Destiny Lingers (27 page)

Chapter
Thirty-Four

I
am awakened by the silence. I step out of the bathtub in which I shamelessly sought safety and comfort last night and go peek out the door. The rain has subsided, but the sky is still gray. The ocean has receded now, leaving scattered debris behind. I am left here all alone and stranded, with no telephone, no electricity, no radio—no way to communicate or call for help.

The house is already full of the damp smell of molding ocean water. I cannot escape, as the beach house steps have been totally ripped from the porch and washed away, leaving me stranded in a house on stilts. Tranquility sits here above the ruins and destruction, like a battered matchbox on toothpick legs.

I am so overwhelmed and hungry, tired, alone, and afraid. I’m overcome by heaving sobs again. I know that as calm as it looks right now, the hurricane is anything but over. After hours of enduring the violent storm, this is only its eye, and in just a short time, I will have to endure the back end of Big Bad Belinda’s raging vengeance. How can I survive the tempest again? As far as I can see, there is not another soul around—no one to rescue me, no one to call for help. I don’t know what to do.

I have been waiting and worrying and wringing my hands for hours, mostly watching the clock and the skies and dreaming of something to eat. I am totally helpless and wonder if I might not also be a bit crazy for having been so defiant with everyone who practically begged me to evacuate.

“
We do live by our decisions, don’t we?”
I can hear Mother scolding.

But no matter how crazy it was, no matter how life-threatening, I know I stood by my conviction by standing by my Tranquility. But things will be all but tranquil in just a few hours.

Suddenly, the faint puttering of an engine out at sea captures my attention. Is it a rescue boat—or maybe pirates or thieves coming to pillage the island, maybe take advantage of a woman alone? I look out over the vastness of the blue ocean to spot a single little boat tugging its way across the waters. It looks so diminutive on the big, wide ocean.

This could be my only chance.

“Oh, my God!
Help
!” I yell, leaning out of the screened porch door. I wave wildly. “
Hello! Help!”
I race into the house and grab a white beach towel. I run back to the door and start waving the towel madly. Please, somebody see me. See this frantic sign of life.

The little boat keeps chugging my way. As the vessel moves closer, a man steps out of the captain’s quarters and waves both of his arms over his head. My heart skips a beat. I have never been so happy to see another human being. I remember Aunt Joy’s binoculars and grab them from the hall closet. I focus on my rescue vehicle, which is picking up speed. And to my surprise, painted on the side of the boat, I see
On Assignment
. I cannot believe my tear-filled eyes.

“Chase!” I scream, waving my arms wildly. “Chase! Chase!”

The sweet little boat creeps closer and closer. I see the golden hair of my Adonis standing there at the helm. He takes off his shirt and waves it madly toward the shore. I pray he will take us out of here to safety, as the sky is already beginning to spatter more rain, turning back into a dark and angry gray.

Chase pulls the boat as close to shore as he can, then jumps out and wades waist-deep to the beach, muscles rippling as he trudges through the waves. I am so happy to see him that I could burst. He runs across the beach to the house—to me.

“Destiny, are you okay?” His voice cracks as he shouts up to me. He is out of breath. He looks even more worried than before.

“I was scared to death, but I’m okay now that you’re here. Oh, Chase, thank God you’re here.”

“Okay, Dee. Get me a rope or something, so I can climb up to the house. We need to secure those boards while we have this break in the storm. We don’t have much time.”

“Shouldn’t we leave?” I ask.

“I don’t think we have time, Dee. We’d probably get caught in the storm, trying to get the boat around the island. As bad as it is—and I know it’s scary—it’s better to be on land than out to sea. The storm is already picking up.”

I doubt I can find a rope anywhere, so I grab a bed sheet and tie it to one of the boards left behind when the ocean took the staircase. Chase hoists himself up to the porch, his big arms bulging. I finally feel safe.

