Lost In Autumn Read online

  Lost in Autumn

  Written by Frankie Delgado

  Contents

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Frankie Delgado

  Copyright © 2016 Delgado Publishing

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or businesses, organizations or locales is completely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  “Mommy, Mommy!”

  The clear innocent pitch of the little girl’s voice pierced through my hazy thoughts and brought me back to the park bench where I was sitting. “I wanna ride the merry-go-round Mommy!” her upturned tiny nose wrinkled and her sea blue eyes looked up pleadingly at her mother. “Sure baby,” the woman replied “Daddy will push you.” She smiled over at her husband and helped her daughter wrap herself around the metal bars as he began slowly pushing the ride around. I smiled to myself, enjoying the enthusiasm the girl’s face displayed over such a simple activity. My mind began to wander back into dreamland and my eyes filled with tears as thoughts overcame me of how soon I would be welcoming my own daughter into the world. I too would be playing at the park with my own little girl - but there would be no husband. That was no longer in the picture. If only things had turned out differently.

  If…

  If only.

  When I was twenty-one everything in my life was almost perfect. I was in my second year at college after taking a gap break for two years when I graduated high-school. I took the break so that I could backpack in Thailand and “find myself”. I came back to the States with a clear mind and a determination to get my degree in Anthropology. I loved studying different cultures and people, and I wanted a degree that I could travel the world with. I was in the best shape of my life – I was still slender from my travels and walking everywhere in Thailand and now that I was back home, I had started to lift weights almost every morning. The sleek sculpted tone that figure now displayed, showed off my commitment to my new habit. I had started my own online business from my travel blog and I had started to do freelance and coaching for other bloggers. I wasn’t a millionaire, but I made enough to pay for school and my living expenses.

  School and work kept me too busy to maintain a relationship, and the few dates I had been on since I had moved back had left me unimpressed and bored. I was content being alone. I didn’t need anyone distracting me from my goals, and I had never met anyone I didn’t want to live without, until the Saturday that I met Darren.

  Saturday, August 21, 2010. 11:02 pm

  As I walked across campus towards the Suzzalo Library, I inhaled the scent of the approaching autumn and I was glad that I had decided to wear my northwest green sleeveless blouse. The sun was warming my still summer-brown shoulders and a trickle of perspiration made its way from my cleavage to my belly button. I had about an hour to study before I had to head out to meet some of my friends at the Mariners-Yankee game. I used the back of my hand to wipe off the mustache of sweat that had collected on my upper lip and smirked to myself. It’s a good thing I don’t have anyone to impress today. My long chestnut hair had a slight wave in it from the humidity and I could tell my eyeliner had smudged. I walked under the archway and opened the glass door of the library adding my sweaty palms to the collection of handprints on the glass.

  I plopped down in one of the wooden chairs and opened my textbook. Long rows of tables spread out in front of me with a handful of other students spending the afternoon in the same pastime. I read the first page of words and after I reached the last sentence, I realized that I couldn’t remember a single sentence I had read. I sighed and started over only to be distracted by a soft deep voice behind me. “Is that seat taken?” I followed the sound of the masculine voice up from the dark wash of his snug fitted jeans, the swell of ripped pectoral muscles to the intense chestnut eyes that were inquisitively looking at me. “Huh?” I swallowed awkwardly and immediately felt embarrassed over my not so glamorous response.

  “Oh. No.” I barked out and flashed my eyes back to my studies. I peeked up through my eyelashes as he walked in front of me and gave me a full view of his glutes. Shit, stop gawking! I was acting like I was going through puberty and I was ashamed of myself. He sat down in the seat opposite from me and appeared to lose himself in his book. I turned my full attention back to my studies, narrowed my eyes and focused.

  I struggled my way through two chapters. I felt like I hadn’t accomplished very much, but I needed to go. It was only 12:02 pm now but the game started at 1:05 pm and I wanted to stop by my dorm and have a quick snack to avoid the expensive stadium food.

  I gathered my things and had almost reached the door when I heard that deep voice again.

  “Excuse me. Miss? I believe this is yours?”

  I turned around in response but no words came out of my mouth.

  The muscled almost godly man handed me the small canary yellow case that I had somehow nudged out of my purse that I tried to carry all my belongings in.

  I flushed a bit knowing the contents were my pocket-size vibrator and tampons – an odd combination.

  “Thank you!” I studied his face trying to decide if there had been enough time for him to look inside.

  The mischievous look in his dark eyes made my cheeks turn even brighter than they already were and my stomach dropped as he replied with a smirk,

  “My pleasure.”

  He dragged the word out as long as possible and finished it with a knowing wink.

  I was flustered and quickly stuffed the damn yellow case back in purse and continued my journey to the door, hoping that even though he was incredibly hot, that I would never run into him again.

  I arrived back at my small off-campus apartment where my best friend and roommate Janet was waiting to ride with me to the game.

