Under The Cypress Tree (Love in Belle Pont #1) Read online

  Under The Cypress Tree

  Ashleigh Zavarelli

  Under The Cypress Tree © 2015 Ashleigh Zavarelli

  Cover Photograph © 2015 Dollar Photo Club/ Beznika

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Prologue

  Annabeth

  I reached out and trailed a finger over the marred wood of the old Cypress tree, my heart clenching in my chest. I could still remember that day. The day when Archer Beaufait turned my whole world upside down by proclaiming his love for me with nothin’ but a pocket knife and a head full of dreams.

  I couldn’t believe it had been two years already. This old tree had been around long before we ever were, and would likely be here once we were dead and gone too. It would withstand the test of time, but would those five little words written within it? I didn’t know anymore.

  “I love you Annabeth Richards.”

  Archer whispered the words in my ear as he wrapped his arms around me from behind. He had a handful of daisies in his grasp, just like he always did whenever he came to see me. I never knew where he got them from, but then I didn’t need to.

  I closed my eyes and let his scent wash over me, relishing his warmth one last time. I couldn’t stop the tears that were already falling, so I just let them.

  “Don’t go,” I whispered.

  He spun me around and squeezed me tighter, crushing me against his chest.

  “You know that I’ve got to,” he croaked out. “But it’s gonna’ be okay Annabeth.”

  “How do you know?” I asked. “How do you know it’s gonna’ be okay?”

  He sounded so damn sure of it, but I wasn’t. I’d never felt so scared in my life. So empty. He was goin’ to war. War. I couldn’t even wrap my head around the word. Somethin’ I’d only ever read about in history class. It wasn’t supposed to happen in our lifetime. But it was, and Archer was caught up in the crossfire. He’d signed up for the Army before he even graduated. Before September 11th. And suddenly, all of the plans we’d made were just… gone.

  He didn’t answer me, and I pulled back to look up at him.

  “Archer,” I gasped, reaching up to touch his blackened eye. “What the hell happened?”

  He shrugged. “What do you think? Drunk old bastard started in on me again. So I hit him. He hit me back. And then we just kept on goin’.”

  “Archer…”

  “I don’t wanna’ talk about that,” he said. “I just wanna’ hold you for five more minutes.”

  And hold me he did. We held onto each other like it was the end of the world, and truthfully, for me it felt like it. When he finally pried me off of him, I was a sobbing mess. I was seventeen years old, watchin’ the love of my life go off to some strange country half a world away. It just wasn’t right.

  “I’m gonna’ call you Annabeth,” he said, his blue eyes roving over me one last time. “And I’ll write to you just as soon as I can.”

  “You promise?”

  “I promise darlin’.”

  He turned to go, and then reached around and pulled somethin’ out of his back pocket. His mama’s gold cross necklace.

  “I want you to have it,” he said, clasping it around my neck. “So you can think of me.”

  I didn’t need a necklace to think of him. I knew I wasn’t ever gonna’ stop thinkin’ about him. But before I had a chance to tell him so, he was gone.

  I don’t know how long I sat there, crying and sniffin’ those damn daisies. It was long after I shoulda’ been out there, and I knew my mama was gonna’ be angry. So with shaky legs, I stood up and traced the letters on the tree one more time. This place that we’d spent the last two years, fallin’ so deep in love I was sure I would never recover. This was our place. Our tree. And I could only hope that it would stay that way forever.

  With a heavy heart, I pulled out my own pocket knife, and carved three little words beneath Archer’s. A plea and a wish, in a form I could never take back.

  Return to me.

  Chapter One

  Annabeth

  It was just a Sunday like any other. I’d gone to church, cleaned the house, and made a roast for dinner. Just another Sunday in a long year of Sundays, where nothin’ out of the ordinary happened in Belle Pont, Louisiana.

  Except, there was nothin’ really normal about this day. I’d been feelin’ it all week, the nerves crawlin’ across my skin, alerting me that something bad was about to happen. I could always tell. Just like when Charlotte was sick. I knew before the doctors did that it was bad. Call it what you will, I could see a storm coming from miles away.

  The anxiety had risen to a crescendo. I’d been gettin’ orders mixed up all night at the bar, which wasn’t like me at all. I even dropped a po’ boy right on the floor. Just watched it slide off the plate in slow motion like there was nothin’ I could do. I was jumping at every small sound, wincing my way through my shift, and rubbing my temples in exhaustion.

  Doctor Young had assured me that Charlotte was perfectly fine when I woke him up at six am demanding he come and check on her. Even Bentley had assured me that nothing bad was gonna’ happen. But they didn’t feel what I felt.

  So when I saw Irma come through the divider with a strange look on her face, I knew it was happening. Whatever I’d been preparing for, this had to be it.

