Coming Alive: Welcome to Carson, Book One

by Renee Harless

  She mocks a child’s pout and then smiles.

  “I don’t know what came over me yesterday and this morning, but I’m good now. I won’t jump you in the tub.”

  “Shame,” Logan says, smacking her behind on his way to the bathroom, letting her giggles trail him along the way.

  After their bath, during which they unsurprisingly found themselves making love once more after Avery claimed that she had years of pent up desire that Logan unknowingly unleashed, he heads across the street to a coffee shop to grab them a late breakfast and some caffeine.

  When he returns to the room, he anticipates that he will find Avery in the same position she was in when he left, naked on the bed. Instead, Logan finds her curled up in the chair by the window. She doesn’t respond when he enters the room - it’s as if she’s focused on something completely out of their realm.

  He puts the muffins and coffees on the dresser and makes his way over to where she is perched, his chest aching at every step.

  Crouching down, he rubs his hand down her arm while inquiring, “Everything okay?”

  Looking at her, he can see the anguish in her eyes and Logan works to hold in his panic. Afraid that she is second guessing their night together and their relationship as a whole, Logan suppresses his breath, waiting to hear her response.

  I just got her; I’m not ready to lose her.

  “I’m fine, really,” she says as she brings her hand forward to rest her palm against his cheek. “I was just thinking of something completely unrelated to us.”

  A heavy breath releases from his body and he places his hand atop hers.

  “Sorry, I got a little worried. Is there something I can help you with? You look like you’re lost in another world.”

  He takes her hand from his face and kisses the soft skin at her knuckles before encasing it between both of his significantly larger hands.

  “I think I’m going to go see my father.”

  “Wow, really? Do you want me to go with you?”

  “Um, no, I don’t think so. It’s not that I don’t want you there, I just feel like I need to do this on my own.”

  “Okay. When do you think you’ll set something up?”

  “Tomorrow?” she says as she looks to him for affirmation. “I only have his address. I was thinking of just showing up.”

  “You’re going to be okay if he isn’t happy to see you?”

  “Yes...no...I don’t know. My letter said he didn’t know about me so I’m sure he’ll be shocked. I just….I figured I have nothing to lose.”

  Logan nods his head in understanding.

  “You’re absolutely right and I’m behind you one-hundred percent. Once he meets you he’ll love you, Avery. Just like I do.”

  “I love you too, Logan.”

  “Can we have that discussion now...about the no condoms?”

  “Oh, yea. I mean I trust you. It isn’t a big deal. I had gone on the pill once I started college, but it threw my hormones for a loop, and my body never went back to normal. My doctor thinks my likeliness of getting pregnant is pretty slim.”

  “Oh. Does that upset you? That you may not be able to have a baby?”

  “I don’t know. I honestly hadn’t ever thought it would be something I would want. But yea, I guess I’m a bit upset that my body doesn’t work right. But there are other ways to have children if I ever want.”

  “That’s true. Thank you for telling me.”

  Logan leans forward and presses his lips against hers in a chaste kiss before pulling her from the chair.

  “Come on, we need to eat something. I bought muffins.”

  After breakfast, Avery and Logan check out of the hotel, anxious to head to the folk festival in Asheville that the receptionist mentioned on their way out.

  Patrons line the streets, enjoying the nice weather and the vendors that border the sidewalk. Avery and Logan walk through the throngs of people, her arm around his waist and his arm across her shoulders, intimately joined. They steal a kiss or a smile every hundred feet, unable to keep their attraction hidden. A bakery comes into view and they duck inside the building, both inhaling the sweet scent of bread and cakes.

  “Wow, this place is adorable,” Avery cheers happily as she gazes around the 50’s ice-cream parlor-ish design.

  “You’re adorable,” he replies as he lays a gentle kiss on her lips.

  She motions him over to a small display of cupcakes at the far end of the room and he stands beside her, admiring the shop’s work.

  “We should get some to take back to the office.”

  “We could do that.”

  “Do you think I should take some to my father’s?” she asks, nervously twisting her fingers around and gazing up at him.

  Logan tucks a hair behind her ear and says, “I think he’d like that.”

  The high school-age worker places Avery’s selections into two boxes and they head to the register where an older woman greets them. She speaks momentarily with the other worker and comes back to the register to give them their total.

  “That’s thirty-five dollars for both boxes.”

  While Avery busies herself paying for the cupcakes, the woman inquires, “You two make a lovely couple. Are you from around here?”

  “No ma’am. We live in Carson. Not too far from here.”

  “Oh I’ve been to Carson. Cute town.”

  “It is.”

  Out of nowhere she throws out a topic, tossing Logan for a spin when she speaks directly to him.

  “You two will be together for a long time. I can tell. You can trust her.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Avery notices his hackles rising and listens intently as an older man joins the woman.

  “This is my wife; she has a ‘sense’ about people. She’s been pretty spot-on since we met in elementary school. She told me in first grade that we’d get married and open up a bakery. I didn’t believe her until we were twenty-four, closing on the location, and getting married the next week. She’s ‘sensed’ things about… I’d say… eighty couples and has been right every single time,” he says with a chuckle, casting an adoring look at his wife.

