7 Honeymoons and a Decade of Loneliness

By J.L. Ruhland

One warm summer afternoon, Isabella Solomon finds friendship with a new neighbor that has recently moved into her close-knit neighborhood. Soon, lines will blur between families, emotions and duty. Caught between holding on and letting go, Isabella will need to make a choice that just may end up unravelling her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.L. Ruhland
• Release date: Dec 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9780988809307

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7 Honeymoons and a Decade of Loneliness

J.L. Ruhland

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 J.L. Ruhland

License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

7 Honeymoons is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - March 2004

Chapter 2 - June 2003

Chapter 3 - July 2003

Chapter 4 - August 2003

Chapter 5 - September 2003

Chapter 6 - October 2003

Chapter 7 - November 2003

Chapter 8 - December 2003

Chapter 9 - January 2004

Chapter 10 - February 2004

Chapter 11 - March 2004

Reader’s Group Questions

Acknowledgments

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For you,

whose name is not scribbled on these pages,

but may as well be.

For the need you filled,

I thank you.

MARCH 2004

As Blue drove, knuckles white from gripping the steering wheel, her headlights played on the snow crystals in the air and the salt on the pavement, so that it looked like she was driving straight into a tightly-knit cloud of fireflies. If she weren’t so tense, jaw clenched and shoulders hunched from the conditions of the day and the road ahead of her, she might have been able to enjoy the bright sparkling in front of her, but all Blue saw was the darkness beyond where her lights shined.

Faced with what lay ahead, Blue was hesitant to get home, almost to the point of stopping at the small rest stop, to delay the inevitable. Yet as soon as her foot let up from the gas pedal (almost of its own accord) she pushed the thought of stopping away with a small but powerful exhale, shook her head and kept moving forward. Momentum felt good right now, even if it was hurtling Blue towards the confrontation that she had rehearsed for months, but still wasn’t sure how to have.

Her mind wandered back to the phone call she had taken earlier in the day, the voice of an old friend, telling her what was happening in her own town, even though he was thousands of miles away in the heat of the desert.

What Blue couldn’t comprehend was the bold audacity of Lucretia to think only of herself regardless of the accident and subsequent injuries that had only happen a few short days ago. The insensitivity enraged her and left her hot enough to spit nails. This was the last straw that was definitely forcing her to finally break her silence. The bottom line was that the world did not revolve around Lucretia (even though she thought it did) and Blue was headed back into town to set her straight.

Blue took a few deep breaths, forced her focus back to the road and tried to remember Frank’s words, tried to calm her inner voice with the words of comfort that he had given her after he broke the horrible news: you are the best there is at keeping things together when everything else falls apart. He needs you now.

JUNE 2003

Bella lived in a small yellow cape house with white shutters, in a neighborhood of otherwise formidable homes. She often stated that her house was the smallest in the neighborhood and because of this; it was the easiest house on the block to find. But honestly, the house was just right for Bella and Sam; two bedrooms and one large living room, a bath and a kitchen. Bella loved her property, with its large backyard where the boys often played touch football or made snowmen and angels, depending on the season.

The Solomon’s dog, Zeus, was on a run that ran from the back deck to the garage and loved to be outside with the kids in the neighborhood as they played. Bella often joked that the only time Zeus would stay still was when he had at least one paw on the deck and both eyes on the kids.

Bella’s house was only 2 doors down from the MacKinnon’s house. The first day that Cooper met Bella was the Friday of the town-wide Attic & Seller days. Cooper had been ambling through the neighborhood that he and his family had moved to, only 2 short months before, seeing what the neighbors had to offer and who was around on that Saturday morning.

The day had been a particularly hot one, and the first thing Cooper noticed about Bella was her blue eyes, the second her kind smile. The third thing Cooper noticed was the redness of her cheeks. She looked like she needed to be inside, hiding from the sun that had already baked her skin. The first thought to cross Cooper’s mind was that she must feel so uncomfortable, but no one would have ever known it from the way that her eyes lit up as they stood there face to face.

