Then, there was the endless parade of doctors, all of whom had told him, their faces sagging with pity, that he would never walk again.
That he would never make love again.
That his body would forever remain a broken shell.
He woke with a start and reached for his legs, rubbing his hands down them gratefully. That he had survived had been a miracle. That he had completely regained his physical abilities was beyond a miracle. But he’d done it, and he’d had the perfect incentive. Annabeth. If he could walk, he could win her back. He could make it all okay.
But he hadn’t.
He got out of bed and stared moodily out at the pre-dawn sky.
Far from winning her back, he’d made everything so much worse.
She would never forgive him. The hurts of the past were being buried by the pain he kept heaping on her, and he didn’t know how to fix it.
He reached for the gold box, and ran his finger over her letters. Her pain was obvious. Her desperation and terror at the path that lay ahead.
She wasn’t terrified now.
She was brave, and courageous, and managing to keep her life and Wade’s on track through strength alone. She didn’t need him anymore. She didn’t love him. But he needed her. He loved her.
* * *
“What do you think, Wade?” Kirk asked, lifting the small boy from the car seat and placing him down on the ground.
Wade looked up at the huge beach-front house, with its white weatherboard walls and wrap around balconies.
“It’s big. And it’s got lots of stairs. And a flag.”
Kirk smiled. “Sure does. You want to go count the stairs?”
“Yeah.” Wade tore off, running across the sandy grass towards the house.
Annabeth sat, her face mutinous, in the front seat. Kirk winced, knowing he had a lot of work before him. He opened her door. She remained resolutely still.
“What do you think?”
“Believe me, Kirk, you don’t want to know what I think right now.” She said coldly, staring away from him.
His chuckle was like honey on her frayed nerves. “Do I need to lift you out of the car, too?”
The certainty that he would carry through on the offer had her unbuckling her seatbelt and stepping out of the car. “What is this place?” She asked, making sure she kept her distance from him.
He held a set of keys out to her. “It’s your new home.”
“My new… what?” She turned to face him, completely stunned, then looked back at the beachfront masterpiece.
“Don’t worry, Annabeth. I put it in Wade’s name, so you really can’t object.”
She gritted her teeth. “Bet your sweet ass I can’t object,” she contradicted, tossing the keys back to him. He caught them on instinct. Annabeth watched as Wade moved up the stairs with an ease that came from his natural athleticism.
“What is the problem now?” He asked wearily, thinking how pretty she looked when she was angry. Her face, so angelic usually, became pink, her lips pouted, and her eyes sparked. He longed to take her in his arms and kiss away the anger she was feeling. But it would make everything so much worse.
“I hate taking anything from you,” she said, so honestly, so artlessly, that he felt like she’d stabbed him.
“Then don’t think of it as a gift to you. I’m doing this for Wade. My son.”
“Our son doesn’t need a beach house like this. Jeez, Kirk. I know you were born to one of the wealthiest families in the south, and that this might even seem normal to you, but it isn’t.”
“Wade was born to the same family.”
She sighed with frustration. “But he’s been raised by me. Horace and I are his family, and Cass, come to think of it. Normal people with normal houses and normal worries.”
“What’s wrong with living somewhere beautiful like this?” He asked, trying to stay calm and sound reasonable.
“I don’t want him turning out like you, okay?” She bit down on her lip, guilt washing over her as she saw the way his expression darkened.
“I see.”
She sighed. “You got everything you wanted on a silver platter. Throwing money at problems is your way of dealing with anything.”
“That’s not true.”
“Kirk, when we were kids, you wanted to give me a car, for goodness sake. At an age most people are working part time jobs to save up for some second hand bomb, you wanted to give me a luxury European car. You just can’t fix stuff with money. It doesn’t work.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. “Or sex,” she hissed, storming across the grass in pursuit of Wade. “Honey, come down, we’re going home.”
Kirk kept up with Annabeth easily.
“Where are we going, mama?” Wade asked, as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Back home,” she said seriously, taking his hand and leading him back to the car.
