A Time for Us - By Amy Knupp Page 0,22
surface. She cleared her mind and just...was.
It was much later—an hour? Two?—when she noticed her shoulders were pink and the boat traffic from the marina out to the gulf was picking up. As she gazed south to the other side of the bridge, she spotted two competing dolphin tours heading out south toward where the bay and the gulf intersected. A growl from her stomach reminded her she hadn’t eaten since an early dinner before her shift last night. Reluctantly, she dipped her paddle in to turn the boat toward the shore.
She’d be back much more frequently, now that she remembered the therapeutic value of passing the hours in the kayak. Though paddling back to the dock was the last thing she wanted to do, at least now she felt as though she could handle life and whatever it threw at her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“HEY, STRANGER,” Sawyer Culver called out as Cale made his way from the street to the Culver garage late Tuesday morning. “Haven’t seen you for several months. What’s the occasion, man?”
“Just your lucky day,” Cale said. Sawyer set down a large, obviously heavy cardboard box on top of another at the edge of the garage and held out his hand for Cale to shake. “Looks like you’re having a blast here.”
Sawyer, who wore a sweaty T-shirt and old gym shorts, wiped his forehead and gave Cale a look that said otherwise. He shook his head. “My mom hasn’t cleaned out the garage for years. I still don’t know what the hell I was thinking when I offered to do it.”
There were a dozen or so boxes stacked on the driveway and a couple in the back of Sawyer’s pickup.
“Somebody moving out?” Cale asked, immediately thinking of Rachel.
Sawyer shook his head. “Making a Goodwill run. They’ll either be thrilled when they see me pull up or sorry as hell.”
Cale frowned and swallowed hard. “Is this some of Noelle’s stuff?”
“Naw.” Sawyer shook his head, his mouth open as if he were searching for words. “No one has even started to go through her belongings yet.”
Blinking in confusion, Cale tilted his head in question.
“Crazy, isn’t it?” Sawyer said.
“It’s been...a long time.” Long enough that it seemed as if someone would sort through her things and at least pack them away even if they couldn’t bear to get rid of them yet.
“Don’t I know it.” Sawyer lifted another box from the ground up into the back of the truck. “I’d do it, but you know as well as I do that I’d do it all wrong. My mom refuses to take care of it herself because she thinks Rachel should be in on it since they were so close. Rachel...well... First off, she’s been at school until recently.”
“And second?” Cale asked, curious to learn more about his fiancée’s twin sister.
“Second, she’s been the queen of avoidance lately, at least when it comes to anything relating to Noelle.”
“Gotta be hard to lose a twin.”
“Hell yeah. Probably as hard as losing a fiancée.” Sawyer paused and gave him a sympathetic look. Cale turned away, gazed up the street at nothing in particular. He’d worked through two tons of baggage and grief, but that didn’t mean he liked talking about it.
“I think that’s why we don’t push her. But she’s not...” Sawyer shook his head. “Who knows. Rachel has to handle things her own way, I guess. I worry about her constantly. Curse of the big brother.”
“I hear you.” He couldn’t imagine having to watch Mariah go through something so tough. “Is she here? I actually stopped by to see her.”
“Rachel?” Sawyer eyed him curiously for a moment. “She hasn’t come home from work yet, as far as I know.” He glanced at his watch. “I have no idea where the hell she is. She should be here anytime. Should’ve been here a couple of hours ago.”
“She’s dedicated to her job.”
Sawyer scoffed. “That’s one word for it. She won’t listen to me about that, either, though.”
“Stubbornness seems to be something the Culver twins had in common.”
“Hell, Cale. The stories I could tell you about those two...” Sawyer became quiet as if the subject were getting to him. He lifted the closest box and headed for the back of the truck again.
Cale had no words to offer. He knew it was best not to say more about Noelle unless Sawyer wanted to pursue the conversation. He walked over to one of the boxes, pointed to it and asked, “This one going, too?”
Sawyer merely nodded and said,