Chapter 14
Ava
We were driving back to his place when Tyler took a call.
I tried not to listen in, but it was impossible since we were in the cab of his truck.
“Tyler here.”
“Really. Imagine that.”
“No. I can come to you. Unless you prefer it the other way.”
“I’m driving now. Let me call back with the details.”
When he clicked off the phone, I asked, “What was that about?”
“You want to hear something crazy?” he glanced over with a twinkle in his eye. “That was a man named Ed Myers. Wallace Myers’ son.”
I gasped. “You found them?”
“Yep, looks like it.” Then he grinned at me. “Feel like taking a road trip? They’re in Saint Louis, Missouri, just like Cordelia thought.”
My mouth dropped open. “Yes! Um, I mean, when? I need to take time off from work. Not tonight, right?”
He chuckled, “Not tonight. You tell me when. We could make it a long weekend. And don’t worry about the cost. I can cover our hotel room and the food.”
I tried to imagine this man off the mountain. It was hard to picture. Even though he was a transplant, he felt like Red Oak Mountain to me.
Taking his hand, I said, “I would love to go to Saint Louis with you, Tyler.”
He squeezed my hand back. “All right then. We’ll start planning.”
Ever since we met, we’d seamlessly slipped right into each other’s lives. Now it seemed like we were spending every day together. But we hadn’t talked about what it meant.
Asking me to go all the way to Saint Louis seemed like it meant something. The man enjoyed my company. But was that all this was? Or something more?
Next weekend.
Trina Myers was holding on to me so tight she was shaking. “Thank you so much. You’ll never know what this means for our family.”
Tyler and I had made the trip to Saint Louis and given the Myers family all of Cordelia’s mementos.
After spending the day with the whole Myers family, we were getting ready to head on out. We wanted to get on the road before the sun went down. We’d drive a few hours and then find a hotel room somewhere quieter than the city.
Tyler didn’t like big-city life. He’d done well yesterday, keeping me entertained while we took in the sights. But he was ready to get back to the woods, even if he hadn’t said it in as many words.
I was starting to be able to decipher his grunts. Abby said that the sign of really knowing a man was when you understood what his different grunts meant.
So far I’d been able to identify the grunt that meant, ‘Hot damn, that food was good.’
Which was only slightly different from the grunt that meant, ‘Hot damn, that blowjob was good.’
Then there was the long grunt which came after each bite of anything sweet that I fed him, or the quiet grunt when he saw me for the first time every day. I liked to think that was a grunt of appreciation for my stunning good looks. Somehow, I was always stunning in his eyes.
Just as we were heading out the door, I turned back around. “Trina, do you think I could have a photo of your family?”
The woman didn’t ask why. She just padded over to a photo album sitting on her coffee table, flipped a few pages and pulled one out.
“This is from a family reunion we had one year. Everyone’s here. Our parents, our spouses, our kids. Three generations all in one spot.” She pointed to the oldest man standing in the back. “That was our dad, Wallace. We took this photo a few years before he passed away.”
They were at a theme park, and they were all wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Everyone was smiling for the camera.
“Perfect. Thank you for this!” I squeezed her hand one more time.
Ed and Tyler had quietly made arrangements with Silas. The Myers were going to move Cordelia from her current location to Saint Louis so she could be next to her husband, just like she’d wanted.
Orson had never remarried. Wallace had always told them that their grandpa’s heart belonged in Kentucky, but he’d never said more than that. Now they knew that Orson thought Cordelia had died in the flood. But despite that, he’d stayed true to her until the day he died.
That was the kind of love that I wanted. I gazed over at Tyler, my eyes getting misty.
He must have noticed, because he said, “We’re getting the truck on the road, folks. Ed, I’ll see you soon.”
Ed wanted to come see where his grandmother had lived, so he was planning a visit to Red Oak Mountain.
Trina and I hugged goodbye one more time, then Tyler and I got on the road.
“Can you believe that? Orson and Cordelia loved each other so much that neither of them ever went on a date with anyone else ever again. It’s just so sad, but… beautiful at the same time, isn’t it?”
Something must have been going on with me, because I started to mist up again.
Tyler grabbed my hand, while he expertly drove through the thick city traffic. I’d never been anywhere this big before, but he seemed familiar with cars weaving in and out, going twenty miles over the speed limit.
“You’re one sappy love song away from true love, Ava. You’re a total fool for love, aren’t you?”
I sighed. “You figured me out.”
He glanced at me as he drove. “Then why hasn’t any man ever put a ring on your finger?”
I thought about it. I’d dated. But nothing serious had ever come out of it before. “I’m not sure. Maybe they weren’t the right one? I might have been waiting for my soul mate.”
He grinned at me. “Are you still waiting?”
I swatted his arm and snarked, “What are you saying? Am I just something to while away the time with?”
“Yes, ma’am. You found me out.”
He said it in a way that made me think it wasn’t true… and that warmed my heart.
Travis glanced over again, and squeezed my hand, his eyes full of warmth.
“Keep your eyes on the road before you drive us into a ravine.”
“I’m a good driver, Ava. You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve never been in an accident.”
It was a seven-hour drive before we’d get home. And while I had him captive in this truck, I was going to get to the bottom of what he thought about us.
I opened my mouth to start steering the conversation in that direction when my phone rang.
It was Abby.
She sounded breathless. “Are you alone?”
“What? No, Tyler and I are driving back from Saint Louis.”
“I have to tell you something,” Abby said.
“Go for it.”
“I don’t want to upset you. Should I wait until you’re back home?”
My heart fell into my stomach. “Did something happen to my dad?” His health had been shaky recently.
“No. No. Nothing like that. Everyone’s fine. It’s just… Silas told me something today. He didn’t think it was important.”
