Aqua's Achilles Read online

  Aqua’s Achilles

  Burnt River Contemporary Western Romance, Book 3

  Kate Cambridge

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  Be sure to check out all the books in the Burnt River Contemporary Western Romance Series. The links to all the books can be found at the end of this book.

  Kate Cambridge is a bestselling Amazon author, writing both Sweet Historical Romance and Sweet Contemporary Romance books

  Visit KateCambridge.com

  * * *

  Copyright © 2017 by Kate Cambridge

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or book reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used or embellished fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Property of Kate Cambridge, June 2017

  * * *

  Please check out all the books in the Burnt River Contemporary Western Romance Series. It is a true joy working with all the authors in the collaboration, and we have several books planned in this series as the lives and loves of the people of Burnt River unfold.

  Book 1: SHANE’S BURDEN by Peggy L Henderson

  Book 2: THORN’S JOURNEY by Shirleen Davies

  Book 3: AQUA’S ACHILLES

  Book 4-10: COMING SOON - Visit the Burnt River Contemporary Western Romance Series Facebook page to connect with all the authors!

  Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Author’s Note

  About the Author

  Also by Kate Cambridge

  Introduction

  Welcome to Burnt River, Montana! Five western romance authors got together to write a series set in this fictional, small western town located in the heart of Montana’s horse and cattle country. Burnt River is a close community of characters who’ve been brought together for the memorial of a beloved teacher who inspired many of his students to follow their dreams and do their very best. In the Burnt River series, we get to meet some of these students, and learn how the lessons from high school shaped their lives, even a decade later…

  We hope you enjoy their stories!

  The Burnt River Series Authors: Shirleen Davies, Peggy L. Henderson, Kate Cambridge, Kay P. Dawson, Amelia Adams

  Chapter 1

  "Aqua Weaver, get your butt in here!" A familiar voice carried toward her, as it floated on the rise of another gust of wind. "Come on, it's time to get inside!"

  Aqua grabbed the rim of her hat before it could blow away in the late afternoon Montana winds. Her mother had mentioned a storm was coming, and Aqua would be darned if she could ever understand how her mother knew it even before the weather app announced a storm was coming, but she did, every single time.

  Aqua squinted through fluttering strands of hair and drank in the sight of her mother. Her vision was filled with long thick waves of brown hair coated with streaks of gray. Stirred by the wind, her mother’s long skirt flapped around her legs, so that the only steady thing about her was the gaze of her clear blue eyes and the firm set of her jaw. To Aqua, her mother looked like the very storm that threatened them; she carried with her a strength that she’d always envied.

  "I'll be right there, Mom. Don't worry!" Aqua was a younger version of her mother. She too had sky-blue eyes and dark hair. The only difference was her nose. She had inherited her dad’s aquiline nose that might have looked too big on another woman. Yet, it gave Aqua a Grecian appeal that was a rarity in these parts. When she pressed her full lips together, Aqua, like her mother, was a formidable presence. She wasn’t beautiful in the classical sense but striking in her uniqueness.

  Aqua drew a deep breath of the crisp, clean air that smelled like adventure and danger all rolled into one, and closed her eyes. It felt good—so good to be home after being away for the last ten years in New York City. When Aqua went to New York for college, she’d loved the hustle and bustle of the city both during and after college; the cacophony of horns blaring, restaurants open until all hours of the morning, museums, concerts, and people—streets teaming with people from every nation and walk of life. The entire world existed in that city. It was polar opposite from her childhood in Burnt River, and at first she couldn’t get enough of the city, but lately, she’d felt restless that she couldn’t explain.

  "Let's go, now!" Her mother waved her hand with all of the authority of twenty-eight years of parenting.

  "All right, all right!" Aqua yelled as she trotted over to her mother, as she had many times in her youth, wrangled in by her mother's authority.

  "It's going to be quite a storm." Miri draped her arm around her daughter's shoulders and glanced at the darkening sky and the rapidly scudding clouds above them. "It's a sign you know. The memorial for Mr. Weiker is stirring up all kinds of things—emotions, memories, unfinished business."

  "It's just a storm, Mom." Aqua rolled her eyes as a ripple of annoyance threatened to grow. "There's nothing more to it than that. It's just a coincidence that it's fallen on the same weekend as the memorial.”

  "If you say so, love." Her mother offered her a brief smile, her eyes speaking the age-old I know better message, as she steered her daughter toward the white house with a small porch, purple shuttered windows, with gardens and wildflowers scattered as far as the eyes could see.

  Moments like these, Aqua realized that she would never be free of her mother’s influence on her life. She just had this uncanny ability to pop into Aqua’s mind and at the most inopportune moments as though she were omnipresent. It wasn’t logical, but Aqua had accepted that it was what it was.

