A Rocky Path (3 page)

When she came down to dinner, everyone
stared. She was suddenly afraid she had made a big mistake. ‘What
was I thinking?’ she thought.

Then Rebecca smiled and said. “You look
absolutely gorgeous. You have to excuse us, but we were used to
seeing you in t-shirts, so we were surprised at how beautiful you
really are.”

“I second that motion!” Sam said with a
grin.

Jamie just stared at her, then looked away.
What was it with him? Sometimes he was so friendly and
sometimes…well, you just didn’t know how to take him. She was a
little intrigued.

Dinner was wonderful again that evening.
Chicken in wine sauce this time. The conversation was pleasant, the
food was good and Emily was happy to be here. She had never thought
she would be happy again, but now she really was. Jamie continued
to be sullen and contributed very little to the conversation. But
Sam, Sally, and Rebecca were fun and nice and Emily felt like she
had found a new family.

Afterwards, Emily changed into jeans and went
down to the basement to sift through the things that were left in
the house from long ago. Rebecca had told her that she could keep
anything that she found that she liked. There was furniture and a
lot of little trinkets. Then she found something that really caught
her eye. It was a silver ring with entwined hearts. It was a simple
little thing, but for some reason, she really wanted it. It fit her
ring finger on her left hand perfectly. She had taken off her
wedding band before coming to Maine, so this little ring felt good
on her finger after not having anything there for awhile. She was
happy that she had come down here. She looked through a few more
things, but now that she had found the ring, her heart was no
longer in it. So she went back upstairs.

She went up to the sitting room to look for
Rebecca. She found her there, so she showed her the ring.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” asked Emily.

“Well, it is pretty, but it’s not very fancy.
What made you want the little thing?”

Emily frowned. “I don’t know. But it feels
right on my finger. May I keep it?”

“Of course. I told you that you could have
anything in that room.”

“Thanks,” said Emily. “I think I’ll go up to
bed now.”

She fell asleep almost immediately, but she
had a lot of disjointed dreams all through the night and kept
waking up. She didn’t know what had disturbed her so much, since
she had slept so well the night before.

‘Six o’clock is sure going to come early in
the morning,’ she thought to herself.

She finally fell into a dreamless sleep at
about three o’clock.

Chapter Four

The next two weeks passed quickly for Emily.
She was absorbed in her work during the day. At night, she walked
the grounds and sometimes went to the library to read. Dinner was
always a pleasant time, with good company and great food. She felt
like she had come home. This was the place she was supposed to be
and these were the people she loved spending time with. Sam was
always friendly and Jamie was very moody. But neither man was hard
on the eyes!

It was on a Friday evening, after dinner,
that she went down the stone path to the shore and got a little
surprise. There was a man sitting on one of the rocks with a pad in
his hand, drawing. He was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and he
looked unbelievably good in them. She cautiously walked up to
him.

“Hello. I don’t believe we’ve met. My name is
Emily Adams. Are you a friend of the family?”

He looked up at her and she was suddenly
looking into the most beautiful sapphire blue eyes she had ever
seen. His hair was long and mostly straight, and at the moment
disheveled because of the breeze that had started blowing. He was a
mixture of rugged man and sensitive artist, which normally didn’t
mix, but worked well on this guy. She estimated his age to be about
30. He had an air of sadness about him, but he smiled at her, and
all that melancholy seemed to disappear.

“No, I don’t know anyone from here yet. I
just moved into a house a couple of miles down the shore there. I
walked up here because I love this particular spot. This place is
perfect for drawing. It’s peaceful, beautiful and isolated.”

Emily smiled back at him. She couldn’t help
it. “It was isolated until I came along and ruined your solitude.
I’m sorry, but this is where I come a lot in the evenings.”

“Oh, then it is I who has ruined your
solitude. Forgive me. I will walk back to my house and leave you to
your privacy.”

“No, wait! That’s ok. I wouldn’t mind the
company. But you never did tell me your name.”

He hesitated. “My name is Patrick
McCulloch.”

Emily frowned. “McCulloch? Are you related to
the McCullochs who used to own this house?”

