Posts tagged “past”

Strangers of the Past: Chapter XIV

Posted on 08/12/2012

toucanJonathan steeled himself from pulling the woman into his arms. Her eyes, her pursed lips, those stubborn tendrils of thick dark hair framing her heart-shaped face, was all he could think about since the first time they’d met on the island.

She hadn’t changed much, except for the slight lines around her eyes and the corner of her mouth. Of course her voice seemed deeper and huskier, causing his blood warm at the memory of her voice against his ears from long ago. How he’d missed hearing her voice and the soft touch of her fingers trailing along his arms and face, missed the twinkle in her eyes as she gazed up at him. Now she did everything in her power to evade his gaze, to stand close to her. In fact, she seemed more comfortable talking to Marcus and even Hapta than him.

Swallowing the hardened lump forming in his throat, Jonathan reluctantly removed his gaze from hers and met Marcus’ sympathetic eyes. He held back a sigh when the man raised both brows in silent pity. All he could do for now was just to wait, even if his whole body and heart strained to be near her.

A clearing of throat from Ameya brought back the men’s gazes on hers and Jonathan solemnly noticed that she trained her eyes on Hapta. “Since these two won’t budge, where would you like to go?”

Hapta shrugged his shoulders, shoving his hands into his pockets. “It doesn’t matter to me…” He hesitated when the woman narrowed her eyes at him and laughed, lifting both hands in mock surrender. “You’re the tour guide. Why don’t you tell us where to go?”

She eyed him surreptitiously before dragging her gaze back to Marcus.  “I see you want me to work hard for my money, hmm?”

Marcus offered her a lazy smile. “Hey, the money is yours… Whether you want to show us the local scene, a dead-end road or a dumpster.”

Jonathan  glanced warily at his brother-in-law from the corner of his eye, pushing back the ill feeling rising within at the ease their conversation flowed. He tamped a sigh and waited in silence.

Ameya rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Fine. Let’s go.” She spun on her heels and stomped to the driver’s side of the van.

“Where are we going?”

“Babonneau!” she threw over her shoulder, opening the car door before climbing in.

Marcus chuckled heartily and patted Jonathan’s shoulder, beaming with pride. “She’s exactly the same…”

Hapta clucked his tongue incredulously. “No wonder they’re twins,” he said to Marcus as they walked slowly to the tourist van. “She and your wife are both sassy.”

Jonathan couldn’t even crack a smile as Marcus cheerily swung open the passenger door. Then as Marcus started to climb into the van, he quickly grabbed the man’s arm to stop him.

Ameya paused from adjusting her rearview mirror, noticing the three men still standing outside the van. She raised a brow. “Problem, gentlemen?”

Marcus glanced over his shoulder at Jonathan whose brow was furrowed. “Uh…”

She looked to the empty seat beside her and smirked. “One of you can sit in front, if you need room…” Ameya caught herself wondering just how tall the quiet man was with his firm long legs. Feeling her cheeks warm, she quickly shifted in her seat and returned to fixing her slanted mirror. “Hurry,” she groused in annoyance at herself. “I don’t have all day.”

Hapta frowned at both men still hesitating to enter the tour van. “What’s wrong?” he whispered fiercely at Jonathan whose jaw was visibly taut.

Marcus sighed and turned to Hapta. “Do you mind sitting in front?”

Ameya’s fingers stilled as she heard the exchange of whispers from the men and glanced up at the rearview mirror as the men scooted into the car. She watched the lowered head of the quiet man as he shifted into his seat, folding his legs uncomfortably in the seat behind her. She clenched her jaw, feeling strangely slighted that he’d chosen to sit behind. “Comfortable back there?” she casually asked, already turning the ignition on.

“Hmm,” Marcus grunted from the back and managed a smile when Ameya’s gaze swept the mirror. He nodded for good measure. “We’re ready whenever you are, Ms. Ameya.”

“Yup, so much room here,” Hapta stretched his scrawny legs in front of him.

Ameya smirked before she put the car in reverse and turned her head to glance behind her. Cheeks warmed instantly as her gaze fell on the silent man staring back at her, his solemn grayish eyes steady on her face. She wrenched her eyes over his shoulder to the back window and pressed the gas pedal.

“Whoa!” Hapta exclaimed as the car jerked backward.

“Sorry…” Ameya mumbled as she pulled the car out of the parking spot. Without meeting the man’s eyes again, she turned back to the front and switched gears.

Marcus and Jonathan exchanged glances and Marcus managed a smile at his brother-in-law before facing the front again. “So Ameya, can I ask you a question?”

“Hmm…” Ameya said distractedly as she merged onto the main road.

“How long have you lived in St. Lucia?”

