Authors: Erica Matthews
As she walked up the steps, she heard music playing inside
the house. Whoever was home liked Beethoven. Was it Juliet or Meredith? Sabrina was so uptight by this time, she didn’t really care who answered the door. She just wanted this errand to be over.
With only a slight trembling in her limbs,
she rang the doorbell and waited. Several minutes passed, and no one came to the door. Before she could decide whether to ring it again, the door swung open and there he stood.
“Sabrina!
What a nice surprise! How have you been?” Meredith opened the door wider.
The sight of him was almost too much for
her. How was she going to live without this man? If she didn’t stop thinking about it, she was going to embarrass herself and him.
Taking a deep breath, she answered,
“I’m fine. I came to give you this.”
As he took the package from her,
Meredith noticed how drawn and tired she looked. What had she been doing to herself? Had David’s defection caused this?
“Thanks for bringing it to me. Come inside and cool off. You look very warm.”
Sabrina knew she should go. The longer she stayed, the harder it would be to leave. “The air conditioning in my car is acting up.”
“All the more reason to come in.”
At her continued hesitation, Meredith pulled her gently inside and closed the door. He noticed she drew away from him almost immediately. It reminded him of the first time she’d come to his house. “Have a seat; I’m going to get you something cold to drink.”
Without waiting to see if she obeyed his request, h
e set the package on an antique buffet sitting along one of the walls and strolled out of the room. Sabrina could hear him moving around in the kitchen. Each sound seemed to move him further out of her reach.
T
he utter hopelessness of her situation was all too real. She was nothing to the man in the next room. She was merely an impersonal visitor forced to conceal the passion she felt for him. In an effort to divert her thoughts, she glanced wildly around the room.
It was beautifully furnished with a mixture of antiques and modern pieces.
She wasn’t sure if it was Meredith or Juliet who’d been responsible for the decorating, but whoever it was knew how to set the right mood.
A
set of framed pictures arranged on a pedestal table near one of the windows caught her erratic attention. Most of the photos were of Juliet and two older couples. One set must be Meredith’s own parents, but she didn’t have a clue which one. Her eyes drifted to a smaller frame half hidden in the back.
The picture was of a
little boy holding a baseball bat over his shoulder. His deep blue eyes seemed to look right at her, his infectious smile making her smile in return. Dark, wavy hair peeked out from beneath his baseball cap. Not able to resist, Sabrina picked up the picture and brought it close to her face. This was a Meredith she had never known.
Sabrina didn’t know that Meredith had returned to the room. Her absorption in his picture held him silent. A
s he watched, she wiped a few stray tears from her eyes, and then she ran a gentle finger slowly around the edge of the frame.
Meredith felt his
heart begin to thud heavily in his chest. If she’d actually touched his skin, he couldn’t have felt it more vividly. Hardly aware of what he was doing, he backed out of the room. In the kitchen, he paced the floor, trying to order his chaotic thoughts. What had happened back there? And why did he feel so shaken?
He would have to think about this later; he couldn’t stay hidden in the kitchen for the rest of
her visit. When he walked into the room again, Sabrina was examining a grandfather clock in the corner. Meredith wondered if he’d imagined that scene with his picture.
“Do you like my recent purchase?”
She swung around to face him. “I love it. Where did you find it?”
“
In Savannah. And it’s not just for decoration. The clock keeps perfect time.” He handed her a glass. “I’ve been experimenting with lemonade. Tell me what you think.”
She
took a long drink. “You like it sweet, don’t you?”
“I like sweet things.” Like
you, he almost said, but didn’t. Why was he just noticing how lovely she was?
“
Really? I wouldn’t have thought so after the way you made fun of our afternoon tea ritual.”
“
That was just my tasteless sense of humor.”
“
Well, thanks for the drink. I suppose I should get going.”
Meredith
frowned. “What’s the rush? Don’t you want to see the house now that it’s finished?”
“I’m sure you’re busy with your book.”
He stood up and the look in his blue eyes made it impossible to refuse. “I’m not that busy, and I think there’s something in my office you will want to see.” He led her into the room and waved a hand at the floor to ceiling bookshelves. “How do they look?”
Sabrina went over and ran her small hand over the smooth wood.
“Oh, Meredith, whoever restored these shelves did a great job.”
“Thank you. I thought they turned out nice.”
“You did them? It must have taken days.”
“It took a week, but it was worth it.”
She shook her head in wonder. “You’re a man of many talents, aren’t you? College professor, best-selling author and now house renovator. What’s next?”
“
I guess I should be thinking of marriage. I’m pushing thirty-one. Would I make a good husband, Sabrina?”
She laughed.
“I think you should ask someone else if you want an unbiased opinion.”
Meredith didn’t say anything at first. His face
grew serious and when he did speak, the words seemed to come almost reluctantly. “You may be biased, but your opinion is the only one that really counts.”
Sabrina didn’t know what to say to this. Meredith was
n’t making any sense. “Should we go on? I don’t want to take too much of your time.”
He watched her
move toward the door, her lovely eyes confused. She didn’t know what to make of him, and who could blame her. Meredith hardly understood what was happening himself.
“Let’s
look at the kitchen next. Juliet talked me into having an island installed. I wasn’t sure I would like it, but I do.”
The change of rooms and subject gave Sabrina’s thoughts another direction, but didn’t help Meredith at all.
