Grace Taylor Hudson

Chapter 18

"Katy!" His deep voice called out to me, "C'mon! Let's get in the water." We were walking along the beach hand in hand when he ran ahead and stuck his feet in.

"No! You're crazy. It's too cold to get in!" I shook my head and scrunched up my nose.

He ran back and pulled me into his arms. "I'll keep you warm," he whispered as he began to kiss my neck and upper jaw.

I trailed my fingers up and down his toned, tattooed arm, the other hand was running through his dark hair. "Mmmm, I'm extremely warm now."

His warm breath flooded my ear, "Katy". He kept repeating my name but it kept getting louder and suddenly I wasn't in his arms. This isn't how it's supposed to be. He has to be here to keep me warm, he promised.

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I woke up cold, sweating, and completely confused by my surroundings. My arms flung to the other side of the bed but nobody was there. I began to panic, where'd he go? Why wasn't he here? I sat up and looked towards the bathroom, no light, no water running. Only a door shutting downstairs somewhere.

Then it hit me like a truck. It was just a dream... He's not here, he never was. Only Grace and we're in the Bahamas. Not in Santa Barbara. I laid there allowing myself to process it all. I never stopped loving him like I thought I would and according to the text I'd gotten the other day he hadn't really moved on either.

I was running around trying to pack for the trip in two days making sure I had ten days worth of clothes and shoes for myself and making sure Grace had everything she needed. And she basically had nothing which resulted in her going to shop for a few hours everyday before coming back home to help me throw it all in suitcase.

Also her not having a passport had made it a little bit more hectic, but thank God Laura was willing to help out and took her for me. There was no way I'd be able to stand in line for an hour and not have people even more suspicious especially since we were leaving to escape the rumors.

Tamra had booked us a red-eye private flight to avoid crowds even though she and Shannon will have a hell of a time trying to get Grace and I out of the door at 4:30 AM.

My phone started ringing completely ruining the mental checklist I'd started. I huffed and walked to the other side of my bedroom. "Who the hell would that be? I swear I'm going to kill whoever it is," I mumbled.

I unlocked the screen and clicked on my messages. When I saw who it was from my heart dropped and the butterflies soared. My heart told me to read the message but my head told me no. My heart won as it usually does.

'What're you doing this Saturday?' I didn't know how to respond so I was short and to the point.

'I'll be in the Bahamas. 10 day trip. Why?'

A few seconds later it rang again, 'Wanted to see if we could grab dinner. I miss you.' I was taken aback, then realized I didn't have time to deal with this and shoved my emotions into the black box of my mind.

'Oh, sorry. Maybe next time.'

I deleted the conversation, went back to packing, and forgot about it.

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I sighed and plopped back down on the pillows. All of this is because of what Shannon and Bonnie had told me last night. Had they left it alone I'd probably be fine and not like this at all. My mind was running in all different directions but stopped when I realized I didn't know what time it was or where Grace had gone.

The clock on the night stand was screaming 12:00 PM at me in big red numbers. Well, that's one question answered. The second one was answered when I heard the door creak open quietly.