Three Days of Rain Read online

  Three Days of Rain

  Christine Hughes

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, businesses, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, and registered service marks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only. The publisher does not have any control over or assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their contents.

  Three Day of Rain

  Published by Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing, LLC

  Copyright © 2012 by Christine Hughes

  Cover Design by Rue Volley for Vivid Designs

  All Rights Reserved

  Acknowledgements

  This book wasn’t the easiest to write. It isn’t autobiographical, it isn’t real. But, for the first time, when I wrote, I felt everything I put my characters through. I let myself feel through them. It was uncomfortable, it was sad – it was surreal. I had no idea writing, creating, could be like so all consuming. I only hope I can reach that level of connection again with another story.

  First, I’d like to thank my family for their support. There is no way I could have realized my dream of becoming a writer without them. To my Beta Readers, Jack Klett and Christa Lewis, a huge thank you for your thoughts and ideas. I’d also like to thank SJ Davis of Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing for knowing where this book belongs. The beautiful lit family you’ve created is unparalleled. #onehouseunited Thank you to Rue Volley for such a beautiful cover. Sarah, I think you love Jake more than anyone – thank you for all your kind words. And lastly, I need to thank Jay Liberatore for writing the song Three Days of Rain. Your words inspired this story and I am so grateful you decided to pick up a guitar and share your music with the world.

  What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

  PROLOGUE

  Jake had just finished playing a set at Billy’s and was taking a five-minute break. He caught Billy’s eye from across the room, raised his hand, and nodded. Man, he thought, I need a beer. Regardless of the fact that he’d already put back half a dozen and some shots with his brother, celebrating the fact that Megan just popped out kid number two, Jake needed another drink. These days it was all about having a good time, playing his guitar, working for his dad, and taking home some random girl he’d never call back. The pickings were slim, he noticed. Most were locals, though there were a few married chicks from the next town over just visiting to say they checked out the local scene. No one caught his attention tonight. He’d probably be going home alone.

  He saw Maddie’s blonde hair weaving through the crowd, with a tray of pints in her hands, and appreciated the way her T-shirt clung to her curves. She’s been quiet since she came back from college, he mused. Maybe she decided drama wasn’t her thing anymore. Some said people grew up in college, not that he’d know from experience.

  When his mom died, he’d decided to stay in town and work for his dad and brother over at the docks. Madison’s father, Mr. Olsen gave him a job the day after he graduated high school and Jake was grateful at the time. He needed to keep busy. Mom’s death hit him harder than it had anyone else.

  Jake had done everything he could to block out her death. A long drawn out bout with cancer wasn’t the easiest thing to remember. Drinking helped with that, as did fighting anyone and everyone that pissed him off. As that thought passed through his mind, he noticed a small ruckus starting in the middle of the bar. Marty Donaldson and Nick Jones were mouthing off to a few out-of-towners. One thing led to another and the stranger clocked Jonesy good. He hit the floor cold.

  Insanity erupted instantly. Although Jake was glad he was out of the way of the flying chairs, elbows, and drinks, he thought it might be fun to join the fracas. But it wasn’t until he saw some idiot elbow Maddie to the ground that he jumped into action.

  Leaping from the makeshift stage, he grabbed the guy who’d hit her. Jake’s six foot two stature easily bested the other guy by almost half a foot. It didn’t matter if it was an accident or if she was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, Jake fisted the guy’s collar, clocked him with a head-butt, and threw him into the wall. The crash was loud. The guy hit the photographs on Billy’s wall. That guy’s gonna get it, Jake thought. Billy was so proud of those photographs. Apparently his niece, the one who lived in Connecticut, took them. Billy hung up every one she sent. When he heard Billy yell, he turned to scan the room for Maddie. Fighting was going on everywhere and she was sure to get trampled.

  He looked all over, shoving people out of the way, punching his way through. Finally, he found her cowering under a table with a towel wrapped around her arm.

