All Autumn

by Sandra Owens

  “Yeah, it was.”

  The doorbell rang, and he went to answer it, returning with a vase of flowers. “These are for you.”

  “From who?”

  “How should I know?” He set them on the kitchen island.

  Yeah, he was still pissed at me. I opened the card and read it.

  Connor,

  Please take care of yourself and get better soon.

  Autumn

  “What’s going on in that woman’s head?”

  “What woman? Autumn?”

  “Yeah, Autumn.” I handed him the card, then pulled my crutches to me. “Are you going to take me to her house, or should I just drive myself there?” I intended to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with her.

  He grabbed his car keys from where he’d dropped them on the counter and walked out. I hobbled along behind him, feeling like the biggest shit in the world for throwing Savannah in his face like that. To this day he’s never told me the full story of what went down, and it’s the only secret he’s ever kept from me.

  Autumn wasn’t home when we got there. I tried to remember if she’d told me what appointments she had this week, but honestly, my brain was still hazy on things that had happened recently. Then I thought about the flowers she’d sent. The note had been impersonal, not at all like her. Before we’d hooked up, if she’d sent flowers, the note would have been silly or snarky, something about my hard head or falling off a mountain.

  If I’d hurt her feelings, I wanted to know so I could apologize and explain that I hadn’t been myself when I’d sent her away. If her note was a kiss-off, I wanted to know that, too. And I especially wanted to know why. If Adam wouldn’t take me back to her house later tonight, I’d drive myself there.

  Halfway back to Adam’s, my phone buzzed with an incoming e-mail. “Damn it,” I said after reading it. “Humphrey accepted the other offer. Said it was too good to turn down.”

  What a craptastic day this had turned out to be. We’d lost the property, and I didn’t know where Autumn was, much less what was going on in her mind.

  39

  ~ Autumn ~

  That was a cowardly thing to do, sending Connor flowers with that crappy message. But we weren’t a couple, right? So it wasn’t like I was breaking up with him because there was nothing to break up. But if I saw him in person, my resolve to put distance between us would melt away faster than an ice cube on a hot stove.

  It was that one moment at the hospital, when he didn’t want me to stay, that had me backing away. Armor surrounded my heart, and I liked it that way. That something as minor as Connor telling me to go away hurt was a sign my armor was slipping.

  I would not give another man the power to hurt me, not even Connor, one of my best friends. He was smart, and he’d understand the message on the card. Our time was up. He’d probably be relieved. Now he could go have fun with all his girlfriends. That I wanted to scratch the eyes out of those miscellaneous girlfriends was another sign that I needed to end things.

  From what Jenn had told me after she and Dylan had stopped by to see him, he was home and resting. I’d asked her if he’d mentioned me, and he hadn’t. My disappointment was the third sign that I was starting to care too much.

  After leaving the florist shop, I headed for Asheville. Lucas Blanton had called this morning to tell me that Taren was going to the family’s home in Raleigh tomorrow. She wanted to see me before she left. Actually she’d asked to see me and Connor, but he was in no condition to be paying her a visit, so I’d made his excuses.

  To keep my mind from straying to thoughts of Connor, which it seemed determined to do, I turned my radio to a rock station and sang my way to the Blantons’ house. That helped until Lady Antebellum started singing “Need You Now.” Connor’s favorite song. I punched the knob, shutting off the radio. Then I turned it back on, and listening to the words, my eyes started to sting.

  “Enough,” I said, changing the station. I was doing the right thing, for both me and Connor.

  Following the directions from my GPS, I turned up a winding drive shaded on both sides by tall maple trees. Behind a fence on my left several hundred Texas Longhorn cattle grazed, the ones closest to the road raising their massive heads, curiously watching my car pass. I’d never seen one in person before, and it was easy to see why they were called Longhorns. On my right were acres and acres of plowed fields waiting to be planted. Probably with corn to feed the livestock.

