Third: Chapter 4
Story Summary
Written: February - May 2011
Status: Finished
Starring: Zac
Number of Chapters: 10 + Prologue and Epilogue
For: The Spark Inside: Spring 2011
Following his wife's shocking death and the exposure of her dirty little secrets, Zac leaves Tulsa and heads to the Oregon coast for a few weeks to escape his overbearing family. His goal is to be alone, with only the company of his bull dogs Butch and Cassidy, but then he meets Harlow Lowry, a woman who is unlike anyone he has ever met. Will the walls that Zac has built around his heart stay strong or will Harlow find her way in?
Masterpost
Chapter 4
In the days that followed his encounter with Harlow, Zac kept his eye out for her, but she didn’t make an appearance, which was fine with him. After all, the whole point of this trip was for him to be alone.
The weather had continued to be surprisingly warm for February at the beach and he had taken advantage of it by taking the dogs for walks on the beach. They had been somewhat timid the first time, but it hadn’t taken them too long to get used to the sand or the very cold water. While they played, he had sat on a log and marveled at the fact that the beach was theirs and theirs alone. By their third visit, he was used to the stillness and it was affecting his imagination in a good way.
Relaxed both mentally and physically, he had taken out his drawing pad when they had returned from their walk so he could work on his syndicated comic strip called “Butch & Cassidy.” He had started the strip in college while he had worked for the university’s newspaper. At his professor’s recommendation, he had sent samples to local papers in his area and they had picked up the strip as well.
He had been married to his first wife for two years when he had decided to focus on the comic strip since it provided them with a decent amount of money and allowed him to pick up the occasional freelance job, like illustrating children’s books. She had told him he was wasting his talent on the strip about a family of dogs named after old western criminals. He had tried exploring other mediums, like animation, to make her happy, but in the end it was one of the things that drove them apart. That and the man she left him for.
After they split up during their senior year of college, he had adopted his dogs from an animal shelter, and even though they looked nothing like the dogs in his comic strip, he had named them Butch and Cassidy. By the time he had met and married his second wife, he and the dogs were family and he had refused to give them up.
Where his first wife had been very go with the flow and not sure what she wanted in life, his second wife had taken life by the reins and made all the decisions. She was a Canadian beauty who had followed a boyfriend to Tulsa and had gotten a student visa to go to college. She had studied to become a paralegal, so she could earn money to go to a university, but had run into visa problems. He had met her six weeks before she was supposed to leave the country and had married her two days before her visa expired. To say his parents had been shocked was an understatement; his mother had cried and not the good way. Their reaction hadn’t mattered to him, though; he had loved her, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do or say that would have made him change his mind.
What a fool he had been. He had been sure that the dogs would win her over with their love after they spent more time together. They hadn’t. She had supported and encouraged him to continue his strip; it had even been her idea for the cartoon Butch and Cassidy to have puppies, when the two of them were having problems getting pregnant. It wasn’t until after she had died and he was sorting through her belongings that he found out that she had been on birth control. It was only one of her many secrets during their marriage. Of all her secrets, the only good one had been the life insurance policy. The rest were bad and some had torn him apart and made him question everything.
Not wanting to think about it anymore, Zac moved away from his drawing pad that had pencil sketching for a series of strips about Butch taking Cassidy away for a romantic weekend while their pups, Jessie and James, stayed with Grandpa Clyde and Grandma Bonnie. He walked to the front door and opened it, ready to call the dogs in for dinner, but stopped when he saw Harlow standing on the other side of the fence feeding the dogs some type of dog treats.
As if sensing he was there, she looked up and gave him a small wave. Then she looked back at the dogs, said something only they could hear then headed home.
Shaking his head, he called the dogs into the house and fed them before putting together his own dinner, a cheap frozen one.
Needing to work off some steam, Zac decided to go for a run. He changed into a pair of sweats and grabbed his iPod after putting on his running shoes.
He felt bad when the dogs followed him outside, thinking they were going to go with him, only to be left in the yard. He ignored their whimpers as he put his headphones on and turned on his iPod. The first song that came on was a collaboration called “Gone” by Buckethead and Viggo Mortison. Normally, he loved listening to the instrumental part of the song, but knowing that the few lyrics in the song were about being lied to and somebody being gone, he skipped it and switched to a heavy metal playlist. The genre wasn’t his favorite, but it was great to listen to when he was angry.
He ran through the narrow streets of Neskowin until he couldn’t run anymore. Then walked back to his house. He stopped outside his gate and frowned when he saw Harlow standing on the stump again even though the dogs were resting on the porch.
“What are you doing?” He asked her.
“Waiting for you to get back,” she replied, stepping down from the stump. “Did you have a nice run?”
“Uh, yeah,” he replied. “So what can I do for you?”
“I wasn’t sure if you had heard about the big storm that will be moving in this week,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know that Papa and I will be next door if you need anything. We have a generator and gas everything, so if you lose power, please don’t hesitate to come over.”
“Oh, well, thank you,” he replied. “I think we’ll be fine though.”
“Alright, but feel free to change your mind,” she said.
He watched her leave then turned to his dogs who had left the porch and were standing next to him, staring at the gate she had just closed.
