Seascapes Page 7

  Kate looked up and smiled slightly. “Thank you for sharing the stories with me. I’ll be back again soon. There are four more on the other side.” She rose to leave.

  Her head had begun to pound. The morning was beginning to catch up with her. Panic attacks always left a lingering headache. She feared the pain might become intense quickly. She was going to go home and rest. It had already been a very eventful day and it wasn’t even noon yet.

  “I look forward to seeing you again soon. You’re welcome to come on a Sunday morning for service anytime. We start at ten in the morning,” he called after her.

  “I might just do that. Thank you.” She tossed hand up to wave goodbye and continued out the door.

  Kate was enjoying the visits. The calmness she felt in the church was helping her feel more stable. Maybe this Sunday she’d see if Fiona would go to a service with her.

  She began meandering her way back towards the shop. She needed to talk with Fiona before she headed to her apartment. It was a beautiful day out and she hoped the fresh air might help her head. Her gaze went out over the ocean. Watching the waves come in and break on the shoreline always seemed to help her relax.

  In fact, she could remember times while her father was gone when she had spent hours at the beach just sitting on the harbor wall and watching the water. It was one of the reasons she wanted to live by the ocean. It had been an important part of her life even from a young age.

  She continued making her way back to the store determined not to let her past haunt her today. She was done letting her father or her mother continue to affect her peace of mind. No more.

  Glancing up she saw Drew moving towards her with a grin on his face. Great, she thought to herself, just great. She couldn’t even pretend she hadn’t seen him and duck down the alley to enter the store from the back. And yet, she felt her stomach flip a little at the sight of him.

  “So, how about that walk?”

  Chapter 14

  Kate had no idea what had made her agree to take the walk with Drew. Her head had been aching. She didn’t have on beach shoes. She didn’t want any type of relationship. Yet, she could still hear herself answering, “Sure,” to his question. What had she been thinking?

  Now here they were, strolling along the beach not saying a word. The long silence didn’t bother her though. She had learned long ago to embrace the quiet and be okay with her own thoughts.

  She snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye towards Drew. He seemed okay with the quiet as well. Usually people weren’t and filled it with inane chatter. Kate disliked inane chatter.

  She decided to wait and let him talk first. She was wondering how long he could go before he couldn’t stand it anymore and started talking.

  “Nice day, huh?”

  And there it was. She flashed a brief smile. She felt like she had won some type of contest.

  “It is.” She didn’t plan to help him with this conversation.

  They continued a few more steps without speaking. “The café is just up ahead. Want to grab a cup of coffee?”

  Kate glanced at her watch. She debated the wisdom of accepting his offer. A walk on the beach was one thing. The fresh air was helping to clear her head. She could justify the walk as a means to help her get rid of her headache. But coffee? That sounded too much like a date.

  “Don’t you drink coffee?” Drew knew how odd this whole situation was, but he didn’t want it to end. He wanted to get to know this woman more. Maybe then he’d stop thinking about her all day every day.

  “I drink coffee. I’m just trying to figure out if I have time. I need to get back to my store.”

  “Need or should?” Drew waited to see what she would say. It was hard to get to know someone who wouldn’t talk more than a few words at a time.

  “Should. I don’t like to leave Fiona alone long.”

  “Don’t you trust her?” Drew had her talking. Now to figure out a way to keep her going.

  “Of course, I trust her. I wouldn’t leave her alone if I didn’t trust her. She’s my best friend.” My only friend, Kate thought, but Drew didn’t need to know that fact.

  “Then it sounds like we have time to walk to the café and grab some coffee. We can even pick up one for your friend. What do you say?”

  Kate didn’t understand why he was so eager to spend time with her. Couldn’t he read the signals she was practically screaming at him that she wasn’t interested? But a small voice asked why she was here in the first place if that was true.

  Squashing the voice down, Kate heard herself answering, “Okay.”

  Drew gave himself a mental fist pump. First coffee, then we’ll see what else we can find out, he thought. He wanted to see if he could learn more about Kate. He wanted to see if there was more beneath the surface.

  The walk to the café was just as quiet as the walk on the beach had been. They grabbed three coffees to go and headed back out.

  This was the least amount of talking Drew had ever had with a member of the opposite sex. Most women he had been with seemed to talk all the time. A perfect example had been his ex-girlfriend, Lucy. She had never been able to stand any quiet time.

  As if his thoughts had conjured her up, Lucy was heading down the sidewalk towards Drew and Kate. He groaned under his breath. She was the last person he wanted to see at the moment.

  “Well, well, well, if it isn’t Drew Grant himself, in all his blonde glory. And who’s this?” Lucy still had a little girl voice, which Drew had once thought adorable. Now he just found it irritating.

  Lucy was glaring at Kate, as if she was the devil herself. Shoot, Drew thought, this is not going to end well.

  “Lucy, this is Kate. Kate, this is Lucy. Nice to see you, Lucy, but we need to get going while the coffee is still hot.”

  “Whatever. And it was not nice seeing you, Drew. Not nice at all.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and yanked open the door to the café.

