Tracks in the Sand

By Michelle Garren Flye

Can time mend all wounds or does it take a little love?

Ten years ago, Paige Cox left her hometown in the mountains of North Carolina, swearing she’d never go back to her cheating husband, her alcoholic mother and the best friend who’d betrayed her. However, her sister’s death and her career as a war correspondent have changed her priorities. Honoring her sister’s last wish, she returns home to care for her dying mother.

Sean Anderson has been in love with Paige most of his life, even when he had to let her go. Now, confronted by her return, he knows he’ll never be satisfied as just a friend. But Sean’s life is in the town he still calls home. Can he convince Paige it’s worth putting down roots? Or will his own past prevent him from finally having the life he’s dreamed of?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Flye Publishing
• Release date: Feb 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310690617

Michelle Garren Flye

Michelle Garren Flye is an award-winning romance author. Sort of. She consistently scores in the top fourth of the Romance Writer’s Association’s RITA competition. She might win more contests if she entered them because reviewers have described her work as: “an engaging novel with charming and likable characters”, a story that “will make you believe in love and second chances”, and a “well-written and thought-provoking novel” (that’s her favorite).Anyway, Michelle placed third in the Hyperink Romance Writing Contest for her short story “Life After”, so now she can call herself an award-winning author. Her short stories have been published in print and online. Google her name. You’ll find her. Also, she has proudly served on the editorial staffs of Horror Library Butcher Shop Quartet and Tattered Souls.For what it’s worth, Michelle has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She lives and writes in New Bern, North Carolina, where she often feels she is a miniscule blue dot in a red sea, but she doesn’t really care because she’s close to the blue sea and that’s the one that really matters.

Book preview

TRACKS IN THE SAND

BY

MICHELLE GARREN FLYE

Published by Michelle Garren Flye

Copyright July 2014 Michelle Garren Flye

All rights reserved.

This novel is a work of fiction. Characters and events in this novel come directly from my imagination. Actual places are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual events or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Author photo by Jenn Reno Photography

I dedicate this book with love and thanks to the friends and family who have helped me make my own tracks—whether they’re transient ones in the sand or more permanent ones of concrete.

Acknowledgments:

No book—at least not one of mine—can be written without the help of many, many people. I would like to thank the friends who read my books and help me promote them, which, honestly, is the most exhausting part of writing. Special thanks (in no particular order) to Lisa Haidt, Jennifer Reno, Katie Taylor, Ann Marie Celotto, Suzanne Richey, Mary Kathryn Harris, Sherri Goodwin, Georgiana Nelsen, Andrea Eckberg, Rebekah Jones, Celia Ansley, Ginger Hamilton, Melissa Wells, Rebecca Lucas and Candice Martin.

I also have to add an extra special thank you with a dollop of whipped cream and a cherry on top to my kids, Josh, Ben and Jessi, and to my wonderful, hard-working husband, Chris. I love you all!

Prologue

Sean pulled up outside her house. In spite of the late hour, all the lights were on and music played through the open windows. He frowned, glancing at Paige in the passenger seat. What’s going on?

"Shit. Paige groaned and leaned against the headrest for a minute. I guess he got parole."

"Your stepdad? His frown deepened. I thought he was in jail for another couple of years. Look, don’t go in there. Come home with me. My mom won’t mind."

She shook her head. No, and don’t say anything about it, either. To your mom or anyone else. God knows, I’m gonna have a hard enough time keeping him from embarrassing us as it is. She gave him a severe look. Promise me!

"Fine. I promise. But you promise you’ll call me…if things get out of hand over here."

"I will. She leaned across the seat and kissed his cheek. Promise."

"Right. I’ll hold my breath."

She got out of the car and started up the walk. Before she’d made it halfway up, the screen door slammed open and the hulking shadow of her stepfather, a beer in one hand, emerged. Hey, Baby! ’Bout time you got home. Past your curfew, ain’t it?

She stopped walking, but she didn’t turn around. Her chin tilted a few degrees up, but she said nothing. In spite of the raucous music, the summer night felt strangely still around all of them, as if waiting for something more to happen.

"Aw, c’mon, Baby. He spread his arms. C’mon, give your old man a hug. You know I’m just givin’ you a hard time. I’ve missed you."

The door opened as he started down the steps toward Paige, and her mother spilled out onto the porch, laughing and obviously drunk. Hey Paige, Clyde’s home! Isn’t that great?

Paige gave her a pained look and turned on her heel, but before she could take a step away, her stepfather grabbed her arm. As his arm curved around her slender waist and he pulled her closer, he grinned over her shoulder at Sean. Oooh, Baby, that feels so good.