  “Maddie, you okay?”

  “Yeah. Son of a bitch. Those guys piss me off. What the hell?” She flinched at the sound of breaking bottles.

  “You’re bleeding.”

  “So are you.”

  Absently, he lifted a hand to his eyebrow. “I’m fine. Are you alright?”

  “I’m okay. Just a small piece of glass. I pulled it out. I’ll live.”

  They both looked over to the entrance. The sheriff had shown up.

  Jake grabbed her arm. “Time to go, Maddie.”

  “What? Why? I didn’t do anything.”

  “Yeah, but I did and you’re bleeding. Let’s go.”

  Jake pulled her up and led her by the hand through the bar to the stage Billy had set up. He grabbed his guitar and guided her out the back entrance.

  Pulling his keys out of his pocket he yelled, “Get in!”

  Maddie jumped into the passenger side of his new pickup and held on as Jake peeled out of the parking lot.

  CHAPTER 1

  Five years later:

  Jake pulled into the parking lot at Billy’s, turned off the ignition, and dropped his head to the steering wheel. He wasn’t sure how much more remembering he could take. When Madison left two years ago, she’d taken every dream, every hope, every future Jake had planned.

  He knew it had been too long for him to still be too broken to mend. Waiting two years for her to come back, just so he could confront her, was tragic and sad. But still, there he sat, trying to convince himself she’d come back, just as he had every day for the past two years. When he was finally able to shake the past from his head, he threw his worn baseball hat on the seat and climbed out of his pickup. The graveled lot was wet with early summer rain. As he walked into the bar, Jake’s eyes couldn’t help but search the tables with tired eyes for Maddie’s familiar face. The same face that had haunted his dreams the past two years—a face that burned in his memory with a mix of emotions. She wasn’t there and despite the promises, she probably would never come back. He knew it, but that didn’t stop him from looking anyway.

  Danny watched his brother walk in. There wasn’t much he could do for him but buy him a drink. Every day, Jake would come to the bar after his shift and sit for a while. All Danny could do was show up and take part in the charade. If anyone ever asked Jake what he was looking for, he’d respond, “Nothing. Just having a drink.” But Danny knew better. Jake was looking for her and though he didn’t show it on the outside, there were small clues that let Danny know his brother was broken.

  “Hey Jake! When ya gonna play us a song?” Billy, the owner of the bar would ask just about every day even though he knew the answer.

  “What’s up Billy? You know I don’t really play anymore.”

  “Well, let me know when you do. The place is a tomb sinc
e you dropped the guitar.”

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ll let you know.”

  The conversation rarely varied. Sometimes there was a “yo” where the “hey” should be but other than that, it was more of a greeting than anything else.

  Billy had been there when Jake began to crumble. He knew the how’s, why’s, and who’s. They all did. It was a small town, after all. Mostly, they all just watched and waited for Jake to wake up.

  As Jake caught his brother’s eye and walked over to him, Danny noticed his little brother’s normally jet-black hair was littered with sprinkles of gray and his pale blue eyes were bloodshot. When did that happen? Not that Danny could really judge. He’d let himself go a bit over the past couple of years and carried twenty extra pounds around his middle that he couldn’t seem to get rid of. Still, he hated the fact that Jake looked so serious and dejected all the time. So much had happened over the past five years, it was hard to see all the little things.

  “What’s up, Danny?” Jake’s voice pulled Danny out of his reverie as he slid into the booth across from him.

  Danny passed Jake the beer he’d ordered for him. “Nothin’ much, Brother. Lookin’ a little tired around the eyes, Jakey.”

  “I’m fine. They got me workin’ hard lately. How’s Megan? The boys?”

  “They’re good. Been wondering when you’re gonna come around. She’s been playing around in the kitchen and she’s dying to test out her newly developed kitchen skills on someone other than us. You should come by for dinner one night.”

