Finding The Love Back

by Adina Jan

  Ava waved again and walked in the house, her mind going over the information that her neighbor had just shared. Christian was back in town. Now why had Ms. Stanton shared that with her? That was a bit of info that she didn’t need to know right now. Dolce followed Ava in the house. Her phone rang just as she was sitting down her bags at the front door.

  Looking at the screen, she could see that it was Bobby.

  “Good morning, Ava. I was able to get us some reservations this week for dinner. I hope your schedule is open.”

  “Oh gosh, Bobby. I’m not even in town.” Ava rubbed her forehead .

  Bobby paused. “Wow, okay. Last minute trip?” She could hear the frustration in his voice.

  “Something like that. My dad is in the hospital. I had to come home to see about him.”

  “Is there anything that I can do to help you? Wait a minute. Where is home? I don’t think I realized that you weren’t from Atlanta. I guess I just assumed.” Bobby sounded a bit hurt.

  “I don’t think I ever mentioned it or anything,” Ava replied. “Look, I have a lot to take care of here and I just arrived. Can I call you back?” Ava tried to sound as pleasant as possible. Truth was that she wasn’t in the mood to talk with Bobby right now. She had a lot on her mind.

  “Sure. I know you probably have a lot to do. Call me if you need anything.”

  “I will. Thanks, Bobby.” Ava ended the call. She felt so bad that things weren’t on a romantic level with Bobby because he was such a nice guy. She had actually felt more of a spark just thinking about the past with Christian than she felt in the present with Bobby.

  Ava took a deep breath trying to change her focus. As she walked around the house, she saw that not much had changed. The only thing that changed was that her father had turned the guest room into a sort of workshop. He had all of his model planes and ships on display and there were a few that he was working on sitting on the table. Her bedroom was still the same. It was like there was still a high school teen living there. The only change was that her father had made a collage of all of the magazine articles and a local news article on Ava that talked about her work as a rising celebrity stylist in Atlanta.

  A feeling of pride swelled in Ava’s chest. She hadn’t been aware that her father was paying attention to her career. A tear threatened to fall, but she held the tears back. She still had to go to the hospital and see about her father and she needed to be as composed as possible.

  Ava looked at herself in the mirror and pulling out her makeup kit, she decided that a bit of eyeliner and some lip gloss were in order. She made up her face and pulled her shoulder length hair up into a messy ponytail. When she pulled her hair off of her face, she could see the resemblance between herself and her mother. She had the same olive toned skin as her mother and the only difference was that Ava had colored her brunette hair to a blonde. Otherwise, she was looking more and more like Marie Collier as Ava got older.

  Ava poured some food for Dolce and made him promise to be good while she was gone to the hospital. Dolce agreed by licking her on the hand as Ava pet him on the head. Although she wasn’t in a rush to get to the hospital to see her father in such a bad condition, she couldn’t stay at the house any longer. There were too many memories there and they were all fighting to come back to her at the same time.

  Chapter 6

  Nadine was extremely helpful. She spent the next hour clearly explaining to Ava her options. They expected her father to make a healthy recovery, but he had some damage from the stroke to his left side. Ava sat in with her father for another few hours. At first, he was asleep but when he awoke, a tear rolled down his cheek and he did the best he could to squeeze Ava’s hand. No words needed to be spoken between them. The void of being apart for so many years immediately closed in the span of a few seconds. Ava was happy that she’d come home. She knew that she couldn’t leave until she knew that her father was settled comfortably in the house. And she knew that it would take a bit more than the four or five days that she had allowed herself. She decided to play it day by day to make sure that she took care of everything that needed to be taken care of.

  Ava told her father that she would be back to the hospital later that evening to sit with him. He nodded as best he could. When Ava made it out to her car, all of the emotions of the day came flooding back to her. Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably. She hadn’t been home in so long and to come home to see her father in the hospital hurt her. She had the chance to make time to come home earlier when he was well and she didn’t.

  She knew that things had to change and she was willing to do so. She decided that she would go back to the house and take a nap before she started trying to help her father get the house in order. Once she turned down her street, she saw that there was a vehicle parked in the driveway. It was a charcoal grey Range Rover. She didn’t recognize it and wondered who was there for a visit.

  She parked her car behind the SUV and hopped out, ready to see who her visitor was. When their eyes met, she couldn’t believe who was standing there in front of her.

  “Hey doll.” The richness of his baritone voice took her back to a time she had long forgotten. Standing there dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of distressed jeans was Christian Carter.

  “Wow. I wasn’t expecting you.” Ava tried to speak without stuttering.

  “How did you know that I was here?” she asked.

  Christian chuckled and the dimple in his chin became more pronounced. He raised his sunglasses to reveal his soft hazel eyes. He still had that boyish look she remembered, but he was even more handsome in his maturity. His dirty blonde hair was perfectly sculpted and spiked and he looked like he had just walked off of a beach with his sun kissed tan. He was a bit more muscular than Ava remembered, but then and again, they were in their early thirties and the last time she’d seen him they were about twenty-one.

