With Every Sunset Read online

  With Every Sunset

  Jane S. Lake

  Jane S. Lake

  Copyright © 2020 Jane S. Lake

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 9781234567890

  ISBN-10: 1477123456

  Cover design by: Art Image

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

  Printed in the United States of America

  This is dedicated to everyone that has found new beginnings right when they thought they'd reached the end.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  About The Author

  Books By This Author

  Prologue

  Charlie

  I met him on a highway, just before the intersection that led into either Lane Way or Glamis Park. In the instant that I saw his face through the windscreen of his vintage red Chevy, a part of me knew that something wasn’t right. Maybe it wasn’t wrong either, but there was an air about him. Something dark, but also sad. Like, if I could make him a character in one of my stories, he would be a king, but one without a kingdom. It’s strange, I know. But I have long since given up on reining in my imagination.

  There are certain things I can gauge just from seeing someone for the first time. I imagine what kind of name they might have (I think his is very solid) or what background they come from. I try to see life through their eyes, if I can get to know them. Then I try to learn from their mistakes.

  Anyway, my tyre had been wobbling along for several minutes, and I had hoped that it would at least let me get somewhere close to civilization before it gave in. As if to spite me, it gave up a minute after the thought, punctuating this with a low droning sound and eventual silence. Frustrated, I got out of the car, slammed the door shut and kicked the flat tyre, as if it could feel the disappointment I felt in it.

  It would be dark soon. The sun was setting over the horizon, casting shadows over the rocky hills our town was famous for. In an hour or so, the picturesque mountains would turn into dark, gigantic barriers looming over the narrow road below. So, unless I wanted to be stuck here for the rest of the night, I had to approach the man in the Chevy for help. I mean, he didn’t exactly look like those wide-eyed, perverse stalkers that Mel and I sometimes saw in crime documentaries. In that moment, I decided to ignore the fact that he had his car parked close to the edge of a cliff, engaged in whatever sight-seeing one did at such a dangerous angle. Desperate times...

  I placed my car keys in my pocket and jogged over to where the Chevy was parked, looking like it was part of a Top Gear photoshoot. When I got closer, I realized that his eyes were closed, and his face was tilted sideways to avoid the last rays of the sun. At least I hoped so. Maybe he was asleep, but this is the last place I would fall asleep. It was when I got to within a step of the car that I cautiously decided that it would be unwise to be defenceless. I found a stick lying on the ground and picked it up before I tapped it on the window of the Chevy.

  “Hello,” I tentatively called out.

  The man in the car jerked upright and stared at me through the glass in shocked confusion. Within a second, he had stepped out of his car and now stood right in front of me. I immediately noted that he wasn’t really a man, more like a boy. His eyes were a bit red, probably from facing the sun. He was slightly more than a head taller than me, which clearly had been obscured a minute ago when he was in the car. Even in panic mode, my heart pumped a little faster when I saw his chiselled face in all its beautiful glory. He looked straight out of a cover of Gentleman’s Quarterly or something. In retrospect, I think I was drawn to him from that moment. Yet, even then, there was something about him that set me on the edge.

  “Yes?” He replied after a few moments.

  “Uhh, I need help. I got a flat tyre.”

  He said nothing, and continued to stare at the sunset in the distance as if debating on whether to assist me or not. But really, at fifty kilos, what damage could I do to this guy? Finally, he sighed and held his palm out, gesturing for me to lead the way.

  The weather was warm in the middle of spring, but that didn’t stop goosebumps from creeping up all over my skin. It always happened when I was scared or revolted by something. Seeing as the guy behind me was drop-dead gorgeous, revulsion was out of the equation. It was getting dark and I was alone with a stranger. I definitely was feeling uneasy and I thought he wouldn’t notice the way I kept subtly glancing behind me in case he turned out to be a raging lunatic and attacked me. His voice broke into my musings.

  “If you don’t trust me not to pounce on you, should I trust you to lead me to your car?” He asked quietly, but it almost made me jump. His voice. Damn, his voice was enthralling and authoritative, like he’d never had to shout to get anyone in line.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just that I don’t know you or anything.”

  “Neither do I.” He shot back over my shoulder.

  We walked in silence for a few minutes until we reached the stupid, needy disappointment that was my car. I halted just steps away from it, and he bumped into me from behind. He mumbled an apology and I nodded awkwardly, stepping aside to let him assess the car.

  He didn’t remove his shirt to check underneath it like in the movies. Instead, he looked it up and down with both his hands in his pockets and sighed.

  “You probably don’t have a spare tyre in your trunk.”

  I must’ve blushed to my roots in embarrassment at the accuracy of his statement. I’d taken it out a week before, when we finished our move, to make space for my collection of Nora Roberts.

  He turned to look at me, raising one finely arched brow to add to his condescending air. Defiance overrode my shame and I raised my head to look at him.

