“Are you sure you don’t need anything,”
Josiah heard Rowan’s voice drift from the rear bedroom. “Okay, but call me
later and drink lots of fluid, I love you.”
Josiah stared out the back window after
pouring a cup of coffee from a pot big enough for a small squadron and savored
the feel of the hot liquid as it traveled down his throat. His eyes took in the
beauty of the clear blue ocean, while the rays from the sun shimmered on the
face of the water. Only a few bodies littered the beach now, but he knew before
long the crowd would increase, even though it was the middle of the week. He
couldn’t wait to feel the heat of the sand against the soles of his feet, or
slap of the water against his skin. He’d been away from it for far too long and
his spirit ached to find that spot out on the ocean that gave him the peace to
calm the restlessness he’d been feeling of late.
As Rowan stepped into the kitchen he
grabbed another cup from the cabinet, filled it to the brim for Rowan and
handed it off to him. “She okay?” he asked when Rowan took the cup from him
without a glance in his direction.
Rowan nodded, sat at the oak table that
consumed the kitchen and slowly began to drink. “Yeah, she’s probably just got
the stomach flu or some kind of bug. I’ll check on her before I go into the
office this afternoon.”
“When did her symptoms start?” Josiah
asked.
Rowan chuckled. “Always in doctor mode,
right?”
“Aren’t you?”
“That I am. A couple nights ago, after we
went to The Launchpad. Now, let’s surf.”
The two of them took two long swigs of
coffee, set the cups on the table and bolted out the backdoor like the house
was on fire. Rowan snatched up his surfboard first, only because Josiah had no
idea Rowan leaned his boards against the side of the house. He should have
remembered Rowan liked to have his boards at the ready at all times. Rowan got
a quick start on Josiah, but he quickly caught up then passed him just as they
hit the sand. They ran like two school boys trying to reach the shore before
the other like they were in the Olympic trials. The splash of water against
Josiah’s calves as he hit the water, was like a coming home. He flung himself
and the board into the air, inhaling the salt of the ocean and enjoying the
feel as his body meshed with the piece of wood that would be his ride on the
waves for the next few hours. As he slammed onto the surface of water
underneath his board, he pumped with his arms putting as much distance between
him and Rowan as possible as he paddled away from the shoreline. Josiah had
every intention of catching the first wave before Rowan did. For as long as
they’d been surfing together, hitting the first wave was a rite of passage. Whoever
rode the first sat at the top of the totem pole until the next person knocked
them off.
Josiah glanced over his shoulder, being
sure to keep his arms pumping, and saw that Rowan was closing the distance
between them. He pumped harder, reaching the channel first and waited as Rowan inched
closer. As soon as Rowan paddled up next to Josiah, he saw the lines and
readied himself to catch the first wave of the day. With a quick nod to Rowan,
he paddled, picking up enough speed to be able to get up before the first wave
caught his board.
They spent the next two hours trying to
outdo each other on the water, but Rowan had the upper hand since Josiah hadn’t
been on a board in so long. It seemed like he spent more time in the water
watching Rowan catch wave after wave, while he struggled just to stay on his
board. As a matter of fact, he’d been more than happy to get out of the water
and into a hot shower when Rowan had tapped on his watch to let him know their
fun would have to come to an end. Rowan had cleaned up and headed off to work,
but had asked Josiah if he’d check on Madison later to make sure she was okay
and didn’t need anything. Josiah had seen the concern as Rowan’s face grew
tight with worry, as if he’d never seen her sick before. Or maybe it was
natural when you were in love with someone that something as simple as the
stomach flu sent you into a panic. Josiah had never found himself in a
situation such as that, so he didn’t know what would be considered normal and
what would be out of the ordinary.
