Reed, Erika - Tabitha's Blue-Eyed Storm (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

TABITHA’S BLUE-EYED STORM

ERIKA REED

Copyright © 2012

Chapter 1

“Tabitha, you won’t regret moving here. It’s the best thing I have ever done!”

“Oh, Sarah, this is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for, to get out of this city and do something different in my life for a change,” Tabitha said as she was on the phone with Sarah.

Sarah and Tabitha had been best friends since elementary school. Their parents had always joked about them being inseparable.
Tabitha
and Sarah had lived down the street from each other and rode their bikes to school every day until high school, when Tabitha got her car. As they grew up to be teenagers, they found they liked and dated the same guys but never fought over them. Tabitha and Sarah attended the same community college and got their BAs in accounting together. Yes, growing up they were inseparable, up until Sarah got offered a job out of state and Tabitha was left behind. Tabitha still worked at the factory in town and had grown bored of the job, but there wasn’t much to offer because the economy had forced many of the businesses to close their doors, and jobs were now limited. That was when Sarah moved on with the company she worked for as an accounting assistant. Sarah had told Tabitha she had an opening as an assistant in their accounting firm, and Tabitha could be making the same amount of money as her. They both knew it was three times what
they
made working at the factory, and it would be a beneficial move for Tabitha as well. Tabitha called Mr. Allen, Sarah’s boss, and sent her résumé, and within the week, she had the job, but the stipulation was that she had to start in a week or else they would have to find a replacement. That was when she gave her notice at the factory and told her landlord that she would be moving out. She had taken some of her belongings to the church and packed a few things in storage in case things hadn’t worked out with the new job, and she packed the rest of her belongings in her economical car that was about eight years old. She loved that car. Her parents helped her get it, so it was sentimental to her also.

“Sarah, I appreciate you so much for helping me get this job at Allen & Associates!”

“No problem, I know how much you have been wanting a change in your life as much as I have. Living here in
Atlanta
has been wonderful! I have a great apartment. I’ve met a lot of nice people and gone out with some good-looking men. I’m so glad you are moving in with me. I miss you so much, Tabitha!”

“I don’t want to intrude in the relationship with your new boyfriend and you. I wouldn’t want to cramp your space, especially when you two just started dating.”

“Oh, please, Ian will get over it. You’re my best friend, and no man will stand in the way of our friendship! Besides, Ian has a big condo that overlooks the city, and I love spending time at his place most of the time. It’s a lot nicer than my place. His bed is huge, and he has lots of toys at his place that are fun to experiment with.” They both giggled.

“Yes, well, you are lucky to have met someone like Ian. I hope I meet someone soon, too. I swear it’s been so long since I’ve been with a man. I may have cobwebs down there! I miss you, too, Sarah! It’s been so lonely since you left. I don’t have anything keeping me here. I have everything packed, and I’ll be leaving in a couple days.”

“I know you will love it as much as I do! My apartment is so beautiful, two bedrooms, a gym on the first floor, and a beautiful pool that always has hot, good-looking men at it all the time!” They both giggled out loud. “I know you will get well accustomed to your new life as quickly as I did. That will give you enough time to get adjusted to living here in
Atlanta
.”

“I am so excited about moving there. You don’t know how much this means to me, Sarah! I am literally going crazy here in
Kansas
without you.”

“Well, you have plenty of time before your job starts in a week. You have a long drive ahead of you. Please drive careful, be safe, and I will talk to along the way. Love you!”

“Thanks, and love you, too! Talk to you soon, Sarah, and thanks again! I will keep in contact with you along the way.” This was exactly what Tabitha needed, a fresh start, a new job in a new state, and maybe she would find the man of her dreams finally! After Tabitha got off the phone with Sarah, she spent the day packing her belongings.

Tabitha had everything packed in her car and was on her way to a brighter future. Along the way, she made a few stops. She always loved taking off in her car and just driving. She and Sarah would take road trips when they were younger and go visit different places. That was their favorite thing to do since there wasn’t much to do where they had lived.

Tabitha pulled over and spent the night in a motel. It wasn’t the nicest, but it was in her budget. They next morning she got up and ate at the local dinner. She sat at the table and the waitress came up to her. “Where you headed to, honey?”

“I’m on my way to
Atlanta
. I got a new job there. I’m supposed to start at in a week.”

“Good for you, honey,” the waitress whose name tag read
Madge
said as she looked outside the diner’s window. “Looks like rain.”

