Destroyed Dreams (2 page)

The lights suddenly came on for Melissa; this local sheriff was going to do nothing at her request because she didn’t actually own the cabin. Her uncle had insisted she spend the last few weeks of her sabbatical up here, relaxing and recuperating. Knowing her uncle, he probably didn’t even remember that the handyman was going to be working on the cabin during her stay.

Melissa worked for a high-powered family law group, and two months previously had made a slight error in dealing with a client. Well, she considered it slight. However, the law partners and the judge where the episode had occurred had been less than pleased with her complete meltdown during the final proceedings of a particularly nasty divorce case.

She had become so fed up with the antics of her client and the greediness the woman had shown towards her husband, she had lost it, right there in the courtroom.  She had begun yelling and lecturing the woman on what a poor excuse for a woman and wife she was, had accused her of manipulating the court and being a money-grabber.  She had been on such a roll, that she had completely ignored the orders from the judge to cease her tirade and retake her seat.

The judge’s response had been to have the bailiff physically remove her from the courtroom and place her under arrest for contempt. After spending a less than comfortable night in jail, the senior partners had sent her secretary to bail her out. They had requested that she immediately meet with them in the office.

She had been instructed to take a several months sabbatical, with pay of course, and see if she could find a new perspective for dealing with her cases.  They allowed her to excuse her behavior away based upon an extremely heavy caseload, and many high dollar clients at that. The stress had become too much for her, as she never quit working. It was not unusual for Melissa to put in 70 hours a week at the office, plus time spent in the actual courtroom.

She had been offered, no...ordered was more like it, to get her stuff together before returning.  She only had a few weeks left before she was to meet with the senior partner to discuss her return.  Unfortunately, she had not found any peace or been able to relax at her apartment.  When her uncle had offered her the use of his cabin, she had reluctantly agreed, knowing that if she didn’t relax soon, she wouldn’t have a chance of convincing the senior partner she was ready to come back to work. That meant she more than likely would no longer have a job.

Glancing out the wall of windows again, she saw that Mr. Cooper continued to work with his power tool on the deck. Turning to hang up the phone, she stepped wrong and was reminded of the splinter, which was even now lodged in the arch of her foot. Gingerly navigating her way back to the bedroom, she sat down on the corner of the bed to assess the damage. She carefully removed the splinter and then regretted not having grabbed some tissues or a cloth before doing so. Immediately upon removing the splinter from her flesh, a small drop of blood formed and continued to grow. Not wanting to stain the carpets with drops of blood, Melissa hopped into the adjoining bathroom and held a damp washcloth to the area for a minute.

With the bleeding under control, she glanced up only to take notice of her reflection in the bathroom mirror.  No wonder Mr. Cooper had smirked at her. She could have been the poster child for a bed-head campaign with her hair sticking straight up in places and plastered to her skull in others. She had been so exhausted upon her arrival the night before, she had gone to bed without bothering to remove her makeup and this morning was sporting two eyes surrounded by black smudges.  Her lipstick had not survived the night either, it was mostly off, and smeared across one of her cheeks.

Deciding to use the next hour to her advantage, she turned the water on in the Jacuzzi tub and added some bath salts. She couldn’t contact her uncle for almost an hour, so she would treat herself to a soak in the large bathtub and collect her thoughts for the day to come. One way or another, Mr. Cooper had to leave.

Pulling her hair up into a haphazard ponytail, she let the rain jacket fall to the floor as she stepped into the water. Sinking down into the warm water, she let out a sigh and rolled her shoulders. Leaning back against the side of the tub, she closed her eyes and let her mind wander.

             
                                                        ******

Robert Cooper was a man who had many regrets. As he continued to replace loose boards on the deck and tighten those still usable, he thought about the gorgeous woman who had just been screaming at him. She was something else; stacked up top and curvy in all the right places. He wasn’t sure about her facial features as they had been obscured by the remnants of yesterday’s makeup, but he would bet they were perfect. Her hair needed a little help as well, but the deep auburn color was beautiful next to her alabaster colored skin. She probably looked rather nicely cleaned up.

