Serena's Choice - Coastal Romance Series (20 page)

“
She was here to check on me
because of the storm.”

“
How do you know her? Why would
she be concerned about you?”

“
She and her husband own a
little restaurant down the beach. They’re just friendly people who
take an interest in the people that live here. They’ve been here a
long time.”

“
She’s married?”

“
Yes. Didn’t you see her
husband in the car waiting on her?”

That stopped Janet for a minute.
But just for a minute.

“
What’s the name of their
restaurant?” she asked with a glint in her eye. She thought she had
him now, but Steven was ready for her. He had learned to be ready for
her the hard way.

“
Josie’s,” he said. “It’s
just a little shrimp shack.”

“
We should go there for supper
tonight,” Janet said. “I’d like some shrimp.”

“
We aren’t going anywhere,
but you are. You’re leaving.”

Janet walked into the kitchen and
poured herself a glass of wine. Great, Steven thought. Let’s add
alcohol to this travesty.

“
I have every right to be here.
I’m your wife, remember?”

“
I’ve tried hard to forget
it,” Steven said, regretting it. Not that it wasn’t true, but it
would only flame the constant fire going in Janet.

“
Janet, how much longer are you
going to drag this out? I’ve been trying to be divorced from you
for over two years now. I don’t feel married to you at all. Why
would you want to stay married to someone who doesn’t want to be
married to you?”

“
Because,” she said
theatrically, pointing her finger at him. “Because you still love
me and you know it. Now I’m willing to forgive your leaving me the
way you did, but you’ve got to come on back home where you belong.”

Steven decided to stop talking
then. He wanted to call Serena. He wanted to go to her and explain
everything, but he would have to wait until Janet was gone. And she
would be gone. He was going to make sure of that. He got a beer from
the refrigerator and took the wine bottle to the living room where he
refilled Janet’s glass. He had noticed another bottle of wine in
the refrigerator and he thanked himself for getting two bottles. He
was going to need them. Janet loved to drink wine.

“
Let’s watch a movie or
something,” Steven said picking up the remote. He found a classic
movie station and left it there. Janet loved the dramatic black and
white movies. “Oh, I love this one,” she said, settling into her
side of the couch. “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.”

“
Let me check,” Steven said.
He opened the cabinet doors and saw the half package of vermicelli
that remained after the delicious pasta that Serena had made him.
He’d be damned if Janet would have any of that pasta. He opened the
refrigerator. “I’ve got some cheese and crackers,” he called to
Janet.

“
I guess that’ll have to do,”
Janet sighed. “Unless we go out somewhere.”

“
Everything’s closed today.
That’s what Alicia was telling me. Because of the storm.”

“
Oh,” Janet said absently.
She was getting involved in the movie. Steven made a plate of sliced
cheddar cheese and grabbed a box of Ritz crackers. He put them on the
middle couch cushion, between him and Janet. It was only cheese and
crackers, but it always felt safest to have something between him and
Janet. Of course, she could pick up the plate of cheese and throw it
at him, followed by the box of crackers. It wouldn’t be the first
time she’d thrown something at him. He still had the scar on his
leg to prove it.

“
I love this scene, when she
sticks her butt out to get a ride,” Janet said. They were watching
It Happened One Night
with Claudette Colbert. Janet munched on
the cheese and crackers as she raptly watched the movie. She seemed
almost child-like in her pure enjoyment. Of course, it was that very
quality about her that had attracted Steven in the first place. She
had been so full of life, so unexpected in her joy. He had loved her
then.

Steven kept refilling Janet’s
glass, but she didn’t seem to notice. She kept drinking it, glass
after glass. On the last refill, she said, “Steven Calloway, I do
believe you’re trying to get me drunk.” Steven had a sinking
feeling. Janet batted her eyelashes at him and smiled flirtatiously.

Whew. It was okay.

Toward the end of the movie,
Janet began to slur her speech. “That was good,” she slurred.
“Let’s watch another one.” The next movie came on, but Steven
didn’t even register what it was. He was waiting. Janet’s head
began to nod, then she would whip it back up, only to nod down again.
Finally, excruciatingly, she nodded and kept her head down. She was
asleep. Or passed out. Steven waited a full fifteen minutes before he
got up from the couch.

Earlier in the evening, he had
planned to leave after Janet passed out and call her parents to tell
them where she was. But he realized that Janet might leave his house
and then they’d never know where she was. He’d never know when
she’d turn up. He had to do this methodically and right. He went
into the back bedroom and shut the door. He locked it. It was late,
but that didn’t matter. He dialed Janet’s parents’ number,
which he kept on his phone just in case. Just in case had just
arrived.

“
Mr. Welker,” he said when
the old man answered the phone. He’d never called him anything but
Mr. Welker.

“
Yes,” Mr. Welker said
groggily.

“
This is Steven. Janet’s here
and I need you to come get her.”

Mr. Welker cleared his throat.
“Janet’s with Steven, “ he heard him say to Janet’s mother.

“
You mean she’s in Tampa?”
Steven had told Janet that his new job was in Tampa. He didn’t want
Janet to ever be able to find him.

“
No, not Tampa. I live on the
coast of Florida in the panhandle.”

“
I thought you were in Tampa.”

“
No. Listen, I need for you to
come and get her. This has gone on long enough. She needs to be under
someone’s care.”

“
Okay,” Mr. Welker said.
“We’ll leave early in the morning.”

Steven gave him the directions.
“I’ll expect you sometime tomorrow evening,” he said before
hanging up the phone.

Then, while he had the free time
from Janet, he texted Serena. “It’s not how it seems,” he
wrote. “Please let me explain it to you. I love you.” He didn’t
know what he’d do if Serena wanted to see him right away, because
he still had to deal with Janet. His explanations to Serena would
have to wait. He stayed in the dark room for an hour, hoping that
Serena would text him back, but she didn’t.

