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Fourteen
The next morning, Aubrey and her mother sat on the wide front porch, rocking away on a pair of rockers stationed to the left of the door. Thick green grass stretched alongside the dusty driveway beneath a clear blue sky. It was a perfect day in Royal...almost.
Last night had been fun, more fun than Aubrey had had in a while. She hadn’t seen her friends since before the accident, so time with the girls had been good for her heart. After the initial “how are you feeling” questions, everyone had gabbed about work. Having the spotlight off herself and onto what she loved—her job—had been a relief, even if it did make her miss work tenfold. She’d realized then just how exhausting it’d been to solely focus on her injury and healing from it.
Vic had been comfortable and conversational, the perfect foil for her that evening. She didn’t feel the need to watch over him or check on him. He’d chatted with the ladies and guys alike. Football or footwear, he’d commented on both topics. More than a few times he’d sent the entire table into fits of laughter. Even Elise had laughed along, and she’d seemed disapproving about him at first. The food had been delicious, authentic Tex-Mex like Aubrey had been raised on, and the margaritas were cool and refreshing.
When Vic had dropped her off at her parents’ house after dinner, her face had hurt from smiling. He’d kissed her in his truck and then had kept on kissing her...up until her father turned on the porch light as a nonverbal warning. Vic had commented that he felt like a teenager again, and she’d admitted to feeling the same before climbing out of his truck and going inside.
So, why, after an idyllic evening filled with friends, food, drink and kissing Vic, had Aubrey woken this morning with a tight ball of dread in her stomach? She couldn’t understand it.
She’d lain in bed an hour ago, the clean scent of fresh sheets surrounding her, staring at the ceiling. Memories of last night popped into her head one by one, like when Primrose mentioned she hadn’t remembered meeting Vic before. Or Elise’s insistence that they’d all met him at the awards dinner. And there’d been something about the way her friends had laughed. A little too loud and often, sometimes exchanging glances with each other Aubrey hadn’t understood the meaning behind.
She’d ignored the blip of concern in the moment, blaming her lack of social interaction or her uncooperative brain, but by this morning the events of last night had felt...well, forced. As if her friends had been performing. She’d told herself she was overreacting, but at the same time, she thought the observation significant.
“Did you and Vic have a nice dinner?” Her mother, a notoriously slow riser, finally spoke, jarring Aubrey out of her hectic thoughts.
“I thought you’d fallen asleep over there.”
“Darn near. I had to down half of my coffee before I could form words. How’d I rise and shine back when I taught school? The mind boggles.” Her mother shook her head as if amused by her own thoughts. “I miss work sometimes. Gave me something to do with myself.”
Mary was a retired English teacher. Aubrey had followed in her mother’s footsteps after watching her mother grade papers and read essays by the light of the evening news. Her job had always looked fun to Aubrey.
“We had a nice time. I feel a little off, though. Talking about school and students with my coworkers made me realize how much I miss work.” Maybe that’s what this bizarre feeling was—her mourning her former routine. Aubrey loved interacting with her students, assigning papers and then reading and grading them. She found ways to encourage and praise every student, no matter what.
When she was younger, she’d pestered her mother with a zillion questions about teaching. She’d shadowed her mother at work for a high school paper. Aubrey had a deep love of learning, so choosing to go to college had been a no-brainer.
She hadn’t been ready to marry and start a family at such a young age—not with her entire future up for grabs. No wonder it’d pissed her off when Vic suggested she stay home and have his babies rather than pursue graduate school.
“...you have years and years to teach. Don’t worry, you’ll be back soon enough,” her mother was saying. But Aubrey hadn’t been listening for the last several seconds. They’d audibly ticked by alongside each of her heartbeats, which were currently reverberating like a gong in her ears.
What was that thought about Vic and him wanting her to...have babies instead of going to graduate school?
She blinked, more confused than when she’d woken up this morning. She couldn’t call up a time or place or any snippet of the conversation in her head, but it felt real. As real as the rocking chair under her butt and the mug of coffee warming her hands. The feeling of dread returned tenfold. That thought didn’t feel like a thought at all. It felt like a memory.
“Honey, are you all right?” her mother asked.
“Yes. Yeah.” She rubbed her temple where the start of a headache was brewing. “I’m, uh, trying to decide what to do with myself today.”
“Lucky for you, I need help reorganizing the bookshelves. You can help me.”
“Yes, so lucky.” Aubrey forced a smile, cupping her mug with both hands to hide the shake in her arms.
She was still wrestling with the off feeling as she finished her coffee and then followed her mother inside. Thirty minutes later, the contents of the massive bookshelf in her mother’s office were stacked on the floor and across two desks. Her mother swiped the dust from the top of the shelf and declared it was as clean as it would become. “How about a BLT for lunch? With avocado.”
“Sold.” Aubrey was hungry after having only coffee for breakfast. “Do you need help?”
“Sure do. Put all of this back for me, will you?” Mary waved in the general direction of the stacks of books, plants and the occasional figurine. Then she walked out, leaving Aubrey to handle the task.
She put away the large books first, mostly hardback coffee-table books about photography and travel. She came across one she recognized, a book about the solar system she’d referenced for her science fair project in her junior year in high school. She’d built a model of the planets, and a darn good one at that. She cracked the spine and found her second-place ribbon wedged between the pages. Gold, not blue like the first-place ribbon had been, but she’d been proud of the win. Vic had told anyone who’d listen that Aubrey should have won, and that Timothy Leighton, who’d won first place, had only claimed first place because he was a kiss-ass.
She smiled at the memory as she continued flipping through the book’s pages. Then she came across a long, slender sheet of paper. No, not paper. A strip of photographs. The pictures were of her and Vic at the science fair, from one of those box-shaped, curtain-covered photo booths. In the photos she and Vic were smiling, kissing or pretending to sleep. The bottom one was her favorite. She’d been making a goofy face at the camera, but his eyes had been on her. His expression was raw and beautiful. She could see the love he’d had for her captured in this photo. It radiated even now, as real and alive as it’d ever been.
Or maybe as it used to be.
With a frown, she carefully folded the photo strip in half and tucked it into her back pocket. Her headache had arrived, either from not eating or the bout of overthinking she’d suffered since opening her eyes today. She made quick work of filing the rest of her mother’s books and mementos onto the gleaming wood shelves, and then went to join her for lunch.
Vic and Jayden were perched on the fence surrounding the Grandin property, boots hooked on the bottom plank, watching the sun go down on a long day.
