Dragonfly Awakening Read online

  Dragonfly Awakening

  Copyright © 2014 Jaycee Ford

  Published by Jaycee Ford

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published: Jaycee Ford

  Publishing assisted by Black Firefly: http://www.blackfirefly.com/

  (Shedding light on your self-publishing journey)

  Cover Design: by Michelle at AlexandMe Designs

  Credit photo: copyright 2014 Rob Lang/roblangimages.com

  Formatting by: http://www.blackfirefly.com/

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Acknowledgements

  Author Links

  About the Author

  Coming Next

  Sneak Peak into Hornet’s Nest

  THE FIRST DAY I saw her beautiful red hair was forever etched into my memory. On the first day of high school, I sat drumming my thumbs against my desk. Tom, one of my best friends, sat in front of me, and Lance, my other best friend, sat beside me. The door creaked open and pulled my eyes toward it. She walked in late, seemed scared as all get out, but my eyes widened at the sight. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Her sun-streaked red hair was pulled away from her face. Light freckles covered her nose as she nervously glanced around the class. She was clearly from the city with her designer clothes and her poise, but I didn’t care. My heart swelled for the first time in my young life. I think I’m in love.

  My thoughts were echoed out loud from the seat next to me. My eyes shifted away from the sight toward Lance. His eyebrow rose with his cocky smirk as she sat down in the desk in front of him. In that moment, I knew he had won. I wouldn’t even put up a fight. I had one split second of hope. She turned to get a pen out of her bag and her eyes met mine, an amazing mix of green and blue. For that one second, I had her. When she turned away, I had lost her forever.

  The memories of the summer heat faded away as the January cold bit through my leather gloves when I left the warmth of the hardware store. My boots slugged through ice puddles near the curb of Main Street, and my nose ran cold from the wind’s chill whipping against my face. Haunting clouds hung overhead, threatening to add to the layers of snow plowed to the side of the road from the recent snowfall.

  Summers in North Carolina could be brutal, but the winters were bitter. The sun had tucked itself away, and the first few days into the New Year brought rain, sleet, ice, and snow. I had volunteered to leave my boss and my best friend, Tom, to his farm in order to help his aunt at The Inn for the upcoming storm. That was the only reason why I wasn’t in the comfort of my home, warming up with a glass of whiskey.

  A brisk wind shot against any remaining area of bare skin left on my body and snaked around me, chilling me to my bones. I gazed up at the clouds as I walked to my truck, and I hoped I could bring Mrs. Ethel and Mr. Al the insulation they needed and get home before the storm hit. I tossed a bag of rock salt into the bed of my old truck and hopped into the driver’s seat, laying the insulation next to me. As I attempted to ease into the street, my wheels spun for a second before gripping the ice-covered cobblestone.

  Main Street was quiet, and the businesses would be closing up soon for the night. I needed to make sure I beat the traffic and made it over the hill before someone attempted it and stalled, causing everyone to get stuck. Being stuck in snow-covered traffic for five hours on the incline of a hill wasn’t much fun.

  I slowly turned off Main Street. The tires of my truck crunched over the ice and slush. When I approached The Inn, it still hadn’t thawed out from the previous storm. I decided to park in front of the old florist shop and walk the half a block down.

  The cold air would never be something I would get used to. I pinched my coat closed, and then grabbed the bag of rock salt from the bed of my truck, tossing it over my shoulder. After tucking the bundle of pipe insulation under my arm, I kept the end goal in sight. My teeth chattered with only a quarter of a block left. People complained about the heat of summer, but in this moment, I realized their stupidity. What I wouldn’t do to be wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fireplace with Ellie.

  My heart thumped at the thought of her. For most of my recent life, my dreams had been filled with her. The warmth of my heart from the memories of ten years ago turned cold again as I muddled through the slush toward The Inn. The paved walkway appeared to be a disaster waiting to happen; it was covered with a thin sheet of ice. I plowed through the snow-hidden grass toward the front door. After shrugging the bag off my shoulder, I laid the insulation on top of the snow, piled high in front of the covered flower beds that surrounded the wraparound porch. I took out my pocketknife and sliced a corner off the bag. As my boots sank into the slush around the walkway, I layered the pavement with rock salt, taking it onto the covered porch and ensuring that no one would slip.

  With half of the bag gone, I plopped it down by the front door and descended the few steps to bundle the insulation under my arm. After climbing back up, I knocked and then pushed open the door. The warmth soothed my cheeks with the glow of the fireplace lighting the foyer. Mrs. Ethel came from the dining area, welcoming me to her home and business. She was dressed from head to toe in a pink sweat suit. Her smile, though, warmed my cold heart.

