Waiting for You

W
AITING
F
OR
Y
OU

Melissa Kate

FIERY SEAS PUBLISHING

Visit our website at
www.fieryseaspublishing.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Waiting for You

Copyright
© 2016, Melissa Kate

Cover Art by Jess Small

Editing by Charlie Tate

Interior Design by Merwin Loquias (
www.mlgraphicdesigns.tk
)

ISBN-13: 978-0-9968943-4-0

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Requests for permission should be addressed to Fiery Seas Publishing.

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition:

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Dedication

To my Dad, my greatest fan and chief supporter. I hope you’re smiling down from Heaven in pride. You always believed I could reach my dreams. This one’s in memory of you. Forever in my heart.

Acknowledgements

To my darling husband who is my biggest supporter, even though he’s never read any of my works. Your constant scolding me to get writing and threatening to switch off the wi-fi if I didn’t, finally did the trick. I did it! My name in print!

Misty, my publisher, THANK YOU for taking a chance on me. The day you sent me that first email changed my life and made my lifelong dream come true. You saw in me what nobody else did and for that I will forever be grateful.

Charlie, my editor, you are a little wonder. Thank you for shaping up my story and giving Adam and Audrey their time in print. Your patience and humor kept my head above water during this process.

To Tharreshnee, Kasheni and Trusha…you ladies are my best critics. Thank you for reading my story and telling me the hard truths I needed to hear.

And thank you to YOU, my very first readers. Thank you for having enough faith in this story to buy a copy. You are beyond amazing! Keep reading!

W
AITING
F
OR
Y
OU

Chapter 1

A
udrey Kelly cruised down the main highway in her little Audi TT heading straight into Crystal Valley. A familiar maelstrom of emotions crept in. The gnawing in her chest overpowered only slightly by the urge to turn tail and drive in the opposite direction. She pushed a button and the window automatically rolled down with a soft hum, letting in the warm, California air. She breathed in deeply, inhaling the fresh salty breeze, taking her back to her childhood. Splashing in the ocean, lying on the warm beach to dry off, ice cream cones and pizza parties. Days of innocent abandon. It was also the days of bitter disappointment and regret.

She squelched those feelings as she turned on to Crystal Valley exit. Good old small town USA. Audrey felt the tightening in her gut, the familiar noose around her neck that came with small town living. The stifling claustrophobia trying to claw its way out. She hadn’t been back in fourteen years, well except for the few days six years ago… and even that was a memory tightly locked away. The day high school graduation had rolled around, she had hightailed it out of here so fast she was surprised her coat tails hadn’t caught fire. Audrey had wanted to amount to more than just a clerk in the local store or a hairdresser at the corner salon. There was more to it than just that, more that she didn’t want to recall. She had set her sights on a high profile life. She had wanted to create a name for herself – a legacy to leave behind. And she did.

Audrey turned onto the street where she lived as a child. Grandpa Joe’s house. She smiled up at the familiar building. The two story, cottage-style house eased the anxiety that had been growing with each mile she drove closer to
home
. She parked in the gravel driveway and took in the house that had been her haven for most of her formative years. The black shutters on the large windows gave the home a real country feel. The wrap-around porch along the left of the house remained exactly as she recalled, even with the small swing seat where she and her grandma had spent many evenings together, regaling each other with made up stories. The garden surrounding the base of the house was still trenched but did not have even a fraction of the blooms that her beloved grandma had maintained year round. Audrey’s chest pinched and she buried the emotion.
Just another one to file away
, she thought wryly.

The humidity was high and she gathered her long auburn hair off her damp neck and into a loose ponytail. She almost sighed aloud at the relief as a light breeze cooled her burning skin. She gathered her purse and stepped out of the car, still regarding the house, big and imposing and yet, comforting. The large, red front door opened and Grandpa Joe walked out.

“
Amado
?” he called out to her, using the Portuguese endearment her grandma had favored.

“Hi Grandpa,” she returned with a smile. Closing the car door behind her, she rushed up to greet her patriarch. Her impractical heels crunched on the gravel and she swayed ungracefully in her efforts to reach her grandpa.

Audrey had called her grandpa a few days earlier and given him an early warning of her pending visit. She wasn’t sure she was staying with him for sure but where else did she have to go? Her grandpa was only too happy to have her of course. Grandpa Joe opened his arms to her as she approached and Audrey sank into them, feeling the warmth of his familiar chest. Her heart expanded and melted as he embraced her and squeezed gently, kissing the top of her head as he had done when she was a child. Her eyes burned.
What the hell?
Misty-eyed over a hug? Over a little affection?
Damn things must be worse than she thought. She must have really hit rock bottom for the simple gesture to be her undoing. She blinked her reaction back before pulling away and kissing the older man on both his weathered cheeks.

