Текст книги "More Than a Memory "
Автор книги: Amber Nation
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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 13 страниц)
Chapter 1
Baylor
May 2014
15 years later
Buried deep under Mrs. Burris’ kitchen sink, this corroded garbage disposal was being a downright bitch. My wrench kept slipping and I just couldn’t get my brain to focus on the task at hand. The mail that I received yesterday was clouding all of my thoughts.
My phone vibrated on my hip and I was thankful for the distraction. I leaned back on my haunches and grabbed a rag out of the back pocket of my carpenter jeans to wipe off the sludge and water remnants from the pipes. I ran this plumbing business so I had to be the one to answer my phone, plus it could be Norah so there was no question as to whether I’d answer.
I grabbed my phone off of my belt clip and pressed the answer button before bringing it to my ear. “Jenkins Plumbing, this is Baylor.”
“Baylor,” the voice of my oldest friend came through the other end of the phone instantly putting a smile on my face.
“Dean, how in the hell is it going?” I hollered out before remembering that I was in the house of an eighty-year old woman and I needed to watch my language.
“Oh you know. Listen, I called because I wanted to know if you received the invitation?” I knew this was why he was calling.
I looked down at the linoleum tile on the floor, as I rubbed the back of my neck with my free hand, “Yeah, I got it. Are you planning on flying in for it?”
“You know that I wouldn’t give up a chance to come see you and my favorite niece.”
“Norah is your only niece, pseudo or otherwise,” I joked.
Dean paused for a moment, “Do you think Eden will be there?”
There it was, my reason for being completely out of whack today and thrown off kilter. Deep down in my heart I wanted to say that she would be there, but circumstances didn’t exactly justify that logic. “Man, she didn’t come to the ten year reunion and I don’t think she’s stepped foot back in this town in the fifteen years since we’ve graduated.” She basically vanished into thin air; if it weren’t for her mother telling me about her life with her husband, I would be worried that something bad had happened to her.
“Yeah, yeah, I guess you’re right, it’s just so strange that she left so abruptly. Even after all of these years I miss her, she was our best friend.”
She was so much more to me, I thought to myself.
After the grueling work day, I finally pulled into my driveway and shut off my pickup truck.
That damn garbage disposal took me an hour longer to install than it should have. Of course it was my own fault, so I only charged Mrs. Burris for the time it should’ve taken.
I walked in through my garage into the house and was immediately greeted by the sight of my daughter and her annoying little friend sprawled out on the island in my kitchen, giggling over something on Norah’s laptop.
A deep sigh reverberated from my chest, as I walked over and placed my truck keys on the correct hook hanging on my pale yellow kitchen wall.
“And what do you ladies think you’re doing?” I questioned as I came up beside them and noticed my daughter Norah was holding my high school reunion invitation in one of her hands.
“Dad,” she immediately switched from her position of lying on her stomach to sitting up. “I found this invite, are you planning on going?”
“I plan on it, yes. Your uncle Dean called me today saying he was going to be flying in for it.”
Her face instantly lit up at the mention of Dean. After all of these years of being friends he was still a constant in my life. And once he laid eyes on Norah he was caught– hook, line, and sinker. He was such a sucker for my baby girl.
“Do you think Mom will go?”
“That’s something you’ll have to ask her, sweetheart.” The thought of my ex-wife Kristina being in attendance was enough to make my stomach turn sour. Saying that we parted on civil terms was a complete understatement. She was a money-hungry woman; I was just lucky that she showed her true colors when she did or else I could still be stuck in a miserable marriage.
She had recently ran off with a retired surgeon named Austin and all but forgotten about Norah. My daughter deserved more than the occasional phone call and visit one week during the summer. But Kristina couldn’t be bothered to interrupt her traveling the world for her one and only child. I couldn’t handle even going a day without talking to my little sidekick.
She glanced sideways at her friend, Polly before directing her attention back to me, “Do you think Eden will be there?”
My lungs quickly deflated and I had to brace a hand on the countertop to try and catch my breath. “How do you know about Eden?”
Norah’s amused expression instantly turned deadpan, “Dad, come on, I can hear you when you talk to uncle Dean and you bring up her name, you totally have the hots for her. I guess you could call it woman’s instition,” she said so matter-of-factly, my brows quirked, disappearing into my hairline.