Ameya shrugged her shoulders. “Eight years or so, but trust me, I know this island like the back of my hand.” She signaled to switch lanes, noticing a queue of cars on the middle lane. “You made the right decision coming to St. Lucia.”

“I’m sure we did,” Marcus replied softly.

Jonathan swallowed hard and pulled his gaze from staring at Ameya’s profile, his heart twisting in agony that just more than the back of a driver’s seat was a barrier between him and his wife. Her casual acknowledgment of him and her evading eyes shook his resolve that he’d made the right decision to find her.

Rising fears gripped him as he sat in the backseat of Ameya’s sputtering van, wondering if she would ever look at him the way she’d once before, so many times in their years of marriage. Would he ever hold her again, breathe in her alluring scent and feel her warm lips caress his own?

“Jonathan…” Marcus muttered beside him, a firm jab poking his side jarred him from his daydream.

He quickly jerked his head from the window to see Marcus looking at him with concern, Ameya glancing at him from her rearview mirror and Hapta staring at him with bemusement on his ruddy face.

“Pardon…?” Jonathan finally spoke, his voice wavering. The disapproving furrow of her brow made his blood turn cold, as he realized he’d managed to upset the very person he’d never wanted to offend in all his life.

<<Part 13 || Part 15>>

Categories: Strangers of the Past

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Strangers of the Past: Chapter XIII

Posted on 14/11/2012

“He did what?!” Hapta hollered from the bathroom and stuck a head out of the door to gape incredulously at Marcus perched on the twin bed near the door. Then he glanced over at Jonathan who stood near the window, staring out listlessly. “Tell me he’s joking…”

“It’s true,” Marcus replied, a wide smile crossing his lips as he folded his arms across his burly chest. “Hannah and I dated when we were in college.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It was such a long time ago though. Long before she and John met.”

“Still!” Hapta clucked his tongue. “I wouldn’t stand for my wife being best friends with another man besides me.”

Marcus rolled his eyes. “Calm down, it’s not like that.” He glanced over at Jonathan’s back turned to them. “It was strange today…” he mused aloud.

“What was?” Hapta asked, curiously staring from Marcus to Jonathan and back to Marcus.

“Hannah. The way she talked with us, like she was her old self…” The corner of his mouth curled up.

Jonathan clenched his jaw, not moving from the window, not saying a word.

“Was that why you laughed like that earlier?”

“She still has her sharp tongue.” Marcus sighed at Jonathan’s silence and turned back to Hapta. “We need to be careful. She is already suspicious of us.”

Hapta nodded. “She seems very observant.”

“She is,” Marcus agreed, staring at Jonathan’s stiff shoulders. “She’s always been that way…”

Jonathan suddenly turned around and started for the door, without a word to the other men.

Hapta frowned after him as the man closed the door behind him. “What’s his problem?”

Marcus sighed and glanced down at his hands. He’d seen the hurt look in Jonathan’s eyes when Hannah reeled away from him, her gaze evasive as if he would harm her. It was obvious that Jonathan felt betrayed by the events of the day. But what could they do about it now?

He wanted to scream, to throw something, to punch Marcus in the face. Anything to release the pent-up frustration in his heart. Hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, Jonathan strolled without a plan down the sidewalk that rounded the hotel, feeling the warm breeze lift his un-tucked shirttails.

The image of Hannah staring up defiantly at Marcus, as if she remembered him, stirred his heart, especially when he compared it to the blank look she gave him. His brow furrowed deeply.

What if her heart remembered Marcus and not him? He clenched his fists in his pockets and stepped away from the sidewalk, strolling away from the hotel.

—

Bright-yellow birds chirped lazily above the wooden terrace as she stepped out onto the porch. Gazing at the wide expanse of cerulean-blue sea and equally blue skies, she took in a deep breath. Her lips curled in appreciation at the comforting fragrance of salt mixed with sweet-smelling orchids draped over the weathered wooden beams above the porch steps. Wiggling her feet against the grains of sand, she walked to the landing of the wooden steps and braced a hand on the pole supporting the roof.

Just then, a set of warm arms curled about her waist and she felt her heart skip a beat and then another when these arms tugged her gently toward an even warmer, firm body. She felt her eyes close as the warmth from this unseen person exuded hers, the warm sea breeze caressing her cheeks. The arms pulled her even closer and she heard herself release a sigh of contentment, feeling more secure than she’d ever felt before. Without words, she knew that she was home. Glancing down, she smiled gently at the person’s tanned fingers cradling her swollen belly and she cupped her smaller, darker hands around his own, snuggling deeper into his embrace.