Sean surged out of the car, but Paige beat him to whatever violence he might have intended. With the heel of her right hand, she drove upward into her stepfather’s jaw bringing her knee up into his groin at the same time. As he wheeled sideways and doubled over with a yelp of pain, she glanced over her shoulder at Sean, pain and fear of discovery obvious in her eyes. Go home, Sean.

And since she walked inside and slammed the door, he had no other choice.

Chapter 1

Paige watched Travis enter the coffee shop. He didn’t see her at first. He flirted with the barrista and checked the headlines. He paused to speak to a friend. Only when he’d exhausted all other avenues of procrastination did he glance around casually and freeze in his tracks at the sight of her. He looked around furtively. God, was that guilty expression habitual? Probably. Melissa probably keeps him on a short leash. And he always was jumpy.

When he reached her table, he didn’t sit and she didn’t stand. He took off his sunglasses and looked around again, obviously hoping nobody would see them together. You can’t be here.

She laughed. "You are always so definitive, Travis. Black and white. Obviously I can be here. I am. Sit down and learn to deal with it."

He winced like she’d hit him, the features she’d once found so handsome contorting into a caricature. She’d been thinking about how to handle this situation ever since she left Miami two days ago. Of course they’d run into each other. Brevard was a tiny town snuggled in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In some ways, it was the same town it had always been, although when she’d grown up there, it hadn’t had swanky coffee places that charged three bucks for a small coffee.

So of course she’d known she’d run into her ex-husband eventually. She wondered if he was as shocked to see her as he appeared to be. She certainly hoped so.

Still looking uncomfortable, Travis sat. Fine. What are you doing here, then?

Why do you think I’m here? She folded her hands and studied him.

Hell, I don’t know, Paige. You disappear for ten years to follow your career. Then all of a sudden—surprise, surprise—you reappear out of the blue, cocky as ever. I guess you’re collecting for charity, huh? His sarcasm-laden voice didn’t even make her blink.

Don’t go growing a pair on my account, Travis. Just chill. I’m not here to mess with you and Melissa. I hope you’re both very happy. I’m here for my mom.

Oh. He picked up a menu but she could tell he wasn’t seeing it. He was buying time, trying to figure out what to say. She waited, curious to see if he’d have any idea how to handle it. Finally, he set the menu aside and faced her. His blue eyes held sympathy, and he reached for her hand. I heard what happened.

Shit. She yanked her hand back. God, you don’t know me at all, do you?

He looked away. I’m sorry. I just heard about your mom. And your sister. But you’ve got to keep your distance, Paige. Melissa won’t like you being here.

The hell with Melissa. Paige downed her coffee and stood. I don’t give a shit what Melissa wants, and I never could understand why you did either. She tossed her empty cup into the trashcan and left without a backward glance.

****

Paige had walked three blocks before she realized where her feet were taking her and stopped. A woman behind her bumped into her and muttered an apology as she brushed past. Paige stood still, her eyes on the gentle slope of the sidewalk and street ahead of her. Downhill. The easy way out. It would be so simple to just continue putting one foot in front of another…

She knew where this path would lead, just as she knew all the other roads in her little hometown. The town where, ten years before, she’d shaken the dust off and sworn she’d never return. And yet, in the wake of the death of the sister she loved and the illness of the mother who’d never loved her…here she was.

At least she’d had the opportunity to vent some of her vitriol on her ex-husband. Not that it had helped that much. It wasn’t his betrayal that had hurt her the most, after all. That dubious honor belonged to her erstwhile best friend, Travis’s current wife. The mother of his child. The woman who’d actually lived the life Paige had planned for herself. Their daughter must be nearly ten now. Paige wondered idly what she was like.

We never meant to hurt you. It just happened.

Paige frowned and shook off that memory. Melissa wasn’t just the woman who’d betrayed her by sleeping with her husband, after all. She was also once one of the only people Paige felt she could really trust. The girl who’d listened when Paige vented about the embarrassment of her stepfather’s multiple arrests and the pain of her older sister’s desertion…

Paige closed her eyes and pictured them walking along the street, two little girls—one with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail with a perfect pink bow, the other a tiny slip of a girl dressed in shabby clothes and with hair exploding around her face in crazy blonde ringlets. The vision faded into one of a beautiful dark-haired woman in the arms of a nice-looking, sleek young man…

Her chin shot up and Paige opened her eyes. Instead of moving forward, however, she made a turn and dropped onto one of the wood benches that lined the street. For a moment, she concentrated on breathing and feeling nothing but the still chilly, spring mountain air around her. This air—this place—was a part of her, much as she’d fought it all her life. Just as the experiences she’d had here were part of her, even if she never wanted to think about them. And those experiences included finding her best friend in bed with her husband.