  “Oh, Paul, thank you for bringing the pipe insulation, but don’t worry about staying. I’ll make Al put it on the pipes. In fact, I bet you don’t have anything in that house of yours to keep you fed for a day or so.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I do,” I replied with a proud smile. I placed the insulation on the counter of the foyer. Her eyes rose in question at my food choices, and with the grin firmly planted on my face, I answered, “Bread and milk.”

  She rolled her eyes behind her bright pink frames. I didn’t understand the eye roll. That was what everyone else bought at the store when a snowfall was coming. Bread and milk.

  “Go warm up by the fire and sit a bit.” She shook her head, walking back to the dining room. She disappeared through the swinging kitchen door inside of the dining ro
om.

  “Yes, ma’am,” I hollered after her.

  Next to the staircase, set far against the wall, stood a grand fireplace with two high-back chairs facing it. I walked between the two and sat on the one to my left with the high back facing the stairwell. The logs crackled in the fire, the smoke floating up the chimney. I pulled off my gloves and hovered my hands in the air near the flames. My eyes closed against the heat as I absorbed the warmth that spread across my face. Footsteps came down the stairs behind me. A guest of The Inn creaked over the hardwood floor and headed out into the cold. The wind blew a chill through the foyer, and as the door closed, a familiar honey scent warmed my heart, filling it with a tenderness that I hadn’t felt in so long. My eyes opened to the fire. She’s been in New York for years. She ain’t ever coming back.

  I shook my head. A lifelong obsession was unhealthy, and even though I had dated many girls, they could never drive that one girl out of my mind. The one girl I could never have. Bros before hoes, I had been told. Lance’s ex-girlfriend could be no girl of mine.

  As I watched the red and orange of the flames, her hair came to mind, along with that one time I had her lips against mine. She had tasted of whiskey and heaven.

  I stood with frustration pulsing through me. I could go days without thinking about her, but today, for some reason, I could not get her off my mind. I turned my back to the fire, so my ass wouldn’t fall off from frostbite, and put my gloves back on. Tonight would probably be another lonesome night with whiskey. Maybe I should call the leech, Angela. I rolled my eyes at my stupidity. I hadn’t done it before. I wouldn’t do it now. No bloodsucker would replace my thoughts of Ellie.

  Thankfully, Mrs. Ethel came into the foyer, ending my constant, annoying obsession. She carried two brown paper bags filled to the top. As she handed one and then the other to me, she said, “One bag is filled with food and the other with booze.”

  I glanced at her as she wiped her hands on her sweats.

  “What?”

  I shook my head while holding the handles tight, and with a smile laced with humor, I asked, “Are y’all sure you don’t need me to help?”

  “No, no. Go on and beat the storm.” She shooed me to the front door, and I obeyed in the hope of not getting stuck on the hill out of town.

  “Half a bag of rock salt is right here if you need to lay down more.” I motioned with my foot since my hands were full.

  “Thanks again, Paul. Stay warm.”

  The door shut behind me. My boots crackled over the rock salt as I turned to leave the porch. There was no chance in hell I would stay warm. The cold and the memories of what I could never have kept the warmth far, far away. I shook my head again in wonderment over this girl, keeping my eyes on the ground and away from the world. She might as well be a fictional character in a book. I only dreamed of her. I would never have her. One day, maybe. One day, I might move on. One day I might find someone who could trump the radiance of her hair and her varying-colored eyes.

  The bags rustled from the weight under my fingertips. The wind blasted another cold chill down the lonely cobblestone street. The cars that had lined the road were now gone, and the possibility of traffic heading up the hill worried me a bit. A night in my truck might be in my future.

  A voice gasped in front of me just as the sweetness of honey floated in the air. My eyes darted forward to a figure staring at the closed up florist shop. As I stopped a few feet away from the person who gasped, I tilted my head in thought, wondering what anyone could be doing staring at a closed shop with an oncoming winter storm. A purple knitted hat covered a blaze of radiance, and my breath caught in my throat. Green-blue eyes glistened in the darkening shadows. My heart drummed a familiar beat when her smile beamed at the store in front of her. I heaved a breath; my dream had come to life.

  “Ellie?”

  THE DARK AND dreary clouds dared to shed their freezing rain as I peered out the window of my suite at The Inn. Just a few nights ago, I stood in the middle of Times Square, watching the world ring in the New Year, but instead of the usual sense of hope New Year brought, I felt depressed. I couldn’t show the world that though. I hugged my friends from school as the ball dropped, but something nudged me deep in my heart. I didn’t belong there. I had received my education and dealt with the separation from what I left behind in the country, but my heart yearned for bonfires, fireflies, dirt roads leading to the lake, and the sunrise peaking over the hills. My heart ached for the swagger in a pair of jeans, the serious blue eyes that warmed my heart, the drunken lips I kissed the night before I fled for the comfort of the city. After all of these years, my heart wanted something I could never have, all because of bros before hoes.

