Chapter Six #5
“Just when I think I understand you, Aury… Anyway, what do you think? Is this shirt too much?”
It dawned on Aurelie that this was the first time her friend had gone out on a real date with her husband since Maddie was born. And damn if she didn’t look like she’d never been pregnant, with the exception of her gigantic breasts, which hadn’t been part of her anatomy before.
“You look fabulous,” Aurelie said, getting some of her wits about her again. “I’d swear you weren’t Maddie’s mum if she didn’t look like a clone of you.”
“Aww, you’re sweet. And you,” Paige said, dropping her overnight bag and running over to Jace, wrapping her arms around him, “are a saint.”
Owen walked in, another bag in hand, looking as dapper as his wife in a button-down black shirt and slacks.
“Ditto what my wife said. I don’t know how we’ll thank you, but I’ll think of something.”
Jace laughed. “Don’t worry about it. If anything, it’s barely enough to cover you for the help you’ve given me the past couple days. I think I just may have my renovation skills back under me. We’ll see how horseback ranching goes while you’re gone.”
“Dude, just tell one of us before you head up that ridge on horseback. It’s gnarly,” Owen said. Aurelie made a note to tell Jace that story over cocktails later. And to see the work he, Owen, and Brad had done. “And thanks again.”
“Yep. Have a good time, and promise you two won’t behave.”
“You clearly don’t know us that well, or you never would have had to mention that. This one here hasn’t behaved a day since I met her.” He winked at Paige, who blushed a shade of red that resembled a bad sunburn.
“Well, we should get going, then. Are you sure you’re okay, Aury? You still look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’m okay. It’s just been a wild couple of days.”
“I’ll say.” Paige went to grab her bags, but before she could, Owen had them scooped up and out the door.
“Thanks, Aury. You, too, my man,” he said, shaking Jace’s hand on his way out.
Paige lingered by Aury, looking down the hall where her baby slept.
“Listen, if you hear from Brad or Soph tonight, let them know I’ll get in touch about Isaac and the clinic when we’re back tomorrow. And call me when you hear from Dr. Roberts. I’m sure it’s just a formality.”
Aurelie caught a sideways glance from Jace, but he stayed silent.
“Sure. And go; we’re good here.” Aurelie placed a hand on Paige’s shoulder, which trembled beneath her palm. “She’s going to be fine. Now, go. You’re wasting time with me when a perfectly fine man is waiting in the car for you.”
Paige leaned in for what Aurelie thought was a hug, until she stopped at Aurelie’s ear.
“I’m nervous. We haven’t, you know, since Maddie was born.”
Aurelie smiled warmly. Her neighbor in Turks had had the same reservations after giving birth to their first, and by the time Aurelie left for the States, she was about to give birth to their fourth.
“Did you pack something lacy? Something that will make you feel sexy?” Paige nodded. “Okay, well, did you pack something to prevent Maddie from becoming a big sister before you’re ready?” Paige looked up, her face crimson again, and shook her head. “Do you have any?”
Paige nodded, and Aurelie nudged her toward the bedroom. She came out with a small, silk satchel, smiling.
“Good,” Aurelie said. “Now, the most important part. Have a drink and relax. You love this man, and he loves you. It’ll come back to you both.”
Paige laughed and hugged Aurelie.
“Thank you. For everything.”
Aurelie nodded and shoved her friend outside, waving them off before shutting the door behind her.
“I hope she relaxes enough to have fun tonight.”
“A few drinks in and she’ll forget about all this drama. But, Aurelie, why did you lie to her?” Jace said.
Aurelie’s heart thumped against her chest like a drum. Her gaze fell to the floor.
“What do you mean?”
“You told her you’d let her know what happened with your boss when you found out, and it sounds to me like you already have the answer.” Just like that, all the lust she felt for the man took a backseat to something else…
Fear.
“I don’t know how this is any of your business. You don’t even know me, Jace. Stop pretending like you do,” she snapped.
He sighed and put a hand to his forehead, rubbing his temple.
“I care about you. All of you,” he said, his voice measured and calm, the opposite of how Aurelie felt in that moment. “You can’t go back, Aurelie. It’s insane to even think about it.”
“It’s not like I planned it, Jace. I don’t have a choice. Your government is the one that won’t renew the work visa. I have two choices: reapply or get married. Obviously, I’m going with the first option, but it can take a while, and in the meantime, I wait to see if I’m deported.”
