Текст книги "More Than a Memory "
Автор книги: Amber Nation
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Текущая страница: 3 (всего у книги 13 страниц)
Chapter 3
Eden
Once I succumbed to the inevitable and agreed to go to Oregon, Jules squealed with delight and immediately made arrangements for me to spruce up my hair.
Soon I found myself sitting in Julia’s chair with my entire head wrapped in foil.
Julia was the manager of Violet Hair Salon and had been there ever since she graduated beauty school. That was how I met her, I came in one day a frazzled mess because my cheap and stubborn self used an at-home coloring kit for my hair and turned it bright orange. She threatened me that day that if I even so much as looked at a box of hair color in the store again she would shave my head. We’d been best friends ever since.
The ambiance in Violet was so soothing and relaxing, and the décor was amazing and extremely eye catching. Each hairdresser’s station had a deep violet metal rolling tool chest for storage. Such a unique idea—who knew that tool chests could be used for other things besides storing tools?
“Your hair is going to look absolutely amazing with mahogany highlights. Against your chestnut hair, I’ll be totally jealous. Although I really wish you would let me give you a decent cut, something new and fun.” Jules knew she was pushing it but often suggested cutting off my hair. It stopped just in the middle of my back, and a few layers and a trim was all that I was ever willing to do. Having to be at work at five a.m. every morning, it usually ended up in a ponytail or tucked into a hat on any given day. So I didn’t see the need to cut it in a style that would require me to make a conscious effort to style it every morning, especially when I rolled into work half asleep anyway.
With my hair draped over the shampoo bowl and my neck uncomfortably resting on that pesky indention in the basin, I tried to relax my nerves but when the curvature of your neck doesn’t quite lay right it’s hard not to tense up. The water was just the right temperature, though, as Julia ran her fingers through my thick strands of hair.
“I think I’m having second thoughts on you running off to Oregon for a week. I mean who will I hang out with? I’ll have Eden withdrawals,” Julia whined as she shut off the water valve and draped a towel over my sopping wet hair.
It was hard for me not to literally roll my eyes at her and her uncanny ability to whine. “Girl, please, you can hang out with Chloe while I’m gone.”
She wrapped the towel around my head like a turban and pointed her finger instructing me to go back and sit in her chair so she could start snipping.
“Chloe ran off with the mailman.” My eyes met hers in the mirror that was before us and I quirked a brow. “No, really, she ran off with the guy who comes in and delivers our mail. Apparently they’ve had a fling for a while now. Packed up her kids and left her husband. Walter, her husband, comes in every other day to see if we’ve heard from her. Sad story,” she reiterated while shaking her head, then grabbing her comb in one hand and placing the other at the crown of my head to try and get all the tangles out. I cringed every single time she did this; she had no compassion for those who are tender-headed and I was one of the worst. Growing up, I cried every morning when my mom brushed my hair before school. It got to the point where I had to sleep with my hair braided just to keep it from getting tangled while I slept.
I looked down at the light violet-colored cape that was draping my lap and bit my lip as she quickly finished dragging the comb through my locks. A sigh of relief was released when she finally finished, but it didn’t last long as she proceeded to grab the scissors and began her assault on my hair. I was always nervous going in there but I shouldn’t be, Julia knew what she was doing and always did a fabulous job.
“Wow, her and her husband had been married for quite some time, too. Well, it’s not like I’ll be gone forever, it’s only going to be seven days, I think you’ll survive.” But the question was, would I survive? Sure, I’d seen my parents over the years, but it was always when they flew out to see me. Could I really make it out unscathed after sleeping under my parents’ roof for seven days and six consecutive nights? I could just see it now, my mother bombarding me with her numerous inane questions about when would I going to get married? When would I finally settle down? I stared down at the mass amount of my hair on the floor in front of me and wondered how I would survive a week in my parents’ house without wanting to strangle them, and how I would survive talking to Baylor about why I moved away without wanting to strangle him. Fifteen years was a long time to not step foot onto Oregon soil, and all of a sudden it didn’t seem like it had been enough.
