Following Bliss (The Quest series) Read online

  “I’m so sorry Daniel—I didn’t mean to say that to you. It’s, well, there’s more than the dream happening right now. I’m getting some kind of message for you.”

  Just then the waitress came by. “You two all finished?”

  Daniel didn’t take his eyes off Shelby, “We’re going to need a few more minutes here.”

  The waitress must have felt the intensity in their exchange, as she quickly turned and walked away.

  “You’re getting messages for me? From who? My mom?”

  “I know. This is crazy. But yes, I think so.”

  “Okay, yeah, this is nearing crazy-town. What did she say?”

  They were standing face to face, no longer touching, but still close enough to kiss. Shelby cursed his mother’s poor timing; his lips seemed to be calling her name. Nevermind that now though, she had to focus on delivering the message.

  “Well, okay. She is very emphatically instructing me and she is quite demanding—but you may already know that.”

  She looked up, Daniel wasn’t smiling. Shit, Shelby thought. Humor may not coincide with delivering messages from the other side very well.

  “She says—um—she says that she’s—“

  “Please just say it. I’m dying over here.”

  “She says she’s proud of you. And it’s important that you know that.”

  Daniel’s eyes once again filled with tears, he looked down and put both hands to his face. It seemed like the room was spinning.

  “Do you want to sit down? I’m sorry Daniel, I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do.”

  Daniel nodded and sat back in the chair. His head was spinning now, as flashes of his childhood, adolescence, his twenties and now his thirties flashed before him. He had to leave, he had to get out of there.

  “I have to go Shelby. I have to go.” Daniel said as he looked up. “I appreciate you giving me this message and sharing with me about the dream, but I’ve been blocking feeling this for a long time and I can’t process this right now and in front of you. I have to go. We’ll talk later.”

  Shelby’s heart sank. She had scared him. She hadn’t meant to and she was only following the message coming in, but it was too late. She nodded and pulled out her Hello Portland business card.

  “So, I’ll try again. Here’s my card.”

  Daniel took it and managed to give her a feeble smile.

  “I won’t lose it this time,” He opened up his wallet and placed it inside.

  Chapter 4

  And inside his wallet is where Shelby’s card stayed.

  Daniel went home that afternoon reeling. How could his mother be proud of him? He hadn’t done anything he set out to. He wasn’t living the life she would have wanted for him. She wanted him to get married, have a family, be responsible and work a normal job like everyone else.

  “Daniel, honey, life is much easier than you make it out to be. And it starts with love. When you love others, the rest unfolds as it’s meant to. You can’t force becoming a great novelist like Steinbeck. You only need to find love and the rest will come.”

  She used to tell him that over and over again.

  Well, he was 38 now and he wasn’t doing any of that. And to make matters worse, he had let her down by not being a better son during her illness. He didn’t want to believe she could really be sick, so sick that she might die. And she had put up a good face and told him it was fine to take the trip to Europe. He would never forget that day.

  She was home, with her sisters and brothers there taking care of her. Daniel’s dad bounced in and out of their lives, but never stayed around too long. Daniel went on weekend visits with him up until age 11, but after that quit seeing him altogether. He never felt comfortable with him. His dad loved to drink and point out where others were wrong. If Daniel was around when his father was drinking, all he heard was how he would never amount to anything.

  So when Daniel’s mom got sick with cancer at age 56, it was her family that came together and rallied around her, supporting her through it. He wished he had been a more integral part of that process. He let himself fade into the background as his aunts and uncles took care of his mom.

  The morning he told her about the opportunity to take a trip to Europe with a few friends, she was pale and a bit out of breath, but in good spirits. She was sitting on the patio, dressed in a white bathrobe, sipping peppermint tea. It felt like only yesterday that they had the conversation.

  “What do you want to talk to me about, Daniel?” she had said, her blue eyes still revealing a faint light.

