Set In Stone: Set In Stone, #1

By Keith Gilbert

Jamie was in love. So was Kalim. But the timing was bad. They were about to make love in the lightning storm...For decades Kalim hadn’t gone a week without thinking about that moment, that stormy night…when she had jumped off of him and ran, to find peace, sanity, to claw her way back from self loathing, a childhood of broken trust that led to the little cuts, the blessed little cuts. It had been too much pleasure for Jamie Dean, too much happiness in that moment, and she hadn’t thought she’d deserved a scrap of it.

Kalim, divorced, single dad, writer, substitute teacher by day, social vigilante and pirate as often as he could, had lived half his life with women who weren't Jamie. He’d married into lunacy, addiction, and narcissism, and besides his beautiful son Benjamin, 8, wonders just what he was thinking and feeling to have lived as a doormat to crazy for so long.

Jamie, a single mom of daughter Riley, 13, and son Brody, 21, introverted bookstore owner and computer hacker for hire, veteran, embroiled in her own divorce, learns that her high school crush and love is single. She works up the nerve to contact him online, and their worlds connect and swirl.

Hundreds of miles vanish in lush fantasy spun out in the long nights as they count the days until they can be together...for just a little while.

While he waits, he goes after a corrupt court clerk, deciding to clean up his small adopted prison/town by whatever means necessary. While she waits she confronts still the old demons, her past, her ex, and plays some tennis with the dye-job young daughter of a local gangster, and maybe she will steal a yacht. Both Jamie and Kalim find strange deposits in their checking accounts...

Set In Stone is the honeymoon-first of three sensual books in a series that ratchets up in action and intrigue as you turn the pages, as Kalim and Jamie miss what they never had, counting heartbeats, as they ditch the establishment’s status quo, to make things better, to make a life, even if they must fight for every inch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keith Gilbert
• Release date: Jan 4, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386568308

Keith Gilbert

The only thing I can imagine of interest to any about me are the books I have written. I was weaned on science fiction and fantasy; because of that I knew one day I would write some science fiction. I just had to, as if those authors had cast a spell on me. As far as the romances go, I fell in love with the woman of my dreams in twelfth grade and didn’t get to be with her. Since then I have always been in love with Love. The only better feeling than being in love is being a dad. When you meet my characters they are me as I have come to understand others, as I have been able to place myself in the skins of them. Marianas Tet and Borz Alusha were so much fun to write. I can’t wait for you to meet them! When you meet Jamie know that I have known a Jamie and when you meet Pepper and Frank and Kalim know that I have known (or at experienced) Peppers and Franks and Kalims. And then there is Baptista Aurelius Octavia Lamenta! My antagonists are the little bits of hell I have known and when you meet my Evils know that this is how I imagine evil to be. If you have questions, I am happy to answer over at www.facebook.com/keithaarongilbert  

Book preview

1

JAMIE DEAN!

Kalim saw her on the swing and in that instant Dave and Jason disappeared. Gavin and Katie and Ann-Marie fell away; the peeking moon, the sky, the clouds, the sand, the heavy air of balmy June, and the ground under his feet- vanished.

Jamie Dean! Kalim tried not to stare, tried not to shake like a puppy, but he was not master of his own eyes. She wore tight jeans, her thighs pressed close together while she sat in the swing, her legs out in front of her, her toes pointed, her Keds black. He felt his heart thump in his chest as his eyes followed her shins past her knees up her thighs... and there he had to stop himself from woozing as the blood rushed...everywhere.

She wore a thin navy hoodie zipped up to near the neck...

And her face...

Kalim had not seen her in a good few years, since the last day of school four years ago, but she had gotten impossibly more beautiful, her hair was chestnut, feathered, long in the front in an attempt to hide from Kalim the sun itself.

Hi Kalim, she mouthed her hello shyly and wiggled her fingers from around the chain of the swing.

People were talking, a few at the same time, but Kalim heard none of it. Jamie leaned back to get some momentum and her rich sad brown eyes and her thick lower lip framed by her gorgeous fresh sweet face froze Kalim, froze his tongue in his mouth, froze his free-falling feet to the ground.

Hi Jamie, he managed, feebly, but with a smile reserved ever for only Jamie.