He whistled as he continued working. He had seen her on the phone talking very animatedly to someone; either the cops or Charlie Taylor. It didn’t really matter to him; both of them would support his having been at the cabin to work.

He could have been in some big city like New York, Chicago, or even Los Angeles. He had been offered the premier internship spot with a growing architectural firm right out of college. His girlfriend at the time had wanted to travel before they tied themselves down to full-time jobs. Against his family and friends advice, he had let her talk him into taking a year off after college. It had been the worst decision of his life. Not only did he lose his chance at his dream career, but his girlfriend had stolen him blind after cheating on him with every Tom, Dick and Harry in the county.  He had been blind to her shenanigans until it had been too late. Never again was his motto!  Women were great for a quick hook-up, but relationships were for those poor suckers who didn’t know any better.

Finished with the boards on the stairs, he grabbed his bucket of screws and his tools and moved towards the back railing.  The last few winters had been anything but kind to the wood on the deck and many of the boards had split and needed to be replaced. For someone with the college training Robert had received, fixing decks, repairing sheetrock, and patching roofs was child’s play. He should have been creating buildings that captured people’s attention, not playing general handyman in this little hick town. But he had made his choices and was now living out the consequences of them.

He didn’t really mind. He worked hard during the day at whatever jobs he could find, and in the evenings he drank until he felt numb enough to sleep. He got up the next day and repeated the process. No stress, no responsibilities except for those he agreed to – life was almost perfect.

Glancing towards the windows again, he saw Little Miss Taylor come out of her bedroom and head towards the kitchen once again. Unfortunately, she was no longer sporting the too
-short rain jacket, but had dressed herself in curve-hugging blue jeans and a dark red turtleneck sweater.  She had also repaired her makeup and fixed her hair; his initial assessment was correct – she was gorgeous. 

He had been very attracted to her earlier this morning when she had confronted him in the buff.  Only the absurdity of her actions had doused the flames of desire. Now seeing her all cleaned up, he felt his body start to respond again, remembering exactly what lies beneath her clothing.

Telling himself he’s stupid to even think about hooking up with someone like her, he returns to the task of removing the split boards and replacing them with new one. She was a complication he just didn’t need right now.

Melissa exited her bedroom and headed straight for the phone located in the kitchen. Grabbing the cordless phone, she immediately dialed her uncle’s number and paced while she waited for him to pick up the line.

She had told herself she wouldn’t pay any attention to Mr. Cooper when she came out of her bedroom. She almost made it, but then she turned to walk back towards the kitchen again and he had moved to the back of the house and was working directly in front of her.  Deciding that the wall of windows on the cabin was definitely not an architectural feature she would ever be tempted to duplicate, she quickly turned and paced the other direction. The only place that afforded any privacy from the outside world was the bedroom. She couldn’t spend the next several weeks holed up in the tiny
bedroom; she’d go stark raving nuts.

“Good morning doll, how’s the cabin working out?”  Melissa’s uncle had seen the caller I.D. and known it was she before he answered.

“Good morning uncle, the cabin is gorgeous, as always.”

“Good to hear. Did the caretaker get the fridge stocked and the firewood stacked up for you on the back porch?”

“I haven’t had a chance to check the firewood yet, but the fridge is fully stocked and she even left some casseroles in the freezer with directions on how to re-heat them.”  Melissa had read the note from the caretaker upon her arrival the night before, and been touched by the thoughtfulness.

“The reason I’m calling so early is, there was a problem this morning at the cabin.”

“Problem, what sort of problem? Is everything okay?” Melissa could hear the worry in her uncle’s voice and hurried to assure him that she was fine and that it was only a minor problem.

