Chapter 2
The Early Bird Café
If he said anything else, his words faded into a buzz as their eyes connected.
Time had been kind to Owen Fowler. In her mind all these years, Owen had remained the twenty-two-year-old guy with messy brown hair and a charming smile.
The guy whose chocolate-brown eyes gazed at her like she hung the moon.
That image shattered, replaced by an older version with broader shoulders and longer hair.
Hair long and thick enough to pull into a bun at the nape of his neck.
His face was less boyish and more angular and firm with age.
He looked good.
She hated how good he looked.
She glanced down at her dusty leggings and Beatles t-shirt, which she’d taken out of her father’s closet because it smelled faintly of books and his woodsy aftershave. Insecurity swamped her. She looked like a mess.
Before she could form a response, the bell above the café entrance jangled, and the door opened. Warm summer air floated across her face, and she heard the unmistakable sound of a kid’s laughter.
“Dad, guess what we saw?”
Wait. Dad?
A shaggy-haired kid, the spitting image of Owen, dashed to Summer’s side. Ava pulled free of Summer’s grip on her arm and stepped back, putting distance between them.
“Hi, Aunt Summer. Are you working? Want to come with us to the lake?”
“Woah, slow down, squirt.” Summer chuckled and threw an arm around his shoulders. She squeezed him to her side while sending Ava a concerned look. Her eyes widened in apology.
The door opened again, revealing another woman. She adjusted her baseball hat containing a riot of brown curls and stopped on the kid’s other side. She ruffled his hair, much to his chagrin, based on the exasperated huff he let out.
Ava’s mind raced to catch up with what she was seeing.
Owen had a child.
A family.
In the few instances when she’d let her thoughts turn to Owen, imagining him with a family never crossed her mind. How incredibly short-sighted of her.
Her feet finally synced with her brain, and she slowly backed away, hoping to slip past while Owen and the rest of them were distracted. The ringing in her ears helped to tune out their chatter as she got closer to her destination. Just a few more steps and she’d be free…
“Ava?”
She jolted at the sound of her name. So much for her plan to sneak out while they were busy.
“Sorry, did you say something?” She stopped and looked at Summer, too nervous to make eye contact with Owen again. Her face burned under his heavy gaze on her profile.
“Ava, this squirt here is my nephew. Avery. Avery, this is my best friend Ava,” she introduced the two of them.
“If you’re best friends, why haven’t I seen you before?” Avery turned to face Ava. “Aunt Summer has met all my best friends. I have three of them,” he told her with pride.
She couldn’t form a response.
“Ava hasn’t visited in a long time. That’s why you haven’t seen her, bud.” Owen’s deep voice washed over her, just as rich and warm as the coffee he served.
“Wait, like Ava, Ava? I thought you looked familiar,” the other woman spoke.
Ava didn’t miss the glance she gave Owen before smiling widely at her. She almost looked excited. Ava had not been ready for this scenario when Summer convinced her to leave the cabin.
“Hi, I’m Madeline. Or Maddy. Whatever you want to call me. It’s so nice to meet you.” Madeline approached her and extended her hand to shake.
Ava’s ingrained southern manners made it impossible not to reciprocate as she grasped Madeline’s hand in a firm shake. She tried to smile, but she was sure it came across as a grimace instead. A memory tickled the back of her brain, and she didn’t have the time to explore why in the moment.
“It’s nice to meet you, Madeline.” Ava looked at Avery. The tiniest twinge flared in her chest upon seeing his chocolate brown eyes and too-long hair in need of a haircut.
He looks just like Owen.
“And you, too, Avery.” Ava gave him a small smile. “I’m so sorry, but I need to go.” Ava chanced a glance at Owen, then regretted it when she spotted his frown. His eyes swirled with an emotion she couldn’t read.
I need to get out of here.
Ava turned on her heel and rushed outside.
Her neck tingled with the awareness of Owen’s stare tracking her exit.
A few paces down the sidewalk, the tightness in her chest loosened, and she gulped lungfuls of air to dispel that nausea that still threatened the back of her throat.
