AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My old bedroom, where I used to face the window hoping Theo would toss pebbles until I came outside.
And the stairs.
I avoid the stairs.
I jump when my aunt walks in, tufts of bleached blonde hair going in all directions. Despite her hair color, I look more like her than anyone. Her eyes are the same shape and shade as mine, whereas my mom had red hair and brown eyes.
I’m still in my mom’s chair, stuck in echoes of the past as reality marches on. Something I’ve done far too long. Especially since it’s been a month since I saw Theo.
I haven’t quite snapped back to the present just yet. And this house isn’t helping. There’s a reason I sleep out in the office in the stables except for the two nights a month my aunt comes to see me.
“Morning. I’m running to the store just as soon as I’ve had coffee,” Aunt Hilary says.
I get up and follow her into the kitchen.
“Have you added anything to the list?” she asks.
“Just a couple of things,” I say.
Abby, her wife, wanders into the kitchen, stretching her long dark arms, her curls still wrapped in the colorful silk wrap she wears to bed. She shuffles to the coffee pot and hums when she sees the coffee.
“Thank you, Sofie, and the dear Lord above who provided us with this coffee.”
“You don’t want to thank the coffee farmers too while you’re at it?” Aunt Hilary teases.
“And thank the dear coffee farmers who tilled that soil or whatever the hell they had to do to make this possible,” Abby adds.
She dumps a load of sugar and half-and-half in there, and Aunt Hilary snorts.
“You should be thanking the dairy farmers and sugar harvesters while you’re at it,” she says.
I laugh and Abby shoots me a perturbed look, but I know she’s not mad at all. This is how they tease each other and I’m not sure if it’s to make me laugh or just how they are with each other all the time.
I didn’t know either of them well until Aunt Hilary contacted me about my dad’s heart attack. I hadn’t seen her since I was a teenager and not often before that. But I’ve seen both of them a handful of times since my dad died and they’ve made it so easy, so comfortable—it almost feels like we could become a close-knit family.
Abby holds up her hand. “No one is wrecking my mood. Not today, Robert Redford.”
“Robert Redford?” I ask.
Aunt Hilary shakes her head. “She has an unreasonable and unwarranted distaste for that poor sexy man.”
Abby shudders. “You’re just determined to bring me down today, aren’t you?”
Aunt Hilary holds up her phone and shows me a picture of a young Robert.
“What could possibly be wrong with that face?” she asks.
I lift my eyebrows. “Cute,” I say.
“Right?” Aunt Hilary adds.
Abby looks at it and makes a face, blocking the screen.
“He’s in his eighties and still rocking some hotness,” Aunt Hilary says.
“Don’t you dare subject that girl to old Robert,” Abby says, grabbing Aunt Hilary’s phone and placing it facedown. “Now…” She claps her hands and it’s hard not to feel lighter and happier when she’s around, even in this house. “I was thinking today would be the perfect day for me to treat my favorite girls to The Pink Ski. What do you think?”
They both look at me expectantly, and my mouth opens and closes. I swallow hard and then go pour more coffee to avoid answering right away.