  “No, I don’t have a spare tyre in my trunk.” I wouldn’t explain any further. If he was going to be arrogant, I would rather walk up to the main road and hitch a ride back home (Can we forget that it was getting dark and I urgently needed help?).

  He sighed again and ground his jaw in contemplation before walking past me and then away.

  “Excuse me, sir.” I trailed behind him, baffled.

  “Yes, ma’am?” He replied mockingly.

  “Aren’t you going to help me fix my car?”

  “Nope.” He kicked at the pebbles on the ground.

  I began to seethe inwardly, “Look here, mister. I wouldn’t have asked you for help if I wasn’t desperate. What the hell am I supposed to do, it’s getting dark. I’m new here, what if there’s some serial killer on the loose in this god forsaken town?”

  I continued to rage at him, while he kept walking away. The rocks beneath my feet almost made me stumble several times, while he avoided each obstacle like he was used to roaming around this part of town.

  When we finally got to his car, he abruptly turned to look down at me. This time, I bumped into his chest and quickly took a step back.

  “Scared?” He looked pointedly at me.

  I took a deep breath to ward off all those murder methods I’d seen on TV. This boy was seriously trying my patience.

  “No. I’m not scared.”

  “Good, because you’re coming with me.”

  Xander

  I regretted the words as soon as they’d left my mouth. I must’ve been going insane already, and the way her eyes
widened in shock only confirmed my suspicions.

  “W-what?” she stuttered, then cleared her throat, “Where to? I mean, no.”

  I almost smiled at her tough girl attempt, but I sensed that underneath that fragile exterior lay something stronger. Though, to be fair, maybe it was because at this moment, anything was stronger than me.

  “Let’s face it,” I said, with my hands in my pockets, “You’re not going to get help from anyone else, because people don’t really stop for strangers after dark.”

  “Maybe, or if we wait, someone could come by and rescue us.” She stated.

  “We?” I couldn’t stop the chuckle. It was strange, the way she immediately assumed that I needed rescuing of any sort, and that there was a “we” in this situation. Once again, I had found myself alone, and for the first time, I wasn’t in any hurry to get to anywhere.

  She crossed her arms on her chest with ease, as if that was what she always did to get her way at home.

  “Well, yes. You said so yourself, it’s getting late and help won’t be easy to come by. I don’t know you enough to go anywhere with you-”

  “But you know me enough to trust that it’s safe to wait indefinitely with me until help comes, if it comes tonight?”

  She seemed to consider this for a minute, and part of me almost wished that somehow, someone could just drive by and take her home, so that I wouldn’t have to. I wish it could have been about her, but I knew that taking her home would defeat the whole purpose of my being here in the first place.

  She took a deep breath, as if willing herself not to hurl something at me. It was almost amusing, and very little seemed to amuse me these days.

  “Look here, mister. I’m trying my best to get the hell out of here, so instead of making things difficult for me at each turn, I would appreciate your help. We need each other, and that’s the only reason I’m willing to trust you not to jump on me.”

  “Sweetie, I don’t need anyone,” I sat on the bonnet of my car and looked up at her. For good measure, I added, “And besides, who’s to say that I’m the threat here. I mean, you could be a serial killer, or a terrorist. And my mother told me not to talk to strangers.”

  I folded my arms mimicking her stance and raised my eyebrows innocently. The same way I’d learned from my little brother.

  “Excuse me?” She raised both her hands to her head and rolled her eyes dramatically. I could tell that if it weren’t for the dire circumstances she’d found herself in, I might have been castrated already.

  I raised my shoulders defensively, “Well, yes. One can never be too careful these days. Have you watched the news lately?”

  She turned away from me, her kinky curls catching the sun’s final rays perfectly.

  “Wow. Really? You know what, I’ll go. I’m going to walk to the main road and hitch a ride. You can go to hell for all I care.”

  She began to walk back in the direction of her navy blue car, but my curiosity got the better of me, “Hey, what’s your name?”

  “What’s it to you?” She glared defiantly at me.

  “When the serial killer that’s on the loose runs into you and murders you, it’ll make things easier for the cops if I can give them your name.”

  She sighed in frustration and bit her bottom lip into her mouth, drawing my reluctant attention to her spectacularly arched lips. Her pale pink lip gloss was in perfect contrast to her darker skin. Maybe, if the circumstances had been different, I might have been attracted to her. Would have been. Who was I kidding, hell I probably was, right this moment.

  “It’s Charlie.”

  I mentally shook myself, “What?”

  “My name is Charlie.”

  “Alright then, Charlie,” I said, getting off the bonnet and opening the passenger door, “Get whatever’s important from your car and I’ll take you to the main road so you can get phone signal and call your parents.”

  She looked at me, as if debating whether my intentions were good, before she nodded her head and walked to her car. I stared after her, wondering whether I couldn’t just take her home, then that dark place in my head reminded me that I had to come back here. The sun had finally set, and as I closed my eyes, they burned from the heat they’d gotten all those hours I was sitting in my car. Charlie returned minutes later, with a girly satchel and white sneakers. I stood at the door and shut it once she had gotten in and got behind the wheel.