At one time, it had hurt, but Paige was past that now. Liz’s death had shown her what real pain was. When you lost the only member of your family that you actually gave a damn about—well, that was pain. Her death had left Paige adrift, unable to find a direction for her life for the first time since she walked away from her soon-to-be ex-husband and his newborn baby.

It felt unreal being back here. Back in the place where her heart had broken. But when had that been? It wasn’t when Travis left her. By then her heart was shattered in pieces, irretrievable. Probably it was the first time her mother turned her back when Paige told her one of her uncles had touched her in a bad way. Or the first time her mother hit her. Or when Beth ran away to escape the torture—and left Paige behind.

Not that she blamed Liz. She never had. God, Liz had dealt with so much more than Paige could have conceived at that time. The oldest daughter. The prettiest daughter. By the time she ran away, it wasn’t just her heart that was shattered. But she’d found a way to mend things. Maybe Paige could too.

She looked across the street at the little hardware store. Maybe she hadn’t come back to take care of her mother after all. Maybe she’d come back for Sean. God knows, he’s the only person in this town worth coming back for…

Had she really not called him, written him, sent him a fucking text message in going on eleven years? She had never imagined her life without Sean, who, along with Melissa, had been her best friend, her rock and anchor for most of her life. He’d kept her sane when her mother was drunk, given her a place to hide when her stepfather got out of jail, promised never to leave her when her sister ran away…

And he never did. He could have gone off to a big college. His grades were good enough for a bigger scholarship than the one to the community college that he took to be with me. Paige felt a surge of guilt. And how did I repay him for his loyalty? First I marry a hotshot cheating son-of-a-bitch, then I run away. I left him.

Paige shook off the guilt. If she had it to play over, she wouldn’t change any of the important stuff, nothing that would make what her heart longed for possible, at any rate. Those ten years away had helped her build her career. She’d traveled the world, done all the things she’d always wanted to do. And yet… She looked again at the hardware store. So much had changed but it was still there on the same corner it had always occupied. Was Sean?

Seized by a sudden desire to connect with a human being who didn’t disgust her, she jumped to her feet and started walking, but stopped short when confronted by her own reflection in the plate glass window of the store. I’m not the same kid I was, and I’m sure he’s not either. Do I want to know what this life has made him? She almost turned around to flee but stopped when she realized it was too late. Behind her own reflection was someone else.

****

Sean thumbed through the inventory list, studying the display window with a frown. Wheelbarrow, grass seed, rake, hoe…where the hell was the aerator? Rachel, do you have any idea— He broke off, looking out the window. Holy shit. That looks just like…

He gave her a ride to the bus station in Hendersonville. She looked too pale, and he could tell she’d been crying. Are you going to be okay?

She gave him a brave smile. Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?

"Paige, I—"

"Don’t! Don’t say it. Please. She turned away. I have to do this."

"In the name of God, why? So he’s a cheating bastard. Let him leave, not you."

She looked back at him, her eyes earnest. He’s a cheating bastard, but he’ll be a good father. She bit her lip. And maybe that’s more than I could ever be.

"Because of your mother? Jesus, Paige. Don’t judge yourself by her."

"No. She laced her fingers through his and tried to smile through her tears. New York called, Sean. I’ve got a job with the Associated Press. My dream, you know? Travel the world and write about it."

"What you’ve always wanted. He nodded. Yeah. Then he leaned across and kissed her, giving in to the impulse because it might be his last chance and God she tasted good and he wanted the moment to go on forever. But it didn’t, and when he drew away, he met her eyes without apology. Yeah. I know what that feels like."

You need something, boss? Rachel came around the corner, wiping her weathered brown hands on a rag. Grease streaked her white apron, her gray curls were mussed and she looked supremely content. It would have amused Sean on any other day.

He didn’t answer. The woman outside started to turn away and hesitated. She’d seen him. That can’t be Paige.

Pardon? Rachel followed his gaze.

Nothing. Keep an eye on the store for a second, okay? He handed her the clipboard and sprinted for the door, wrestling it open as the woman took a step away. Hey!

She glanced over her shoulder. Hey.

My God, she looks just like she did in high school. He folded his arms over his chest and glared at her. I know that’s not you, Paige Cox. For one thing, you wouldn’t be running away from me. For another, you swore to me when you left here the last time, you weren’t ever coming back.

A red truck passed between them, the draft of its passing flipping her blonde curls over her shoulder. I guess it’s not me, then. Her lips curled in a little smile and he realized he’d been wrong. The years hadn’t touched her much, but her smile was sadder, less hopeful. Like the world had taken her dreams, twisted them and handed them back to her to mourn their mangled form.

The thought made his heart ache for her. After all she’d given up or failed at, why couldn’t she at least live her dream? He cleared his throat and called out