  The drive took me up a gentle incline, and when I reached the top and the Blantons’ Asheville home came into view, I let out an impressed whistle. “Welcome to Tara, Autumn.” I was a classic movie buff and had watched Gone with the Wind numerous times. If Scarlett O’Hara walked out of the white, two-story plantation mansion with the tall columns and black shutters, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised.

  I parked in the circular drive in front of the house, and after touching up my lipstick and running a brush through my hair, I walked to the door. Within seconds of ringing the doorbell a man I guessed to be in his fifties, wearing black dress pants and a crisp white shirt, appeared.

  “Miss Archer?”

  “Yes.”

  “The Blantons are expecting you. Come with me, please.”

  They had a freaking butler? I followed him past the black-and-white marble-floored foyer into a parlor. This was the first parlor I’d ever been in, and my interior designer’s eye wanted to take in everything, but I focused on the woman sitting on a gray linen sofa, her legs resting on a matching ottoman.

  “Forgive me if I don’t get up,” she said. Her brother did stand.

  “Of course you shouldn’t.” She wore shorts, and a bandage was wrapped around her right upper leg. Her right arm also sported a bandage. “Hello, Taren. I’m Autumn Archer. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you looking so well. May I give you a hug?”

  She smiled. “I’d like that.”

  Careful not to touch her arm, I leaned down and gently hugged her. She was very pretty and had the same beautiful amber-colored eyes as her brother. I glanced at Lucas to see him softly smiling at her. There was no doubt in my mind that he loved his sister.

  “I have to tell you that I love your name. Taren’s unusual.”

  “Thank you. It’s a family name,” she said.

  Lucas smiled at her. “Our maternal grandmother was Charlotte Grace Taren.”

  “I’m just thankful I didn’t end up with two first names.” She chuckled. “That’s such a southern thing to do, but so is giving us last names for first. I’ll take Taren over Charlotte Grace.” She leaned back against the sofa and peered up at me. “How do I ever thank you? I wouldn’t be here today if not for you and Connor. Oh, and your dog. What’s his name again?”

  “We were just in the right place and the right time, and his name is Beau, short for Beauregard.”

  “Another southern name. I love it. I wish you’d brought him with you.”

  Before I could answer, Lucas waved his hand toward the sofa next to Taren. “Have a seat, Autumn.”

  “Thank you.” The man hot enough to make People Magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive list looked right at home in a southern mansion. I bet his pants and tucked-in blue button-down cost more than three of Connor’s outfits put together. Not that Lucas seemed to be hung up on money and status. He hadn’t acted like he was entitled from the first time I’d met him.

  And I had to stop thinking about Connor.

  Connor had been texting me and leaving voice messages all day. I’d ignored them. I should go straight to hell for treating my friend like that, but what was I supposed to say to him? That I was afraid I was falling for him? If he knew that, he’d run so fast I wouldn’t hear the door closing behind him. Connor didn’t want forever. He’d been very clear about that, so I wasn’t offended. Okay, I was a little sad, but I’d get over it.

  “I’ll leave the two of you to have some time together,” Lucas said, his gaze on me. “I’d like to talk to you later, Autumn.”
<
br />   “Sure.” He’d mentioned at the parade he wanted to discuss something with me, and he had my curiosity. I turned back to Taren and smiled. “Compared to the last time I saw you, you really do look great.”

  “I feel better, believe me.” Her eyes shifted away, and she stared down at her hands. “You probably know I lost my husband and daughter recently?”

  “Yes, and I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t begin to imagine how much you must be hurting.”

  “I was. I am. But until I almost died myself, I thought I wanted to.”

  “And now you don’t?” This was not the conversation I’d expected to have with her. I’d thought we’d exchange a few pleasantries and then I’d take my leave. It seemed as if she needed to tell me these things, though. I just hoped I said the right words to her.