Ameya snapped her eyes open to stare at the darkened ceiling above her. Lips parted, she stared helplessly as warm tears trickled down her face at the strange dream. This wasn’t the first time either. Three times this week, it was the same scene of someone, maybe her, standing on a porch. Staring out into the ocean as if waiting for whoever it was to join her on the porch and wrap his comforting arms around her. Ameya wordlessly placed a hand over her flat stomach. She’d been pregnant in that dream, if indeed it was her, and whoever it was had to be the father of her child.

Suddenly compelled with an urging desire to gaze upon her Tomas, Ameya pushed herself off the bed and trudged out of the room to Tomas. She paused at the door, staring into the dimly-lit room where her son snuggled in his blanket and scruffy teddy bear.

Swallowing the hardened lump in her throat, Ameya stepped quietly into the room and walked over to Tomas’ bed. Her heart skipped a beat at the innocent face of her son, his thumb stuck in his mouth. Lowering herself to perch on the side of his bed, Ameya slowly reached up to smooth back his soft, curly hair. The image of those strong tanned fingers wrapped around her swollen belly crossed her mind and Ameya paused from stroking her boy’s face.

Her brow furrowed deeply as she stared at her son’s lighter skin, thinking about his striking gray eyes and pert nose. He looked nothing like her, except his pointed chin and heart-shaped face. But his hair, his eyes, his mouth, they resembled none of hers.

For the third time that week, Ameya regretted waking up before she could see the faceless man in her dream. With a sigh, she gently shifted Tomas’ little body and slid beside him, wrapping her arms about her son before she too drifted off to sleep.

—

Jonathan was a ball of nerves the next day. He kept strolling back and forth on the balcony, pausing to stare out onto the street for the familiar Sunrise Tours van. His heart skipped a few beats and he shook his head incredulously. Even now, he felt like a foolish young man meeting Hannah for the first time.

Marcus smirked from inside the room, watching his brother-in-law pace back and forth. Hapta strolled past, pausing to stare at the balcony with a smirk of his own. “You’d think he’s getting ready for a blind date or something…” he shook his head and walked back to the bathroom.

“In a way, I guess he is,” Marcus replied. He’d waited all night for Jonathan to return to the hotel room, not saying a word as the solemn man trudged quietly to his side of the bed to sleep. He’d stayed up a little longer, to say a prayer for both Jonathan and Hannah. That just as they’d met by chance almost ten years ago and had grown to love each other, that there would be a miracle this time around to restore their marriage.

“She’s here,” Jonathan said quietly over Marcus’ thoughts and stepped into the room. Without a glance in his brother-in-law’s direction, he started for the door.

Marcus stood quickly and grabbed Jonathan’s arm. “Hey…”

Jonathan merely stared a head, his jaw clenched tightly.

Marcus released a sigh. “We’ll get her back. I promise you.”

Jonathan swallowed hard visibly. “I hope you’re right…” he said in a dead-pan voice and gently shook off Marcus’ hand before strolling toward the door.

Marcus watched helplessly as Jonathan stepped out of the room, leaving the door ajar. “Hapta, let’s go,” he called over his shoulder before following Jonathan out to meet Hannah.

Ameya dusted off her pants as she stood in front of the tour van. Telling herself to forget about the dream, she stared ahead to the entrance of the hotel. It wasn’t long before she noticed two of the three men strolling to the parking lot and she watched openly at the stark difference between the two.

One was tanned in complexion, tall and lanky, his wavy light hair swaying in the warm breeze. The other, was more burly and a head shorter than his friend, his skin as dark as hers. The way the brothers-in-law walked in companionable silence hinted at their closeness and Ameya found herself wondering about their relations.

Straightening her shoulders as they approached her, Ameya smirked once they stood in front of her van. “You’re on time…” She glanced over the shorter one’s shoulder, watching the redhead scurry to catch up with them. “Well, at least two of you are.”

“Sorry!” Hapta said breathlessly as he stumbled to stand beside his friends. “You’re earlier than I expected.”

Swallowing a grunt, Ameya turned back to the other men, gaze skimming quickly over the taller one to the burlier man. “Are you sure you want to do this?

Marcus smiled kindly. “Of course. Are you?”

Ameya scoffed. “I’d be a fool to pass up this opportunity,” she played back Warren’s words of wisdom. Suddenly she felt her cheeks warm and frowned lightly, noticing that the taller one stood quietly, staring openly at her. Clenching her jaw, she cleared her throat and trained her gaze on the man named Marcus. “Any suggestions on where you’d like to go first?”

He shook his head. “Not at all… Maybe John has some ideas where he’d like to go?” He gestured at his quiet friend.

Ameya found herself turning her head against her will to look up at the man named Jonathan, and immediately regretted it. She bit back a soft gasp at his gray-eyed stare focused on her face. This was going to be a long day.

<<Chapter 12 || Chapter 14>>

Categories: Strangers of the Past

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