One Hundred Goodbyes (An Aspen Cove Romance Book 9)

by Kelly Collins

  Suzanne pulled two twenties from her purse and slapped them on the table as she slid from the booth. “I can’t deal with this right now. I’ve got a meeting.” She looked at the check she’d placed on the table earlier. “That should take care of your expenses until the baby is born. Put it up for adoption and go on with your life.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’m weeks from having your child.”

  Her sister lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I really am, but we both know that’s not my child. It’s just a cocktail we mixed up.” She swung her purse over her shoulder and walked out the door.

  Vi moved forward with several plates in her hands. She set down the French toast, the bagel and cream cheese, and the eggs and bacon Eden had ordered. “Anything else?”

  Eden broke into tears.

  Vi gave her a pat on the shoulder. “It’s just hormones. You’ll see. Once that baby is born, everything will be all right.”

  Eden knew that nothing would be all right ever again.

  Chapter Four

  Thomas

  Was it possible to fall in love with a television? Thomas had thought eighty-four inches was huge, but the screen in his man-cave filled an entire wall. He moved the cleaning cloth across the surface as gently as he’d caress a woman’s breast.

  He stepped back and lowered himself into the soft leather of the theater seats he’d installed. They were like the hug of a thick-thighed woman. His favorite kind. He liked his women with a little meat on them. His favorite moments with Sarah were when she was at the last month of her pregnancy and everything was filled out and round and perfect. Loving on her lush body was like climbing inside of heaven. He’d lived in bliss until the day her water broke, and his world fell apart.

  With the remote in his hand, he flicked through the channels until he found a ball game. Nothing cleared a man’s mind of a woman like pigskin and sweat.

  Fifteen minutes later he dialed his buddy Luke.

  “Hey man, the beers are cold, and I’ve got hundreds of stations to choose from. Come on over.”

  “Wish I could, but Riley and I are heading into Copper Creek to pick out new furniture for the house.”

  “That’s right. I forgot you were being domesticated.”

  “Call the others. I’m sure one of them will come to your rescue.”

  Thomas laughed. “I’m not the one that needs rescuing.” His words were strong, but his conviction wasn’t. He was certain if he kept talking to himself, he’d be crazy inside of six months. It baffled him to consider how many cable options he had and yet he still oftentimes felt lonely. “Go with black furniture. It matches everything.”

  His hand rubbed along the butter-soft arm of the chair.

  “Wait until some woman comes along and insists you bring a little color to your life.”

  “If she’s talking red stilettos, I’m in.”

  They hung up and Thomas called Bowie. He led with the same line. “Hey man, the beers are cold, and I’ve got hundreds of stations to choose from.”

  “Sounds great, but Katie and I are taking Sahara to the Denver Zoo. She has an obsession with monkeys.”

  “She’s like two, how can she be obsessed with anything beyond naps and her mother’s teat?”

  Bowie laughed. “Katie’s teats are off limits, my friend, and obviously you’ve never been around a toddler. Last week she wouldn’t eat anything but dino-bites and fries. We had them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This week it’s monkeys. We indulge where we can.”

  “What happens when it’s football players and cell phones?” Thomas kicked out the footrest of his recliner and popped the top on his beer.

  “I’ve got a shotgun and the nearest convent on speed dial.” In the background Katie asked if Bowie was almost ready.

  “I don’t envy you.”

  “Yeah, you do, but that’s a conversation for another day. I’ve got to go. My girls are waiting.”

  Thomas hung up and surfed the channels until he found a war movie. He could watch Saving Private Ryan a million times and never tire of it, but today it didn’t interest him.

  He picked up his phone and dialed Cannon.

  “What’s up?” his friend answered.

  “My big screen television. I’ve got length and width.”

  “Braggart.” In the background was the sound of Otis. No doubt Cannon was on the back patio and Otis was chasing birds.

  “You got some time to come over and catch a game or a movie?”