When Rowan left, Josiah made his way to
the bathroom, closed himself in and stripped down to nothing. After turning on
the shower to let it warm up, he placed his hands on the white pedestal sink
and stared at himself in the mirror. As the water heated, steam filled the
small bathroom hiding his reflection. He swiped his hand across the mirror to
wipe away the moisture that clung to the glass. “What are you going to do with
yourself now?” he spoke to his reflection as if it held some untold wisdom. Unable
to answer the question himself, he pushed away from the sink, ran his fingers
through the thick mass on his head, and thrust aside the uncertainties of what
the future held. Josiah had no idea what his next journey would be, where life
would take him. He didn’t know if he would end up on a train returning to Texas
or staying here in California. All he had planned for the immediate future was
soaking up the sun, hanging with his boys and enjoying the downtime while he
could. And for his most immediate future, a shower was in order to blow off the
stink of the morning activities. He did a quick check of the water temperature
then stepped past the glass door that held the water in and the world out.
Josiah took his time, enjoying the feel
of the hot water beating against his dark skin, washing away the film of ocean
water coating every inch of his body. He turned into the steady stream
hammering at him, scrubbing his hands down his face. The stubble he’d neglected
for the past few days sprinkled his jaw and scratched at his palms. Josiah
grabbed a bar of soap lathering it up in his hands then slicked up chest, and
down to his abdomen. Before he could stop himself, images of Susan jumped into
his mind and he felt himself grow painfully hard under the pounding water. The
length of his manhood throbbed for attention as he envisioned her full lips
pressed to his. Josiah imagined her in the shower with him, naked and wet, in
more ways than from just the spray of the water. He could almost feel her lean
body pressed to his, the transfer of soap from his body to hers inevitable as her
pert nipples brush against his chest. The thought of her long wet tresses clinging
to her shoulders and cheeks like a second skin caused a tightness in his belly.
Josiah’s hands slipped down to the hard erection between his legs and began to
stroke from base to tip as visions of Susan wrapping her lips around his cock
danced before him. His fingers wrapped tightly around his thickness and stroked
as if her mouth were taking him in completely. Pressing a hand to the wall, his
hips moved of their own accord as he stroked up and down the length of his
shaft. He squeezed his eyes tighter, threw back his head, and rode out the orgasm
that came quick and hard. Spilling himself this way relieved him, but it was
empty, nothing like it should be. In that moment he’d never wanted anything
more than to feel Susan’s lips pressed to his mouth, to bury himself within
her, to feel her clench his cock between the lips of her core and for her
juices to run the length of his thickness as he brought them both to release.
Josiah shook the images from his mind. He
had no right to think of Susan, especially not in a sexual way at all. She
hadn’t given him any indication that she was even remotely interested in him. As
a matter of fact, when he’d offered to take her home she’d been pissed at him,
thinking he was trying to watch over her, not even taking a moment to consider he
might actually want to just spend time with her. She’d not once given into his
touch at the small of her back and avoided eye contact with him at all cost. She’d
thought she’d been coy when she pretended to look for a waitress, but he knew
even then she was giving off signals that she was the most uninterested woman
in the place. Here he stood all worked up about a woman who obviously had no
interest in him and he’d just made himself come fantasizing about her.
Pushing Susan from his mind, he rinsed
himself off, grabbed at the navy blue towel hanging on the hook outside the
shower, and stepped out past the glass enclosure. He needed to get dressed and
check on Madison, anyway, then call around about getting that rental car he
should have gotten when he stepped off the train.
****
Josiah stood at Madison’s door ringing
the bell for the third time. If she didn’t open the door soon, he’d have to
call Rowan and see if there was an extra key to get in. He was sure she was
sleeping if she was as sick as Rowan led him to believe, but he’d feel better
seeing her to make sure she was okay. He pushed the toe of his black sneakers against
a crack in the wood porch, his cell phone in hand. His mind wandered to his
time in Afghanistan and his buddies he’d spent the past year with. Although
he’d spent any down time he had with them, other than their job and the war, he
really didn’t have much in common with them. Several of them had wives or
girlfriends back home, some received letters of adoration and pictures, but it
was the ones who received those letters every person in the middle of a war
dreads, who made him glad he was single. The ones where significant others end
the relationship via the US postal service. They didn’t even have the courtesy
to use the calls they were allotted to break it to them over the phone. It had
been when he’d seen grown men who showed little fear while bullets rang in the
darkness, break down consumed by their hurt and anger, that he was happy to get
a letter from home with only happy, uplifting news.