  “Annabeth you look so tired,” she drawled in her soft Acadian accent. “Why don’t you get on home for the night, darlin.”

  “Everything okay, Irma?” I asked, untying my apron strings. I wasn’t about to argue the offer to go home. Even though I needed the money, I just wanted to be home with Charlotte.

  “Sure, sure.” She gave me a less than convincing smile. “Just go on out the back will you? The front bar is gettin’ a little rowdy.”

  I nodded and turned to go, but something didn’t feel quite right, and my curiosity won out. When I turned back and started eyeing the wooden doors that led to the front bar, Irma gave me a nervous glance.

  “Honey, trust me when I tell you, you ain’t gonna’ like what’s up there. Now just get on home to that precious child…”

  My feet were moving before I could stop them. I had to see for myself what all the fuss was about. In a town this size, there wasn’t much I didn’t hear about, but it had been radio silence on the gossip front lately. I swallowed the nervous lump in my throat as I pushed through the doors.

  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to see when I walked through the bar, surveying the normal Sunday crowd. But when a pair of ice blue eyes met mine, it sure as hell wasn’t that.

  My knees nearly buckled, and I reached out for something to steady myself. Irma was right beside me, holding me up while I got my bearings. I thought for sure I must be hallucinating, because I hadn’t seen those eyes or their owner since they’d waltzed out of my life six years ago.

  His gaze swept over me, and my lungs burned with the sudden need for air. I could almost swear in that moment, time was standing still. But then again, it could have just been the bar. Because everybody sure as hell was watching us stare at one another.

  And I couldn’t do this. Not here, not now… not ever.

  I turned right back around and headed the direction I came, flying through the divider and into the back restaurant. Irma was right beside me with a worried expression on her face, which soon turned to anger when she glanced behind us. I didn’t have to look to know he was there, but I couldn’t face him. The man
that I thought I’d never see again, had just walked right back into my life.

  Chapter Two

  Archer

  She ran out of that bar like a swarm of bees was after her, and I guess I couldn’t blame her. I wasn’t exactly expecting a warm reception, but this wasn’t quite what I pictured either. I knew it wasn’t gonna’ be easy, comin’ back to this place, but what I wasn’t prepared for was everyone to be this angry at me.

  I didn’t miss the irony, seein’ how they hailed me as a hero when I left, goin’ off to fight the war in Iraq. But I guess not comin’ home in six years and givin’ them a reason to celebrate had ruffled more than a few feathers.

  It felt like an eternity that I’d been gone, but time had stood still in this sleepy little town. The first stop I made was to see Walter, and wasn’t nothin’ in his old single wide that had changed since the day I left. Still reeked of booze and cigarettes, and I was sure the only way to get the smell out at this point was to burn the place down.

  When he wasn’t at the trailer, I came to the one place I knew for certain that he’d be. Murphy’s Bar and Grill. Found him sittin’ at the bar in his usual spot, and wasn’t there more than two minutes before the whole place had gone quiet. Then she blew in there lookin’ just as beautiful as the day I left her, and for a moment, I forgot everyone else’s prying eyes on me.

  I never knew exactly what it was about Annabeth Richards that reeled me in, but I was hooked from the first time I ever saw her. She was only about fifteen at the time, walkin’ out of Jolly’s Country Store in a yellow sundress licking a damn ice cream cone.

  She was new in town, and I’d already heard all about her by then. Some of the boys had described her as just your average girl with dark hair and brown eyes. But she sure didn’t look average to me. To me, those brandy colored eyes were somethin’ I’d never quite seen replicated anywhere else. And maybe other people hadn’t noticed, but her dark hair had tones of gold and red in it when the sun hit it just right.

  The boys had also told me that she was a minister’s daughter, and she was way more trouble than it was even worth. But I didn’t see it that way. As I watched her walk down the sidewalk that day, I silently declared her mine. And it didn’t take long until she really was.

  I spent that entire Summer with Annabeth, fallin’ in love with her a little more each day. I taught her how to fish and swim, and took every chance I could to make her laugh. The girl had a laugh that could make even the most bitter soul smile, and something about her soothed my aching heart. She had that way about her, of puttin’ everyone else at ease around her. She was soft and sweet and so God damned pure.

  That was the Annabeth that I knew. The one that I saw in my memories every time I thought about her. But the one I saw tonight was different somehow. A little more grown up, sure, but somethin’ else too. Somethin’ I hadn’t seen in her before. Closed off. A protective outer shield that kept everyone at a distance. She was hiding somethin’ under that invisible armor, and it looked an awful lot like sadness to me.

  It wasn’t easy to reconcile with. A big part of me had feared I’d come back here to find her settled down and happy. She’d always had big dreams about what her life would be like. Of course back then, those plans included me. But I was sure she’d probably done a hell of a lot better than me anyway. At least, that’s what I kept tellin’ myself the whole time I was away. Like I’d done her some sort of favor or something.