As I stepped off the plane at my gate in Eugene, Oregon, I wanted to sink to my knees and kiss the solid ground beneath me. I wasn’t the biggest fan of flying to begin with, but when you had such horrible turbulence during an almost three hour flight from Denver to Oregon, I wished I had chosen to make the horrendous thirty-eight hour car ride instead.
Figuring that I would look pretty ridiculous if I actually attempted those actions, I decided to forgo my pleasantries with the state of Oregon in order to retrieve my luggage from the baggage claim.
I watched the carousel move along with other people’s suitcases, waiting for mine to come through on the conveyor belt. Once every single item was claimed, it was apparent that I, as well as a handful of men, wouldn’t be getting our belongings today.
The three gentlemen and I shuffled our feet and grumbled under our breath all the way to the airline ticket counters.
“Left behind in Denver, you can retrieve your belongings in the morning,” the agent informed the four of us.
Great, all I had with me now was my purse and my laptop that was used for my carryon. My visit was already off to a grand start.
Walking along the tiled floor, past baggage claim where I was just minutes earlier, I heard a screech which caused me to stop in my tracks. “Eden!” The excitement in my mother’s voice was astounding.
I turned around and took in every inch of Bette Richardt’s appearance.
My parents had visited me several times since I’d lived in Nashville, but she had never looked happier than she did as she stood before me.
As I moved closer her smiled beamed even brighter, making the crow’s feet around her eyes more apparent. It was then I took in how much gray had taken over in her once-chestnut hair.
“Momma!” I exclaimed as I threw my arms around her neck and held on tight. In that moment, mother and daughter reuniting and clinging to one another, I was glad to be home. She released her clutch and allowed some space between us, but remained holding onto my hand and took her time to glance over my entire body.
“Eden, baby, you look absolutely great. Oh, I’m so glad that you’re home. I know you told me that you were coming but it had been so long, I didn’t want to get excited until I actually saw you here.” A wave of guilt consumed me. It wasn’t my parents’ fault for what happened, yet I was punishing them because of my naivety. She looked at the ground around me, and then brought her eyes back up to mine, “Where are your bags, dear?”
Releasing a deep sigh, “Back in Denver, I can come back tomorrow morning to pick them up.”
She braced her arm around my back and held onto my shoulder as she ushered me out of the airport, going on about how excited my dad was going to be to see me and how I could borrow one of her nightgowns to sleep in.
I wasn’t able to get a word in edgewise as she didn’t let up a minute until we pulled into the driveway of my childhood home. Even though I had changed, it had not. I had to chuckle because even the same floral patterned furniture still graced the formal living room.
I could just picture Dean jumping up and down on that couch like it was yesterday. My mom harped on us time and time again for walking through the living room with our shoes on. Even though no one ever used it and was more for decoration, she just couldn’t bear the thought of mud and dirt being tracked in throughout the room. And then one day Dean threw off his sneakers at the front door and took a flying leap onto that couch. Even in his bare feet he knew my mom would’ve had his ass if she saw him defacing her precious expensive piece.
I wished all the memories I harbored were as good as that one, so going back there wouldn’t have felt so unbearable.
Making it my mission to drive to the airport first thing in the morning made it that much easier to leave the house. My mom offered to drive me, but after all the chatting and reminiscing about the past that we had done the night before, I needed a little breather without her tagging along. She brought out old photo albums and keepsakes from my childhood and while it was nice to relive everything, after a while I was bored out of my mind. That was, until she brought out the album that contained pictures of Dean and Baylor. My heart shattered even more seeing how happy the three of us were at the time. We were unstoppable and nothing could’ve come between us, or so I thought.
I was ready to have a shower and a set of clean clothes to change into and that wouldn’t be possible until I had my luggage in my grasp. Mom told me that I could borrow an outfit of hers but even her jogging suits seemed a little before my time. So I forewent freshly laundered, outdated clothing for the wrinkly t-shirt and jeans that I had worn on the plane, threw my hair up in a messy bun on top of my head, grabbed a set of car keys from my dad and jetted out the door before my mother was any the wiser.
