Love Revealed: A BWWM Sweet Romance Novel (14 page)

"Yes, it's Guy Murtagh."

"So, tell me Guy, this here beautiful woman your wife?"

"No, we just started a relationship though, early days."

Betty looked at Darla and then at Guy. "I can tell it's going to be a good one though. You are both giving me the sense I used to get in the old days when I would see a young couple on their first dates. So sweet and I can see a good future in store for you all."

Guy took out the laptop and started up the photo app. "Hey, whats this then, I thought you said you had photos to show me?"

"Yes, I scanned them into the computer, saves me having to carry them all around."

"Ah, but the fun and the memory is holding them and seeing all the little bumps and curly edges, I love looking through my boxes of old photos."

"Yes, I do too, but this way, you can look at them whenever you want and not damage them anymore, as I'm sure you know photos age pretty badly. Maybe you have lost some too that you would love to have back?"

"Thats true. Lost my wedding photo in a fire back before we moved in here. It was the only photo we had at the time and it's gone, forever. But I have a copy in my mind and I can look at that one whenever I want too,” she smiled and everyone smiled too.

"Okay, so here is one of us all together, sitting outside the diner, I think this was our first summer here. I'm only three years old."

"Ow wow, look how new the diner looks. Look at that car too, the cars back then were so fabulous weren't they?"

"Wow, Guy, is that really you?You look so cute and small." Adeen asked.

"Yes, that’s me. Heres another around the time I broke my arm and my dad brought me across to the mainland and we had to stay in the hospital overnight."

"I remember that all right, I think I gave you a pie to take home?"

"You did, it was a cherry pie which are now my favourite!" Guy said.

"I think I am remembering your folks now, summer people would come and go over the years, but the island families were always great until recently of course and lots of them sold up to the big companies. You aren't gonna sell out are you?"

"No, not as long as I’m around anyway. It belongs to me and my siblings, but I think I'll be the main occupant for a while till my nieces and nephews get a bit bigger."

"Have you been out on the island my little sweetheart?" Betty asked Adeen.

"Yes, we were just out there last week. But then my grandma went back to the hospital so we had to come back out here again."

"Oh yes, I'm sorry to hear that honey. I knew your grandma, not very well, but I knew her from different charity drives and Christmas fairs and things like that over the years. She seemed like a lovely lady, so I am sorry she is passed now."

"Thank you Betty that means a lot coming from you."

"So what you folks up to now? You going back to your island?" Betty asked.

"I don't know we haven't discussed that yet." Guy said.

"Well, I'll let you be on your way and you can get to talking. Thanks so much for stopping by and showing your photographs, anytime you’re in for a while and you got a minute, theres no problem popping back here and saying hello. You’re always welcome, all of you."

“Thank you, I am sure we will take you up on that offer, Betty." Guy said.

"Ok, goodbye Betty, thank you for the pie and company." Darla said.

"Thanks Betty, you bake the nicest pie." Adeen said as she gave Betty a big hug.

"Why thank you honey, thats good to hear from a little one, they tend not to like pie as much these days, want things with much more sugar in them and who knows what else.Anyway, nice to have you over, see you."

They left Betty's house feeling content and very full, they walked back to the car and sat for a while, discussing what they should do next. Darla had to hang around to wait for the will at the end of the week, and Guy really needed to get back to writing. They decided it was best for Guy to get back to the island and Darla and Adeen would come over on Friday night. He drove them home, picked up his stuff and gave Darla a big kiss goodbye. It was only going to be three full days before he saw her again, but he knew he was going to miss her a lot.

Guy typed away at his keyboard. The last two days he had been writing non stop, it had all just flowed out of him so easily. He didn't know if it was because he was so content with his life right now, if it was the various emotional feelings he had over the last few weeks, from the highest to the lows of seeing Darla in so much pain. But he felt so open to the characters and the words he was writing. Which was all very good, as he was well behind on his work. His editor and publisher had left him many messages and emails and he sent one message to them each just saying to give him another day and he would call them and explain it all. That had seemed to placate them and they had stopped harassing him.
 

 
He had spoken with Darla over video chat each evening, she was still set to meet him at the harbour in town for him to pick them up on Friday evening, which was the next day, so he was hoping to have most of what he needed to send off to his editors finished. He had tidied up about the place and washed all the bed linens so everything would be nice and fresh when they arrived. He sorted through the old family home videos, and took the projector out of the closet in his parents room, he wanted to show them both his parents and siblings and what life had been like for him, especially here at the cabin, seeing as they were going to be spending a lot of time there.
 

Friday arrived and Guy took out some frozen meat to make up hamburgers for the girls to cook on the barbecue later that night. He was so excited he couldn't believe it. He had stayed up until eleven writing the night before, but made himself wake up at five today, so as to get a full days work in. He had finished the amount of words he had wanted to have done to send off to his editor. He had just emailed the file and was awaiting the surprised response.
 

 
The day flew by for Guy and when it finally came time for him to sail off to he mainland at five, he was almost giddy. As he neared the harbour he could see two figures standing there, one taller than the other. He knew straight away it was them. As he got closer, Adeen began to jump up and down.
 

"Hey missy, you that excited to see me?" he asked Adeen as the boat docked and tied it up.
 

"Can I tell him mom, can I tell him! Please,” she pleaded.

"Sure go ahead." Darla said.

"Oh Guy, you'll never believe it, Grandma left us the house in her will! We get to live there in that big old house! I'll have my own room! I can't believe it."

"Wow, I can't believe it either, thats super generous of your mother. What about your siblings?" he asked Darla.

