Beth Wagner and Rip Griffin met in a hallway of Richmond Hill High school. Instantly smitten, the inept lovers hide their passion. ‘Pearl Harbor’ prods Rip to volunteer to die in the skies over Germany. Three thousand love-letters later, Rip ships overseas and the ‘shy lovers’ lose track of each other. Nineteen days after D-day, Beth reads in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that a B-24 Bomber, christened ‘Edie’, failed to return from a mission over Munich. The crew (including tail-gunner Rip Griffin) is MIA and presumed dead. Beth loses it. Meeting some clod in a bar, Beth winds up playing Russian Roulette in the backseat of her 1939 Pontiac, losing not only her virginity but also her self-respect. A month later Beth learns the clod wasn’t shooting blanks. Six-months later Rip appears on Beth’s doorstep. The ring on her finger, plus her fat butt, and fat gut, tells Rip all he needs to know. Devastated, he goes off to play some Russian Roulette of his own.
Six years later, on the island of Trinidad, he saw her. He had dashed off to fight in the skies over Germany out of fear, fear of rejection. Rejection would spell the end of life…his life of hoping, dreaming, longing, so he ran. By running, he could still dream, still hope, hope that…someday… Now, there she was, sitting there, eyes closed, legs crossed finger tracing the table’s edge, her trim, taught tanned body taunting him. He hadn’t seen her in six years, not since the day he returned from combat, mounted her front step and found her pregnant. He remembered her enchanting eyes, her luscious lips, her sexy voice, he longed to lock her in his embrace, to devour her… Is this destiny?
He poured a shot of vodka and gulped it down. Then, straightening his spine, he walked toward her table, hands trembling, the thump-thump thunder of his heart pounding in his ears…
I’ve loved her since that first day in highschool but never told her…face-to-face. How long can a lady wait? Am I ready? What can I say? She must hate me.
As he neared her table, she jumped up and raced toward the car.
Stunned, he stood and watched her flee.
A chauffeur opened the door, she leaped in, the door closed, the Rolls Royce drove off.
Sometimes, vacations just don't turn out the way you hoped they would. An idyllic wilderness house boating get-a-way soon turns into a hellish nightmare...
Book I of Southern Swallow Series – 12th Century scholar Li K'ai-men takes command of his first official assignments during a time of political unrest and barbarian invasions.
