Dirk thought about the house he had spent almost a year living in after he made his transformation from Terry Gates to Dirk Bryce. He’d lived in the same house he was on his way to now, but it had been changed over the last thirty years. It still looked the same outside, but it was like an iceberg… only a small portion of it was now visible above ground.

Up ahead he saw a traffic light blink yellow, then red. They had been approaching at high speed and the light changed so quickly that there had been no time to stop or even slow. He barely registered the glint of light from the darkened truck speeding toward them on the side street before it slammed into the driver’s side of the car.

Time slowed for Dirk. He watched the side curtain airbag on the other side of the car neatly unfold as it inflated. Glass from the side windows hung suspended in the air. The driver’s head slammed into the bag, it hardly providing any protection from the grill of the truck clawing its way through the door of the car. He could feel his side of the car lift off the ground from the force of the impact.

Time sped back up again, and Dirk could hear the tearing and crushing of the metal. It seemed to scream out in pain as the car folded around the massive grill. The car slammed back down into the road and flipped over onto its side, sliding, and then onto its roof. He hung limply in the seatbelt. He could still hear sounds around him, but as his vision faded, the sounds became tinny and dull, like he was listening to them through a pair of cans and a string… the string starting to sag. The sound fading away.

Then there was nothing.

***

Cory was watching the route. He knew their destination, and that they were taking a circuitous route to get there. They had turned north, heading toward Little Creek Base… where he’d been stationed. He knew the roads well in this area. They turned west, skirting the base along its southern boundary, businesses across the street. They left the base behind, heading for Norfolk. This was an area he knew well… the bars that the teams hung out in between deployments were scattered along the road.

There was little traffic, despite this being a commercial district loaded with bars. They sped along, unconcerned with police or pursuit. Suddenly, a large pickup truck veered across the road.

“Look out,” Cory screamed as the dually’s front bumper slammed into them, almost head-on. He was thrown into the airbag as it exploded out of the dash, decelerating him as he stretched toward the dashboard of the car. Less like a pillow and more like being slapped with a sheet of plywood, it did what it was supposed to do… it saved his life in the initial impact.

The car wheeled around, spinning from the collision with the heavy pickup truck. As it came to rest, Cory looked around. Blood oozed from the head of the driver, his eyes staring lifelessly to the side. The other rear passenger, also on the driver’s side didn’t look much better.

He turned to Jenny. She was folded over in the seat, a trickle of blood coming from her nose. Her glasses were gone, and she had a nasty bruise forming on the side of her head.

“Jenny, can you hear me?” he asked.

She moaned weakly in response.

Cory reached for the latch of his door. He pulled it, but nothing happened. He slammed his shoulder into the door as he held the latch, but it was jammed shut. After a few seconds trying to open the door, he gave up and pushed the remaining glass from the window and crawled out into the early morning air. His whole side of the car was twisted and torn.

Rushing to the back door, he grabbed the handle and pulled. It was just as stuck as the front. He looked around, trying to see if there was anything he could use to lever it open. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a man running toward him, gun drawn. He started to hear the shouts… these weren’t police. Cory made a quick decision.

“My girlfriend!” he yelled, the man closing distance, “we’ve got to save her. Help me.”

The gunman was only few feet away, still holding the gun. “Help me. She’s trapped.” The gunman hesitated for just a moment, but the moment was all he needed. Cory reached out and grabbed the hand the other man held the gun in. He pulled it toward him as hard as he could, using the man’s momentum to propel him toward the side of the car. At the last moment, Cory pushed the other man’s head down, slamming him into the pillar between the doors, knocking him unconscious.

He grabbed his gun, popping his head up over the roof of the wrecked car and saw two more men moving toward him. He ducked back down, moved around near the rear of the car, and popped back up. Three shots. One of the men went down.

Cory dived toward the front of the car and saw the foot of the other gunman. He shot into his ankle, and then hit him with a head shot when he collapsed on the ground. He jumped up and moved around the vehicle. Their fourth man was unconscious behind the wheel of the truck. There was an empty van next to the truck.

Off in the distance Cory could hear sirens approaching.