“Woman’s intuition,” Polly corrected.
“Woman’s intuition huh? Y’all aren’t even teenagers and definitely not women, but I’ll let it slide.” I backed up so I could lean against the counter next to the stove. “Eden Richardt was your uncle Dean and my best friend growing up. She was my everything, but I was too afraid of jeopardizing our friendship for it to become anything more.” I was really getting into reliving my past with Eden, but I made sure to steer clear of any and all talk about Norah’s mother. Thinking back to the month prior to graduation Eden was the reason I broke up with Kristina. I think she caught onto the fact that I had more than friendly feelings towards Eden and she wasn’t the least bit happy about it. I had never even told Norah that her mother and I went out in high school; she thought we started dating in college. It was just easier to avoid opening that can of worms.
Polly interrupted me during my reminiscing to annoy me in the way that only Polly can, “Wait, if you were as great of friends as you say you were, then why hasn’t she been around all of these years?”
Looking up to the ceiling and crossing my arms in front of my chest I thought about what she was asking. What did I really know about Eden’s leaving? Absolutely nothing. “To tell you the truth I don’t know. We kissed for the first time on graduation night and the next day she was supposed to meet me at my house and never showed up. When I asked her mom about it she said that she moved to Lexington already to help out with her Nana. And if Eden wanted to talk to me she would get ahold of me.”
“And you just left it at that?” Norah asked.
“Well no, but then I got together with your mom and life went on. We got married and started a family, by the time your mom and I divorced I asked Eden’s mom about her and she said she was happily married. She wouldn’t really divulge where she lived or her last name so I couldn’t look her up on that social media crap you youngsters use.”
“Dad,” Norah rolled her eyes, “seriously you aren’t that old, you’re practically still in the prime of your life. I hope she comes to the reunion, I think you two have some serious unfinished business.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my little girl?” That statement earned me another eye roll. “Oh, girl, you shouldn’t have done that. I was going to order pizza for dinner, but no pizza for you now. Only Polly and I can eat it.”
I kicked off of the counter and began making my way to the living room as I heard Norah scream “NO!” Pizza was her favorite and I loved to joke with her. But as young as Norah was, she sure seemed all grown up, and maybe she did have a point about Eden and I having unfinished business. I hoped that she would actually come to the reunion but I was going to try not to get my hopes up.
Chapter 2
Eden
“She’ll have the salmon and asparagus salad…”
Was this guy serious? He knew me all of five minutes and was going to order my food for me? And a salad that had goat cheese, fennel, AND asparagus? Oh hell to the no! I threw my cloth napkin onto the table and interrupted him while he was trying to order me some kind of rabbit food. “I’m sorry, she’ll actually have the bacon cheeseburger with fries.” I smiled sweetly at the waitress who then reciprocated with a sly smile of her own. Once she walked away from the table I openly stared at Patrick, my blind date for the evening, “A little word of advice, this is the twenty-first century, we women can order our own food.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes wondering how much longer I should stay before hastily making my departure away from this nightmare. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that perhaps he was just a bit nervous. After a few moments I guessed I would start the conversation because he was just fiddling with his rolled-up silverware and intently indulging in the bottle of wine that he ordered.
“So, Patrick, what do you do for a living?” When I said that he was my blind date I wasn’t kidding, I went into this entire evening without knowing anything more than his name. He was one of my co-worker’s neighbors and she assured me he was the one that I’d been looking for all of my life. I found it hilarious that people knew who and what exactly I was looking for even before I did.
“Ahem,” he cleared his throat and readjusted his loud turquoise tie, pulling it off of his neck. It was incredibly clear that he didn’t want to be here anymore than I did. He took another liberal gulp from his wine glass, which was already bordering on needing a refill. “I’m actually an Occupational Therapist.” That was a great job, it was in demand, and I began listening intently to see if he would further elaborate on his career of choice. A tear formed in the crease of his eye and he began choking on his words, “I’m sorry, I don’t know if I can do this. My wife just recently left me. You seem like a great woman and I tried everything I could to get you to run away but yet you’re still here.” Well, that’s one way to get me to straight hightail it out of there, tell me that he’s still married and then proceed to cry over it. I handed him my napkin, proceeded to grab my purse and scoot my chair back on the thin gray carpet, flying out of my seat and out the door.
