by Terri Osburn
“That’s an observation. Not a question.”
An observation she didn’t contradict.
“Why are you still here?” Justin asked.
She stood up. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? This is my house and my mess. I have to be here. Why are you still here?”
Refusing to start that argument again, he said, “I mean, why are you still in Ardent Springs? You always talked about seeing the world. I thought you’d be living in some exotic location by now.”
Abby shrugged. “Kyle had seen enough of the world before he met me that he didn’t feel the need to see any more. After we married, he preferred that I stay here at home, with family and friends, instead of relocating to wherever the army sent him.”
“Are you saying that you never got to travel because your husband wouldn’t let you?” Justin couldn’t imagine giving up a dream because someone told him to.
“I didn’t say he didn’t let me. He just didn’t want me to go.”
“And the difference is?”
“The difference is that staying here was my choice.” Abby scratched her temple with the back of a soot-stained hand. “I’m not going to lie. I grew to resent it towards the end, but since he died I’ve realized that he had enough stress in his life without having to worry about me, too. Saving the world, which is essentially what our poor military is being called to do, takes a toll. If knowing I was safe gave him a moment of peace, then I’m glad I honored his wishes.”
Justin had never been to war, let alone saved the world, but he had been in some life-and-death situations during his time fighting fires. He wouldn’t want anyone he loved in harm’s way, but Abby taking a trip to London or Paris or even Canada didn’t sound very dangerous. At least no more dangerous than anything else these days. Europe wasn’t as safe as it once was, but a person could just as easily die on a backcountry road as in the streets of some foreign city.
Opting not to point this out, he instead jumped to the next obvious question.
“But you’re still here. I don’t mean to sound harsh, but you’re free now. So why stay?”
Dark lashes flitted over jade-green eyes. “Where would I go?”
That one was easy. “Anywhere you want.”
“But who would I go with? And don’t go volunteering for that, too.”
He’d go anywhere Abby asked him to go but preferred to point out something she’d apparently never considered. “Go by yourself.”
Abby dropped onto her bottom as if he’d flung something at her. “By myself? That’s crazy.”
“Why is it crazy? If you want something, go get it. If you want to see the world, go see it.”
“I—” she started, seemingly at a loss for words. “Huh.”
As she leaned against the sink, her eyes dropped to the floor, and Justin could see her mind processing his suggestion. Full lips opened and closed, while green eyes sparkled at the possibilities.
Looking up, she said, “Do people really do that?”
“Probably not everyone, no. But then not everyone has your intelligence and sense of adventure.”
Her snort took him by surprise. “My sense of adventure took a hike a long time ago.”
Justin refused to believe that the girl he once knew wasn’t still hiding in there somewhere. “Nonsense. You are who you are, and that doesn’t change. The summer before I left for college, you had a collection of travel pamphlets. I bet you still have them.”
A pretty pink clouded her cheeks. “You remember that?”
“I remember everything,” Justin assured her. “Where are they?”
The half grin lifted one corner of her mouth. “In a shoe box in the top of my closet. But gosh, I haven’t thought about those pamphlets in forever.”
“The world is still out there,” he said, fingers poised above the keys. “Where do you want to go first?”
Abby rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t take off on a trip right now.”
The woman was too literal for her own good. “I’m not buying you a plane ticket for tomorrow. Just tell me where you’d go if you could fly off tomorrow.”
“A pretend flight, huh?” One slender finger twisted a dark lock in circles. “I don’t know if I can pick one.”
“Come on,” he urged. “First city that comes to mind.”
“London,” Abby replied as if the answer had been hovering near the surface and suddenly burst through. “My great-grandmother, who died the year before Cooper and I were born, came over from England when she was twelve—alone, if you can believe it—and I’ve always wanted to find out more about her. Maybe even see where she grew up.”
Encouraged by her enthusiasm, Justin tapped a few keys. “London it is. A little search for popular attractions and here we are.” He spun the laptop to face her. “Your potential destinations all on one page.”
Like a child approaching a toy store window, Abby stepped closer to the screen. “There’s King’s Cross,” she said, green eyes bright. “I saw a picture once of Nanny Lill standing in front of the station doors. She was just a little girl, and I’ve often wondered if that wasn’t the day she took the train to Liverpool to catch the boat that brought her here. Which would make it the last time she ever saw London.”
Justin let her scroll through the other images, watching her smile widen. This was the girl he remembered. Seconds later, she whispered, “There’s so much to see.”
“You should go,” he said. “Maybe not tomorrow, but soon.”
Abby stepped back, pushing the computer his way. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
She returned to the open cabinet. “Because I’m not a kid to go gallivanting around the world.”
“I’m pretty sure that no one uses the word gallivanting anymore,” Justin pointed out. “And what does your age have to do with taking a trip? Adults take vacations all the time.”
“Spending money on a trip to London would be frivolous.”
“What’s wrong with frivolous? No one is suggesting you stop paying your bills and run away forever. Take a week for yourself. You said earlier that you want some good memories for a change. A trip to London is the perfect place to make some.”