Why had he reacted so strangely to her touching his picture? He’d never felt so out of control with his own feelings before, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.
By the time he’d prolonged the tour as long as
possible and was escorting Sabrina to her car, Meredith knew why leaving the inn hadn’t helped him forget her. Somehow, without even being aware of it, Sabrina had become part of his life. She could no longer be dismissed as unimportant.
Sabrina’s
arrival back at the inn was anticlimactic. Being in Meredith’s company was stimulating enough to require a period of calmness afterwards. His house had been as beautiful as she’d imagined, but the memory of that little boy in the picture would remain with her forever.
The following afternoon
, a return of the impatience that had been her companion since her return from Sheila’s wedding sent Sabrina away from the inn. She hadn’t been to the gazebo in weeks.
She
walked slowly along the path, her sandals dangling from her fingers. Her free hand went forward to skim the silky tops of the sea oats and feel their softness against her skin.
When she
reached the end of the trail, a smile of delight crossed her face. She wondered if she was dreaming. The sandals dropped from her fingers as she ran toward the gazebo. Someone had repaired it!
A sigh of happiness escaped her lips
as she mounted the steps. She swung around in a circle like a child – it was unbelievable! The gazebo looked exactly as she remembered it.
Her hand went to the pocket where her journal rested. She didn’t know why she
’d brought it along, but now it made perfect sense. She only needed two pigtails and the scene she remembered so well could be repeating itself. Maybe if she sat in the same spot and held the journal tightly in her hands, this magical place would conjure the young man again.
She la
ughed at such whimsical thoughts and sank down onto the newly painted bench. Slowly she turned to the entry for the day she met him and began to read.
When she felt something
crawling on her skin, she absently bent down to swipe it away. As she did so, a piercing pain shot up her leg. Glancing down she saw a pair of yellow jackets flying in tight circles around her feet.
Sabrina
didn’t hesitate; she jumped up from the seat and ran out of the gazebo. For a few terrifying seconds, it seemed as if the persistent insects were following her. Sabrina continued to run down the trail and didn’t stop until she was on the road.
By
the time she got back to the inn, two painful red welts had formed just above her ankle. Casey was summoned from the kitchen.
“I think the stinger is still in
one of them. We’ll have to get it out,” observed Sabrina.
“That’s not going to feel good. Hang on
, and let me get the tweezers.”
Once the stinger
was removed, Casey produced an ice pack and an antihistamine.
“
Do I really need that?”
“Yes, in case of a reaction.
Surely you didn’t get stung around here?”
“
No, I was at the gazebo.”
“You walked over a mile to sit in a gazebo when you have a shady porch right here?”
Sabrina grinned at the look on Casey’s pretty face. “I like to walk.”
Not too far away
, Meredith retrieved his mail from the box and flipped through the pile of bills and letters. He’d just returned from taking Juliet to her condo in Myrtle Beach. The house would be quiet without her energetic presence, but in a way, he wasn’t sorry. It was always easier to write when he was alone.
As he ate dinner, h
e wondered if the carpenter he’d hired to renovate the gazebo had finished. The structure didn’t actually sit on his land, but wasn’t too far from his house. Its proximity to the beach led most people to assume it was public property, but Meredith knew differently. It had taken time and patience to finally persuade the owner to part with the run-down gazebo as well as the half-acre plot of land surrounding it.
The setting sun resembled a half-hidden arc of fire on the surface of the ocean by the time
Meredith finally made his way over to see it. He walked all around the gazebo, inspecting it from every angle. Then he tested the railing and stepped inside.
A fleeting smile passed over his face. This place had many memories
for him. Meredith had stolen his first kiss here. He’d also found it the perfect place to create the stories which would later become bestsellers.
A dark shadow on the floor caught his attention. When he bent down to take a closer look, he saw that it was a book.
It appeared someone had already made use of his new and improved gazebo. When he flipped it open, he realized it wasn’t a book at all, but a diary. The writing on the pages was in a vivid shade of pink and so small that he could hardly make out the words.
He surmised that this young author was female and from what he could tell, was describing a recent trip to the lighthouse.
A look at the inside cover didn’t tell him the owner’s name. As he continued to look for some mark of identification, he realized he’d seen this particular diary before. It only took a few minutes for him to recall when and where. He’d been expecting to meet Heather here at the gazebo and had found someone else instead.
Into his mind came a picture
of a young girl with blonde pigtails. He could remember feeling sorry for her; she was so obviously lonely. She had read to him from the diary he held in his hand. He’d been so impressed by her innocent charm that he’d agreed to meet her again.
Meredith hadn’t thought about that incident in years.
The little girl from the gazebo had been quickly forgotten once he went back to college. It was strange that the diary would show up again after all this time.
Who was
this mysterious girl, and why had she left such an important item behind? One thing was certain - she wouldn’t be little anymore! He decided to leave the diary in the gazebo for a few days and see if someone returned for it. Having done what he could, he retraced his steps to the house.
All
during the evening, more and more details of that meeting at the gazebo filtered through his mind. Just as Meredith switched off the lamp on his nightstand, a startling thought occurred to him. Why hadn’t he thought of her before? It was so obvious once the clues were pieced together. She’d mentioned spending her summers on Tybee as a child and possessing a journal. Was Sabrina the girl from the gazebo?