They rounded a corner, and there, in the middle of the street stood the house that had once been theirs. Time had not dulled its impressive stature. It was still the nicest house on the street, boasting a white picket fence and a long, curving driveway.
When Jackie saw the house, she stopped and held her breath. It was the first time she had seen it since she’d been forced to leave. Her eyes grew moist at the thought of someone else living there, another mother cooking in her kitchen, planting in her garden. It was like someone else was living her life.
“It’s still the best house on the block,” Jackie declared, choking back tears.
“I know.” Alex smiled fondly, still holding her mother’s hand tightly in support. “You remember when Dad put that hoop up for Andy?” Alex pointed to a basketball hoop, which was still hanging above the double garage.
“Andy insisted he was going to be a pro basketball player after that.” Jackie managed to smile at the memory.
“It’s hard seeing it,” she admitted. “I haven’t seen the house since we left.”
“I have,” Alex told her, noticing the flicker of surprise in Jackie’s eyes. “I saw the house very recently, actually.”
“You did?” Jackie asked, looking shocked.
“Yesterday, to be precise.”
“What? Why?” Jackie asked the question as her eyes spotted the sold sign that had been placed on the front lawn.
Alex fished around in her coat pocket and produced a shiny silver key attached to a key ring shaped like a four-leaf clover. Gently, she passed the key to her mother, who accepted it and looked at it like some strange foreign object, not understanding what was happening.
“I saw the house yesterday because I bought it.” Alex explained simply.
Jackie was speechless. She looked first at the key in her gloved palm and then at the house where she had once lived, unable to connect the two.
“I noticed a few weeks ago that it was for sale, so I put an offer in, which was accepted, then put a down payment on it, arranged a mortgage and came down to finalize the paperwork,” Alex explained, speaking quickly.
Still Jackie said nothing.
“Mom, this is my gift to you. This is the reason I came back to Woodsdale. I bought the house for you because I think it’s time you came home.”
Alex squeezed her mother’s hand to try to prompt a response. Slowly, Jackie turned to look at her with tears streaming down her face. She shook as she stood rooted to the spot, unable to move or speak.
“This is where you belong, Mom. This is our home,” Alex said, tears beginning to wet her own cheeks.
“Oh, Alex,” Jackie said, her voice wavering. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Mom. It’s my turn to look after you.”
“Thank you!” Jackie threw her arms around her daughter and held her tightly to her. She wept deeply as she held her, the emotion of the moment flooding out of her. In her arms, Alex cried too. As they stood on the sidewalk outside their old home that was now theirs once more, Alex knew it was one of the happiest moments of her life. To be able to come home again, it was all she’d ever wanted.
“Do you want to go inside?” Alex asked tentatively as they parted.
“Are we allowed?” Jackie said hesitantly, still in disbelief about it all.
“Mom, it’s your house again. The deed to the property is in your name and yours alone. Tomorrow we’re going shopping, and you’re going to pick out all new furniture.”
“How can you afford all this?”
“I got a raise. Seriously, the mortgage on this and my apartment in the city are easily covered by my new wage.”
“But this…” Jackie gestured towards the house.
“My raise was fifty thousand dollars,” Alex explained. “I could have bought some swanky apartment in the city, but that’s not what I want. I want our home back. I want our life back.”
Jackie wiped at her eyes and looked down at the silver key she was holding.
“The clover is supposed to bring good luck,” Alex explained, referring to the keychain it was hung upon.
“You know, we can never get our old life back,” Jackie said softly.
“I know that, Mom. Dad’s gone, and as brutally awful as that is, somehow we survived. We lost everything we had, yet look where we are. Both Andy and I made it to college, and it’s all because of you. You were forced to sacrifice your life for ours. And now I want to make it up to you. I want to give you back the home you should never have had to leave.”
Jackie looked up the curving driveway towards the home she had been torn from. She remembered the Christmases there, the day she had brought Alex back from the hospital when she was a tiny babe in arms. The Heron family had grown up in that house. It was more than bricks and mortar to them, it was memories, it was home.
“Won’t you be happy there? Will it be too hard being reminded of Dad?” Alex asked nervously, fearing she’d done the wrong thing in purchasing their old home.
“Oh, Alex, I’ll be so unbelievably happy here,” Jackie declared, embracing her daughter once more.
“You’re so much like your father.” She sobbed. “If he were still alive, he’d have worked every hour God sent for this moment. You brought us back to where we belong, sweetheart, thank you.”
