, towering over Dawson. Although, if Dawson stood up, he’d tower over William.

  “Hey. Sit, please.”

  William sat down and looked at the water, probably wanting to avoid Dawson’s intense gaze. Finally, he looked at him.

  “It’s been a long time,” William finally said, probably getting tired of the glare Dawson was giving him.

  “You know I love Dixie like she’s my own mother, right?”

  “That’s how I remember it, yes,” William said, dryly.

  “I want to know why you’ve done this to her.”

  “Done what to her, Dawson?” he asked, his jaw tightening.

  “Seriously? You abandoned your mother, man!”

  “Hi… Um, can I get you guys something to drink?” the young, female server asked, nervous from obviously walking into a hornet’s nest.

  “Sweet tea, please,” Dawson said, being sure to smile at her. No need to be rude to the server when he only really wanted to strangle William.

  “Water with lemon,” William said, not making eye contact with her.

  “I’m sorry he’s being rude,” Dawson said to the server. “Constipation,” he whispered. She let out a laugh and quickly ran away.

  “Constipation? Really? Very mature,” William said, rolling his eyes.

  “Just about as mature as you’ve been acting for the last ten years.”

  “Look, Dawson, I don’t owe you an explanation. I don’t even know why I came here,” he said, standing up.

  “Sit down,” Dawson said, rising up slightly.

  William’s lips pursed as he sucked in a sharp breath and sat back down. Even as kids, he never crossed Dawson. Though he was a nice guy all the way to his core, he was big and tall and had a presence about him.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

  “I want to know why you left your mother here alone for all these years.”

  William sighed. “I blamed her for Daddy’s death.”

  “That’s insane, man. Surely you know that.”

  “She didn’t make him have chemo or any kind of treatment. She just watched him waste away, and there was nothing I could do. She had the power.”

  “Will, that’s not even true. You know Johnny was one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever known. He told Dixie that he didn’t want to spend his last months with poison in his veins.”

  “That’s what she says.”

  “And I know your Dad must have told you the same thing.”

  William grumbled. “Maybe she talked him into not doing it. I mean, my Daddy had a fat insurance policy. Maybe…”

  Dawson slammed his hand on the table, shaking the silverware, just as the poor server walked up to the table with their drinks. She looked at him for a moment before setting them on the table.

  “Thanks,” he said, smiling up at her and hoping he hadn’t scared her. She slowly walked away, looking back once more before disappearing into the building.

  “Jeez, I see you’re still intense, Dawson. You almost scared that girl to death.” He took a long sip of his water as he eyed his old friend.

  Dawson sucked in a sharp breath and let it out. “I’m not intense. That part of me matured long ago. But, I am protective of Dixie.”

  William laughed, not in a jovial way, but more of an ironic one. “She’s my mother. Shouldn’t I be the protective one?”

  “You’d think so,” Dawson said. “But, you let her down a long time ago.”

  “Well, sorry I let you down too, old friend.” He rolled his eyes and turned to look out over the water.

  “You’ve let your mother down most of all.”

  “Yeah, well she let me down a decade ago when my father took his last breath. She could’ve saved him. I know it in my bones, man. He would’ve listened to her if she had just kept pushing.”

  “Look, Will, I know losing your Dad was hard. I get it. I lost my wife. My kid. My brother. My parents. My grandma. The difference is I didn’t blame anyone. Sometimes, bad things happen. Nobody’s fault.”

  “If I believed that my Daddy really didn’t want treatment, then I have to believe he wanted to die. That he didn’t care enough about his only son to at least try. And my Dad wasn’t a quitter. He wouldn’t have done that to me.”

  “So the only choice is to blame your mother? What would your father think of that?”

  “I’ve got to go. I have an appointment,” William suddenly said, standing up and throwing a few bucks on the table, even though all he ordered was water.

  “An appointment?”

  “Job interview.” William started to walk away.

  “Wait. You’re staying here?”

  “Yes. I’m home for good.”

  Julie straightened the books on the shelf, little plumes of dust occasionally billowing into the air. Down Yonder was the coziest bookstore she’d ever been in, but also the dustiest. It wasn’t like those big, retail bookstores that were always clean and tidy and bright. Instead, it had character, a wandering dog and those little dust bunnies that formed when no one picked up certain books for weeks on end.

  “So, when is your next appointment with the doctor?” she asked Dixie, who was hanging new business cards on the bulletin board.

