37. Nova
37
NOVA
M y life should have been perfect, a fairy tale come true. I was engaged to an amazing man, who as far as I was concerned was a prince and lived in a castle. I know the house wasn’t a castle, but calling it a house seemed to underscore exactly how large the place was. It might as well have been a castle. He loved me. He rescued me.
But I wasn’t wrapped up in the warmth and happiness I thought should have come with everything. I felt hollow, empty. My best friend had betrayed me and I was too far from home. I wasn’t alone, but I certainly felt like I was. I needed a hug from my mom.
I was torn between feeling sad that I had moved so far away and realizing if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met Bryan.
I was officially still on cooking duty, but now that I lived here, I didn’t have to find random tasks to keep myself busy in my downtime. I wasn’t being paid anymore. Now when I cooked, I was feeding my family. My family. I sighed. It gave me a spark of happiness and belonging, but not one big enough to erase the malaise I was experiencing.
Amelia was having another one of her tea parties with Humphrey, the stuffed cat, and the new doll.
“You okay there?” Bryan asked as he walked through the kitchen.
“Huh? Yeah. Getting a snack?”
He held up a small bag of chips. He stopped and our eyes locked. I tried to smile. It must not have been enough for him. He crossed and sat in an empty chair at the table. Tossing the chips to the side, he placed his hand over mine.
“You’re not okay. What’s bothering you?”
I bit my lip and grimaced. “You want the list?”
“Your car is being towed to the shop. You’ve given notice, and a moving crew is scheduled to get everything out of the apartment next week.” He cast a quick glance at Amelia. “And my mother hasn’t been here to pester either of us for two whole days. That might be a record for her.”
I had a hard time meeting his eyes.
“Nova?” He rested his palm against my cheek.
“It’s going to sound stupid.”
“Your feelings aren’t stupid. What’s wrong?”
“I miss my mom. The whole Veronica thing has me really down, and…” I slid out of my chair and onto his lap.
I’m not sure if I moved on my own or if he pulled me to him. He felt so sturdy and strong. He could protect me from everything except from my own hurt feelings. I leaned into him and his arms came around me.
“You really miss her?”
I nodded. “My dad too. I thought I was going to be able to go home over break until the school screwed me over. So it’s a double blow, you know?”
He made a low hum that vibrated through his chest.
“When does school start up again?”
“I don’t know if Leeds is on the same schedule as Wentworth, but we’re back a little later, the second week of January,” I said.
“That’s over a week away. We have time. Why don’t you pack bags for you and Amelia for a few days? We can go down for a long weekend.”
My head popped up. “Are you serious right now?”
Bryan chuckled. “You ask me that a lot. If you haven’t figured it out by now, you should know I don’t usually joke around. If I say let’s go to Atlanta and see your parents, I mean it.”
“Won’t last-minute tickets be expensive?”
Bryan lifted one eyebrow at me.
“Right, right. I’m probably never going to be used to that. The whole having money to do what you want with at the same moment you want to do it. You don’t have to save for anything, do you?”
He opened his mouth to say something.
“Wait, don’t answer that. That’s clearly need to know, and I don’t need to know.”
He chuckled more, and I leaned into his chest, enjoying the rumble and movement. “At some point, we should go over finances.”
“But not right now?” I asked.
“Not right now,” he agreed. He held on to me like he didn’t want to let me go.
I was content to sit on him and be held. It helped to fill the hole inside me with love and fuzzy feelings. If only I could have stayed where I was forever. I snuggled in a bit closer and hummed as I relaxed against Bryan.
“You know, I can’t arrange for a flight if you’re sitting on my lap,” he said. He didn’t sound very mad about it. He certainly wasn’t doing anything to shift me.
“This is nice. Why can’t you just stay here?”
“One, I have work to do, and two, I need to arrange for a flight to Atlanta so I can meet your parents.”
Adrenaline shot through my body. I jumped off his lap. Crap, he was going to meet my parents. “Are you okay with that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m not a kid anymore, Nova. I’m going to have to meet them at some point.” He reached out and took my hand. “Everything will be fine. Take Amelia and go pack.”
“Don’t you have to work?”
He nodded. “Ned and his report can wait. It’s not anything urgent. He’s going to sit on it for a few days as soon as I deliver, so I’ll give it to him later. I need to see if I can get us a flight in the morning. I don’t think I can book anything for tonight.”
With our hands still entwined, I tugged him to his feet. He slid his hands over my hips and gave me a quick kiss. “Go pack.”
I watched him walk out of the kitchen, his snack completely forgotten on the table. I turned to look at Amelia. She had completely ignored us. She was deep into her pretend play of the conversation between the Country Girl doll and the cat. Six-year-olds had some wild imaginations. It was amazing how deep they could go into their little make-believe worlds if allowed.
I let her play while I did a quick cleanup in the kitchen. I still needed to make dinner, but if we were going to leave in the morning, I didn’t want to stay up too late cleaning the day’s mess that I left.
I did a quick meal prep and got dinner started in the Crock Pot. I loved the timer on the rice cooker and got that set to start the rice so it would be ready in time for dinner.
“I think it’s time for your tea party to take a break,” I said to Amelia after I had to say her name a few times to catch her attention.
“But we’re not done,” she complained.
“You can finish later. You and I need to head upstairs and pack so we can go on a trip.”
“Where are we going?” Amelia seemed to have forgotten all about her tea party with the mention of travel.
“How would you like to meet my parents?” I asked.
Her eyes went wide. “Your mommy and daddy?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Your dad wants to meet them, and I didn’t get to see my mom for Christmas, so we’re going to go to Atlanta.”
As we headed upstairs to her room, she bombarded me with questions.
“I don’t know what you’ll call my mom. That might be up to her.”
“But you’re going to be my mommy when you and Daddy get married,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“That’s right. And you already call your dad’s mother grandmother. We’ll have to figure something for you to call my mom. I think that might be good for the two of you to discuss once we get there.”
Amelia climbed up on her bed. I began pulling out the clothes we would need. Bryan didn’t say for how long we would be gone, but I was the kind of person to overpack for even one night.
“Do you want to wear this?” I held up a dress that would suit the warmer weather in the south.
“Oh, I like that one,” Amelia said.
The conversation continued much along those lines. I picked out an outfit or two and Amelia told me whether she would wear it or not. She only rejected one dress I pulled out for her.
“I have to wear that when I go to Grandmother’s,” she said. She did not sound happy about having to wear it, either.
“Okay, that’s a no to this dress,” I muttered as I put it back in the closet. I looked at the pile of clothes I had laid out. “I think you’re all set. Come help me.”
I held my hand out, and she skipped along as we went to my room, the room I shared with Bryan. It was still so fresh and new, and kind of weird, to live in such a wonderful place with such a wonderful man.
We repeated the process. I packed and pulled clothes from the racks in the closet. Only instead of sitting on the bed, because my closet was a room in itself, Amelia sat on the large ottoman in the middle of everything.
“There you are,” Bryan said when he came into the closet. “I was looking for you.”
“You said to pack,” I reminded him.
“I did. We’re all set to leave in the morning. I’ve booked rooms at the Four Seasons in Atlanta so we aren’t imposing on your parents after we show up unannounced.”
“Good planning. You’re so good to me. I can’t believe you’re just taking me to see my parents.” I threw my arms around him, kissed him, and proceeded to hug him tightly.
“I’d do anything for you. I love you.”
“I love you too.” I kissed him again.