  “No.” She laughed. “Funny, isn’t it? You think you want something, but it turns out it’s the last thing you want. I haven’t told anyone else this, but I went there with the plan to jump off the waterfall so I could be with my family.” Tears pooled in her eyes. “I miss them so much.”

  I almost said I’m sorry, but I’d said that already. Maybe she didn’t need me to talk, only to listen.

  “Then I stumbled on a mother bear and her cubs, and I almost got my wish. But I didn’t wish it anymore. I didn’t want to die, but I thought I was going to. And then there you, Connor, and your dog were, saving me.”

  I was too shocked by her admission to respond. As awful as being attacked by the bear had been for her, it was the reason she was sitting here today, telling me all this, instead of her family mourning her.

  “What I didn’t realize until I was clinging to that tree, knowing the bear would eventually shake me out of it, was that my husband would have been furious with me if I’d gone through with my plan. Stewart would want me to learn how to be happy again.” She smiled. “That’s the kind of man he was. I wish you could have met him.”

  “Your life is a precious thing, and if you think about it, you carry them with you in your heart, their memories and your love for them.”

  “I love that. I never thought about it like that.” She put her hand on my arm. “And I do mean it. I don’t want to die.”

  It was such a relief to hear her say that. “Do you have a picture of your husband and daughter?” I don’t know what made me ask that, and I wanted to bite off my tongue. But she smiled again as if pleased by my question.

  “Yes.” She pointed to a bookshelf. “There’s one of the three of us on the second shelf. It was taken shortly before Stewart and Chloe died.”

  I walked to the bookshelf, picking up the first photo I saw. “I recognize you and Lucas. This must have been ten or so years ago? I assume this is your parents and another brother?”

  “Twelve years ago, to be exact, and yes, my parents and Grayson. He’s the middle child.”

  He looked a lot like Lucas. “I don’t know why I thought it was just you and Lucas. Maybe because I’ve never seen his name mentioned anywhere.” I glanced over at her.

  “That’s because we don’t talk about him. At least Lucas and my parents don’t. He’s the black sheep of the family.”

  That made him even more interesting, but she didn’t volunteer any more information, so I set the photo back on the shelf and picked up the one of her family. “Your husband is… ah, was”—God, this was awkward—“a very handsome man. And what a beautiful little girl.”

  “Will you bring the photo to me? I’ve avoided looking at it since I lost them, but now I want to.”

  If she started crying, I was going to bawl right along with her. I handed her the picture, taking a seat next to her. She traced their faces with her finger. If I’d lost a family I loved the way she had, I don’t know if I’d ever get over it.

  “Thank you,” Taren said.

  “You don’t have to keep thanking me. I’m just glad Connor and I were at the waterfall that day.”

  She shook her head. “That’s not why I’m thanking you this time. I don’t know how you did it, but I can look at their picture now.”

  I hadn’t done anything and felt uncomfortable that she was crediting me with something that momentous for her.

  Lucas walked in then, phone in hand, stilling when he saw Taren holding the photo. “Taren?” He glanced at me and frowned. “She doesn’t like to look at their pictures.”

  My cheeks heated. “I . . . um, I . . .” I didn’t know what to say.

  “Oh, I asked her to bring it to me.” She smiled at her brother. “I can look at them now, Lucas, without losing my shit. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  His stern expression softened. “Yes, it is.” He walked to her, kneeling in front of her. “And it’s wonderful to see you smile. Mother’s on the phone. She wants to know what time you’ll arrive tomorrow. While you talk to her, I’m going to steal Autumn away to discuss some business.” He handed her the phone.

  “Thank you, Autumn.” She touched my arm. “You’ll never know how much I’ve enjoyed your visit.”

  “I wish you the very best, Taren,” I said, then followed Lucas out of the room.

  A short walk took us to a study. A massive mahogany desk held center stage, and matching cabinets lined the wall behind the desk, filled with what looked like law books. The drapes were a deep blue, the throw pillows on the dark blue sofa were gold, and the cushioned chairs in front of his desk were upholstered in a blue and gold print pattern. Everything spoke of money, lots of it.