  “Nope. Sage and I are heading into town with Trigg and Charlie and the twins. We’re going to check out that big box store that just opened in Silver Springs.”

  “You mean Costco?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  “Dude, it’s like Walmart on steroids. You can skip it and not really miss anything. It’s just like the corner store but everything comes in quantities of a thousand or more. Who needs a thousand of anything?”

  Cannon laughed. “Apparently the parents of twin boys. They go through over a dozen diapers a day. Besides, the bed and breakfast is filled up solid for a few weeks and that means lots of hungry mouths to feed in the morning.”

  “If your wife cooked, you’d be set.” Thomas thought about Sage and suppressed a laugh. It was a good thing she was a nurse.

  “If my wife cooked, we’d all be dead.” A muffled thump and a yelp sounded. “I’m just kidding, sweetheart. That mac and cheese you microwaved was delicious.”

  “Sounds like you need to go.”

  “Thanks for nothing, man. When Sage is mad, she doesn’t withhold food. She withholds something far more satisfying than her cooking.”

  Thomas raised a hand to cover his ear. “I don’t want the details.” Once again, he hung up and was left on his own.

  With the push of a button, his footrest went down, and Thomas rose from his chair. Maybe holing up inside all day wasn’t the best idea.

  The interior of his house was a masterpiece, but the outside was still a work in progress. On his porch he looked around. There were flowerbeds to clean out. A picket fence to mend. His grass needed a good mowing and trees needed to be pruned.

  There were things in his budget he could afford to have done, but most were up to him. The hard work kept his mind on what he had and not what he didn’t.

  The afternoon was spent mowing, weed whacking, and nailing loose pickets.

  “You’re making me look lazy,” called Mr. Larkin from across the street.

  “You can always come over and lend a hand,” Thomas shouted back. Mr. Larkin was at least eighty and no doubt nearly blind. One too many times in the short time Thomas had lived on the street did he inform the old man that he had on two different colored shoes or socks. It appeared he had ten pairs of the same shoes all in varying colors and condition. Maybe he was a fan of the big box store and bought things in bulk.

  “You invite me over for a beer, and I’ll consider it, but if all you want is free labor, I’m not your man.”

  Thomas tossed his hammer to the side. What the hell? “Come on over then. I’ve got a cold one for you now.”

  Mr. Larkin shuffled across the street without even looking. When he arrived, he was wearing shorts he had to have owned since the ‘80s and a pair of knee-high socks. One had a purple band of color and the other green.

  “You like light beer or the darker stuff, Mr. Larkin?” Thomas led the man inside his home.

  “Light beer is for pussies,” the old man said. He squinted his eyes. “Call me Peter. Mr. Larkin makes me feel old.”

  Thomas wanted to tell him he was old but patted the man’s back. “One stout coming up.”

  “This house used to belong to Mabel Kirkenheifer.” Peter laughed. “When we were kids, we shortened her name to heifer.”

  Thomas poured the beer into a mug and handed it to Peter. “That wasn’t nice.”

  He waved a hand through the air. “It was all in fun. She never took offense because she was tall like a basketball player with the shape
of a string bean. No hips, no bottom and…” He moved his hand in front of his chest and tapped on his sternum. “No boobs.”

  He hated to ask but was curious as to the history of his house. He knew it was built in the forties just as the paper mill was being constructed. “What happened to her?”

  “She died.”

  “Right.” Thomas pointed to the living room. “You want a tour of the place?”

  “Nope, I just wanted a free beer.” He tipped back the mug and drank deeply. A mustache of foam was left behind when he lowered the drink.

  “Her daughter inherited. That would be Abby Garrett. Not a damn thing like her mother. That girl is all sweet and honey.”

  Thomas wanted to groan. Abby Garrett had been after him since he’d arrived in Aspen. She was sweetness and honey, but she was also bees and hives. One thing Thomas wasn’t a fan of was bees. She was also looking for forever, which didn’t exist in his vocabulary. He’d finally had to sit her down one day and be honest. He hoped she’d move her sights to someone else soon, because despite his honesty, she stared at him like he was a flower and she was the bee.

