The Wrong Track

The Wrong TrackJamie Bennett Copyright © 2022 Jamie BennettAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author, except as used in a book review. Please contact the author at [email protected] is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is purely coincidental.Book cover by Angela Haddon Book Cover Designs. Remy needs a reset.The past four years have been…rough. Her life, previously on a positive track, has turned into something she wouldn’t have wished on anyone—but now she has the chance to re-start. She’s in a new place, a frozen tundra that some people call “Michigan” and she has people looking out for her, trying to help but also driving her a little crazy with their kindness. It’s like they don’t trust her to take care of herself and her problems. And maybe, they have good reason to feel that way.But everything will be perfect when she can escape on her own to someplace warm, someplace without people, someplace where she won’t have to look over her shoulder all the time, and where the constant nightmares will go away. Until she can leave, she moves in with Tobin, Tobin Whitaker. He needs someone, after all, and she could stay for a while. Just a little while, because she’s moving on for sure, no matter how much he seems to lean on her, no matter how safe he makes her feel in return.As much as everyone thinks that she’s going to fall apart without them, Remy is actually going to be fine. Right? She can handle her problems, her nightmares, everything. She doesn’t need anyone—except that Tobin is pretty wonderful. He works his way into her life until he’s more than a friend, until he’s more like someone she doesn’t know if she can live without. But how can she let him take on her history? How can she let him take her on at all? How can she stay—but how could she ever go and leave him behind? Chapter 1I’m surrounded by turquoise water, clear and warm with colorful fish swimming lazily around my legs. Fan coral undulates in the gentle currents; a single, white cloud drifts slowly through the azure sky above me. I breathe in and out, filling my healthy lungs with clean air, filling my body with languid pleasure.“Mrs. Rovina?”I feel the sand beneath my toes and then I pick up my feet and float, buoyed by the salt and the waves. The ocean cradles me and I drift, content. Nothing is more perfect than this moment.“Excuse me. Excuse me?”But then, suddenly, I realize that there’s something here with me. There’s something on the beach—no, maybe it’s in the water—there’s something just beyond my field of vision—“Mrs. Rovina? Remy?”The sun is so warm on my face. I close my eyes against its brightness but I can still feel the heat. It’s all wonderful, yes, but by now I’m sure that something is close. It’s here lurking in the depths, concealed behind the coral, buried in the sand. There’s something, something dangerous, and if I don’t watch out—A hand gently shook my arm and I opened my eyes, gasping. The woman who’d apparently been bending over me stood up straight and smiled. “You’re awake!” she announced. I turned my head and saw the other women in the room watching us. A fluorescent light in the ceiling blinked and wavered and I blinked, too. It had been right there, so close. Something—“Don’t be embarrassed,” the nurse said. “People fall asleep in here all the time. We keep it too hot, I think, but your condition will wear you out wherever you are.”I rubbed my eyes, very tired. “I wasn’t asleep,” I announced, but maybe I had been. The dry heat blowing on my face definitely hadn’t been the sun or a tropical breeze like I’d been imagining. I was sitting under a vent that cranked away because the world outside of the single, brown-tinted window was frozen. Everything here was icy and cold and dark in a winter prison, nothing like the turquoise water, the colorful fish…“Mrs. Rovina?” Now the woman frowned a little. “Are you all right?”“I’m fine. That’s not my name so I didn’t respond.” And I may have been asleep, and I definitely didn’t want to be here.“Oh, I’m sorry.” She looked at my chart with her eyebrows drawn down, studying the information there, and then said, “We should correct this for you.” But I ignored that, because I was busy lumbering to my feet. I felt like a big, overfed bear ready for hibernation, except weren’t they already asleep? They were curled up in their warm caves, dozing away through the horrible winter. Cozy, alone but content. No one would come after a bear, asleep or not.“Mrs….Remy? Are you ready to come back?”I opened my eyes again. No, I wasn’t ready for this. But I followed her through the waiting room, and when I was done, I went down to the car and sat in the parking lot and cried. I’d held it together through the exam, with the doctor there and the nurse smiling at me, and I still had as I walked out past the other women waiting, but once I was alone I just couldn’t. This was a really nice car, though, so I was careful with where I put the pile of used tissues and napkins. I was lucky to have it and I didn’t want to mess it up in any way.I cleaned myself up, too, after I drove home and parked again, before I walked in front of the row of condos because I had to go past…oh, yes. She was already on her porch and waiting for