  “Thursday,” she said in her sing songy way, obviously doing her best to pretend nothing was wrong.

  Julie cleared her throat. “Is William going with you?”

  Dixie chuckled. “I would highly doubt it. I don’t even know why he came back. None of it makes any sense to me.”

  “Have you talked since Christmas?” Julie asked, walking back to the counter. It had only been a couple of days, but the tension around the situation was so thick, it felt like weeks.

  “Here and there, but not much. He’s living at a hotel, and I invited him to come home, to his old room. He was adamantly against that. I just don’t know what to do or say.”

  Julie reached over and put her hand on Dixie’s. “He came back for a reason. I’m sure he’ll come around soon enough. Just give him space and let him come to you, like one of those scared dogs you try to lure into your car. If you come on too strong, they run away. But, if you just ignore them and sit on the curb, they’ll come right over to you.”

  Dixie giggled. “That’s a weird comparison, but I see what you mean.” She turned and picked up her purse. “I’m awfully tired this afternoon. Do you mind if I go home and put my feet up for the rest of the day?”

  “Hey, you’re the boss!” Julie said. “And if you need anything, and I do mean anything, please let me know, okay?”

  Dixie smiled. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, hon.”

  “Ditto.”

  After Dixie left, Julie’s phone rang. She looked down to see Meg calling from Europe. Meg only called on Sundays, and it was only Wednesday, so Julie was immediately concerned.

  “Meg? What’s wrong?”

  Meg laughed. “Wow, Mom, you might need to take some anxiety medication. Why would you think something’s wrong?”

  Julie let out the breath she’d been holding and lowered her shoulders from her ears. “You don’t usually call during the week, sweetie.”

  “You don’t want to hear from me?”

  Julie sat down on the vintage sofa Dixie had put in her Gone With The Wind section of the bookstore. “Of course I want to hear from either one of my girls. I miss you both so much.”

  Starting over alone had been hard, even with all of her new friends around. She ached to hug her girls, to be their mom all the time again. Funny how she’d often complained when they were kids, about all of the carting them around, paying for everything and their loud parties with friends at her house almost every weekend. And then suddenly, life was quiet. It was oddly unsettling.

  “I just need to tell you something.”

  Butterflies fluttered around Julie’s stomach. Was it ever a good thing when a kid said they needed to talk to a parent? Not in her experience.

  “Okay. What’s up?”

  “I’m in love, Mom.”

  Julie paused and said nothing for a few moments. While Colleen had always been the one dating boys in high school, Meg had been less social. She’d had friends, but no dates, really. She skipped dances and opted to read books in her room instead. She was studious, which was why she’d gotten such an amazing opportunity to study abroad. Of course, Julie had always prayed she’d meet a great guy one day, get married and have a bunch of babies she could spoil. But she was only nineteen and living in a foreign country, which made Julie feel very much out of control.

  “You’re in love?” Julie said softly.

  “Yes. He’s amazing, Mom! I met him at a coffee shop near campus, and we just hit it off so well. He teaches art history at the university.”

  “He’s a professor?” Julie didn’t have a good feeling about this. Dating someone in a power position wasn’t always the best idea, especially for a young woman so far from home and those who loved her.

  “Yes, but don’t worry. I’m not in any of his classes.”

  Don’t worry? Yeah, right.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Christian.”

  “How old is he, Meg?”

  She was silent for a long moment. “He’s thirty-one.”

  “What?” Julie couldn’t contain herself. Her voice, several octaves above its normal tone, pierced through the phone.

  “Mom, don’t freak out. That’s why I waited so long to tell you.”

  “So long? How long?”

  “Two months.”

  “Meg! I can’t believe you waited that long!”

  “I knew you’d freak over his age.”

  Julie tried to get herself together. The last thing she wanted to do was leave her daughter feeling like she couldn’t talk to her. As far away as she was, she needed to have a connection to Meg to make sure she was safe.

  “Honey, what could you possibly have in common with a man of his age?”

  “He gets me, Mom,” she said, speaking in a way Julie had never heard her daughter speak. She sounded like a middle school girl talking about her first crush, and it worried Julie that she wasn’t thinking clearly. “We like going to museums, eating croissants, dancing. He loves me.”

  “Meg, I just hope you’re being level headed about this. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Christian would never hurt me, Mom.”

  “I didn’t think your Dad…” Julie said, before stopping herself. She hadn’t meant to blurt that out. She didn’t want to make her daughters jaded about all men just because of what their father had done to her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “It’s okay, Mom. I know it’s still fresh.”