He went back to the living room
where Janet still sat with her head on her chest. He lay her down on
the couch and covered her with a blanket. In sleep, Janet looked
angelic and sweet-faced. He went to bed in his own room, missing
Serena. Missing the feel of her body against his. Missing her kisses.

The next morning, he woke up to
Janet jostling him awake. “What the hell?” he said.

“
Come on. Get up,” she said.
She was still in her childish mode.

“
I want to go in the ocean,”
she said with a delighted smile. “It’s not raining anymore and
the sun is out.”

“
The surf’s still got to be
rough,” Steven said, not wanting to spend the day on the beach with
Janet.

“
Are you scared of it?” she
taunted.

“
No.”

“
I found this bathing suit
hanging on a hook in the other bathroom,” she said, turning around
for him to admire her. “It’s too big, of course. It’s an eight
and I wear a two, but it’ll do.”

Steven looked on in horror as
Janet turned. She was wearing Serena’s bathing suit. Serena must
have hung it on that hook and forgotten about it. They hadn’t been
to the water since that day they spent there, so she had no reason to
need it. The fabric hung on Janet’s tiny figure, especially around
the breasts. The blue bathing suit was garish against Janet’s pale
skin. Steven thought with longing of Serena in that bathing suit, the
peacock blue fabric complementing her olive complexion, hugging her
curves. Serena!

“
I didn’t even know that
bathing suit was there,” he said. That much was true. “I’ve
never even been in that bathroom.” That was true, too. “The guy
before me must have left it there. His girlfriend or wife.”

“
Let’s go,” Janet said
excitedly, ignoring him. “Surf’s up!”

Steven dragged himself out of
bed. He checked his phone. Nothing. He found his bathing suit on the
hook in his own bathroom and put it on. It would be good to take some
drinks with them. It would be hot out there. He put the rest of his
beers in the cooler along with a large bottle of Coke. He guessed
they could walk down the beach to one of those little seafood shacks
and get something to eat for lunch.

He grabbed some towels and a
blanket, the same ones he had used when he and Serena went to the
beach. That made him sick, but he was working toward a mission today.
Keep Janet placated, then get her out of there. He found the
sunscreen in the medicine cabinet. Janet would need that more than he
would. Steven handed the towels and blanket to Janet and picked up
the cooler. Together, they walked out to the beach.

The waves were rough, but people
were in the water. He saw two teenage boys trying to surf on
Styrofoam surfboards. They would get up on a wave for a second, then
come crashing down, dragged to the shore in the waves. They did it
over and over.

Janet spread the blanket on the
white sand and sat down. “Put the sunscreen on my back, Beachboy,”
she commanded. Steven cringed at the nickname Janet called him. It
was endearing before they got married. Now it grated on his nerves.
Now it was a cruel joke. He sat on the blanket behind her and rubbed
the sunscreen all over her back and handed the bottle back to her.

“
Don’t you want to rub it all
over me?” she asked, giving him an impish look.

“
I don’t think that would be
appropriate out here on a public beach,” he said. Remember, keep
her placated.

“
You’re silly, Beachboy,”
she said. “But I still love you.”

It was going to be a long day.

Janet stretched out on the
blanket on her stomach. After a few minutes, she turned to her back.
Then she jumped up. “I’m going in the water,” she said.

“
I think it’s too rough,”
Steven called to her. But she didn’t hear him because she was
almost at the water’s edge. She walked in slowly, pulling water up
in her palms and splashing it over her body. Steven noticed the
teenage boys looking at her. She was a stunning woman, that was true.
But she was also cunning and manipulative and mentally ill. Couldn’t
tell that just by looking at her, though.

Steven popped open a beer and
took a long swig. He watched Janet, now waist-high in the water. She
turned around and waved at him. He waved back half-heartedly. She
motioned for him to join her in the water. He shook his head. She
turned back around and Steven took another swig of beer. He looked
down the beach one way, then the other. When he looked back at Janet,
she was in up to her neck.

Should he go in and get her? She
didn’t have any kind of float or anything. Then she started
swimming and was beyond the waves. Her head bobbed in the water and
she seemed a long way out. Too far out.

Steven jumped up and ran to the
ocean and into the water. He started swimming as soon as he could in
strong strokes. When he reached her, she was treading water and
smiling at him with one of her effervescent, movie star smiles.

“
Did you come to rescue me,
Beachboy?” she asked.

“
Yes,” he said. “You’re
too far out. Come on. Let’s go back.”

Janet held onto Steven’s arm as
he worked his way through the water. When they hit the surf, the
waves beat down hard and separated them. He came up out of the sandy
water and looked all around. No Janet. Panic seized him. This was not
how he wanted things to go. Then Janet popped up beside him. “Here
I am,” she said. “Were you worried?”

Steven was so relieved he smiled
at Janet. He needed to deliver her to her parents whole and without
injury. “Yes, I was worried. Let’s go sit on the sand. I don’t
like that water today.”

She grabbed his hand and
practically skipped back to the blanket. “I need more sunscreen,”
she said handing him the bottle. He had a vision of rubbing sunscreen
on Serena’s back. He had rubbed over her shoulder and reached into
the top of her bathing suit to her breast. She had turned around and
kissed him.

Janet got the Coke and a plastic
cup from the cooler and poured a drink. Steven finished his beer,
then popped another. He needed to stop after that one. He needed his
wits about him for the evening ahead.

“
I like this white sand,”
Janet said. “It’s like sugar. Sand is so different in different
places. Remember that pink sand in Bermuda when we went on our
honeymoon?”

“
Yes,” Steven said. He had
been happy then, newly married to the most exciting woman he’d ever
met. His happiness had soon turned to anger and sorrow.