Silvertongue Read online

  Silvertongue

  By Sidney Wood

  Copyright Notice

  This eBook is a work of fiction. Although many of the places are real, the characters and events described herein are imaginary. All rights reserved. Unauthorized copying or reproduction of this work, in whole or in any individual part, is prohibited without written consent from the author. Copyright © 2019 by Sidney A. Wood.

  Published by Sidney Wood Author, Wasilla, AK 99654, www.sidneyawood.com

  This book is for you (yes you!) and every other romance loving adult on this wonderful planet… except my mom. Do NOT share this book with my mom. ~ Sid

  “The greatest coward is a man who awakens love in a woman with no intention of loving her.” ~ Bob Marley

  Chapter One (Spring)

  “I love you...”

  Chuck sneered and walked away.

  Tears welled in Ulie’s russet colored eyes, and she wrinkled her nose at the stinging rejection. “Fuck you then,” she said, flinging her pain back at the source.

  The curse missed her husband completely, offending nearer ears instead. A sharp glance put her on notice. With trembling fingers, Ulie tucked loose strands of wavy brunette hair behind her ear, sniffed, and turned her head. She quickly wiped away fresh tears wetting her cheeks.

  At thirty-two, Ulie embraced disappointment. Eight years earlier, she had walked through the same airport beaming as she towed, Chuck, a cocky young cop, home to meet her parents. She should have known better. As sure as their first kiss erased her prohibition against undergraduate relationships, their love making eclipsed her resolve to use birth control. It only took one unprotected dalliance to steer her toward an abbreviated degree track and a lifetime as Mrs. Chuck Hanson. Just like that, Ulie’s dreams of being a hot-shot architect and leaving her mark on the world in a grand scale, evaporated.

  Despite regretful timing, none of Ulie’s discontent could be blamed on Miranda’s birth. Her decisions and their consequences rested squarely on her shoulders, even when she settled for part-time work. She could have tried harder to forge ahead professionally, but a huge part of her, new and patient, loved being a mom.

  Inconspicuously, Ulie turned her head and inhaled, trying to smell Miranda’s hair on her jacket. She wanted to duck her head lower and try again, but resisted, recalling instead, the hug that left it there. “My sweet little girl,” she whispered. Miranda made it all worthwhile.

  Ulie shouldered her bag and stood up straight to her full height of five feet, four inches, taking her place in the caterpillar-like line of pedestrians waiting to go through security. To pass the time, she smoothed down her clothing and focused on the trip ahead. She had been invited to represent her employers at an architectural and engineering conference in Florida, and she dressed the part. It still shocked her that they chose her, a part-timer, to go to a glitzy pro-event across the country. Wanting to impress, Ulie wore a gray business jacket, matching skirt, heels, and a blush pink shirt.

  Ulie had never been to Florida and looked forward to enjoying the sun on her terms. She even invited her best friend Amy to join her after the conference. Amy would fly down from New York to help Ulie enjoy a week of overdue “therapy” on the beach. Ulie couldn’t wait to let loose; to have some adult fun and relaxation without any responsibilities to work or family. She imagined the hot Florida sun melting her stress away.

  Once she passed the body scanner, Ulie collected her bag and shoes, and hustled to Concourse B. She found that away from Chuck, her mood improved; and by the time she reached her gate, her eyes were dry, and her nerves settled.

  A musky odor clouded the entire area. Amy would probably say, “What died up somebody’s ass?”

  Ulie smirked and tried not to inhale too deeply as she settled in an empty seat. “Whew, that’s not healthy,” she muttered.

  Crossing her legs, Ulie turned her attention to her phone. Several notifications appeared as the display illuminated, and one of them made the corner of her mouth curl upward. “My turn,” she whispered. Ulie opened the app, grateful that Amy suggested it. Like a board game she adored as a child, it required the players to make words from jumbled sets of letters. Better still, the game linked to social media, so she constantly received requests from old friends as they discovered her profile online.