  Kate wasn’t sure what had just happened. She didn’t know Lucy, but the woman had clearly hated the sight of her. “What was that all about?” She tentatively sipped from her steaming cup of coffee while she waited for Drew to answer.

  “That was my ex-girlfriend. It was not an amicable breakup.” Drew knew that was an understatement, but he didn’t really want to talk about Lucy with Kate. He didn’t really want to talk about Lucy with anyone. He knew he had dodged something when he had broken up with her. Seeing her now, he was thankful it was over.

  “Let’s get this coffee to Fiona before it’s too cold to drink.” Drew smiled at Kate as they continued back towards the store.

  Chapter 15

  Pushing open the back door with Drew trailing behind her, Kate walked into the storeroom and stopped dead in her tracks. Standing in front of her was her father.

  All the color drained from Kate’s face. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here to see you. I’d like to talk to you. If you’ll let me,” he replied in a quiet voice.

  “Get out of my store. Now!” Kate couldn’t believe he had the audacity to show up here. She began to feel her anger rise. She wasn’t a little girl anymore. He had no control over her, and she was going to make sure he knew it.

  “I don’t want to see you. I certainly don’t want to talk to you. You have no right to be here. No right!” Her headache had returned almost instantly at the sight of her father and the pounding was increasing to such an extent that she thought she was going to be physically ill.

  Drew didn’t know who this man was or what his relationship was to Kate, but she wasn’t having anything to do with him. “Do you need me to show him out, Kate?” He had almost a foot on the man. While he didn’t want to manhandle the older guy, he would.

  Kate’s dad continued with his plea, “Katie, please. I’ve changed. I want to make amends. I want to try to fix this.”

  “Are you kidding me? Changed? Do you know how many times I’ve heard you say that to me over the years? Make amends? Fix this?
You can’t be serious. Get out!” By this point, Kate was beginning to feel nauseated from the pain in her head. She never thought her father would dare follow her. “And don’t call me Katie. My name is Kate.” She fairly seethed with rage. She was sure there were vibrations coming off her as she began to shake.

  Fiona came hurrying in from the front. “Kate! Calm down. We have customers. They can hear you yelling. It’s okay. I told him he could wait back here for you. He seemed to know you.”

  Turning on Fiona, her fury unleashed on her as well. Kate dropped her voice a few decibels, “Know him? Unfortunately, yes, I know him. Fiona, this is my father!”

  Drew didn’t understand the fury coming from Kate. It seemed to be out of character for her. While she’d seemed agitated at times while at the church, he had never seen her this angry. Granted, he hadn’t known her long either. Maybe this was the norm for her.

  And why was she so mad at her father? Drew knew there must be more behind the story. He would personally be thrilled if his father surprised him with a visit.

  Now it was Fiona’s turn to pale. “Kate,” she gasped in horror, “I didn’t know! He didn’t tell me his name or who he was. He just told me he needed to speak with you about something to do with the store. I figured it would be okay if he hung out here until you got back. Oh, honey, I’m so sorry!”

  Kate turned on her heel and headed back out the door she had just come through. She couldn’t stay in the same room as him!

  Drew exchanged a glance with Fiona. “Here.” He thrust the coffee he had been bringing to her and turned to run after Kate.

  Kate continued blindly towards the ocean, not really paying attention to where she was going, just knowing she needed to be anywhere but at the store. Her head was hurting so much now it was almost impossible to keep her eyes open. She needed to get home and lie down, take some pain reliever. She needed to get as far away from her father as she could, as quickly as she could.

  “Kate! Wait up!”

  Biting back a curse word, she continued walking. She didn’t want to see Drew. She didn’t want to see anyone. She just wanted to go lie down.

  “Go away, Drew. I don’t want to talk to you.”

  “Fine. You don’t have to talk to me. How about I just walk with you for a bit? You don’t have to say anything. I won’t say anything. You just seem like you could use a friend.”

  Kate decided there was nothing she could do to get Drew to leave her alone. She physically couldn’t do anything, he was much too big, but she didn’t have to acknowledge him either.

  It had been seven years since Kate had last seen her father. But the moment she had seen his face, it had felt like yesterday. All the pain and anger she had felt, had come crashing back. All the work she had done over the past few years to try to put it behind her, to move forward, to forget it, fell away in that one instant.

  Some people seem to have parents who love and care for them, she certainly hadn’t been one of those lucky ones. No, her mother had tried to kill her. She had been an attention-seeking mental case. Her father cared so little for her he spent his time gambling away what money he did earn or drinking away any profits.

  He certainly hadn’t cared about the nights she had been alone in their small apartment, on the wrong side of town, praying to a God she truly didn’t believe existed to keep her safe. Where was he when the teenage boys would terrorize her on her walk home from school? No one had been there to keep her safe then.

  It was only her own street smarts and fast feet which had kept her from irreversible harm. An occasional bruise or black eye wasn’t bad considering what could have happened, almost happened on occasion, to a young girl living where she had.

  It was worse when her father would come home after losing all his money. Those were the scariest times. That was when he would take his anger out on her. It didn’t matter what she did or didn’t do. It was never right.