This date would make entertaining radio on Monday morning but it sucked being the subject of it all. Once my radio cohost heard the news of my mother taking it upon herself to sign me up for one of those matchmaking websites, he was completely on board and on my mother’s side. So for our show I had to go on one blind date a week and report in on Monday about how it went. I’d been adding a spin on it about the do’s and don’ts of dating which had been getting rave reviews but it was getting quite old. There I was, thirty-three years old and I’d never been married. I was seriously contemplating just giving up. Maybe then I would find my ‘soul mate.’
It was entirely too early to go home so I did the next best thing, I went to the grocery store. What better way to start off your weekend than to pick up a pint of your favorite ice cream, coincidentally named after you…But in my defense, it was only available from May to August and during that time I ate copious amounts of it. A night like I had just had definitely called for Edy’s German Chocolate Cake Spectacular. With a name like that you know it’s nothing short of heavenly.
I felt my phone vibrate in my hobo purse that was slung on my shoulder; I already knew who it was. My best friend, Julia, or Jules as I often liked to call her always called to check up on me during a date to make sure things were going well. Or as I tended to put it, to be my excuse if I needed to bail.
Pressing my finger on my phone screen to accept the call, I placed my phone to my ear, “Hey, girl!” I answered while I was desperately searching the ice cream section for my limited-edition treat.
“You sound unusually chipper for being on a date. Should I assume that things are actually going well?” Jules’ melodic voice filtered through the speaker.
“Completely the opposite, he was a dimwit who tried to order my food for me. And that’s not the worst, what he tried to order, Petunia wouldn’t even touch!” Petunia was my fourteen pound Westie, and she would eat just about anything you put in front of her. I decided to forgo the embarrassment of his crying fit for now.
“Ugh! Seriously, Eden, do you think you’re getting a little bit too picky nowadays?”
“What are you, my mother? And who is the one who’s been married two times…AND divorced?” Eden = 1, Jules = -2
“Hardy har, bitch. But really, what are you doing right now since you skipped out on Mr. Thought-you-were-incapable-of-ordering-your-own-meal?”
“Oh you know, I’m living the dream. Grocery shopping on a Friday night.”
“You’re getting ice cream!” Silence from my end, “And your silence confirms it! You aren’t supposed to get ice cream without me!”
“Well you are more than welcome to join me and Petunia on our all-night ice cream binge fest.”
“Nah, I’m tired.” Cue an eye roll from me. She had to make a complete spectacle about me buying ice cream then turn down my invitation, what a twat! “But since you are in the grocery store you should head on over to the produce section, you never know when you could meet someone. You know, and flirt over kumquats.”
My black flats squeaked on the tiled floor as my steps faltered. “Julia, only you could make a fruit sound dirty.”
“You’re listening to 98.9 Nashville’s Powerhouse, playing top hits from yesterday and today! You’ve got Eden and Blaine in the morning!” My cohost, Blaine Roberts, smoothly spoke into the microphone on the desk in front of him. “It’s Monday morning and we all know what that means…We get to recap Eden’s Evening of Enchantment!” Or triple E, as he often shortened it.
I finished grumbling under my breath as I put my headphones on over my ears and brought my mouth up to my microphone. “Good morning! I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend…”
“Nope! You are not getting out of this, Eden, it’s what our fans look forward to before their grueling work week, a recap of what had the potential to be an amazing date!” Blaine snickered before looking up over his microphone and giving me puppy dog eyes.
“Oh all right. Well, my blind date, who shall always remain nameless, showed up ten minutes late without so much as a text informing me of him being tardy: strike one. So we head into the restaurant, which he chose, and it was actually a very elegant establishment …Everything is all right so far, we are making small talk while we peruse the menu for what we want to eat. But when the waitress comes up he proceeds to order my meal for me. Salmon salad with asparagus, and as I’ve said numerous times on the air, I loathe asparagus. That alone was enough for strikes two AND three. I know sometimes men are old-fashioned and are trying to be chivalrous but he didn’t so much as bat an eye at trying to open the door for me or pull out my chair. But being the nice person that I am decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. He could’ve been nervous for all I knew. Next thing I know he’s a blubbering mess, talking about how his wife just left him and he’s tried everything he could think of to get me to bail out on him. So, I granted his wish, left him crying in the restaurant and had a date with my dog and a carton of amazing ice cream. So I would call this date, Eden’s Evening of Enmity. Please remind me to thank Joan on her amazing hookup! In all seriousness, I hope he and his wife can reconcile their differences.”
