Chapter 11

After another long night at home during which she barely slept and continued to cry, she dragged herself out of bed and went to open the coffee shop, as usual. She felt much calmer, though still very upset about things. She kept waiting for Paul to come through the door and was surprised when the end of the day neared and there was still no sign of him. He was wrong, and she was devastated, but some part of her had hoped he would show up and give her some explanation that would make everything better. It appeared that wouldn’t be the case. After closing, she went to her parents’ house, telling her mother everything and finding herself in tears once again.

“You’ve been under a lot of strain, and perhaps your father and I put too much on you too soon, then this has happened. How about you and I get away for a while? We can drive down the coast to Aunt Mary’s house in South Carolina. It’ll be good for the both of us to see some family, and I can show you all my old haunts from when I grew up there. It’s beautiful in the fall,” her mother offered.

“I can’t, Mom. I have the shop,” Susan said.

“Your father has been tending that shop for years. He can manage it for a week while we have a girl-only vacation. What do you say? Want to Thelma and Louise it with your mom?” her mother asked.

“I’m not driving off any cliffs,” Susan said with the tiniest hint of a smile.

“Fair enough, but if we run across Brad Pitt on the way, we are definitely picking him up!” her Mom laughed.

“Mom! I’m telling Dad!” Susan joked. Leave it to her mom to instantly make things better, even if only for a moment.

“There can be no tattling on a girl’s trip,” her mother warned, mussing up her hair like she had when she was a little girl and then smoothing it back down as she leaned in to kiss her on the top of the head. “It will all be okay.”

“Thank you, Mom. I love you,” Susan told her.

She was filled with melancholy, but was glad to be doing this. They made plans to leave in a couple of days, but her father would take over the shop in the morning, giving Susan time to get ready for the trip and decreasing her chances of running into Paul at the shop if he decided to stop by. High on her agenda was a quick trip to the optometrist for a new set of contacts. Hopefully, they could order them and they would arrive before she returned from her trip.

Susan was anxious about running into Paul before she left. She didn’t know what she would say or do if she did. Her phone was noticeably silent, and his lack of an effort spoke volumes to her, even if she was dreading any interaction. Obviously, she had been right, and she was just an inferior substitute for Miranda. Her mind went back to the night he had stumbled drunk into the shop and kissed her, mumbling the other woman’s name.

She played things over and over in her mind as she and her mother drove to South Carolina a couple of days later. It all made sense now. Somehow, Paul had found out who she was and pursued her for no other reason than she was all he had left of his fiancée. It was sad and, on some level, Susan felt sympathetic. However, at the end of the day, she had to accept that there was nothing more to their relationship than a pair of corneas that had brought them together.

Her mother had been right about South Carolina in the fall. It was beautiful with all the countryside and various colors that flanked the sides of the road as they traveled. They stopped at an old family restaurant in one of the many small towns on the way and ate home-style meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas. Susan understood why they called this comfort food. If she ate like this all the time, she would be three hundred pounds, but feel very content about it.

“There are my girls!” Her Aunt Mary met them on the front porch of the old farmhouse that she and her husband had restored over the years. Mary’s husband, who everyone called ‘Tank’ from his days as a Marine Gunnery Sergeant, had inherited the home from family. It was in a state of disrepair when he had gotten it, but was surrounded by rolling meadows and trees. They had done just enough work to make it habitable and then continued with projects for over ten years until it was just the way they wanted it. It was nothing short of majestic what they had created.

“Aunt Mary!” Susan squealed as she hopped up the front steps and hugged her tightly.

“Sis? How was the trip?” Mary asked Susan’s mother, grabbing Susan’s hand as she pulled free and holding on to her as she had always had a way of doing.

“Long, but worth it to see my favorite sister’s smiling face,” Susan’s mother replied.

“I’m your only sister,” Aunt Mary reminded her.

“Well, there you have it,” she responded, pulling both Mary and Susan to her in a group hug.

“What are you hens cackling about out here?” roared Tank as he stepped out the front door with a broad smile on his face.

“Good to see you, too, Uncle Tank,” Susan laughed.

“Oh, man. Mary, go get the sump pump and let’s get this girl hooked up. She’s gotten so full of crap in New York that her blue eyes have turned brown!” he joked, seeing the change in eye color for the first time.

“It’s okay, Uncle Tank. It’s just the contacts. They are still blue. Don’t hook me up just yet.” She laughed.

“Whew. I was worried for a moment,” he told her, pulling her to his barrel of a chest to hug her tightly as he nodded toward her mother in greeting.

“Well, let’s all get in the house so we can annoy Tank some more with our girl chatter,” Aunt Mary said, opening the front door for everyone to enter.

“No way,” Uncle Tank replied. “I’m out of here until y’all get caught up and wear yourselves out from yakking a little bit. The boys are waiting on me down at the pool hall.”

“Good riddance,” Aunt Mary said, kissing him on the cheek as he headed out to his truck and made a hasty exit.

The three women went inside and sat down with some sweet tea and snickerdoodle cookies Aunt Mary had made that morning just for them. They were delicious, almost the same recipe Susan used at the shop. Of course, the recipe had been her grandmother’s. Each daughter had spun it off into their own special version, and both were slightly different from the original.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see the both of you. Of course, it is even nicer that you are seeing me, Susan. It’s such a blessing that has been bestowed upon you,” Aunt Mary told her.

