“I never stopped loving you.”

- The Best of Me, coming to theaters October 17

Chapter 2

June 11, 2006

Today I met River Ferguson…

“Ow!” I grimaced. “That’s definitely going to leave a mark.” Pulling myself up into a sitting position I gingerly massaged my bruised temple and glared at the soccer ball sitting no less than a few inches from me in the sand. For the last hour I’d been laying out here on the beach, working on my tan when the stupid thing had come from out of nowhere, rudely awakening me out of a dead sleep.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see a subtle movement and pause.

“Oh man, I’m so, so sorry,” a particularly deep southern accented voice drawled.

Turning in the direction of this particularly deep southern voice I raised my head, squinted against the bright light of the sun and found a pair of stormy green eyes staring down at me.

“We were just playing around,” he continued, “when dimwit over there decided to be stupid and kick the ball in the wrong direction. We didn’t mean for it to beam you in the head like that.” He bent down in the sand and started to raise his hand. For a second I thought this stranger with the stormy green eyes might actually touch me. Instead he dropped his hand back to his side. His brow wrinkled and I could see concern etched in his face. “You alright? I mean that red mark looks like it might hurt.”

“Wow,” was about the only word I could intelligently muster at the moment without sounding like a simpleton. Tall, dark and handsome was ripped, finely defined and chiseled in all the right places. To put it in layman’s terms, he was smoking hot with big fat “T”.

When I didn’t answer him he asked me again. “Miss, are you okay?”

Shaking my head, I sighed. I hadn’t realized I was still staring at his bare chest until he chuckled.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized, rubbing the side of my head again. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.” Leaning over the edge of the towel, I grabbed the ball and lightly tossed it to him. “I do believe this is yours.”

“Thanks,” he said, catching the ball with ease. “Again, I’m sorry about the…” he gestured towards my head. He was leaning in so close that I could smell the mixture of sweat and something else that was spicy and little bit sweet. I instantly wanted to lean in closer to him but thought better of it and refrained myself.

Turning my head I stared out at the ocean and noticed a group of four other equally smoking hot guys watching us. They were whispering and laughing, probably at me. “Look, it’s all good,” I told him, unable to hide my irritation. Turning back around I stare up at him, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand. “A little bump on the head never really hurt anyone. I’m a big girl so you can go ahead back to your friends and finish your game. I’ll be fine.”

His eyes took a slow perusal over my body. My skin suddenly felt overly warm. “I have no doubt about that,” he replied with a mischievous grin touching the corners of his lips. “But you should at least let me buy you an ice-cream down at Scoops. I hear they have they the best butter pecan ice-cream in the state.”

“You heard right. They do have the best ice cream in the state. Take it from someone who knows.”

He stood up and planted the soccer ball firmly on his hip. I watch him as he bites his lower lip, drawing my full attention to his sensual mouth.

“Hey man, are you coming or not?” One of his friends yells out, interrupting us.

“Sounds like the natives are getting restless,” I told him.

“Give me a minute,” he hollered back at his buddies. Rolling his eyes he turned back to me. “Sorry about that. So how about it? Ice cream? Six o’clock? It’s the least I can do. To show you how sorry I am, I mean.”

I was not one to turn down ice cream, especially ice cream from Scoops. “One condition.” I told him, my mouth twitching.

“Name it.”

“I need a name to tell my parents just in case you turn out to be a deranged axe murderer or something like that.”

“Done. It’s River. River Ferguson. And you pretty girl? What’s your name? So I can tell my parents who I’m going to be with, just in case you turn out to be a stalker and end up boiling my dog for dinner.”

I laughed out loud. “Stalker? Do I really look like a stalker to you?”

“Do I look like an axe murderer to you?” he challenged.

“Touché.” I replied smartly. “For your information my name is Shayla. Shayla Wright and you Mr. River Ferguson, who claims to not be an axe murderer, can pick me up at that house at 6:00.” I pointed behind me at my parent’s home. “Don’t be late.”

He starts to walk backwards towards his friends, his smile brightening up his entire face. “Oh you don’t have to worry about me being late. You just make sure that you are ready Ms. Shayla Wright, soon to be stalker.”

I let out a very indelicate extremely un-lady like snort. “In your dreams.”

“One can only hope,” was his quick witted reply.

Present- 2014

Shayla cradled the book to her chest. She remembered the whole scene just like it was yesterday. River had been so confident and so cute. He did show up at her house precisely at six that evening. They went out for ice cream and afterwards they walked the boardwalk talking about everything under the sun. He told her that he was staying for the summer with his Aunt three houses down from hers. They were both going to be seniors that year. He told her about his plans to go to Stanford after graduation and eventually practice medicine. She told him about her plans to go to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and study archaeology.

Even then she knew that there was something mighty special about River Ferguson. After that night they started spending more and more time together. Early in the mornings they would get up and search for shells. She would point out shark teeth to him and then try to make up an outlandish story about the shark that the tooth may have come from. He taught her how to boogie board in the surf. In the afternoons they would spend time with his friends playing on the beach, shopping at the outlet stores and on a few special occasions they would take his Aunt’s boat out for the day.