As Chase climbs upon the porch, I drop to my knees and wrap my hands around his face. I desperately want to look into his eyes, to know he is really here and that God surely heard my prayers. I notice one of his eyes is swollen and bruised.

“What happened to you?” I ask.

“Oh, it’s a long story,” he replies as he stands looking out over the stormy sea. He then offers me his hand, and I stand alongside him. We grab each other and kiss deeply and eagerly. I’m not sure if the salty taste is from our tears or the sea, but I drink him up, every drop.

I gently run my fingers over Chase’s bruised eye. I stand on my tiptoes and kiss it. I kiss his strong jawline. I kiss down the side of his neck, hoping to soothe my hurting hero. Chase suddenly breaks away.

“Let’s get those boards checked,” he orders. “Storm’s blowing in.”

Chase and I go around, checking the boards, rehammering the nails that have come loose in the monster storm’s unrelenting grip, as the wind and rain begin to pick up again.

“What are we going to do, Chase?” I ask. “Can’t we leave by land?”

Chase shakes his head. “The bridge has been destroyed. Too many live electrical wires down, plus a lot of dangerous debris flying through the air like torpedoes. There are poisonous snakes and other vermin roaming around on ground out there. No, it’s way too dangerous to go by land right now. They’ll have to bulldoze us outta here by the end of this storm.”

“Well, we could go
On
Assignment
,” I reason.

“And get shipwrecked at sea? No. We’ll just have to ride it out, sweetie. At least, this time, you won’t be alone. I’ll be right here with you till it’s all over. We’re going to be just fine.”

Chase reaches out, pulls me closer to him, and then wraps his strong arms around me as I nestle down deep into the hollow of his chest, embraced inside his deep hug. He smells like the sea.

“Let’s get back inside now,” Chase says as he kisses the top of my head. “We’ve still got a few more hours left of this madness, good God willing.

“You think it’ll be worse than the first half?” I’m sure Chase detects the fear in my voice.

“That’s up to Mother Nature,” Chase replies.

We go inside, double-checking the windows and securing the doors. It’s as if we’re in the middle of a horror story, where there’s a wild, invisible monster out there chasing us, and we are frantically trying to batten down the hatches before her second round of attacks. My biggest fear is that when that mighty monster moves ashore, she might take my Tranquility, my Chase, and my life in her deathly path—everything I finally have, everything I have always treasured. What if those stilts don’t hold up this time around? What if we collapse into the churning sea?

I try to snap out of it. “I’m going to run the hot water and maybe make some tea. It might help soothe our nerves. I can’t believe we have to go through the same storm again.”

“Yep, same storm, except the wind will shift to blow in the opposite direction.”

“Dear Jesus,” I say and head to the kitchen. Chase follows. The water comes out of the faucet in spurts, spewing and sputtering. Finally, it flows. I wait as the water gets only slightly warm. I take two mugs and fill them up, dropping in tea bags that barely steep. I probably won’t even taste it anyway.

Chase is grateful for his lukewarm tea. We stand in the kitchen, looking in silence out the back window that overlooks the sound, waiting for the onslaught of the next stage of Hurricane Belinda.

Chase has an intense look on his face. He seems far away. I wonder if it’s that black eye.

“You gonna tell me how you got that shiner?” I finally ask. “Were you out there rescuing somebody and got hurt?”

“Pshaw! Funny you should say that,” Chase says with a peculiar look on his face. He walks out of the kitchen. Curious, I follow him into the living room where we both take a seat on the couch and quietly sip our lukewarm tea.

“You want to talk about it?” I finally ask.

“Well …” Chase hesitates, as if he’s figuring out how to say whatever it is he has to say. “A funny thing happened when I left you yesterday afternoon.” He lets out a long sigh and slaps his knee. “The department got an anonymous call about an abandoned car hidden way back out in the marshes.” Chase exaggerates the distance with both arms. “My partner and I were working late on emergency hurricane duty, so we checked it out. We located the vehicle and saw that the windows were all fogged up. The car was rocking back and forth and we heard moanin’ and groanin’ goin’ on inside. We figured it was a couple of frisky teenagers exploring their sexual energy during the storm.” Chase hesitates.

