Positive/Negativity (4 page)

Late last night being by myself freaked me out. The wind whipped up because the weather was about to change. That’s the thing with old houses, though; you hear every creak and whine. My fears were unwarranted but I was still scared. The house noises caught me off guard. Seeing this guy made me think of how long it had been since I had someone special in my life. I thought I was so self-sufficient, but scary noises made me jumpy. I didn’t have someone because my personal life had just slipped through the cracks. Last night it would have been nice to have someone to call when I was a little scared. I had met a few guys, and it wasn’t for lack of trying, but I just couldn’t find anyone who kept my interest. Dad said I needed someone who wouldn’t let me push him around because I was used to telling my guys what to do. Yeah, that was it. Not! I didn’t have the time. I wasn’t looking, so I wasn’t finding
him
.

Sitting here, staring out…well, this cleared my head. This is where I sat on the beach with Dad, when he had his legs and could walk. I walked down here with Mom too. They always knew where I was. This was our spot on the beach; our personal sandy square of real estate—sort of. It gave me a sense of security to be here, and I loved it.
TT

The sky had a grey overcast, and the chill in the air led me to believe that it would rain. It looked as if it were going to blow in quickly. I started to quicken my pace and run up the beach. I was headed toward the houses so that I could get to the road before the sky split apart. It wasn’t comforting to think of being on a wide beach during a storm.

As I lifted my face to see how close I was to the houses, I saw him; a man on the porch of a beautifully restored beach house. He was a ruggedly handsome man. I had seen him before, but I hadn’t paid close attention. I was too immersed in my own emotions to notice much of my surroundings. I did see that he was on the porch when I walked on the beach this morning. I hadn’t discerned much about him from the fifty feet or so of distance between us.

Now, as I got closer, I realized exactly how handsome he was. It was such a pleasure to see someone who wasn’t only devilishly good looking, but he appeared to be around my age, and I smiled at him. I received a welcoming smile in return.

The space narrowed as I approached his house and he directed his attention toward me. I politely removed my glove and extended my hand. “Hi. I’m Aria.”

Three simple words: “Hi. I’m Aria.” To say that she was beautiful when she blushed would have done her a disservice. “Beautiful” was something that the world and I differed greatly in our definition. My industry defined beauty as extremely thin, very tall, prominent bone structure, and pale skin. Aria was none of those things. I had seen her from a distance, but I was enjoying the view in front of me. She was
my
definition of beauty. She was small boned, about five foot medium, not too plump, but soft, and her skin had been slightly kissed by the sun from her morning walks. Admiring her from afar was fun. Meeting her in person annihilated my heart. Her pure beauty disarmed me. I felt as if my chest had been crushed.

Once she had taken her hand back, she removed her sunglasses. I was immediately entranced. What I found most mesmerizing about her was the contrast between her dark hair and her gorgeous blue eyes. Her eyes had me spellbound. Their color was changing with her emotions in front of me. Upon closer inspection they were actually, blue-gray.

As she introduced herself, she blushed, and they became a bit more of a crystal blue, not the darker blue-gray that I had first observed.

“Declan Sinclair,” I said to introduce myself as I moved to allow her onto the porch. “I’ve seen you on the beach. Do you live around here?” I was jumping right in. No time like the present.

“No, no. I wish. My aunt and uncle own a beach house, and they’ve been gracious enough to let me stay for awhile. You?” Aria replied.

“Yes, this is mine. I haven’t owned it for very long, though.” I wanted to make Aria comfortable enough to spend longer than a few minutes.

“It’s beautiful. I love the porch. You must enjoy sitting here, listening to the ocean, watching the waves…” she said, and she began to look around, taking in the differing views that the porch offered.

“I do. Lately, I have particularly enjoyed the view,” I said, and I couldn’t help but smile at her again. I hoped she understood my meaning. I motioned to her empty cup.

“I see that your cup is empty. I have fresh coffee in the house. Would you like some?” I offered.

Hesitantly, Aria replied, “Sure. A cup won’t hurt. I can wait outside.”

“I promise, I’m harmless” I laughed putting my hands up in a surrendering fashion. “The coffee is right in the kitchen.”

God! The girl was twisting my insides with her sweet smile.

I led her through the living room, across the dining room, and into the kitchen. When we turned to go into the room, I noticed that her hair was a bit damp.

“Can I get a towel for you?” I managed to say, while motioning toward her head.

“No, I don’t want to trouble you. It will dry. I don’t want you to go out of your way…”

“It’s no trouble at all!” I said as I reached around to the laundry room to get a clean towel for her.

As I was handing her the towel, a loud crack of thunder and a flash of lightening ripped the sky.

I was a bit reluctant to be in Declan’s house, but my curiosity to see the inside had won over my common sense. He was trying to be a gentleman, handing me a towel for my soppy hair when the lightning struck.

