Dream of Me: A Sweet Contemporary Romance (11 page)

“I can’t see you letting anything break you.”

Corbin stood abruptly and took his plate to the sink. Someone had almost broken him six years ago, and he still bore the scars. “I’ve had my moments like everyone else. Thanks for breakfast; I haven’t had biscuits that good in a long time.”

She watched him go with a wry smile. Had she said the wrong thing again?

* * * *

Aubrey slipped on rubber-soled shoes and headed out the door. As the distance grew between her and the house, so did her guilt. She should have let Corbin know where she was going. But then again, once Phoebe made an appearance, he wasn’t likely to worry about what she was doing.

All would have been well with this plan had Aubrey simply taken a walk and returned. She would have had her spurt of rebellion without anyone being the wiser. But situations have a way of changing quickly, and Aubrey had no idea her innocent outing would have such far-reaching consequences.

The morning air was crisp with its familiar salty tang. Aubrey felt all the cares and worries of the past twenty-four hours slip away. She hardly noticed the wind picking up except to delight in the coolness it brought to her warm skin. There were some dark clouds on the horizon, but safe in the knowledge that she’d be home long before any storm arrived, she walked on.

Faint cries pierced the air causing Aubrey to stop and glance around. The sounds were coming from behind a clump of sea oats. Pushing aside the long fronds, she spied a small figure lying in the sand. Frightened blue eyes, their long lashes spiked with tears, stared up at her. Aubrey noticed that the little girl’s long reddish-blonde hair was matted with blood.

“Hello, there. What’s your name?”

“Chloe.”

“You seem to have hurt yourself. Can I take a look at your head?” Aubrey crouched down beside the little girl and began pulling away the bloody strands of hair. Her probing fingers found a good-sized scrape bleeding sluggishly. “How did this happen?”

“I fell down and hit that rock.” Pointing a small, grubby finger, the child indicated a sharp-edged rock half hidden in the sand.

“I think the best plan would be for us to find your Mom.”

“I can’t go home like this. Mommy doesn’t know I left.”

Grinning at this ingenuous speech, Aubrey stood and the child followed suit. “Then we’ll surprise her. Where do you live?”

“That way.” She pointed in the direction Aubrey had been going.

“Would you like me to carry you?”

“No. It’s just my head that hurts, not my legs.”

Aubrey was touched when a small hand came to rest in hers as the two began walking. After passing several houses, she began to wonder if Chloe knew where she was going. Before she could voice her doubts, the little girl stopped in front of a yellow house perched high on its wooden stilts.

“This is my house,” Chloe announced proudly.

The screen door flew open, and a young woman wearing a look of exasperation and anxiety came running down the stairs to meet them.

“Chloe! Did you sneak off to the beach again?” Her glance went to Aubrey. “Thank you for bringing her back. I just noticed she wasn’t on the deck.”

“You’re welcome. She’s got a small cut on her head.”

The woman nodded. “That’s not surprising.” To the little girl, she said, “Go into the bathroom, Chloe, and wash your hands. I’ll be there in a minute.” She turned back to Aubrey. “I’m Tonya Willems, Chloe’s mother.”

“Aubrey Sommers.”

“Are you a resident or a tourist? I’m new to Tybee and haven’t sorted everyone out yet.”

“I live here. I work for Corbin Reeves.”

“Oh, the cute guy that builds houses.”

Hiding a smile, Aubrey said, “Yeah, that’s the one.”

“I better see to Chloe,” Tonya stated with a rueful smile.

Aubrey glanced into a sky that was darkening rapidly. “And I should get going. It was nice meeting you, Tonya.”

Deciding it would be quicker to use the road instead of returning to the beach, she set off at a fast pace. The sun was quickly disappearing and the breeze that had been so refreshing earlier was giving way to a cold wind that had her rubbing her arms. Aubrey broke into a run just as the ominous clouds overhead opened and the rain started, going from sporadic fat drops hitting the pavement to sheets of water in a matter of minutes.
Why had she walked so far?
With a groan, she put up her arm to shield her face from the pelting rain. There was a brief flash of light and then what sounded like a bomb exploded in her ears. Sparks flew from the wires attached to the electric pole on the opposite side of the street.  

