TWENTY-FOUR
It took a good week for Vivian to reach her destination, but she knew even as checked into the hotel that it wasn’t her final stop. Kentucky was beautiful. At least, what she had seen of it so far.
She’d stopped to tour a couple of state parks, exploring a cave and visiting a waterfall, before moving on to check out a local museum and then touring some grand neighborhoods where she’d felt as if she’d stepped back in time.
It was all so pretty, exciting, and new…but it didn’t have that special something she was missing.
She hadn’t factored stopping to see Gretta into her plans. In fact, she’d actively avoided it, using the GPS to take her due south, so she wasn’t lying when Gretta called to check in, and she told her it was too far off the path to even consider. She’d been disappointed, but she seemed to understand.
Guilt was a constant companion, as was loneliness and a certain amount of longing that went with missing her friends. What was it about that place that made her miss it so much?
After a quick shower and a change of clothes, Vivian felt restless, so she grabbed her clutch and headed back out.
Food. She would get something to eat. Maybe that would be enough to distract her from her thoughts.
She ended up joining a local food tour group that took her and several others through a tour of the town, teaching them about local history and stopping at some of the best places it had to offer. She tasted the most amazing food and decadent desserts and even tasted a few locally crafted beers that she mostly liked but definitely didn’t hate. Sam Hardin’s beer was tough to beat.
She could almost say she was in love with the place.
The only thing that kept nagging at her was the desire to have someone to share it all with. Every time Vivian found something funny or interesting, she’d turn to the person beside her, only to find a stranger. Sure, she was able to exchange a couple of words here and there, but there was no connection. It just wasn’t the same.
There were some things about being married that had its perks, which was always having someone to tell about your day, someone to touch bases with at the end of one.
Andrew hadn’t been the best companion, but he’d been an artificial source of comfort. Now, Vivian just truly felt alone in the world.
As she stepped off the tour bus and parted ways with the other passengers, on her way back toward her hotel, Vivian’s phone vibrated in her clutch. Taking it out, she saw Gretta’s name appear on the screen and smiled as she answered.
“Hey, old friend, how are you?”
“Old?” Gretta scolded. “I bet I could run laps around you.”
“You probably could,” she laughed. “So what’s up?”
“Nothing. I was just headin’ to bed for the evenin’ and wanted to touch bases.”
Vivian glanced at the skyline, which was still bright, the sun a couple of hours away from setting. “It’s still pretty early. Are you feeling okay?”
“Right as rain, dear. The boys and I had an early dinner, and I shipped them back off to their families. Now I have the house all to myself.” There was a pregnant pause, and then she added, “It’s too quiet around here with ya gone.”
The hotel was within sight, and Vivian thought of returning to the empty hotel room. “I know what you mean.”
“Ready to come home yet?”
They’d been over this before. To avoid hurting her feelings, Vivian said, “I went on a tour today. Tried some pretty nice beers and didn’t fall over drunk once.”
“Well, amen for that! I always did enjoy me a nice draught fresh from the tap in the fall. Of course, it doesn’t mix too well with my meds now, so I have to live vicariously.” She sighed longingly. “Oh to be twenty again.”
“It’s all downhill from thirty,” Vivian lamented with her.
“Says the pinup model. What are ya, thirty-one?”
“Thirty, actually,” Vivian said, somewhat abashed.
Gretta made a pishing sound. “You don’t know what downhill is yet. Just wait until you hit fifty and your boobs drop to your kneecaps, and your chin develops a turkey gobble.”
Vivian laughed until she cried. “Oh, Gretta, I miss you.”
“I miss you too, girl. Hurry up and finish your midlife crisis and get your ass home. We got some catchin’ up to do. This phone call business just ain’t cuttin’ it for me.”
The more Gretta pressured her, the more Vivian had to admit it was working. Each time, it grew harder and harder to say no.
“I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”
“I know you will,” Gretta said without missing a beat. Despite never missing an opportunity to throw the offer to return into their conversations, Gretta was good at rolling with Vivian’s deflection.
Reminding her to take her pills and wishing her a good night, Vivian got off the phone and then realized that Gretta hadn’t mentioned Nash this time. She wondered why, her thoughts immediately turning to another woman entering the picture.
Would he move on that fast? Well, she wasn’t his wife, so of course, he could. It had been easy for him to turn his back on her, so she didn’t know why it would be a surprise that he might replace her just as fast.
Why was she even dwelling on this? It wasn’t as if they had ever been together. They hadn’t even been officially dating, and here she was getting jealous and upset over the possibility he might be seeing someone else.
Because he’s a great catch, she heard the little voice in her head say, and it was right. Nash was the best kind of man she’d ever met. Stubborn as a mule, just like Gretta accused him of being, but once you scraped off that hard exterior, a good man was waiting to be found.
He certainly outshined the men in her life. She loved that he was hardworking and dedicated, not only to the job but to his community and the people—and horse—in his life. Hell, even the memory of his wife. Nash was one of a kind, as far as she was concerned. So yeah, thinking of another woman taking her place, taking what she wanted irked her like nothing else.
She wanted to race into that town and march up to him and demand he give her another chance.
So why was she just standing there thinking about it when she could be doing something about it?
Gretta was right. She was being a stubborn ass.
Here she was, driving all over the country, telling herself and everyone who’d listen that she was finding herself and her place in the world when all she was really doing was running away from it all.
“What the hell am I doing?” she questioned aloud as she let herself into her hotel room. There was open luggage on the bed, a couple of empty drink bottles on the table beside it, and some discarded food containers in the trash—because she never felt right having perfect strangers in her personal space when she wasn’t around, so she kept the Do Not Disturb sign permanently affixed to the door handle.
The room was nice, pastel, nondescript artwork by some unknown artist on the walls and bedding and curtains that echoed the design, but it felt cold today, more so than the other days since she’d arrived.
Suddenly, Gretta’s open invitation and insistence she come sounded like the perfect solution, as tempting as a chocolate sundae on a hot day—or really any day.
Checkout wasn’t until ten the next morning, and Vivian had worn herself out walking all day, but right there at that moment, she had decided.
“Fine,” she muttered to herself as she went around picking up clothes and placing them neatly into the open suitcase, “you win.” Although Gretta couldn’t hear her, Vivian had no doubt the woman had some supernatural power to know what her next move would be. And no doubt, the woman was grinning like a lunatic because she was right.
First thing in the morning, Vivian was going to check out, turn her sights east, and go home.