“Can they do that? Just decide you can’t live in the place you’re working and serving your community and building a life?”
“Of course, don’t you read the news? People are being forced from their homes every day.
” She shut her eyes. It was a shit situation, and just the idea of leaving Paige, of saying goodbye to sweet Maddie, not knowing how big the child would get before she saw her again, shattered Aurelie’s heart and came close to breaking her spirit.
As if thinking of her infant niece roused her from her short nap, Maddie’s cry for attention sounded from the back room.
It began as a small shudder of a sound at first, but as she walked down the hall, it picked up in pitch and intensity.
Just before she scooped the baby into her arms, it reached a fever pitch.
“There, there,” Aurelie cooed, rocking Maddie against her chest. “Let’s change your diaper and then we’ll get a bottle warmed up.”
She headed back to the living room, but stopped short. Jace was moving around the kitchen in a fury. Even Maddie quieted as if she sensed that something was wrong.
He paced back and forth. “How long will it take? The visa application?”
She shrugged. “The agent said it could take up to four months to be approved.”
“And the clinic?”
How he knew what bothered her most—outside of leaving her family—without her having to articulate it was curious.
“I’d need to be able to practice in the next two months if I want to help. Then there’s my job at the hospital. I don’t love it, but I do a lot of good there. I’ve only got two more weeks scheduled if this isn’t resolved.”
“And the marriage visa? Would that come through faster?”
She choked out a laugh. “Yeah, if you don’t take into account meeting a man, then asking each other to have a drink, seeing if he’s kind or a psycho and maybe, if there’s a physical connection, waiting the requisite three days for him to call and ask me out again, then repeating this for months until we decide we want to spend the rest of our lives together, at which case we’ll start planning a ceremony for his family to attend, since, let’s be honest, none of my family cares what happens to me unless it’s for revenge purposes.
Then we’ll fight over the caterer and the price of the floral arrangements, but we’ll stick it out anyway for the year it takes to be engaged and plan a wedding these days.
After the ceremony, though, we won’t waste time.
We’ll sign my paperwork that night, and yeah, it should go quick. One to two weeks.”
She was breathless, angry at a system that was rigged when she was here, fighting for her community and doing what she could to prevent its demise from someone who wouldn’t ever be asked to leave his home, his life, his family.
It was just so unfair.
“I wish there was something I could do. I mean, those can’t be the only two options, Aury.” It was so sweet how he’d adopted her nickname. But it didn’t help her situation at all.
“Unless you’re up for marrying me so we can single-handedly save the damn town, there’s not much you can do. And come to think of it, you do owe me for almost running me over.”
She laughed. Gosh, had that only been a couple days ago?
So much had happened since. She touched her lips; when he’d pressed his to them, it had changed her more than all the months in Banberry combined had altered her.
She couldn’t think too much on the how or why of it, though. Not without getting tripped up.
“That’s not a half-bad idea,” Jace said.
She coughed out a laugh. “You’re right. It’s a completely bad idea. Just get me that cocktail you mentioned, and we’ll be square. It’ll numb things, at least.”
“How so?”
“Well, a good rum will—”
“No. Marrying me. Why is it a completely bad idea? Won’t it get you what you want?”
She kicked off her sandals and tucked her legs underneath her.
What she wanted in that moment, yes, was stability, the knowledge that what she was building she would be able to keep.
But there was also a very visceral need to kiss this man again.
Even pretending to entertain what was an asinine idea threatened both in different ways.
“Yeah, Jace. We’ll just skip the pleasantries and go straight to I do. That always works out. Anyway, I need to get Maddie down, and then we can have that cocktail.”
Aurelie made her way into the kitchen, chuckling to herself. There, she grabbed a pot from under the island countertop, filled it halfway with water, set it on the stove to warm, and then placed the bottle in it.
She kept Jace in her peripheral vision. He watched her, his gaze unwavering. When the water was the right temperature, Aurelie dropped the bottle in and hummed a lullaby her mother had sung to her every night when she was a child.
Aurelie thought of her mother, how destroyed she would be to learn that Aurelie had to go back to the islands, about the circumstances that were shoving her toward that undesired move.
After a few minutes, Aurelie took the bottle, tested the liquid on the inside of her wrist, and put the nipple in Maddie’s now-open mouth.