“Okay, go on,” I encourage him, wondering where he’s headed with this story.

“Well, we got up closer to the car, and we saw the girl’s legs come flying up in the air, and the guy just pounding away on her. And you know what’s funny? Get this—he’s still in full regalia, a complete military uniform. So we figure the guy’s just trying to get laid before he has to hightail it back to the Fort Bragg military base. Still, we gotta get ’em outta there, because there’s a hurricane coming. So, I knock on the car window with my badge. The cadet jumps up, all startled and surprised, you know?” Chase chuckles and looks down at the floor. He shakes his head as he takes a long sip of his now-cold tea. Finally, he looks at me with a squinted black eye. “But then, when the guy turns around, there’s Missy lying right there under him, spread-eagled for all the world to see—lying there as my spreadsheet of evidence.” Chase spreads his arms wide in description. “I knew she was up to something.”

“Whoa!” I am shocked, not surprised, yet still sad that Chase had to find out the horrid truth in such a graphic way.

“Well, dumb me—I’m standing there thinking the soldier’s gotta be raping her. So I go after him, and he starts punching me. I swear, it never occurred to me that … that he was willing to fight a
cop
for her. This dude is claiming all the while that he loves her. I tussle with him a bit before my partner pulls me off the guy. Even he said it wasn’t worth it. So, that’s the story. That’s how I got the black eye.”

“Jeez! What about Missy?”

“What about her?” Chase snaps. “She couldn’t even look me in my swollen black eye!” Chase shakes his head and wipes his lip as if he had dirt on it. I can only imagine what that scene was like. Chase now sits here in the middle of another disaster, hurt, deceived, and angry. I know how he feels.

“Oh man, Chase, I’m so sorry that you had to find out that way.”

“I swear, I always knew in my heart that Missy might not be the one. I always felt something was missing. She always seemed distracted and distant. No wonder I could never get close to her.”

“I know, Chase,” I say soothingly. “I know.”

“I think that girl just likes men in uniform or something,” Chase jokes.

We share an uncomfortable but welcome chuckle.

I reach over and touch Chase’s hand. “Well, the good news is you weren’t in any deeper than you needed to be. You found out the truth before you went too far. You get a second chance—a get-out-of-jail-free card, my friend.”

Chase takes my hands and pulls me closer to him. “Everything’s going to be all right, Destiny. You know that, don’t you?” Chase looks deeply in my eyes. “Do you believe that, Destiny?”

“Yes … yes, I do now, Chase,” I admit.

“Call it divine intervention or divine planning or whatever. I know it might not look like it now, but God is working everything out for us, Dee. It’s our chance now, and I know He’s not going to let anything get in our way this time. Nothing is going to happen to us in this storm. We are not going to die. We’ve got too much living, too much rebuilding, and too much loving to do.”

Chase plants a deep sweet kiss on lips that have been craving his touch for years. We kiss so hard, for a minute I forget we are trapped in the eye of a life-threatening storm.

The wind begins to roar as the storm rages once again. Chase pulls me closer. He stares into my eyes. I can feel his breath on my face as he draws his mouth closer to mine. He kisses me—gently, lovingly, softly. “It’s going to be okay, Destiny,” he coos. My lips part to find his. We bring our mouths together closer and closer until the frenzied dance between our searching tongues begins—dancing in the freedom of finally expressing our true love, plunging in with passion. There is no way we could stop the floodgates from lifting now. We have waited too long. We have fought too hard for this love.

“I love you,” Chase whispers as he kisses me all over my face and my eyelids, nibbling on my ears and neck, and running his fingers through my hair. “I have loved you all of my life.”

“And I love you,” I whisper between his kisses, surrendering to his passionate touches, with his strong fingers entwined in mine. “Forever.”