Four years later
Leave it to Harley to plan a wedding three weeks after graduation. I’ve been with her every step of the way. I’ve pushed the fact that I’ll be walking down the aisle with Dylan to the back of my mind. I know he and Brad remained close. He even came to Western to visit several times. Harley warned me every time, and I always took the opportunity to drive home. I knew on those trips that I was safe, that I wouldn’t be running into him.
Now here I am, car packed full as I move back home. With my parents. This is going to be a huge adjustment for me. Not only will I be back under their roof, but I can also no longer hide from him. I have no desire to see him. To make awkward small talk about things I couldn’t care less about. He made his choice; we both have to live with it.
My phone vibrates from where it sits in the cup holder. Glancing quickly, I see Harley’s face smiling back at me.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Av. Where are you?”
“I’m about two miles outside of town. Where are you?”
“We just got to Brad’s parents’ place.”
“I bet you’re wishing you would’ve listened to him and signed that lease on the apartment last month,” I tease her.
“Nope. You know his parents are great. Besides, I can’t see paying rent when we wouldn’t be living there. Not to mention that neither of us has started our new jobs yet.”
“Fair point. So what’s up?”
“Just checking in on you. I was thinking tomorrow we could go through the RSVPs and work on the seating chart.”
“Sounds like a plan. I’m all yours until the school year starts.”
“Gah! I’m so excited that we’re going to be working together. What are the odds that we’d both get picked up by our old high school?”
I laugh. “We just got lucky that Mr. and Mrs. Garret both decided to finally retire this year.”
“Truth! Okay, well I’m going to run to Mom and Dad’s for a bit. You want to meet here tomorrow?”
“That sounds good. See you then.”
I drop my phone back in the cup holder. I fought the urge to ask her if Dylan was going to be anywhere around. I hate that part of me wants to run into him. It’s been four years and my heart still calls for him. Maybe seeing him is what I need to get over him. I haven’t laid eyes on him since the day he told me we were over. Harley and Brad—hell, even my family—have tried to get me to forgive him. They all claim that what he did was out of love and that he was just looking out for me. I call bullshit. I mean, I can see their point, but end us? He said he loved me and then just ended it. No calls, no texts, no more visits. Just like that, he was done. That’s not love. You can’t just let it go like that. I was a fool and still am to this day because I’ve never stopped loving him.
Pulling into my parents’ drive, I barely have the car turned off before Mom is opening my door.
“I’m so glad to have you home,” she says, yanking me into a hug as soon as I’m out of the car.
I laugh. “I missed you too, Mom. Don’t get used to it though. Once school starts and I start getting a steady paycheck, I want to look for my own place.”
“Honey, you know you’re welcome here as long as you need. This will always be your home.”
I do know that. I also know that after four years, moving back home seems daunting. Only time will tell how it’ll be living with my parents again.
“Come on in. Dad and Alan are manning the grill out back.”
“Mo-om,” I whine. Yes, I am very well aware that I am an almost twenty-three-year-old woman and I just whined to my mother. “I thought I said I didn’t want any kind of coming home shindig.”
She grins. “It’s just us—me, you, your dad, Alan, and Kara.”
Kara is Alan’s girlfriend. They’ve been dating a little over a year now. I keep waiting for my big brother to pop the question. Everyone can see that the perpetual bachelor is now whipped. He’s crazy about her.
“That’s not so bad,” I say hesitantly. “As long as you didn’t invite anyone else.”
“I wanted to, but your brother warned me not to.”
I make a mental note to do something really nice for my big brother. I don’t bother unloading my car as I plan to get Dad and Alan to help with that. Instead, I just grab my phone and follow Mom into the house. She stops off at the fridge and gets us both a bottle of water before we head out onto the back deck. “Look who’s here,” she announces like I’m the freaking Queen of England or something.
Dad rushes me first. “Glad to have my baby girl back home.” I don’t comment on his use of baby, because I know to him I will always be his little girl. Instead I hug him tight.
