by Keeland, Vi
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” she said. “I imagine it won’t be easy doing things with that cast on his arm. Maybe I can make him a few meals and bring them over?”
“If the rest of your cooking is anything like that broccoli salad, I’m sure he’d love it. To be honest…” My eyes shifted to Autumn and then back to the road. “When you said broccoli salad, I was thinking that might not go over too well. The crowd that comes in is more meat-and-potatoes than salad, but that stuff was damn good.”
“Thank you. It’s my mom’s recipe.” She looked out the window for a moment. “She and my dad didn’t tell me Mom’s cancer was back until a few months before she died. She had an inoperable brain tumor. She’d undergone chemotherapy and radiation years earlier, which slowed the growth, but a second tumor developed in a place they couldn’t even really treat.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Thanks. They didn’t tell me what was going on because I was twelve and busy with my friends, and they wanted my life to continue to be as normal as possible. But my mom decided she would teach me how to cook. I guess it was her way of spending time with me. So most of what I remember about the last months with her is being in the kitchen and laughing. I think it’s one of the reasons I love to cook.”
“Those are nice memories.”
She nodded. “I was angry when she died that they hadn’t told me. But in hindsight, it might have been for the best. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have been able to relax and enjoy that time with her. I would’ve been scared.”
“Makes sense.”
“Anyway.” She shrugged. “I’ll make Bud some meals to freeze and drop them off after he gets home from the hospital, if you think that’s okay.”
“I’ll let him know.” We’d never really spoken about what had happened at the barbecue, or after, so I wondered what the state of her relationship with Blake was. I figured this might be as good a time as any to poke around. “Will it be interrupting plans you have for Friday night?”
She smiled. “No.”
I tapped the steering wheel, debating whether I should keep asking questions I might not want the answers to. Eventually, curiosity won. “What about the rest of the weekend? Any interesting plans?”
“Just Sunday night. My friend Skye is coming over. We were supposed to get caught up on The Bachelor last time we hung out, but we only got through two episodes and both conked out.”
“Shocker,” I said. “Since the show is so riveting.”
“It was the wine, not the show being boring.”
“Uh-huh.”
“How about you? Any plans this weekend?”
“Work. Bud. Dinner service. That’ll pretty much occupy it all.”
“I can also help with dinner service. Maybe we can take turns so you don’t have to do it every night until Bud is well enough to handle things.”
Like hell I’d be letting her drive to an abandoned building to serve people who were too down on their luck to afford a meal. But I knew if I said that, I’d wind up in some sort of an equal-rights argument. So instead, I used the opportunity to poke around some more.
“No date Saturday night?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“I might ask you the same thing. Why don’t you have a hot date Saturday night?”
“I’m not the one dating someone.”
Autumn’s mouth spread to a grim line. She looked out the window and spoke softly. “Neither am I.”
“Come again?” I leaned toward her. Could I have heard that wrong?
She sighed. “I’m not seeing Blake anymore.”
“When did that happen?”
“The day after the barbecue.”
A smile spread across my face. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, you look really sorry.”
“What happened?”
Autumn’s head whipped in my direction, and I glanced over at her and back to the road. “What?”
“You don’t know what happened?”
I stopped at the light at the corner of her street. “Well, obviously I know what happened at the barbecue, but I meant what made you decide to call it quits.”
“That, Donovan. Blake was very nice to me, and I wasn’t being very nice to him.”
The light changed, so I turned the corner and started to look for a spot. Luckily, there was too much for her to carry inside by herself. As we passed her building, Autumn turned her head, studying a car double-parked outside.
“Shoot.” She groaned.
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s my father’s car.”
“The yellow Porsche?”
“It’s one of his many midlife-crisis purchases.”
“Why would he be here?”
“He’s done this on occasion when I don’t answer his calls.”
“You want me to drive around the block a few times to see if he leaves?”
She frowned. “While I would love that, I probably should just deal with it and get it over with.”
There was an open spot a few buildings down, so I parked. “Do you want me to wait here while you talk to him? Then I’ll carry up the coolers?”
“No.” She shook her head. “If you don’t mind, it might make it easier if I have a buffer.”
I shrugged. “No problem.”
I piled the empty coolers one on top of another and carried them, while Autumn brought the bag of containers and serving utensils. As we neared the double-parked Porsche, the driver’s side door opened, and a man I assumed was her father got out. He looked between us.
“It’s about time. I’ve been waiting for almost three hours.”
“You wouldn’t have had to wait if you’d called me to tell me you were coming. I could’ve told you I wasn’t going to be home.”
Her father looked like he was still dressed from work, sans the suit jacket. Did that mean he sat in the car for three hours and never thought to take his damn tie off?
“Well, I need to speak to you.” He glanced at me again and then his daughter. “Preferably alone.”