“Oh, no, that’s just a coincidence. I knew
some McCullochs used to live here, but that’s a different family.
I’m not from around here. I come from Connecticut.”

His speech held just a bit of an accent, but
she couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t pronounced enough to tell
where it may have originated. Also, it seemed like he sprinkled a
mixture of formal speech in with casual speech. She was
intrigued.

“That sure does seem to be a strange
coincidence. So you’re an artist. Do you paint as well, or just
draw?”

“I do a little bit of everything. I enjoy
drawing the most, I think. I haven’t done any paintings in
awhile.”

“Do you sell your art or is it a hobby?”

“It’s more than a hobby. It’s almost an
obsession. But, no, I don’t sell anything, although I sometimes
give it away. My family is wealthy, so I don’t have to depend on my
art for a living. So I can do whatever I please. So tell me about
you, Emily Adams.”

She told him about what had happened to her
husband and about her move to Maine, and about how much she loved
the people she was living with now. They talked about how much they
both enjoyed living in this area.

Suddenly his face became pale. “That
ring…where did you get it?”

She looked down at the little silver ring. “I
found it in some old things that were left in the house by the
McCullochs. Hey, are you alright?”

He seemed to recover, and laughed, although
there didn’t seem to be much amusement in it. “Of course. I don’t
know what came over me. I’m not feeling very well. Maybe I should
just return home.”

“Do you want me to walk with you? You looked
there for a minute like you had seen a ghost.”

“No, of course not, I’m fine. Maybe I’m
coming down with a touch of something. I will just walk on down to
my house and lie down for awhile. It was good meeting you. We will
meet again soon, I am sure of it.”

Then he got up and started across the rocks.
A slight mist had started forming in the air, and soon Patrick was
swallowed up by it and she couldn’t see him anymore. It was odd
that a fog like that had formed so quickly.

She started back up to the house, and met
Jamie as he was coming out.

“I was just trying to find you,” he said. I
was wondering if you wanted to come into town with me to see a
movie.”

“That sounds like fun. Just let me get my
purse and I’ll be ready to go.”

They took Jamie’s car, a red 1968 Camaro. It
was fully restored and ran beautifully.

“I really love this car,” said Emily. “This
is my favorite model of car and favorite year. Did you restore it
yourself?”

“Yep. It was a mess when I bought it.”

“Well, I love it.”

“And you look great riding in it,” he said,
looking at her admiringly.

They went to a movie theater that showed
vintage films and classic cult movies. The Rocky Horror Picture
show was playing that night.

“I can’t believe it,” she laughed. “I haven’t
seen this movie in forever!”

They had fun watching the show and
participating in the interactive part, which was a common thing
among Rocky Horror fans. They threw toast at the screen and said
all the right things at the right parts. They were both laughing as
they left the theater.

“I haven’t had this much fun in years! Thank
you so much for bringing me here,” Emily said.

When they got back to the house, they let
themselves in and Emily started up the stairs to go to bed.

“Wait,” he said.

He walked over to her, brushed the hair back
from her face and kissed her softly.

“I had a great time, Emily. I really enjoy
your company.”

Then he walked off into the family room.
Emily touched her lips where his kiss seemed to still linger. Then
her mind suddenly wandered to the man she had met on the rocks
today. She felt a little guilty then…here she was being kissed by
an attractive man, younger than her, no less, and she was thinking
about someone else. Something was wrong with this picture.

***

She had trouble sleeping that night. She
couldn’t figure out why her mind kept wondering back to Patrick.
She had just met this guy and knew almost nothing about him. She
realized that while they were talking, he had steered the
conversation away from himself and onto her. All she knew was that
he was an artist from Connecticut, that he was wealthy and lived
somewhere down the coast from her. He was extremely handsome and
had a magnetism about him, but didn’t seem to work at it. It was
just there. She had noticed that when she was talking to him,
little butterflies had formed in her stomach. Although she really
liked Jamie and enjoyed his company, her stomach had stayed
butterfly-free with him.