“Hey, Dad,” I say, my face buried in his chest.
“My turn.” Alan pulls on my hand to get me out of Dad’s embrace. He wraps his big hulking arms around me. “Missed you, Av.” He kisses the top of my head. Even though he’s ten years older than me, Alan and I are close. He was there for me when everything happened with Dylan. Now that I think about it, I never did ask him how that conversation went down. How he knew to be there that day outside the shop. I remember him saying Dylan’s name but I was so upset it didn’t even register until now. Not that it matters at this point.
“Missed you too,” I say before whispering, “When are you going to make an honest woman out of her?” He knows who I’m taking about. He just smirks and winks. Just as I suspected, big brother has a plan.
“Good to see you, Avery,” Kara says from beside us.
I chance a quick glance at Alan. He’s smiling, so either she didn’t hear us or he couldn’t care less if she did.
“Kara!” I give her a big hug. She’s only five years older than me, making her five years younger than Alan. I really like her and hope she becomes my sister one day. “How have you been? I didn’t get to see you the last time I was home.”
“Good, just working and trying to keep this one in line.” She points at Alan who is now standing behind her with his hands wrapped around her waist.
“How’s work going?” Kara is a social worker and based on some of the things she has to see, I don’t know if I could do her job. Then again, as a teacher, I’m going to be subjected to some of those things as well. It’s sad but true.
“Good days and bad.” She smiles. “Both are still rewarding.”
“You kids ready to eat?” Dad calls over.
He doesn’t have to tell us twice. We load up our plates and gather around the patio table. After we finish eating, we spend a couple of hours just sitting around and catching up.
“Well, this has been fun, but I’m exhausted from the move. I’m meeting Harley tomorrow to go over the seating chart, so I’m going to head to bed.”
“We’ll get your stuff.” Dad stands from the table.
I wave him off. “No need. I have clothes to sleep in, so we can do the rest tomorrow.” I make my way around the table, giving each of them a hug. Not sure how living back home is going to be, but I will admit I missed my family.
I’m jolted awake by my ringing cell phone. Without opening my eyes, I pat around on the nightstand until I find it. Peeking open one eye just enough to swipe Answer, I place the phone next to my ear. “Lo.”
Harley laughs. “Good morning, Sunshine. How about we meet for breakfast before we start working on wedding stuff?”
“What time is it?”
“A little before eight.”
“We’ve been college graduates for maybe a minute. Did you already forget how to sleep in?” I say a little more awake.
Again, she laughs. “We have a wedding to plan. Now drag your tired ass out of bed. I’ll be there in thirty minutes to pick you up.”
“You’re buying,” I grumble before ending the call. The things I do for my best friend.
I take a quick shower and throw on some shorts and a T-shirt, then blow-dry my hair and pull it up in a knot on top of my head. Foregoing makeup, I grab my phone and purse and head downstairs.
“Where are you off to?” Mom asks.
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. Gotta love living at home. “Harley will be here any minute to pick me up. We’re going for breakfast, and then we’re going to go over the seating chart for the wedding.” I hear a car outside; looking out the window confirms it’s Harley. Speak of the devil. “She’s here, see you later.” I wave and rush to the door, stopping only to slide my feet into my flip-flops.
“I expected to have to pull your ass out of bed,” she teases once I’m in the car.
“Where are we eating?” I ask, ignoring her comment. She knows if I need to be up and moving that I am. She’s the one in college who I had to constantly wake up or she would’ve missed the majority of her morning classes.
“The diner. Where else is there to get a decent breakfast in this town?”
“My mouth’s watering just thinking about it. It’s been years since I’ve eaten there. The last time was…” My voice trails off when my mind pulls up the memory of the last time I was at the diner.
“Av?” Harley questions.
“I was with him, with Dylan, that last time I was there.”
“We can go somewhere else. McDonald’s?” she offers.