Susan now felt a twinge of guilt and uneasiness at the discussion of her transplants, and that wasn’t fair. Then again, life had never been fair to her. A part of her conceded that it hadn’t been fair to Paul and Miranda, either, but he had been dishonest with her, and that was not acceptable. She wasn’t even willing to consider how creepy it seemed that he had sought her out and pursued her as he did.

“It’s good to see you, too, Aunt Mary,” Susan said, and it was.

There was one thing that could be said about her mother and her aunt. It was hard to be unhappy when the two of them were together. They behaved largely like the two teenage girls they had once been. Both had been – and still were – great beauties that probably broke a million hearts over the years. They were full of fun and loved a great adventure, often going on girls trips without their husbands.

“There is a fall hayride in town tonight. I thought we might all get out and get some fresh air,” Aunt Mary told them.

“Sounds very…country,” Susan replied with a laugh.

“Hey, don’t knock it. You’re going to love the way they do it here. Everyone brings in food for one of the best potlucks you’ll ever have, and the hayrides run every hour. You can eat to your heart’s content and ride if you want. There will be plenty of younger folks there for you to talk to, as well,” Aunt Mary continued.

“Well, I guess it beats sitting around listening to Uncle Tank telling me about his fishing and hunting conquests,” Susan said.

“Don’t be such a spoilsport,” her mother told her.

“Let’s get your things from the car and get you settled into your rooms,” Aunt Mary said, rising from the table. The two of them grabbed their bags from the car and followed her upstairs to the spare bedrooms. They each went instinctively to the rooms they normally stayed in, but stopped when Aunt Mary indicated that Susan would be in a different room this time.

“I’m sorry. I should have mentioned that we have another house guest. He’s over at the Richmond farm right now, but will be back later. His name is Cody. He’s the son of Tank’s friend, Henry, who passed away last year. He just got back from the military and needed a place to crash until he works out his situation,” Mary said.

“His situation?” Susan’s mother asked.

“He was pretty torn up when he got back, between the hell he endured over there and the loss of his father. Then, he found out that his mother was seeing a man who has practically moved in with her. They got in a tussle down at the Heavy Hog, and Cody spent the night in jail. His mother didn’t want him at the house, and Tank wasn’t going to let him sleep in the streets. So, he’s here for a bit,” Mary told them.

“Is he violent?” Susan asked, concerned as she shot her mother a look.

“No, honey. He just had a little too much to drink, and some guy that thought he could take his daddy’s place waltzed into the wrong bar. If anything, he’s too sad to be angry anymore,” Mary told her.

“All right, good to know,” Susan replied. “So, where do I sleep?”

“Well, if your mom wants to stay in her usual room, you can sleep in the attic room. We’ve redone the entire thing into a reading room for me, but there is a small bed in one of the dormers for extra guests. I sometimes nap up there, and the view is fantastic,” Mary replied.

“I don’t know, the attic is kind of creepy,” Susan said, not feeling good about it at all.

“Honey, take my usual room, and I’ll take the attic room. I can get into all of Mary’s reading and sewing stuff up there,” her mother offered.

“Are you sure, Mom? I can stay up there. I’m sure it is nice,” Susan offered, feeling bad that her mother was going to have to stay in the attic.

“No, it’s fine. Drop your stuff down here and you can come up with us and see how great it is. I bet you’ll be sorry you gave it up,” her mother told her. Susan put her bags on the refurbished wrought iron bed in the available bedroom and followed them up the narrow set of stairs that led to the attic room.

“Oh, wow. You really have done some work since I was up here last,” Susan’s mother exclaimed.

“It’s beautiful, Aunt Mary. I can see why you like it up here. Probably a great place to be when Uncle Tank is yelling at the Giants on TV during football season.” Susan laughed.

“You have no idea. I think this little hole is my best idea in the whole house. I have my sewing machine set up on one side and a little miniature library on the other with a small loveseat to curl up on. Then, there is the bed that Tank custom built into one dormer and another wingback chair in the other for when I want to sit and read in the sun, but there are too many insects outside. You know how it gets here in August,” she told them.

“It really is nice. Mom was right, I’m already regretting that I let her have this place,” Susan laughed.

“No take-backs,” her mother said. “My bags are on the floor, and I’m here to stay.”

“All right, well, I will let the two of you get settled in, and then you can come back downstairs or take a nap, whatever you are up for. We’ll leave at about five for the hayride,” Aunt Mary told them. She headed toward the steps and left them there alone to hash out what they were going to do.

“I think I’ll just get unpacked and then head back down to spend some time with Mary before Tank shows up again to suck up all the peace and quiet.” Though there was no ill will between Susan’s mother and Tank, it was common knowledge that he loved to talk and hardly anyone could get a word in edgewise.

“A nap sounds pretty good to me. I think I’ll just go lay down for a bit while you two get your gossiping out of the way,” Susan said with a smile.

“Okay, honey. I love you. We’re going to have an enjoyable time here. I promise,” her mom told her, kissing her lightly on the forehead.

“Yeah, we will,” Susan replied, though she didn’t really feel like she was going to have a good time anywhere for quite some time to come. She left her Mom in the attic room while she made her way down to the second floor and closed herself up in her room. Glancing at her cell phone, she realized it was still turned off, and she held her breath as she powered it up to check for messages or missed calls. There was only one from her dad, telling her that he loved her. She tossed it on the dresser, stripped down to her panties and a t-shirt and climbed into bed.