Josiah’s thumb slid across the face of
his cell phone to make the call to Rowan just as Madison opened the door.
“Holy hell, Madison. What the…” Josiah’s
words faded as he caught Madison before her body hit the floor.
When Madison answered the door, she was hunched
over at the waist, wheezing like someone who lived on a ventilator. Now, her hair
hung in a tangled mess off her shoulders and her breathing was becoming even shallower.
Her skin was pale with the exception of red blotches around her eyes and slick
with sweat. No doubt she was running a fever. Upon inspection after lowering
her onto the sofa, Josiah confirmed that she’d busted the blood vessels around
her eyes. He didn’t need her to tell him that she’d been vomiting or that it
had been severe, he saw the evidence on her face and the way she clutched at
her stomach. She lay on her side, her knees pulled up as far as she could
without adding to the pain in her stomach. Josiah asked her questions with
little response. The most he could get out of her was that she had worn a path
from the bathroom to the bedroom over the course of the last twelve hours. She
wasn’t sure if it had been something she ate, or the stomach flu, but she
couldn’t even keep a simple thing such as water down. That even the most minute
of sounds hit her temples like a blow dart had been speared into them at a high
velocity. And that she didn’t want Rowan to know how bad she was or how
horrible she looked.
Josiah took a quick glance around the
room in search of where she might keep her keys. He needed to get her to the
hospital because whether she had the stomach flu or not was beside the point. The
woman lying before him had all the signs of dehydration and there was nothing
he could do for her here. Placing his hand on the side of the couch and pushing
himself up, his movements were quick as he picked up papers that were spread
out on the coffee table in hopes that she buried them there. When he didn’t
find what he was looking for there, his steps quickened heading for the kitchen
to check for some kind of hook that might hold her keys. No luck and just when
he decided to check her bedroom he remembered that Rowan kept his keys by the
door. Bingo! A colorfully woven basket sat on a vintage round table the size of
a snare drum, and within the small vessel a set of shiny keys stared up at him.
Josiah snatched up the keys, then
quickly went back over to Madison. Just as he mulled over whether or not to take
anything other than her purse, Madison stirred.
Placing gentle hands on her shoulders as
she tried to sit up, he eased her onto the couch. “Whoa, take it easy. Look,
Madison, we need to get you to the hospital.”
“No, no. I’m fine. No hospital please. Just
help me to my bed if you would.”
“No can do. You’re pretty dehydrated so we
need to get you to the ER. I’ll call Rowan on the way there to meet us, okay?”
Madison didn’t argue. Josiah didn’t know
if it was because of her lack of strength or because she understood the
severity of the situation. And he didn’t have time to find out either. He
scooped her up into his arms, grabbing her purse from the coffee table, and
headed to her car. After he got her all situated, making sure her seatbelt
wasn’t too tight, he ran into the house when she started to dry heave, taking
the steps two at time and retrieved the miniature trashcan from the guest
bathroom. Slipping into the driver’s seat, he kept his eyes on Madison while he
adjusted the seat then the mirrors. Without hesitation, he reversed the car out
the drive, and headed to the emergency room.
Chapter 8
Sitting at the oak desk in his small
office, Rowan checked the clock in the corner of his laptop one last time.
Close
enough
, he thought. He had five more minutes before the time he had given
himself to call Madison again, but as far as he was concerned it was close
enough. She’d been sick all day and it worried him, especially since it had
been bad enough for her to miss work. He pulled his cell from the front pocket
of his lab coat and dialed her number. On the fifth ring, he heard her angelic
voice, but not the one he wanted to hear. The message was much more energetic
than what he’d heard the last time he talked to her. Rowan quickly hung up and
dialed again. Once more her voicemail came on. He didn’t bother with a message
because he knew if she were too sick to answer the phone, she sure as hell wouldn’t
be checking any messages. Just as he slid his phone into his back pocket, Cade
sauntered in his office.