Finding Ours Read online

  Copyright © 2014 by Megan Smith Production LLC.

  All Rights Reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for adult readers.

  Printed Version:

  ISBN-13: 978-1501063480

  ISBN-10: 1501063480

  Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.

  Maya Angelou

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Acknowledgements

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  Social Media

  Age Twelve

  ~ Rhea ~

  “Mama, what’s Tanner doin’ over there?” I ask her as I point across the yard to Tanner who is standing right where our properties meet.

  Mama lightly laughs, “I don’t know, sweetie. Maybe he’s lookin’ for something to do.”

  I reach for my glass of sweet tea and take a sip before putting it back down on the ground next to the lounge chair I’m currently sitting on. I wipe the back of my hand across my forehead, wiping away the sweat that is pouring down my face. “It’s hot.”

  Mama sits her book down on the chair where her legs just were then stands and reaches for the purple and blue inner tube that is sitting in the grass near the pool. She picks it up and throws it in the pool. Mama turns to me with a funny look on her face and walks over to where I’m sitting. “Whatcha doin’?” I ask as she reaches down and scoops me up in her arms. I start laughing and yelling, “Put me down.” But she doesn’t listen; she walks us over to the ledge of the pool and then drops me in the water.

  I land perfectly in the tube. My butt hits the water first and I scream as the cold water seeps through my bathing suit and meets my burning skin.

  “Mama!” I screech.

  She laughs, “You said you were hot, Rhea.”

  In the corner of my eye I see movement and before I know what’s happening I’m flipped out of the tube. I come up gasping for air and wiping the water from my eyes.

  “Tanner!” I yell. “Why’d you do that?”

  He runs a hand through his black hair and shrugs, “I was only doin’ what any friend would do.” He shrugs again. “I couldn’t help it.”

  Tanner and I have been best friends since the day I was born. We really didn’t have a choice in the matter; our parents are best friends. Tanner and I were born on the same day only three years apart. Our families, along with the Mitchell’s, do everything together. Well, we used to until the Mitchells moved to New Jersey a few years ago. Most of our summers are spent at the Mitchell’s beach house in Myrtle Beach; it’s really the only time we get to see them now. I’ve always been the only girl in our little group but now that Knox and Tanner are getting older I have a feeling that’s not always going to be the case anymore. At least I’ll have Rex to myself for a little longer since he’s a year younger than me and still in that awkward stage in life. Eleven is an awkward stage in everyone’s life but never more awkward than for boys.

  “You kids have fun. I’m fixin’ to go in the house to get dinner started.” Mama picks up her book and cup. “Be careful you two.” She calls over her shoulder as she walks away. With Tanner being fifteen now she trusts him to look out for me and make sure I don’t get hurt or into any trouble.

  “We will.” Tanner and I say at the same time.

  I’m floating on my back letting the sun warm up my body. It’s so peaceful and quiet out here. Some days I love it, others not so much. I get bored easily but thankfully Tanner’s house is right next to ours. And if I’m bored, I’m always guaranteed an interesting day next door with him.

  Watching the clouds above me I point to one. “It looks like a heart.”

  “Yeah, it does.” Tanner responds from somewhere near.

  Knowing Tanner is distracted by looking up at the sky I right myself in the water and splash him, hitting him right in the face. “Sorry, you looked hot.” I giggle. Paybacks suck sometimes.

  He wipes the water out of his eyes and smiles. Then a splashing war breaks out. Tanner picks me up and throws me into the air then slam down in the water. I come up for air and try with all my might to push his shoulders down to dunk him but it’s no use; he’s double my size. My hand reaches out to the side of the pool, “Alright, I win.”

  Tanner flashes me his smile, letting that right dimple show, “How do you figure?”

  “Cause I said so.” I splash him once more.

  “Alright, Honey Bee, you win.” I asked him one day why he called me that, his response was I was sweet like honey but stung like a bee. Tanner goes under the water and comes up a little further away. Tanner will tell me just about anything I want to hear and I’m not about to stop him now.

  We’re swimming around just relaxing without a care in the world on this hot summer day. “So, where’s Susie at?” I ask Tanner.

  He brought a girl over to his house last week and they came over for a swim while I was on the deck reading. As soon as Dad opens the pool for the year, normally sometime in May, Tanner and I always somehow manage to end up in the pool by the end of the day. After school we did our homework first and then went for a swim. So when he showed up with Susie, I was surprised and a little hurt. Susie giggled at everything Tanner said and was batting her eyelashes every time he looked her way. Tanner caught me one time sticking my finger in my mouth and making gagging noises. He laughed but Susie didn’t find it very funny.

  Tanner goes under the water for a minute and then comes back up on the other side of me. “I don’t know.”

  “That’s nice that you don’t know where your girlfriend is.” I turn my back to him so he doesn’t see the smile that’s playing on my lips.

  Tanner grabs my arm, “She’s not my girlfriend, Rhea.”