  Aqua was twenty-eight years old, and a CPA to boot. Mind you, her parents had named her Aquarius at birth, but she’d changed that before she applied to colleges, and compromised with ‘Aqua’, a name that made no sense as she took one last glance at the majestic mountains of her birthplace, a force so strong that to this day they gave her goosebumps when she looked at them. They jutted out of the ground and reached for the sky as though they were protesting the restraint of remaining part of the earth.

  Being home for the memorial of her favorite high school teacher was stirring up emotions for Aqua, her mother was right about that at least. After high school, she'd fled to New York for college hoping she would create an entirely new life for herself. The corners of her mouth turned up as she remembered the look on her parents’ face when she told them she wanted to be a C.P.A.—that had nearly given her parents a heart attack. But if you studied humanity and history closely, you’d recognize the pattern of the ‘generational switch’, as Aqua liked to call it—her parents were hippies, and she was their only child, and a mistake at that. There was no way she would ever follow in their footsteps.

  In fact, it made perfect sense she’d chosen a profession that was—predictable.

  Mr. Weiker’s death, however, was not predictable. He had been voted Teacher of the Year all four years that Aqua had been in high school, and he was dearly loved by every student at Burnt River High
.

  Although her parents loved her, Aqua had always known that they’d never really understood her, and in all fairness, she had probably never fully understood them, and that had left Aqua feeling a bit like a fish out of water.

  Mr. Weiker had filled a gap in her life that had taken Aqua years to fully appreciate. He had encouraged her to follow her own path, and although he had not criticized the odd way her parents had led their lives, as many others in the town had, he talked openly about the fact that each person on this earth had a different purpose to fulfill, and how that unfolded was unique for everyone.

  Aqua paused, remembering how he’d encouraged all of her fellow students—some had lost a parent, like her classmate, Shane Taggart. At yesterday’s memorial service for Mr. Weiker, student after student stood to give testament to the difference Mr. Weiker had made in their lives in many unique, yet equally powerful ways.

  Aqua found it interesting that even in death Mr. Weiker was impacting her life, as his words and encouragement came back to her as though he had spoken them just yesterday, intensifying the recent unrest she’d been feeling at the direction her life was headed. Was it enough? Was she making a difference—even a small one—compared to all the lives he had touched? She doubted it.

  She was successful in her career. She had risen among the ranks as an analyst at the CIA New York office more quickly than most, and she was aware of the whispers that took place behind her back as she worked her way up. Gifted in following the money trail of international criminals, and even terrorists, she had found that her instincts combined with a love for logic were an unusual combination among her colleagues.

  Yet, success could be a double-edged sword. As well as she'd done on paper with establishing her career and receiving the admiration of very powerful people within the CIA, she still wasn't satisfied. Something felt off—something that until now had felt just out of reach.

  Oddly enough, the moment she'd caught sight of the mountains on her way to her parent’s house, that restlessness she could not define or understand finally settled. Aqua was home. She didn’t know exactly what that meant yet, but she could sense she was going in the right direction.

  Perhaps she'd moved away in such haste, or perhaps she'd left some things unfinished, just as her mother had said.

  Chapter 2

  "Miri, did you hear the latest weather update?" Her father, Gavin Weaver, asked her mother as he stepped into the kitchen, a room that was rarely used for eating. Rather, it was an indoor greenhouse of sorts, with herbs, vegetables, and other plants piled up on every counter. The table in the center of the room was a meeting point where everyone gathered around for conversation that varied from the details of their day to the true meaning of the universe.

  "I need not hear it. I've seen the sky, I've heard the wind, and it will come in fast and furious, but it will pass by without too much damage."

  "I trust you over any weather person, Miri." He kissed his wife’s cheek and pulled her close before she whirled away to make last minute preparations.

  The sight of her parents’ intimate connection made Aqua freeze in place, absorbing the rareness. Although there were many things she and her parents didn't see eye-to-eye on, their deep, genuine love for one another was the one thing that made all Aqua’s prior relationships seem superficial compared to the way they loved. Well, maybe except for one.

  Aqua wanted the kind of love that she'd grown up with, and she couldn't see herself happy with anything less. It made relationships—complicated. As the windows rattled with another powerful gust of wind, the memory of her father chasing her down into the basement as a child came back as though it were yesterday. Aqua had always wanted to be where the action was, but her father had equally wanted to make sure she was safe.

  “Alright, time to head down.” Her dad pulled the door to the basement open and gestured for her to head down the stairs first.

  “Dad, is this really necessary? Aqua sighed. “Mom said it would be over fast.”

  “Listen to your father, Aqua.” Miri joined them after her last-minute preparations with her hands firmly placed on her hips. “It's never wise to tempt fate. Down the stairs we go.”

  “And you too,” her father placed a hand on his wife’s lower back. “I will never let either of you come to harm if I can help it.”

