Meant to Be (37 page)

She nodded, but the clicking of her
needles never slowed.

Deciding to take a stroll down the
Boardwalk, Rad let his mind wander. If Lauren were here, where
should he even begin looking? It had seemed like it would be easy
when he’d loaded Tara into his truck and headed north. Now he
realized it was going to be like looking for a needle in a
haystack.

Strolling as if in a daze, Rad found
himself standing in front of Ripley’s Museum, just staring at the
sign as he replayed every minute of that memorable summer day. The
museum was quiet and empty now, but that’s not what he was seeing.
He was seeing her smile, hearing her laugh, and feeling the
sensation of her hand in his.

Feeling a nudge on his leg, he looked
down at Tara, who stared up at him with her head cocked to the side
as if wandering why they had stopped.

He stared in silence for a few more
moments, allowing the memories to rekindle. It seemed only natural
his thoughts should linger upon what had been such a remarkable
experience. He lifted his gaze to the Ferris wheel towering behind
and pictured the two of them at the top. He could almost hear the
music and see the flashing lights as the scene unfolded before his
eyes. His heart throbbed and swelled with the feelings the visions
inspired.

Another nudge from Tara and a loud
bark of impatience interrupted his musings.

“
Okay, girl. I guess I did
promise you a walk on the beach.”

Unhooking her from the leash, he
headed out toward the water. A gentle breeze had begun to wipe away
the fog, but it was still too hazy to see very far in the distance.
Tara ran ahead, disappearing into the mist, but Rad knew she
wouldn’t go too far ahead. After losing sight of her for a few
minutes, he gave a quick whistle. She soon came loping back out of
the fog, carrying something in her mouth.

“
Tara, here.” Rad patted
his leg and called her over. “What do you have?”

He pulled the ball cap out of her
mouth and took off at a dead run down the beach.

“
Lauren?”

Rad slowed down as he approached the
figure in the chair, not believing his eyes.

“
Hey, stranger.” Her words
were slightly slurred from her serious injuries, but he could hear
the relief in her tone. “What took you so long?”

Lauren pulled herself up out of the
chair as he stepped closer, and then she was in his arms, laughing
and sobbing, then laughing again. “Couldn’t remember your number…
and the base wouldn’t tell me anything…”

“
It doesn’t matter.” Rad
buried his face in her hair. “I found you.”

The woman he’d been talking to on the
Boardwalk suddenly appeared, watching with her arms crossed as if
she were both body guard and nurse, and was beginning to grasp what
was happening. “So this is the one you’ve been pining for,” she
said, looking at Lauren before she turned an appraising eye to Rad.
“And why didn’t you tell me you were looking for a lass not the
sunrise?”

Lauren pulled away from his arms. “You
two know each other?”

“
We talked on the bench
earlier, lass.”

Rad thought how close he had been to
her and yet how close he had been to leaving without seeing her.
Lauren must have been reading his mind.

“
Fate has caused our paths
to cross three times.” She looked up at Rad. “What do you think
that means?”

Rad pulled her back into his arms. “It
means I’m not taking a chance relying on fate any more. I’m never
letting you out of my sight again.”

Lauren’s nurse threw her hands in the
air and mentioned she had some errands to run. Rad helped Lauren
sit down, and then pulled the empty chair closer.

“
I’m not that fragile,”
Lauren said, looking over at him. “I’ll be racing you on the beach
before you know it.”

Rad smiled, but his brows were creased
as he thought about all she had been through, and all that had
happened since they’d last seen each other. Her once vigorous body
appeared small and delicate. Her eyes were sunken, and her smile
uneven.

“
I guess I missed the
wedding.” Lauren interrupted his thoughts.

“
What wedding?”

“
Heather and
Wynn’s.”

Rad paused a moment. “No, actually you
didn’t. It was postponed. Wynn was wounded.”

“
Oh, that’s terrible.”
Lauren reached out and touched his hand. “Is he okay?”

“
Yeah. He is now.” Rad
gazed over her head a moment, thinking about the seriousness of his
injuries. Though he still had months, maybe years, of rehab to do,
Wynn could walk and would not need a wheelchair. “It was pretty
dicey there for a while.”

“
Poor Heather.”

“
Poor Heather?”

“
Yeah, she must have been
through a lot.”

Rad studied her with his head cocked
to the side. “She’s not the only one.”

“
I know.” Lauren squeezed
his arm. “You’ve been through a lot too.”

“
Not
me
, silly.
You
.”

Lauren sat back and closed her eyes.
“Oh, no. It wasn’t bad on my side. I hit my head somewhere along
the line and don’t remember much of anything.”

Rad contemplated her words for a
moment, at the way she’d put it so lightly, and made the decision
not to tell her he’d seen the video. There’d be time for that.
Anyway, he could tell she was only saying that to make him feel
better. She hadn’t forgotten her time in captivity. She’d only
chosen not to remember.

“
I thought Heather and
Wynn would be married with a baby by now,” Lauren mused.

“
Well, they did everything
a little backwards.”

Lauren looked over at him, her brows
creased. “You mean? They have a baby?”

“
A boy. Just a few weeks
old.”

“
Oh my goodness.” Lauren’s
eyes sparkled. “That’s such wonderful news.”

Rad moved his chair even closer. “So
anyway, want to go to the wedding with me? It’s next
week.”

“
Do you think they’d
mind?”

“
Are you kidding me?
They’d be ecstatic.”

“
Then I’d love
to.”

Rad was quiet for a moment. “Want to
make it a double?”

