Chapter Thirty
Then
Avery
“So, she was just fine with it?” Cassie asks with disbelief.
I pull out the rest of the racerback mix-and-match tops from one of the freight boxes. “She seemed to be.”
“That’s interesting.” Her comment is disconnected, as if she didn’t intend for it to be heard.
“What do you mean?”
Cassie’s hand flies up to her hip while she cocks a brow skyward. “Hear me out.”
Unsure where this is going, I agree now and am curious about what small-town two cents she offers me.
“Okay …” My voice drawls.
“Well, you just came to live with her, and within a few months, you get pregnant and married to a guy you barely know.”
Cassie is the closest thing I have to a friend in this town—besides the guys, so I try to rein in my immediate defensiveness. “I know Jasper very well. And just because things like this happen, doesn’t mean it’s anyone’s fault—especially Helen’s.”
“I get it. I’m just saying that she must feel a little sad about it.”
Heat pricks the tips of my ears. Who is she to pass judgment on me? Or have an opinion about my life, for that matter?
“Why would it make her sad? What about being in love would be sad?” I challenge with a clipped tone.
Cassie turns back to the plastic hangers, continuing to clip each string of the bikini top in place. “Look, I’m not trying to offend you. I’m just stating the obvious.”
“And that is?”
“Come on, Avery, I haven’t known you that long, but what I have known about you is that you are intelligent, independent, and have dreams of your own. That must be hard for your aunt to see your future disappear.” Her words slice through me even though her tone is soft.
She is right. I know it, and I feel it. Sure, this isn’t the life I envisioned, and it’s true.
I constantly worry about getting caught up in a fantasy that isn’t reality.
But my half-friendly coworker is not someone I can open up to about my anxiety and fears of the unknown.
Jasper loves me. I can feel it. I need to trust it.
I toss the ball of empty bags into the trash. “My future isn’t disappearing. It’s just changed a little.”
“I get it. You’re young and in love, but does anyone find their soulmate at eighteen anyway?” she asks more like an assumption than an honest question.
I haven’t dated a whole lot. None of the guys I knew in high school ever interested me—or me in them. Most thought I was the reclusive rich girl who wore too much black and wasn’t allowed to leave the compound that I called home.
After my parents died, their attorney asked me what I wanted to do with the house. Only two words came to mind. Sell it. I was ready to say goodbye to the lonely prison I called home for most of my life.
“With all due respect, Cassie, it’s none of your business,” I reply over my shoulder as I leave the backroom.
I get back onto the floor and catch sight of the time—close to four pm.
“Avery?” Cassie’s timid voice is behind me.
I whip my head around to see her standing only a few feet away. “Yes?”
“I’m sorry.” She sighs. “It is none of my business, and I shouldn’t have inserted myself in it.” She tucks a corkscrew curl behind her ear. “I’m sure this is hard for you. I shouldn’t be making it worse.”
Cassie is apologizing, but I still feel there’s a backhanded comment threaded in her words. Why does she think it’s hard for me? I love Jasper. My pregnancy was a surprise, but I chose to marry him.
“I appreciate the sentiments, I do, but I love Jasper, and I refuse to believe that we’re not meant to be together. The most significant sign of that is this pregnancy.” I defend myself.
“We’re the same age, and I know I’d feel worried if I were in your position, even if I was in love with the guy.” I open my mouth to speak, but she interjects. “And it doesn’t take love to make a baby,” Cassie adds with a friendly wink.
Her intentions are in the right place, but I’m frustrated with the tone of this conversation. I blow out a heavy breath of air. “I know you mean well, but butt out, okay?” I snap, then turn on my heels. I gather my things, clock out, and head to my car.
As soon as I open the door to Helen’s, the sweet scent of pineapple chicken hits my nose. My stomach rumbles.
“Hi, Helen. I’m home,” I say, dropping my purse on the table by the front door.
“In the kitchen,” she calls out.
When I get to the kitchen, she’s standing over the stove, stirring a large wok filled with chunks of chicken, pineapples, and spices. “I made your favorite pineapple chicken.”
“It smells amazing in here.” I smile and climb onto the bar stool at the island. “You didn’t have to do all this. We could have just ordered takeout.”
She flips a dish towel over her shoulder. “When you said you’d be here tonight and not with Jasper, I got excited to spend dinner just the two of us.”
“That’s sweet. Thank you.”
“Where is he tonight?”
“He had to work late at Duke’s. They’re preparing for that artist to come in,” I tell her.
Helen places a bowl of chopped fruit on the counter in front of me. “Oh yeah. He’s the one who’s going to design a bunch of custom boards for them, right?”
“Yeah. I know Jasper is excited about it. He believes it will be another way to bring in tourists,” I say, popping a slice of mango into my mouth.
“Same with Duke,” she replies with a smile.
While my aunt cooks, I replay my conversation with Cassie at work. I shouldn’t let her get to me, but she is. Helen has been more than supportive and understanding about the pregnancy and that Jasper and I eloped. If she and Duke have any reservations, they’re hiding them from us—well, at least me.
“Aunt Helen?”
“Yeah?” she replies, pouring dry rice in a pot.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” she says, pausing her movements to give her full attention.
Nervously, I bite the inside of my bottom lip. “How do you honestly feel about everything going on with Jasper and me?”
She glances around the room for a second before circling back. “What do you mean?”
“Are you disappointed about me getting pregnant?” I begin. “And then about him and I running off to get married?”
