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Nate
Wednesday evening…
I hit send on the text to Shawna. This is my last attempt to contact her. I know she hasn’t blocked me since my previous text messages say “delivered,” but she hasn’t replied. It’s been twenty-four hours since she stormed out of my hotel room, and I don’t blame her one bit. I was a complete dipshit the way I handled everything. I never should’ve given in to temptation and taken Shawna out. I should’ve been more professional. What was I thinking? That we would somehow have a passionate long-distance relationship after I returned to San Diego? I was being ridiculous and not thinking with my brain.
And now I’ve hurt Shawna, which I never meant to do. I wanted our last night together to be special. I wanted to come clean and let her know who I really was. What a complete shit idea that was. Nothing good came from being one-hundred-percent honest with her. If only I hadn’t brought up Jarred and let her in on the real reason Rob and I were in Port Townsend. However, she needed to know.
I know I need to move on and forget about her. It’s hard at the moment, though. I felt a real connection with her. I even told her about Hannah and our unborn baby. I bared my soul to her, we had incredible sex, and then she left. All because I was a complete asshole.
Rob doesn’t know what happened. He thinks I took her out one last time, and that’s it. He has no clue that I told Shawna about our mission to find Jarred, and he’d kill me if he found out. There’s no way I’ll share that bit of information with him.
Still no response from Shawna. I doubt she’ll reply to my text.
I get ready for bed, all the while thinking about what I could’ve done differently to still have Shawna in my life. I miss talking to her. I wish we were still friends just so we could chat. I even miss Noah. He was a sweet kid, and he looked up to me for some reason. I had fun helping him carve his pumpkin into a jack-o’-lantern. Although things ended badly, I’ll always have fond memories of my time in Port Townsend.
* * *
The next day is a typical day at work. Rob and I are both working in the office, waiting to be assigned to our next case. In the meantime, we both do a little online reconnaissance work to try to get any sort of lead on Jarred Feldman.
It’s in the afternoon when my personal phone rings. Immediately, I hope it’s Shawna, but I’m happily surprised to see my cousin Liam’s name on the screen. I haven’t talked to him in ages.
“Hey, buddy, what’s up?” I say when I answer.
“The sky,” Liam says with a laugh. Ever since we were kids, that’s what we’d say to each other when asked what’s up. “Seriously, though, man, how are you?”
“I’m good,” I reply. “I just got back to San Diego, still trying to track down this fucker who’s a master at eluding law enforcement, but I’m pretty good. How about you?”
“Oh, you know, just doin’ my thing. I’m home for a while, so it’s nice to spend time with Lee and the kids.” Liam is still a Navy SEAL, so he’s called away on missions from time to time, but his home base is in Virginia. His wife, Lee, works for Cole Security at the East Coast office. Life hasn’t always been easy for them, but they’re happily married and have two kids. I can only hope to be a family man like Liam someday.
“That’s awesome. I’m glad to hear you’re doing well.”
“Thanks, man. So, tell me, where were you before you got back to San Diego? Did they at least send you somewhere cool this time?”
I chuckle. “Actually, yeah. Have you ever heard of Port Townsend, Washington?”
“No. Is it near Seattle?”
“Not exactly. It’s on the other side of Puget Sound. It’s a cute town, though. Beautiful views. You can see Canada if you stand at the northernmost point of the town.”
“Wow, that’s cool. How long were you there?”
For some reason, I want to tell Liam everything that happened. He’s always been a good listener and confidant, and I know he’d tell me like it is and help me forget about Shawna. There’s really nothing Liam doesn’t know about my personal life. He’s helped me through all my hard times, and he’s the reason I have this job with Cole Security.
I lift my head and look around the office to see if anyone is within earshot. Rob is working clear on the other side of the office, and no one else is nearby. I take a deep breath and dive right in, speaking as quietly as I can in case anyone walks by. “I was there for about a week. It felt longer, though. It was actually a pretty crazy trip … I met a woman.”
“Really?” I can hear the surprise in Liam’s voice. “Tell me about it.”
“Honestly, I was pretty stupid, so just hear me out before you share your two cents.”
“Okay.” Liam draws the word out.
Here goes nothing.
“The man we’re looking for is from Port Townsend. We’ve had no luck tracking him down, so we went with any leads we had. Well, we found out he got his high school girlfriend pregnant seven years ago, and she still lives in town. In fact, she owns a bar, so we went there to talk with her, hoping she might leak some sort of information about this guy we could use. Anyway—”
“Don’t tell me you fell for her,” Liam interrupts, sounding disappointed. “Dude!”
“Let me finish,” I say before continuing. “Yes, she was beautiful, smart, kind, and she had no connections to her ex at all. The more I talked with her, the more I liked her. I couldn’t help it … there was just this chemistry between us.”