He had been too shy in high school to say a word about his feelings for her. They had met in the stairwell, Kalim smoking, Jamie in tight jeans and a zipped hoodie, then, too... And they had gym together, and laughed and played ping pong... Kalim had liked walking behind Jamie, because in those jeans-

Kalim!

Kalim!

Fucking Kalim! Dave shouted. Hit this thing! And Dave passed Kalim a thick joint. Kalim took two quick hits and tried to pass it back.

...and some fucking booze, some beer, something, before we hit the show. I can’t be paying cash at the bar, Gavin was saying.

No, man, Dave said, pushing Kalim’s hand back to his mouth. Hit that fucking thing!

Kalim didn’t care about the dope, didn’t care about David, didn’t care about booze or beer or bands.

His heart hammered in his chest. As she picked up momentum and her hair started to fly he felt himself become aroused and desire swirled up his spine from the very bottom of his being. The dope spun him, but Jamie sent him flying.

It’s gonna rain, said Jason. C’mon, let’s get out of here. We can go to Steve’s for a while before we hit the show, drink some beers, get lit up...Let’s bolt.

Kalim looked at Jamie Dean to see what she was going to do, because he knew the second he saw her that whatever she was doing he was doing. From the second he saw her.

Ann-Marie and Katie and Jamie had come in the same car. Dave and Jason had come in Dave’s car. Kalim had driven himself. Everyone started to move. Jamie Dean stopped swinging and looked at Kalim. Kalim looked at Jamie. Something...

Kalim said to all, I think I am going to pass on the band tonight, guys. Yeah, I just got back from the hospital...All the sick people sucked the party out of me. He snubbed out the roach and put it in his pocket.

Jamie Dean said, hopping off the swing, moving closer to Kalim. I think I am going to pass, too. You get me home, Kalim? And she looked right into Kalim’s eyes and Kalim knew he was lost forever.

He tried to play it cool. Sure, Jamie. I will get you home. He reached into his shirt pocket and took out his Newports, offered one to Jamie, who nodded, tapped out two, lit both and handed one to her.

Catch you guys next time!

And in the span of long drag, Jamie and Kalim were alone, listening to thunder rumble in the distance, listening to the surf crash on the shore, feeling the breeze pick up. They sensed, even with all that sound, a hush between them, not awkward, not quite comfortable, yet on the strange edge of pleasure.

Why were you at the hospital? Jamie asked.

Kalim looked at Jamie. In her eyes he had forgotten his grandfather on his deathbed. My grandfather is not doing well. Old heart...

I’m sorry. Jamie said it and he believed that she was, that she really was.

Would you like me to take you home now? Kalim asked, the gentleman in him on the reigns, the crush-sick fool he felt himself to be hidden behind a long mentholated pull on his Newport, his tight Levis, the silence of his stopped heart. He held his breath.

She shrugged and looked into Kalim’s eyes, her hands in the pockets of her hoodie, tugging. The insinuation of her breasts under the taut sweatshirt, her blue jeans...

Kalim felt his head spin and his heart whorl, Want to go for a walk on the beach?

The eye contact caught fire to Kalim’s soul. It was not as if Kalim had never wanted or been with a girl. There had been a few. But none of them were Jamie Dean. He had no clue why Jamie did what she did to him, how she got into his blood, why it was her and not ever another... He looked at her and knew he was out of his senses, wanted to see more, wanted to see all, wanted to kiss her beautiful lower lip that instant. He imagined it in his mind, the leaning in, his hand moving to the small of her back, drawing her to him.

All that in the split second of their eye contact...

Kalim extended his arm towards the park gate, mostly to be a gentleman, but partly because he wanted to delight in Jamie’s body from behind, to see the way her jeans caught her beautiful lines. She moved in the direction of his arm and suddenly was under a bright street light, and Kalim saw what he had so swirled to see. He felt himself stir, again, in his jeans, in his soul, and followed.

The two passed under the last street light and turned onto Pacific Beach. The clouds covered all, now, and the two knew rain was eminent. Jamie looked up at the sky and the last light from the last street lamp caught the line of her jaw and the side of her neck and Kalim had to make himself breath to quell his desire, to dismiss the idea that he was the kind of guy to grab a woman and spin her around and kiss her hard on the mouth; but he saw it as clear as day, could sense her breath on his neck.