  But when I walked in tonight and saw her waitin’ tables at Murphy’s bar and grill, I was a little shell shocked. I knew her mama and daddy wouldn’t have approved of such a thing, and it didn’t make much sense. In my mind, I’d done what I thought was right at the time. Every hard choice that I made, every consequence that I suffered, I told myself it was the right thing for Annabeth. But seeing her now, I wasn’t so sure.

  I wanted her to have a better life than this. The one that she’d always dreamed of. I didn’t want her worrying about me, waiting around for me to come home. Because I was damned sure I wouldn’t be coming home. I didn’t want Annabeth to suffer under the weight of that grief. I knew she wouldn’t see it that way, because the way I went about things was pretty chicken shit. But I was young and naïve, and I told myself she’d be okay. That she’d get over me.

  But the look on her face tonight told me I didn’t know the first thing about what was going on with Annabeth.

  “You need to stay away from dat girl,” Walter said decisively as I took my seat beside him at the bar. “You done gone and caused her enough heartache, don’t ya tink? Not to mention everyone else in dis town… leavin’ da way you done.”

  I took a good look at the man sittin’ beside me, the former shell of what used to be my father. He was thinner, and a hell of a lot more pale too. His blue eyes were dimmer than I remembered, but still held their obvious contempt for me.

  Apart from those blue eyes, the two of us looked nothin’ alike. I always suspected that’s what it was he hated about me, just how much I reminded him of my mama. Either way, we were always worlds apart. And judging by this moment, I didn’t think that was ever gonna’ change.

  Walter grew up in the Bayou, and by his own account, had a good life. He’d been happy with my mama, when she was around. And I did have some distant memories of that happiness, but they were so long ago, I wasn’t sure if they were even real anymore. I was older and wiser, but lookin’ at him now, I still couldn’t figure out where it all went wrong.

  “Walter, I didn’t come here for a lecture,” I said.

  “Well din’ what did you come back here for boy? Seein’ as we ain’t nothin’ of importance to you?”

  “That isn’t true.” I sighed. “And I came back because… well, I was ready to come home.”

  “Home?” he scoffed. “Don’t pretend like you give two shits bout’ me or anyone else in dis’ town. You just gonna’ run off again, why bother comin’ back in da first place…”

  “God dammit Walter.” I rubbed my temples in exhaustion. “Why do you always gotta’ be such a mean old son of a bitch? I came here to see you, and this is what you have to say after six years? Why do you think I left in the first place? I can see nothin’s changed around here.”

  I stood up to leave when he grabbed me by the arm and shot me a disapproving glance. One that I was all too familiar with from the likes of him.

  “Dat’s where you wrong boy. Plenty changed round here. Plenty dat’ you shoulda’ known about too. But you didn’t, and now you too damn late.”

  Chapter Three

  Annabeth

  It had been two days since Archer Beaufait walked into Murphys like he had every right to. And if I was bein’ honest, I guess maybe he did, seein’ how he was raised here and all. But the folks in town sure as hell didn’t see it that way, and neither did I.

  Six long years he’d been gone. No word, no nothin’. Leaving me and Mrs. Gentry to look after his drunk of a daddy, among other things. Last I knew, nobody in town had heard a peep out of him while he was away, so I didn’t know what he was doing back here now.

  The whole town had been buzzing with the news of his arrival. I’d had more sympathetic glances cast in my direction in the last two days than I cared to mention. My entire kitchen counter was filled with baked goods of concerned neighbors dropping in to see if he’d stopped by. But why would he?

  In my mind, I didn’t think he was ever gonna’ come back, and I’d made peace with that a long time ago. Thought he was probably living some great big life out there that I didn’t need to know about. I’d found my mind wandering over all of the possibilities of his return, dissecting them one by one until I was sure I’d gone mad. And I needed to stop. Because there was something I’d promised myself a long time ago. When it came to Archer Beaufait, I was done. I just couldn’t wait until he hightailed it back outta dodge so I could return to my simple, routine life.

  “Mama?” Charlotte’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

  I realized we were stand
ing in front of the school already and I hadn’t said a word the entire walk.

  “What is it baby?” I asked.

  “You okay mama?”

  I gave her a soft smile and kneeled down in front of her, taking her small hands in mine. “Yes baby. Mama’s sorry, I don’t know where my head’s at today.”

  She gave me a cooky grin and I laughed, smoothing out her chestnut hair and adjusting her headband. She got those brown locks from me, but the blue eyes were most certainly her daddy’s. I almost teared up every time I looked at them.

  The bell rang, and I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before sending her into the building. I stood and watched her join the other kindergartners at the front, wondering when she’d started growin’ up so damn fast.