by Claire Adams
“It’s fine, Austin.” I knew Rebecca well, and the way she sank down into her seat told me that there wasn’t all that much to interrupt in the first place.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Rebecca
I didn’t work until Monday, and it was a shame that I was in a foul mood over everything with Austin on Saturday. The man was like an open book, and it was obvious that something was bothering him the entire afternoon. He could deny it all he wanted, but I knew him from our years together. I knew him.
It was no surprise that the date ended so suddenly, but I regretted sulking about it for the rest of the weekend.
I was at work for the afternoon shift and found it nice to be there, apart from all the speculation about my relationship with Austin. Small-town women loved gossip, and since it was slow for me, I was stuck being involved in the conversation. It was clear that these women only saw the positives of his wealth and were maybe a little jealous of me.
It made me want to roll my eyes.
“How long until you quit on me and start having his babies?” Mary asked me.
I smiled patiently, not feeling that way at all inside.
“Mary, you’re jumping ahead. We are nowhere near that point, and I love working here.” Did I right now, though?
“A man with that kind of money doesn’t want you working. He can take you anywhere in the world! What if you two move somewhere like Europe or somewhere fancy like that?” Elsie was talking now, her sweet face bright with speculation. “I see that all the time on that television show, you know.”
“Elsie, I have no intention of doing that!” I assured her as I ran my hand down my ponytail.
“I remember you kids in school. You were in love. I don’t know why you didn’t go with him then, and you’d be a fool to let him go again,” another woman spoke.
I slowly sipped my coffee and took deep breaths. They didn’t know what happened and didn’t need to. Not everything was the town business. I cherished my secrets here, and for a moment, being invisible in New York sounded wonderful.
“Is it true that he flew you to Paris just for dinner?” Elsie chimed in.
I shook my head. “No, he didn’t. We went to his restaurant in Dallas, that’s all. Just an hour away!”
Everyone gasped and pressed their hands to their faces as talk of how dates at the diner and the coffee shop were a big deal to them.
I just wanted to scream that I liked the idea of those dates. I craved them. I liked the idea of simplicity more than I liked the extravagant ideas some of these women had.
“I also heard a helicopter flying above my house this weekend. I’ll bet that was his bodyguard or something like that. Maybe he even has the FBI working for him, or the CIA.”
I looked across the room at another regular and covered my mouth as I resisted the urge to laugh like a maniac. I didn’t tell her that was us, though I was certain someone knew about it.
I was a little relieved when Gertrude came in for her regular cut. I greeted her with a warm smile. She was a calm, observant woman who had lived a lot in her life. I could see it in her eyes when she spoke to me.
“Morning, Gertrude. How are you?” I asked as she sat down and looked at me with her big, dark eyes.
“I’m just fine, dear. How about you?” There was a twinkle in her eyes as she spoke.
I smiled at her. “I am doing good.” I knew it was a bit of a lie, but she could see my wry smile enough to know what I meant. “The usual this morning?”
“Yes, please.” Gertrude settled in the seat as I covered her shoulders and reached for my coffee again. Maybe I needed my own coffee stand out front that served alcohol as well as coffee. That would be wonderful.
I clipped her curls as the talk just kept moving along. Now they were discussing our wedding, and it sounded outlandish to me.
“If you had one of those destination weddings, we’d never get to see it,” Mary told me.
I raised an eyebrow at her.
“It could be televised, like Princess Kate’s,” Elsie said. “He could even fly all of us out there on some big plane, and we could stay in those beach huts. Have you seen those?”
I shook my head in defeat. I was complaining about flying to Dallas in his plane, and here they were, having me get married in the tropics somewhere.
We were all so different.
“If you got married in New York in that big church that they always show on television, that would be easier. It fits thousands, I hear. Imagine a trip to the city like that!” There were giggles and gasps, and I leaned my head down and sucked in my breath.
“What would we do for wedding gifts?” Wanda mused. “That boy must have everything the two of you would need, and if not, he could just buy it! I’ve heard of couples asking for donations towards a honeymoon these days, if it’s a second or third marriage. He could buy that, too. I’m just going to feel so useless when that time comes.” Wanda wrung her hands together as if all of this were happening right now.
“Y’all, nothing like that is happening,” I told them clearly. “You’re getting ahead of yourselves with all this talk. We’re just dating is all.”
Gertrude smiled at me in the mirror. Even as I spoke, I wondered myself if this was a definite future between us. Austin had only been back in town for a few weeks now, with no real plans to stay. The time that we spent together before that was what connected us so much this time, though I didn’t know if it was enough to make him stay for me. He was certainly trying with all the creative dates and trying to woo me, but I was certain that he was just going to drop the idea of New York on me all over again.
I felt as confused as most of these women, but I faked a casual front, and they kept talking. “Austin is really quite the catch for a girl from this town, Rebecca,” Elsie said. “Surely you understand that?” I nodded. “Nothing against North Reed, but we’ve all dreamed about the what ifs. Am I right, ladies?”