Lauren looked at him questioningly,
and then apparently understood he meant a double wedding. “No, I
want my own.” She kind of smiled and stared into the distance. “I
mean, if anyone would ask or anything.”

Rad got down on one knee beside her
chair and held her hand. “Lauren Cantrell, will you marry
me.”

Lauren frowned, but her eyes were warm
and tender. “That’s not my name anymore. I had to change it and get
a new identity.”

“
Okay,
whatever-your-name-is, will you marry me?”

That made Lauren put her head back and
gurgle with amusement. “Seriously? You’re making the biggest
commitment of your life to a girl whose name you don’t even
know?”

“
I don’t know the name.”
He smiled out of the corner of his mouth. “But I know the
girl.”

“
Barely.” Lauren’s
expression and her tone turned serious. “You may not know what
you’re getting into.”

“
I know what I’m getting
into.” He leaned forward and looked deep into her eyes. “And I know
whatever-her-name-is well enough to want to spend the rest of my
life with her.”

When she still hesitated, he reached
into his back pocket and pulled a well-worn piece of paper from his
wallet. “Remember this?”

He watched her eyes grow
wide as she read the words:
When you pull a
card and draw a heart, you and your beloved will never
part.

She raised her gaze to meet his. “You
kept that?”

“
Of course. I kinda
thought ‘ol Zoltar might know something we didn’t.”

“
I guess he kind of did,”
Lauren said as if to herself. “It’s like it was all meant to
be.”

“
Is that a
yes?”

She wrapped her hands around his neck,
and he pulled her to her feet. “That’s a yes,” she murmured.
“That’s an absolute yes.”

When Rad at last released her, Lauren
stood staring toward the ocean with a pained expression on her
face, blinking repeatedly. Rad lifted a finger to her cheek and
wiped away a tear. “Thinking about your parents?”

Lauren nodded, her chin trembling.
“They’d be very happy.”

“
They’d be very proud,
too.”

At that moment the sun broke the fog
and clouds, sending a shaft of dazzling light over the water. They
both gazed at the spectacle in amazement and then at each other. No
words were necessary to express the sparkling light in Lauren’s
eyes.

Rad took her hand in his as the sun
dipped back behind a cloud. “I think I’m the happiest man in the
world right now.”

Lauren nodded and sighed as if she
were now completely at peace with her past and could accept and
embrace her future. “And I’m the happiest woman.” She turned to
face him. “…Unless you’re going to be deployed soon.”

Rad took a deep breath and let it out
slowly. “Funny thing about that,” he said, his voice grave. “I only
have one more day.”

She looked up at him, her
eyes full of alarm. “
One
day?”

He smiled. “I mean one day to make a
decision. I’ve been thinking about calling it quits on active duty.
They want me to instruct.”

Lauren leaned into him, resting her
cheek on his chest. “You think you’ll be happy? That’s a big
change.”

“
Before, I wasn’t sure.
Now, I’m thinking I will be.” Rad paused a moment, listening to the
sound of the waves hitting the sand and feeling her heart beat
against his. He’d always told himself he was going to find her, but
now, even with her in his arms, he couldn’t believe it.

“
What about you?” He
finally relinquished his tight hold and held her at arm’s length.
“You’re back in the States to stay?”

“
I haven’t thought that
far ahead yet.” Lauren’s gaze drifted to somewhere over his
shoulder. “I’m still getting used to this new pace.” She glanced
down at the walker beside the chair with an expression so agonizing
Rad pulled her into him again. He could only imagine the pain that
still coursed through her body. For the most part she showed no
outward sign of it.

“
You have me to lean on
now.” He tightened his grasp even more as he thought about how hard
it had been for both him and Wynn to recover, even when surrounded
by family and friends. What she must have gone through, alone, was
unfathomable. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you
sooner.”

“
I knew you’d come,” she
said, obviously making an effort to sound upbeat. “The worst is
behind me.”

She pulled away then, seeming not to
want to think any more about the past. “When do we
leave?”

Rad laughed. “We make a great team. I
don’t know you’re name, and you don’t know where we’re
going.”

“
I know it’s in Virginia
somewhere.”

“
Pretty much due south.
Virginia Beach.”

Lauren looked up at him. “Near the
beach? The water?”

“
Not too far away. It’s
small though. Made for a bachelor. Don’t get your hopes
up.”

“
But you’ll be there every
night, right?”

“
Yeah. If I don’t
re-enlist.”

“
Then I love it already.”
She leaned over and patted Tara on the head. “Think she’ll accept
another woman in your life?”

“
Appears she already has.”
Rad stared at his dog sitting dutifully on her left instead of his.
“Looks like it was love at first sight.”

“
Funny how that works.”
Lauren wrapped her arms around his neck again, and they were both
silent, enjoying the closeness of the moment.

“
I feel like I’m
dreaming,” Lauren finally murmured. She wrapped her arms around Rad
even tighter. “I’m afraid I’ll wake up and you won’t be
here.”

“
I’m not going anywhere,
baby. Except home. With you.”

Lauren nodded against his chest.
“Somehow it feels like we’re already there.”

The End

About The Author

Jessica James is an award-winning
author of multiple fiction and non-fiction works ranging from the
Revolutionary War era to modern day. She is the only two-time
winner of the coveted John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction,
and was featured in “50 Authors You Should Be Reading,” published
in 2010. Her books have been used in schools to teach visualization
techniques and can be found in more than one hundred libraries,
including at Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy.

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Author

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