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“That’s what I told him,” Penelope chimed in. “We love you, Daniel.”
“I know, Mom. Really I do,” Daniel said, as a feeling of immense love swept through him. How one earth had he gotten so lucky as to have such a supportive family?
Thank you, God. No matter how badly I feel right now it’s a wonderful feeling to know my family has my back. I might want to sit around and lick my wounds but they’re not going to let me do it alone.
“Mom has been giving me a pep talk,” Daniel explained to Micah. The two brothers shared a gaze full of mirth. They both knew Penelope was a cheerleader and she never failed to lift up her children when they were down.
“Sounds like her,” Micah said with a grin.
“On that note,” Penelope said, “I’m going back to the diner.” She stood up and placed kisses on the temples of both of her sons. “I love you both. To the moon and back.”
“Ditto,” Micah and Daniel said in unison. It was something they had been saying all of their lives.
Once Penelope had left, Micah began tapping his fingers on the marble counter. Daniel knew he wanted to get something off his chest, no doubt about his breakup with Lorelei.
“To be honest, I kind of doubted in the beginning that the two of you would mesh, but seeing you together proved me wrong. You were great together.”
“Well, clearly Lorelei didn’t agree with that sentiment. She dumped me like a sack of old potatoes.” Daniel felt a pain in his chest as he spoke. It still hurt and he couldn’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t hurt like crazy. How could he have been so wrong about her? Was he that clueless? Maybe he didn’t know the first thing about love—true, enduring love.
Micah grimaced. “It’s really strange. She talked about you in such glowing terms. Just ask Faith. She said the same thing. I would have sworn she was in love with you.”
Daniel’s heart contracted. It was too painful to hear Micah talk about Lorelei’s supposed feelings for him. None of it had been real.
Daniel held his hand up. “No offense, but this is kind of like rubbing salt in a wound. I really don’t want to talk about her. I’ll be honest, bro. It hurts too much.”
“Okay. Sorry. I’m just a little worried about her with the hearing coming up.”
Daniel frowned. “Hearing? What are you talking about?”
Micah looked at him with a strange expression etched on his face. “The parole hearing for James Ellis, the man who is in jail for stalking her. He might be getting out of prison soon.”
For a moment Daniel felt as if the universe itself had flipped upside down. He gritted his teeth. Suddenly, things began to fall into place. Lorelei’s panic attacks. Her looking over her shoulder at the marina. The fear she’d exhibited in public surroundings. The sudden bursts of nervousness.
“Didn’t she tell you? I thought--.” Micah stopped talking and looked at Daniel with regret.
“I shouldn’t have said anything. I thought you knew. It’s a matter of public record.”
Daniel hadn’t known about the upcoming parole hearing. Lorelei had told him about being victimized by James Ellis and about his lengthy prison sentence. But she hadn’t told him that Ellis might be released from prison soon and that a hearing was going to be held to determine his fate.
Why hadn’t she told him? He would have made her feel safe. He would have done anything to shield her from pain. Didn’t she know that? Couldn’t she see how much he adored her?
“No, she never said a word about the hearing, but she did tell me about her stalker. I want to know everything, Micah. Please. Tell me everything you know about James Ellis and this parole hearing.”
As Micah began to speak, Daniel’s heart was beating a fast rhythm within his chest. He wasn’t certain, but he had a funny feeling that he now knew why Lorelei had abruptly broken things off with him. Perhaps he was just trying to protect his heart from the knowledge that Lorelei didn’t see a future with him, but for the first time in a long time, hope began to swell in his heart.
**
Lorelei had thought that walking the beach might help her frame of mind. But rather than soothe her it only served to remind her of Daniel. How many times had they walked hand in hand on this very stretch of beach? The ache in her soul refused to abate. She was learning a tough lesson about loving someone. People always said being in love was such a glorious state of being, but it also came with heartache and pain. In order to protect Daniel, Lorelei had been forced to push him out of her life. In the process she had caused them both immeasurable pain. She still didn’t know if she’d done the right thing.
Bethany had read her the riot act. “Why did you have to break up with him? Surely there was another way?”
She had shaken her head, knowing Bethany couldn’t fully understand her fear and paranoia. Although she loved her to bits, Bethany hadn’t been through what Lorelei had endured. It had forever altered the course of her life. She still lived with the mental scars.
Although she tried her best to not wallow in those awful memories, she couldn’t stop herself from reflecting on the nightmarish events of three years ago. And to make matters worse she had been receiving these horrible notes in the mail, ones that horrified her and resurrected haunting memories of her stalker. Ellis had reached out to her from behind the prison walls and showed her that his obsession was still very real.
She stopped in her tracks. There was a man walking in her direction. His frame and stride was as familiar to her as her own. Daniel! She couldn’t imagine this was a coincidence, but perhaps he was simply walking the beach for exercise. He walked straight toward her, his handsome features inscrutable as he stopped a few feet away from her.
“Lorelei.” Just hearing him say her name caused her eyes to moisten with emotion. She missed hearing his voice and the sweet sound of it. In truth, she missed everything about this man.