After double parking at the airport entrance, I rushed inside to see if my prayers had been answered and my luggage had made it to the correct airport. I really hoped for the airline’s sake that it would be there. After having to wait in a monstrous line, while having to pee, no less, I was eventually able to speed-walk to the bathroom with my hot pink rolling suitcase trailing behind me.
The first bathroom, which was the closest, was inevitably closed for repairs so I picked up my speed while hearing the wheels of my suitcase fall into each little divot of the concrete tiled floor beneath me. When I finally found a bathroom which was open for business I breathed a major sigh of relief.
Leaving the stall, I walked up to the sink to wash my hands. I briefly chanced a glance at my unruly hair as it was falling down from the messy bun I had placed it in and my makeup less face, disgusted at what was staring back at me. I seriously hoped for my sanity and lack of embarrassment that I didn’t run into anyone I knew, but I should’ve known that the one day you look a fright you will run into everyone you know, including the least expected.
I tossed my used paper towel into the trash bin on my way out of the restroom and cut directly in front of a crowd as I tried to make my way to the front doors. I didn’t falter my pace until an extremely large frame stopped right smack dab in front of me causing me to halt in place, my sneakers making a squeaking sound on the floor.
Huffing with annoyance, I blew a stray hair out of my face and looked up to the rude stranger only to be graced with a huge smile of someone who wasn’t a stranger at all.
“Dean?” I exclaimed with disbelief and excitement.
“In the fucking flesh,” he boasted with almost as much enthusiasm. His voice was deeper than I remembered and his stature and height had changed drastically in 15 years. He was a giant then, even though he was always on the skinny side, but he had gotten even taller and filled out his shirt extremely well.
His smile faltered as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and wrinkled a brow, “Eden Richardt, is it really you or a figment of my imagination? Hell must’ve definitely frozen over for you to step foot back in Oregon after fifteen long years.” His rudeness was well deserved but it stung more than I anticipated. I knew I shouldn’t have expected open arms when I came strolling back into town but it was a nice thought. From the look on his face, I’d hurt him deeply and that wasn’t at all my intention.
“Dean…The only thing I can say is I’m sorry and even then that won’t be nearly enough. I was young and naïve and with what happened all those years ago, I couldn’t stick around.”
“Eden, what did happen?”
“It really doesn’t matter now. It’s so great to see you though.” I lifted up an edge of my mouth in a small smile. I wasn’t expecting him to return it but it took me completely by surprise when his arms engulfed my small frame and he squeezed me tightly in an all-encompassing hug.
“Even though I don’t know what happened, I can’t stay mad at you for long. It’s too damn good to see you, babe,” he spoke into my hair which made me remember that I looked like a downright mess which made me tense up a bit before relaxing into his embrace. The magnitude of how much I had missed him didn’t hit me until that very moment.
“Listen, I have to go. I just now got my luggage even though I landed yesterday. But I’m sure I’ll see you around and definitely at the reunion.”
He looked like a kid who had lost his puppy and I could tell that he was on the verge of dredging up things from the past that I didn’t want to rehash in my disheveled state. Or more like a person from the past.
I pulled my cellphone out of my back pocket as I quickly walked off and scrolled down to Julia’s name. She answered after a few rings.
“Hey! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you so soon, how’s it going?”
“Well my plane ride sucked and then the airline lost my luggage. So I had to come back today and of course I look like junk and ran right into one of my old best friends, Dean.”
“Oh shit,” she said, knowing just exactly my meaning behind my freak-out. “Well at least it was just Dean and not Baylor.”
“Too true,” I replied. I was still walking towards the exit doors at the front of the airport and ended up walking along one of those moving sidewalks that was headed in the opposite direction. There were several people on it, quickly passing by me and I tried to keep my head down so I didn’t have to make eye contact while I was chatting with Julia. After a break in people I briefly looked up and was looking directly into a pair of incandescent green eyes which had been featured in more dreams in my lifetime than I cared to admit.
“Uh, Jules, I gotta let you go,” I said faintly as I began lowering my phone from my ear.
I could hear her yelling into the phone, “You better not hang up on me!”