  “Well, Ava Marie, it’s pretty hard for anyone in Conner to not talk about the gorgeous young blonde that is in town from Atlanta driving around with a red Benz.” He held his hand out pointing to her car.

  She hadn’t thought of that. “Oh, I wasn’t even thinking of that. Look, do you want to come in? It’s pretty hot out here.”

  Christian smiled and nodded. He walked closely behind her and she almost melted when he touched her in the small of her back.

  Ava fumbled with the key trying to open the door. When she finally opened it, Dolce met her and her guest at the door.

  “This is my best friend, Dolce.” She reached down and picked up her dog. Dolce looked behind toward Christian who put out his hand so Dolce could smell him. Dolce sniffed and gave and approving lick.

  “Cute,” Christian replied. He looked around the house. “Not much has changed I guess. Just like my parents’ house.”

  Ava set Dolce down. “I don’t think much changes here in Conner.”

  Christian browsed the pictures on the fireplace mantle. It was a trip down memory lane, seeing pictures of Ava in different stages of her life.

  “Ms. Stanton, my neighbor told me you were in town too,” Ava remarked. Christian set a picture he was looking at back down on the mantle and began to walk over to her.

  “Yes. I just got back to the states after a business trip to France.”

  Ava nodded impressed. “Sounds fun. I haven’t been out of the country yet. It’s on my bucket list.”

  The two of them were standing in close proximity, but still so far away. Christian twirled his fingers while he was thinking briefly of his next move. He stared at Ava Marie Collier, the woman who had once been his childhood sweetheart. She was gorgeous, an unassuming natural beauty. She still had that twinkle in her blue green eyes and he thought that the blonde hair color was striking on her. He remembered how he liked to kiss her freckles on her cheeks and how they would sit for hours in her backyard as kids dreaming about how they would take over the world. He knew in that moment that what he wanted to do was right.

  Christian closed the
space between them and in an instant he was holding Ava in his arms. “Are we just going to stand here and pretend that we’re strangers?”

  He stared her in her eyes, awaiting an answer. When she opened her mouth to speak, he instantly covered her mouth with his in a kiss. It was consuming and Ava felt electrified. Suddenly, parts of her body were awakened that hadn’t been in a long time. Christian’s tongue danced playfully with hers and she fell into his body easily with a sense of familiarity. His arms enveloped her and she held on to the secure feeling she felt as he held her.

  Christian pulled back and looked at Ava and said the words she didn’t know she was longing to hear until he said them.

  “Ava Marie, I’ve missed you.”

  Chapter 7

  Ava’s head was swirling. She could barely catch her breathe. Had she just heard Christian right? Had he just said that he missed her? Not possible. Not after how their relationship had ended.

  It took a moment, but she came to her senses. Being around Christian had always knocked her off kilter.

  “Wait a minute. I’m not sure that I can go there,” she stated calmly as she backed away from his embrace. Rubbing her forehead, she tried to process the moment.

  “Okay. I’m sorry.” Christian let her go and backed away himself. He just stared at her, trying to see if he could tell how she was feeling by her facial expression. He loved the way that her eyes sparkled. The two of them were much older now, but he knew that the Ava Marie that he’d once fell in love with was still there.

  “I’ll get us something to drink. You want a soda?” Ava offered.

  “Sure. I’ll have what you’re having, Ava Marie.”

  Hearing Christian call her Ava Marie sent chills up her spine. It was a call back to another lifetime that had become a distant memory. She liked the way that her name rolled off his tongue so effortlessly.

  Walking to the kitchen gave her a second to get her mind in order. Christian had come in and in one fell swoop, turned her world upside down. It was enough to deal with her father’s health, but to have Christian sitting there in the living room was more than she could handle.

  Ava brought two glasses of soda on ice to the living room but when she looked around, she saw that Christian had taken a seat out in the sunroom. She went out and offered him the cool glass of soda and then took a seat next to him. Dolce came running out and took a seat beside her.

  As Ava rubbed Dolce’s fur, she began to relax. “So tell me a little more about France.” She looked Christian in the eye, and once they made eye contact, she knew it wasn’t a good idea. He had a way of capturing her attention and drawing her in like no other man ever had.

  Christian smiled. “It’s beautiful,” was all he said quickly before taking a long sip of the soda and then speaking again.

  “Ava Marie, I know that an apology is in order.”

  “Damn right it is!” she chimed in passionately. She’d been waiting to see if he was going to address the elephant in the room.

  “We were kids. I was so career driven at the time, I had tunnel vision. I was on the fast track for several promotions and I had my dad in my ear trying to sway me to live out a dream that he once had for himself. I’m sorry.” Christian’s face softened and Ava could tell the apology was genuine.