  I look down to where his hand is holding on to my arm. I get these butterflies in my stomach. It’s been happening more and more lately. I don’t know what it means but I can’t help these feelings, all I know is that I like it. The older Tanner gets the more handsome he becomes. His dark hair is longer than it normally is; he has the longest eyelashes I’ve ever seen with the brightest green eyes. Now that he’s playing football for the high school his body is getting muscular and I see all the girls noticing him, although Tanner doesn’t act like he sees it. We used to be close in height but over the last few years he’s grown a lot and now towers over me.

  Rolling my eyes I say, “You could’ve fooled me, Tan. Why else was she over at your house, to play in the dirt with you?”

  Tanner looks down to his hand that is still holding onto my arm. He lets go but comes closer to me. “She’s just a friend who wanted to hang out.”

  I shrug and swim away. He really doesn’t notice the way the girls act around him and I’m not the one who is going to point it out to him. I like that he doesn’t see. I like that he still wants to hang out with me. I’ll admit though, I’m worried that once he notices his fan club he’ll forget all about me. I don’t fool myself into thinking that that time isn’t just around the corner though.

  I start to climb
up the ladder but Tanner grabs me by the waist and pulls me back in the water. I turn in his arms and go to push him away but he grabs my hand and holds it to his chest.

  Tanner smirks and says, “When you gonna be my girl, Honey Bee?”

  My cheeks instantly flush and my body starts to shake. If Tanner notices he doesn’t say anything. “Stop messing around, Tanner.” I push a little harder on his shoulder and he falls back, letting go of me.

  Tanner starts laughing. “I’m gonna marry you someday, you wait and see.”

  I climb the ladder with the biggest smile on my face.

  ~ Age 15 ~

  Tanner

  School just let out a few weeks ago for Rhea and I and our parents decided to do a camping trip before our first annual trip to Myrtle Beach with the Mitchell’s. We weren’t going far, just twenty minutes away from our houses in Fayetteville, but it was enough to get us out of our neighborhood.

  “Tanner,” Mama called from the kitchen. “Can you please put this cooler in the RV for me?”

  Grumbling, I pause my Xbox game and stomp off towards the kitchen. Rhea’s dad, Eddie, was over helping my mom get things packed because Dad had to finish some last minute things in the office before we took off. My dad always had things to do at the office; I think he spent more time there than anywhere at all.

  I pick up the red cooler and carry it out the back door and down the steps to the RV. I don’t know why mama always insists on taking this damn thing anyway; we have a fridge in the camper. The door to the camper opens and Rhea’s mom, Daisy, comes out.

  “Morning, Tanner.” She sings; way too chipper for this early in the morning.

  “Morning,” I mumble as I step up into the RV.

  Daisy reaches up and ruffles my hair, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, Tan.”

  I don’t respond back as the door slams shut behind me. I take a few more steps and place the cooler on the table. I go to turn and leave but I hear music playing faintly from the back of the RV. I stalk towards the back to find out where the music is coming from. I see the tip of a black cowboy boot hanging out of the bottom bunk. As I move closer I see that Rhea is lying in bed, her long beautiful brown hair fanned out over the pillow. Her eyes are closed and she has headphones in so she has no idea I’m standing here checking her out. Over the last year Rhea has been filling out from her awkward skinny stage. It’s probably wrong that I’m noticing these things about her but I can’t seem to help it. Rhea’s in a pair of short white shorts making her legs go on forever. The black tank top is hugging her upper body showing off the curves of her breast. She’s sucking on what I assume is a lollipop from the stick sticking out between her lips. My dick starts to strain against my jeans. I need to sit down before things start to get weird between us. The only spot that’s open is right next to her head. I turn quickly and adjust myself before sitting next to her.

  Just as I’m sitting her eyes spring open and her hand holds her chest, “Tanner, you scared me.”

  I chuckle because she’s yelling since she still has her earbuds in. I pull on the wire and they fall out. “Well, if you didn’t have your music blasting you would have heard me come in.”

  Rhea rolls her eyes and scoots further into the bunk giving me more room to be comfortable and I kind of wish that she didn’t because now I have a full view of her gorgeous face. Her bright blue eyes are my favorite thing about her.

  Rhea takes the lollipop out of her mouth, “Are we fixin’ to leave now?”

  My eyes follow the pop as she places it back in her mouth and sucks on it, hollowing out her cheeks.

  Cursing I look away and clear my throat. I need to get away from her but I can’t right this second. “No, not yet. Mama had me take out the cooler.” I say nodding towards the table.

  Rhea is making sucking noises and I can’t take it anymore. I reach over and grab the lollipop out of her mouth and put it in mine.

  “Hey,” Rhea pushes me. “I wasn’t done with that.”

  I hang my legs over the side of the bunk and stand making sure to keep the front of me at an angle. “You are now.”

  “Jerk,” Rhea yells as I walk away and go take another cold shower this morning.

  After my second shower of the day we’re all in the RV waiting on my dad to show up so we can head off to Lazy Acres Campground for the week. He should have been here a half hour ago but I knew it was going to be more like an hour.