  “I thought she lived in the mountains?” He knew she had a bunch of land in the hills up Range Road. There was a clearing just over the ridge that opened up to acres of open land filled with wildflowers.

  “She does. Her mother inherited that land from her grandfather who was a Carver, but Mabel liked the city.”

  Thomas laughed. “Aspen Cove is far from city living.”

  “Tell that to the girl who lives among a field of flowers.” Peter moved into the living room and plopped onto the end of one of the sofas.

  “I suppose it’s all perspective. So, she sold the house and moved into the foothills?”

  He shook his head. “She’s got a sister and they split the property and assets. All Abby wanted was her bees and flowers. Her sister wanted warm weather and the beach. She packed up and moved to California.”

  He had been up to put out a small grass fire near Abby’s place a few months ago. “Who owns the land next to hers?”

  “That would be Bea Bennett. I’ve been waiting for someone to show up and claim ownership, but Bea’s been in the ground for years now and no one’s come a calling.”

  “There’s always a mystery.”

  “What about you? You came in from Silver Springs I heard. You got no wife. No kids.” He squinted and looked around. “No animals. What’s your story?”

  Thomas kicked off the wall he’d been leaning on. He moved to the vacant couch and took a seat. “Oldest story in the book. Met a woman, fell in love, didn’t turn out well for me.”

  “Damn, son, one woman is not the end of the line when there’s so many out there to choose from.” He yanked up his falling sock and leaned forward. “I’ve been married twice. Bless both of their souls. Good women. One was an amazing cook and the other… well, let’s just say she had other skills, but my life was richer for having both of them.”

  “Look at us now, both single.”

  Peter let out a laugh that shook the windows. “I’m single, but I ain’t lonely. I’m old, but I ain’t dead. I spend every Tuesday at Buttercups. Every Thursday I’m at Edith’s from Frazier Falls. Mondays belong to Maria. She lives on Posey Road. That woman is no string bean, but she can make a mean casserole. I rest on Saturdays because the ladies from the church social club are very social after services and Wednesday is liver and onion night at the diner and no woman can outshine Maisey’s liver and onions. I try to keep Fridays fluid.”

  Thomas simply stared at Peter. Did the old man, who no doubt set his teeth in a glass of water on the side of his bed each night, get more action than him? How was it that the highlight of Thomas’s day was a beer and a big screen television?

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  The old man finished off his beer. “Son, there are two things I never kid about. One is hemorrhoids and the other is women. It’s time you found yourself the latter because sitting on your ass at home alone will give you the former.”

  Peter Larkin rose from his seat and shuffled to the door. “See you next Saturday, young man. I’ll take the same beer but in a frosted mug next time.” He walked out the door, leaving Thomas staring after him.

  Chapter Five

  Eden

  With Porkchop under her arm, Eden took one last look at her apartment. Without a job and no prospect of one, she couldn’t afford to stay any longer.

  The telltale shuffle sounded behind her and she turned to find Mr. Schubert.

  “What’s this about you leaving?” He pushed out a white envelope toward her chest.

  “Yes, I’m heading north.” Eden forced a smile to her lips as she looked at the envelope with the torn-open top edge and the address crossed out and replaced with her name.

  “Most birds head south for the winter. You’re a strange one, but you’ll be missed.” He stared down at his gnarled fingers and pushed the envelope a bit farther forward. “Got you a little something.”

  She was touched by his kindness. While she’d never been anything but nice to him, her internal feelings often didn’t match what she portrayed.

  “Thank you so much.” She couldn’t imagine what the man had put together. He lived off of his social security check and whatever he could find in the dumpsters and sell at the flea market on the weekend.

  Eden had boxed up what she couldn’t sell and gave it to him, certain it was a gold mine to a man with nothing.

  She shifted Porkchop in her arms and peeked inside the envelope to find at least fifty coupons for diapers, wipes, and formula. Tears sprung to her eyes.