I sit a little taller in my seat and take a deep breath. This is my new reality. No more hiding from him, from the memories. I can’t stay locked in my parents’ house. Not to mention I’m going to be teaching in the school we attended senior year.
“No, I’m good. Just not something I’ve thought about in a really long time.” I remember the night he and I were there. Dylan made the comment that he couldn’t wait until he could wake up with me, and then we could go to breakfast because he would be afraid to feed me his cooking. So we took a nap on his couch; he said his dad wouldn’t freak out if he came home and we were asleep on the couch. When we woke up, Dylan took me to the diner and we had breakfast—which they thankfully serve all day—for dinner.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” I give her a weak smile at best. “They do have the best breakfast in town.”
“Food in town,” she reminds me.
“So where are we going to work on the seating chart?”
“I have it all set up in the basement at Brad’s.”
“You getting excited?”
“Yes!” she squeals. “Who would’ve thought I would be marrying my high school sweetheart.”
“People do it all the time. You’re a lucky girl. Brad’s great.”
“He has his moments,” she laughs.
“So what all is left to do?” I ask once we’ve placed our orders.
“Seating chart, finalize head count for the caterer, final dress fitting, final meeting with the photographer.”
“So not much.” I laugh. “Are you sure you won’t let me throw you a bachelorette party?”
“Nope, Brad and I both decided against it. We don’t need it. The shower is more than enough. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Brad has an interview on Monday with the local bank in town for an open mortgage broker position.”
“That’s great. It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Brad is that fond of numbers.”
“Right? Crazy man.”
“Listen to you, Miss History Teacher.”
“And you, Miss English Teacher.”
“What can I say, I’ve always done well in English. It’s a gift,” I say, blowing on my nails and brushing them on my shoulder as if it’s no big deal.
“It’s all those books you read.”
“Hey now, don’t be hating on my books.”
She holds her hands in front of her in surrender. We talk all things wedding while we eat, then head to Brad’s parents,’ which is Harley’s place too for now.
“I have it all set up downstairs,” she says, leading me inside the house. “And here you have it, wedding central.”
The small dining table is covered with all things wedding, and there are boxes of decorations stacked against the wall. “That everything?” I ask her, pointing to the boxes.
“Uh, no. Mom has several more at her house too.” She grins.
“Okay, so who all’s invited?”
“Yes.” We sit at the table and she opens a box. “On my laptop.” She points to where it sits next to me on the table. “There’s a list of who all was invited. This”—she points to the box—“has the RSVPs we’ve received so far.”
“When’s the cutoff?”
“It was two weeks ago, but they’re still rolling in. And Mom suggested that some forget to send them, so I either need to reach out, which I think is kind of tacky, or I need to plan for a few extras just in case.”
“I’m sure there will be a few who say they’re coming and end up not showing.”
“More than likely, so if we pad the list and the tables, we should be fine.”
“Agreed, so where do we start?”
“How about I pull up the spreadsheet of the invites and you call off the names.” She holds up the box. “Then I’ll know who hasn’t replied. Some of them we know just won’t show up. We all have a few of those in our families.”
“True story. Okay, let’s do this.” We get to work and before I realize it almost three hours have gone by. “That didn’t take long.” I laugh.
Harley rests her elbows on the table. “Yeah, and now the seating chart.”
As soon as the words leave her mouth, I hear Brad yell down the steps, “Babe, you down there?”
“Yeah,” she calls back.
I hear heavy footsteps as they tromp down the stairs. “A-very. Hi, didn’t realize you were here,” Brad says cautiously.
“I told you we were working on the seating chart,” Harley reminds him.
“That was hours ago.”
“This takes time, Bradley,” she says.
I look up to give him a hard time and my breath catches in my chest. Dylan is standing beside him. His eyes find mine and we hold each other’s gaze. It’s been four years since I’ve laid eyes on him. Now that I have, I can’t look away.
How am I going to do this?