“Eden, such hostility with a weird twist of sympathy!” Blaine said, pretending to actually be shocked at my having another dud of a date.
“You would have been the same way Blaine! This is the twenty-first century, we women can order our own meals and one without an ingredient that makes you retch every time you see it let alone smell it on a plate in front of you.”
A thought entered my mind and I couldn’t believe it, but it just might work well for both of us. I had to pause a moment for dramatic effect, “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I stopped to take a deep breath. “Blaine will you marry me?” This would solve my problem and keep my mother off of my back about how my time is ticking away. And besides Blaine and I got along well enough, when we weren’t butting heads on the air over our different views. I peeked around my mic and graced him with the biggest smile I could muster, he knew I was just kidding, it was how our on-air relationship worked. And plus, he was more like a brother to me than anything. But if he actually agreed to this farce, I wouldn’t be against actually considering it.
“Tell you what, Eden, give me five years, if we’re both still single I’ll marry you. I’m still sort of holding out for my sugar mama,” he replied, shrugging one of his shoulders and wagging his eyebrows.
“You don’t think I could be your sugar mama? After all, I am older than you. And plus you never know, we could be star-crossed lovers.” I batted my lashes in his direction and clasped my hands together bringing them to my chest.
“Big freaking deal, you’re older than me by ten months! I’d hardly call that cougar status.” We both erupted in a fit of laughter. Wow, imagine that, we were moving extremely off topic. It happened when the two of us started rambling on air, but our boss Mr. Richmond didn’t have the best sense of humor and we were often scolded on the turns our show took. But the listeners loved it and continued to tune in because you never knew what would happen on air. Wasn’t that what it’s all about? Entertaining our listeners?
“Moving on now, I did receive some mail this weekend that I thought was pretty interesting. I got an invitation to my fifteen year reunion. I can’t believe it’s actually been that long.”
“Oh wow! Are you going to go? You haven’t been back home since you’ve graduated, right?”
I wasn’t exactly sure why I brought up the invitation on the air, it wasn’t like I was actually planning on going. And Blaine was right, I hadn’t been back since the day after I graduated High School; the place harbored too many unpleasant memories that I didn’t care to dredge up.
“That’s right, I’ve made Tennessee my home and don’t really see the need to go back.” I tried to make my statement a finality; hopefully he would catch on and drop it before it progressed any further.
Blaine leaned across his desk and picked up a single piece of white copy paper. “Speaking of mail, we received an email that I think might change your mind about going to this reunion of yours…”
That was news to me, someone sent an email? To me? And he was planning on reading it on air?
I sat up straighter in my chair, “Blaine, let me see what you’ve got there?”
He waved the paper in the air and then cleared his throat, building up the momentum before he actually started reading from the email. With the positions of our desks it was impossible for me to reach him or the paper without taking off my head phones. But that didn’t stop me from throwing numerous paperclips in his direction; he was lucky that was all I had at my disposal.
“My Sweet Eden,” my breath instantly hitched. There was only one person who had ever called me that and it had only been the one time, after our first and only kiss… Blaine continued reading on and I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was hearing. He missed me and hoped that I would attend?
Once Blaine had finally reached the end of the letter, the one that he so publicly displayed over the air, I had tears welled up in my eyes waiting for the moment I would allow them to spill over. As he read the closing and who it was from, all he said was “B,” giving the sender a little bit of anonymity, but I whispered under my breath, “Baylor.”
“Well, now it’s time for us to take a break, enjoy this next song by...” I didn’t even finish my sentence before I hit the button that would begin to play the next song lined up in the queue. Then I threw off my headphones, pushed back my chair and practically lunged at Blaine for that letter.
He held it up between his fingers and allowed me to rip it from his grasp. I took it in both of my trembling hands and frantically scanned the letter, reading over what I had just heard moments ago live for the entire Nashville area.