  “Mom, I know you haven’t been feeling well (Daniel realizes now this was pretty much the understatement of the year, as she had been sick for six months at this point), but I have an opportunity to go to London with some friends in a few weeks and I wanted to see how you felt about that.”

  She had smiled at the mention of London, a place she had visited once, long ago, when she was in her early twenties. It was a time of great adventure and love. She had fallen in lust with a pub owner-slash-motorcycle rider that summer. Tattooed and tan, they had spent weeks rolling around in bed together followed by going out visiting all the sights in London. She giggled softly to herself.

  “Mom??”

  “Oh, sorry love. I was reminiscing about the last time I was in London. It is such a fun place to visit, especially when you’re young.” She had winked at him then.

  Her eyes drifted far off into the distance and Daniel could feel that she was revisiting London yet again, no longer sitting there with him.

  He touched her hand.

  “Are you okay mom?”

  “Oh yes, I’m fine—minus the breast cancer, of course.” She smiled feebly, somewhat proud of her ability to make light of a situation that had seemed so dark to everyone else. She patted his hand and said, “You go and do whatever you need to and I’ll be right here when you get back. Don’t you worry.”

  Daniel leaned in and kissed her cheek.

  “Thanks mom. I love you.”

  “I love you too, dear. Now go get your aunt Ali and tell her I am in need of some sliced fruit and juice. All that London reminiscing has made me hungry.”

  Daniel had smiled then thinking to himself that she would be fine and one day things would go back to normal, with her taking painting classes, traveling to Paris and anywhere else she wanted to go.

  But that didn’t happen. Instead, the day Daniel was set to fly back from his trip, his Aunt Ali called him with the news.

  “She’s gone Daniel,” she had said in between sobs.

  Daniel stood in the airport, stunned, unable to move. People moved all around him, but he couldn’t even see them. All he could see was that far off look in her eyes and that white gown. A cold breeze washed over him and he crumpled to the floor crying.

  From that moment forward, Daniel’s heart closed. He could never allow himself to love anyone again, especially another woman who could also leave him.

  The pain of allowing himself to feel all of the various emotions around his mother’s death was too much for Daniel to handle. He had allowed himself that one day in the airport. After that, he had not let himself cry over her passing. Meeting Shelby had shifted something within him, but his conditioned way of behaving and his ego were stronger. So, he did what he always did, and threw himself back into his work. He began making edits to his novel and checking his email in hopes of hearing from Kaley Hamilton with good news.

  Daniel didn’t have to wait long. Two weeks after he last saw Shelby, he received the following email from Kaley Hamilton:

  Dear Daniel,

  It was such a pleasure meeting you a few weeks ago at the Willamette Writers Conference. Your confidence and talent definitely got my attention.

  I have finished reading your manuscript and feel like we might have something very valuable to work with. I am headed off to a writing retreat in Maui, Hawaii, and would love to have you join me, so we can go over the manuscript, make some adjustments and
begin pitching it to publishers.

  There were be a host of publishers at this intimate and exclusive retreat, and I feel it’s the perfect opportunity to share your writing with some big players in the publishing game. It’s also a wonderful opportunity for us to further develop our partnership!

  The details for the retreat location, dates, and costs are all included at the end of this email. Please let me know at once if you can be there. I know it’s last-minute, but careers like John Steinbeck’s have an expiration date. The sooner we move forward the better!

  Warmly,

  Kaley

  Daniel could hardly believe his eyes. Maui? Kaley Hamilton? Publishers? A career like Steinbeck’s? It was as if the Universe was delivering to him exactly what he had always wanted, but in a way he had never imagined.

  He shook his head and read it again.

  No, as it turns out, he wasn’t dreaming. The costs were steep, but Daniel still had some money tucked away with over $10,000 that he could use to fund the trip. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and he could not turn it down.