  Avery and Logan glance at each other, confused by the strange situation.

  The woman begins again, looking at Avery, “You’ve lost a lot in your life - more than most. You’re a survivor.” Avery gasps at the accurate depiction.

  Then the woman turns back to him and says, “You’ve been lied to by everyone you’ve loved. But she won’t lie to you. You can trust her, love her.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Logan murmurs under his breath.

  Continuing to speak to him, as if in a trance, she discloses, “You’re the air she needs to breathe; you’re what keeps her alive. She’ll be the reason you live, and you’re what brought her to life.”

  The elderly woman takes a deep breath and hands us our cupcakes while her husband looks on tenderly. Avery grabs the bag containing the boxes and glances at Logan nervously.

  “Thank you,” Logan says, a bit perplexed and a bit gleeful at her attestation.

  When they reach the door, about to step out on to the street, the woman hollers out, “I can’t wait to see you all in a few months. The wedding is going to be beautiful.”

  Avery waves to the couple as the door closes quickly behind them and they walk out onto the street, holding hands, but completely silent, busy absorbing the details from the woman’s revelation.

  They practically make it back to the car in complete reticence before Avery speaks up, “That was weird, right?”

  Logan bursts out in laughter, unable to hold back his relief at Avery’s words and their utter appropriateness. Avery joins in with a few giggles of her own.

  “It was a bit weird, yes.”

  Avery slides into the passenger seat and looks over at him, a calmness exuding her.

  “It’s so strange how she knew those things. I mean that definitely wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “Not speaking as a doct
or; yes, it was pretty fucking eerie how spot on she was.”

  “Is it bad that it made me happy?”

  He looks over at Avery’s beautiful face and he can’t help but think, mine. Logan grasps her hand and places his lips on the back in a soft kiss.

  “I can’t fucking wait to be married to you, too,” Logan says as he gazes across the console mentally replaying every word the woman spoke.

  You’re the air she needs to breathe; you’re what keeps her alive. She’ll be the reason you live, and you’re what brought her to life.

  AVERY TAPS HER FINGERS nervously on the steering wheel of her car. She’s parked on the street, two houses down from her father’s. She had hoped that he wouldn’t be home, but the two cars in the driveway give the impression that luck is not on her side.

  Trying to calm her nerves, she takes a few breaths, closes her eyes, and leans her head back against the headrest. She thinks back to her night with Logan.

  When they arrived in Carson, Logan took her to his house after she agreed to stay with him for the night. They made stir-fry and stayed up watching a football game. They never left each other’s side while they talked about random things, like what school was like when they were kids and what she thought of Carson.

  After the game, Logan took her back to his bedroom where he feasted on her body as if he were a starving man and she was his favorite meal. His mouth touched every part of her skin and his tongue left wet paths that sizzled beneath the surface. He brought her to orgasm twice with his fingers and tongue before he penetrated her body with his erection.

  God, he was marvelous.

  The way he would speed up until he knew she was getting close, then he would slow down, prolonging their coming together. They couldn’t get enough of each other. It was like being a part of this magnetic field that only felt complete when it met its other half. And she truly believed Logan was her other half. As much as she loved Nick and Declan, she never had this connection with them - this all-consuming need to be with them.

  This morning they talked about the woman from the bakery and laughed at her pronouncement, but she couldn’t stop secretly hoping what the woman said was true. Everything she surmised about their pasts was correct, so how could she be wrong about their future?

  Logan made love to Avery one last time, on his kitchen counter, while she was making them breakfast. It was passionate, sultry, and steamy; a combination Avery couldn’t get enough of, and apparently Logan couldn’t either.

  He brought her back to the clinic so that she could pick up her car, then Avery returned to her apartment after promising to head to Logan’s after her visit with her father.

  Avery opens her eyes and takes a deep breath, thinking back to the words Logan whispered to her before she left. The most calming statement he could have uttered.

  “Avery, there is nothing about you not to love.”

  Putting the car back into drive, she steers the vehicle into the driveway and parks it behind a new red pickup truck. She grabs the cupcake box and exits the vehicle, shuffling her feet as she ascends the brick stairs.

  Before ringing the doorbell she gazes up at the large two-story brick structure. The colonial style house is the largest in the neighborhood, taking the full plot on the cul-de-sac. But the size of the home isn’t what alarms her. It’s the fact that the home looks lived in, welcoming. There is a Duke flag hanging from the flagpole, a mix-match of flowers in the garden bed, worn paint on the front door, and six small handprints on a wooden board propped up against the house. Avery glances left and right taking in her fill of the large porch before pressing the button that could forever change her life.

  Ringing the bell she waits patiently for someone to answer the door and after two minutes with no response she presses the doorbell once more. Her anxiety level has sky rocketed at this point and she feels herself nervously rocking back and forth, tapping her fingers along the cupcake box. Feeling her hands start to sweat, she sits the box on a chair next to the door and wipes her palms on her black pants.

  Avery presses the bell once more, as a defeated presence overcomes her emotions. As she takes a step back, intending to head towards her car, Avery hears the doorknob turn and she holds her breath, frozen in place.