  “Oh Mr. Shubert, you have no idea how touched I am from your thoughtfulness.” She leaned over and kissed his scruffy cheek. “I’ll miss you.” In that moment, she was certain of it. He was a constant in her life. A constant pain in the behind, but a constant, nonetheless.

  Nothing from this point forward would give her the same continuity as him “rushing” out of his apartment to meet the elevator.

  “You take care of that baby now.”

  Her free hand went to her belly. “Yes, I’ll definitely do what’s best for the baby.”

  She turned and walked away before she could cry.

  “Ready for an adventure?” she asked the cat. “Not sure how you feel about Alaska. Not sure how I feel about it either.”

  Porkchop curled into a ball on the passenger seat and fell asleep.

  Eden had hit the outskirts of Denver when her phone rang. Her heart played hopscotch in her chest. She prayed it was Suzanne calling to tell her it was all a big mistake, but the ring was wrong. This was her mother’s tone.

  “Hey, Mom.”

  “Oh honey, I just talked to your aunt. She said there’s a big storm moving through in a few days. If you don’t get there before it hits you might have to wait several weeks.”

  “What? I can’t wait several weeks. Mom, in several weeks I’ll be at my due date. I’m already pushing it driving at eight months along.”

  The typical tsk tsk sound pushed through the phone. “I told you having your sister’s child was a big mistake. Didn’t I?”

  “You did, but I just thought—”

  “No, you didn’t, and that’s the problem. You assumed it was time for her to have a child. Decided it would be good for her. Felt sorry she couldn’t have one herself. You know Suzanne; she wants everything she can’t have. Don’t you remember that call we got from the animal rescue center asking where to deliver the gazelle?”

  “No.”

  “Well, you were probably too young, but your sister called and told them we’d be happy to place the animal on our acreage.”

  Eden thought back to their apartment in San Antonio. “We didn’t have acreage. We had a back patio.”

  “Exactly my point.”

  “You’re right.” There was no point in arguing. Her mother hadn’t been there the day Suzanne broke down and cried in her arms for over an hour, telling her how she’
d had this grand plan to do things right. To marry, succeed in her career and have a child she could give the world to. It all seemed so logical and so heartbreaking that she’d get everything she wanted but the child.

  “You’re just lucky Aunt Cici has that big house in Fairbanks.”

  Lucky wasn’t what she was feeling at this moment. Frustrated. Angry. Sad. Like she had to pee. Those were the things she felt.

  “How are you, Mom?” After her father died ten years ago, her mother had met and married a Department of Defense educator who took her to live in Japan. He taught ninth grade at the school at Misawa while her mom taught English to Japanese nationals.

  “I’m doing okay, sweetheart. I’m sorry you’re going through this but in a few weeks, you’ll have the baby, put it up for adoption and you can move on with your life. Cici says there’s a lot of bar work in Fairbanks and there’s a lot of men.”

  “It’s not my life’s dream to be a cocktail waitress.”

  “No, but it is what you are.”

  Eden wanted to scream at the world at the unfairness of it all. Suzanne was over a decade older. College wasn’t a maybe for her. Dad had paid for it. By the time Eden turned eighteen, her father had died and there wasn’t a penny saved for her education. She took a few classes at the community college. Thought she’d study graphic arts, but then her mother met and married Stu. Everything else was history. Mom moved from Texas to Japan. Suzanne was en route to Denver for her job and Eden followed her there in an attempt to stay connected to family.

  “I’ve got to go, Mom.”

  “Don’t forget what I said about the storm.”

  “Yep, got it.”

  She hung up feeling lower than when she’d begun.

  If an early storm was moving through Fairbanks, there wasn’t much Eden could do. She was over 3000 miles from her aunt’s place. Even if the conditions were perfect and she could drive fifteen hours a day, it would take her four days. Now that she was pregnant and had a bladder the size of a walnut, it would take her longer. She’d be lucky if she got there by next summer.