Chapter 12

Rob awoke to the sounds of the ocean coming in through the open window of his cottage, as he always did whenever the weather was good enough and warm enough to allow him to sleep with the windows open. He had the day off today and had a few minor errands to run around town; other than that, he had the day to himself. He got out of bed and stood, stretched, then padded naked out of the bedroom and into the living room, headed for the kitchen where the coffee was already made, thanks to the programmable coffee pot he had bought right after he moved in. Rob had bought the cottage that he and Sherry had spent their last few days together in as soon as his divorce was finalized, and he had moved in shortly after that. At first he was forced to be content with living in the cottage only on the weekends or on his days off, since he was unable to move down there full time until his son – the last of his children – had graduated from high school. He stood by his vow of not letting happen to his kids what had happened first to his sister and then to Sherry, so he commuted back and forth between his house and his cottage as much as he needed to.

Kathy had graduated from high school that year and had lived in the old house with him and Randy that summer before going off to college in the fall. At first Kathy was pretty upset about Sherry leaving and had kept in touch with her on a regular basis, but life moved on as it is prone to do and eventually she lost touch with her one-time best friend. She had lived with Rob this past summer since he was living in the cottage now, but school was back in session since it was now mid-October so Rob once again had the cottage to himself.

Randy had graduated from high school four months ago in June, and had gone into the Air Force eleven days after that. The topic of Sherry came up in a discussion they were having a few days before Randy left for basic training, and during that discussion Randy asked Rob if he had been sleeping with Sherry. Rob confirmed that he had been, and to his surprise Randy wasn’t upset about it.

“As long as you were happy, that’s the main thing,” he had said. “I know you were pretty miserable with what was going on with Mom at the time, so I figured you deserved something to make you happy, and if Sherry made you happy, then that’s fine with me,” he had said.

“So how did you figure it out?” Rob had asked. “I always thought we were kind careful about it.”

“It wasn’t too hard, really, if you knew Sherry,” Randy replied. “She kinda changed as soon as she started hanging around here; she stopped going out with any of the guys at school, and I noticed that she acted different whenever she was around you.”

“And then that day you walked up and knocked on the bedroom door didn’t hurt, either,” Rob said, baiting Randy with an old police interview tactic. It worked.

“No, it didn’t,” Randy said, confirming what Rob suspected.

“How did you know it was her?” Rob asked.

“I, uh, recognized her voice,” Randy said, and the way he was blushing made it clear that he had been outside the door long enough to hear Sherry moaning as she was cumming. Rob laughed at seeing his son blushing, and Randy relaxed and laughed with him. And that was the end of that.

The day after Randy left Rob had contacted the recruiting office of the beach town’s police department, and a month after that Rob left his old department and began working with the beach town’s department. He sold his old house and moved into the cottage shortly after that, and the more he lived there the more he loved it.

The only thing missing was Sherry.

Rob finished his cup of coffee and then headed for the shower. After showering he was standing in front of the sink drying off when he couldn’t help but notice his reflection in the mirror. He had a little bit of gray starting to show in his hair, but other than that he thought he looked pretty damned good for a divorced 39 year old father of two grown children. He looked down at the silver dollar-sized scar in his left side and ran his fingers over it; a souvenir from a traffic stop gone bad. He had pulled a car over for speeding one night about a month after Sherry had left, and the driver had gotten out of the car shooting. The first bullet hit him in the vest but the impact had spun him around, and the second bullet had hit him in the side between the front and rear panels of his vest. He had returned fire and killed the suspect, an escaped convict from the next state over driving a stolen car, but his wound had cost him a month in the hospital and another month on rehabilitative leave after that.

Then his eyes automatically went to the gold medallion he wore around his neck. He hadn’t taken the Saint Michael’s medallion off since the night Sherry had given it to him, and he couldn’t help but believe that Saint Michael had indeed been watching over him the night he was shot.

It had been two years almost to the day since Sherry had left, and his heart still ached. Sometimes he thought he’d never get over it, and sometimes he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

Rob pushed those thoughts out of his mind as he always did, knowing that there wasn’t anything he could do about it, and went about getting dressed so he could get on with his day. Twenty minutes later he was dressed in his usual fall beach town attire – jeans, leather deck shoes, a t-shirt and one of his beloved Bajas – and was on his way out the door.

The day passed quickly for him since he had enough to keep himself busy, and before he knew it the sun was going down behind the cottage, the shadows on the beach growing longer by the minute as the sky quickly darkened with the setting sun.

He was sitting in the wicker chair next to the door, a diet Pepsi in a koozie in his hand, relaxing and letting his gaze wander out over the ocean. This part of the beach and the road in front of his house was usually deserted this time of year since the tourist season was long over, so he noticed the person walking down the road towards his cottage from the left – the direction of the town – immediately. Distance and the growing darkness made it impossible for him to see who it was; all he could tell was that the person was wearing jeans and a Baja, and judging from the long hair flowing past the person’s shoulders the person was also a woman. But people wearing Bajas were anything but unusual in a beach town in the spring and fall, so Rob didn’t really take any further notice of it.

But as soon as he looked away something made Rob look back, and as the figure got closer he thought that the Baja looked awfully familiar. The figure was walking with her hands in the hand warmer pocket in front of her, but it was still too far away and too gloomy for him to be able to see her face. Rob continued to watch the figure as she got closer, his curiosity increasing and his senses telling him something wasn’t right. Then the figure reached the gate in the fence surrounding his cottage and stopped, turning to look at the house, and Rob recognized who it was.