She was already falling for him. Falling fast and hard and if his reactions to her, the way he smiled at her or the casual way he was always trying to touch her meant anything, he was falling for her too just as fast and just as hard.

Shayla struggled to get a hold on her emotions. It was far too easy to remember how happy she had been back then. No, she wasn’t just happy; she had been drunk on River and the way that he made her feel. And when a person is that inexplicably happy, it can make them seem like they are invincible. It’s like nothing in the world can bring them down.

Placing the book back down on the vanity, she opened it up and skimmed the next few entries. She knew exactly which one she was looking for and it didn’t take her long to find it.

July 4, 2006

Dear Diary,

It finally happened. It being that one moment that I’ve been both praying for and dreading all at the same time. River finally kissed me and guess what. It was better than I could have ever imagined…

My parents were having their annual Fourth of July cook out today. I invited River and his friend Chaz. Chaz was bringing Lexie, another summer girl that I’d met a few years back. I liked her because she was down to earth and not like some of the other stuck up summer girls around here.

The cook out had been great. Everyone laughed and carried on. We even played a game of flag football after everyone ate. My team won of course because River was on it. He’d pass the ball to me and I would make a run for it while he blocked everyone out of my path. Later we ate homemade ice cream and then walked the beach at sunset. Now River and I were by ourselves, sitting on the pier and waiting for the fireworks.

“What are you thinking about?”

Startling, I turned around and saw River standing right behind me. He was smiling as usual, looking fifty shades of sexy. Pressing my hand to my chest, I blinked. “Jesus! You scared me,” I told him.

He looked a little sheepish. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. You just looked like you were in some pretty deep thought over here. I wanted to know what was going on in that pretty little head of yours.”

”I was thinking about how this summer has been the best summer ever,” I told him honestly.

“Really,” he grinned. “And can you tell me why this summer is the best summer ever?”

Dang, did he have to look so sexy in the moonlight? I had no doubt in my mind that he knew why this was the best summer ever. Was he really going to make me say it out loud? I decided to play coy with him and pushed into his shoulder with mine. “You know why.”

He leaned back into me, so close that I could feel his warm breath caressing the tip of my ear. “I want to hear you say it,” he whispered.

I pushed away from him and shivered. “You don’t need me to say it. You know why,” I told him again.

“Yeah, but I still want to hear you say it.” He reached down and tilted my chin up so that I was forced to look into his stormy green eyes. “Tell me, pretty girl. Tell me why this is the best summer you’ve ever had.”

I was enthralled with his eyes. The way he watched me, it was like I was the only thing that he saw. When he looked at me like that there was no way in the world that I could possibly deny his request. “You,” I answered. “You are the reason that this has been the best summer ever.”

“That’s what I’d hoped you say.” He cupped my face with both of his hands and touched his lips to mine so hesitantly at first. It took me a minute to realize that this was our first kiss. It was happening right now. My mouth parted and he took that as an invitation to deepen the kiss. His mouth was welcoming and warm. Closing my eyes I felt his hands go to my waist, pulling me tighter against him. My arms instinctively wrapped around his neck while our tongues continued to tangle together, dancing the tango of sweet love. In the background I could hear the fireworks going off, lighting up the darkened sky. I didn’t need to look to see them though because we were experiencing our own fireworks, right here, right now, with each other. And one thing I was certain, there was no other place on this earth that I’d rather be than right here in River’s arms.

Present- 2014

Shayla gently closed the diary again and stood up. Walking over to the window, she stared out at the tumultuous ocean. Her fingers trembled as she touched the same lips that River kissed so many years ago. Sure, she’d kissed a few boys back home before that summer and quite a few since then but none of those kisses were anything like the way River had kissed her that night. It was passionate and fierce, completely out of control and everything that you would imagine a kiss should be. It was perfection and then some. After that they couldn’t seem to get enough of each other.

They both had been so young and naïve though. After the Fourth the two of them had been virtually inseparable. They went everywhere together. If they’d known the future or what would happen in the days ahead then maybe things wouldn’t have heated up so fast. Maybe they wouldn’t have really cared and their path would have stayed the same. Who really knows?

Turning around she forced herself to go back to the vanity. The facts were they didn’t know the future at that time and the diary that she was currently staring at contained the written history of how the rest of that eventful summer played out. She’d only read two entries so far. Two very important, life altering entries but there was still half a summer to go.

Knowing what she needed to do if she ever really wanted to close the door on this part of her life; Shayla picked the diary up again and started to skim through the handwritten pages until she reached the last place she left off.

July 18, 2006

Dear Diary,

Today was a bad day. River and I had our first real fight. The day started out so good too. He came by and picked me up around four. The plan was to drive down to Myrtle Beach and hit the Pavilion. We ate dinner at one of the little swanky seafood places in North Myrtle Beach. It was candle lit and all types of romantic. We shared a piece of double chocolate fudge cake for dessert. On the drive back to the Pavilion he held my hand the entire time. At that point I thought everything was perfect. There was nothing in the world that could bring me down. Boy, I was in for one hell of a rude awakening…