Cooper said hello casually, as he held her gaze. She smiled, tucked an errant strand of hair behind her left ear and offered Cooper her right hand in greeting. I’m Bella.

Cooper, he said as he shook her small hand.

She smiled an inviting smile and asked, Are you looking for anything in particular?

Cooper laughed quietly, shook his head and motioned towards the second chair that Bella had beside her - where she had put her feet up when she wasn’t moving things around or talking to another curious neighbor - and Bella nodded towards it, letting him know that he was invited to sit with her. Their conversation came with ease, like they had been long friends. Their banter was comfortable, with both of them able to ask and answer without much thought.

Soon enough Bella knew where Cooper and his family lived, that Cooper was a roofer by trade and that his kids, Owen and Kada, were his joy. Cooper explained that Owen was at an age where he questioned everything and walked behind his father mimicking his every move. Owen exhausted his father on a daily basis with all of his whys?

Kada, his little girl, had just turned one. She had gone from crawling to running in the course of a few short weeks. Bella could see the light in Cooper’s eyes as he talked about his kids.

Likewise, Cooper learned that Bella was a single mom raising her pre-teen son Sam, and that she had recently launched her own business as a CPA, after being laid off from a local construction company. They talked tar paper, soffits and shingles for a few minutes. Cooper was surprised that Bella not only knew what he did for a living, but understood what he did day in and day out.

After 45 minutes, Cooper stood to excuse himself, extended an open invitation for burgers on the grill, smiled, waved and set out for home.

***

The MacKinnon’s rented a large house on a decent plot of land that backed up against the small creek that ran through town. Several well established fruit trees bore fruit every year that the kids in the neighborhood loved to pick on lazy summer days. A small patio came off of the backdoor, where Cooper’s grill and the picnic tables (one mini one for the kids) were out during the warm weather.

A large red maple gave a great amount of their backyard shade from the early afternoon sun. Cooper had set up a kiddie pool for Owen and Kada in its shade for the added protection from the sun’s rays.

The house itself was roomy and gave the family plenty of room to spread out and wander as they saw fit. There was a small room off of the family room that held Owen and Kada’s toys. Owen had a small race track set up in one corner, with its cars driven while he travelled through the room on his knees. Across from the racetrack, Cooper had set up a little plastic kitchenette for Kada now that she was walking on her own.

Whoever had lived in this house, somewhere during its early years, had taken to changing all but one of the downstairs windows to stained glass or glass block. Even when the sun was high in the sky what little light penetrated the glass and made it into the house was murky and dim in its green, red or gold hue. Cooper was convinced that their electric bill would be half of what it normally was if the stained glass could be scrapped for some double hung casements. Yet Cooper’s wife, Lucretia, liked them and was not shy to tell Cooper so. In fact, it was one of the only things she was in anyway attached to and vocal about.

The stained glass and chunky old glass blocks were not the only things Cooper disliked about their rented house. He also detested the steep stairs that led to the second floor. Cooper had almost missed his step a few times and was concerned of losing his footing and tumbling down to the small hallway at the bottom.

At one point, Cooper had slipped on a step while carrying Kada. Thankfully, he had been able to catch himself by the railing while still holding on to Kada and both of them were spared from a mishap that no doubt would have wound up leveling them for a few days. Cooper had installed a baby gate at both ends to stop the kids from getting near the haphazard stairs, yet he and his wife still needed to climb them.

The walls in some of the rooms were still plaster and lath, and thus had begun to crumble in a few places. The upstairs bathroom was particularly bad, it looked as if someone had tried to hang a towel rack next to the shower and had failed miserably. Cooper had asked and been granted permission to paint where he wanted - but new drywall just wasn’t in the budget. Some of the visible holes were covered by Owen’s artwork or a carefully placed calendar or poster.

The hardwood floors might have been gorgeous at one time, but now were dull with age and