  Rhea is lying in the bunk below me and she’s singing Born to Fly by Sara Evans. I could lay here and listen to her sweet voice sing all day. Countless times I have fallen asleep on the beach listening to her sing.

  I roll over to my side, my front facing the side of the RV and my eyes grow heavy from the lack of sleep lately and also from being woken up at the ass crack of dawn, all the while Rhea’s voice is lulling me into slumber.

  “Tan, can we go into the house, please?” Rhea whines. “It’s getting really dark and I don’t like the storms.”

  I look over to Rex and Knox who are both sitting next to each other down a little ways from where Rhea and I are sitting. They don’t seem too concerned with the storm but it is getting darker by the minute. From what I heard on the news when Knox’s mom, Audrey, was listening to it, a hurricane was coming up the coast. Before we left the house to come down here she warned us to stay out of the ocean because the waves were too rough and the rip current was very strong. Audrey also gave us boys the lecture to watch out for Rhea. She really didn’t need to do that because we’ve been doing it for years anyway but I guess she felt the need to.

  “Knox!” I yell.

  Knox and Rex both turn their heads in my direction. “I’m fixin’ to head in with Rhea.” Knox waves me off.

  I stand up and shake the sand from my towel as does Rhea. This is the first time she has been to the house in Myrtle Beach by herself. She’s always with her parents when they come for a visit. I overheard her mom tell Audrey she was a little worried leaving her by herself for the first time but Audrey assured her that being seven was old enough not to need her mama and daddy. She also promised everything would be fine and to go enjoy her alone time with her husband. Shortly after that she left, leaving Rhea here with the rest of us for a week.

  The first rolls of thunder sounded and Rhea jumped ten feet off the ground.

  “Hurry, Tan.” She started running up towards the house and I followed after her.

  By the time we reached the house the storm was just off the coast. The thunder was rolling in faster. The lightning was lighting up the dark sky and the first few cold rain drops started to fall. I looked over at Rhea and she was shaking like a scared cat. I knew she didn’t like the storms but I’d never seen her like this.

  After we dropped our sandy towels and flip flops off in the hallway just outside the laundry room I held out my hand for Rhea. She looked up to me with frightened, wide eyes before taking my hand.

  “I’m afraid, Tanner.” Rhea said with a shaky voice.

  I brought her closer to me, “I’m here, Bee. Just like always, me and you against the world.” I chuckle. I knew she needed the reassurance.

  Rhea gave me a half smile. “Pillows.”

  I smiled, “Blankets.”

  Rhea pulled me down the hallway behind her, “Gummy bears.”

  “Movies.”

  This was our thing. When the storms back home would roll in we would bring all the pillows, blankets and junk food to the living room and we would watch a movie and blast the volume to drown out the passing storm.

  Rhea and I took the stairs two at a time. First, we stopped in her room to grab her pillow and blanket from the bed and then we stopped in the room down the hall that I was staying in. When I reached my bed a loud crack of thunder and lightning hit at the same time causing Rhea to scream, drop her covers and practically jump in my arms. Summer beach storms always seemed worse than the ones back home and this just showed true.

  I finally loosen Rhea’s nails from my arm, “Come on, Honey Bee.
Jump on my back.”

  Rhea didn’t waste a second.

  This was going to be a bit tricky with her on my back and now I was left to carry all our blankets and pillows downstairs without breaking my neck.

  I reached down and grabbed Rhea’s pillow, “Bee, can you hold this and still hold on to me?”

  “Yeah,” she held the pillow in her hands that were wrapped around my neck.

  I grabbed her blanket, my blanket and pillow and turned to make my way back downstairs. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, out of breath and panting, Knox is leaning against the wall.

  He cocks an eyebrow, “Whatcha doin?”

  I roll my eyes; he’s been giving me more and more shit about all the time I spend with Rhea. He forgets that we live right next to each other and our families do everything together so of course I’m going to have a close relationship with Rhea.

  “What’s it looking like?”

  Audrey whizzed by and grabbed the blankets from me and the pillow from Rhea. She kisses her son on the cheek, “Grab bubba and get your blankets. We’re making a blanket fort in the living room.” Then she turns and walks down the hallway towards the living room.

  Knox rolls his eyes.

  “And don’t roll your eyes at me either, young man.”

  Rhea starts to laugh and I can’t help to laugh either. Knox huffs and yells for his brother as he stomps upstairs.

  Audrey helped us build a fort out of all the pillows, blankets, couch cushions and anything else she could find to make the biggest fort I’ve ever seen.

  When she was done she put her hands on her hips, “That’s impressive.”

  “It’s awesome.” Rhea sang.

  Rex was laying all the way in the front near the fireplace with a book and flashlight in his hand. Next to him Knox set up his stuff and then Rhea and I were next to him. Rhea insisted on sleeping near the exit since she didn’t want to sleep in the middle of the boys and if she had to go to the bathroom she didn’t want to have to climb over everyone. She was the only girl and no one argued with her.