Until the Tide Returns

As Landon checked us into our second hotel on our trip I made a mental list of what I had learned.

1) Her name is Maya and she is funding our road trip to Maryland.
2) She is the Keeper of the Tide, which I will be next year
3) Landon is my protector
4) He’s met my mother
5) I have feelings for him
6) We can not have a relationship because there has never been one between a Keeper and their protector, and because every Keeper has chosen to live alone (apparently I come from a long line of spinsters)
7) I have to move to Maryland
8) Landon will be moving there too
9) I’m going to have to see him everyday
10) Landon has a strong hatred for any type of cheese flavored snack
11) Taking in water seems to calm me instantly, it also seems to heal me
12) Landons touch also calms me down
13) I’m starting to believe he only drinks Coke
14) My maternal grandmother has called and asked us to stay with her when we get to Maryland.
15) I have a maternal grandmother (who I have yet to actually speak to)
16) My mother has been psychically watching me my entire life and has known Landon could help me but instead to chose to stay silent
17) I’m really starting to believe my mother is nothing more than a manipulative bitch (ok, that’s not a fact but it seems plausible, and as for number 13 Landon has yet to drink anything beside coke.)
18) She bought Landon a car for his birthday but couldn’t so much as send me a birthday card with a sorry you’re a freak but it will all be explained shortly
19) Her reasoning behind not telling Landon where to find me was she had some sort of vision, and he needed to find me on his own
20) I can’t seem to stop thinking about the kiss

Landon walked out of the office and smiled at me as he approached the car. My stomach flipped. I plucked by bottle of tea out of the cup holder and took a few gulps. He opened his door sliding easily into his seat. “Room 368. It’s at the back of the property and luckily near the elevator.” I stayed quiet as we drove around the building and parked. “Planning on staying awhile?” He asked amused as I pulled all of my bags out of the car.

“No,” I said rolling my eyes in a very Loraine-esque manner “I’m going to organize my bags so I only have to take one in with me each night. In case you did not notice I just stuffed whatever was handy into them.” My closet was ridiculously packed with clothes. Many had never been worn, some probably didn’t even fit. “It might also be a good idea to actually see what I packed.”

“Alright.” He smiled and pulled his bag out slinging it over his shoulder. After he shut the trunk he picked up one of my bags.

The room, we both noticed silently after stepping into the room, held a single king sized bed. I set my bags on the floor in front of the air conditioner and looked at Landon. He sighed and dropped the bags beside mine. “They told me there were separate beds.” I looked at the clock on the nightstand, 7:30. “Wait here and I’ll go get this straightened out.”

“K.” I picked up my bags and set them on the bed as he left. I made piles on the bed as I pulled out my clothes. When I finished I realized I had packed 5 dresses, a lot of short sleeved shirts and tank tops and a lot of shorts as well as a good amount of ‘unmentionables’ as my grandmother would say. I even managed to pack my Green Eggs and Ham shorts. The one thing I had forgotten was to pack was any sort of shoe other than the ones on my feet. I was also low on deodorant and my razor, toothbrush, and hairbrush were nowhere to be seen. Great.

By the time I had finished sorting my clothes into my bags Landon returned. “There’s some sort of surgical convention and all the rooms are booked, this was the only room they had left.”

“Oh, ok.”

“So I’ll take the floor tonight.”

“Landon, you don’t have to. The bed is big enough to share.” I should have offered to sleep on the floor but after sitting in a car for several hours that was the last thing I wanted. Besides. We were just going to sleep. He looked at me funny.

“Are you sure?”

“You’re driving me across the country, I am not making you sleep on the floor when there is plenty of room in the bed.” My stomach growled loudly and I felt my face redden.

“Let’s go get something to eat.” He gestured to the door and I followed him.

“Any chance we can find a store while we’re out? I left a few things behind.” We walked down the hallway and to the elevator. The few people that were in it stepped to the side to give us room.

“There’s one in the lobby.” Landon said quietly. I nodded and waited patiently for the doors to open. I was shocked by how many people were standing around talking to one another, as if they had just been released from something. Then I remembered Landon mentioning the convention.

“Whoa.” I said stepping out of the elevator.

“Yeah.” Landon said beside me. “Stay close, I don’t want to lose you.” He took my hand and smirked at me as we made our way through the crowd to the small store. I let go of his hand once we entered and quickly grabbed what I needed taking it to the counter.

“It’s always the little things.” The cashier smiled at me as she rung the items up. Landon pulled out a card and swiped it, punching in the pin as she bagged the items and handed them to me. “I take it you two aren’t here for the convention?”

“No ma’am,” Landon smiled at her. “Just taking a road trip.”

“It’s nice to see two young people in love taking some time for themselves, you two be safe out there. Just because you drive safely doesn’t mean other people do.”

“We’re not-” I started to say but Landon cut me off telling her to have a nice day and gently pulled me out of the store and into the crowd.

“Would you mind eating here? I saw a sign for a restaurant.” I shook my head and once again he took my hand leading me through the swarm of medical professionals.

The hostess at the stand told us it would be a 10-30 minute wait and handed us a large pager. “I know we’re going to be eating late, but we’ll be heading out of here no later than 10 tomorrow morning. Check out is at 11 and I’m hoping we don’t get stuck waiting behind the doctors.” Landon said to me as we walked out to the pool. I bent down and took my shoes off wanting to dip my feet in the cool water, and then I remembered what happened at the dance. I sighed and put them back on.

“Will there ever be a time when chlorine doesn’t make me violently ill?” I asked him.

