Chapter Seven

 

* LUKE *

 

I was a bit early to the Bello Italian Restaurant. Okay, a lot early. But I wanted to make sure I was here before Kelsey. I’d wanted to pick her up and give her a ride, but she had insisted that it was no big deal for her to come straight from the library. This made it feel like less of a real date to me, but she wasn’t budging on the issue.

Getting to the restaurant early turned out to not be a bad thing anyway. The place had a small bar that served excellent whiskey. I hadn’t expected that at an Italian joint, but it was a nice surprise. I felt like I actually deserved a good glass today, for once. After I’d gotten back from my beach romp with Kelsey, I’d finally managed to write some words down on my novel. Not a whole lot, but enough that my writing coach hadn’t totally chewed me out today. She’d actually even told me that I should keep doing whatever I’d done today that had left me so inspired.

Keep banging Kelsey Young, the most beautiful woman in the world? I could be persuaded.

I hadn’t said anything to my coach about Kelsey, of course. Besides the obvious fact that it would be kind of awkward, I didn’t want my coach flipping out at me that I was on the island to write, not to engage in a romance. But really, how could I be expected to stop a budding romance with a woman like Kelsey? And it was helping my writing, not hurting it.

“Heard you’re a famous author,” a voice beside me said. I looked over to see one of Driftwood Island’s police officers looking over at me. I nodded and extended my hand.

“I’m an author, yes. Name’s Luke. Luke Foster. “

The officer shook my hand. “I’m Elliot. I don’t think I’ve ever read any of your books, but honestly I don’t read that much. No offense or anything.”

“None taken,” I said with a grin. “At least you’re honest. A lot of people try to act like they read a lot when they don’t. It’s always pretty obvious though.”

Elliot grinned. “I figure I am who I am. If people don’t like me, then that’s their problem.”

“That’s a good philosophy. Say, can I buy you a drink?” I liked this guy. He seemed like exactly the down-to-earth kind of guy I thought of when I thought of a small town like Driftwood Island.

“Naw, thanks man, but I can’t drink right now. I’m actually on duty. I just stopped by to say hi to the owner here, and make sure everything’s going alright for him. He’s my best buddy, so I try to watch his back. Especially now that he’s got this restaurant. Then I saw you and decided to introduce myself. It’s really cool to have a famous author in town for a bit, even if I haven’t actually read your books. If there’s anything I can help you with, just let me know, alright?”

I nodded. “Alright. Thanks, Elliot. And I’ll give you a rain check on the drink, for the next time I see you when you’re off duty.”

Elliot grinned at me and nodded, then turned to leave. He was just to the doorway of the small restaurant when his radio started squawking. He reached down to pull it up to his ear, and I couldn’t help straining my ears to listen. What I heard made my blood run cold.

We have reports of a disturbance down at the library, the static-filled voice said over the radio. It sounds like there’s been an attack on Kelsey Young, the librarian. One of Kelsey’s friends said Kelsey called her but wasn’t able to actually speak to her. From the background noise, though, it sounded like Kyle Hall was there and was very drunk. He was making quite a few threats. All officers in the vicinity are asked to respond.

“Oh, shit,” Elliot said to no one in particular. “Kyle’s at it again.”

“Kelsey’s in trouble?” I asked, already rising from my barstool. “I have to go help her!”

“You’ve met her?” Elliot asked. “Yeah, it sounds like she somehow got into it with the town drunk. I’m heading down there now in my police cruiser. Feel free to follow along in your car.”

“Will do.”

I ran outside after Elliot, and jumped behind the wheel of my rental pickup. I had never wished more that I’d been given a sports car for a rental. I couldn’t get to the library fast enough.

Of course, I didn’t actually know the way to the library, so following Elliot saved me from having to rely on my GPS. My truck bounced along behind his police cruiser, struggling to keep up. But I managed to keep up for the most part, and within a few minutes I was pulling into the library’s parking lot behind Elliot. There were already two police cruisers there, and two police officers were standing around Kelsey’s car with their batons drawn.