I was transformed back into that naïve girl from fifteen years ago with a crush on her best friend. My heart was beating wildly in my chest as his eyes never strayed from mine. All my movement had ceased and I was standing in place, but he was still coming towards me on that moving walkway. Raising my hand which still had my phone in its clutch, I did a simple wave and smiled. Although it wasn’t how I had wanted our reunion to play out, I would take what I could get. I mouthed his name, “Baylor,” but he still seemed to be in a trance, almost like he wasn’t expecting me to be in this airport, or even to be in Oregon. Somehow he managed to look the same as he had all those years before, yet all grown up at the same time. His brown hair was neatly gelled and styled and he had the slightest hint of scruff on his chin. I felt my stomach tighten as I looked at him and remembered the feel of his lips on mine.
The walkway moved past me and he pivoted to keep looking in my direction. Since my life revolved around music, I was instantly hit with the feeling that the song ”Don’t You Forget About Me” by Simple Minds should have been playing throughout the airport at that moment.
Would he call out my name?
Did he even recognize me?
I started out with the biggest smile plastered on my face only to end up with a feeling of utter despair, all while he looked dumfounded as if I were the last person on earth he wanted to see.
At the end of the walkway a girl with bright blonde hair yelled, “Daddy!” which made his attention waver from me to her and there was no doubt in my mind that she was his daughter.
I was severely confused and hurt. I just couldn’t understand his lack of emotion from seeing me; he was the one who sought me out wanting to reconnect. It wasn’t as if my beauty stunned him into silence; I was dirty and wearing the same wrinkled mess for the second day in a row. I sighed deeply in resignation and continued on to my father’s car out in the drop-off lanes. I wasn’t so sure that my decision to come back home was the best option.
Hearing a faint noise coming from my phone, I realized that I was still connected with Jules. I replaced the phone to my ear only to jerk it away at her constant yelling.
“Julia! I’m sorry,” I tried to get in.
“What the hell is going on? One minute you were there then nothing!”
“Baylor, I just saw Baylor,” I yelled, trying to be heard over her incessant chatter.
“Oh shit!” She screeched, “What happened? I didn’t hear any words exchanged.”
“That’s because there weren’t. He acted almost as if he didn’t know I’d be here which doesn’t make any sense, because he sought me out.”
“Maybe he was just stunned to see you so soon? You know, completely threw him off kilter to see you standing before him.” I supposed she could be right. I shrugged my shoulders by way of a response, as if she were standing right in front of me. Once I made it outside of the airport I let her go promising to call her again if there were any more interactions with my past.
I slid my phone back into my pocket and looked up at the lined cars in the loading/unloading zone and was hit with another wave of nostalgia. Sitting there parked just three cars up from my fathers, was Baylor’s ’85 maroon Camaro. Call it instinct, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was his. I couldn’t believe that he still had it after so many years. The body had more wear and tear such as a little rust on the bumper, but I imagined him taking care of it with precision and grace. With a man like Baylor taking care of it and showing it the attention it deserved, it was no wonder it still ran.
“Eden?” the sound of a woman’s voice hijacked me from the lust-induced state I was in after seeing Baylor and his car as she came up and pulled me in for a friendly hug.
I slowly looked to the left and then to the right wondering who the hell this wackado was and why she was invading my personal space.
She finally released me from her clutches and I was able to take the first real look at her face, trying to wrack my brain to place where she knew me from, and then it dawned on me, “Marcie?”
Whirling a hand in the air, as if to say, the one and only. “I know, I look different. After college I lost the glasses.” That was it, the defining factor! “It’s so great to see you! Hey, a bunch of us are going to Tillie’s Tavern tomorrow evening if you’d care to join us?”
I knew that I had nothing better to do so I promptly accepted her invitation and we exchanged cell numbers. I couldn’t resist wondering in the back of my mind if I would run into Baylor there as well and we’d finally get our chance to talk.
Chapter 4
Baylor
“Daddy!” I heard Norah yell which pulled me out of my gawking trance. Was that…? Was Eden really standing in front of me? I couldn’t actually believe it. I almost wanted it to be a mirage or a figment of my imagination due to the idiotic way I just stood there frozen in time, watching her as I passed by.