  Megan was Danny’s high school sweetheart. They fell in love the minute they laid eyes on each other in the eleventh grade. Married right out of high school, they started a family right away and had two beautiful boys to show for it. It was a life Jake had wished for with the fervor of a preacher promising his flock a heaven bound exit.

  “I know. Just been busy.”

  Busy. Jake was always busy, Danny thought. Busy letting life pass him by. Busy working. Busy drinking. Busy remembering a girl that wasn’t good for him, and busy practicing a needless apology for when and if she ever returned.

  “You can’t avoid us forever.”

  “Who’s avoiding? I told you, I’ve been busy.” Jake avoided eye contact as he took a long drink of his beer.

  “Busy, right. Didn’t you have a date with that girl from the island? What was her name? Charlene?”

  Looking down at his beer, Jake prepared himself for where he knew this was eventually going. “Charlotte. And that was a month ago.”

  “How’d that turn out?”

  Jake’s knees began to shake as he drummed his fingers on the table. “It didn’t.”

  Danny took a deep breath. He knew it would be no good trying for eye contact but he began anyway. “Look, Jakey, when are you gonna let this go? She’s gone. She isn’t coming back and if you ask me, good riddance. She wasn’t good for you then and, God forbid she comes back, she won’t be good for you now. And after all this time, you’ve got to know none of it was your fault. I know I can’t relate. Lord knows I wouldn’t want to. But, Jake, it’s been two years. You have to let her go. You have to let both of them go.”

  A dark cloud passed through Jake’s eyes as he white-knuckled the grip on his beer bottle. The muscles in his jaw tightened and Danny waited for the explosion.

  Jake spoke through clenched teeth without looking his brother directly in the eye. “No one asked you. She is none of your business. I am none of your business. I’ll come around when I have time. But for now, like I said, I’m busy.”

  Jake downed the last of his beer, stood up, grabbed his keys, and took one last look around the bar. “You of all people should know when to let things lie. I’m sick of the pity, I’m sick of the whispers, and I am sick to death of you and dad and everyone else treating me like I’m some sort of fragile thing. I am, in case you hadn’t noticed, a grown man. I can take care of myself. Just leave it, Danny. Just leave it, her, me—leave everything alone.”

  “Jake...” Danny called out as his brother turned and walked out of the bar but it was no use. Jake tuned him out. Jake always tuned him out. And now all he could do was slip back into the charade and play by his brother’s rules.

  Billy walked over and sat down across from Danny. It took a few moments and a few pulls from his beer before he spoke.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing, Billy.”

  “Did you mention her?”

  Danny played with his pint glass. “Maybe.”

  “Good for you. Someone had to. And with Jake’s temper, I’m sure glad it was you and not me. You’re lucky he didn’t clock you.”

  “Yeah, I know. I just can’t stand the way he can’t get past her. It’s been two damn years, Billy. She’s trouble, she’s always been trouble and I hope to God, for all our sake, she never comes back. Especially after what happened. She wasn’t there when she needed to be. Damn it.” His fist hit the table a little harder than he wanted, garnering glances from a few patrons of the bar.

  Danny dropped his head and rubbed his hands over his face. “He just can’t wrap his head around the fact that it wasn’t his fault. No matter how tragic, he isn’t to blame. And he forgets that he isn’t the only one hurting over all of it. He’s lost in his own little world.”

  Billy leaned in to catch Danny’s eye. “I hear ya. Jake’s just gotta figure this out for himself. Though, to be honest, in all my years, I’ve never seen a boy fall apart like he has, especially over a girl.”

  “It’s not just her that broke him.”

  “I know. He’s just not the same Jake he was before.”

  “Some might say that’s a good thing, Billy.”

  “True enough. All that fighting he done before, all that anger. At least one good thing came out of this.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  Billy laughed his big laugh, the one that made him sound like Santa Claus. “At least she took the fight out of him!”