  “I accept your apology. I just never really knew what happened between us. How we could go from being serious about one another to not even speaking. I needed you around. I was going through some things at the time and I thought among other things that we were best friends.”

  Christian set his glass down as Dolce came over to him and settled at his feet. He reached over and picked the dog up and setting Dolce in his lap, he began to rub and massage the dog. Dolce looked like he was in heaven.

  “Ava Marie, I have a love for you that I’ve never had for another woman. Never. It’s been almost fifteen years since I last saw you and the moment that you pulled up in the driveway, my heart skipped a beat like I was some high schooler with a crush. When I heard you were in town, I took a chance coming over here because I knew that I’d done wrong so long ago. But you know what that was like to try and live up to your parents’ expectations for you.”

  That she did. Christian’s comment really hit home. She’d spent two years at the University of Georgia, her father’s alma mater when she didn’t really want to go to school there. She’d heard all of her life how important the Bulldog heritage was and she had plenty of black and red school paraphernalia of her own. She’d loved to go to the UGA football games with her dad as a child. There were several road trips back and forth to Athens, Georgia to see the games and go to alumni functions with her father. When she arrived at the school campus as a freshman, she loved the familiarity she felt there. But it didn’t take long to realize that attending UGA hadn’t been her dream, it was her father’s dream.

  When her mother died, she promised herself that she wouldn’t spend another day living someone else’s dream, even if that person was her father whom she adored. She knew that her father would be heartbroken when she told him of her decision to no longer attend UGA and instead attend a fashion school in Atlanta. She had no idea that he would stop speaking to her, but in her heart, Ava knew that it was the right decision to live her life the way that she wanted to doing what she loved.

  Reginald Collier was a stubborn man and she knew that he would never apologize or make the first call to mend their relationship. In all those years, their relationship had progressed to a phone call once every other month or so and a card at Christmas. Ava hadn’t been home to Conner in several years and her father never made an attempt to visit her in Atlanta and Ava contended that she would have to deal with things the way that they were. So she knew all too well what Christian had gone through dealing with the same type of situation with his own family.

  “I do know what that’s like. You know that I totally understand. What I don’t understand is how the man that I loved could just walk away from our relationship without really putting any closure to it.”

  Christian hung his head and closed his eyes as if he was traveling back down memory lane. “I made a mistake. I had a huge opportunity to travel and have the career that I wanted. Ava Marie, it was all sitting right in front of me. Then I had you in Atlanta. I wanted to make all of that work, but I wasn’t sure how to have a long distance relationship and build my career. I felt like I had to choose one.”

  “So you chose your career.”

  Actually hearing Christian say what happened out loud was a hard pill to swallow. She lived it, but to hear it come out of his mouth was another thing.

  “I did,” Christian nodded. “And I don’t regret doing so. I just regret losing you.”

  Ava’s heart raced. She couldn’t believe that she was sitting here having this conversation with Christian after all of this time.

  “Well, it’s all water under the bridge now. There’s nothing we can do to change it. I appreciate your apology.” She meant it. Talking to Christian and clearing their past issues was a huge weight off of her chest.

  Dolce jumped out of Christian’s lap and proceeded to wander around the sunroom, sniffing each corner and crevice.

  “How long will you be here?” Christian asked.

  “I originally gave myself a few days to get things together, but I see that it will take much longer to do what I have to do. Daddy will be home in another day or so, but I have to get some things in line for his home care. Fortunately, he’s going to be okay.”

  “That’s good to know that he’s going to be okay. And I’m glad to know that you will be here in town for a while. I’d like to make the most of our time here. I’m in town for the next month. I hope we can spend some time together.”

  “I’d love that,” came out of Ava’s mouth before she could even think.

  “Great. I’ll leave you my number. I know that you have a lot going on here. If you need any help, someone to talk to, or anything, just give me a call.”

  Chris
tian got up and they walked to the front door together. Ava felt like a teenager again around Christian. She knew as he left there was something between them that she couldn’t let go of and by the way he had kissed her, he hadn’t let go either.

  Chapter 8

  Grocery shopping proved to be a task. Ava saw everyone from her high school chemistry teacher in aisle eight to a classmate from middle school in the produce section. Her plan was to pick up a few items to stock the cupboards and fridge, but the trip had turned into a serious trip down memory lane that she hadn’t anticipated. She even got the uncomfortable once over from a girl that was once the most popular girl in high school who was her cashier when she checked out her groceries.

  Ava was happy to leave the store and get back to the house. She spent the early half of the morning cleaning up and sorting through her father’s bills before she realized her stomach was growling and it was time for breakfast. She first checked in with her office and Lisa informed her that all was well. It set her mind at ease to know that things in her business were running well even in her absence. She loved the fact that technology allowed her to handle business from anywhere. Lindsey would be calling her later to Skype and go over a few style choices for a client.