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First, the flowers began arriving. She would arrive at her desk in the morning and a vase of black roses with notes that said things like, ‘The color of your soul.’ and ‘Hope your life is as bleak as these roses.’ Lucas tracked down the delivery of each b
ouquet. Whoever bought them had used a different florist in the greater San Diego area each time and had always paid with cash. The description that the people who remembered him gave vaguely matched Aiden, but when shown a picture of him, no one could say for sure. The man that bought the flowers wore a hat and had what people described as ‘several day’s growth of beard on his face.’
Lucas beefed up the security at the company and had the deliveries stopped before they reached Reagan. There was a lull for a few weeks and then the letters began arriving at the house. Each letter was filled with vile gibberish and went on sometimes pages about what a ‘gold-digging slut’ Reagan was. There was no way to trace them since they were written with letters cut and pasted from magazines and mailed from different places throughout the city each time. Lucas wanted to go over and beat Aiden senseless with his bare hands but Reagan begged him not to do it. She was convinced that it was what Aiden wanted. It was probably all part of a plan where he could press assault or even attempted murder charges against Lucas and have him arrested. He wasn’t going to take what happened to him at the cabin to court for fear of how it would make him look…but if Lucas assaulted him without any proof that he was the stalker, he would look like the victim. Lucas knew she was right, but damn it was hard not to want to kill him.
Instead, Lucas began having one of the staff go through the mail before Reagan saw it and taking out the letters. He also hired a security company to follow Aiden around and photograph everything he did. In the meantime, as they tried to get on with their lives, Lucas proposed. He had put a lot of thought into how he wanted to do it and finally settled on a way that he hoped Reagan would love. He thought about it now and smiled. All thoughts of Aiden were gone as soon as his mind went back to that day.
It was a Friday morning and Reagan was at her desk at work. She looked adorable he thought in a blue plaid skirt and white button-up cotton blouse with her silky blonde hair curled around her shoulders and looking like spun gold in the reflection of the fluorescent lights. It still amazed him how his heart practically stopped beating every time he saw her and then restarted and began to beat only for her.
“Hey, beautiful. It’s time to call it a day.”
Reagan smiled up at him from behind her desk. “It’s only eleven a.m.”
“Yep, and it’s time to call it a day.”
“But who’s going to cover for me?”
“I already talked to Brandi in HR and she’s sending one of the temps down. She should be here any minute.”
“But…”
“Stop arguing with me woman or I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you out of here like a caveman. She laughed and he said, “You think I won’t? Don’t test me, woman!”
Still laughing she got her things together and transferred her phone. Lucas had a car waiting for them out front and the car took them to a private strip of beach where they got out. Lucas took a picnic basket out of the trunk and he carried it in one hand and held Reagan’s hand in the other. She had slipped off her shoes and she carried those as they made their way across the warm sand and to a pile of rock that overlooked both the beach and the ocean. They sat there and had their lunch, talking and laughing and looking out at the calming ocean. They both loved the beach and they had even talked about buying a beach house someday.
After lunch was over Lucas said, “Let’s go for a walk.”
Reagan easily agreed and he took her hand and led her further down the deserted beach. Reagan seemed to be enjoying the views and she was distracted by watching what she thought was a seal out in the ocean when Lucas stopped walking. She looked up at him and that was when she saw it out of the corner of her eye. Turning toward it, she saw a huge sandcastle. It was an actual castle with turrets, a moat and a big stone wall around it. It looked like it had been meticulously crafted out of the sand and Reagan just stood there looking at it in awe for a long time before she realized there was something written in the sand around the outside of it. She got closer and Lucas followed her. She felt like Dorothy in the wizard of Oz movie as she walked around the huge sandcastle and read what had been written in the sand.
It said, ‘Reagan Kade, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?’ She looked up at Lucas’s face and realized he wasn’t there. He had gotten down on one knee behind her and in his hand, he held a white velvet box. He flipped it open and Reagan was nearly blinded by the sunlight that bounced off the ring of precious stones in his hand.
“I love you, Reagan.”
She smiled through the tears that began to form in her eyes. “I love you too, Lucas, so much.”
“Will you marry me?”
The tears fell one after the other down her cheeks. She wasn’t able to control them and she didn’t even bother wiping them out of her eyes before nodding enthusiastically and saying, “Yes Lucas! There’s nothing in this world I would love more than to become your wife.”
He slid the ring on her finger and then stood up. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a crushing hug. “You’ve just made me the happiest man on earth.”
She looked up at him and smiled, “Good because I’m the happiest woman. We’re going to have an incredible life together.”
Lucas grinned down at her and nodded, “I don’t doubt it.”
After that they began planning their wedding and shopping for a home of their own, they looked at ten or twelve homes and finally settled on one they both loved as soon as they laid eyes on it. It sat right on the beach and the entire bottom floor was made of glass so they had views of blue ocean and white sands on all sides. It needed renovations but the contractor that Lucas hired assured him they could have it move-in ready by the time they were back from their honeymoon. As soon as they signed on the house, and were lulled into a false sense of security…that was when he struck again.
About three weeks into the renovations, Lucas’ contractor called and told him they had shown up to the work site that morning and were greeted by a rotting, smelly pile of fish heads left in the center of the living room floor. As much as that infuriated Lucas, what made him even angrier was that Aiden wasn’t anywhere near San Diego at the time. He had been working on developing a software company with some of the money he obtained by selling off the family assets and he was in the Silicon Valley. The security company following him had photos of him there for the entire week before the incident. Lucas was still sure it was him. He had simply hired someone to do the dirty work…but once again, he couldn’t prove it. That was what finally put Lucas over the edge and for the first time and what he hoped would be the only time ever, he did something behind Reagan’s back. As he thought about it, he actually smiled. That was a good day.
Chapter 17
Reagan stood in front of the full-length mirror in the bride’s room at the Catamaran Resort and Spa. She had checked out the South Lawn where she and Lucas would be saying their vows in less than an hour, when she first arrived in the morning. It was set up with chairs for almost 200 guests and the long, white runner in between was offset by the multi-colored tropical flowers that lined it. At the front of it, all was a handmade bamboo arch decorated with the same type of fresh, fragrant flowers and sprigs of palm. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and the panoramic views of Mission Bay and the gorgeous blue San Diego skyline in the background topped it all off. Reagan had experienced more good times and happy days since she had met Lucas than any other time in her life, but she knew that today would be the happiest and most memorable. She couldn’t wait to be his wife and start their lives together and although thoughts of Aiden and what he might be up to next kept trying to creep into her subconscious, she trampled them down every time. She had already allowed him to consume too much of her life. Today was Reagan and Lucas’ day and there was no room in it for Aiden, even in her thoughts.
A knock on the door brought her out of her reverie. Before she went over to answer it, her friend Belinda stuck her head inside. “Hey beautiful, the makeup artis
ts are here.”
Reagan smiled. “Okay, I’m ready if you are.”