  Danny’s eyes crinkled when he smiled. Billy noticed he was looking more and more like his father every day. “You’re right there, Billy. I just wish he had something to fight for.”

  “She messed him up, that she did. How’s Megan dealing with it?”

  “Megan’s fine. She just wishes she could do something. Jake won’t even look at her. He won’t come over. He won’t answer the phone if she calls. He won’t see her when she stops by. When he looks at her, all he sees is Maddie.

  “We all want to move on, but for some reason we’re glued to Jake and his memories. I’m beginning to think none of us will move on if he doesn’t and I am sick of walking on eggshells over ghosts.”

  “I never understood how two sisters could be so completely different.” Billy said. “Your Megan is an amazing woman. Her sister, however, was quite the manipulator. And after how she left, it’s a wonder he hasn’t gone completely nuts.”

  Danny knew, all too well, that Billy was right. Both he and Megan had tried to convince Jake not to get involved with Maddie. Jake just wouldn’t listen and Madison just did what she always did. What no one understood was how Jake couldn’t see it. He’d known her for years. He knew what she was capable of and he knew she was no good.

  Maddie and Megan moved to town when Megan and Danny were in eleventh grade. Maddie was in eighth and Jake was a freshman. She rebelled right away, unhappy that Mr. and Mrs. Olsen decided to move their brood from Philly to this podunk town on the coast of South Carolina. Mr. Olsen accepted a job running the docks. He was a hard worker and everyone in town respected him right away. Mrs. Olsen ran the PTA, organized town picnics, and helped bring life back to this sleepy shore town. But Maddie wasn’t having any of it.

  She started smoking, cutting classes, hanging out with the wrong type of kids. She did everything she could to break her poor mom’s heart. Maddie was beautiful—movie star beautiful—and she knew it. By the time she hit high school, she’d developed a reputation for getting what she wanted. She dated a lot, slept aro
und, and ran away twice before graduation. At one time, even though her sister was dating him, Maddie tried to seduce Danny. It all backfired, however, and after she graduated, she set her sights on Jake. He wasn’t interested, though. At least not then. And it made Maddie crazy. She went off to school and Jake went to work with his father and brother for Mr. Olsen at the docks. They all thought they were rid of her. She, of course, came back every summer, raised hell then left for school again, leaving everyone to clean up her mess. Then one night, a few years later, Jake looked twice and that was all the invitation Maddie needed to strike.

  She was working at Billy’s bar as a waitress and, for a time, the guys who hung out there didn’t come for the food or the drink. They came to see Maddie. Billy knew she was no good but who could argue when she was filling the bar every night she worked? The night Jake noticed her, he was playing guitar on a Friday night like he had been since he was seventeen. No one really knows how it happened but Jake woke up beside her the next morning and sealed his fate for the following five years of shit.

  “She’s a bitch,” Danny grumbled. “And she fucked up my brother. He’s a damned mess and there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it.”

  “Sure there is. You just have to be there for him. Wait it out. He’ll eventually come to know what we’ve all known for years. And if she ever walks into this town again, kick her ass back to whatever hell she calls home now. She’s not welcome here. Not in this bar, not in this town.”

  With that Billy downed the rest of his beer and walked back behind the bar. He was right. Maddie would be back and whether or not she decided Jake was worth her time, she would crush whatever remained of his heart and not think twice about it. That was her way.

  Resigned to “wait it out” for now, he dropped a ten spot on the table, grabbed his keys, and drove home to the family that needed him and the normalcy that he needed.

  CHAPTER 2

  As Jake was driving home, he cursed his brother and the memory of Madison Olsen. Two years and no word from her. The day she left, he knew she was the devil everyone thought she was. He thought he knew her like no one else did. They spent three years together. Not all of it good, but not everyone can have a perfect life like Danny and Megan. When was Danny going to realize he didn’t need to take care of him anymore? When would he figure out not everyone needed perfection in their lives?