The top layer of sand was dark and damp as the two walked the soft sand toward shore. Kalim wanted to say something, to think something other than wanting have sex with her right there in the warm mist around them.

It has been a long time, Jamie, he said. What have you been up to? Not just ping pong, right?

Jamie giggled and Kalim thrilled at the sound of her laughter, as both remembered their fantastic ping pong bouts in a year of gym class together. Other students would gather round to watch them play. Kalim could never figure out why he hadn’t asked her out, why she was never his girl friend, why he had not ever kissed her.

That was my favorite class, she chuckled and met his eyes. It was some of the only fun I got to have in school, or even... Jamie trailed off and averted her gaze. Kalim could tell she had more to say, wanted to say it, but refrained from some internal stop.

So what are you doing, now? Kalim was interested, so very interested, smoothing over, wanting her to talk, to say anything.

I just graduated with a Comp Sci degree from Hofstra.

Really! I didn’t know ping pong skills could get you in there!

Jamie laughed at his joke and Kalim’s heart bloomed.

"Yeah, War Games piqued me...computers... I get them..." She said it as if computers might just be the only thing she understood in the world. The beach sloped up from the back, and suddenly from the top of a man-made dune the Atlantic Ocean tumbled and crested, only the foaming barrels visible before them. The sound was musical backdrop to the conversation. A light misty drizzle began to fall.

How about you, Kalim. What have you been up to?

Kalim heard her question, but was so taken with her beside him, with her attention upon him, with the mist and the sand and the salty sea, with the clean soapy scent of her eighteen inches away... Lightning struck off shore and shone off the ocean. The thunder came on the count of four.

He pointed to the life guard stand. Wanna grab a spot to watch the storm? Maybe we will get lucky and get struck by giant bolt of lightning.

Jamie smiled and shrugged, the gesture pure adorable bliss in Kalim’s eyes. The tide pushed right up to the giant mound upon which the life guard chair stood, jutting out at a backward angle a good 15 feet above everything on the beach.

The two walked slowly, listening to the ocean hiss as the tide slid up and down the sand. Kalim wondered if it were possible that he could kiss Jaime, there, on the life guard chair, in the mist, the storm off shore... His heart was a drum to rival the thunder.

Jamie smiled and ran the last few strides and pressed up the steep mound; her body to Kalim was perfect, even in the lack light, even under the damp sweatshirt, even if every light in the heavens blinked out; for his imagination was a powerful thing... Thoughts of her round breasts in his palms and her pink nipples between his fingers flashed like the distant lightning in his head.

She turned rapidly and as if no one were looking she spun around to face the ocean and smiled and held her head up to the rain with her arms in a V and fell back into the wide orange painted chair. She could smell the fresh paint. She held her chin high to the drizzle and Kalim was lost, for the third or fourth or fifth time in the past half hour, completely lost in the wonder.

Kalim took the mound in long strides, attempting poise upon the mound of slipping sand, not trying to impress, but trying not to draw awkward attention, not wanting to lose a moment, the chance to be with her forever. It was crazy, and he knew it, to travel in his mind down such a path, but he was completely without rational thought, completely caught by his soaring soul and his romantic fancy.

English Literature, he said. I am Litwit. And I edit an underground paper called Kayduke Lives. He said, as he sat down next to her, every nerve in him alive.

The drizzle turned to light rain and the lightning moved closer. Kalim stood up on the chair and held his arms out above his head, reaching toward the sky, wondering if the bolt would strike, following through on his earlier quip, but deciding in that instant that the last thing he wanted while this close to Jamie Dean was to never get his chance...

He thought again to kiss her but covered his high-school girl-shy by sitting and lighting a cigarette in the wind and rain, a worthy skill by any standard, thought he. He sat and as soon as he did the rain picked up, and he looked at Jamie and found that she was looking at him.

I love the rain, she said. And Kalim wondered if Jaimie wanted him to kiss her, if she wanted to kiss him.

That’s good, said Kalim, because we are on the beach in the middle of a rain storm. And the drops got bigger, harder, colder, until suddenly they were soaked through. Too soaked to care about being wet, but soaked enough to make their clothing heavy and uncomfortable. They