  Ulie excelled at word games, which eventually took a toll on her opponents. No one enjoyed losing. Even Amy stopped playing, although she had mostly played to shock Ulie with dirty words and off-color messages.

  Ulie smirked as she thought of Amy, a petite, knock-out red-head, with an oversized personality and no filter. She embodied everything Ulie used to be, bold and fearless. Best friends since high school, when Ulie went off to college, Amy joined the Army; and in the last few years, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan repeatedly. Ulie held her breath each time Amy went to a war zone. Imagining a world without Amy made Ulie shiver.

  Recently, a man Ulie vaguely remembered from their teen years challenged her in the game. Quiet, unassuming guys like Noah McCormick were the “friend of a friend” type, and seldom part of the “in” crowd. To Ulie’s delight, Noah held his own in their first round, and she challenged him to another. They had been at it for several days now, and although she was leading, every two or three games Noah surprised her with a sound thumping. They were developing a solid rivalry, which Ulie relished.

  “That is not a word!” she hissed at the screen. Irritated, she searched for a higher scoring word. When she first started playing, Ulie refused to use words that were not in the dictionary, even though the game allowed slang. Slowly, she warmed up to using the rules to her advantage. As an avid reader, Ulie knew elegant, high scoring words and descriptors that others never thought to use. She plied them mercilessly to trounce her opponents. When the same tactics were employed against her, she bristled, but the insult quickly faded. Call it a work in progress.

  Ulie inspected the board for the best play; high value letters coinciding with triple-letter or triple-word blocks. She considered anything else a wasted opportunity. Ulie hated wasting opportunities.

  “QUIXOTRY for the lead, thank you.” Ulie slid the tiles with her index finger, wearing a smug smile.

  “Good Afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen…” A raven-haired flight attendant made the standard pre-boarding announcement from behind the podium. Ulie began to stir with excitement. As a presenter at the conference, she garnered celebrity treatment with a first-class seat, a limo from the airport, and a luxury suite at a five-star hotel. Her supervisor convinced her to set aside her worry and accept the pizzazz as a bonus for a job well done. After all, her designs brought high dollar attention their way.

  Ulie longed to be pampered. She hadn’t taken a vacation in, well… ever. Her dreams of travel were another casualty of their unplanned pregnancy.

  She expected resistance from Chuck when she told him about the conference and her desire to fold it into a personal vacation, but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he said it was a great idea. Ulie paused, recalling how his behavior soured as the trip drew nearer.

  “Is that what he’s pissed about? Does he resent me for going on a vacation without him?”

  Gathering her bag, Ulie tried to push Chuck out of her thoughts. In a few hours she’d be anonymous. With Amy by her side, she planned to soak up sunlight by day and spread her wings at night. She even packed for it. As a married mom, Ulie hadn’t sported a bathing suit in public since college. Even then, she never dared to wear one as revealing as the pale blue bikini she purchased secretly and packed without her husband’s knowledge. She had worn the gold cocktail dress, also hidden in her bag, but only once, and many years ago.

  Ulie started to smile and quickly bit her cheek, yanking her lips to the side. She ducked her hea
d, pretending to look at her shoes. Her knees wobbled. Ahead of her, lay an unfamiliar place and strangers. “Once Amy arrives, I’ll be fine,” she said.

  At least Chuck wasn’t there to see her squirm. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Ulie lifted her head and strode toward the jet way.

  Just after settling into her seat, she stopped the flight attendant. “May I have a glass of Chardonnay? Thank you.”

  Ulie’s phone chimed.

  To her surprise, Noah hadn’t played. Instead, a little red number one dotted the message icon at the top of the page. She tapped it.

  “Nice one! Btw, I had to google it.”

  Ulie shut off her phone and accepted the cool glass of Chardonnay from her flight attendant. “Perfect. Thank you.” The smile she couldn’t manage earlier spread across her face as she took a sip.

  The trip promised to be several hours long, plenty of time to decide if and how to respond. She had learned not to take anything for granted online. She didn’t want drama, not from anyone. When she first started playing, a few creeps tried to interest her in flirtatious banter. The conversations quickly devolved into something blatantly sexual. One of them sent her a picture of his unfortunately sized penis. Even if she wanted to see it, which she didn’t, the man had clearly never heard of trimming. His less-than-mighty “tree” nearly vanished within the surrounding overgrowth.