The walkway ended and Norah ran in my direction. When I craned my neck to look back where Eden had been standing just seconds ago, it was empty, she was gone. I knew my expression was dumbfounded when I focused back on Norah who was running my way with Dean trailing behind her.
“I found Uncle Dean!” she exclaimed as she leaped up to give me a brief hug.
Dean took in my surprised and no doubt flushed expression and his lips upturned into a sly smile as he pointed a finger at me, “You saw Eden too, I can read it all over your face!” Norah immediately dropped her arms as she tried to look behind me searching for the object of my teenage obsession.
“She’s already gone,” I admitted with a hint of sadness and defeat in my voice. “She surprised me; I honestly didn’t think that she would come back. I couldn’t even find the words to speak to her or even attempt to move.”
“I talked to her right after I got off my plane,” Dean muttered and my eyes instantly snapped up to his. “Yeah, I saw someone who I thought was her rushing to the bathroom so I hung back and waited until they came out. When she emerged I knew it was her, she was in a disheveled state, but it was definitely Eden!”
“What did you say to her?” The desperation in my voice was unlike any I had ever heard, but I had to know what was said between them. Did she mention me?
“She mentioned that she came in yesterday but had to come back today to retrieve her luggage. I was stupid and tried to ask what happened all those years ago, she clammed up and took off. She did say that she was going to the reunion.”
So many different thoughts and scenarios were playing in my mind. Did she bring her husband along with her for the reunion? What did happen all those years ago? I didn’t know if I would ever get my chance to ask her, but as long as she was alone I would make it my mission to actively seek her out.
Dean was dying to go to Tillie’s Tavern, so the next evening Norah went to Polly’s house for a sleepover so we could go. It wasn’t unheard of for Norah to stay at Polly’s on a school night, but once she heard that Eden was actually in town she asked to stay for the entire week. She wanted to be ‘out of my hair’ in case I ran into Eden to see if there were ‘any feelings still lingering after all these years.’ I couldn’t contain my laughter after those exact words left my daughter’s lips. I didn’t know where she got her intelligence from, it definitely wasn’t from her mother and well, to tell you the truth I don’t think it was from me either.
Pulling open the thick wooden door to the oldest tavern in Oregon, the smell of beer permeated the air while the drunken singing of karaoke threatened to burst my eardrums. I had forgotten that it was Monday and karaoke was on the menu; if I’d remembered I would have chosen another place. Dean came up behind me and slapped his hand on my back, “Damn, I’ve missed this place.”
I would miss this place too if I had moved away. The beer was cheap, and the down home cooking by Tillie herself was top notch. Roll all of those amazing factors in with the ambiance and you had a place to call home. The entire structure of the building was held up with exposed wooden beams that ran parallel on the ceiling and vertical into the floor. Over the years the long wooden bar itself had been replaced several times, but they always tried to make it look authentic to the time period. Several beers were on tap and I didn’t hesitate in dodging people on my way to order a pitcher for the two of us.
I reached the bar, and saw that Tillie’s granddaughter Maisie was working behind it with a white towel tossed over her shoulder and her perfect tits on display for everyone to see. Her normal attire was always a black tank top and that night was no different; once she realized it was me standing there her entire demeanor changed and a flirty smile graced her lips. It was no secret that Maisie had a thing for me, as she tried to get me to go home with her every time I came in. She was beautiful enough in her own right but I couldn’t focus enough to appreciate the beauty that was before me. Not with the fact that I had seen my first true love yesterday and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to get her off of my mind.
From behind me I heard the song changing and a bunch of women giggling from up on the stage. I turned just in time to see Eden and Marcie both take microphones from off the stands, place them up to their lips and began singing their song.
Marcie’s eyes had to constantly stay on the screen that was feeding her the lyrics but Eden seemed to know them by heart as she danced across the stage. She had always made it a point to stay up to date with all the upcoming music back in high school, since she wanted to go into Radio Broadcasting. I wondered if that’s what she ended up doing.
”Kiss” by Prince was their song of choice and it made me chuckle when Eden made kiss noises during the beat of the song. I could tell from all the way back at the bar, which was on the other side of the tavern from the stage, that she was more than a little inebriated and she had absolutely no idea that I was in attendance. So I took the opportunity to perch my ass on one of the unoccupied barstools and watched with amusement as she flaunted herself around the stage. At different points during the song, she and Marcie would glance at each other and end up busting out in a fit of giggles.
