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Chapter 1
Audrey
“Are you doing another reading?” Love asks as she brings another box into the living room, placing it next to the front door with the others. “They don’t tell the future, Mom, only whatmighthappen.”
“You’re right, but it makes me feel better.” I sigh, shuffling the deck of tarot cards a few times before placing the stack flat on the table and cutting the deck.
I have always been a free spirit. I blame my hippie parents, but I’ve always been happy. My mom was on the shorter side, barely standing over five feet, and looked exactly as you would imagine. I got my style and short stature from her, choosing to wear flowing tops with floral patterns and skirts that scraped the ground as I walk. Also, unlike my mother, I have warm brown skin, making me the perfect middle ground between my mom’s pale freckled face and my dad’s, who could best be described as Morris Chestnut with dreadlocks. My father and I had matching light brown eyes that my mother saidcould see into her soul. No one expected my parents to remain together, but they defied the odds.
Growing up, my mother read tarot cards for a living in New Orleans, and that’s how she met my father. They told me the story so many times I have it memorized. My dad was on his way home from the food co-op he ran called the New Orleans Healing Center a few blocks away when he randomly stopped by the store. He had never been in the shop before, but he said he felt compelled to come in that day. For my parents, it was love at first sight. They describe it as feeling like they were struck by lightning, knowing in that instant they were destined to be together. So apparently, fairy tales do exist.
I had a happy childhood, wanting nothing. The love my parents had for me and each other was blinding, but it never wavered. Even when I told them I was pregnant at eighteen. You’d think they would’ve lost it, but my mom wrapped me in her arms and told me everything was going to be okay. And it was, even if only for a short period.
Love’s father, Trey Leblanc, was the quarterback and captain of the football team, making him almost every teenage girl’s fantasy. Standing at almost six feet tall by the time he was seventeen years old, I barely came up to his chin. I remember how he’d bend down slightly whenever we talked, putting himself at eye level. I loved staring into his icy blue eyes. My hands would itch with the desire to brush the few strands of his dirty-blond hair from in front of his face. I would lie awake at night,imagining what it would feel like to have his muscular arms wrapped around me as he whispered sweet words into my ear.
To me, Trey was the boy I could never have. Like Leonardo DiCaprio in my favorite movie at the time,Romeo and Juliet. He was untouchable, too perfect to even imagine he would be interested in me. Trey was one of the few people who gave me the time of day when everyone else treated me like an outcast, the weird girl whose mom made her eat tofu instead of cheeseburgers like she wanted. I thought he was the love of my life, handing over my virginity to him on a random Friday night. I had planned our entire lives out, but then reality hit.
The following morning at school, he pretended like I never existed. I couldn’t understand what was going on until I overheard him and some of his buddies joking around about how easily the weird girl spread her legs. Two months later, I discovered I was pregnant with Love.
At first, I was devastated. Not only was I pregnant and the baby’s father wanted nothing to do with me, but all my plans went up in a puff of smoke. I was supposed to be headed to Louisiana State University after graduation to get a degree in environmental studies and work for Greenpeace. I wanted to make the world a better place, just like my parents, but on a larger scale. But when I discovered I was pregnant, my dreams changed. The moment I heard her heartbeat fill the room during my first ultrasound, I was determined to love thetiny person growing inside me. She became my new dream for the future.
After talking to my parents, we decided it was best to tell Trey and his parents about the baby. Since Trey and I had been friends for a while before sleeping together, our parents knew of each other but had never met. I envisioned Trey being just as scared as I was, but both our families would come together to bring this new life into the world. Damn, I was naïve. Trey and his parents called me every vile name they could think of before stating they wanted nothing to do with our child. I left their house with tears streaming down my face, and the papers terminating Trey’s parental rights arrived in the mail a few days later. My heart broke for the tiny human growing in my belly, but I was determined to be everything he or she needed in life. To show them the same love and unwavering support that my parents showed me.