I looked at Autumn, and she shook her head. When I turned back to her father, he was looking at me expectantly. “Sorry, sir. If Autumn doesn’t want me to leave, I’m staying.” I set the coolers on the ground, figuring it best to make peace. I extended my hand, stepping forward. “Donovan Decker. Nice to meet you.”
Her father looked at my hand like he was considering not shaking it. But eventually he clasped it and grumbled something.
When I moved back beside Autumn, her shoulders slumped. “What do you want, Dad?”
“I’m getting married in two weeks.”
“I’m aware. I received the fancy invitation in the mail.”
“Well, then, why didn’t you respond?”
“Because I figured if I responded the way I wanted to respond, you’d show up at my door.”
“How many years are you going to be upset about me moving on? Your mother would want me to be happy.”
“This has nothing to do with Mom. Don’t drag her into this. And you’ve moved on seven times in the last fifteen years.” She turned to me and tapped her pointer to her lips. “Or maybe it’s eight times. I haven’t seen him in a few months. A lot can happen…”
“Don’t be disrespectful,” her father barked.
Autumn shook her head. “Go home, Dad.”
“Will you be at the wedding?” He took a deep breath and reined in the attitude, speaking with a softer, gentler voice. “It would mean a lot to me.”
Autumn frowned. “Will Silas be there?”
“Of course not. You know I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“No, I don’t know that.”
“Autumn, please come.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it, okay?”
Her father pursed his lips, but said nothing more. He walked over to Autumn and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
�
�It’s late,” she said. “I should go in.”
Her father nodded. He offered a vague wave in my direction, and then he was back in his flashy yellow car.
I picked up the coolers, and we walked to the entrance to her building in silence. The elevator ride up was quiet, too. When we got to her door, she fished her keys from her purse and turned to me.
“I’m sorry about that.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. If you met my mother, you’d understand why I thought that interaction was pretty damn pleasant.”
Autumn smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded. “He just…I don’t know. He’s got a warped sense of priority sometimes.”
“I take it from what you said, you don’t like one of your dad’s friends…Silas?”
“Silas was his business partner.”
“Not a fan?”
“Nope.”
“Something happen between you two?”
She shook her head. “Not between me and Silas. I dated his son for four and a half years. Things…ended over Christmas break of my first year in law school.”
I waited for her to say more, but she didn’t. But then something dawned on me.
“That’s right around the time you also started to have career-decision doubts, wasn’t it?”
Autumn looked down. “I had a lot of doubts that year.” She took a deep breath and blew it out with a forced smile. “I should go in. It’s getting late, and I have an appointment early tomorrow. You can just leave the coolers here. I’ll bring them inside. I’m going to return them to my neighbor tomorrow anyway.”
I hated to leave, especially when she was clearly feeling down, but I thought we’d made a lot of progress the last few days and didn’t want to screw things up by not giving her space. So I nodded. “Okay. But open the door and go in before I take off.”
She smiled sadly. “You’re like a bodyguard.”
“Can never be too careful.”
Autumn unlocked her door, and I slid the two coolers inside. She held the door open after walking in. “Goodnight, Donovan.”
“Goodnight, Red.”
I waited until I heard the lock click closed before I left. On the drive home, I thought back through all the unexpected events of the evening. I’d found out the kid I’d hired to water my plants hadn’t killed one after all, a certain little redhead had stolen it. Autumn had also dropped a bomb on the car ride home—she wasn’t seeing Blake anymore. Then there was her father, who was pretty much what I’d expected from the limited things she’d told me. But even with all that, the thing I couldn’t stop wondering about was what the hell had happened during her first year of law school.
CHAPTER 21
* * *
Autumn
Six years ago
“God, it feels so good to be out with you guys.” I leaned my head on my friend Anna’s shoulder as we walked from the field to the parking lot. We’d just spent the afternoon watching an outdoor concert with a bunch of friends I hadn’t seen since law school started. I’d been accepted at two of my top three choices, but decided to stay home and go to Yale, my Dad’s alma mater—and also where Braden had gone.
Anna tugged my hair. “You should try doing it more often. We never see you.”
“I’m sorry. Law school has kept me busier than I thought.”
“It’s fine. I’m just teasing. How are things with you and Braden?”
“Good, I guess.”
“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise.”
“Not really. Nothing I should complain about anyway. He just… I don’t know. He really wants to help me with law school. Braden is smart, so I should probably want all the help he wants to give, but I need to figure it out on my own sometimes. Like, a lot of the people from my cohort study together, and when I’ve mentioned that I think I’m going to the library to join them, he gets weird about it. I think it offends him that I don’t always want his help.”
“That’s because the man is crazy about you.”
