Crossing Boundaries (Cape Falls) (14 page)
Read Crossing Boundaries (Cape Falls) Online
Authors: Sam Crescent
His anger rose. Everything that had happened between Laura and he was private and completely consensual.
“I think you should leave,” he said and brushed past the younger man. This conversation was not to his taste.
“No. I think you should hear this. People in town think you’re the big news with no little secrets. Laura’s in love with you. Not a little, but a lot. She’s not eating or sleeping since you got rid of her.”
“I didn’t get rid of her,” Dean argued back, his gut twisting with thoughts of Laura in pain. Shit. He didn’t love her, did he? His heart had died with Carla.
“There’s a twenty-year age gap between you two. You can’t offer her anything on the long term. The town would shun you and Laura would be surrounded by gossip,” Peter said to him.
Dean wasn’t a stranger to the practice the younger man was wielding. He understood and respected Peter for his balls.
“Is this the part where you tell me you can do a better job?” he asked.
“Do you care about her? Or is she just another fuck?” Peter asked.
He saw red. No one talked about Laura like that. He grabbed the man by his shirt and slammed him into the wall.
“Don’t you dare be speaking that language about her in front of me. Laura is worth more than anything.” Dean snatched his hands away. His heart pounded and perspiration soaked his shirt. The heat and the situation made him feel trapped. He wasn’t ready to give up Laura. She was his one comfort in this world.
“Do you love her?” Peter asked.
Dean closed his eyes. He didn’t want to be asked questions about his feelings. How could he answer the question when he didn’t know the answer?
“I care about her,” he whispered even as his mind protested.
You, dick. You love her and you have ever since you saw her sitting on that fucking boulder writing in her diary.
“If you cared enough, you’d let her go,” Peter said.
No. Don’t let her go. I want to keep her. I love her.
“I think you should leave,” he said again.
“I mean it, Dean. I love her. Always have and always will. I’ll care for her and keep her safe,” Peter told him.
He understood what the man was saying but he couldn’t accept that his time with Laura would be over.
“How can you love a woman knowing she’s in love another man?” he asked. Laura was in love with him. She’d told him constantly and, like a man, he’d taken the words and not said anything in return. He was a shit head. She wouldn’t believe his words now, not after what happened with Kimmy. Taking her to the dinner had been a big mistake. He’d just been worried in case he’d slip up in front of her parents.
“I know her. For a while she’ll be heart broken but eventually she’ll come around. I can make her happy and give her the life she wants,” Peter said.
“Will you let her write? Pursue her passions in writing a book?” he asked him. Laura was a natural at writing. Her work was filled with intrigue and passion and her style flawless. Any editor would see the gift she possessed.
“Her writing is a hobby, so I guess it’ll stay that way. I’ll do everything in my power to make her happy.”
Dean nodded his head even though he knew by letting her go he’d be resigning her to a lifetime of shutting away her creativity. Would being with this boy send her muse away?
“I’ll see her tonight,” he said
“You know this is for the best.”
He didn’t know. He’d see Laura and make his decisions.
Dean waited for her outside his front door. He’d gone to the library after the visit with Peter and waited until she agreed to meet with him. She looked awful. Her eyes were black from lack of sleep and she looked weak.
The sunset came and he watched her walk along the path. Her bag looked way too big as it hung on her shoulder. He thought about what Peter wanted him to do and watching her walk towards him, he knew the man was right. Laura staying with him would be a big mistake. People in town would gossip about their relationship and she’d be the main source. Could he force her to a lifetime of ridicule because he didn’t want to let her go? What would happen when she was still so young and he’d be old? He couldn’t expect her to spend her years with him as he grew old. He was twenty years older than her, a very large age gap.
“You wanted to see me,” she said.
Dean nodded and gestured for her to go on ahead of him. She went to the kitchen and he made coffee. He really wanted booze, the strongest stuff he owned.
“I’ve been thinking, Laura. I’ve decided to move on,” He told her. He heard her gasp and he closed his eyes. He had to do this. “I’m selling this place and moving back to my old town.”
“You said you were moving on. Cape Falls was where you wanted to be,” she said.
“I know what I said. I’ve changed my mind.” He handed her the cup and she put it on the table.
“This is why you’ve brought me here? To tell me you’ve had your fun and now you’re leaving,” she shouted.
“I know you’re upset...”
“Down
fucking
right I’m upset. I gave you everything you asked of me. My friendship, my love, my fucking virginity and my body and now you’re telling me you’re leaving. You fucking bastard.”
The cup and the steaming coffee suddenly slammed into the wall. He watched the droplets of liquid slide down the wall.
“I hope you live a life of fucking misery,” she told him.
She walked out of his house and he followed after her. He didn’t stop her and watched her march away.
When he walked back into the kitchen he stared at the smashed cup and dialed the number. Peter answered on the first ring.
“It’s done,” was all he said and he hung up.
“I’m already in misery, baby,” he said.
Chapter Seventeen
Three months later
.
Time carried on as normal. College started back up and Laura dropped out. She got the fulltime position at the library and her night times she spent at the diner. Her belongings were removed from home and she shared the apartment with Peter.
The talk of the town was Dean Riley. He’d come and gone all in a matter of months, taking with him her heart. Laura did her best to put a smile on her face and to show to the world she was fine. No one but Peter knew the truth. Some people suspected about her condition. She’d lost weight and looked ill.
