Page 40 of Ebbing Tides
“Oh God, you know, I don't really know …”
“That terrible, huh?” Sid jabbed, a grin in his tone.
Grabbing a bottle of water, I nudged the fridge shut with my hip as I twisted the cap off and took a swig. “It was, um …” I grunted a short laugh and shook my head. “It was incredible, all right?”
He laughed boisterously. “Oh, you are fuckin'gone, bro.”
My laughter dwindled as his own carried through the phone line. I held the bottle between both hands as I looked down into Lido's expectant gaze, and I nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” I replied, my voice hoarse despite the water. “I think I might be.”
The admission left my lungs empty and weak as my eyes fixated on somewhere beyond the dog and the house.Somewhere inside, as if seeking out the answers within my heart, my soul.
Had I lost my damn mind? It was impossible to think about love regarding a woman I'd known for an accumulation of ten, twelve hours, give or take a couple. But it had to mean something that I felt the same way I had years ago, didn't it? There had to be some sort of explanation for the way her heart seemed to speak to mine, and I knew it was something beyond lust. If that wasn't love, then what? The promise of what could someday be?
“You think I'm crazy, right?” I asked Sid.
“No more crazy than I thought you were back then,” he replied. “But now, I gotta ask you, Serg … what're you gonna do about it?”
Yeah, I thought, nodding.What am I gonna do?
***
Charlie's little cottage should've seemed out of place in the middle of the old cemetery.
Smoke billowed from the chimney, the windows aglow with life within the stone walls. A home for the living should have stuck out like a sore thumb, standing on a hill in the middle of the sleeping dead … but it didn't. Instead, it added a touch of warmth to the landscape of snow and stone, yet I felt nothing but the cold chill of rejection as I walked up the hill to Charlie's front door.
It seemed like the only option this morning, after I'd talked to Sid at length and lost a couple of hours of sleep in the process. I needed to talk to Melanie, and as I took care of Dad and got himset for the night, I thought I had what I needed to say committed to memory. I'd recited my lines on the way here, over and over, until I was certain I had memorized them. But now, standing in front of Charlie's door, I wasn't so sure of myself or the words I'd practiced.
I wanted to run, to forget that any of this had ever transpired. But I hadn't braved hell to behave as a coward in the face of the woman of my dreams.
So, I stood my ground and knocked on the door.
Moments later, Charlie answered.
He blocked the doorway with his frame and seemed to study me as if he didn't know what to say, what to do, how to react, and I wondered what Melanie had told him.
“Max,” he finally said. “Something wrong?”
Of course he’d think something was wrong. It wasn’t like me to show up at his door at all, let alone an hour before I was supposed to work.
“No,” I quickly said, shaking my head and diverting my eyes to the doormat beneath my feet. “Nothing’s wrong. I was just”—I attempted to glance around him into the living room—“hoping to talk to Melanie.”
He grunted an acknowledging sound while shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Was he trying to block my view? Was he trying to shieldherfromme?
“She told me you guys had a good time yesterday,” he said, his eyes still holding that hint of skepticism.
I tried to keep my face stoic, neutral. Not wanting him to know what had transpired in the dead of night if he didn’t know already.
“We did. I really, uh …” I pursed my lips, searching for the words. “Felt a connection with her.”
No pun intended.
Charlie nodded, his features unreadable and as hard as stone. “She said the same about you.”
“Is she around?”
Charlie narrowed his dark eyes. He didn't scare me by nature, not in the way he seemed to spook the local kids for his choice of occupation and taste in attire. But right now, judging from the look in his eyes, I suddenly believed that Charlie Corbin could kill a man. For the right reasons, that was, and I was rapidly starting to believe that protecting his sister-in-law could be reason enough.