“Once you have a daughter and she turns 18.” He shrugged. “Until then stick to natural sources of water.” He smiled at me sympathetically as we walked over to set of lounge chairs. I crossed one ankle over the other watching as a cluster of women walked out onto the pool deck laughing wine glasses in hand. One with platinum blonde hair looked familiar. “Do you know them?”

“What?” I turned my head and faced Landon.

“You were staring at them pretty intently, like you were trying to place one of them or something.”

“The one with the platinum blonde hair, I think I’ve seen here before.” Landon raised a brow.

“Platinum?”

“Really blonde, almost white. She has on a red and white patterned dress.”

Landon looked over at the women for a moment and shrugged. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“I swear I know her from somewhere.” I looked back over at them, they all laughed again. The women who looked so familiar raised a hand and waved somebody over.

“Is that…?” Landon asked.

“Yes.”

“Should we..?”

“I don’t know.” I whispered turning my head to face Landon entirely. “He’s going to want answers, and while I fully trust him I don’t know how to explain it to his wife. As far as she’s concerned I’m allergic to water.”

“Then don’t tell her.” Landon shrugged. “Just claim you have a medical problem you need to speak to him privately about.”

“And I explain what I’m doing here with you how?” The pager I held onto began vibrating startling me. I dropped it and it made a loud noise at it moved across the pool deck. I picked it up quickly holding it tightly. “Maybe we can just slip by him unnoticed?”

“Really? You want to hide?”

“No. But…”

“But?” Landon reached over and placed a hand on mine. “We’ll get up and walk by him, if he notices you then we’ll talk to him, if not then we won’t.” I nodded and stood up slowly. The second I turned around I knew I couldn’t slip past him.

“Beckett?” He called loudly staring at me. I smiled and gave a small wave. Tina perked up and looked over at me smiling wide. Tyler motioned for his wife to stay there as he walked over to us. “What the hell are you doing here?” He sounded half angry half confused.

“Impromptu road trip?” I offered, he gave me a stern look. Landon placed a hand on my shoulder and stepped forward.

“We’ve had a long drive and were just about to go eat. Why don’t you come by our room around 10 and we’ll talk about it?”

“You’re room?” I could not read the look on his face. Great. “Does your father know about this?”

“Pretty much.” This didn’t sit well with him either. “Look, I will explain everything to you I swear but can Landon and I go eat first? Letting your number one patient die of starvation may look bad.” He didn’t look amused.

“Oh, you’re going to eat all right. Just with some company.” He sighed and turned around. “Tina!” his voice took on a false joyous tone. I watched as Tina stood smiling at her friends and then walked over to us.

“I can’t explain this in front of her.” I hissed at him.

“Hi Tina.” I gave her a small wave just as she pulled me into a hug.

“What on earth are you doin’ all the way out here darlin’?” She released me and then looked over at Landon. “And who is this handsome young man. Is he your beau?”

“No, just a friend.” I said trying to keep my voice neutral.

“Actually honey, they were just on their way to eat and invited us to join them.” Tyler said wrapping an arm around his wife’s waist. “Isn’t that nice? It will give us a chance to catch up.”

“Oh honey, I don’t want to intrude, let them have their alone time.” Tyler frowned deeply.

“It’s no intrusion, honest.” Landon chimed in. “We insist. Right Beckett?”

“Totally.” I desperately wanted to stomp on his foot. “I don’t get to see you two often enough.” The pager still vibrated in my hands. “We should get going, wouldn’t want them to give away our table.” I began walking quickly to the restaurant.



Landon, bless him, managed to field all questions as to why we were here and convince Tina that he had to visit his ill grandmother in Maryland and knew my father was still there and offered to bring me along. When asked why we didn’t fly he claimed to have a paralyzing fear of heights. Loraine had called during dinner but once again Landon sent it to voicemail. Tina then pulled out of him that it was his best friend Loraine who was a great fan of hers and had placed Loraine’s number into her phone promising she would call and get her sizes and send her clothes as well. I had a feeling Loraine would forgive Landon for ignoring her calls after that.

“Honey I’ll meet you back in the room.” Tyler said as we began walking towards the elevator. “I need to give her a quick check-up.”

“Always the careful one.” She laughed and hugged all three of us before walking down the hallway. We rode the elevator in silence and walked to our room. Landon opened the door and I followed him in stopping short. I forgot about the bed situation.

“Inside.” Tyler commanded. I grudgingly finished walking into the room and sat on the bed. “Is there something going on between you two?” He asked seeing the bed. “Because I wasn’t kidding about castration back in Arizona.” He looked pointedly at Landon then who shifted uncomfortably.

“No Tyler.” I sighed flopping back onto the bed. “There isn’t. So can we just get this over with so I can get some sleep?”

“Why so eager to go to bed if there isn’t anything going on?” I grabbed a pillow and tossed at him. “Alright Spicket, tell me your tale.” So I did. Leaving out the part about the kiss of course. “Whoa.” He said when I finally finished. “No wonder I could never figure out what the hell was wrong with you.”

“There is nothing wrong with her.” Landon said sounding highly agitated. Tyler looked over at him then at me.

“Something happened between you two didn’t it?” I felt the heat rise to my cheeks and closed my eyes blocking my view of the ceiling.

“It’s not going to happen again.” I sighed mostly from embarrassment and a slight bit from the utter rejection I still felt.

“It better not.” He said sternly. “I’ll let you go to sleep, but come and see me before you leave tomorrow.”

“Yes sir.” I gave him a two fingered salute.

“I wasn’t talking to you Spicket. I was referring to your protector over here.” He walked over to the bed and nudged my foot. “Don’t I get a hug goodnight?”

“Can I have a glass of water first?” I smirked opening my eyes.

“Shut up and give me a hug.” he said failing miserably at trying to hide his smile.