When she walked far enough to pass Flynn’s Real Estate, she stopped.
She didn’t have a way back to the cabin without returning to the café.
And no way in hell was she going back there.
The back of her eyelids burned. From regret.
From anger. She pushed down the emotion clogging her throat, and continued putting distance between her and Owen, resolving to pack the cabin and get out of Cedar Falls as soon as she could.
The thought spurred her to walk even faster until someone grabbed her arm. She whirled around.
“Ava, I’ve been calling your name. The car is this way.” Summer pointed her thumb over her shoulder toward the café.
Ava shook her head. “I’m fine walking.”
“You are not fine walking. Come on, let me drive you home.”
When Ava refused to move, Summer dropped her hold on her arm.
Her shoulders slumped with a sigh. “I’m so sorry.
I had no clue we would run into him. Or all of them.
He never works on Mondays, I swear to you.
I wanted to tell you so badly about Avery, but you and Owen both refuse to talk about the breakup. I was just trying to protect you.”
Ava turned her face away from Summer to compose her thoughts. She wasn’t upset with her. Not really. In a town this small, she was bound to see her ex around. It was the kid that shocked her.
“It’s fine. I’m sorry you had to hide this big part of your life from me. That was an unfair position to put you in,” Ava said.
“Let me drive you home,” Summer tried again.
Ava shook her head again. “I’m fine. I could use the walk to clear my mind.”
Summer searched her face before nodding in agreement.
“OK. Text me when you get back.” Summer pulled her into a tight embrace Ava couldn’t bring herself to return. She let go and walked backward a few paces as if to see if Ava would change her mind. When she turned around, Ava breathed a sigh of relief and kept walking through downtown.
Good thing she was already dusty. The hilly dirt roads were about to add to her disarray. By the time she made it back to the cabin, she was sure she’d look as beat up as she felt inside.
She passed Ida’s Antique Shop, the broken yellow sign creaking ominously in the wind, and started up the hill on Teaberry Lane.
Her legs burned from exertion she wasn’t used to, distracting her from her thoughts.
Like, how old Owen’s son was and why his wife recognized her by name.
She assumed anything Owen had to say about her wasn’t flattering, so why had Madeline smiled so brightly at her?
Maybe he’d told her she was a childhood friend and nothing more. Somehow, that thought seemed worse.
She reached the apex of the hill where the road became uneven, kicking a few stray rocks here and there to work out her frustration.
A horn blared behind her, and she instinctively stepped further away from the road, into the knee-high grass.
She kept walking, waiting for the car to pass.
Instead, a familiar blue truck slowed to a stop a few paces ahead of her.
For a brief moment, she considered ducking into the thicket of trees to her right to avoid the truck and her sneaking suspicion of the person driving it.
But that would only delay the inevitable.
She approached the passenger side with measured steps, the hum of the truck’s engine drowning out the heartbeat pulsing in her temples.
The passenger window rolled down, and she peered inside. Owen’s serious gaze met hers from behind the wheel. “Let me give you a ride.”
What was with the Fowler siblings insisting on driving her home today?
“Thanks, but I’m good. Enjoying the walk. It’s a nice day.” She plastered on a smile she didn’t feel, hoping he’d let it go.
He did not let it go. “We need to talk. Let me give you a ride,” he said.
She glanced at the road, casting her mind for an excuse to give him. No other cars drove by. The road remained annoyingly empty. Her mind returned to ducking in the woods to escape. With no other option that didn’t embarrass her even further, she decided. “Alright.”
Owen reached across the bench seat to open the passenger door. He grabbed a pair of cleats off the floor and tossed them over his shoulder to the back seat. Amusement filled her at the crumbs littering the seat, remembering how tidy Owen used to keep his truck.
She climbed inside and perched on the edge of the worn vinyl seats that had seen better days. Awkward silence stretched between them, made worse when he didn’t put the truck in drive. She chanced a look at him to see what the holdup was.
“Seat belt,” he said.
A surprised laugh rose in her throat. “OK, Dad,” she replied.