  “Hey girl heyyyy,” she drawled dramatically and slapped my booty as I walked in.

  “I swear Nala, your butt gets bigger every day - it isn’t fair!”

  I giggled over the compliment and walked over to the refrigerator even though I knew it was probably empty. Janet rarely bought groceries and I hadn’t been to the store yet this week.

  An eggroll that was left over from Chinese takeout I had ordered on Tuesday and a small amount of lemon chicken was all that was inside, apart from condiments and a half empty ginger ale bottle.

  “Still good,” I mumbled and stuck the whole eggroll in my mouth so I could free both hands and pour myself a glass of J. Rieger whiskey – Kansas City deliciousness that Janet had bought for my 21st birthday.

  I topped off my midday drink with the rest of the ginger ale and one of my circle ice cubes that I kept in the freezer just for such occasions.

  Setting the rest of my eggroll on the counter, I joked “If an ice cube is a circle, do you still call it an ice cube or is it an ice circle?”

  I had a bad habit of making dumb jokes and being the only person to find it hilarious.

  Janet ignored my query and stole a sip of my drink.

  “blech!” her cherry red lips left a print on the rim of my glass and then twisted into a disgusted expression, “I don’t know how you actually like whiskey. I can only drink fruity drinks and this stuff is just nasty.”

  “You’re jus
t a wimp,” I teased her as I swallowed my last bite, washed it down with my cocktail and grabbed my keys.

  “Come on turd,” I pulled on the front of Janet’s baseball jersey to lead her out the door.

  Safeco Field was only a short fifteen-minute drive from our apartment, but by the time we found a place to park and walked to the gate, the game had already begun.

  “We’re in section 331, row 7, and you are in seat 6, I’m seat 7, and then my classmates that I invited are sitting on both sides of us,” Janet informed me as we passed through security and the attendants scanned our tickets.

  “Anyone I know?” I usually had social anxiety when meeting new people, but in the environment of a sporting event, I wasn’t as worried about having to force an awkward conversation with some stranger.

  “I don’t think so…Amanda is coming...Eric, Natalie, Erin, Darren and Jon said they were coming too. You’ll like them, I promise!” she reassured me. Janet was a people-person and didn’t have any difficulty making new friends and her blonde hair, blue eyes, and petite figure never failed to keep a crowd of admiring boys around as well.

  Our seats were at the top of the stadium behind home plate and as we climbed the flights of stairs that seemed to go on forever, I could see the net that covered all the bleachers.

  “Aww dang it,” I moaned with mock disappointment in my voice. “Why didn’t you pick seats where I could catch a baseball and get it signed by Derek Jeter? The day is ruined now.” I sighed dramatically.

  “These seats are just fine and it’s not like you want to meet him anyways, he’s a big old sloozy.”

  We reached our crowded row and started sliding awkwardly past the line of knees with our butts at the eye-level of everyone seated.

  “Seat 3… Excuse me! 4… pardon!” I softly said the seat numbers as we neared seats 6 and 7 and I stopped to let Janet squeeze in front of me to sit down first.

  A flying insect of some type flew in front of Janet’s eyes, and she began to swat back and forth wildly in my face.

  “Sweet baby Jesus! Tits!” she cussed while simultaneously striking me in the tits and sending me flailing into the warm lap behind me.

  I felt a pair of rock hard arms reach out to support me and I immediately began apologizing before even making eye-contact with whomever I had just sat on in such a familiar way.

  “I’m so sorry, please excuse me!” I pleaded as I turned my head and looked directly into those smoldering mischievous eyes from the library.

  Color flooded my face for the second time that day as I realized who I was perched upon.

  I reached for the armrests to clamor my way back to my feet but his arms were still holding me to his iron chest. I could hear Janet’s bubbly laugh next to me breaking me out of my daze.

  “Don’t apologize to Darren. It’s not like you could have possibly hurt him,” she giggled.

  I struggled again to stand up as I felt a hard bulge against my left butt cheek. Was that his…? I didn’t finish the thought as I finally slid successfully into my seat and hoped some of the red in my face had faded.

  “Nala, this is Darren. Darren – Nala, although I think you’re past the point of introductions now since you’ve already sat on his lap,” Janet teased.

  I reached out to shake hands to try to get some formality back into the situation, but immediately regretted my decision as his fingers touched mine and squeezed slowly, making my heart race and causing a needy ache between my thighs.

  “Yes, we actually met earlier today at Suzzalo,” Darren said to Janet without looking away from me and keeping that damn smirk on his tan face, clearly enjoying my embarrassment. The stadium noise added enough distraction that I was able to ignore the reference to our earlier encounter and I feigned interest in watching what was happening on the field so I could avoid looking in his eyes. A cool sexy vibe emanated from his whole body and slowly surrounding me. I couldn’t believe he was getting to me like this and I needed to make it stop. Now.