She sighs. “That’s a tough question.”
“You haven’t really expressed any real feelings about it.”
Walking over to the island, I see her throat bob with a hard swallow. “I just want you to be happy. That’s all. And if this is what is going to make you happy, then I’m supportive.”
“Yeah,” I say, unsatisfied with her answer. Am I looking for something more? Validation? Or for her to say I’m too young for any of this?
She leans over the counter and cups her hands over mine. “I know what you want me to say. The pregnancy and you eloping with Jasper is bittersweet. On one hand, I get you here all the time now, and I’ve never really had family around.” The corners of her eyes wrinkle with a soft smile.
“It’s a whole new exciting world I’m looking forward to.” She pauses, thinking through her next thought. “But I also know how bad you wanted to get back to Arizona for college, and this isn’t the life you saw for yourself. So yes, it is a mixed bag of emotions for me.”
A weight lifts off my chest, hearing her true thoughts. I appreciate them more than she knows. “I have those same feelings. It’s more of the unknown I’m unsure about.”
Helen lifts a hand, placing her palm on my cheek. “Sometimes not having everything figured out can be a wonderful blessing.”
My aunt’s words fall heavy on my heart. “I understand that, and I do love Coconut Grove.”
“And you’re in love with a very special surfer out here too,” she says, lovingly pushing my hair to the side.
“So are you,” I quip with a cheeky smile.
“Yes. But Duke and I are a lot more complicated than you and Jasper.” I hear a subtle sniff as she walks back to the stove to check on the rice.
After dinner, Helen and I are sitting on the back patio, listening to the waves roll in. “I can’t believe I’m going to call this place my permanent home now.”
“It’s absolute heaven here. A little slice of paradise,” she adds, keeping her focus trained toward the midnight waters. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
“What brought you here?” I ask, vaguely remembering that she ended up here by accident.
She lowers an eye in my direction with a smirk. “A boy.”
My brows raise with surprise. “A boy?”
“Yes.” She sips from a glass of red wine. “A surfer boy.”
My head falls back in disbelief. Laughing, I turn in my chair to face her fully. “Well, isn’t that interesting?”
Helen folds her arms at her chest and leans in.
“We were married for a few years when I was young. We came to Coconut Grove for a training camp he was attending. I was supposed to stay only eight weeks, but when it was time to leave, I couldn’t.
He left without me, and we managed a long-distance relationship for a number of years before things just fizzled out. ”
“I’m sorry. That must have been so hard for you.”
Her lips pursed together. “It should have been, but it wasn’t. I made friends here, I loved my independence, and I unintentionally created a life for myself. We were also very young.”
The word young rings in my ears like a church bell. Will Jasper and I have that same fate? If I want to go to college after the baby is born, will we drift apart? Will I resent him later for having to give up my life? I love Jasper with a force, and it guts me even to imagine losing what we have.
“And how did the whole Duke thing happen?” I ask, craving to know more about this woman who I’ve come to admire deeply. I never realized how strong and self-aware my aunt was.
Helen laughs before answering. “Duke was more complicated.”
“Tell me,” I press, tucking my knees under myself on the patio chair.
Her cheeks redden. “It had been a number of years since Jasper’s mom had died, but he hadn’t moved on yet. I ended up taking surf lessons from him. Jasper was his priority, and I respected that. We grew to enjoy each other’s company over time and became partners of sorts.”
“The dynamics of your relationship are unconventional,” I comment with astonishment.
“Yes, but it works so well for us. As I mentioned before, when you first moved in, we meet each other’s needs, and I couldn’t be happier about how things are.”
I smile warmly. “I love that.”
“Me too.”
Helen and I sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes before I start to get tired. I’m sure Jasper will be calling to check in soon.
I rise from my chair to head to my bedroom when I get hit with a sharp pain in my lower abdomen. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt, but I know it’s a cramp-like sensation.
“Ow,” I grit out, slightly bent over.
Helen jumps to her feet, rushing over to me. “Are you alright?”
“Yes—ahh.” It hits me again. Similar to a period cramp, but much worse. The deep pain sends a wave of nausea through me.
She’s hunched over, meeting me at my level. “Avery, are you okay?”
“I think so. I don’t know what’s wrong,” I manage to say before falling back into my chair. Suddenly, I feel a wetness in my panties. My period? It can’t be. I took four tests three weeks ago.
“Avery, honey, you’re bleeding!” Helen’s frantic voice causes my head to spin. I barely see her bend down and wipe the blood off the inside of my leg with a napkin.
“The pain is getting worse.” My breath is labored. I lay over the chair’s armrest, unsure how I will get up.
“We need to get you to the doctor right now,” she tells me. “Stay right here. I will get you a pad and shorts.” The cramps are increasingly getting worse while panic zips up my spine.
“The doctor?” I ask, worried. “Everything is okay, right?”
Her expression hides more emotion. “Just stay right here.”
She’s back quickly and slides both items on under my dress.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” Helen slides her arm underneath mine, lifting me from the chair. “It’s a short walk to the car, honey, so don’t worry. Just stay focused on getting there.”
In a daze, with my vision blurry, I barely remember making it to the car—or throwing up in there on the way to the emergency room.
A quick flash of two nurses sprinting around the check-in desk to capture me as soon as my legs weaken is the last thing I see before I make contact with the cold, tiled floor.
Then everything went black.