  # # #

  “So, does your food cart adhere to the state health code for restaurants?” Shelby asked the owner of Sweet Thai, yet another Thai food cart located in Portland’s downtown. She was working on a piece about the food cart phenomenon for Hello Portland and couldn’t help but focus in on the health concerns. Not all of the carts seemed that up to code.

  As she was listening to the man, her digi-recorder held up to capture his response, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She could have sworn it was Daniel. He was practically speed walking into the Portland Luggage store, although she wasn’t 100 percent sure it was him.

  “Okay, yes, that’s great, thanks so much. I just remembered that I have to go to the Portland Luggage store. Right now. Thanks for your time,” Shelby interrupted the food cart owner (who in hindsight she felt badly for, with her rushing off the way she did), quickly making her way over to where she had seen Daniel. There were about 50 Thai food carts in Portland, she could find another cart owner to interview at a time when Daniel wasn’t in the area—she was sure of it.

  It had been two and a half weeks and she hadn’t heard a thing from Daniel since their first, and so far only, date. She knew giving him the message from his mother had overwhelmed him, but she couldn’t believe he wouldn’t at least follow up with an email or something. Their connection had been so strong that it simply didn’t make any sense to Shelby that he would outright ignore it.

  Seeing him on the street meant something and she would be damned if she let him walk on by. Shelby picked up the pace as she came upon the store, silently cursing the 2-inch red heels she had let Kathryn talk her into buying. Although, they were absolutely perfect for seeing Daniel again, just not for race-walking down sidewalks.

  Shelby stealthily slid into the Portland Luggage store, on full alert. She had no idea what she was going to say to Daniel or how she was going to approach the fact that he had blown her off, but she was going to do it. She didn’t have connections like that very often with men, and she would completely regret it if she didn’t take some type of action.

  It was, however, beyond her to know exactly what action she should take. Hiding behind a large display of oversized suitcases, Shelby began texting Kathryn, giving her the 4-1-1 on the situation. She prayed that as a fellow writer, Kathryn would be in her home office, in front of the computer with her cellphone nearby. Fortunately, she was and the reply came in quickly, although it wasn’t exactly what Shelby had hoped she would say:

  Stop hiding! Center urself in ur heart rt now, see green light all around ur heart and then go up to him. Let ur intuition guide u. It will know what 2 say.

  Really? She would miraculously know what to say? That honestly was not much of a plan. She gave Kathryn the middle finger (in her mind, of course) and stepped out from behind the suitcases. Daniel was exactly kitty-corner from her, looking at some backpack, laptop combo bag. Shelby didn’t know what else to do, so she went with Kathryn’s advice. She moved her focus from her mind, which was in hyper-chatter mode, and into her heart. She visualized a green ball of light emanating from her chest. At that exact moment, Daniel spun around as though a laser beam had hit him from behind.

  His mouth dropped open.

  Shelby smiled.

  Kathryn had known what she was talking about after all.

  # # #

  It took Daniel a few moments to collect himself. He had been so deep in thought about what bag would give him the most room and would be the easiest to trek to Maui with, that he was completely startled when he felt a rush of heat and energy surround him from behind and move into his heart. He spun around, unsure of what he might see, and even more stunned to see Shelby standing there smiling back at him.

  Was the heat and rush of energy from her? He felt a bit dizzy. He began to remember that she had this effect on him. As all of this was running through his now frazzled mind, she walked over to him. He couldn’t help but reflect on how unbelievably beautiful she was. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy yet perfectly styled manner, her bangs dropping slightly into her gorgeous blue eyes. She was wearing a black pencil skirt with a black top, but what really got his attention were her bright red heels. She looked gorgeous.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

  “Looks as though you’re as stunned as I am,” Shelby said, looking up at him rather coyly.

  “You look beautiful,” was all he could get out.

  Her face softened.

  “Thank you, that’s so sweet.” The line in her brow creased. “Were you beginning to forget what I looked like?”