  When I left my home in Manhattan to move in with my father in North Carolina at the beginning of high school, I was devastated. Leaving the splendor of the city skyline for a bunch of trees and mountains was not what a fourteen-year-old had in mind for her teenage years, but I made the best of it and put a smile on my face. It was my choice, and I lived with it for the sake of my father. His heart was still mending after losing my mother to someone with more wealth.

  The sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains so many years later brought me back to that late summer morning. Nerves had ripped me apart. I didn’t know how to act around a bunch of country teens, but when I walked into my homeroom class that first day, a pair of blue eyes and a pair of green fell upon me. And for four years, the man with the green eyes I called mine, while I longed for the man with the blue ones.

  I shook the thoughts out of my head as I turned away from the cold scenery, but deep down, I knew the reason for my coming back here. On a day like today, he wouldn’t be out driving around. He probably had a girl to keep him warm in front of a fire. She was a probably a blonde. My stomach dropped at the thought. What if he were already married? Twenty-four wasn’t too young to marry. It was possible.

  A forfeiting sigh escaped me. I knew I had lost him long ago. I lost him the day Lance asked me out. It was time that I let Paul go.

  I eased onto the edge of my bed and looked around the darkened suite. Only the dull, late afternoon light came in from the window, making the dark, rustic hardwood floor appear darker, and the bright accents of the rug and the bedspread appear dull. Maybe they were bright, but everything consumed me with dread. I came down here, leaving everything to chance. Either I would see him today or I would leave my heart here tomorrow and move on for good. I hadn’t seen him, so it was time to tell my heart goodbye.

  “Okay, Ellie. Time to put on your big girl panties.”

  I stuffed my woolen sock feet into a pair of snow boots. After adjusting the legs of my jeans, I eased a fitted cashmere sweater over my head, covering my long-sleeved shirt, and shrugged my arms inside a heavy white pea coat, buttoning every button. After pulling on a pair of purple knitted gloves and a hat, I was ready to tell the country goodbye. I crossed my sling bag over my shoulder as I opened the door to the hallway. After locking it behind me, I inhaled, forcing the heartache to stay tucked away, and headed downstairs.

  The hardwood planks creaked under my boots, but the warmth of the fire soothed my cold nose. When I stepped onto the landing, I pivoted to walk down another set of stairs. I peered into the foyer, and noticed a man wearing a cowboy hat leaning toward the fire. My eyes were drawn to the form, hoping it was that someone I longed for, but the shoulders were too wide. Paul wasn’t scrawny in high school, but I didn’t think he could fill out shoulders like that. I glanced back once more to appreciate the nice view of the cowboy, and headed into the winter chill.

  Cold wind blasted my face, and I cringed when I remembered my scarf was still upstairs. I wasn’t worried about going back and getting it. I had figured a shot or two of whiskey at Dixie’s Tavern down the block would warm me up fine. I shoved my glove-covered hands into the pockets of my coat and watched my feet as I walked across the icy sidewalk. When I assured myself that I wouldn’t slip, I glanced around the old little town.
/>   The cars that lined the street this morning had thinned; only one truck remained parked on the curb. The storefronts still greeted people with Christmas decorations in the windows, and the twenty-four-hour diner had snowflake decals adorning its darkened windows. I guessed it meant open twenty-four hours except when it threatened to snow. Up ahead, a construction dumpster sat in front of the old corner store across the street from Dixie’s Tavern. I turned my head to peer into the florist shop, but it was bare. I saddened at the thought until I noticed a sign saying they had moved around the corner. I stepped closer to the window and looked inside, not ever realizing how big the space was.

  The ceilings appeared to be about twelve feet high but were bare of any shelving. A blank canvas stared back at me, and my mind envisioned dresses of every color hanging off the racks. A half wall cut the space in two with a long countertop resting in front. I stepped back and looked at the weathered, painted stone. The blue color needed a fresh coat along with the white trim of the bay window and the door. I tilted my head back and looked at the sign that read Olde Town Florist, and the words morphed into Ellie’s Boutique. My frozen cheeks warmed with a smile. I knew exactly what I would do when my internship was over this summer. I didn’t care to use the little trust fund set up by my stepfather, but in this case, I felt the need to call my financial advisor. The downtown area of this one signal light town had started to grow into a touristy mountain destination, and a chic boutique seemed to be quite fitting.

  A certain cowboy came to mind with my plans of moving back here. I wondered if he was still here even. I knew his brother was on the police force. I had gathered that much from my time here, but I also knew his parents moved to Tennessee. I didn’t know if he had followed them. Having my teenage years consumed by Lance, I never really had any girls to befriend. I just hung around whichever flavor of the month Tom was with, and Paul always remained single. A girl here and there for high school functions, but the football player never played that game. Maybe there was hope that he was still single. My shoulders sagged, and I instantly shook that thought out of my mind. At least I would be closer to the beaches of South Carolina so I could visit the retired beach bum I called my father.