“Jenny, we have to go. Can you help me?” he said, grabbing the door once again.

She grabbed the door handle and pulled it to release the door while Cory pulled on it with everything he had. A moment later the door creaked and then swung open. Jenny grabbed the bag she had on the floor at her feet and rolled out of the car.

“Carissa Knight. She was fantastic to work with.”

“I bet,” Amy said. She stood and watched the images flash up on the wall as Jack went back and forth, culling the slides down to just a few from each set. “It looks like the two of you really connected.”

“Do I detect jealousy, my queen?”

“Of course not… who am I kidding. Yes. Should I be jealous? In a few of those, the look she is giving you… I’m sure she is a professional and everything, but those look like the eyes of a woman that is in love with the person she is looking at… and you are the person she is looking at.”

“I’m almost done here. Any thoughts on dinner?” Jack asked, changing the subject.

“I was thinking of Smitty’s. How about if I go grab it while you finish up.”

“That would be wonderful,” Jack replied.

He’d been grateful that Carissa hadn’t come up again, but he had known that the conversation was going to take place. He owed it to his wife to tell her what had happened. But he wasn’t ready for that quite yet.

***

As he rolled out of bed on Tuesday morning, he looked out over the bay and stood in the sun shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows. After a couple of days of editing and making contact sheets, he really enjoyed being in the sun. It was like a recharge.

He turned and looked at his wife, still asleep. He couldn’t help but smile at her as he watched her. He leaned over and kissed her forehead and then slipped into a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt so he could go downstairs and make breakfast.

He and Amy had a busy day planned. He needed to spend a little time in the darkroom while she went into work for a half-day. Then, they were going to get everything packed for their trip. After dinner with the family and a little party for Amy, they were flying out to Vancouver for the cruise. He was looking forward to the time with his wife.

“I’ll take two scrambled, and a little bacon if there is any available,” Amy said, silently slipping up behind him and wrapping her arms around him as she kissed the back of his neck.

“You keep doing that and everything will be burned,” he laughed. “But that’s ok with me…”

“We wouldn’t want that,” Amy said as she dropped a few pieces of bread into the toaster.

They finished making breakfast together, then sat down across from each other in the breakfast nook. She watched him as he took a drink of his orange juice.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s on your mind?” she asked after a few minutes.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” he said quietly.

“Something going on between you and that model?”

“No… but things were a little dicey.”

Amy stared at him. She was on the verge of tears with her husband telling her he “almost” cheated on her.

“Amy, I promised you that I wouldn’t keep secrets from you. I love you. Only you. Always.”

It was largely as I described (not in Monday’s excerpt… but before that in the book). It was rough… outrageously rough. Nobody fell off the boat, though. And the only red-headed beauty was my wife. But the idea was planted for that part of the story. I actually started writing it while we were still in Kauai.

The second part of the story, which involves a runaway bride was written before that vacation. The excerpt from Wednesday was written before the one from Monday. I had written large parts of both stories, but they both seemed incredibly incomplete and I didn’t know what they needed.

Until I figured out that what they needed was each other.

Over Spring Break, we took a short cruise to Mexico from Miami. One afternoon, while I sat on the Promenade deck, I started feeling out how they could be combined into one story. The characters were very compatible and fit together nicely. I did have to change the Hawaii story to first person and rewrite a bunch of it to accomplish that, but the actions were already laid out.

I haven’t tried writing a full novel in first person, so this became an experiment in that, as well. Writing like that has presented me with new challenges. For one, writing for the female characters has forced me to change my thinking. I know that I will have a lot of revisions when those chapters get to my beta readers… and I’m VERY thankful for the beta readers.

There are two chapters that are written in third person… they are kind of like interludes. The prom and the wedding. There might be another of those third person chapters, since I feel like the book needs another change, and just a little more content before it is done.

“Jax?” I said, my voice hitching in my throat. It had been a decade since I last saw him. And a million miles since I had broken his heart. I had feared I had broken him.

