Chapter 25
Seventeen years ago
Aubrey had never lied to her father before.
She’d misdirected, yes. Arranged the facts to suit her needs. She’d also omitted truths, like the fact that her boyfriend
had been sharing her bed for half a year. But she’d never deliberately lied to her father until the morning of their impromptu
vacation.
She sat at the breakfast table, gazing dully at a picture of the cabin he’d booked for the upcoming week of “rethinking her
future.” The rental was an hour and a half away, on the shores of Lake Holiday, and, according to the information booklet,
had no phone service. Aubrey would be off the grid for a week, with no way to reach Nick.
Which had undoubtedly been her father’s intention.
She quashed a sigh and set the pamphlet aside. Her mother was out in the driveway, packing the car, so she needed to do this
now. Easier to lie to one of them than both.
“So . . . here’s the thing.” She pushed her waffles around on her plate. “I can’t take today off work. I talked to Renee this
morning, and she said I’ll have to come in.”
Her dad barked a laugh. “Nice try. But you’re coming. No ifs, ands, or buts.”
“I know, Dad.” She made a face. “I’m not saying I can’t go, just that I can’t go right now. Renee found coverage for my other shifts, but today’s my responsibility.”
Responsibility. That seemed like a good word to toss in.
He stabbed at his waffle. “No.”
Aubrey ground her molars together. “But they’ll fire me if I don’t show up.”
“Then they’ll fire you. You don’t need that job anymore, anyway. You’re leaving for New York in three weeks.”
A silent scream sounded in her head. No, I’m not.
No use rehashing that now, though. She tried out a smile that could probably cut someone, if she wasn’t careful. “Come on.
It’s my first job. It’s important to me to be honorably discharged.”
He grunted. “It’s not the military.”
“No, but it’s still my name on the line. My integrity.” Integrity. Responsibility. God, she was really digging deep.
He lowered his silverware and surveyed her.
She squeezed her fork until her fingers ached, shunting all her frustration into the metal. “Look. You and Mom can go up today
and get everything ready. I have to work until eight tonight, but I’ll drive out to the cabin first thing in the morning.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to buy an extra night to go see that boy?”
Heat licked at the base of her throat. That boy. As if he didn’t know Nick’s name. “No. I’ll call him and tell him I’m leaving, but I won’t see him if you don’t want me to.”
“I don’t. Not until you’ve had time to think.”
“Okay.” Aubrey forced her grip to loosen and reached out with an upturned hand.
“Then I’ll come straight home after work.
I’ll be in bed by nine tonight, and I’ll head to the cabin the second I wake up.
You have my word. I just don’t want to get fired.
I’d rather wrap things up on my terms. All right? ”
The seconds stretched. Calculation flashed in his eyes.
Aubrey held her breath. She’d banked eighteen years of trustworthiness, apparently in preparation for this single moment.
She prayed it would be enough to tip the tally in her favor.
Her father finally sighed and took her hand, his grip dwarfing hers. “All right. But you’d better be there before ten tomorrow.
And you’d better look rested.”
Her heart kicked. She smothered the jolt with a tight smile. “Okay. Thanks.”
He squeezed. “Someday, you’ll look back on all this and thank me.”
She didn’t dare push her luck by responding, and instead polished off her waffles and went to change into her work clothes.
She waved goodbye to her parents, got in her car, and headed for the bowling alley, glancing at the sky the whole time. In
a surprising display of cooperation, the weather had delivered an incoming front of leaden clouds.
Aubrey did her best to will rain into existence. Heavy rain. The kind she could hide away from and build a fire against, even in July.
At the bowling alley, she parked and went inside. Renee, the manager, raised an eyebrow at Aubrey’s khakis and Henderson Lanes
polo.
“What’re you doing here? I already gave your shift to Angelique. I thought you were going out of town.”
“Yeah, I am.” Aubrey flashed a lopsided smile. “But if my dad calls here looking for me today, I’m working too hard to come
to the phone. All right?”
Renee snorted and snapped her bubble gum. She might be the manager, but she was only twenty and could thus be counted on.
“So it’s like that?”
“Yeah. It’s definitely like that. And . . . one more thing. Can I use the phone?”
“Go for it.” Renee pointed to the office behind the counter.
“Thanks.” Aubrey shut herself inside the cramped room and dialed the number for the steel mill. She’d memorized it the day
Nick had started work, but hadn’t had cause to use it yet.
A foreman answered, then issued a gruff harrumph when she asked for Nick. “Is this important?”