She wished she could take the words back as soon as she said them.
Dad … he was an actual dad now. The silence grew even more taut.
She reached for the seat belt and contemplated opening the door and going back to her original plan of escaping into the woods.
Instead, she clicked the belt and sealed her fate.
Owen put the truck in drive, and it bumped along the rough road. Her leg bounced, betraying her nerves. Did he feel as awkward? She wracked her brain for something to say. She went for the obvious. “You said we needed to talk?”
He glanced over at her in surprise, as if he didn’t expect her to speak. He cleared his throat. “Sorry about your dad,” he said.
She nodded. He’d died a month ago, and she still didn’t know how to respond when people gave their condolences. Thank you seemed insufficient.
“It was sudden. A heart attack,” Ava said. She cleared her throat at the emotion the statement stirred in her throat. “That’s why I’m here. Someone needs to sort out the cabin.”
“Is the rest of your family here? Surprised I haven’t seen your brothers around town.”
“No, it’s just me. Noah and Lucas couldn’t get away from work.”
“And you could?”
She didn’t miss the accusation in his tone. It ignited her guilt. Guilt over not visiting her dad more. Guilt for avoiding Cedar Falls for the last ten years. She pushed down her feelings and shoved them into a tiny box alongside the rest she’d compartmentalized.
He flipped the turn signal and turned off Teaberry Road to the dirt road leading to the cabin. Ava estimated she had another three minutes of this uncomfortable ride. She could make small talk that much longer.
“The café looks great,” she said to change the subject, away from her dad and well away from her.
“Thanks, I took over fully a few years ago.”
“I heard your parents retired.”
Owen hummed in acknowledgment instead of responding.
His fingers drummed on the steering wheel.
A steady beat that matched the bouncing of her foot against the floorboard.
She wasn’t the only nervous one; it seemed.
She tried for another topic, unable to curb the curiosity that plagued her since the café.
“Your son looks just like you. How old is he?” She tried to ask, like she was unaffected by what the answer would be. A simple question, that’s all. She had absolutely no ulterior motive she was trying to satisfy, like wondering how long it took for him to move on from their breakup.
“Avery is nine,” he told her with a genuine smile, completely unaware of the shard of ice that pierced her heart. “Ma says it’s like looking at a picture of me. Maddy thinks he takes after her, though. Think she says that to mess with me.”
Ava nodded with a tight smile. Afraid to speak and betray her feelings after her calculation.
Three months. It took him three months to move on.
Her leg bounced harder.
They turned off the dirt road to Loon Cove Lane. The short path branched off in two directions. The right led to the gravel driveway of her dad’s cabin.
Just one more minute.
The back of the cabin came into view.
“Listen—”
“I don’t—”
They both stopped what they started to say. Ava willed her leg to stop bouncing. The movement was so rapid, the bench seat vibrated. She was sure Owen could feel it.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Go ahead.”
“I don’t want to make things uncomfortable while I’m in town. Summer is going to help me out with the cabin, so I should be out of Cedar Falls before you know it. A few weeks at the most.”
Owen came to a stop in the driveway and turned to look at her. His eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. Ava’s hand itched to open the door to escape.
“Cedar Falls is as much your home as mine. Don’t rush to leave on my account,” he said.
Ava’s eyebrows rose to her hairline. “What happened to ‘don’t bother coming back’?”
Owen reared back like she slapped him. For the second time, Ava regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth.
She rushed to unbuckle her seat belt and threw the door open.
She took a deep inhale to calm herself, embarrassed by how she was acting.
“Thanks for the ride. You have a lovely family. I’ll see you around. ”
Ava jumped out of the truck. Without looking back, she hurried to the cabin and let herself inside. The loon alarm yodeled, announcing her arrival to the empty cabin.
And in the cabin’s quiet, once the crunch of gravel faded from Owen’s departure, Ava allowed herself a tiny moment to feel the grief for what she’d never have; for the experiences she’d never get.
The scent of coffee still lingered, but like their past, it would soon be a memory again.