  His words were packed with emotion. Her dad was protective, and on some level, Aqua appreciated that, but in other ways, she felt his protectiveness had caused her to miss out on important adventures when she was a kid. With a strong sense of déjà vu, she headed down the steps with her mother right behind her. Once they were inside, her father joined them and bolted the door shut. As her mother had predicted, the storm rose swift and angry, but passed quickly.

  When they emerged from the basement, Miri rushed out the door to check on her garden. Aqua followed, just a few steps behind. However, those few steps seemed like a cavern when she heard her mother's scream carry across the lessening tumultuous winds.

  “Mom? Are you okay?” Aqua’s heart lurched forward, ahead of her swift pace as she raced after her mother. There, pinned beneath the long metal pole that once held up a clothesline, was the strongest woman she'd ever known. And yet, at that moment, she appeared as fragile and small as the crumpled plants on the ground beside her.

  “I'm okay, I'm okay.” Her mother pushed her words through tensed lips, but the wrinkles etched deep into her skin told another story. For a split-second, Aqua knew of how fleeting life could be, and her heart flipped at the possibility of losing her mother. She looked ancient. Fragile.

  “Dad! Call 911!” Aqua pleaded, desperately grabbing the corner of the pole, trying to lift it up. Her muscles strained as she struggled with the awkward length and weight of the pole. It was too heavy. There was no budging it

  “Ouch! Don't! Please!” Her mother gasped. Her voice seemed to pierce the brooding sky that was just revealing shards of sunlight through the passing clouds.

  “It's okay, Mom. Stay still. We’ll get this off of you.” Aqua encouraged as she clenched her teeth and sought a stronger grip on the pole, slippery from the rain. She put all of her strength into the next heave, but the pole would not budge.

  As her father barked into the phone, he ran toward them. “What happened? Aqua, Miri— are you okay?” his voice saturated with fear, something Aqua rarely heard from her father.

  “I saw it would fall, I--I thought I could stop it.” Miri’s breath was labored as she struggled to breathe, the heavy pole limiting the air she could get into her lungs. “I'm okay, really,” she offered weakly. “I just had the wind knocked out of me. There's no need for 911. I'll be fine. Just get this blasted pole off from me.” She closed her eyes as a tear slipped past her eyelids and rolled down her cheek.

  “Hush, Mom, don’t fret. Dad, try to lift this with me.” Aqua grabbed one end of the pole and tilted her head toward the other, giving her father a weighted look. “It's heavier than it looks.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise, Aquarius?” Aqua’s scathing glare seemed to do the trick. “All right, just a second.” Gavin tucked his phone into his pocket and wiped his hands on his pants. Her father was always methodical about things. He never rushed. When he grabbed his end of the pole, Aqua heard her mother whimper beneath its weight. “All right darling, it will be fine,” he reassured his wife. “Aqua and I will take care of you. Just close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. Can you still smell the rain in the air?”

  She offered a whisper, “Yes.” A weak smile appeared on Miri’s face, and her body seemed to relax. She so loved nature, and especially the beauty of Montana with its rugged perfection and wild unpredictability. Montana was a place where storms were as beautiful as a sunny day.

  “Isn't it delicious, my love? Just focus on that sweet smell. You can almost taste it, can't you?”

  “I can.” Miri sighed, and the wrinkles of pain and tension disappeared from her face for a brief moment.

  Caught up i
n their loving exchange, Aqua almost forgot to lift her end of the pole. Her parents knew each other so well. Her father was capable of transporting her mother with just a few words. That was how powerful the trust between them was. Love was seeing someone's soul, and being able to whisper to it in a language known only to the heart.

  Her father's voice jarred Aqua from her thoughts.

  “Together, now, Aqua.” He locked eyes with his daughter, and she glimpsed the fear she’d heard earlier as they labored to lift the pole from Miri's body. “Arugh!” It thumped on the damp earth beside Miri and came to a rest. A small shriek escaped from her mother’s mouth. “Oh wow,” she offered with a labored breath, “that’s better, but it hurts to breathe and my head hurts,” she moaned. Aqua gently lifted her mother’s head as her she whispered, “It will be okay, Mom,”

  Miri struggled to sit up.

  “Don't you dare!” Aqua scolded as she put her hands on her shoulders with a gentle but firm touch. “Your spine or neck could be damaged, you have to be still until the ambulance arrives.”

  “Nonsense, I'll be fine once I'm up. Tell her, Gavin.” Miri rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand at her daughter.

  “Aqua may be right, my love. You were struck hard, and you have a cut on your head. It's best to wait for the doctor.”

  “Mom, don’t be unreasonable,” Aqua added. “You’re in pain, and shouldn’t move until we know it’s safe for you to do so. The doctor, what do you mean the doctor? You called 911 didn’t you dad?” Aqua shifted her position so she could shield her mother from the sun, shining brightly through clouds racing for the east.