In Your Embrace Read Free Page A

a voice calls from the street.
    Timothy turns and waves, blocking the sun with his hand to see Andrew Matthews hanging out the driver’s side of an old beat up truck.  The back is riding low, weighted down with supplies.  “Seems to me we all could,” he motions to the truck bed.
    Andrew nods and casts a glance toward the sky.  The sun is shining and the clouds are sparse but Timothy can feel the change on the air.  The hurricane is coming, that’s for sure.  “Looks like the predictions about this storm are coming true after all,” he says.
    “Yep, I reckon they are,” Timothy agrees.
    “You need any help boarding things up?”
    Timothy grabs a bottle of water and breaks the seal before downing several large gulps.  The water is warm. It’s been sitting in the sun too long but it is refreshing none the less.  “Nah.  I can manage well enough.”
    The older man turns away and Timothy steps forward to see Claire sitting in the passenger seat.  “Nice to see you, Ma'am.”
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Tim.  Haven’t I told you a hundred times to call me Claire?”
    “Yes, Ma'am.”  He smiles and dips his head.  “Might have to say it once more though.”
    “Let the man be, Claire,” Andrew chides, his hand slipping from the steering wheel.  Timothy can only imagine he has twined his fingers with his wife’s.  They do that a lot.  Sometimes Timothy will see them out for a stroll on the beach, walking hand in hand. Sometimes with her head rested on his shoulder.  It’s times like those that make Timothy hurt the most.
    Clearing his throat to push away that thought, he raises his bottle in the air.  “Best get back to work.  Don’t want to get caught with my pants around my ankles.”
    “Wouldn’t want that.”  Andrew waves and begins to slowly roll his truck forward.  “You take care of yourself, Tim.  Call if you need anything.”
    He nods and turns his back on the couple, grinning at the sputtering growl of their engine as they pull away.  Andrew and Claire Matthews may not be from Rodanthe, but he would be hard pressed to find anyone in town that didn’t like them.
    Rumor has it their niece is staying with them for a while.  Timothy has yet to see her out and about, but that’s not really all that surprising, what with the storm preparations and all.  He’s been up to the Serendipity Inn a time or two, and he knows how much work that place needs.  He offered to help out, but so far, Claire and Andrew have made it clear that the bed and breakfast is a labor of love...even if it is heavy on the labor side.
    Pursing his lips, Timothy begins to whistle as he grabs his tape measure and sets to work cutting boards to fit the windows of his one and a half story bungalow home.  It’s nothing fancy.  Just a small two-bedroom set up and an attic renovation that stopped several months back.  There had been plans to expand the house, make it perfect for a family, but that dream is lost to him now.
    Timothy falls silent and for nearly two hours the only sounds that reach his ears are the buzz of his table saw and the pounding of his hammer.  It feels good to work. To do something physical.  He has always excelled at working with his hands.  His father wasn’t the least bit surprised when Timothy announced he was opening his own construction business.  It only seemed natural.  Too bad the recession struck during his first year in business and nearly took Timothy under.
    Grabbing a cloth from his back pocket, he wipes his forehead again.  Sweat beads on the tips of his hair before his eyes.  It is an unusually hot day for mid-September.  Clusters of bugs hover over the yard.  He swats at the occasional mosquito that takes him unaware.
    Grabbing his ladder, Timothy ignores the aches in his shoulders and the growling of his stomach as he begins the arduous task of hefting his boards onto the roof to finish off the second floor windows.  The metal ladder rattles and shakes