Soaked to the skin and more scared than she could ever remember, she ran to the closest house and scrambled up the short flight of stairs. Over the pounding of her heart, she could hear the storm worsening.
What was she going to do?
The toot of a horn brought her head up. A car was pulling into the driveway next to the house. In a few minutes, a tall figure appeared carrying a familiar umbrella.

“Do you always walk during thunderstorms?”

Aubrey tried to smile, but couldn’t quite manage it. “C-can we g-go inside?” she asked through chattering teeth. “I’m fr-freezing.”

Richard eyed her sodden appearance with concern. “You need to get out of those clothes.” Opening the door, he motioned for her to precede him into the house. “Let me see what I can find for you to put on.”

“I hate to put you to all this trouble,” she replied as another shiver ran through her.

Richard led the way down a narrow hallway to a bedroom. “It’s no trouble. I’ll be right back.”

A quick glance told Aubrey this wasn’t his room and she relaxed.

He returned carrying a black terry cloth robe. “Here you go. The bathroom is through that door behind you. Take as long as you need. I’m going to make you something hot to drink.”

Aubrey was surprised by the thoughtfulness displayed by someone she knew from experience to be somewhat self-serving. “Thank you, Richard.”

“I can be nice enough when I want to.”

“Let’s don’t get started on that,” she said firmly.

He grinned as he walked to the door. “Bring out your wet things, and I’ll throw them in the dryer.”

Aubrey slipped out of her clothes and into the robe Richard provided. It hung past her fingers and dragged the ground when she walked, but she didn’t care. She was warm again. Her hair was another story. The small comb she found in one of the drawers wouldn’t begin to do the job. The best she could do at this point was stop the dripping.

She tracked Richard down in the kitchen, her clothes rolled into a ball. “If you’ll show me where the dryer is, I’ll take care of these.”

Looking up from pouring coffee into cups, he pointed to a pair of folding doors just beyond the pantry. “Right through there.”

When she returned, he eyed her comedic appearance with amusement. “Feel better?”

“Much better,” she assured him.

“Now you can sit on the furniture.”

Aubrey settled on one end of the couch and tucked her feet underneath her.

“Seriously, what were you doing outside?” he asked as he handed her an oversized mug.

“The sun was shining when I left. I wish the storm would move on. I need to get back; they’ll be wondering where I am.”

“
They
will? Has Paul returned? I must be behind on the gossip.”

“No, my sister arrived yesterday.”

“Is she pretty like you?”

“Does it matter? She’s one of those blondes you find so overrated.”

“Did I really say that?” he asked with a wry grin.

“Yes, along with a bunch of other things I should have ignored.”

He reached into his pocket and removed his cell phone. “Excuse me for a few minutes, Aubrey. I’ve been waiting on this call.” She heard his exclamation of pleasure and then a subsequent lowering of his voice as he strolled out of the room. Rolling her eyes, she picked up a magazine from the coffee table.
He’d probably be a while.

Aubrey was half way through an article about the history of Tybee Island when someone knocked on the front door. Richard still hadn’t returned. She went to peer through the blinds, her eyes widening with dismay when they fell on Corbin standing on the doorstep. Even with an umbrella, he was soaked, but it was his expression that made her swallow quickly.

Before she could decide what to do, he pounded on the door again. With trembling fingers, she opened the door, her face mirroring a mixture of fear and guilt. Corbin’s eyes swept over her robe-clad figure with a look that brought the color surging into her pale cheeks.

“Didn’t you think Phoebe and I might worry when you disappeared from the house and didn’t return?” His glance moved over her again. “Of course you didn’t. You had more important things on your mind. It wouldn’t have taken but a few seconds to tell me your plans, and it would have saved me a wasted morning looking for you.”

Before she could utter a word in reply, he was gone. She was still standing at the door watching his taillights disappear in the swirling rain when Richard returned.

“Aubrey, what are you doing? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

She smiled wanly, thinking a ghost would have been preferable. “I need to check on my clothes.”

