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When she heard the shower cut on, she knew it would be safe to pull out her phone and text Henry back. Her thumbs hovered over the tiny letters, but she didn’t move them. This should be an easy answer. They’d been together for two years. Sure, she didn’t like the tone of his message, but she had left him to run the business on his own. Besides, Aunt Laura had never met him, so she didn’t understand how he communicated. He was a strong man who only showed his real self in private, certainly not over a text message.
Texting didn’t offer tone or inflection, and she couldn’t think what to type. Besides, this subject required a real conversation. She tapped.Can you talk?
Her eyes were heavy, but she knew they needed to speak about getting married. Certainly, a proposal came with a discussion about the future. They’d never talked about the important things like children and religion and all of the things engaged couples should know about each other. For the last 730 days, they’d only concentrated on the future of the business, not their personal plans.
Her phone chimed.
Nothing to talk about. See you by the twenty-fifth or not at all.
Perhaps the day had zapped all her energy because she didn’t feel anything. No anger, resentment, sadness, aching to be with him. She didn’t have a desire to hop in her car and race back to Atlanta. Sure, she’d go back, but she had two more weeks. They didn’t have the epic relationship of teenage dreams and hopes. This was real, and she appreciated something solid and dependable.
Maybe because she understood Henry, and that was a good thing. He was a reliable, direct, and driven man who would always stick around. His word meant something. When he said they would marry, she had no doubt he’d walk down the aisle and spend the rest of his life with her. That meant something. She’d never have to worry about him running off and abandoning her.
Not like mother had.
Only fantasies promised passion and happily-ever-afters. Real life didn’t offer both.
Scarlet tossed the phone to the cushion by her side and watched the moon rise higher like a beacon in the night. The quiet soothed her, and she propped her head up on the back of the couch. How many nights had she looked up at the sky and talked to Duke about her mother and his father? He’d held her while she cried when her mother didn’t show at Christmas year after year despite receiving a postcard promising that she’d be there. Then he’d sit by her side after Christmas as she penned a letter expressing her disappointment and hope for the next year. And after a month, he’d cradle her in his arms again, her cheek pressed to his strong chest, when no reply came.
“What’s got you entangled in such a mental war?” Aunt Laura’s voice echoed like Santa’s laughter.
“Nothing. Just tired.” Scarlet curled her knees to her chest allowing Aunt Laura to sit in front of her on the couch.
“Denial. How long can you hold on to that?”
Scarlet opened her mouth to protest, but she snapped it shut. No use, the woman would never listen.
“Can I ask you something, and you’ll give an honest answer? If not to me, then to yourself?”
Scarlet sighed. “I already know what you’re going to ask.”
“Maybe, but I promise to make you MeeMaw’s famous chicken pot pie if you indulge me for a minute.”
Scarlet’s mouth watered. “You fight dirty.”
“I’ll sling mud any day if I know it’s good for you.” Aunt Laura tapped Scarlet’s knee in that loving way she’d perfected over the years. Not that she had known much about being a mother when she gave up world travel to be home with a child, but she’d developed more maternal instincts than Scarlet’s own mother ever possessed. She owed her everything.
“Go ahead. I promise to listen.”
“I think you and I both know you left for college because you didn’t want to be a burden to me any longer.”
Scarlet shot up and dropped her feet to the floor. “I never said that. I’m thankful for all the years you gave me.”
“That’s just it. I never gave you anything, yet you gave me everything. To be honest, I never felt more complete than when I had you come into my life. I should’ve told you before you left for school, but I didn’t want you to go. I love you. I know I’m your aunt, but in my heart you’ll always be my daughter.”
Tears pricked at the corner of Scarlet’s eyes. “You didn’t want me to leave? You didn’t say anything.”
Laura settled on the sofa by Scarlet’s side. “I didn’t want to hold you back. Part of me hoped that if you went to college, you’d prove to yourself that you’re nothing like your mother. By finishing your degree, you’d realize that you finish what you start. Then I thought you’d come home and marry Duke and settle down.”
“Duke? We’re just friends.” Scarlet let out a nervous sound, something between a hose with a leak and a laugh.
“So you both keep telling yourselves, but I see it. You love him. You always have.”
“Me?”
Aunt Laura did the I’m-calling-you-out head tilt. “To yourself if not to me, remember?”
Silly ideas floated like fairies in Scarlet’s brain, but who had time for fantasies when they were living in real life? “Fine, maybe I once or twice hoped something might happen between us, but it never did. And trust me, Duke had plenty of chances. We spent every day together, and I thought we were growing closer.”