“There’s a man here doing some repairs on the deck outside. It appears you hired to be here at the same time I would be here.”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you about Robert; best carpentry work I’ve ever seen. He’s going to fix the outside first, and then do some remodeling for me on the inside.  I told him just to work out a schedule with you for access to the inside and such. Have you met him yet?”

“Sort of…the noise from his drill woke me up this morning. We haven’t really introduced ourselves yet but I’ll take care of that when I hang up the phone.  How long do you think his work will take?”  Melissa was praying that her uncle would tell her Mr. Cooper only had a few days worth of repairs to make. She was not so lucky.

“He’s probably going to be there for the next six weeks or so.  When he finishes the outside, he is going to totally remodel the bathroom and put in some new lighting in the family room.”  Melissa listened as her uncle continued to outline all of the remodeling work he had hired Mr. Cooper to do.

As she listened, she quickly ran through her other options for the next several weeks. She had sublet her city apartment to her best friend’s parents for the next three weeks, so returning home wasn’t an option.

She had decided that ridding herself of the stress associated with debt would go a long way towards helping her find some peace, so she had drained her savings account to pay off her student loans, and the remaining money had been spent paying off her mother’s credit card bills.

Melissa loved her mother dearly, and prior to graduating from college, she had relied on her mother for everything, including spending money, clothing, gas for her car, - literally everything.  What she hadn’t known at the time was that her mother had lost her job during Melissa’s junior year and had been living on unemployment.
Her mother had wanted Melissa to finish college, so she had hid her job loss from her and maxed out her credit cards with cash advances whenever Melissa needed anything.

After graduating from college and obtaining her current position at the family law firm, Melissa had become suspicious with all of the time off her mother seemed to have. Her mother had finally come clean and confessed the enormous amount of debt she was trying to pay off.  Melissa had felt enormously guilty that her mother had put herself in such a difficult position and had taken over the monthly credit card payments. There had been just enough money left from her savings, after paying off the student loan bill, to completely wipeout the remaining credit card balances.

Melissa had hoped that being debt free would help her find some peace and enable her to relax. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked. After a lengthy discussion with her uncle, he had suggested she travel to his cabin and get away from the city for a few weeks.

Her best friend had mentioned that her parents were coming for an extended visit and needed a place to stay and Melissa had taken that
as a sign that she should indeed visit her uncle’s cabin.

“I’m sure you and Robert will be able to work everything out. He’s a rather nice young man and you two should get along fabulously.” Melissa’s uncle had continued to talk while her thoughts wandered.

Realizing that it had grown silent and her uncle was waiting for her response, she hurriedly said, “I’m sure everything will be just fine. I can’t thank you enough for allowing me the use of your cabin for the next several weeks. I already feel more at peace here.” Melissa crossed her fingers behind her back at the bold-faced lie; her uncle had been so generous and kind to her, she didn’t want to hurt his feelings by letting him know how much she dreaded staying
there with the handyman around.

“I always feel more relaxed after spending some time up there. Take a few walks, sit on the porch and listen to nature, and before you know it, you’ll be feeling 100% better and ready to tackle the world again.”

“I’m sure I will. I should probably let you get on with your day, I just wanted to touch base and let you know I had arrived okay.”  Melissa didn’t have the heart to tell him what she really wanted to do was get in her car and drive away.

“Alright then, have a wonderful day and relax. I’ll talk to you soon.”

Melissa listened as her uncle disconnected the call and then replaced the phone on the charger. Sitting down at the kitchen bar, she realized that, like it or not, she was stuck here. She couldn’t return to her apartment for another twenty days, and with no savings left, she couldn’t afford to go to a hotel for the next three weeks.

Squaring her shoulders, she decided to make the best of it, starting with introducing herself to her new companion for the remainder of her stay.  Maybe she could lay down some ground rules that would make things at least tolerable. She had negotiated multi-million dollar divorce settlements; surely, she could handle one hunky handyman.