Trim was no longer a word I would use for him. Even in his logo polo, he was obviously cut. I could see tattoos peeking out on the top of his left arm, and around his collar on the left side. He had a thin beard, like he’d not shaved for a couple of days, then trimmed it to perfection. But the most striking thing was his eyes. They held a fire… an intensity that had never been there before. What they didn’t hold was the happiness I’d come to associate with him. They were like blue ice, burning into me.

“Crys… what are you doing here?” he asked, accusation in his voice, as if my presence was only meant to torment him.

I was the one that had left him at the altar but seeing him had me wondering how I could have. I had tried to convince myself there was no other way, and that he’d wronged me by not letting me explain myself. He shut down all contact the moment I made a mistake. He ran from the life we had together… that we were looking forward to… escaped to someplace unknown to anyone that would talk to me. He’d never completely escaped my mind, though, although I had managed to usually confine him to a dim corner. No longer. His eyes accused me and burned me and held me.

“I moved here to launch our new brand. What about you?” I said, matching his tone.

“I ended up here a few years ago. I’ve built a life.” There was still accusation in his eyes. I could see the anger and pain flash in his eyes as he replied to me. “Look, if you don’t want to work with me, I can try to recommend someone else. I would hate for this to be too awkward for you.”

I had trouble recognizing his tone. I thought I knew everything about him, but I couldn’t tell if he was sincere or mocking. His response knocked me back. The last thing I expected was for him to have any regard for my feelings. I was sure that he assumed I had no regard for his, not after the way I left. But then I could feel his pain subsiding… replaced by anger. And something else. Fear. I thought about the budget we had for this photoshoot. Was he more afraid of me or not getting the job? “Did Kate communicate a shot list to you? I just got the email from her and haven’t had a chance to really go over it,” I asked, pushing our personal history aside for a moment. I was still stunned by seeing him and didn’t know what else to do.

“I don’t have a specific list,” he replied. “I know what pieces she likes, and I have seen the mockups for the marketing, so I can piece together what you need. Should I put that together for whoever you use to replace me?”

“I don’t want someone else, Jax. I would rather work with you. I trust you.” I want you to trust me, I didn’t say.

He nodded once and settled into the seat across from my desk and I returned to mine. I pulled up the email from Kate, my boss, and reviewed it while Jax sat across from me, pointedly not looking at me. After scanning the email, we spent the better part of an hour talking over the next steps. He let me know that he would be at the venue the next day to begin shooting. It would be exteriors if the weather was nice, interiors if it wasn’t. He would be ready to start about six in the evening, which was around the time the regular staff left, and gave me a list of what needed to be done for him to be ready.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jax,” I said, leaning across the desk and offering my hand. He barely touched it when he shook it, then turned and walked stiffly out of my office.

“Miss Lake,” Tish said, walking back through the door a moment after he left, “the decorator wanted to speak with you if you have a moment.”

“Please tell him to catch me tomorrow morning. I’ll be in around nine. Right now, I need to get a few things done,” I snapped.

“Yes ma’am,” Tish said, backing out the door.

Perhaps my voice was a little too harsh. I had always tried to foster a casual atmosphere and barking at my assistant wasn’t helping. But I needed her out of my office before the tears came. Of all the things for which I had prepared, seeing Jax… and my reaction to seeing him… was not one. I needed her to leave me because I knew the tears were coming. I couldn’t hold myself together for one more moment.

An hour later I glanced up at my wall clock and noted that it was half-past five. “Miss Lake, there is a call from the photo studio,” I heard over the intercom.

“Thanks, Tish, I’ll take it.”

I tapped the speaker button on my phone. “Yeah, Jax. What do you need?” I asked.

“Crystal, this is Beth Mason… I’m Jax’s business manager. We actually met…”

“Beth, yeah… Prom… thirteen years ago. Wow.” That explained a lot. They had always been close, and I couldn’t blame her for swooping in when I left.

“Yeah. Anyway, I wanted to talk with you for a minute. About Jax. And this job.”

“Sure, Beth.”

“He needs this. He is ready to quit because he doesn’t want anything to be weird, but he really needs this shoot. I think you owe it to him to keep it on track. I don’t know what’s going on in your life, but after what you put him through you need to convince him that he is the person for this job.”