  He could sense her displeasure in his obvious lack of communication in the past two-and-a-half weeks. At the moment, he couldn’t remember why he hadn’t called her back or what was delaying him from not spending every day with her. He shook his head.

  “Shelby. I’m sorry. It’s far more complicated than that, I—“

  “Well then, tell me about it. Disappearing on me only to have the Universe find random ways to reconnect us might become a little exhausting over time.”

  She didn’t want to sound irritated, but she was. She wanted to scream at him! How can you have such a wonderful, loving connection with someone—like a once in a lifetime connection—and not call them? Not even text them?!

  Instead, she looked up at him and sighed with disdain.

  Daniel smiled sweetly at her. She didn’t want it to work, but it did, and she softened yet again. Somewhere she could hear Kathryn in the distance yelling at her “green light!”

  “Listen, you’re right,” Daniel said. “Avoiding each other only means the Universe has to work harder. I totally agree. I’m surprised, but I agree. And honestly, since we met, so much has happened, I really want to tell you all about it.”

  “And I would love to hear it. But first, why are you surprised?”

  “Well, uh, I’ve never had such obvious interference by the Universe to make sure I connected with someone. It’s a bit eerie.”

  “Or awesome,” Shelby laughed.

  “Or awesome, you’re right.”

  “So, what are you doing at the luggage store on a random Wednesday anyway?”

  Daniel still had the molten red backpack laptop, carry-all in his hand. He held it down to her heels.

  “I was trying to find something for you that would match those killer heels.”

  They both laughed.

  “I wish you would. I literally can only wear black with them,” Shelby responded.

  “In all seriousness, I got this incredible opportunity to go to Maui and meet with this agent. She wants to go over my manuscript and share it with some publishers that are going to be there for this small retreat.”

  “Wow! Congratulations! That seems like a long way to go to review your manuscript, but it’s Maui—so who cares, right?”

  “I know, I had the same tho
ught. But this could be my big break, so I’m going for it.”

  “God, that’s really great Daniel. When do you leave?”

  “I leave next Friday morning. But honestly, I have to thank you Shelby. Our connection at the writer’s conference allowed me to breeze through the meeting with Kaley Hamilton and then land this opportunity.”

  Shelby groaned inside. Kaley Hamilton? She was notorious for bedding her authors. And while she did have an eye for a good story, her true focus always seemed to be on sleeping with her authors first. Did Daniel have any idea that she was most likely on the hunt for him? Shelby knew one thing, she wasn’t going to be the one to break the news to him. The last time she shared an intuition with him, he avoided her for over two weeks.

  Shelby looked into Daniel’s eyes to give her best fake, blasé response. Just as she was about to open her mouth, she felt a wave of heat pass through her body and into her pelvis. It caught her so off guard that she wobbled a little. Daniel reached out to steady her, placing both of his strong hands on her upper arms.

  “Shelby, are you okay? You looked like you were going to say something, but then it seemed like you might fall over.”

  Shelby began fanning her face. First heart light energy and then this, she had no idea what was going on.

  “Oh, I’m fine, I’m fine.” She feigned.

  Daniel took her by the hand, “C’mon, let’s get you outside into some fresh air.”

  Shelby was pleasantly surprised by his firm handle on the situation, and she happily followed.

  He led her to a bench outside the store. He sat down with her and then turned to face her. This time both of his hands were on hers.

  “Okay, Shelby, you have to know something. I’m crazy attracted to you, but I’m also crazy terrified of you. When I turned around in the store back there, I had felt some wild warmth and almost like a hot poker in my upper back. Then, just now, when you went to say something and almost fainted, I felt this wave of warmth spread through my whole body—so intensely I felt like I might fall over. I don’t know what is going on with our connection, but it’s powerful. The messages you got from my mom completely spun me out. I’ve been spending the past 11 years feeling like a failure as her son and I don’t know what to make of the information you’re receiving from her. Not to mention, I’m on my way to Maui, for what will hopefully be a game-changer for my life and my career.”