“How are you Grandpa?” His body was frail and bony beneath her caress as she held his hands between her own. His hair had greyed out more than she remembered and he didn’t stand as tall as he did before either. Audrey frowned. “Have you been taking care of yourself? Remembering to have breakfast and take your vitamins?”

“Don’t worry about me
filho
, I may be eighty but I’m strong as a bull. Tell me about you,” he countered as he led her into the house, his gait, noticeably slower.

Her heart dropped a little as she stalled to answer him. She didn’t want to talk about herself or the life she’d made. She didn’t want anyone to know how badly she had failed. Her big dreams of leaving this small town and recreating herself had nose-dived miserably.

Just walking into the entryway brought her a sense of home and belonging. She didn’t walk into a large white foyer with a high chandelier and spiral staircase as she would have in her home in New York. There was no designer wall paper lining the walls; no accents of high society class and sophistication in her grandpa’s house and yet this felt more like home than her own. She inhaled, remembering the familiar smell of baking bread and lavender polish. Her grandma had been a clean freak and her grandpa continued the traditions in her absence. Or maybe just to feel a semblance of her presence.

Audrey stopped at the photos on the mantel and fingered the frame of her grandma. She was an absolute beauty. Even as she had aged, her olive skin remained flawless. Her eyes, the same deep molten brown as Audrey’s, had never lost their luster. There were wrinkles around her mouth and eyes from laughing long and hard. Her grandma had been happy and had made the most of her life. Being of Brazilian descent the matriarch had always joked that Audrey got the best of her genes from her. Audrey never doubted that, she just wished she’d inherited other qualities from her grandma too, maybe like a little common sense.

“She was so very proud of you,
filho
,” her grandpa interrupted her reverie, gazing at her intently, as though reading the direction of her thoughts.

A deep ache settled in her soul at hearing the familiar Portuguese endearments and more so because her grandma really had no reason to be proud of Audrey. She had abandoned her family and life had punished her for it.

“I wish I had been here more before she died.” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat to disguise the emotion. Audrey had returned to Crystal Valley six years ago only to bury her grandma. She had come unaccompanied and hadn’t stayed long afterwards, forced to grieve alone because her life summoned her back in New York. Her grandpa had needed her and she had needed him, yet somehow her duty had called her away. Audrey had buried the closest thing to a mother as though she were a stranger… “I wish I could have been here more afterwards too grandpa.”

He placed a warm hand on her shoulder. “Now child, life is too short for regrets. We make choices in our lives and we live with them. Mama died in flesh but she lives in here.” He pointed to his left breast, a sad wistful smile touching his lips.

Audrey nodded as her throat burned. This wasn’t the time to get into it with her grandpa, especially when his words rang so true.

He led her into the kitchen. Grandpa Joe walked to the oven, slipped on a pair of oven mitts and opened the door to pull out a fresh loaf of bread.

“Wow grandpa, you still bake grandma’s bread?” she asked with astonishment, breathing in the fresh aroma deeply. The rich homely smell settled deep in her soul, easing the constricting vice grip.

“She spoiled me,” he commented, placing the hot loaf on a wire rack on the counter. “Nothing better than homemade bread.”

“That’s what grandma always said,” Audrey lamented.

“Come
filho
, you look far too thin. Come sit and eat while the bread is still warm.” He walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out some butter.

Audrey’s mouth watered and her stomach rumbled loudly as her grandpa cut the still steaming loaf, the butter melting deliciously on the top of each slice as the older man lathered it on. She bit into it and closed her eyes to appreciate and savor the flavor, the warm butter dripping down her arm. One bite and it was like tasting everything that represented home, safety, comfort. “Just like grandma’s,” she commented, reaching out to touch her grandpa’s arm. “Best thing I have eaten in a long time.”

“Nonsense,” he remarked with a smirk. “I read the papers, I know how fancy the New York cuisine is. Thank you for humoring an old man.”

Audrey didn’t respond. There was no point. He would think it was just that – humoring him. It was simply the truth. Something simple as homemade bread was heaven to her. Heaven because of all it resembled, all it stood for in her life. No amount of gourmet dishes could replace that.

“So when is that husband of yours going to be coming down to join you?” Grandpa Joe asked.