Trey continued to avoid me, and I kept my head down, graduated, and went searching for a job. Thankfully, I had been attending classes at the local yoga studio for years and knew the owners. They hired me on the spot. Thankfully I was able to blend in, not alerting anyone else about my pregnancy. Yoga instruction wasn’t what I planned for my future, but it came with the flexible schedule I needed to take care of Love.
It was my parents, Love, and me against the world, and I was content with that. We didn’t have everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed. Until the unthinkable happened—the accident. My parents wereon their way home from one of their many spiritual retreats when a tractor-trailer veered into their lane and hit them head-on. They were both killed instantly. In a matter of minutes, I was alone, barely old enough to take care of myself, let alone an infant.
My parents were never big planners, but thankfully, they left simple instructions on what to do in the event that anything happened to them. But being eighteen and completely alone in the world made me ache for that connection to another human being. Something that I hate to admit still plagues me to this day. Hence, the tarot cards.
“What did you ask them this time?” Love questions, bringing me back to the present as she takes a seat at the table beside me.
“Am I making the right decision to move to Tyson’s Creek?” I whisper, my cheeks heating slightly in embarrassment.
This isn’t something new for me to be doing. My mom showed me how to read tarot cards when I was fourteen, and it became my passion. I used to do readings for friends and on odd occasions, but nothing too serious. It wasn’t until after my parents’ deaths that I relied on them heavily. The cards are now a part of me, using them to help guide the path I take through life. Each time I do a card reading, I feel as if she is sitting right here next to me, guiding me toward the right choices. Too bad that I don’t always listen to them.
“Mom…” She sighs, placing her hand on top of mine, her eyes full of emotion.
I know that look. That’s the look she gives me every time she thinks she’s saying something that will hurt my feelings. At fourteen, Love is one of my best friends. She’s one of the few people who I tell all my secrets and is always be there for me. But does it also make the line between mother and daughter a little less clear? Yes, it does, but it works for us. People don’t understand why I treat Love more like one of my friends instead of a fourteen-year-old girl, and if I’m being honest, I can’t pinpoint when it happened. Love and I grew up together, so it’s only natural we are close, but sometimes, she is the voice of reason.
“You can’t keep doing this. We are making the right decision to leave this place behind. We need a fresh start somewhere where we are both loved and supported.”
“I know, honey. But I can’t shake this nagging feeling that I’m making the wrong decision. That if we leave here, somehow, it’ll ruin everything for you and your future.”
Love giggles softly before giving my hand a squeeze. “No matter what you do, at some point, I’m sure I’ll blame you for ruining my life, but today is not that day. I’m excited to move closer to Auntie Bristol, especially with my new baby cousin on the way. I can’t wait to get all the baby snuggles I want since someone never gave me the little brother I demanded for my tenth birthday.”
“See? Ruining your life.” I comment as my phonevibrates on the table beside me, my best friend’s beautiful face filling the screen. “Speak of the devil.”
“Hello, Auntie Bristol!” Love shouts as I answer the phone. “Please tell my mother that Ian Hudson is an asshole and that moving to be closer to you and my new baby cousin is the best decision for all of us.”
“Language,” I growl as Love sticks her tongue out at me before disappearing down the hallway toward her room.
“Hey, Bristol.”
“You’re doing a reading again, aren’t you?” she deadpans.
“Yes.” I sigh, gearing up for the usual argument between us. “I know you don’t understand, but it calms me.”
Bristol Reid and I have been friends since right after I found out I was pregnant with Love. Her father was stationed at the military base in New Orleans and rented the house a few blocks down from mine. The moment she laid eyes on me at the bus stop, she decided we would be the best of friends. I swore things would change when we got to school, but they didn’t, and I slowly lowered the walls I had up around my heart. I even went as far as confiding in her that I was pregnant. She didn’t bat an eyelash. Instead, she wrapped me in her arms and promised to babysit whenever I needed help.
