A Formidable Year
Book One in The Aldocott Trilogy

Virginia, Lynnhaven Bay

Newly delegated marketing director, Aurora Patek, can’t recall the circumstances surrounding her father’s disappearance when she was two, nor can she recall a time during her childhood that wasn’t rich with support and love. Confident with the reassuring decisions she’s made in her life up until now, nothing could prepare her for the natural decision she made from the heart, and the tragedy that would follow because of it. Having been raised along the shores of the Lynnhaven Bay by her artistic, strong-willed mother, Aury’s summer days and weekends are spent on and around the water with her best friends. Dane Finnegan, the son of an abusive alcoholic, is kind, responsible and determined not to turn out like his old man. The candid Jillian Hartford, becomes Aury’s first best friend and later her roommate in college. And Samuel Aldocott, who was blessed with an affluent lifestyle that he shares with Aurora whenever she allows him to. Their bond is one of friendship and fate that runs deeper than both of them are aware of. Consenting adults now, Aurora’s feelings are erotically stirred as Dane fearlessly tries to take their relationship to an intimate level before Samuel can confess his feelings for her as well. Too intrigued to resist his advances, Aurora takes Dane as a lover, and apprehensively shies away from Sam’s sudden and surprising attempt to steal a kiss on the beach…but not before they find themselves breathless, in a heated entanglement of summer tanned skin and searching lips. With a bruised ego, a despondent Sam retreats to California where his father is waiting for him to take his rightful place as vice-president of his Graphics Media company. With their nose to the grindstone after a few years passed, Dane, eager to claim Aury as his own, consults their best friend, Sam, at a picnic about plans for a marriage proposal. With this news, Sam risks his relationship with both friends and corners Aury with his full confession. As the celebration unfolds, Aurora finds herself alone in her mother’s studio being seduced by a much more sexually attuned Samuel Aldocott, who she hasn’t seen since their slight indiscretion on the beach before they left for college. Aury succumbs to the deeply rooted passion that she’s surprised to find is still there after all these years. Before they can confess their love to one another, and the families around them, a fatal accident leaves everyone grief stricken and Aurora’s life changes forever. Dane’s mentor, Sergeant Bill Rapp, a closet psychopath who assisted police with her father’s disappearance more than twenty years ago, and who is secretly obsessed with Aurora’s mother, Luella, begins his official but unsettling investigation of the accident. After the funeral, Aurora and Samuel are torn apart by grief, and separately mourn the loss of their loved one, and their bittersweet discovery of a secret devotion that now seems lost to them. Depressed and consumed with guilt, Aurora becomes complacent, and excepts a lateral promotion downtown Virginia Beach, as their executive visual consultant and forgoes her plans to move to New York. An unexpected phone call from Arlington Aldocott in San Francisco, Samuel’s dad, and she’s given a second chance to interview for that corporate position she’s always dreamt of, and the guilty pleasure of reuniting with the love she’s subconsciously yearned for.

 

A Formidable Pleasure

Book Two in The Aldocott Trilogy

Virginia Beach

Spring

Running across the frozen ground, she could feel the icy grass crunch under her bare feet. It was late night or early morning, she couldn’t tell, she just knew she had to keep going. Risking a glance up at the purple sky for direction, she couldn’t figure out where the revving noise was coming from. Was it getting louder?  Pumping her arms, she willed her numb feet to carry her away…but from what? Clad in thin cotton shorts and a tank top, she wondered why she was wearing summer clothes in freezing temperatures. Her limbs were tiring, and her muscles felt like jelly. Gasping for air, her breath rushed out like tiny white clouds, and the echo of lapping water was like a vice wrapped around her neck. Slicked in sweat and slowing down, she grabbed her throat and started crying, she wasn‘t going to win this. Bending over to catch her breath, her soaked clothes were hanging off of her. Picking her head up, she was disoriented, and thought she felt something clutched in her fist, as she frantically gauged her surroundings. Nothing but water. Standing erect in the middle of a lake, she never questioned why or how she got there, she just stared at the shore in the distance, and knew she’d never reach it. As the revving noise reached a crescendo, she closed her hands over her ears and bent over. The pliant ground gave way under her feet, causing her to fall backwards, into the abyss.

Jillian woke up on her tile floor, again. Opening her eyes, she was breathing heavily and soaked in sweat. The sun hadn’t risen yet, so she knew she wasn’t going to be late this time. Pushing herself up to a sitting position, she ran her hands over her face and tried to gain clarity. Looking down, she half expected to see the clothes she was wearing in the dream. Shaking her head with disbelief, she thought about that matching outfit her mother bought her from the strip mall for her fifth-grade field trip. She begged her for it because of the cute pair of red cherries embroidered on the front. Turning in early last night, specifically to gain on her sack time, backfired on her somehow, and instead she felt drained and exhausted. That was the second time this week she‘d dreamt of escape, surrender, and an icy death. The dream was coming more frequently, and quite frankly, she was pissed! Pushing off the floor to stand, she stripped off her clothes, dropped the pocket knife on top of the clothes hamper and turned the shower on hot.