  Some nights she had even hidden on the streets, staying awake all night. She would stay away until he calmed down or left. It was the times she hadn’t been fast enough to escape his grasp that were too hard to relive.

  The happiest memories had been when she lived with her foster family. After the first few months of shyness and skittishness, on her part, she had finally seen what a loving family looked like. She always had plenty to eat and had never known a day of hunger while living there. She had clothes that fit and kept her warm. She had felt safe. For the first time in her life, she had felt cared for and loved.

  For someone with such short legs, she could move quickly, Drew thought. Even with his long stride, he was having trouble keeping up with her. A glimpse of her face showed she was still not feeling well. The pinched look between her eyes made him think she had a headache.

  Kate looked up and saw she had stopped at the tide pools. While she had planned to go home so she could ditch Drew at the front door, it seemed she had gone on autopilot and headed to the beach. The fresh air had dropped the pounding in her head down to a tolerable level. Out of habit, she began to slowly walk, scanning the ground with Drew trailing beside her.

  Pausing at a large tide pool, she squatted down to take a closer look. It surprised her how life could survive in one of these pools until the water came in and swept it all back out to sea. Reaching in carefully, she pulled out a sea star, marveling at it. This one had four long legs and one shorter one. It had obviously lost a leg at some point. She was always amazed at how they could regenerate lost limbs.

  If only it were that easy for humans, she mused as she replaced it in the water. She would love to grow a new family. One that loved her, no matter what.

  Standing, she turned to look out at the horizon line. She watched the waves for some time just breathing in the salt air she always found calming.

  As she began to recover from the shock of seeing her father, her headache began to slowly dissipate. There was still a slight throbbing from the fall she had earlier in the day, but the vise-like pain was gone.

  “Feeling better?”

  She jumped slightly. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts she had forgotten Drew was even there.

  “Yes.” She didn’t want to encourage conversation. “Thanks, you can go now. You don’t have to stay.”

  Taking a deep breath, she continued walking and searching. Pausing occasionally to stoop and pick up a promising piece of glass, she soon found herself absorbed in her hunt. Her mind was peacefully blank as she stopped thinking about everything but what she might make with the pieces she collected.

  Drew stayed where he was and watched her walk away. He thought back to the scene at the store. There was more to Kate than she let on. She seemed like an ice princess on the outside to him, yet there was a fiery passion that had erupted at the sight of her father. It was going to be interesting finding out what she was truly like.

  Chapter 16

  Sunday morning arrived and Kate found herself once more heading towards the stone church. She had been able to convince Fiona to come with her, but they were meeting at the church since they lived on opposite sides of town.

  She still wasn’t sure this was a good idea. She had gone back to the store after Drew had left her on the beach. Just as she had thought, her father was gone. She hadn’t expected him to stick around. He never did.

  Fiona had been apologetic. They had talked about all the upheaval of the past few weeks between the necklace and the sea glass and now her father. It was no wonder Kate was feeling overwhelmed and stressed.

  They had made plans to go to church together this morning. It wasn’t something they had ever done before and Kate really wasn’t sure it was a good idea now that she was almost there. What if she saw Drew? Did she want to see Drew? She wasn’t sure.

  Before she could figure out her thoughts, she heard Fiona calling to her. “Morning, sunshine! I’ve never set foot in church unless it was for a wedding or a funeral. I thought I’d wait for you. I’m getting a bit nervous about this whole thing.”

>   “I doubt they’ll try to make a convert out of you on your first visit, Fee,” Kate replied with a short laugh.

  “Okay, let’s do this then!” Fiona exclaimed with her usual wide grin. She hooked her arm through Kate’s, and they headed up the steps into the foyer together.

  They shook hands with an elderly couple stationed strategically to greet everyone who came through the doors. Fiona and Kate returned welcoming replies as they collected bulletins and headed inside. Slipping into a rear pew, they shed their coats and settled in. Both heads seemed to be on swivels as they looked around taking in the entire atmosphere.

  “Good morning, Church! It’s a beautiful day the Lord has made, is it not? Let us stand and sing him our praises.”

  Kate looked up at the sound of Drew’s voice. He was strumming an acoustic guitar. There was a band behind him. They were all ramping up the opening to a song.

  Fiona leaned over, “Hey, isn’t that the guy who came in the other day?”

  Kate just nodded. Drew was a musician. She found it surprising and was interested to see if he was any good.

  Drew opened his mouth and began to sing the first few lines of the song. The band were on point today and the music washed over him. He closed his eyes and sang to the Lord. He loved worshipping through music.

  Kate’s memories came alive during the singing. Some of the songs were vaguely familiar. She must have sung them years ago when she had lived with her foster family.

  Drew opened his eyes as the last song ended. It was then he spotted Kate and her co-worker at the back of the church. She had come. He smiled at her as he slipped out of his guitar.

  Kate sat up a little straighter. She hadn’t realized she had been staring at Drew until he opened his eyes and shot her a quick grin. Now he was coming towards her. She glanced over as he slipped in to sit beside her.