Cheers and laughter filled the room. I looked at them with wide eyes. They all seemed so happy here, and I wondered when all this dreaming was happening.
It wasn’t like my parents were rich where they lived. They just found a different air quality for my father’s health but still lived on the same monthly budget.
“What do you mean? I thought all of you loved it here?”
Eyes looked at me from every part of the room.
“There’s nothing like a small town, Rebecca,” Elsie said. “It has a certain feel to it that you can’t replace, but when the kids are little, and you might be struggling with the bills a little…you can’t help but want more. More money, more things to do, and more things to see every day. I know it’s a great town to grow up in as a kid, but you have to get bored sometimes. Other cities have so much more to do, right?”
I shrugged. I supposed that Kim and I did have those talks sometimes. It made me wonder what it would be like to have a baby in a city that offered more, but deep down, I did love this small town.
“Yeah, I suppose so,” I said. “It took me getting older to appreciate it, but I certainly didn’t want to move away.”
“You weren’t the kind of person to move away and look for more,” Mary said. “Austin was. His goals walked into the room before he did, even when he was young. Maybe you were just different back then. People have a tendency of coming back together if it’s meant to be.”
I blushed and smiled. “Second chance romance. It’s the best story. Frannie James married her first love after her first husband died twenty years ago. Remember that? They have two kids together along with their blended family, and it’s wonderful.” I loved Frannie, and her story was amazing. They went separate ways, much like Austin and me. Then they reconnected when they both lost their spouses, just in time to have a couple of kids together.
That could be us under different circumstances.
The news was on as usual, and I ignored it until the show that followed came on the screen. It was one of those gossip shows, and being fro
m a small town, I enjoyed them for entertainment purposes. They started their first segment with a picture of Austin and a beautiful blonde woman who I recognized from pictures. She was Mia Laht, some big-time model who was perfect in every way. The salon fell silent as we all watched the segment. They kept the picture up and discussed the steamy relationship for a few minutes.
A lump formed in my throat. It sounded ideal, based on the comments, but Austin had ended it with her. He was with me now, and I reassured myself of that fact throughout the report.
They skipped to the New York streets at night and found Mia in the front of a night club on Christmas. What kind of person spends a holiday at a bar? She wore a skimpy red dress and looked as beautiful as always in her tall heels that matched the dress, as well as the red lipstick. What could Austin possibly see in me after being with her?
They approached her, and I saw the way she smiled in anticipation. Mia clearly loved the media, and she tilted her head to let her smooth blonde hair fall over her shoulder as she looked around.
“Miss Laht! What is the current status of your relationship with Austin Harris?”
“Is it true that he’s away for the holiday?”
“Are you getting married anytime soon?”
“Are you dating anyone else right now?
The questions were rapid-fire as she looked around. She crossed her arms over her large chest and giggled. “There are always so many different stories out there. I know how hard it is to keep the facts straight, but rest assured that I’ll be seeing the man I love very soon. We’re meant to be, and we are going to be together. How could he resist me?” Her words were flirty and confident, and her voice oozed sex appeal.
My heart sank. She was talking about Austin. My heart and gut told me that deep down, but he was here with me. How would she see him if she was there in New York?
The show moved on to another clip. I looked around to see all the women looking at me. “Silly gossip,” I murmured.
They all nodded and responded with reassuring comments of their own. Women like Mia weren’t respected here, despite the love of gossip. She came off as fake and manipulative. She knew what to say to shake things up.
“I saw a woman who looked like her at the diner this weekend,” Linda said. “There’s no way it could be her since she lives in that city, but this was a new girl I hadn’t seen before. Probably someone just passing through.”
People did pass through our town sometimes, driving in between the bigger cities. They would stop in for a bite to eat or grab something in the shops, so a strange face was nothing new. I didn’t like that someone as pretty as Mia was here to begin with, and the idea of it being her worried me as I looked at Gertrude in the mirror. “I suppose I’m finished. What do you think?”
Her eyes were soft on me as she took me in and then patted her hair. “I love it. You always do such a great job, Rebecca.” Gertrude glanced around to see who was looking at us. “Don’t worry about the blonde. All she was to him was a pretty trophy on his arm who can’t let go. Austin has much more heart than that deep down, and he’ll make the right choice.” Her last words were low enough for just her and I to hear. I smiled gratefully.
Gertrude stood and patted my arm before walking to the counter to pay. I followed and rang her up. She tipped me generously, and I looked around to make sure that I had a free moment.
I stepped outside and took a deep breath of the cold air. I wanted to call Austin so badly and ask about what I’d just seen, but it was silly. The gossip shows jumped on anything that they could. The stories meant nothing.
Didn’t they?
Chapter Thirty-Five
Austin
I drove to the hotel with a range of emotions running through me. I was sick of Mia and her attempts at reconciliation with me. Our breakup had been mutual. She’d been eager to move on to the latest hot guy to keep her name in lights. She was trying to hold onto a modeling career, and no matter how beautiful you were, that was temporary at best. I didn’t understand why she’d want me back now unless she felt that I could help her career.
