Sophie Love - For Now and Forever

“Sure,” the younger woman said, beaming. “I’ll just have a look around.” She was about to head off into the shop when she paused. “Hey, this is all bedroom stuff. Is it…”

“For a B&B?” Emily smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “Yup.”

“That’s so cool!” Serena exclaimed. “You’re really going to do it?”

“Well,” Emily said, “I’ll need to get the permit first, which means going to a town meeting.”

“Oh pfft, that’ll be easy,” Serena said, waving a dismissive hand. “Does this mean you won’t be going back to New York?”

“I need to get the permit first,” Emily repeated with a slightly sterner tone.

“Got it,” Serena said, clicking her fingers. “Permit first.” She grinned and walked away.

Emily smiled to herself, happy to know there was at least one person who seemed to genuinely want her to stick around in Sunset Harbor, not just because of the profit she’d bring to the area but because they liked her.

She went over to the drawer of door handles and started looking through it. Rico had a collection to rival her father’s, though Rico’s were in much better condition. She was considering powder blue for the color scheme of the room, and wanted delicate glass handles to go in the chest of drawers.

As she was rummaging through the drawer of handles and knobs, she heard two voices entering the shop behind her.

“Stella said she saw him up on the cliffs again yesterday, riding his motorbike for hours and hours,” one of the voices said.

Emily paused and strained to hear them better. Could they be talking about Daniel? He had a penchant for driving his bike on the cliffs, and he had been gone for a really long time yesterday.

“And he was at the festival down at the harbor the other day,” the second voice said.

Emily felt her heart rate increase. Daniel had been at the festival. Well, so had everyone else, but not everyone else rode a motorbike along the cliff path. She felt certain they were gossiping about Daniel.

“You don’t think he’s moved back into town, do you?” the second voice was saying.

“Well, Stella has a theory that he never left,” the first said.

“Oh my. Really? Just the thought of it gives me the chills. You mean to say he’s been at the old house this whole time?”

“Yes, exactly. Stella told me that someone told her that he was at the garage sale the new girl had up there the other day.”

Emily felt her whole body turn to ice as the voices kept on gossiping.

“Really? Goodness me. Someone ought to warn her!”

Certain now that the women were talking about Daniel, Emily stepped out of the shadows. “Warn me about what?” she said coolly.

The two women stopped and stared at her like rabbits caught in the headlights.

“I said,” Emily repeated, “warn me about what?”

“Well,” the first woman began, her voice now suddenly trembling. “It was Stella that said that she’d seen him.”

“Seen who?”

“The Moreys’ son, I forget his name. Dustin. Declan.”

“Douglas,” the other woman informed the first confidently.

“No, it’s more exotic than that. More unusual,” the first contested.

Emily folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. “It’s Daniel. And what about him?”

“Well,” the first woman said, “he has a reputation.”

“A reputation?” Emily said.

“With women,” she added. “He’s left a lot of women with broken hearts, that Declan.”

“Douglas,” the second woman said.

“ Daniel ,” Emily corrected them both.

The first woman shook her head. “It’s not Daniel, dear. I can’t remember his name but it’s definitely not Daniel.”

“I’m telling you, it’s Douglas,” the second woman said.

Emily was starting to get frustrated. She didn’t want to believe what the women were saying about Daniel – about the women in his past – but she couldn’t help the niggling doubt that they were creating in her mind. “Look, I’m sure that was all a very long time ago. People change. Daniel isn’t like that anymore and I’m not getting into this argument with you. You should mind your own business, okay?”

The first woman frowned. “It’s not Daniel! Honestly, girl, I’ve been in this town a damn sight longer than you have. That boy’s name is not Daniel.”

The second woman clapped her hands. “I’ve got it. Dashiel.”

“Yes that’s it! Dashiel Morey.”

Just then Serena reappeared. She paused mid-stride when she saw the two elderly women standing there and Emily looking flustered.

“I have to go,” Emily said, turning and striding out of the shop.

“Wait, what about your list?” Serena called out as Emily disappeared.

As soon as she was out in the springtime sunshine, Emily bent over and began to take deep breaths. She felt like she was hyperventilating. Her mind seemed to be spinning in circles. Though she knew the old women were just busybodies, she couldn’t help but feel rattled by what they’d said, by how certain they were about Daniel’s name, about his past indiscretions with women. And though Emily had been with Daniel mind, body, and soul, she had the sudden, dreadful realization that she didn’t really know him at all, that one couldn’t really ever truly know a person anyway. Her dad had taught her that much. If a loving family man could walk out on his family never to be seen again, then a guy she’d known for a few months could be lying about his name.

And his intentions.

Emily drove home quickly, her vision blurring with tears. She didn’t want to overreact but she really had no other option. Daniel had lied to her about the most fundamental part of his being: his name. What kind of a person did that? Even if he had changed his name because he hated it or was embarrassed by it, that was the sort of thing Emily would expect to crop up in conversation at some point. She didn’t go by her full name of Emily Jane but she’d still spoken about it to Daniel and even then, in that specific conversation about names, Daniel hadn’t piped up and said anything. Which led her to believe it was because he was deliberately hiding his identity from her.

And if he could lie to her about that, then maybe what the women had said about the string of broken hearts he’d caused could be true as well.

As she pulled up to the house, Emily saw that Daniel was in the yard, tending to the shrubs. He looked up, frowning, at the sound of her speedy approach and the squealing brakes as she slammed the car to a halt. She parked the car carelessly at a strange angle, then sprang out from the passenger seat, leaving it with its engine running and the door wide open. Then she stormed across the lawn heading right for Daniel.

“Who are you?” she cried, jabbing him in the chest as she reached him.

Daniel staggered back, looking shocked and confused. “What the hell kind of question is that?”

“Tell me!” Emily yelled. “Your name isn’t Daniel, is it? It’s Dashiel. Dashiel Morey.”

A crease formed between Daniel’s eyebrows. “How – ”

“How did I find out?” Emily cried in an accusatory manner. “I had to hear it from two old women in the flea market. Because you didn’t have the guts to tell me yourself. Do you know how humiliating that was for me?” She could feel her blood boiling at the mortifying memory.

“Emily, look I can explain,” Daniel said, bringing his hands to her shoulders.

Emily shoved his hands off from her shoulders. “Don’t touch me. You’ve been lying to me this whole time. It’s true. Just tell me straight Your name really is Dashiel?”

“Yes. But it’s just my name that’s changed. It’s – ”