“Oh my gosh!” I screamed and jumped while Declan was handing me the towel.

I ran right into him. His chest was a solid, muscular wall, and for a moment, his arms came impulsively and reassuringly around me. Gripping his arms proved to be the anchor I needed to keep me standing. The jolt of lightening may have been in the distance, but I felt it internally the moment he touched me. It wasn’t a spark. The mere touch of his hands caused my senses to spike from the heat, like an unexpected fever. It collided with my hibernating libido until everything within me was on a heightened state of alert. A tingling sensation was electrifying me in more ways than one.

I took a step back, noticing that my breathing had become heavy and rapid. I felt as if I’d been burned and I tried to steady myself. His nearness made me lose my equilibrium.

“It’s okay.” He laughed while he held me to steady my footing.

“Sorry. I’m not, usually, such a wuss,” I said as I tried to smile at him while regaining my composure.

I noticed a lot in those brief seconds, while I was in his arms. He had nice tattoos and very muscular biceps. The momentary feeling of security was very nice, especially when I realized that I hadn’t been held like that for awhile.
TTT

“Thank you for the towel,” I said as I leaned my head over to dry my hair.

“How do you take your coffee?”

“Three sugars and some cream to make it light.” At that answer, he looked at me and raised one eyebrow as if my comment was sacrilegious. “Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “I like to think that my coffee is a ‘treat’.”

“I don’t think you can classify this as ‘coffee’ anymore with those additions” he said laughing as he held my cup in front of me.

“It isn’t. It’s dessert, and I treat myself to ‘dessert’ a couple of times every day!” I enthusiastically proclaimed, to which Declan just shook his head in mock dismay.

Declan was a striking man, now that I was seeing him up close. I had noticed him on the porch several times, if I were to be honest with myself. He truly looked ambiguous from the distance I had seen him. He seemed somewhat familiar, but I was uncertain from where. I couldn’t place whether I had met him before. No matter, though, what I saw in front of me was a wonderful combination of refinement and rebel. He had short, dark hair and the perfect amount of stubble on his face. His profile was artistically and divinely cut. His upper lip was firm, and his bottom lip was plump and full. His neck was thick and strong, and I loved how it flowed with a forceful grace into his powerful shoulders. Declan had lots of tattoos, and I almost wished the t-shirt away so that I could discover the ink configurations. He was easy on the eyes, and my eyes needed to rest from crying. Gazing at him was a wicked diversion. When he handed me the coffee cup, I wanted to stare, but I didn’t linger.

I could tell she was looking me over, and I wondered if she recognized me. I hadn’t done any speaking or television assignments; most of my work was magazine layout. I didn’t want to come right out and say “do you know me?” because I was kind of hoping that she didn’t recognize me. My print work was in most magazines, so I thought I would focus her attention on something else.

“Would you like to see the house?” I asked, trying to ease any tension that I may have created.

“That would be great,” she said as she followed me through the dining room. “I love old houses.”

“Of course, you saw the living and dining rooms when you walked through, and this big kitchen.” We turned a corner. “Here’s a small office,” I said.

“Oh!” She sounded delighted. “A little buried treasure in this house, huh? I’ve never seen a house like this with another room for an office on this floor,” she said, as if she had been here before.

“You know this house?” I asked.

“No; not really. Not this house specifically. I purchase, renovate, and sell houses. ‘Flip’ is the common term, and I just happen to love the old beach houses. The house I’m staying in, the one that I mentioned? I told you that it belongs to my aunt and uncle. They’ve had it for years. They rent it out to vacationing families in the summer. I love the architecture in the house, and it’s similar to this one, but they don’t have a room that could be used for an office on the first floor.”

“You flip houses?” I asked. “Really?”

“Don’t act so surprised,” she said, and I detected a bit of flippancy in her voice. I had insulted her.

“No, really, I’m just surprised,” I said. “I love old houses too. I wish that I had more time to work on this one. I think I offended you, and I didn’t mean to.” I was trying to back pedal real fast and regain her favor.

“I do my job quite well, actually,” Aria said. “If you want to hear the whole story, I used to style hair. I loved the work that I did, because I had a specialty. I cut, colored, and did regular hair, but I specifically worked on wigs and hairpieces for cancer patients. I loved doing that. I loved the people that I did the work for, and their families. I just…loved them.” Aria’s eyes clouded over as she paused, and I witnessed them, once again, change color. This time, they turned a dark blue-black as her eyes began to mist a bit with tears. “It was hard to lose people that I cared about. It became very, very difficult, so I decided to make a change.”

I didn’t want to make her think of painful things so I said, “Well, I would guess you’re very good at remodeling houses, huh? That takes a certain amount of creativity too.”

She smiled and said, “You could say that. I know what needs to be done. My dad was a “jack of all trades” and a master of none. He taught me everything I know. I have good guys that work for me, and I know enough to keep them honest.”