  “What’s your name?” She asked, breaking the silence after almost two miles.

  “Why, it’s not like you’ll be seeing me again after this.” The truth in this statement cut through my resolve to leave her stranded by the roadside.

  “Just,” she replied.

  I ignored her for a bit, because in my mind, it was too late to be forming relationships of any sort. Yet, there she was, this pretty girl sitting in my car wanting to know about me.

  “It’s Alexander,” I finally said, turning my head towards her. She looked at me and smiled briefly, I almost doubted if she had smiled at all or maybe it was some sort of optical illusion.

  We drove for ten more minutes before arriving to the main road, but instead of dropping her off, I asked her for her home address. She lived a few streets from where I did, in the same rich suburbs that I was raised in. We didn’t make any small talk and when we got to her house, I pulled over and looked at her in the dark car. Her silence made me think that she wasn’t one to stay quiet for long. I was about to say something when she beat me to it.

  “Can I ask you a question?” she looked down at her manicured nails.

  “I make no promises to answer honestly.” The way she looked at me was searing, like she could see right through me, and I couldn’t let her know me.

  “Just answer it,” she looked me straight in the eye, “I’ll know if you’re lying.”

  I smirked, that was a large feat.

  “What were you doing parked at the edge of a cliff?”

  “Sleeping.” To be fair, I had been dozing when she awoke me.

  “Were you waiting for someone?”

  “That’s more than one question.”

  “Just answer it.”

  “No.” I said, “I wasn’t waiting for someone.”

  “But you were waiting?”

  “Maybe.”

  “For what?” she probed.

  “For sunset,” To be fair, again, I had been waiting for the sun to set.

  “I sense a lie of omission,” she said.

  Instead of offering a response of any kind, I got out of the car and walked over to her side and opened the door for her, “You should go.”

  She stepped out, her lithe body making her fragile in comparison to my six-foot-three height. I was almost glad I hadn’t left her stranded in the middle of nowhere after dark.

  “Thank you, Xander.” She said calmly, and I pretended not to care that she had shortened my name in her own fashion. Everyone just called me Alex. Xander didn’t sound so bad when she said it.

  I walked her to her door, and out of nowhere, I reasoned that since she was probably just visiting, she would be gone by the end of the summer. Hence, I wouldn’t see her again. Maybe that is why these next words came out of my mouth.

  “I was going to drive off the cliff.” I didn’t take my eyes off hers, and I saw the fear in hers before she had a chance to conceal it. Her deep brown gaze dilated in shock. Her brows furrowed, creating a little bump that almost made me want to reach out and smooth it.

  “But you would have died.”

  “Exactly.”

  Before she could say anything else, her front door opened.

  Charlie

  He hadn’t just said that, he absolutely couldn’t have. I stood frozen, rooted to my doorway with my hand seemingly stuck to the handle. His face remained stoic, like he’d just given me the weather forecast, not his intention of suicide.

  We stayed like that for a few moments, before the door abruptly opened, the action nearly knocking me backwards. Xander’s strong
arm reached out to hold my waist, saving me from an epic fall. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s how it looked to Mel, who stood at the doorway, smugly eyeing Xander and his hand around my waist.

  “Well, Charlie Cane. Fancy seeing you here,” her eyes gleamed mischievously. I suppressed an embarrassed groan, hoping against hope that any ideas in her head would disappear. Suddenly, the atmosphere was too hot, the heat in my cheeks contending with my waistline, where Xander’s arm remained.

  “Well, Melissa, I live here,” I turned to face Xander, who cleared his throat before letting me go.

  “I see you’ve made a friend,” and before I could ease out of my mortification, “Mellisa Claire Welman-Cane, pleased to meet your acquaintance.”

  He smiled briefly and took her outstretched hand, “Alexander.”

  “Whoa, nice name. Right, sis?” She elbowed me in the side, my obvious discomfort earning me a smile from Xander. Right then, I was seriously considering pruning the family tree and erasing her entire existence.

  Xander kept his eyes on me, waiting for an answer. I didn’t care about being on one of those crime shows about people who stabbed their younger sisters after this.

  “Right, it is. Anyway, Xander here has to go home, yeah?”

  “Of course,” he responded with a polite smile.

  “Oh, you’re not going to invite him in? It sure looks like it could rain any minute now.” This time, I gave a strong shove to her ribcage.

  “Oww, jeez. I was just saying, it would be the nice thing to do, seeing as this gentleman here brought you home.” She put on her most sincere expression. I was so going to gut her for this.

  Xander hid his laugh behind a cough before he looked at me, the sincerity on his face as fake as my sister’s.

  “Umm, I really have to go,” he stated, as his expression sobered up, bringing back to my attention the circumstances of our meeting.