Audrey all but froze as she managed to paste a smile on her face. She didn’t want to outright lie to her grandpa yet how could she possibly tell him the truth? The sordid truth of how badly she had messed up. “He’s a little detained in New York grandpa. I don’t think he will be coming here anytime soon.” Well technically that was the truth. He was detained – in a federal prison.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I never did get to know the man who married our baby.” Her grandpa watched her and the disquiet settled back in, making a warm nest for itself in the center of her chest. Was he bitter that Michael had taken her away from them? Well, that wasn’t really true. Audrey had up and left and had gone to college of her own volition. She had met Michael shortly after getting her degree in photography.

She had met him at an Art Fair when she was young and flighty, displaying some of her photographic work. He was a businessman looking for some artwork for his new home and she had been instantly enamored by him, by his knowledge of the world and his street smarts. Thinking back, maybe it was because she had wanted to fill the void gnawing at her since she had left Crystal Valley. The regrets she had. The bad memories. Michael had taken her on a whirlwind romance, showing her all there was to know about high society living. He’d taken her to fancy business cocktail parties and exclusive fashion soirees. He’d introduced her to everyone who was anyone in New York and she had caved like a cheap suitcase. She had fallen in love with an idea. Not that she had realized that back then. No siree. Back then, she’d graduated college, married Michael and started a new nightmare.

“Come child,” Grandpa Joe interrupted her thoughts. He was already standing and extended his hand out to her. “Let’s get you settled in.”

Audrey walked back out to the car and collected her suitcases. Two suitcases and her beloved car, was all she had to her name, leaving everything that Michael owned behind. Everything his money had bought was tainted.
Blood
money. Audrey had proudly bought her sporty TT all on her own with every penny saved from the photographs she had sold. And thank God for that as the small shred of independence helped her get her the hell out of Dodge.

Grandpa Joe met her at the base of the stairwell, reached for her suitcases, and carried them up to her old childhood room.

Audrey stepped in and smiled in amazement. “It’s exactly as I left it.”

Grandpa Joe beamed. “You were a part of this home, Audrey. It didn’t feel right to change a single thing.”

“Thank you, Papa.” Her chest pinched the tightness a familiar presence now. It must be the seaside air affecting her.

“I will leave you to get settled.” He turned and left Audrey to her own thoughts.

Audrey circled the small room she had occupied as a teenager. Atop the small bed with the cream comforter sat her huge stuffed teddy bear. Her teddy that had comforted her and absorbed her tears on many a sad night. A teddy that had been squished and cuddled as she had talked long hours on the phone with her friend Emma. On the far wall sat her dresser which still held small keepsakes like her hairbrush and jewelry trinkets. Audrey smiled as she caressed the knickknacks of her youth.

She looked out the window to the house next door. The old Parker house. Something tugged at her heart. Not quite the tightness but something else. She knew exactly what that tug was for. For the boy who had lived next door. Adam Parker. The boy who had given her the world and then taken it away.

She gave herself a mental shake. Adam was a lifetime ago. A memory she had long ago let go.

They had long since moved out anyways. Audrey didn’t know when or why and hadn’t asked but the curiously had niggled over the years, wondering if Adam even remembered her but as quickly as the thought entered her mind she would dismiss it. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. What was done was done.

Her phone buzzed from the recesses of her purse. She rifled through and retrieved her cell. Her stomach flip flopped when she saw the name of her lawyer as she slid her finger across the screen and answered the call. “Hey, Laila.”

“Hey Audrey, how’s it going?” came the cheery voice on the other end of the line.

“It’s only been ten minutes or so,” she answered, absentmindedly rubbing her temples, trying, unsuccessfully, to ease the headache coming on. “Still too early to tell.”

“One day at a time.”

One day at a time
, Audrey mentally repeated. That’s what recovery taught you.

“So listen,” Laila continued. “The paperwork for the divorce has finally gone through.”

Audrey released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding and with it the tension eased.

“He will never hurt you again, Audrey.”

Audrey pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the timeworn apprehension creeping in whenever Michael was mentioned. She sighed. “He said he’d come back for me Lay.”

“He can’t do that behind bars,” she replied emphatically.

“He will find a way since I put him there.” Audrey sat down on the bed, the emotional turmoil starting to make her dizzy. “What if he sends someone after me?” A shiver ran through her as the thought festered.

“Hey, you did the right thing. Enough was enough, Audrey. That last time he nearly killed you. He doesn’t know where you are. He can’t get to you.”

They remained silent a moment as they both pondered the weight of Laila’s words.