“I won’t be home tonight. We’re stopping over at a hotel room in an hour or so. Let’s not wait. Tell me what’s going on.” I said.
She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Ava. I know you like Tyler a lot. But I’m afraid he might not be as long-term as you’re hoping for. Silas told me that Tyler’s thinking about selling his property and moving.”
“M-m—.” The word wouldn’t come out of my mouth.
Moving?
I pulled my hand free from his.
“What do you mean, Abby? Give me details.”
Abby said, “I don’t have a lot. You know the day both of you came over for lunch?
Well, when the guys were hanging out in the man-barn, Tyler asked Silas if he might be interested in buying his property.
Silas didn’t think anything of it, so he didn’t pass that on to me.
Then it came up. He’s making plans for how to turn it into an artist’s residency if Tyler sells it to him. ”
“But…” The word slipped out soft and quiet, and just like that a heart broke in Missouri.
I’d thought…well, I’d thought a lot of things.
“Abby, thanks for letting me know. Can I call you back later?”
If I talked any longer, tears would threaten to spill.
After I hung up the phone I sat there in shock, staring out the side passenger window so Tyler couldn’t see my face.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said weakly.
“You sure? You don’t sound all right.”
“I’m fine.”
“Oh. That’s a danger word. What’s wrong? What happened? What did Abby say?”
A quiet sigh escaped past my lips. “Tyler, I’m fine, really. I just need a minute. Can we pull over at that rest area?” I said as I motioned to a sign on the side of the road.
I was holding back tears at this point. I didn’t want to cry in front of him.
It had been foolish of me to fall for him. Especially so fast.
What did I even know about Tyler? He couldn’t even tell me the truth about how he got injured. And I thought I was just going to traipse into his life and get my happily ever after?
I’d fallen too hard, too fast. And it was embarrassing.
He pulled into a parking space, and before the engine was even shut off, I had my door open and one foot on the ground.
But he grabbed my hand at the last second, holding me in place. “Where are you going?”
“I just need a minute. Can I have a minute, please?!” My voice rose to a high shriek by the end of the sentence.
“Ava. You get back in this truck right this minute and tell me what’s going on. Then tell me where you’re going, and I’ll wait patiently for you. But you can’t run off without telling me what’s wrong or where you’re fleeing to.”
“I’m not fleeing. I just… I just…” and then the tears came. I couldn’t hold them back any longer. “I thought we were something special. Which is stupid, because it’s only been a few weeks. Why didn’t you tell me you’re not staying on the mountain?”
He tilted my chin up until my eyes met his. “What are you talking about? I’m not leaving Red Oak Mountain.”
“Abby said you’re moving. That you told Silas you want to sell him your property. When were you going to tell me? I deserved to know.”
His lips parted, a warm and gentle look crossing his face. “Ava. I only asked him that because I was thinking of the future. You know, our future, if things work out between us.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does that mean?”
“The real estate agent told me there was another interested buyer when I bought the property. Evidently, the seller got pissed at them because they low-balled their first offer, which is why the seller chose me instead of them. She said if I ever wanted to sell, she knew someone who would snatch the place up before it ever hit the market. After what you said about Silas having money, I wondered if it might be him. So I asked him. And he said it was. He wants to turn it into some kind of art house or something.”
I let out an exasperated breath. “Well, where would you go?”
He chuckled, “Don’t think I’m crazy, but I was thinking all this would happen when or if you and I ever decided to take the next step.”
“The next step?” I sniffled, wiping my tears.
“Yeah. You know. Moving in together. If you could see yourself saddled with an old man for the long-term.”
“You’re not an old man,” I responded. Then added, “How old are you?”
“Thirty-seven.”
I’d known he was older, but I hadn’t known by how much. I was in my late twenties. There were nine years between us. I’d been curious to know how old he was for a while. “I’m twenty-eight. Is that a problem for you?”
Tyler laughed and squeezed my hand. “No, Ava. Definitely not a problem for me.”
“What do I mean to you? I need to know,” I asked, the words bursting out of my mouth.
The softness in his eyes told me everything. “I’m crazy about you, Ava. I thought I was making that pretty obvious. Do you need me to spell it out?”
I nodded.
“Okay. You women are like that sometimes. I fell for you the first night we met. It’s only gotten worse since then. I was going to sit in that cabin and wait to die, even if it took years. And then you came along and brought me back to life.”
My heart, which had been sitting in a puddle down by my toes, popped back up, fluttering hopefully.
He went on, “I’ve been trying to go slow for you.”
“For me?”
“Yeah. Who wants a guy acting desperate to trap you after knowing you for two weeks? I know where I want to end up, but I wanted to give you time to get there at your own pace.”
That same heart was now flapping in my chest, loud and unruly. “Get where?”
Tyler kissed my hand, then met my eyes again, his voice dropping down to a husky growl.
“Ava Appleton, I started falling in love with you the second I saw you. I’d like to see us end up on the north side of the mountain, far from civilization.
You know I’m a morning person, but I’d even be willing to turn into a night owl for you, since your job keeps you out late.
It just depends on if I’m what you want.
You don’t need to rush to decide if you’re not sure yet. ”
“What if I am sure?” I asked tremulously.
“Then I’d say I’m sure, too. I’ve never met anyone quite like you. And,” he thumped his chest, “the feeling in here is real. I want to grow old with you. I want to be your Orson.”
Tears sprang to my eyes again. But they were happy tears this time.
“You can be my Orson, but no floods allowed. I want to spend my life with you. Not lost in memories, dreaming of what could have been.”
He kissed me then, and we forgot about everything else.
All that existed in the whole world was us.
He loves me.
He really, really loves me.