  She turns her attention to the brick porch as a woman with beautiful blonde hair the color of straw, cut into a medium length bob, answers the door. She is dressed smartly in a pale pink cardigan set that Avery is certain is made of cashmere, and a pair of dark denim jeans with gold flats. The dark brown eyes nestled against her olive skin assess Avery kindly.

  She smiles and asks, “I’m sorry we were out back and I didn’t hear the bell. Can I help you with something?”

  “I...um...is there a Joseph here?” Avery whispers, her gaze still fixed on the ground, though she tries to make eye contact and peeks up from behind her lashes, anxiety fueling her nervousness further.

  “There is. Was he expecting you?” she inquires, her eyes narrowing slightly in question of Avery’s intentions.

  “He wasn’t. I’m….um….” Avery begins, then reaches into her pocket to retrieve the note she wrote with Logan this morning. “Could you just give this to him? I didn’t mean to barge into your day.”

  Avery steps forward to hand her the note, continuing to look down at the ground and the kind woman places her hand on Avery’s wrist, capturing her attention.

  When Avery glances at her, the woman gasps and tears well into her eyes.

  “Oh my god,” she whispers. “You’re here, oh my god.”

  Before Avery has a chance to speak, the woman turns and runs off, yelling for Joseph.

  Standing at the door awkwardly, not sure if she should stay or turn around and run home, Avery takes the note still gripped in her hand and turns to place it on top of the cupcake box.

  A large thud onto the porch startles her and Avery turns around just before she’s wrapped tightly into the arms of the man she assumes must be her father. Minutes pass before the man releases his hold and when he pulls away slightly, holding her at an arm’s length, her assumptions are put to rest when Avery sees the wet blue eyes that mirror her own.

  “We have been searching for you for twenty years. I...I can’t believe you’re here. Can you stay for a few minutes? Maybe we can head out back.”

  “Sure,” Avery whispers, overtaken by the moment.

  As she follows him through their house, not noticing any of the interior space, Avery’s engulfed in another hug as she passes by the woman she met earlier.

  They usher her to a seat on their brick lined patio, offering her a glass of water.

  As she politely declines, she asks, “You said you’d been searching for me?”

  Joseph continues to stare at her in disbelief, his eyes full of tears. His wife answers for him.

  “We have. Twenty years ago, we received a letter from your mother that claimed she had a child with Joseph and that she had sent you away. She left no name or your whereabouts. We’ve contacted practically every child services office in the country and no one had any information on you. But we never gave up. We always held out hope that we’d find each other.”

  “I don’t understand. My mother never gave me up for adoption, she practically banished me as a servant at my grandmother’s and she ran off. She had me when she was fifteen and I shamed their family. So they treated me like I never existed,” Avery confides through her tears.

  “Fifteen?” Joseph asks, anger, disgust, and confusion lacing his voice. “She told me at the time that she was twenty-two. She was in a bar for god sakes. I’m not a pedophile, I swear to you!”

  Avery attempts to calm him down, seeing how upset he is at her mother’s lies.

  “Joseph, you’re not a pedophile. My mother was a sick human-being and I have no doubt she lied to you. I was told by a friend that she had been having sex since she was thirteen, not to mention she had already had two abortions with children – who were fathered by my grandfather’s friends - before
she had me. I was discovered too late apparently.” The admission stings her heart. “I’m not upset with you. I just never knew that you knew about me. It all makes sense though. Why everyone was always so keen on keeping me hidden.”

  “What’s your name, sweetheart?” the kind woman asks as she hands Avery a few tissues. “We’ve been searching for so long, and we don’t even have your name yet.”

  “It’s Avery. Avery Poindexter, and I live in Carson too, but I’m from just outside Atlanta, Georgia.”

  “I’m Amy, dear. And well, this is your father, Joseph. We want to hear all about you.”

  So Avery tells them. She divulges her entire past, holding nothing back: her entire life up until she moved to Carson. They are so welcome and open that Avery doesn’t hesitate as she reveals her turbulent history. Their presence is so comforting that Avery felt every moment of her life spewing forward without hesitation. She tells them of the abuse, her sister, her fiancés… everything.

  “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through, Avery. My wife and I can’t imagine what it must feel like to lose those close to you.”

  A question burns deep in her mind and she tries my hardest to stomp it down, but with her emotions running high, it spurts forth without hesitation.

  “May I ask what happened? Why I even exist? You two look like you’re really happy.”

  Joseph squeezes his wife’s hand and takes the lead saying, “We are really happy and we were then too. We had just had our third child and I felt outnumbered, everyone needing something from me. Avery, don’t get me wrong, I love my family and I loved them then. Amy knows this. But I was thirty and I felt lost and she began to resent me and the long hours I pulled at the office. We had a mutual separation - we needed time apart. Her sister came to help with the kids, and I took some time to get my life on track. We had been separated about a month and I was hurting. I wanted my family back, but I knew Amy was still angry at me. I would have been, too, after all the nights I had come home and locked myself away in my office. On a business trip I went out with a few coworkers and I met your mother. I was two sheets to the wind when I went home with her, and I never even got her name. I swore we had used protection, but those things aren’t always fool-proof.