"Well," she said handing him their luggage, "as the house is in a pretty bad way for the most part and needs a lot of work done, the value was actually less than the money she left for each of them, not by much though, but as I am the only one without a home of my own she left it to me."

"And how did they take that?"

"Monika and Chuck were fine with it, but the other two who were in over video chat had a few words to say about it, even though they both own fully their own homes and received the money. I mean the money it’s going to cost to refit the house and modernise it is a lot. So Chuck says he'll go out and talk with them, smooth things over, can't be falling out over something like that."

"Well, congratulations, when do you receive the keys?"

"Monday morning. You want to come with us to get them?"

"Of course."

Over the weekend, they played board games, Guy helped Adeen with her story that she was continuing to write. They ate a lot of great food and each evening Darla and Guy bonded even more. They told each other their funny stories, some embarrassing ones and some sad ones too. They both felt like they were getting to know each other better and falling more in love with each moment. Guy felt close enough to Darla that one night when Adeen was in bed, he asked Darla to come out to the back of the island. He had brought his parents ashes with him and explained how he had meant to do it on Midsummers Eve, but with everything that happened, he hadn’t had time. So he said a few words and spread their ashes out into the sea surrounding one of their favourite places. They hugged each other and both felt very close and bonded at that moment. Guy dreaded them leaving Monday morning, but leave they did and he had his writing to get back to, so he could not afford to wallow for long.
 

 
The month of July continued on like this, they visited on the weekends and they all had a fun time and were sad each Monday. Guy had realised that there was no way he could leave come September. He would have to look into selling his home and finding a rental out here. His place was really modern and very big, with a great piece of land, he was sure he would have no problem selling it. The only problem was that it would mean going back to Virginia as soon as possible to pack all his belongings. He hadn't even spoken to a real estate agent yet, but he thought it best to pack up now, so that he could spend the rest of his summer out at the cabin with Darla and Adeen, and if the house sold, well it would just be paperwork, no need for him to go out and move. It would also mean leaving Darla and Adeen for at most a week he guessed. Maybe he could grab a friend from town and ask for some help packing and he could get it done faster he thought.
 

 
He decided to call a real estate agent in the morning.
 

Guy waved goodbye to Darla and Adeen and got into the car. He couldn't bear to look at little Adeen’s tiny sad face any longer or he'd crack. He was only going for a week or maybe two at the most he told her, but still she said she would miss him. He understood in a way, for a kid two weeks is an eternity, they are still learning about time and distance and all that, plus she just lost her grandma and has just gained a sort of father figure in a pretty small period of time, he understood completely. It still made him sad though, to see her upset, which he figured was a good thing, he wasn't a cold heartless person and maybe could be good a this father stuff.
 

Darla was fine about it all, she was happy of course that he was going to be moving to their town. They hadn't really discussed him moving into her new house, it was still too soon for that they thought, but he had picked out an apartment with two bedrooms to rent right in town, Nancy from the diner had found it for him, it was her brother in laws, so the price was decent and it was big enough for most of his stuff.
 

He had made contact with a great agency, they were over the moon, as they put it, that his house was going to be on the market. They had advised him it was best to get started right away, a lot of people house browse during the summer, when they are at summer homes and taking drives, so he may get a few looky loos in at first, but once fall arrived there would be more serious buyers. He was not looking forward to packing his life away. He had lived in the house for six years, having moved there for his job as an I.T guy at a local accountants, he had then bought the house after renting, when he sold his first book. So, he hadn't owned it long, but had lived there a while.
 

The drive took him ten hours, he stopped twice, for bathroom breaks and food, but he wanted to get there by night fall, which he just about managed. Pulling into his long tree shaded driveway was actually an emotional moment for him, he remembered taking his parents here for the first time and how delighted they had been for him to live in such a nice house. He had been telling them of his plans to quit his I.T job and begin writing seriously for money. They had always thought his writing was good and he made a bit of money on the side with selling short essays for local papers and some bigger magazines, but he had known then he had more in him and his parents had pushed him. He had saved up enough to quit and write for a year or two, which is what he had done and been lucky to get his novel taken by the third publishers he had tried.
 

He entered the house and the reality of how much work there was to do dawned on him. He decided to just go straight to bed and then call one of his buddies in the morning, it was Friday, but maybe they could stop by in the evening or over the weekend. He slept soundly that night in his sleeping bag on his mattress.
 

Friday morning he called his friends cell number after breakfast, hoping to catch him on his way to work, to his luck his friend turned out to be on vacation and was more than happy to come over and help him pack up, he said he would grab his brother and wife that evening for a hand too. Guy had know Frank for about fifteen years, they had been to university together, studying different subjects, but friends all the same, the fact they ended up living in the same town was just by chance. He was a good guy and had married his college girlfriend and she was now pregnant with their first child. He hadn't seen so much of him since he had been writing his first novel, as that took up so much of his time, but they met once in a while for a drink and a game of pool in the bar in town.
 

Guy drove into town to pick up some food and some beers, figuring he'd have to repay these kind folks somehow! Driving through the town he remembered why he was happy to live here, it's quiet, not much traffic and has a good sense of community, quite like Darla's town too, but a bit more populated outside of summer season. He completed his grocery shopping and picked up the beers and some whisky too, just in case. He was just about to get into the car but he heard somebody call out his name. He turned around and it was a woman named Mary. She had been friends with his ex when she had lived in town and they had hung out on occasion.
 

"Hi, Guy, I thought that was you. Haven't seen you around these parts in a long time. How you doing?"