“Very.”
“Fine,” he said. “But it’ll be a minute. And don’t make a habit of calling here when he’s working.”
“Right. I understand. Thank you.”
Another grunt. Staticky silence swished on the line for what Aubrey gauged as half a lifetime. Then came rustling, and a breathless
“Hello?”
“Hey.” She smiled into the receiver. God, just the timbre of his voice could soothe her like nothing else. “It’s me.”
“Hey.” His tone softened. “Are you okay? What happened yesterday?”
“Nothing good. My dad’s not happy with me. Mostly because he doesn’t think I should be deferring.”
“You told him?” Nick groaned. “On top of everything else?”
“I kind of had to. And now he’s taking me on vacation for a week to ‘consider my future.’ He thinks he’s going to change my
mind.”
Nick sucked in a breath.
“Don’t worry,” she rushed out. “He won’t. All this week will do is convince him how serious I am. The point is, he and my
mom are leaving this morning, but I bought myself another day. I was hoping you could come over later. We’d have the house
to ourselves.”
Silence.
Bubbles fizzed in her stomach. “I thought . . . maybe it could be tonight.”
More silence, unrolling before her like an endless white carpet. She squeezed the receiver so hard her palm ached. “Nick?
Are you there?”
“Yeah.” His voice dropped an octave. “I’m here. But . . . are you sure?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“Okay. Then . . . me, too. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Oh, thank god. She dropped into a hard, hurried whisper. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. So fucking much.”
She clicked off without saying more, wanting those words resounding in her ears instead of a goodbye. Before leaving the office,
she smoothed down her polo, but Renee still gave her a quizzical look when she emerged.
“What is up with you, girl?”
Aubrey raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“You look . . . I don’t know. Weird. Like you have a fever.”
“Huh.” Aubrey ran a hand across her forehead. “Yeah, I do feel a little off. Maybe it’s best that I won’t be around you guys
for a while.”
“Ugh. Do not get me sick.” Renee backed away and cast a pointed look toward the door. “Go on, get outta here. And feel better.”
“Don’t worry, I’m about to.” Aubrey laughed at herself the moment she got outside.
As she climbed into the car, her smile stretched even wider. In the few minutes she’d been inside, the sky had gone from brooding
to downright angry.
Maybe she shouldn’t have derived so much encouragement from that. She had one hell of a fight with her dad looming on the horizon, and life would undoubtedly throw more curveballs before she and Nick made it to New York.
But right now, none of that mattered. She cared about nothing beyond tonight.
Tonight belonged to them, and they would make it perfect.
By the time Aubrey got home, the house was empty.
A weight slid from her shoulders as she went inside, stripped off her work clothes, and proceeded to take the longest shower
of her life. She scrubbed until everything turned pink and tingly, then shaved—twice—and worked as much moisturizer into her
skin as it would absorb. She wanted to be soft tonight. Soft and clean and warm and willing.
A flutter shot through her stomach. She waited for it to pass, then upended her underwear drawer onto her bed and picked through
the contents, settling on a matched set in white lace. She topped off the choice with jean shorts and a cleavage-baring white
tank top.
Might as well give Nick a preview. Lure him in so she could do debauched, heavenly things to him the moment he got close.
In the kitchen, she slapped together a lunch. Afterward, a search of the hall closet yielded a few faux fur throws, which
she spread in front of the fireplace. Then she waited. And waited. She contemplated going to the pharmacy for protection,
but after thinking over her cycle, she calculated the chances as essentially zero. Besides, she didn’t want anything between
them tonight. Just him and her and the first of many beautiful experiences together.
At four, the heavens opened. Rain battered the house, its drumbeat roar barreling down every hallway. Aubrey perched on the
chesterfield in the living room, too wound-up to relax, too weak-kneed to pace. Nick was probably leaving the mill right now,
but he’d still have to walk the two and a half miles to her house.
Really, she should go pick him up, but venturing outside now would mean squandering the hair and makeup she’d labored over for the better part of an hour. Not only that, she didn’t trust herself to drive, not with the way each heartbeat exploded atop the next like a chain of fireworks popping off.
Very soon, she’d belong to Nick in every sense of the word. In a way no one could ever take from her, no matter how many vacations
they dragged her on.
A knock sounded. Aubrey jerked a glance at the mantel clock. Four fifteen. No way he’d gotten here that fast.
Frowning, she went the door. To her shock, Nick stood on the stoop, his thin chest heaving, one hand propped against the doorframe.