It was nice being treated special while she was feeling so broken inside. The man she’d planned to grow old with was gone. Losing him had shattered her future.
It was a coincidence that she’d ended up on the same flight, and in the same row, with Marc Swindell three times before he finally struck up a conversation with her. He was pleasant, engaging, and so polite.
It still played with her mind that it had been an act—just part of a bigger plan. Randy believed Marc had targeted her because of all those first-class flights. Seeing her as someone with surplus assets.
It was a shame that one decision to splurge on first class with Jeremy’s air miles had led to all of this.
It was a theory. No one would be able to prove it unless they someday located the man she’d known as Marc Swindell, and it looked less likely that would happen with every passing month. She couldn’t give up hope, though.
Natalie laid her sketch pad in her lap, staring off across the mountains where clouds dotted the sky. Her mind wandered to the last day she and Marc were together in Cancún.
She’d recited the minute-by-minute account a hundred times to the police and detectives as they tried to unbraid fact from fiction and determine precisely what crimes had been committed. She’d become so tired of retelling that same story that she honestly hadn’t thought much about those details since.
Maybe the natural beauty of the mountains today had made her think of that night in Cancún, because it had been a once-in-a-lifetime kind of night.
Marc had been frustrated with his partner over a phone call that resulted in Marc taking an early flight home the following morning to handle a problem at their office in Richmond. She’d expected to go home with him, but he’d insisted she stay and finish the vacation.
If only I’d known at the time what those few extra days of pampering were about to cost me.
They’d enjoyed dinner on the beach and then gone out with the resort biologist to help with the baby turtle release. Helpingthose tiny creatures to the water, knowing only a few would make it to adulthood, was heart-wrenching.
They’d learned that hundreds of leatherback and loggerhead turtles came to nest along that stretch of beach each year, laying one to two hundred eggs at a time. Still, only one in one thousand baby turtles would survive to adulthood, and most would perish in their first hours.
Eager and determined, the tiny turtles worked tirelessly, moving through the sand, waddling with their new flippers under the moonlight that guided them to the ocean.
She and Marc had held hands watching as the first hatchlings began their journey. Only a few people at a time helped the turtles, to not cause more confusion. They waited for their turn, and Natalie was consumed with emotion as they did their part.
“Have you ever seen anything so touching?”
He’d pulled her close. “It’s amazing. The only thing I know of as magical as this is the ponies that run wild along the beach in the Outer Banks. I will take you there someday,” he’d said. Her heart had soared at that moment.
He leaned in, whispering the details into her ear. “The ground rumbles when their hooves dig into the damp sand, their manes flicking in the salty air, and the young colts run in awkward gallops and leaps trying to keep up. EvenIcry at that,” he’d said. “You are my beautiful one.”
A tear slipped down her cheek at the memory of how emotional that evening had been. Marc had been so sweet, clinging to her hand as they played chaperone to their little batch of turtles. Wishing them well, she’d said a little prayer over them as if it were a family send-off, hoping it would make a difference.
It was probably the trifecta of the heavy food, the night air, and emotion that had left her exhausted that night. They’d gone back to the room, skipping the dessert and nightcap they’d been enjoying every other night. Slipping into bed, she’d hugged the pillow, and Marc had comforted her. His fingers swept down her arm and back up. Arm tickles. He knew all the ways to touch her heart.
He’d leaned in and said, “My sleeping beauty, this is everything it was meant to be.” He kissed the nape of her neck.
Those words had buoyed her still-grieving heart. She’d thought Marc had meant they’d be together forever. She hadn’t been in a place to return those words yet. She’d lain there clinging to his that night.
But now, at this moment, she realized he wasn’t promising her forever. He’d been telling her it was over. She’d lain there quiet, letting him believe she was asleep, while he basically apologized for closing the deal. It hadn’t been a promise of forever at all.
How did I miss that?
With joy in her heart she’d hoped her own feelings would catch up to his one day. What she’d heard as a promise of forever had really been goodbye.
Then he’d said, “You are more than I’d ever dreamed of, dear Natalie. My whole life has changed because of you. You dream of me and enjoy the rest of your trip. I will be dreaming of you just like this where the ponies run wild and every tomorrow there.”
She shot to her feet. “He was telling me. Everything right there in plain sight. Just like his name!”
She raced back to the car to get her phone. She reached across the console, sending the phone spinning across the passenger seat. She crawled behind the wheel and thrust herself over to grab the phone. She pressed the button to call Randy, and after all that… there was no signal.
“Really?”Take a breath.
She was frantic, wanting to tell Randy what she’d remembered before Marc could get away. Her heart was pounding. She inhaled slowly, trying to calm herself.
Marc Swindell won’t be any harder to find in an hour than he is at this moment.
