Keep My Heart- Prologue

Keep My Heart- 7

“To me, Fearless is not the absense of fear. It's not being completely unafraid. To me, Fearless is having fears. Fearless is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you to death.”
― Taylor Swift

The air smelled of the ocean water, dark and blue and hiding many things. Fish seemed to glide beneath the shadowy sheets of the Atlantic waters, and the wind danced sharply across the waves. The Sun Goddess was an escape for Adam Hawke, and she always had been. There were few women more pleasing to his eye than his own ship was. He had purchased her cheaply, because she had been in severe disrepair. But he had invested a great deal of money in her, and now she was one of his other great accomplishments.

The sky and the ocean met what appeared to be thousands of miles away. The two shades of blue were stark and differing in comparison, one much lighter and truer than the other. One could say that Adam and Rashleigh were like the sky and the ocean. Both were complex and deep. Both could be unpredictable.

But Adam was not thinking of this. He was considering how he might postpone his trip to Tortuga. It would be difficult, having Olivia here alone with Rashleigh and his wife. Another thought came along. Olivia had told him the tale of the three of them, although he wondered what type of woman his sister-in-law was. From the sound of it, he knew she was human. He wondered if his brother had found her more attractive than his ex-mistress.

The whole of Boston had been quietly scandalized when he married her. Even though he had been quite the hermit, he had been considered a great catch, seeing that he owned his land and his business. Mothers of Boston had been elbowing their freckled and their beautiful daughters towards him. However, he had avoided most of the parties and coming out balls. Momentarily, he asked himself if he might have been happier had he gone and married another.

He frowned cheerlessly at his unthinking imbecility. It was entirely possible that his marriage to Olivia Cameron was far more than sheer happenstance. Perhaps, it was fate. If fate and such things truly existed, then it was entirely possible. Everything was for a greater purpose, he was sure of it. He had always thought that everything had a purpose. He knew his mother's death had been to make him stronger, though he hadn't known that then. In all of his years, Adam Hawke had learned that when things seemed their bleakest, there was a reason. At the time, his insane father's demise had appeared to be the icing on the cake of a million bad things. Years later, he knew that it had been to protect him. Rashleigh hadn't known their father. Even so, he had figured out that it had been for the both of them.

Easton Hawke's end had been to preserve his little boy's image of him. Adam remembered his father as being that exactly: a father, and a good one at that. Then, he thought, he hoped he could be a father as his had been.

Chances were quite slim, seeing that he and his wife kept separate chambers. Really, they led separate lives and he knew it. Adam grimaced when he realized almost all of the chances he might have had for heirs would be lost when Rashleigh arrived. He had once been sure that Olivia was over his brother...but since the subject of a party rose, he knew he had been painfully mistaken.

There was no way she was over him. There was no use of stewing over it, he knew. Her foolish heart wanted what it wanted and there was no way to stop it. He had been just as foolish to think that she might possibly be rid of such a silly infatuation. He had left his emotions right open and now he was disappointed. On one hand, he could not stand her for it, but he wondered if perhaps she was another way to make him a stronger man.

And maybe, that was all she was. All she would ever be.

The wind picked up then, and his vessel sailed smoothly over the glimmering blue nothingness. A man could lose himself in the color if he wasn't careful. But Adam, he was not lost. He had learned to trust his compass and to read the stars to find his way home. There had been many dark nights when he waited for the stars to wink and glitter, so he and his faithful crew could make their way back to Boston.