 

A Formidable Truth

Book Three in The Aldocott Trilogy

Lynnhaven Bay Virginia

Spring

Bud Patek stood on the dock with both hands shoved into his front pockets overlooking the Lynnhaven Bay. His worn denim jacket did little to protect him from the drizzle that started after he walked out of the abandoned studio. Waiting for his newlywed wife to join him, he jangled the keys to their new house in his left pocket. His eyes went from the washed out, but stable dock under his feet, to the posh sailboat running his motor at about 10 knots to escape the unexpected shower that had covered the bay. The man behind the wheel looked to be in his late sixties with a shock of professionally groomed silver hair. Perhaps one of our neighbors, Bud thought to himself as the man raised a hand to wave at him. Reluctantly waving back, Bud couldn’t help but feel the man knew he was getting in over his head, buying such an expensive property at such a young age. “The studio is perfect.” Luella Patek said to him as she walked up quietly behind her husband to gently rest both of her hands on his shoulders and lay her cheek to his back. Bud closed his eyes at her touch, and leaned back into her growing belly. “It’s a lot of money. More than I make with a cop’s salary, that’s for sure.” He turned to face her. “But it feels right-and I’ll build decks every weekend for the next ten years if I have to, just to keep it. I want our baby to grow up here-and I want you to have that big beautiful studio with all the room you need.”

Luella was expecting their first child, a girl. She wanted more than anything to be settled in before she arrived. “I can add to our income with this studio, I have tons of ideas just waiting to be thrown on the wheel. “ She said smiling and running her hands over her growing belly. Bud reached over to do the same. Luella was a self-taught potter, despite some classes she took to better her craft when she could afford them. “No weekday trips to the café for breakfast like this morning. We’re going to have to budget.” Bud said half laughing, half serious. “Sorry I was so late.” He apologized again to her. “I hate the thought of you being alone anywhere.” She gave him a thin-lipped smile as she thoughtfully tilted her head at him. “I was fine, Bud. I ran into the neighbor lady as it happens. I think she introduced herself as Ms. Lil.“ Bud looked intrigued, “Next to this place?“

“Yes, right across from these pine trees.“ Luella pointed to the south of the property. Always the skeptical of the two, Bud eyed up what he could see as being her back screened porch. “Oh ya? How’d she seem?“

“She’s recently widowed, and I think she’s lonely. I shook her hand, and she wished us well, and hopes it works out.”

“Well that sounds nice. Easy enough.”

“I also saw Brian Finnegan and Billy Rapp.” She had his full attention at that point. Bud’s smile left his face and he stared inquisitively at her as he waited to hear what they talked about. “Apparently Bill has been an officer in Virginia Beach for a few years now.” Bud glanced out over the water. “I know Luella. I’ll be working with him at some point. I hate that he has seniority at the station. Not to mention he’s always wanted to get in your panties.”

“Bud! He has not!”

“Oh come on Luella!” Bud said exasperated, “Stop denying that you never picked up on it over the years. He asked you out once a month for two years. Christ! How thick headed is the guy?”

“He never seemed to be too upset when I told him I had other plans.” Bud looked at her with wide eyes, and he laughed at her naivety. “That’s because you never told him you weren’t interested. You just told him you had other plans. So that’s  what he really thought? You‘re too nice baby.” Luella tossed the idea around in her head as she contemplated Bud’s version as he saw it. “I really never gave it a second thought, I guess.”

“Did you tell him you were married?”

Biting her lip and feeling guilty, she glanced at her husband from the corner of her eye. “No. I haven’t told anybody. I’m still getting used to it myself.”

Now it was Bud’s turn to feel guilty. He really hadn’t envisioned a courthouse marriage for either of them, but time was of the essence. And they only had about another six months. Tightening his hands into fists in his front pockets, he wanted to talk about anybody but Bill Rapp. “So what’d Brian have to say?” Luella laughed, “You know Brian, barely a smile and an inaudible ‘hello.’ I really  thought he’d grow out of his shyness. Wasn’t he suppose to train to become a police officer?” Eyeing a kayak in the distance, Bud tried to remember exactly what the situation with Brian was. “He was heading there at one time, his Dad wasn’t around much, and I think he hung around with the wrong crowd after he graduated high school.” Grabbing her in a warm embrace, Bud didn’t want to talk or focus on anything else. This was his moment, their moment, and talking about two clowns they went to high school with was not what he envisioned when he bought his first house. “Hey, you really think this is the place for us?” He teasingly said to her as he tilted his head to one side. Swept up in his sanguine demeanor, Luella forgot what they were talking about and wrapped her arms as far around her as she could get them. “It is so beautiful here Bud, I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else. How about you? What are you thinking?“ The rain picked up speed off of the bay, as Bud stared into her ocean blue eyes with a sense of fulfillment. “Mrs. Patek, I do believe you may be right.” And with the look of contentment she gave him, he slowly drew the set of keys to their first house from his pocket. “Let’s go inside, I’m getting wet out here!”