  Lucas gestured to a chair and then went behind his desk. “I don’t know what you said or did, but that is the first time I’ve seen her smile since losing her husband and daughter. Thank you. My family owes both you and Connor in ways that we’ll never be able to repay.”

  “I think she was ready to smile, and you don’t owe Connor or me anything.” I wished they would stop thanking me. It was embarrassing. Taren would probably never tell him what she’d planned to do at that waterfall, and it felt like a heavy burden to know her secret.

  “Maybe she was, but it didn’t happen until she spent time with you.”

  “What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked to avoid getting another thank-you. He had a way of looking at me that said I had his undivided attention when, as a senator, I knew he must have a thousand things on his mind.

  “All business then.” His mouth lifted in an amused smile as he opened a folder, pulling out two sheets of paper. “Before I explain, I need you to sign a nondisclosure agreement. It only means that you can’t talk about what we discuss to anyone, but it doesn’t bind you to accept what I’m going to offer you. There are two copies here, one for me to keep and one for you.”

  He handed me both pages. It was exactly what he said, an agreement that I wouldn’t speak of anything he told me. “Can I ask what this is about?”

  “After you sign.”

  I couldn’t really see any reason not to, and he was giving me a copy signed by him, so he couldn’t add anything to the agreement later. Besides, he had me really curious. After I signed, I handed him one of the copies, then folded the other one and stuck it in my purse.

  “Okay, I’m all ears.”

  He sat back in his leather desk chair. “I bought the Humphrey land and building in Blue Ridge Valley.”

  “Really? That place has been for sale for a long time. What are you going to do with it?”

  “I have a mystery dinner theater in Charlotte that’s doing extremely well. With all the tourists you get coming to the valley, I think it’s the perfect place to expand, so I’m going to open a second one.”

  “That will be an awesome thing for the town.” And it would. It was exciting. “What does that have to do with me?”

  “I want you to design the interior.”

  That left me speechless.

  He chuckled. “Surprised you, huh?” I nodded. “I’ve seen some of your work—the country club, along with the Matthews’ home. They’re friends of mine. You’re very good at what you do, Autumn.”
<
br />   My mind was already spinning with ideas. And what a fantastic opportunity.

  “I’d like you to go see the one in Charlotte, but I want something completely different from that one. Are you interested?”

  “Heck, yes!” Well, that didn’t sound very professional. “Yes, I am interested. I’ll make arrangements to go to Charlotte.” I mentally reviewed my calendar. “Either this weekend or the next.”

  “Good, but first, I’d like to walk you through the building, give you an idea what I’m thinking. I have to return to Raleigh tomorrow night, so could you meet me there in the morning?”

  “I have an appointment at eleven, but before that, yes.”

  “Nine sound good?”

  “Perfect.” I had a thousand questions, but I wanted to get my thoughts together. Tonight I’d do some research on dinner theaters and make a list of things to ask him in the morning.

  “Would you like to stay for dinner? I know Taren would enjoy spending more time with you.” He smiled. “As would I.”

  “I’m sorry, but I have plans.” I didn’t, but between Connor and my visit with Taren, I wasn’t up to smiling through dinner. “Speaking of which, I really need to get going. Would you tell Taren that I’d love to see her again whenever she gets back this way?”

  He stood when I did. “Maybe some other time.”

  “That would be nice. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Autumn,” he said when I reached the door.

  I paused and glanced over my shoulder. “Yes?”

  “Still you and Connor?”

  “Yes, still me and Connor. Good night, Lucas.” That was two little white lies I’d told him. It was better, though, that he thought Connor and I were still a thing. And as the butler opened the front door for me, I tried to ignore the pang in my heart that almost brought tears to my eyes. I willed them away. Allowing my feelings for Connor to deepen was the road to heartbreak. Been there. Done that. Couldn’t go there again.