Chapter 2

I was running through the old abandoned town, heading towards the big sandy beach, Vaughn in tow. I felt small round pebbles under my feet, then the silky sand.

"Julia!" I called when I was within earshot. I saw long haired blonde look up. For what felt like forever, she just stood there. Then I saw her run towards me.

"Chelsea!" She knew it was me! When we got within a couple feet of one another, we both slid, slowing down to almost a stop, but colliding together before we could slow down that much. We both laughed as we tried to keep each other standing, thankfully Vaughn caught us as we stared to fall on my back.

"But, how!? You're crazy aunt took you away like 3 years ago! I thought that you guys moved to like, a different country!" she was clearly over exaggerating. I laughed.

"No. She just made me go like 2 Provinces over."

"So how did you end up here?" Mirabelle came in.

"My aunt kicked me out and gave me money to move somewhere else. She didn't care where so I decided to come to one of the islands." Vaughn looked down suddenly.

"And you didn't think to come back home?" He asked. I was surprised by what he had said. I hung my head down.

"I didn't think you would remember me…" I mumbled quietly. Vaughn didn't say a thing.

"Well, were going to go look at some of those old huts in the village." Mirabelle jumped in excitedly. She hadn't changed a bit.

We walked up to a hut that was right beside Taro's. It had a lot of space around it. Perfect for all of the animals that she was planning to keep to sell at her new shop.

"It's perfect!" Mirabelle exclaimed. Mirabelle and Taro started talking about property limits and stuff like that. Vaughn grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of hearing range of the others. He looked at me, with what looked like a bit of sadness in his eyes.

"Why would you think that?" he asked.

"Think what? I can't read your mind." I stated

"Think that I would forget you? Are you serious? Chelsea, you were the only thing on my mind for the past five years. After you left I couldn't leave the house for weeks in fear that I would wander back to your old house… but I guess in the end that really didn't go as planned…"

"What do you mean?"

"Two years ago when Mirabelle, Julia and I left our little house to work in the city to come here, I ended up wandering back to your old house. No one ever moved into it… people didn't like the thought of what happened there. I found Sandy there too. She's umm… cleaned up pretty well…." He said sadly, but continued, "I went into the house, I found some of your things still there. Your bears… all your pretty necklaces." He said. He dug into his backpack that he had on his back and pulled out a little silver chain that had a horse at the end of it and handed it to me.

"I found this sitting on your nightstand. I guess you must have forgot it cause you were in such a rush…" it was a necklace he gave me when Vaughn and I were dating. I hardly even noticed I forgot it, and it's not like my aunt would turn around so I could get it.

"Oh my god…. Vaughn, thank you." I said and put it around my neck. "I miss having this around my neck." I stared down at the little silver horse hanging on my neck.

"You're welcome." He smiled down at me. I couldn't resist the urge to hug him again, I stood on my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck. He seemed to tense a little, but before I could question it in my own head, he relaxed and hugged me back.

"Wanna go for a walk?" I asked. He nodded in agreement. Suddenly he wasn't so talkative.

We walked down towards the beach and took off our boots and walked bare foot in the sand. Letting the sand sink between our toes as we walked. Together we sat on the old creaky dock, with our feet in the water. I sat with my arms behind me, soaking up the sun. I didn't even realize it when Vaughn placed his hand on top of mine. It just felt so… normal. Like that's how we're supposed to be. Before long I heard running footsteps running up behind us.

"Here I come!" I heard Julia scream before I got body slammed into the water.

"Oh shit!" I heard Vaughn say as I resurfaced. I splashed the salty water at Julia, hitting her and Vaughn in the progress.

"What the heck Chelsea!" Julia screeched. Vaughn laughed and pushed the obnoxious blond in with me. When Julia resurfaced I looked at her, I could almost see the light bulb light up above her wet head. We looked at Vaughn.

"Oh boy." Was the last thing he said as we grabbed the arm that wasn't throwing his black Stetson behind him and pulled him into the water.

"Now you gals are gonna get it." He smirked. He launched at the both of us and caught our waists and plunged us into the water.

At sundown we trudged out of the water in our wet cloths, laughing to the point where we almost couldn't breath. I invited Vaughn and Julia over to my little house for some hot tea and dry towels. We sat drying off by the warm fireplace catching up on all the things we have missed. We didn't realize how late it was getting until we heard a knock on the door. I got up and answered the door. Mirabelle was at the door, smiling as usual.

"Are those two planning on coming home at sometime?" She asked. Julia got up.

"Oh yea, I should probably head home. Vaughn are you coming?" Julia asked.

"I think I will stay a bit longer." He said. "If that is ok with you?"

"Of course it is." I smiled.

"Ok. I will see you later then." Mirabelle said and turned around with Julia. I closed the door and turned to Vaughn who was already moving closer to me. He smirked and put his hands on my ass and lifted me onto his hips and pressed me against the door.

"I missed you so much.." He sighed. I smiled.

"I missed you too." His lips touched mine gently at first. Then more fiercely.

"Can you stay here?" I asked.

"Stay?"

"Tonight. Stay with me tonight." I whispered in the darkness. I felt his lips curve in a smile.

"Of course."