Fireworks

The twenty-third chapter of the "She Died with Two Subscribers" series

Giddiness is the most dangerous of emotions. It was the one that Nadine Nadeau harbored on the late Sunday morning on the day that Will Northcutt’s father returned to Massachusetts.

Her arms were wrapped around an overstuffed paper bag containing all the groceries that she needed to make Will a sumptuous lunch. Her heart had fluttered as she pulled off the road onto Will’s property and heard the gravel sift beneath her tires. She’d decided to park inside the forested tunnel leading to Will’s cabin so she could surprise him.

Surprise was a major element in her plan. She knew he’d planned to go back to sleep after his father set sail for Worcester, and that he liked to sleep in on Sunday mornings. She also was well aware of his tendency to leave his cabin unlocked because of his view that almost no one ever entered his thirty acre spread other than the occasional local that drifted by during hunting season following deer.

She knew she’d messed up by intruding on Will’s father’s attempt to thaw his relations with his only son, and showing an attitude no less, and she planned to make it up to Will the best way she knew how—by appealing to his taste buds. She’d even practiced making her mom’s cinnamon-dusted, walnut-raisin french toast dish at home last night to make sure she’d had all the necessary ingredients and the cooking time down perfect.

She smiled as she approached the front door to Will’s cabin because the door was slightly ajar a sliver. It was almost too perfect. She nudged the door open further with two fingers, looking down at her feet as she entered the cabin with the goal of quietly setting up shop at Will’s stove and awakening him with the aroma of the french toast wafting up his manly nostrils.

Nadine succeeded in brushing past the door without the thick oak floorboards creaking and betraying her presence or the paper grocery bag announcing her arrival by crinkling. Given the small size of the cabin, several steps took her a quarter of the way across the room toward the stove while still keeping her eyes on the floor in her attempt to be as silent as the original, moccasined dwellers of this virgin land.

She was startled to hear a female voice coming from Will’s bedroom that said, most clearly, “It was certainly worth the wait.”

Nadine jerked her head upward and saw Dane Eastergaard standing, unclothed and in full bloom, at the head of the bed—in front of the map of Maine—looking across the bedroom at Will. Dane was giddily smiling as her eyes drank in the well-muscled contours of Will’s nude body.

Nude body? What the heck! And why was Will looking back at Dane’s voluptuous unclothed body with such a serious look on his face, as if he was an appraiser? And was that water dripping from his hair from having taken a bath or sweat pouring down owing to a certain type of just-completed exertion upon the tousled bedsheets?

Nadine’s jaw dropped, and then her bag of groceries followed suit. The loaf of french bread hit first, bouncing on its end and then toppling over like a fallen soldier. The various jars and containers of cinnamon, raisins and walnuts also hit the floorboards at varying speeds, as if they were part of an Isaac Newton gravitational experiment to see if the heaviest indeed hit first. They each made their own unique sounds upon impact—clattering, scuffling, and sliding.

Despite being the only of the trio of wearing clothing, Will and Dane’s eyes moved from taking in each other’s private terrain to gazing at Nadine in their shock at the arrival of a witness to their exceedingly personal interlude in Will’s bedroom. Imagine Adam and Eve’s surprise after they bit into the fruit and realized their sudden need for a tailor?

Will saw the look of astonishment on Nadine’s face, and his first impulse was not to cover his manhood but to move toward her. “I had no idea that Dane had entered my bedroom!” he shouted.

The elements of brunch that lay strewn across the oaken floorboards would have to reconstitute themselves. As quickly as Will moved toward her with an extended right hand, Nadine darted away even faster.

She had an advantage once, only a handful of steps later, she exited the cabin as she was wearing Nikes and Will instantly howled in pain as the soles of his feet hit shards of gravel and small stones as he attempted to follow her as she sprinted toward where she’d left her car at the edge of the woods.

It didn’t stop him from trying. Will ambled after Nadine, wincing with each painful step. However, by the time he neared her car, she’s already gotten inside, started the engine and started to turn her RAV4 around. He got within five feet of its fender but by that time she hit the gas and started to pull away.

Tears streaming down her face, Nadine glanced in the rear view mirror. She saw Will, in all his naked glory, running after her with a horrified look on his visage.

Despite her anguish, Nadine had the funniest thought. A few hours ago, she’d have eagerly accepted a naked Will Northcutt running at her, walking to her, holding her or doing anything else he pleased. No explanation would have been necessary. Now, she never wanted to see his damn face again.

Suddenly, there was a strange sound—which she realized was her own weeping—accompanying the water pouring from her eyes. She drove and drove and drove, away from Oxbow and that unmentionable naked man.

photo credit: Klara Kulikova on Unsplash

To read the previous chapter in this series, please click here. To start reading the series from the beginning, please click here.