I hurtled out of my truck just in time to see one of the officers lunge at a large, drunken man and drag him off of Kelsey’s hood. The other officers, Elliot included, immediately jumped in to help subdue the man. I looked wildly around for Kelsey, and finally realized that she was inside her car. Her hands were covering her mouth, and she looked like she was shaking.

The police looked like they had the man pretty well subdued at this point, so I ran over to Kelsey and knocked on her window. She jumped, then looked over and saw me. The moment her eyes met mine, she burst into tears. I tried the door, but it was locked. She had no doubt been trying to keep out the man the police were now handcuffing. Kelsey fumbled for a moment to unlock the door, and as soon as she managed to open it she fell into my arms.

“I was so scared,” she choked out. “He made all these threats, and I didn’t know what to do.”

“Shh. It’s alright now. The police are here and they’ve got him. And I’m here, and you better believe I’m not going to let him do anything to hurt you.”

Kelsey nodded and wiped at her tears, but more kept coming. I just held her, thankful that she was okay and thankful that she was letting me comfort her. A few moments later, Elliot came up behind me.

“Kelsey, are you alright?” he asked. Kelsey pulled back a bit to look at him, and nodded.

“Yeah. He tried to beat me up but I managed to lock myself in here after giving him a good kick in the balls.”

Elliot and I looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“Well, I guess you can look out for yourself a bit, huh?” I said.

She shrugged, but looked proud. “I guess I can. Although I’m glad you all showed up. I don’t know how long I could have sat out here before he managed to break my windshield.”

“Well, you have your friend Ruby to thank for that,” Elliot said. “Apparently you called her on your phone and she realized from the background noise that something wasn’t right. She’s the one who called us.”

Kelsey closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. “Good ol’ Ruby. She always has my back. Speaking of my phone, though, I should probably go see if I can retrieve it from the bushes. I hope the screen isn’t cracked.”

“I’ll come help you look,” I offered, and she nodded gratefully.

“If you don’t mind, Kelsey,” Elliot said, “We’d like you to come down to the station and give a quick statement. We’d like to make sure that Kyle is punished for this, so we can try to ensure he doesn’t attempt some nonsense like this again.”

Kelsey nodded. “Of course.” Then she looked over at me. “Sorry, I guess we’re going to have to postpone our dinner plans.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I took her hand and started walking with her toward the bushes at the front of the library. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“You won’t believe all the things he said to me,” she said as Elliot walked away. “I knew he was an awful drunk, but I had no idea I was even still on his radar. This whole thing started because he heard I was with you and was jealous and angry about it.”

I squeezed her hand harder, then turned to look at her as we approached the bushes. “And are you ‘with me?’ Is he right about that?”

She blushed. “I didn’t mean…I wasn’t trying to say…I know we haven’t talked about anything serious. I just…”

I laughed and pulled her into my arms, kissing the top of her head gently and then nuzzling her ear. “Hey, calm down. It’s alright. If you want to be with me, then, well, I want to be with you.”

She looked up at me with such hope in her eyes that it damn near broke my heart. All I wanted to do for the rest of forever was protect her. I couldn’t believe that scumbag Kyle had threatened her and tried to hurt her, but if he ever got near her again I was going to kill him.

“I…I’d like very much to be with you. But how will all the details work out? You’re only here a month and then you go back to San Francisco. And my whole life is here and I’m not sure how well I’d fit in there. And—”

“Shh!” I put a finger to her mouth. “Don’t worry about all of that right now, okay? All of that is just details, and details never stop true love. And let me tell you, Kelsey, as crazy as it may sound, I know that that’s exactly what this is: true love.”

She smiled up at me, melting my heart all over again. “I don’t think it’s crazy at all.”

She stood on tiptoe to kiss me, and in that moment, despite all the chaos going on around me, life was perfect.