  “Ew.” She took a sip of wine and suppressing a shudder.

  Noah had sent a handful of messages since they started playing; each one friendly and simple. There was nothing about her appearance, no probing questions about her relationship status, and no braggadocios claims about his prowess; sexual or otherwise. Ulie welcomed the contrast. Besides, the game proved that he operated at a higher intellectual level than the others, or at least he had a larger vocabulary.

  Ulie relaxed in her seat, casually swirling the wine.

  She tried to remember the last time she had a conversation with a grown man, other than Chuck, outside of work. She couldn’t think of a single person or occasion. Her life revolved around being Miranda’s mom and Chuck’s wife. They were good things to be, honest things, yet those roles left no room for Ulie.

  Ulie sipped and the alcohol warmed her insides.

  “I’m more than my responsibilities. I’m a grown woman with my own identity, and I should have my own dreams.” She nodded approval. “That’s what this vacation is about, isn’t it? I’m due some me time.” Ulie raised her glass in a silent toast to independence.

  Besides, Amy would join her soon. Her best friend always stirred up trouble, and the two of them would make memories to laugh and tease each other about in the years ahead. It had been too long since Ulie spent time with Amy. Over the years their relationship diminished to occasional phone calls and few surprise visits when Amy had a layover in the area.

  The airplane’s jet engines whined to life, and as they taxied out to the runway Ulie’s passion for revolt dwindled. “Life is good, Ulie. You have a great job and a lovely daughter, and you can make things work with Chuck. Don’t be selfish.”

  Chapter Two (One week later)

  With the conference behind her, Ulie let loose, ready to enjoy as many lazy days and sunny afternoons on the beach as she liked. And she liked all of them. A large umbrella protected Ulie from the sun’s direct wrath as she floated away on the pages of a spicy romance novel. Maybe she didn’t have passion like that in her home life, but she could enjoy it here. Lifting a chilled Mojito to her lips, she sipped.

  Ulie thought of Amy arriving in one more day and stifled the urge to scream. She gave her rear an excited shimmy instead. Her Florida escape already eased the heartaches and worries plaguing her back home, and the best was yet to come.

  Her sexy blue bikini earned her smiles from the more flirtatious men that passed by, yet the attention made her feel awkward. She wanted to believe she looked fabulous; that her swimsuit fit even better than the day she first tried it on, but she couldn’t see beyond her flaws. Ulie saw herself as average, with a passable mom body at best.

  Earlier, as she stood before her hotel room’s full-length mirror, she noticed every stretch mark and blemish. They were impossible to miss. Even in the soft glow of her suite’s ultra-forgiving light, she couldn’t ignore them. She almost stayed inside. In despair, she called Amy, who immediately chastised her for being a sissy, and joked about hot, bare-chested guys. Amy’s good humor and playful prodding finally pushed Ulie out the door.

  On the beach, Ulie hid under her umbrella sure that anyone who cared to look would see her cellulite and a hundred other imperfections. No one could find her attractive or think she had a bikini body; impossible. Still, as the day went on, and as Ulie overcame the initial embarrassment of the smiles and stares, her doubts began to fade. Her confidence slowly returned.

  Before Chuck and Ulie married, he made her feel great about her body. The way he looked at her, gave her goose bumps. Young and virile, he seemed infatuated with her from the moment they started dating. Ulie loved the way he worshiped her body, and she couldn’t get enough of his. After her pregnancy his appetite waned. For a while, the sex remained frequent, but never with the excitement or emotional charge Ulie cherished in their first encounters. The spark eventually died. “That’s just one more reason for a nice get away.” Ulie said, flipping the page.

  About once an hour, Ulie’s phone buzzed and she closed her book to reply to Noah’s message or play her turn. She craved adult companionship. Deep down, she needed more than casual interaction. She wanted a man’s attention and Noah had her smiling more than usual that afternoon.