“Damn... damn,” Rob said softly, jumping to his feet, the koozie hitting the porch as it fell from his hand. “Sherry?” he called out, his heart racing and pounding in his chest. The figure at the gate at the end of his sidewalk jumped and gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.

“Rob?” she said, breathlessly. “Oh, my God, ROB!”

Rob bolted off the porch and down the sidewalk as Sherry ran up towards the house, and they met in the middle of the sidewalk, Sherry jumping into his arms as they both cried out with joy. They threw their arms around each other as Rob lifted her off the ground, spinning around with her in his arms as she laughed and cried in his ear. He found himself crying as well, unable to believe that he was actually holding her again. He stopped spinning and set her back on the ground, looking down into her tear-streaked but smiling face, and then they kissed for the first time in two long years. It was a soft but intense kiss, a kiss of love instead of lust, and Rob felt the heartaches of two long years melting away from his heart as their lips touched. Then they just held each other and laughed, standing in the middle of his sidewalk, until Rob looked down at her and spoke as he ran his hand along the side of her cheek, wiping away some of her tears.

“I can’t believe you’re really here!” he said, a wide grin splitting his own tear-streaked face. “I’ve missed you so much, and now that you’re here in my arms, I just can’t believe it!” She reached up and wiped away his tears as she replied.

“I can’t believe it either,” she said, smiling up at him. “I didn’t know you were here! After I lost touch with Kathy I didn’t know how to get in touch with you, so when I went by where you used to live and saw someone else living there, I thought I’d lost you forever!” she said, her eyes welling up with tears again.

“How come you didn’t just call me on my cell phone?” he asked. She dropped her eyes and looked sheepish as she replied.

“I never memorized your phone number,” she said, glancing up at him and then looking full at him when she saw he was still smiling at her. “I had you on speed dial, and when I lost my cell phone last year I lost your number, too. I thought about calling you at the police department but I didn’t want to get you in trouble, so I didn’t call. And then when I came into town today and went by your house looking for you, I saw that you had moved out and I thought I’d never see you again!” Her eyes began to well up with tears again, and he held her close to him until she was ready to continue.

“I was just about ready to give up, but I wanted to see the cottage where we were together one last time, so I drove down here, parked the car around the corner and walked over here. I had no idea you were here!” she said, throwing her arms around him and holding him close again. He hugged her back and stroked the top of her head, reveling in the feeling of being held by her again.

“I live here now,” he said, and she looked up at him sharply.

“Really? I mean, you did it? You transferred down here like you always said you wanted to?” she asked, smiling at him.

“Yep, and the first thing I did was buy our cottage,” he said, and he saw her eyes sparkle and flash when he said “our cottage.”

“Oh, Rob, that’s fantastic!” she said, hugging him again. “I’m so happy for you!” As he held her close to him again, Rob knew that he had to tell her, he had to tell her how he felt about her or else he’d never get another chance.

“Sherry, there’s something I have to tell you,” he began. She looked up and put a finger to his lips to silence him.

“No, lover, there’s something I have to tell you,” she said, removing her finger and stroking the side of his face. She looked deeply into his eyes as she continued.

“I heard you that night as I drove away,” she said, “but you didn’t hear me reply. You couldn’t, of course, but I could hear you – a little bit psychic, remember?”

“I remember,” Rob replied, his heart pounding.

“But I heard you, and I replied; you couldn’t hear me, so I’ll say it again now so you can hear me – I love you too, Rob!” She looked up at him, smiling through the tears running down her face as she rubbed his cheek. “I’ve loved you for so long, so much longer than you could ever know! I love you with all my heart, and I don’t ever want to be without you again!”

Rob looked down at her and felt his own tears begin to flow. He held her face in his hands and kissed her, softly, then looked in her eyes as he spoke.

“I love you, Sherry, with all my heart, and I don’t ever want to be without you again, either!” He put his arms around her and held her close, and she did the same. They stood like that for a few moments, and then she spoke again.

“There’s something else I want to tell you, something you may not believe considering how I used to be,” she said,

“What’s that, babe?” Rob asked. Sherry looked him directly in the eyes as she replied.

“I haven’t been with anyone else since the last time I was with you,” she said. Rob looked her directly in the eyes as he replied.

“I believe you,” he said. “Neither have I.”

“I know,” she said, and when Rob looked puzzled she said, “A little bit psychic, remember?” They both laughed, and then Rob kissed her again. When the kiss was over, she looked up at him as she spoke, saying the words she’d only said to him once before and the words that he’d longed to hear her say again for two years.

“Make love to me, Rob,” she said.

Without a word he picked her up in his arms and carried her into the house, kicking the front door closed behind him. Once inside the house he set her on her feet in the living room, and they kissed again. Then he stepped back and looked at her, seeing her in good light for the first time, and she was even more beautiful and incredibly sexy than before.

“I just want to stand here and drink in the sight of you!” he said. “You look just like you did the last time I saw you!”

“There’s been a couple of changes,” she said, “nothing really big, but I’m sure you’ll like them!”

“So when do I get to see these changes?” he asked.

“Soon, lover, very soon,” she said, walking over to him and putting her arms around his neck and kissing him deeply, her tongue slipping into his mouth to find his own. He put his arms around her and pulled her close to him, and she molded her body to his. He slid his hands down her back to the rounded globes of her ass and gripped them in his hands, pulling her closer to him. He could feel the huge mounds of her breasts pressing into his chest, and he sighed at feeling her body against his for the first time in two years. He heard her sigh as well, and she kissed him deeper as he pulled her close to him.