After tossing and turning for an hour, she
finally got up and made herself a cup of hot tea in the kitchen. As
she was sitting down at the small table, Sam walked in.

He grinned at her. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“No, I couldn’t. What about you?”

“Well, I haven’t tried yet. I was out bar
hopping. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. You ought to go with me
sometime.”

Emily shook her head. “I don’t drink. I did
notice that no wine was served at dinner here. There seems to be no
alcohol in the entire house, which seems unusual. What’s the story
with that?”

“Well, I don’t know if I should say anything,
but since you are practically part of the family now…Jamie is an
alcoholic. He’s been sober about a year, so we don’t have anything
in the house to tempt him. So if I want alcohol, I just go out for
it.”

“You shouldn’t drink that stuff anyway,”
Emily said. “It’s not good for you.”

He smiled at her. “To each his own. I know
you’re a health nut. Me, I just go with the flow. I figure I’m
going to die of something anyway.”

“Are you ever serious?”

He laughed. “Me? Rarely. Life is too short to
take it seriously.”

She just shook her head. “What a philosophy.
Anyway, what’s the story with Jamie? Did he get into trouble with
the alcohol?”

Sam did get serious then. “Yes, lots of it.
He was driving drunk one night and hit another car. The driver of
the other car was killed. In lieu of going to jail, he did some
rehab time. That’s why he’s a little bit weird sometimes. He’s
still haunted by what happened. Hey, let’s stop talking about this
depressing stuff. It’s not my thing to be all sad and glum.”

“I’m sure of that. No sad and glum for you.
But, you know, sometimes things in life are really serious, and we
have to take them that way. This thing with Jamie…well, it’s a
really sad thing. I’m glad he’s staying sober. I hope that someday
he’ll be able to forgive himself. Well, I think I’ll go back
upstairs and try to get a little more sleep.”

Chapter Five

The next morning she was so tired that she
was tempted to skip her workout. But she knew that if she did, it
would be easier to skip it again and again, so she dragged herself
out of bed and got into her workout clothes.

When she got down to the basement, Jamie was
there already. He had been lifting weights and had worked up a thin
sheen of sweat on his skin. He was really a good-looking man. She
wondered why she wasn’t more attracted to him. But Patrick…well,
she couldn’t seem to get him out of her thoughts. It didn’t really
make a lot of sense because she had just met him and knew almost
nothing about him. Yet she was drawn to him for some reason. The
thought that she might see him again made her stomach do the
butterfly thing again.

“Hey there!” said Jamie. “You look a little
bit drowsy this morning. Did you stay up late after we got back
last night?”

“No, I couldn’t sleep. I finally had to get
up and make myself a cup of tea. When I got to sleep, it was in the
wee hours of the morning.”

“So what was keeping you awake? Were you
thinking about our date and what a sexy and attractive guy I am?”
he teased.

“You’re starting to sound more like Sam now.
He’s the one that’s always teasing. You’re always so serious.”

“Who me?” he asked innocently. “Well, I
suppose you’re right. I am pretty serious most of the time. But I
have my moments.”

They spent the next hour working out together
and enjoying each other’s company. When they were done, they went
up to breakfast together. Sam was already seated and halfway
through his breakfast.

“Hey guys,” Sam said.

“Hey,” Emily said. “You know, I have been
meaning to ask you a question. What exactly do you do? I mean, you
live here with your wealthy aunt, you’re always up early, but I
have no idea if you work or just play.”

Jamie and Sam exchanged glances. “Should I
tell her?” asked Sam.

“Hey, we are all one big happy family. I say
go for it,” said Jamie.

“Ok, come with me,” said Sam.

He led Emily upstairs to his suite of rooms
with Jamie trailing behind her. When he opened the door, she
noticed that the bedroom was all dark wood and beige walls, just
like a masculine bedroom should be. But in his sitting room there
was a desk with a computer sitting on it. There were a lot of
notebooks, pens and pencils scattered around the room. And on the
bookshelf were several novels by Sam Kelley, a writer who
specialized in trashy detective novels. She had read several of
them and enjoyed the witty, sarcastic style of writing.