  “I’m glad you called me, Meg.”

  “Me too. We’ll talk more soon, okay?”

  “Okay. Meg?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful, okay? You’re so far away, and I feel so helpless.” A stray tear fell from her eye.

  “I will, Mom. Don’t worry about me. I’ve never been this happy in my life.”

  “I’m glad, sweetie. I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Julie ended the call and sighed, leaning her head back against the couch. One more thing to worry about. Did mothers ever have a time when they didn’t worry? She wondered what that would be like.

  “Where are we going?” Julie asked as she held Dawson’s hand. He’d put a blindfold on her and was leading her down a path of crunchy leaves. After a long day at work and the worrisome call from Meg, just holding his hand made her feel better than she’d care to admit.

  “That would ruin the surprise, now wouldn’t it?”

  “I suppose.”

  She continued following him until she started hearing the ocean in the distance. The breeze hit her face, and the familiar scent of salty air wafted up her nose. She licked her lips and tasted the saltiness on them.

  “The beach?” she asked.

  “Not telling you a thing, woman,” he said, with a laugh. Finally, they stopped and he touched both of her shoulders. “Sit down.”

  She slowly crouched down and then landed on her rear end. She reached down and felt what must have been a plush blanket. Dawson reached around her head and untied the blindfold.

  Julie looked around. They were on a part of the beach she’d never been to. It was remote, no houses anywhere in view. The sun was starting to set, wisps of pink and orange racing across the sky, glimmers of the last bits of orange sunlight streaking across the water. The beauty of the scene almost made her cry. When she turned to look back at Dawson, she noticed the picnic set out on the blanket in front of her.

  “Dawson, you didn’t have to do this!”

  “You deserve a little down time. I don’t think you’ve had any since you got here.”

  She smiled. “Thank you. And look at this food!”

  “All thanks to Lucy, of course.”

  Julie looked around and saw chicken salad sandwiches, fruit and a bottle of wine. Simple, yet so thoughtful.

  “She also made peach cobbler, but I have it in the insulated warmer thing she sent with me,” he said, pointing behind him.

  “Is that the technical name for it?”

  “I do believe so.”

  “Seriously, thank you, Dawson. I needed this. Where are we, anyway?”

  “This is Hell’s Point.”

  “What kind of name is that?”

  Dawson laughed as he poured two glasses of wine. “Legend has it that pirates used to get marooned here in their ships because they didn’t see this narrow piece of land jutting out into the sea. We’ve even had treasure hunters come here over the years, searching for the supposed gold coins they would often leave here after shipwrecks.”

  Julie took a sip of wine. “Interesting. I could use some treasure right now.”

  “Me too.”

  “My daughter called me today.”

  “Oh yeah? Which one?”

  “Meg, the one in France. She had some news.”

  “What kind of news?”

  “I don’t really know what to think about it. She has a new boyfriend. Says she’s in love. She’s nineteen and he’s thirty-one.”

  Dawson’s face didn’t change. “And you don’t like their age difference?”

  “What could they really have in common?”

  He smiled. “Spoken like a worried mother.”

  “She’s thousands of miles away in a foreign country, and now she’s dating a guy old enough to…”

  “To what? Be her older brother?”

  She laughed. “I guess he couldn’t be her father.”

  “Not unless he had a child when he was twelve, no.”

  “I am worried, Dawson. What if this guy is a maniac? What if he hurts her? What if…”

  “What if he breaks her heart like her father did to her mother?” He took a sip of his wine, crouching behind his glass like he was hiding from her.

  “I know that’s part of it. How couldn’t I worry about that? I don’t ever want my daughters to get hurt like that. I thought everything was good in my marriage. I really did. And then it hit me out of the blue like a lightning bolt.”

  “Julie, I know you love your girls. And I know you want to protect them. But, let me ask you something.”

  “Okay.”

  “If one of your friends had told you a year ago that your husband was going to hurt you, would it have changed anything?”

  She thought for a moment. “No. I wouldn’t have believed them. I thought I knew him.”

  “Exactly. Nothing you say to Meg is going to change her mind about this guy. And you risk pushing her away if you judge him without even meeting him.”

  “You’re right. How are you always right?” she asked with a smile.

  He sighed. “I’m not always right, trust me.”

  “Oh, you had your dinner with William last night, didn’t you?”