Dean came over to where I was sitting and leaned up against the counter, “I got us a table over there,” he pointed and I just nodded my head, not taking my eyes off of the stage. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” he asked.
There was no hesitation on my part, “Even more so than I remember.” Her hair was still the same chestnut color, but it looked like she had added some highlights and layers to give it a bit of definition. She was wearing a black dress that hugged her curves and accentuated the most glorious pair of breasts that I think I had ever seen; those were definitely new and Maisie now had some competition in that department. But I would almost bet that Eden’s were all real, all her, because that was just the type of person that she was. Maisie’s on the other hand cost her a pretty penny to look that good.
She tipped her head back and laughed and just seeing the action of her smiling made my heart ache. What had happened to cause us to lose all that time?
The song quickly ended and I didn’t want to see her free spirit exit the stage. It was almost as if she could read my mind, even though she had no idea I was there. She held up a finger and spoke into the microphone, “One more! I want to do one more song.” She looked at Marcie to gauge her reaction and she shrugged a shoulder and went along with Eden’s request.
She hurried down off of the stage in her heels which was another first for me to see and went to type in her request onto the computer. Once she was settled back in place on the stage her choice started playing on the speakers.
”Do What You Want” by Lady GaGa came on, and it was unclear to me why she would’ve picked that song, but it was sexy as hell. Watching her sing about doing whatever you wanted to her body, I couldn’t shut off my mind from the numerous places I imagined that I could take her. I finally moved from my place at the bar and went to the table that Dean had saved for us and took a seat. It wasn’t long until Eden’s eyes glanced past our table and then landed back on us, causing her to falter in her words. She stood rooted in place and began singing again with absolutely no emotion. I wished like hell that she wouldn’t have noticed us; it was almost as if the life was sucked out of her. As soon as that song ended, she rushed off the stage and to her table on the other side of the building.
After a few minutes the karaoke music went away and was replaced with sounds from the old jukebox that was against the wall behind Eden. A slow song came on and several people got up to dance. Looking around I noticed many of the same faces I had graduated with; it seemed like that night was a little pre-reunion preview. I was intently watching the table Eden was occupying and soon Marcie’s husband got up and asked her to dance, leaving Eden sitting alone. I wondered why Eden’s husband hadn’t accompanied her on the trip, and then my mind wandered, wondering if he was good to her. I’d never had so many different questions swirling around in my head.
Dean’s chair scooting across the floor pulled me from my conundrum of thoughts. I eyeballed him as he stood up and smoothed out his button-down shirt. “Where are you going?”
“I’m not going to let Eden sit all by herself, I’m going to ask her to dance.” He fixed the collar of his shirt before standing tall and walking towards her on the other side of the tavern. A pang of jealousy hit me square in the chest and I was pissed that I actually didn’t think of the idea first.
I watched closely as he walked up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned down to whisper in her ear. A bright sexy smile formed on her lips, the same type of smile she showed me yesterday. That smile should’ve been for me. My breath hitched when she got up and placed her hand in his as he guided her out towards the open area where everyone was dancing.
Picking up my glass full of beer I quickly gulped down the majority of it, trying to calm my nerves. I had no right to feel anything towards her, she was a married woman. And even though Dean was my best friend, my jealousy had never been stronger.
Seeing her mold into his embrace as they danced along the floor killed a part of me inside. It took everything I had to see them dance for the entire song but once it was almost over I knew I had to talk to her. He kissed her on the cheek as they broke apart. She turned around to head back to her seat but I quickly came up behind her and grabbed her hand. My heart rate increased dramatically as electricity ricocheted throughout my body from just one single solitary touch. She gasped as she looked back and her eyes widened in surprise then quickly darkened full of desire. One thing that didn’t go unnoticed by me was the lack of ring on her left hand when I grasped her soft skin.
“Eden, would you do me the honor of dancing with me?” I asked shyly, not knowing where the bashful side of me had come from.