Dragging a small, waterlogged box from the cabinet, she said, “I’m not promising anything, but I’ll think about it.” Abby opened the box and the lid crumbled in her hand. “We need to add a hand mixer to the list. This one is a goner.”
Just like that, the practical Abby returned. But the blush remained high on her cheeks. There might be hope for her yet.
Three hours into her twelve-hour shift, Abby already needed coffee.
“You look pretty happy for a woman who spent the day dealing with fire damage,” Haleigh said, sneaking up on Abby in the hospital cafeteria. “What gives?”
Abby added French vanilla creamer to her cup. “What makes you think I’m happy?”
“The humming, for starters.” The OB doc filled her own mug.
“I’m not any different than I was yesterday,” she claimed, lying through her teeth. Yesterday she’d been mad at the world and dreading the future. Today, thanks to Justin, she was considering getting a passport. “Have you ever thought about taking a trip?”
Haleigh reached for the sugar. “What kind of a trip?”
“I don’t know.” Abby picked a couple of places on her list. “To New York to see a play. Or London to visit the queen.”
“Aren’t those two of the trips you talked about incessantly back in high school? Are you seriously thinking about going now?”
“You’re right,” Abby said, brushing the idea away. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“No. This sounds like a great idea. This is something you’ve always wanted, but I assumed you’d given up ever doing it.”
Abby had given up. On a lot of things. “Nothing is set in stone. The subject came up with Justin today, and—”
“Wow,” Haleigh said, brown eyes wide. “That boy is good.”
“
What do you mean?”
She clicked a lid onto her cup. “Yesterday you were adamant that he was too young for you, and now you’re talking about going to New York together.”
“I am not!” Abby defended, drawing attention from the other patrons. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice. “He remembered that I used to talk about traveling and asked me about it. If I book a trip, and that’s a big if, the plan is to go alone.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
Bringing this up had clearly been a mistake. “Wise?”
“Traveling alone sounds kind of dangerous.” Her friend shrugged.
Abby’s teeth clenched. “If I were a man, would you say that?”
Haleigh cringed. “Good point. But it’s a reality, whether we like it or not. In most cases, a two-hundred-twenty-pound douche bag is going to come after you before he’d go after another guy. Why don’t you take Linda with you?”
Taking her mother on her first real travel adventure didn’t sound all that fun. Not that Abby didn’t love her mom, but a mother/daughter trip was not what she had in mind. However, Haleigh had a point. A single woman in a strange city by herself came with a daunting list of possibilities. Many exciting, but many downright dangerous.
“Like I said, nothing is carved in stone. Just something I’m thinking about.”
“Well, I think you should do it. And if you manage to score tickets for Hamilton, you aren’t getting on that plane without me.”
Abby nodded, doubtful that would ever happen. “Agreed.”
“Did I hear someone is getting on a plane?”
Sipping her coffee, Abby turned to find Carrie Farmer holding her daughter, Molly, on her hip. The child squirmed like a baby seal but her mother held tight.
“Abbs is thinking about taking a trip.”
“Really?” Carrie said. “With who?”
Justin had clearly been mistaken about the travel alone bit. “Not sure yet,” she answered. “What are you doing here this late?”
Carrie shook her head. “Hope stepped on Noah’s foot. That pony may be small, but she’s heavy.”
The single mom had found love the fall before with her neighbor, Noah Winchester. Since Christmas, the pair had been inseparable, the threesome making an adorable little family. Abby was happy for the younger woman, who’d suffered much more than she had, but couldn’t help but envy her at the same time.
“Is he okay?” Haleigh asked.
“He will be,” Carrie sighed. “Despite insisting that he was fine, he couldn’t even put weight on it without moaning in pain.”
“Ouch. But that’s a military guy for you.” Abby remembered Kyle’s absolute refusal to show any weakness. Noah had been Special Forces with the navy, which likely made him a tougher case than her infantry husband. “They could get run over by a tank and try to walk it off.”
“Exactly,” Carrie agreed with a laugh. “Oh, listen to me going on without even asking about your house. How are you doing? That had to be scary.”
“I wouldn’t want to do it again,” Abby confirmed, “but the fire department put it out right away, and a team will start cleaning up tomorrow morning.”
“That reminds me,” Haleigh said. “Are you staying with us again tonight?”
Abby shook her head. “I dropped a bag at Mom’s on the way here. A couple more nights and I should be able to return home. I won’t be cooking anything for a while, but I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.”
Carrie’s daughter, Molly, let out a squeal and nearly did a back bend out of her mother’s arms. “I’d better go before she gets to the floor and takes off,” she said, switching the child to her other hip like a pro. “And I promised Noah I’d bring him back something to drink. When I left he was still in X-ray, but they may be back by now.”
“Let us know if there’s anything we can do,” Haleigh offered, ruffling the little girl’s hair. “And good luck keeping him off that foot.”
Mother and child headed for the cooler on the other side of the cafeteria as Carrie shared a parting wave over her head.
“She makes that look easy, doesn’t she?” Haleigh said.