“Oh. I wanted to see inside.”
Kirk had the distinct impression of digging himself deeper into a hole. “You know what, buddy? You can.”
Wade’s face lit up. “Really? Can I, mama?”
Annabeth threw Kirk a furious glance. “Maybe another time.”
“No, now is fine, Wade. Go back up the stairs and wait for us a moment.”
Wade skipped towards the house, leaving Annabeth fuming in his wake.
“How dare you undermine me to our child?” She demanded, anger like an actual physical force inside of her.
“I have told you already, Annabeth, that I’m prepared to ignore the matter of custody only so long as you are reasonable. So be reasonable.”
He was going to keep hitting her over the head with that, and she was helpless to argue. Because the one thing she couldn’t do was lose Wade.
“Fine.” Her voice was just a whisper into the warm summer’s afternoon. “We’ll keep the house.”
Kirk had won the battle, but he was definitely losing the war. He walked behind her. “Do you like it?”
She eyed him reproachfully. “It’s the nicest house I’ve ever been bullied into accepting.”
He smiled, despite the seriousness of her accusation. “Come see inside.”
“No thanks.”
He swallowed an oath. “Oh, Beth, come on!”
She glared up at him and lowered her voice, making sure Wade wouldn’t hear her. “You can pull my strings, Kirk, because you’re holding something over my head that would make me do almost anything you ask. But you can’t expect me to enjoy it.”
Her breasts were heaving with her indignant rage. His gaze lowered to them, the tanned cleavage displayed by the singlet she wore. “I know what you enjoy, Annabeth.”
His voice was thick with emotions, and it stirred Annabeth’s body to a fever pitch. “Don’t,” she whispered harshly, but inside, she was shaking.
“I’ve been thinking about you, Annabeth. About your body, and the way it makes mine ache with need. I’ve never known anything like it.”
Her lips twisted with bitterness. “Not even with the woman you left me for?” Her tone dripped with saccharine sweetness.
“Not with anyone,” he promised, lacing his fingers through hers and pulling her hand to his mouth. “Beth, have dinner with me tonight.”
Her pulse was hammering inside her wrist. “No,” she shook her head. “I can’t.” She wouldn’t. She was only a dinner or two away from forgetting her anger and falling right back in love with him. And she couldn’t.
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“Both,” she said seriously. “I’m working, Kirk. Besides, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
He scowled. “Then at least come and see the house.”
“No.” She looked away, out to the never-ending expanse of ocean. “I’ll wait by the car.”
“Suit yourself,” he said with a dismissive nod, turning and heading up the stairs. She watched him go, wondering if she was imagining that his movements seemed stiff somehow, his gait slow, as he reached Wade and put an arm around the little boy’s shoulders.
She shrugged, moving back to the car. Kirk Robinson was a lot of things, but physically less than perfect, in any way, was not one of them. He’d always been the most macho of men, even in high school. She remembered the first time she’d really spoken him. She’d been trying out for the cheerleading squad, and he’d been finishing practice. The star quarterback, and she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off him.
It had just been a friendship, at first. Though Annabeth’s attraction was unmistakable, Kirk had been careful not to encourage her. Their age difference had been difficult for him to accept, but when Beth was a senior, he had known he loved her. Or so he’d said, she thought bitterly, walking past the car to the dunes beyond.
She sank down onto her haunches and picked some sand up in the palm of her hands. It floated away, into the distance, much as the past had. Those high school years, when she’d been happy and care free, and the future lay before her like a bright adventure, were forever gone. Fragments of her past, that she’d never be able to click back into place. She rested her arms on her knees and leaned her head forward, shutting her eyes and listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore.
Kirk was trying to do the right thing. She knew that. His technique was appalling, but then, he’d always been goal orientated. That was a crucial ingredient to his success in life. As a business man, she didn’t doubt that it served him well. He saw a problem, decided on a solution, and took whatever means he deemed necessary to achieve his goal.