  Noah threw in some slang words like “HOTTIE” and “ADULTING” and managed to score well doing so. Ulie tried to resist stooping to crass language, but when she noticed “BOOBIES” offered the most points, she played it…and immediately regretted it.

  “Why did I do that?” she groaned, covering her face in embarrassment. “Either he’s going to think I want to start sexting, or he’s going to think I’m childish.” Sitting forward, Ulie cradled the phone as if it might crumble and waited.

  Several dread-filled minutes passed with no response. Needing to focus on something else, Ulie set the phone down and resumed reading. At least, that is what she tried to do. Constantly distracted, she stole quick glances at the phone. “Stop it,” she chided. “It wasn’t that bad.”

  Ulie soon found herself re-reading the same paragraph for the third time. “Ugh! What is wrong with me?”

  Ulie snatched the phone and opened the app. She couldn’t focus on anything else until she corrected her embarrassing moment of juvenile behavior. “He thinks I’m an imbecile,” she sighed. Tapping the message icon, she typed, “Ignore that word.”

  “Is that too bossy?”

  Deleting the message, she replaced it with, “I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me! Embarrassing…”

  “Ugh, now I sound whiney.” She quickly deleted the message again.

  “Noah…” Delete.

  “Hey, about the word Boobies…” Delete. Delete. Delete.

  Ulie took a calming breath and closed her eyes. “This is not difficult. Just communicate.” Shaking her head, she carefully typed, “I’m embarrassed. Please, say something.” Send.

  She wanted to crawl under the chair.

  “Where’s Amy when I need her?” Ulie took a long drink of savory Mojito to calm her nerves. “That’s better.”

  She paused.

  “Should I tell Amy about Noah?”

  Ulie shook her head. “There’s nothing to tell.”

  Despite the Florida heat, a mild ocean breeze and her anxiety combined for a chilling effect. Tiny goose bumps appeared all over her arms and legs. Feeling self-conscious, she decided to retreat to the privacy of her hotel suite. Ulie collected her things and wrapped herself in a multicolor knit sarong. She wished she had thought to bring a sweater.

  As she hurried through the lobby, Ulie’s phone vibrated, startling her. S
he didn’t dare look at it, focusing instead on getting to the elevator without embarrassing herself.

  “Why am I letting this bother me?” she wondered as the elevator ascended. “This is so stupid!” Ulie looked at her phone and winced.

  She had a new message.

  “Well,” she shrugged. “Here goes nothing.” Ulie pressed the message icon.

  “It’s hard to type, I’m laughing so hard. Hey, no worries. I’m not here to judge, and I won’t get weird on you. I actually made the same points using BOSOMS once  Thanks for making me smile.”

  Ulie sighed with relief. She hadn’t blown it after all. Tapping the phone against her leg, she exited the elevator and strolled to her suite. The cool air-conditioned hallway deepened her chill, making Ulie long for a hot soak in her large tub, one of the many perks of her five-star room. A double sized bathtub with an ornate stonework surround awaited her.

  Ulie closed the door and dialed room service to order wine. She needed it. With refreshment on the way, Ulie tossed her belongings on the luxurious King-sized bed and slipped out of her bathing suit. She donned a complimentary robe and hugged its downy fabric while sitting on the edge of the marble rimmed bath. A gentle twist of the knob freed an endless flow of steaming hot water from the tap. She let it run over her fingers, enjoying the warmth as she waited for room service.

  A bubble bath had always been something special to Ulie. She relished the sensual caress of warm water on every inch of her exposed skin and the promise of soothed muscles. The relaxing sounds of liquid conforming to a vessel always did the trick. Ulie loved the gentle sloshing of water as she slowly moved in the tub; sometimes she did it just to hear the familiar noise.

  Someone rapped on the door. “Room Service.”

  With a smile, Ulie accepted the expensive bottle of Merlot and allowed the bell hop to fill the accompanying long-stem crystal wine glass. She admired the glass, certainly nicer than any she had at home.