“It comes with practice,” Abby replied. “Remember how clueless Jessi was when Emma was first born?” A homeless, pregnant teen that Cooper had stumbled upon last spring, Jessi and her baby, Emma, had spent their first several months together living in Abby’s house. The young mother had since moved in with her boyfriend, Ian, leaving Abby once again alone in a house too big for one person. “She’s an expert now.”
Her friend sighed. “I think it’s a gift. You’re either born with the maternal instinct or you aren’t. You were. I wasn’t.”
Cooper had always wanted to be a father and would be a good one, given the chance. Surely Haleigh didn’t mean to take that option away from him. “What are you trying to tell me? That you’re never having children?”
“Of course not,” the blonde replied, sounding more resigned than a potential mother should. “But what if I turn out like my mom? I could never inflict that on an innocent child.”
For lack of a better word, Meredith Mitchner’s mothering skills were nonexistent. She was cold, unaffectionate, and overly critical of her daughter, while Ryland, Haleigh’s younger brother, could do no wrong. Since Haleigh and Meredith were nothing alike, Abby couldn’t imagine her friend ever repeating her mother’s offenses.
“You can get rid of that notion right now,” she said. “When you and Cooper get around to having kids, those little ones are going to be very lucky to have you as their mother.”
Brown eyes softened. “Do you really believe that?”
“With all my heart. Now when am I going to get a little niece or nephew?”
Haleigh chuckled. “Let me get through the wedding first.”
Abby gripped her best friend’s wrist. “Did you set a date?”
“We’re talking about it, but nothing definite. It’s been nearly a year, and Cooper is running out of patience.”
Her twin had loved Haleigh Rae since they were clueless teenagers, and he’d love her until the last breath left his body. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t nag her to make things official. The problem wasn’t that Haleigh didn’t want to get married. She simply dreaded planning a wedding with her mother.
“Unless you think he’ll wait another thirty years or so, you’re going to have to deal with Meredith being involved. In the end, it’s your day, and your mother will have to take a backseat.”
A blonde brow shot up. “Have you ever known my mother to do that?”
She had a point, but still. “I’ll be there to help, and you know that Mom won’t tolerate her causing trouble.” Dropping an obvious hint, Abby added, “A Christmas wedding is always nice.”
“You’re as bad as your brother.” The phone in Haleigh’s pocket began to buzz. Checking the screen, she said, “Duty calls. Don’t forget about the fundraiser on Saturday. I’ll pick you up at nine thirty.”
“I may have to work that day.”
“Already checked your schedule. You’re off on Saturday.”
“All right, but I’m not bidding,” Abby called as Haleigh shuffled toward the exit.
“Never say never,” her friend called back before disappearing through the swinging doors.
Abby didn’t care what Haleigh did to her. She would not lower herself to buying a man’s time. Even if it was for a good cause.
Chapter 4
Though Justin hadn’t seen Abby since Thursday, he’d heard from her via text. The remediation team had moved in as scheduled, and Mike Lowry, the contractor Abby had suggested to the insurance adjuster, had completed a structural inspection. The wall was sound, and the water from the fire hoses had caused more damage than the fire itself. Which couldn’t be helped.
What made him smile had been the final bit of information. Abby had ordered a guidebook for Europe thanks to him. A good sign that she’d warmed to him, if only a little.
Now i
f she’d drop the age crap, they might get somewhere. The few seconds against the kitchen island had shown promise, when her eyes darkened and her breath hitched as she licked her lips. He’d given her enough space to make the next move, drawing the line at forcing his case. And then she’d pushed him away.
Not the result he’d wanted, and though patience was not Justin’s forte, her reaction gave him hope.
“You’re up next,” said Vivi Fontain, her eyes locked on a clipboard as she adjusted her headset. With the push of a button, she spoke into the microphone attached to the earpiece. “Get the Nelly song ready. It’s about to get hot in here.”
A CPA and veteran EMS member, Vivi handled the finances for the volunteer fire department and had put together this unorthodox auction to raise money toward a new ladder truck. She’d supposedly gotten the idea from an annual women’s show put on in Nashville.
Lowering the mic, she said, “Don’t let me down, Donovan. You’re the prettiest face we’ve got. I’m counting on a triple-digit bid, at least.”
Feeling like a prize bull, Justin attempted to retain some of his dignity. “You realize that’s sexist, right?”
“Welcome to a woman’s world, sweetheart.”
Applause and loud whistles filled the theater, echoing through the makeshift backstage area where Justin awaited his turn on the auction block.
“Who’s all that for?” he asked, his competitive nature roaring to life. Embarrassing as this was going to be, his pride would accept nothing less than ending the event as the highest earner.
“Clifton,” she said as they both peered through the curtain to see the old man unbutton his shirt, revealing curling wisps of gray hair. “Good Lord. He’s doing a striptease.”
Staring in awe, Justin said, “I’m supposed to follow that?”
“No backing out now, honey.” Swinging her fist over her head, Vivi yelled, “Go get ’em, Clifton!”
Zac Harwick, a local DJ serving as MC for the event, appeared completely dumbfounded.
“He isn’t taking bids,” Vivi murmured. Opening the curtain wider, she waved her arms furiously to get the DJ’s attention. When he finally noticed, she reminded him to do his job.