“Don’t get any ideas,” he told them.
Written: February - May 2011
Status: Finished
Starring: Zac
Number of Chapters: 10 + Prologue and Epilogue
For: The Spark Inside: Spring 2011
Following his wife's shocking death and the exposure of her dirty little secrets, Zac leaves Tulsa and heads to the Oregon coast for a few weeks to escape his overbearing family. His goal is to be alone, with only the company of his bull dogs Butch and Cassidy, but then he meets Harlow Lowry, a woman who is unlike anyone he has ever met. Will the walls that Zac has built around his heart stay strong or will Harlow find her way in?
Masterpost
Chapter 4
In the days that followed his encounter with Harlow, Zac kept his eye out for her, but she didn’t make an appearance, which was fine with him. After all, the whole point of this trip was for him to be alone.
The weather had continued to be surprisingly warm for February at the beach and he had taken advantage of it by taking the dogs for walks on the beach. They had been somewhat timid the first time, but it hadn’t taken them too long to get used to the sand or the very cold water. While they played, he had sat on a log and marveled at the fact that the beach was theirs and theirs alone. By their third visit, he was used to the stillness and it was affecting his imagination in a good way.
Relaxed both mentally and physically, he had taken out his drawing pad when they had returned from their walk so he could work on his syndicated comic strip called “Butch & Cassidy.” He had started the strip in college while he had worked for the university’s newspaper. At his professor’s recommendation, he had sent samples to local papers in his area and they had picked up the strip as well.
He had been married to his first wife for two years when he had decided to focus on the comic strip since it provided them with a decent amount of money and allowed him to pick up the occasional freelance job, like illustrating children’s books. She had told him he was wasting his talent on the strip about a family of dogs named after old western criminals. He had tried exploring other mediums, like animation, to make her happy, but in the end it was one of the things that drove them apart. That and the man she left him for.
After they split up during their senior year of college, he had adopted his dogs from an animal shelter, and even though they looked nothing like the dogs in his comic strip, he had named them Butch and Cassidy. By the time he had met and married his second wife, he and the dogs were family and he had refused to give them up.
Where his first wife had been very go with the flow and not sure what she wanted in life, his second wife had taken life by the reins and made all the decisions. She was a Canadian beauty who had followed a boyfriend to Tulsa and had gotten a student visa to go to college. She had studied to become a paralegal, so she could earn money to go to a university, but had run into visa problems. He had met her six weeks before she was supposed to leave the country and had married her two days before her visa expired. To say his parents had been shocked was an understatement; his mother had cried and not the good way. Their reaction hadn’t mattered to him, though; he had loved her, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do or say that would have made him change his mind.
What a fool he had been. He had been sure that the dogs would win her over with their love after they spent more time together. They hadn’t. She had supported and encouraged him to continue his strip; it had even been her idea for the cartoon Butch and Cassidy to have puppies, when the two of them were having problems getting pregnant. It wasn’t until after she had died and he was sorting through her belongings that he found out that she had been on birth control. It was only one of her many secrets during their marriage. Of all her secrets, the only good one had been the life insurance policy. The rest were bad and some had torn him apart and made him question everything.
Not wanting to think about it anymore, Zac moved away from his drawing pad that had pencil sketching for a series of strips about Butch taking Cassidy away for a romantic weekend while their pups, Jessie and James, stayed with Grandpa Clyde and Grandma Bonnie. He walked to the front door and opened it, ready to call the dogs in for dinner, but stopped when he saw Harlow standing on the other side of the fence feeding the dogs some type of dog treats.
As if sensing he was there, she looked up and gave him a small wave. Then she looked back at the dogs, said something only they could hear then headed home.
Shaking his head, he called the dogs into the house and fed them before putting together his own dinner, a cheap frozen one.
Needing to work off some steam, Zac decided to go for a run. He changed into a pair of sweats and grabbed his iPod after putting on his running shoes.
He felt bad when the dogs followed him outside, thinking they were going to go with him, only to be left in the yard. He ignored their whimpers as he put his headphones on and turned on his iPod. The first song that came on was a collaboration called “Gone” by Buckethead and Viggo Mortison. Normally, he loved listening to the instrumental part of the song, but knowing that the few lyrics in the song were about being lied to and somebody being gone, he skipped it and switched to a heavy metal playlist. The genre wasn’t his favorite, but it was great to listen to when he was angry.
He ran through the narrow streets of Neskowin until he couldn’t run anymore. Then walked back to his house. He stopped outside his gate and frowned when he saw Harlow standing on the stump again even though the dogs were resting on the porch.
“What are you doing?” He asked her.
“Waiting for you to get back,” she replied, stepping down from the stump. “Did you have a nice run?”
“Uh, yeah,” he replied. “So what can I do for you?”
“I wasn’t sure if you had heard about the big storm that will be moving in this week,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know that Papa and I will be next door if you need anything. We have a generator and gas everything, so if you lose power, please don’t hesitate to come over.”
“Oh, well, thank you,” he replied. “I think we’ll be fine though.”
“Alright, but feel free to change your mind,” she said.
He watched her leave then turned to his dogs who had left the porch and were standing next to him, staring at the gate she had just closed.
“Don’t get any ideas,” he told them.