On an appointment to the doctor's she’d been told she was pregnant. When she thought back, Dean had rarely used a condom. She didn’t tell Peter, but one of the women who worked at the clinic had seen her and knew about her condition. Now the whole town knew. She was the brunt of all the gossip. Peter helped her when he could, even though many had already made up there ideas about her. Her parents refused to speak to her. The doctor had said she was about three months along and she guessed the last time they were together had been the cause.
“I want to make this all right for you,” Peter said one afternoon.
Even though she was pregnant, because of all the hours she worked, she’d lost all of her excess fat. She could see the small curve of her bump.
Peter got down on one knee and Laura closed her eyes, hoping he’d vanish when she opened her eyes.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
She opened her eyes and the tears sprang forward.
“I’m sorry, Peter. I can’t accept this,” she told. She handed him back the engagement ring and moved away from the sofa.
“I’m pregnant with another mans child. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me but I can't burden you with this. That isn’t fair and I won’t do it.”
Since Dean had left she’d tried to move on and make it work and failed in every area. Yes, the town would quieten down if she married Peter and he accepted the responsibility of her baby. She didn’t want that. This wasn’t his baby and she loved him only as a friend. A friend didn’t do that to another friend. Peter had tried to stop the gossip, but she couldn’t accept his marriage proposal. Like a heroine out of her books, she was cursed to love only one man.
“You don’t have to answer right away,” he said.
She ran her fingers through her lank hair. No life in her body or her hair. She was nothing more than a glorified zombie.
“Peter. I told you before. He, Dean, may not want me but I love him. It wasn’t some stupid schoolgirl crush.” She stopped. Talking about him always brought tears to her eyes.
“He left, Laura,” he argued.
The tears fell as they always did. She’d sat at a distance as the men who helped him move came to collect his stuff. Laura stayed there until the ‘for sale’ sign appeared.
“I know that,” she shouted at Peter, turning back to him for the argument. Peter cared about her but he never understood the pain she was going through.
“Love isn’t like some football game you can just turn off. I know he’s older than me and damaged, but I can’t control whom I love. Dean Riley is the man my heart fell for and I watched him leave me as if I meant nothing.” She rubbed the tears from her eyes. They were falling thick and fast.
“Do you want me to say yes to you? To marry you, Peter? Give birth to your children and pretend to be happy? When my daughter asks me about love and to know in my heart the only man I ever loved is a gazillion miles away, do I tell her, 'but hey, I settled for your father?'” Laura stared at him. Her eyes filled with tears, her whole body shaking with pain and fear.
“Maybe you would feel something for me with time,” he said.
She hated herself. Peter was kind and gentle. He thought he loved her. She didn’t really know and she wasn’t the type of woman to dispute his emotions. Laura turned from him and went through to her room and grabbed her diary. He followed her inside.
“I care about you, Peter. Really, I do. You’ve read this before and I think you should read it again. I don’t need it anymore.” Laura handed over her diary and grabbed her bag. “I’m going to work. Don’t wait up for me.”
The walk to the diner was slow and exhausting. She rubbed away the tears from her eyes for the thousandth time. People walked past her and she felt their stares.
The diner was busy considering it was almost Christmas. The changing area was dead when she walked in. Her locker stood in the far corner.
She thought back over the past few months and how quickly her life had changed. About five months ago she’d stood in this very spot thinking about Dean Riley and her unbearable crush on him. Her feelings hadn’t changed. She loved him still and she wished with all of her heart she could forget him and move on and love Peter the way he deserved.
Laura made herself move to the diner, her uniform hung from her body from the weight loss. She went through the same motions, taking orders and pouring coffee. Nothing mattered to her anymore. The life she’d wanted ceased to exist. Even her writing had stopped.
For the rest of the night she tuned out her own pain and carried on with her work, disregarding the pain in her whole body. Her hands shook and every time she moved she felt dizzy. She was pouring more coffee into a mug when the world went black.
Chapter Eighteen
Dean sat at his kitchen table nursing a headache. Last night the final proofs for his story had been sorted and he’d hit the whisky, a little too hard. The sudden banging on the door made his head feel like exploding.
“I’m coming,” he croaked and walked the short distance in his apartment from kitchen to the front door.
Peter Miller stormed through the door.
“Why have you come here?” Dean asked the young man. The last conversation he had with him had resulted in the end of his world.
“Because I care about Laura. Since you’ve been gone, she doesn’t live anymore. She only exists,” Peter told him.
Shit
. Dean couldn’t deal with this. Not now.
“You’re the one who said she could love you,” he said to Peter.
“I lied,” said Peter.
Dean felt his gut twist and he turned from the accusing stare of the man younger than him. He walked back through to his kitchen and took some pills to ease his head.
“Laura, deserves something better and that something that isn’t me,” Peter told him, pointing to his own chest.
Dean snorted and swallowed his coffee. His head was easing in a matter of moments.
“If you could see her, you wouldn’t be arguing with me right now," Peter continued. "She’s dying, Mr Riley.”
He stopped and looked at the younger man who stood back from the table.
“What the fuck are you talking about? You told me to stay away from her, remember? I was a perverted bastard using her for sex,” he reminded Peter.
“Well, were you using her?” Peter asked.
“I fucking wasn’t. I loved Laura. I still do, but you told me she could get better. This is me staying away. I don’t even want to talk about the amount of times I’ve gotten in my car, ready to drive back to her. I promised I’d stay away.”
“Laura’s pregnant.”
Dean stared at him. “What did you say?”
“She’s pregnant, Dean. She’s in the hospital after collapsing. The doctors don’t think the baby’s going to survive. The stress and all the additional work she’s been doing has made her weak,” Peter informed him.