I hated the thought of her being in North Reed for any length of time, and I was absolutely going to tell her to get the fuck out of town and go home. I didn’t want her back and never had after we broke up. If anything, I regretted the relationship.
I parked in the lot of the hotel and ran a hand through my hair. Nobody knew that I was here, and they never would. I was here to end this for the last time so Rebecca would never know that Mia was in North Reed. She was already insecure about my past, and the idea of her finding out that I was seeing Mia destroyed me inside.
In and out. That was the plan. I was going to shoot Mia down and get rid of her so I could just move on with my life.
I went to the room that Mia was staying in, finding it surprisingly close to Preston’s former room. I took a deep breath and tapped on the door gently, as if to prevent anyone else from hearing it. The less evidence of this meeting, the better.
The door opened. Mia was dressed in the black lace bra and underwear set that I’d given her when we first started dating. I didn’t know how bad she was back then, but I did know that I liked the sheerness of the lace. I blinked and looked past her into the room. “Get your ass inside,” I growled through gritted teeth. “You look like a whore.” I shoved her inside with a quick look around.
“I remember how much you liked me in this before, Austin,” she purred as she closed the door. “Don’t you remember? I used to be your whore.” She closed the door and took a drink from the wine glass she held in her hand. “I want to be that for you again.”
“What is it with me and you, Mia? We broke up months ago, and you’ve been busy on the social scene since then.” I glared at her as I spoke. I didn’t want to play into her game.
I leaned against the wall and watched as she moved around the room towards the wine, holding it up. “Want some? I thought that we could toast to old times.”
“No. This isn’t a fucking date, Mia. This is me telling you that we are over, once and for all.”
She smiled seductively and walked towards me.
Her face turned to a pout that used to work on me. “It’s over because of Plain Jane Rebecca Silver, Austin? How could you ever choose a woman like her over me?”
“We were already broken up, and you moved on. Rebecca has nothing to do with us at all.”
Her eyes flared with pain, and I took pleasure in that for a moment, knowing that Rebecca was an angel next to Mia.
“She works in a corner salon, Austin. What happened to the man who used to go to the best places in New York? I introduced you to some of those stylists, and you loved it as much as I did!” She had a point. I did love that life, in the beginning. Once I could afford the best, I lost sight of myself and started spending money on everything and everybody. I couldn’t count how many salons I’d paid for Mia to go to for anything and everything in the past.
“I like this cut a lot. What do you think?” I ran my hand through my hair and smiled coldly at her. Mia stumbled and clung to the wall for a moment. She was already well on the way to getting drunk. I glanced at the bottle on the table. It was one of the best wines in the world, making me wonder where she got it. If Preston looked ridiculous in his room while he was here, Mia was a parody of herself in here. She took a long sip from the glass and clutched it in her hands for a moment.
Her beautiful face twisted in pain. “I can’t believe you came to this shithole town for more than a few days, Austin. You might have grown up here, but you are all New York now, baby. Don’t you miss the nights out, the dinners, and the nights in bed with me?” She tried to soften herself up, but I frowned at the memories. Mia was such an ugly, insecure woman underneath it all, and I didn’t find her pretty at all anymore. She’d burned a lot of bridges in her career and hurt people, which would catch up to her eventually.
“Actually, no. I’m happy now.”
She glared at me. I’d swear that she
had hair and makeup in here before I arrived with the layers of cover up she had going on. What a pathetic attempt to get me back.
“You can’t be happy here,” she said. “There is nothing here. I’ve been all over this redneck place, and it has nothing to offer. You want a woman who is content with that?” Mia asked me as she looked at me in disbelief. “We were on top in the city, Austin. It was you and me everywhere with all the most well-known celebrities. We went to the best parties and enjoyed all the finest food and drinks there. What the fuck happened to you?”
“I came back to reality somewhere along the way. I have family here, and if you so much as go near them, I’ll end your career faster than you can blink.” My voice was low.
She laughed at me. “How? You’re nothing here, Austin. Just a little rich boy slumming it with the local hair girl and throwing his money around. Your influence in New York is over if you go back alone because you’ve been out of the game for a while now.” My eyes narrowed at her words, and I stepped forward. “Losing that deal really added a nail to your coffin, didn’t it? I am hearing terrible rumors about how bad of a choice that was, and how Liam knocked you down a peg when he ended up with it. The Austin I knew would never have let that happen.” She saw the pain in my eyes and poured more wine in her glass. “You’re losing your edge, Austin.”
“You’re losing your fucking mind,” I said as I clenched my fists at my side. I wasn’t sure if she was pushing me so I’d hit her, but my parents taught me better than that. I would never hit Mia, no matter how much she deserved it right now.
“I listen when I’m out, Austin. The whole town is talking about you, even the kids working the front desk here. I know all about how you and Rebecca were high school sweethearts and how romantic it is that you’re back for her. If she meant so much to you, why did you leave at all?” Mia asked,
