Just This Once

Everyone always told Lily Bennett not to go check out the tide pools by herself. Her professors did. Her overprotective family members did. Her friends did. But she hated being held back by her illness so that particular day she threw caution to the wind.

Being a highly independent person was difficult when you had epilepsy. For about a year and a half, her seizures had been too active so her driver’s license was suspended until she did a whole lot of paperwork and proved her doctor said she was okay to drive again. That had been awful. She only got it back six months ago.

But there hadn’t been a single seizure since then. Her medication kept things stable. That was why she felt confident enough to go out to the tide pools alone today.

The people in her life were concerned that if Lily ever went to the beach by herself and had a seizure she might drown. She was a marine biology student! Sometimes she had to go to the beach when she couldn’t get anyone to go with her.

Assigning a report based on tide pool observations over spring break was somewhat sadistic. All of her fellow students had complained because they had plans that would be disrupted by making time to go to the beach.

Lily didn’t mind in the slightest. There was nothing in this world she loved more than the ocean. She went to the beach as often as she could, even when there weren’t assignments to be done.

Her report required observing the same group of tide pools at the same time of day for three days straight. It was the third day; she couldn’t miss it or she would have to start her data over from scratch.

There weren’t many people on the beach this time of day—it wasn’t hot enough for there to be many beachgoers yet anyway—but if something did happen somebody would notice. Probably.

She felt fine though. As long as she was careful about not tripping over any rocks there shouldn’t be any problems.

Lily took down her notes with the fiery intensity of a science nerd and the time passed quickly. Satisfied that she had what she needed, she put her things back in her backpack and took off her shoes to walk along the shore for a moment.

Feeling the sand squish between her toes always made her happiest. When she was younger she wanted nothing more than to be a mermaid and live in the ocean. Visiting it several times a week was the compromise her parents made.

She sighed as she thought of them, a twinge of guilt piercing her. Because of her health problems and how close to home her university was they insisted she keep living with them after graduating high school.

Her parents had no biological children of their own. They only adopted the kids that no one else wanted. She had siblings with missing limbs, spina bifida, nonverbal autism, and Down’s syndrome.

Of all of those kids, only one had moved out. Her older brother Donovan, whose only defect was the arm he lost in the accident that killed his biological parents when he was a toddler. But as sweet a kid as he was no one wanted to adopt him for three years until her parents came along.

The house may have four bedrooms but Lily knew she was taking up space that could better go to another kid. She knew her parents planned to adopt again once she finally moved out. That’s what they had done when Donovan moved out to go to college in L.A.

Lost in thought, she waded out a little farther than she probably should have. The cold water soaked the bottoms of her rolled up jeans and she couldn’t help but shudder.

Ready to go home and change after that, she was about to turn around when a particularly large wave crashed over her head. Before her head could even break the surface, a rip current began swiftly dragging her down the beach.

Lily was good at holding her breath but she didn’t account for the possibility of hitting her head and blacking out. Her last conscious thought was that she really should have listened to everyone that told her not to come out here alone.

===

Mark Hanover was a top notch executive assistant. He took care of everything his boss needed him to without more questions than were absolutely necessary. So when he got a frantic call (at least as frantic as the stoic Edward Todd was capable of getting) that his wife hadn’t come home last night and couldn’t be contacted by phone he began methodically calling hospitals and police departments to see if anyone matched her description.

Edward wasn’t thinking straight enough to be able to do that himself. He may not act like it but he depended heavily on his wife.

He was always in a much better mood when she was around but she was a very busy woman. Doing what, Mark had no idea. He knew better than to ask. Their relationship was a mystery to him.

He didn’t even know her real name because Edward only ever called her ‘angel.’ That seemed more like a nickname than anything but who knows? It might actually be her name.

Mark speculated that Angel wasn’t actually his wife because neither of them wore rings. They had a two-year-old daughter together—a cherubic child called Aria that was the spitting image of her mother—but that seemed to be the only reason Angel stayed.

It wasn’t his job to judge though so he kept his observations to himself. Edward was devoted to her. And she was a real beauty.

Ironically, Angel was a dead ringer for the only woman Mark had ever been interested in. Their dress styles weren’t anything alike but their faces were so similar he truly thought she was the spunky tomboy that was his shining light his last year of high school.

Lily Bennett. The memory of when they first met came to mind the first time he saw Angel because it didn’t jive with the woman standing in front of him despite their similar looks.