My Sweet Eden,
Can you believe that it’s been fifteen years since I’ve last looked into your beautiful chocolate eyes? I remember them as if I had only seen them yesterday. I don’t know what happened all those years ago, but the invitation from the reunion has me reliving our final moments from the past. How are you? What are you doing? Are you well? These are questions I find myself asking on a daily basis desperately wishing I knew the answers. I hope you find it in your heart to come to the reunion and meet with me so we may catch up.
Sincerely Yours,
Baylor
I walked backwards until the back of my legs hit my chair and slowly sat down. He wanted me to come to the reunion? And he didn’t know what happened? Anger surged from deep within my chest from the memory that haunted me from those fifteen years ago.
I slammed the piece of paper down on my desk and tried to shake off my irritation and disbelief. Putting my headphones back on over my head, I scooted up towards my microphone and tried to focus on my work and not that damn email which was now burning a hole on my desk.
“Eden, I think you should go,” Blaine quietly said on the other side of the room. Of course he would wait to say that after I was already resituated in my seat so I couldn’t come after him.
I wasn’t going to allow myself to get all worked up, so I was going to try and be as nonchalant as I could. I picked up the stack of papers that had notes for the show scribbled on them and started shuffling them and making sure they were in the proper order, even though it was a completely unnecessary task. “I don’t have the vacation time,” I simply said.
Blaine leaned his head to the right and I felt him staring at me. He knew just as well as I did that I had plenty of vacation time saved up; hell, the station had been begging me to use some of it.
I couldn’t tell you how I floated through the rest of my shift; thank heavens for Blaine stealing the show that morning. My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten since the doughnut I scarfed down before we went on air. Blaine made it a habit to bring in the fried doughy goodness every Monday morning, knowing I couldn’t resist. He was my enabler. It was a wonder how I didn’t have a fat ass that supported all the sweets I consumed.
Oh that’s right, Jules was a Nazi Zumba queen and made me accompany her just about every night, so I worked off every single unnecessary calorie that entered through my parted lips. It wasn’t very often when I could come up with a viable excuse that she would believe so that I could skip Zumba, so I made it my mission to make her listen to me groan and complain over the course of the hellacious hour-long class.
That night was no different, but she hardly let me get a word in edgewise since she’d heard the show that morning.
“Eden Nicole Richardt, you are going to that reunion,” Julia said with a cocky flair that she’d claimed as her own. She busted out the middle name so I knew she meant business. No one ever used my entire name unless it was my momma and I was on the receiving end of her look.
“No, I’m not. I’ve told you what happened; I don’t think I could show my face at the reunion.” I said from upside down as I was reaching for my toes, trying to stretch before class. “It’s sweet that Baylor took the time to track me down and write that email, but he doesn’t think he did anything wrong. He actually says that he doesn’t even know what he did to run me off all those years ago!”
“Maybe it was a misunderstanding?” My head snapped up to hers and she raised her hands in a halting motion, “That’s all I’m saying. Besides how could he not acknowledge you with your fabulous pair of knockers? Even I’m jealous.”
Jules always knew how to make me smile, and that was why we were friends. Well, one of the many reasons. I looked down at my chest which was encased with a sports bra and my workout tank, “Sadly, the girls didn’t develop until after High School. I was a late bloomer.”
I knew the smart-ass remark was coming when she threw her head back and started laughing. Full blown hysterics. “You were part of the itty bity titty committee? Oh dear God, that’s the best news I’ve heard all week.”
I placed my hand on my now jutted-out hip, “And why in the world would my lack of a rack be good news to you?”
She shrugged a shoulder, “Ok, Dr. Seuss. It means that you haven’t been perfect all of your life, gives the rest of us some hope.”
Now it was my turn to laugh and I had to end up clutching my stomach because my side began to ache, “You’re hilarious. Me, perfect? Never. I’m thirty-three, never been married. Hell, at this rate I may end up as the crazy cat lady.”
“You’d have to actually own a cat to be considered the crazy cat lady, and you hate cats.”
“Too true,” I sighed for a moment, actually mulling over the possibility of going home. In my heart I already knew the answer; I had to find out exactly what happened all those years ago.
“Girl, I know that look, you’re going, aren’t you?”
