Page 1 of Unspoken Love

Chapter One

The high-pitched sound caused Faye to double over in pain. She wanted to yank her new implant out of her skull.

Instead, she plopped down in the sand and counted to five until the buzzing stopped. The annoying sound was replaced with soft cries from the seagulls overhead and the sound of the waves a few feet away.

She let out a slow breath and pressed her fingertips against her temple. The cool breeze that floated off the Pacific soothed her flushed skin. She sat back, digging her free fingers into the damp sand. She could still hear the distant echo of the feedback buzzing in her memory, like a ghost of something that didn’t belong inside her head.

The implants were supposed to give the world back to her. Sound. Music. Conversations without watching lips so closely. But right now, all she could think about was how loud everything was. The waves crashing on the rocks. The birds screaming overhead. Even the rustle of wind through the tall dune grass felt like static in her ears.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head up toward the sun.

“You’re fine,” she whispered. The words didn’t come out steady, but they helped. “You’re okay. This is okay.”

Max’s house—her house for the summer—sat just up the hill behind her, perched like a dream against the Oregon hillside. The white lighthouse stood tall and proud next to her brother’s remodeled home, which he shared with his wife of just over a year.

Staying there should make her feel like she was in a fairytale. Instead, it felt like she’d borrowed someone else’s life without asking.

Maybe after a few days she’d settle into it?

Juliette, her new sister-in-law, had texted her that morning, asking if she’d made it to Pride from Portland okay.

She’d sent her a picture of her smiling in front of their home.

She’d replied back with something about sipping wine in a vineyard in France and watching Max get grilled by an actor who was “too young to be that arrogant.” Her brother’s screenwriting career was booming, and it was thrilling to see his latest works turn into the next big thing. She was impressed that they’d jetted across the world and would be living in Paris for the next several months.

Faye had smiled at the message. Genuinely. She was glad they were having fun. She really was.

The empty house was the excuse she’d needed to take the leap and finally leave her mother’s home.

A fresh start. Something just for her.

She had packed all her belongings in ten boxes, shoved them in her car, and promised herself she wouldn’t look back.

Her brother’s house was beautiful, peaceful, and everything she needed at the moment.

She even liked her brother’s horses, Stormy and Blaze. She’d never been around horses before and when she’d walked out to the barn after arriving, she was a little scared at first.

Stormy was smaller than Blaze. She had a silky tan coat and kind eyes, and Faye instantly fell for her.

Blaze, on the other hand, was very tall and muscular, and he watched her with cautious eyes. He was a beautiful buckskin and had a dark mane that was braided.

Both of them were tucked away in the barn at the moment. They had seemed to regard her as an intruder at first. But then she had offered them a couple sugar cubes, laying them in her flat palm like she’d been told to do, and they had warmed up to her quickly.

Her brother had said someone would be taking care of them and had assured her that she wouldn’t have to worry about them at all while she was watching their house.

Before she’d arrived in town, Juliette had pre-arranged for her to have a job at the local bookstore that her family owned. She’d had a few jobs over the past years. They’d been low pressure but not something that she cared for.

She loved books though and figured that she’d enjoy working at a bookstore. Besides, she could use the pay. She planned to look for a place of her own before her brother returned.

Her first day at work was Monday, and she hoped to be unpacked and settled in by then.

In the past year or so since her brother and Juliette had finished remodeling their home attached to the historic lighthouse, she had stayed there a handful of times.

This time, she’d chosen to stay in one of the rooms upstairs instead of the guest room on the main floor. She picked the room that Juliette had called the blue room. She liked it because it had the largest bathroom of the upstairs rooms and, outside of the main bedroom, it had the best view of the ocean and lighthouse.

Five minutes after she arrived, she was glad she had decided to come. Even the soft sand under her was a reminder that things could be better for her.

When the pain subsided a little and she opened her eyes again, she focused on the ocean, the waves crashing to the rocky shoreline. She did what she always did when she was overwhelmed. She tried to find one thing to hold on to. A sound that didn’t overwhelm her. A rhythm that didn’t jar her senses.