Tabitha looked outside and replied, “I hope it’s not too bad. I have to drive in this.”

“Well, you better get moving if you want to get ahead of it. Safe trip and good luck in your future, honey. I wish you the best.”

Tabitha nodded and bid Madge a good-bye. She stopped at the local gas station, loaded up on some road-trip snacks, and some bottled waters for the road. Tabitha got in her car and buckled her seat belt up and headed her car north, with a big smile on her face and with thoughts of an exciting future she had in store.

* * * *

“Oh! My goodness! I can’t see five feet in front of me.”

The man at the last gas station had been right. The man had said his name was Steve, and he had said she should get a motel. Steve had told her it was expected to be one of the worst storms this winter. Steve had told her the roads had been slick and icy and if she planned on driving through it he wanted to check all her fluids for her and take a look at her tire pressure. Tabitha was so anxious to get to Atlanta that she had kept on driving until she ran smack-dab into the storm.

“I should have never of have began this trip today without checking the weather forecast first.” Steve had helped her with her snow chains and tried to convince her once more to stay at the motel, regardless of his wariness of the conditions of the highway. Against his advice, she had told him she would be fine. He had wished her luck, and she was on her way.

Tabitha was on a two-lane highway going through a town she wasn’t sure she was supposed to be in.

“I think I’m lost!”

She knew she was in the state of
Tennessee
, but she wasn’t sure if she was still in the town of
Braxton
. The snowstorm she was caught in blurred all her vision of the road ahead of her. The radio no longer had a signal, and the last she heard the temperature was ten degrees and the wind was blowing at about fifty miles per hour. Tabitha knew she was in trouble when she heard that last report before the station went out on her. She went through the town and noticed everyone was smarter than her and had braced themselves for the storm that she was driving in.

Along the highway, she only passed a few ranches and cabins on the way, but they were far and few in between. Her car wasn’t new, but she had doubts about it in this weather.

“Please, don’t give me any trouble. We need to get out of this and somewhere safe!”

Tabitha was a twenty-nine-year-old woman who had lost her mom and dad a few years ago. Her parents had died in a car crash when a drunk driver hit them head-on. Her parents had meant the world to her. Tabitha always wanted what they had. She always remembered her parents hugging and kissing all the time. There was never a moment that she could ever deny their undying love for one another. She wanted to marry someone like that one day. Tabitha believed in happily-ever-after endings and deserved one as great as her parents. She was tired of brief relationships and the longest relationship she had had lasted six months. Nothing was keeping her in Kansas anymore. So she had packed up her apartment and loaded everything she owned in her car and started out for her new life.

Suddenly her car made a strange noise, jolting her from her thoughts, and then she slowed down to where she had to pull over.

“This can’t be happening to me now. No, no, not now! I’m in the middle of a blizzard, and I don’t know where I am.”

Tabitha sat there on the side of the road for a minute to gather her thoughts. She tried to start the car and got no response. Tabitha laid her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes briefly. She sat up and looked around at the surroundings.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to walk back to that cabin I passed up about a half a mile back.”

Tabitha bundled herself best she could. She didn’t have a jacket thick enough for this weather, so she just made do with what she had. She left everything in her car and locked it up. Tabitha put her keys in her pocket and began walking in the snow. Tabitha’s feet were so deep in the snow that she had no idea if she was going anywhere with the wind and snow in her face. Tabitha could see
the
mailbox that belonged to the cabin she was walking toward and thought she was getting closer. However, the blizzard was working against her and she felt the storm was winning the battle. It felt like she wasn’t getting near the cabin the way the wind and snow kept shoving her backward. She kept her head down and put one foot in front of the other. Every so often she would look up to make sure she was still headed in the right direction. It was so cold, her boots were already wet, and the mittens weren’t warm enough for her hands. She was walking as fast as she could, but when she’d look up to see if she was any closer, it didn’t seem like she had gotten very far. The closer Tabitha got to the mailbox, which led to the driveway to the cabin, the colder her body grew. A few times she caught herself before falling. The wind and cold was her only enemy right now.

She thought, Please let these people be home! I don’t know what
I’ll do if no one is there
.
Tabitha almost was about to reach the entrance to the cabin gates when she collapsed to her knees and couldn’t get up.

“Help, please, someone, help me!” She prayed for someone to hear her cry for help before everything went black.