  Chapter Two

  We were losing the game and I was losing my cool. Darren’s knees kept bumping into mine and I couldn’t keep focused. My stomach was hurting, my face was flushed and I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I needed to step away from the crowd and get my mind right.

  “Excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” I exited on Janet’s side of the row this time to avoid ending up in Darren’s lap again and took a deep breath and felt my head clear as I walked away. What the hell is wrong with you? I chided myself. I couldn’t understand why I was reacting this way over a freaking man, let alone a man that I had done nothing but embarrass myself in front of all day.

  I reached the ladies room and was relieved to find there wasn’t a line since it was the middle of an inning. A wave of lightheadedness swept over me and I wanted to splash cold water on my face but all the faucets were stuck at a scalding temperature.

  Great. That’s the last thing I need. More heat. I exited the door and had taken two steps before he was beside me.

  “Nala, are you alright?” Darren seemed genuinely concerned.

  “I’m fine, I think I just got a bit too much sun,” I tried to chuckle but it sounded like a whimper as he put his arm around me in a protective way and led me towards the water fountain. His hand supported me around my waist as I leaned over to drink and I tried to convince myself that I didn’t like the way him taking care of me felt and that I didn’t like how his touch burned through my skin.

  “Have you eaten today?”

  “I had an eggroll…and some whiskey.”

  Darren frowned and steered me back towards our seats. As we approached Janet, she looked at my face and I could tell I must have looked pretty bad judging by her reaction.

  “Do you need to leave? We can go if you’re not feeling good,” she asked.

  Before I could answer, Darren said “She needs to eat, and not any of this shitty stadium food. You can stay here; I’ll take her.”

  “That’s nice of you Darren, is that ok with you, love?”

  I hesitated not sure if it was a good idea for me to leave with him, but I could tell Janet didn’t really want to leave yet and I knew she had been looking forward to this game all week.

  “I suppose so,” I agreed, reluctance seeping into my voice. I was still not sure I really needed to leave but I could tell neither one of them would probably agree with that.

  I felt his strong arms reach around my waist and direct me towards the aisle. I wasn’t used to being taken care of. I took care of myself…in more ways than one. Darren must already know that after seeing my pocket vibrator at the library earlier.

  “I parked over here, just one more row” Darren directed me, his hand lingering on my lower back. “Here we are,” he said as he opened the car door for me.

  I was both surprised and confused as I lowered myself into the passenger seat. I always did my very best to not judge people by their possessions, but I didn’t understand how a college student could possibly afford a Tesla in general, let alone a Model S P90D.

  Great…He must be a trust fund brat baby, jumping to the first conclusion in my head.

  The driver’s side open and Darren sat down next to me and started the car. The cool smooth voice of Sade came through the stereo softly as he turned towards me.

  “I’m going to take you to Johnny’s Grill,” he told me. “It’s right down the street, the food usually doesn’t take too long and you can watch the rest of the game if you want.”

  I nodded in agreement as he pulled the car through the parking spot and towards the main road.

  Johnny’s was an obvious post game hang out, with baseball related art covering the walls and a masculine vibe. Darren pulled out one of the wooden bar chairs for me.

  The bartender introduced himself as James and placed coasters in front of us.

  “Watcha lookin’ to sip on today?” the craggy faced man asked in a southern accent. Darren ordered a Gentle Bully martini for himself and looked over at me.<
br />
  “You probably should eat before you drink any more liquor,” he suggested, although it sounded more like an order. He turned his attention back to the bartender.

  “She needs to eat as soon as possible. What would you recommend we order that takes the least amount of time to cook?”

  “Well…” the bartender drawled, “I would say all the appetizers come out pretty quick, as well as the salads.”

  I scanned the menu and ordered the first items that caught my eye; caesar salad and pulled pork sliders. I sipped on the ice water that James brought me and wished it was something stronger. I glanced at Darren’s face as discreetly as I could while he ordered a burger and fries. He had the perfect amount of stubble to not look too clean cut and he had to be at least twenty-five. His features were proportionate without being plain and any woman would be jealous of the long black lashes that framed his dark eyes.

  “What are you going to school for?” I blurted out – not wanting any awkward silences to develop.

  “I’m getting my law degree,” Darren replied, “This is my last semester.”

  His choice of career added to my judgmental thoughts of him probably being entitled and from some well-to-do family but I nodded and said “That’s really cool! Why do you want to be lawyer?”

  Emotion appeared for a flash on Darren’s face. What emotion it was I wasn’t quite sure. Rage? Grief? Maybe I had imagined it since his face looked calm now.

  “Someone close to me paid the price for a heinous crime they didn’t commit and were framed by the party responsible.” He looked into my eyes and this time I didn’t question the anger I saw, “I need to make them pay for what they did.”

  “I’m so sorry.” My apology for the situation was also an apology for my silent judgment of his motivations. “No need to apologize…What are you studying?” he asked.