In a daze of jumbled emotions, she opened the dryer and felt her clothes. They were slightly damp, but dry enough for her purpose. Remembering the contempt in Corbin’s face when he saw what she was wearing, she hurried down the hall into the guest room. She had to get out of Richard’s robe.

As she dressed, a flame of resentment began to build inside her. All she was guilty of was leaving the house without telling anyone. She wasn’t answerable to Corbin or anyone else for how she chose to spend her time. As for finding her with Richard, it was obvious what interpretation he put on her being there. He hadn’t even given her a chance to explain.

Aubrey rejoined Richard with a demeanor that successfully hid her agitation. Luckily, the conversation didn’t require any response from her. She nodded from time to time, not really listening to the woes of dealing with seasonal renters. All she could hear was the quiet disgust in Corbin’s voice.
Who was he to judge her?

When Richard decided it was safe to venture outside, she rose with conflicting feelings. On the one hand, she was impatient to be gone. On the other, she dreaded the inevitable meeting with Corbin. She said nothing as Richard drove carefully through the drizzling rain, maneuvering around tree limbs and other debris lying on the road.

His deep voice broke into her thoughts. “Here you are, delivered safe and sound.”

“Thanks, Richard, for coming to my rescue.”

He stretched his arm along the back of the seat, just touching her shoulder. “I hope this goes a little way toward making up for the other rainy afternoon that ended so disastrously.”

‘We should forget that other one. Neither of us handled that well.”

“You mean I didn’t handle it well, don’t you? I don’t recall you doing anything you need to feel badly about.”

“It takes two people to have a disagreement. I better get inside; it looks like the rain might start up again. Goodbye.”

Aubrey got out of the car, taking her time on the slippery pavement before letting herself into the darkened foyer. The silence in the house was somehow eerie. Shaking off such fanciful thoughts, she went straight to her room, relieved by Corbin’s apparent absence. She slipped off her shoes and meandered into the bathroom. A shower was what she needed.

For the moment, everything was forgotten as she allowed the hot water to run over her. It was as if she was washing away all the problems of the last few days. Wrapped in a short toweling robe, Aubrey moved toward the mirror.

Had she looked like this when she opened the door to Corbin? Maybe there was some justification for his reaction. Turning away quickly, she walked into the bedroom. Something made her glance toward the door. She couldn’t suppress a scream when her eyes caught the tall figure standing just inside the room.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked in a breathless voice.

“I knocked, but no one answered. Does that sound familiar?” Corbin asked softly.

She pulled the robe together more tightly. “I didn’t think anyone was home.”

“Don’t you mean you didn’t want anyone to be home?”

“No, I didn’t mean that. Do you mind if we continue this conversation downstairs? I’d like to get dressed.”

“This won’t take long.”

The words, quite innocent sounding on their own, had the opposite effect on Aubrey. “Where’s Phoebe?”

The man watching her so intently smiled faintly. “Feel the need for reinforcements?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I just wondered where she went.”

“She met a friend in town.”

“I didn’t realize she knew anyone here.” Aubrey knew she was babbling, but couldn’t stop herself.

Corbin ignored this tame topic. “Things must have worked out better with Richard this time around.”

There was a wealth of insinuation in his voice, and Aubrey felt her anger of earlier return in full force. “Do you always assume the worst of every situation? I took a walk and got caught in the storm. The porch I took shelter under happened to be attached to Richard’s house.”

His eyes, which had never moved from her, seemed to blaze with some inner emotion. “Who knew a storm could produce such results?”

“The storm produced nothing,” she countered angrily.

Corbin laughed. “Women are strange creatures – the worse a man treats them, the better they like it.”

Aubrey’s face paled. “I think you should leave; those kinds of comments aren’t getting us anywhere.”

Instead of going, he advanced toward her. Aubrey found she couldn’t look away from that mesmerizing stare. “All these denials are a bit much, don’t you think? You were wearing his robe.”

“And in your mind, there’s only one explanation for that, isn’t there? Well, think what you like. I’m tired of trying to explain something that’s none of your business.”