I smiled. We’d arrived at the park after the start of the concert, so my car was parked on the grass almost all the way back at the entrance. When I looked around, I spotted a silver car that looked like Braden’s BMW. But the sun was blaring overhead, and I couldn’t see whether anyone was inside. I shielded my eyes, squinting, but I could only get a glimpse of a man’s profile, though it looked like it could be Braden. A few seconds later, the car pulled away. The concert had been packed, and we were in Greenwich, so BMWs were a dime a dozen… Yet something bugged me. It was the second time in the last few days that I’d thought I spotted a car that looked like Braden’s, but each time I’d gotten close enough to take a good look, the car had driven away.
“Earth to Autumn.”
I looked at my friend, who was staring at me expectantly. “I’m sorry. Did you say something?”
“I said, not everyone can have a guy who is crazy about them, but I did meet a guy last weekend who was crazy in bed.”
I’d totally zoned out there for a minute. “Oh wow. Tell me everything.”
Anna dove into a story about a skinny drummer with a mohawk she’d met at a coffee shop last weekend, who had the thickest penis she’d ever seen. She had me laughing, and within a few minutes, I’d forgotten all about the weird feeling I’d had—at least temporarily.
***
“Hey, beautiful.” Braden sat back in his chair and smiled. “I didn’t know you were coming by. This is a nice surprise.”
I walked behind Braden’s desk, set down one of the two bags in my hand, and leaned in to give him a kiss. “My dad’s been working so much lately, I made him a healthy lunch. He forgets to eat when he’s on trial. Figured I’d bring you something, too.”
He wrapped his fingers around my waist and yanked me down onto his lap.
I giggled. “Your door’s open. Anyone can walk by.”
“It’s Sunday. There’re only a few of us here.”
Braden brushed his nose with mine. “I’ve missed you.”
“Me too.” I smiled. “Are we still on for tonight?”
He brushed a lock of my hair from my face. “We’re definitely on. I made a reservation for seven o’clock at that new little Italian place you loved.”
“Oh, yum. Will you be here until then?”
“Probably. I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would yesterday.”
For some reason, the car I’d seen in the parking lot yesterday popped into my head. “How late did you stay last night?”
“I don’t know.” Braden shrugged. “Probably about nine.”
I smiled. “Well, then, I’ll let you go so you can get out of here in time for dinner tonight. Plus, I don’t want my dad’s lunch to get cold. I’m going to run upstairs to his office.”
“Alright. I’ll pick you up around six thirty.”
I kissed him one more time before heading upstairs where my dad had the proverbial corner office.
“Knock, knock,” I said. “Delivery for Mr. Workaholic.”
My father tossed his pen on his desk and smiled. “What are you doing here, pumpkin?”
I held up the bag of food. “I made you some lunch. I know how you get when you’re in the middle of a trial. You either forget to eat or eat crap.”
He smiled warmly. “Your mother used to bring me lunch when I worked on the weekends.”
“I know. But you didn’t work Sundays back then.”
“I still try not to unless it’s absolutely necessary. But I had no choice today. I lost the whole damn afternoon yesterday because of the damn bedbugs.”
My nose scrunched up. “Bedbugs?”
He thumbed toward the ceiling. “The insurance company one floor up found bedbugs in a couch in their lobby, so building maintenance inspected the entire place. We had a few in our lobby, too. They bombed the entire building last night. No one could enter for twelve hours.”
“I thought I heard you leave the house a
t six o’clock this morning?”
My dad nodded. “I did.”
“What time did they bomb the office yesterday?”
“Five in the evening.”
“Five? So no one could be in the building after five o’clock?”
“Not unless they wanted to grow a third arm.”
“What if someone was here when they set off the bug bombs?”
My dad shook his head. “No one was here. I had security go office by office to make sure the place was empty before we let the fumigation start.”
CHAPTER 22
* * *
Autumn
“It’s nice to see you, Autumn.” Dr. Lillian Burke folded her hands on top of the notebook on her lap. “You look really well. You’ve let your hair grow longer.”
I reached up and twirled a strand of my hair. “Yeah, just more that winds up in a bun on the top of my head, I suppose.”
“So how are things going? Are you still working for social services?”
“I am, and I still love it.” I smiled. “Best decision you ever helped me make.”
Lillian smiled. “I’m thrilled to hear that. We spend more time at our jobs than we do with loved ones, so it’s important to enjoy what we do.”
“I’m actually working toward my PhD now. I don’t think I’d started that when we last spoke. I was thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve been here while I was in the waiting room. I thought it was two years, but I think it’s been more like three.”
“It has. Next month will be three years, actually. I had to look myself earlier. But congratulations on your schooling. We’d talked about you wanting to become a therapist, but you hadn’t yet begun a program. That’s fantastic.”
“I’ve taken it slow, part time, but I’m getting there. I should graduate after two more semesters. Honestly, I think part of the reason I stopped coming to see you is because I felt like I needed to be able to stand on my own two feet if I was going to be sitting in your chair at some point.”
“We’ve discussed this. Therapists have therapists. It’s not only okay, it’s encouraged in this profession.”