****
Alex ignored the incoming call from Mark. It was the fifth time he’d tried to call her that day, but she didn’t want to talk to him. Nothing he could say would change anything. Speaking to him would only reopen fresh wounds.
She was sitting on the small wall that bordered her old school, Woodsdale High. Since visiting her old house, she had been feeling nostalgic. She’d wandered around the town while her mother excitedly packed up the few belongings they had at the trailer. Moving back into their house was the beginning of a fresh start for them all.
Yet somehow Alex had felt drawn to the place where her initial change had commenced. She remembered how fearful she’d been that fateful day when she’d first enrolled at her new school. She had been terrified about the lack of uniforms, feeling exposed in her own clothes, like she would stand out no matter what she did. And there, within the walls of the high school, she had forged a false identity for herself, where she was confident, popular and not that smart. She’d become a cheerleader and had been all set to remain in Woodsdale indefinitely.
Then she met Mark. Somehow he saw through her façade to the real Alex and helped her reconnect with the girl she had once been. Because of his intervention, she went to Princeton, got a job in New York, and was now a homeowner of the house she had grown up in.
She had changed so much since she’d first entered the school as a shy student, mourning the all-too-recent loss of her father.
Her phone buzzed again, and Alex ignored the call from Mark and blew on the Styrofoam cup in her hands before taking a sip of the sweet hot chocolate inside. The air around her was crisp, and smoke danced off the top of the cup.
Hearing footsteps crunching in the light snow covering made her turn and look away from the road and back at the school. She stiffened when she saw Mark walking out towards her in the same wool coat he had worn on New Year’s Eve. How had he even known she was in town? Alex ground her teeth in frustration, wishing she’d been wise enough to avoid the school. In her desire to reconnect with the past, she’d almost forgotten that he still worked there.
“I thought that was you,” he stated, sitting down on the wall beside her but keeping a respectable distance between them.
“I’m only back for a few days,” Alex replied coldly.
“I saw you from the window in my classroom and thought, that can’t be Alex, she’s in New York. But I was certain, even from the back, that it was you, so I had to come out and look.”
Alex didn’t respond; instead, she took another sip from her drink. The chocolate was warm and sweet as it slid down her throat, a welcome respite from the bitterness of the afternoon.
> “I’ve been calling you,” Mark said softly.
“I’ve been busy,” Alex told him tersely.
“I heard about what you did for your mom, buying back your old house. That’s a pretty amazing thing to do.”
“News sure travels fast in crap little towns.” Alex rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to talk to him. Being so close to him was a painful reminder of what could have been, of what she’d wanted for so long and now could never have.
“My friend was the realtor who sold you the house,” Mark explained, and Alex merely shrugged. She didn’t care how he knew. She wanted to throw her hot chocolate in his face and scream at him for breaking her heart. She wanted to run away from him until her legs collapsed beneath her. She wanted distance, and right now he wasn’t giving her any.
“Not all news travels fast in this town,” Mark noted randomly.
Alex was silent.
“That’s why I’ve been trying to call you all day. I found out something that I wanted to tell you.”
“No disrespect, but I couldn’t care less if you’re having a boy or a girl,” Alex replied harshly, willing herself not to cry. She was beginning to wonder how Mark could be so callous to seek her out, to not let her go after everything that had happened.
“No.” Mark shook his head. “It’s nothing like that. I found out that my ex, Sophie, isn’t pregnant. She was lying about it to try to keep me when she saw us together.”
Alex frowned in puzzlement. “How did you find out she was lying?”
“I made her do a pregnancy test,” Mark admitted. It hadn’t been one of his finer moments, demanding the potential mother of his child take a test and prove it, even as Sophie cried and begged him not to make her do it, desperate to keep her secret for a while longer.
“Well, I’m sorry you’re not having a baby.”
“I’m not.” Mark dared to reach out and touch Alex, but she pulled away from him. “Alex, please. You’re all I care about. Now that I know there is no baby, there’s nothing stopping us from being together.”
Alex’s hands trembled around her cup, which she hid from Mark. She’d dreamt about this moment, where by some magical means all their problems could melt away and they could finally be together. But she was still hurting from his initial abandonment at the station. This wasn’t the happy ending she’d always wanted, the grand gesture she deserved. A false pregnancy test wasn’t enough to win back her heart.
“Mark, I live in New York,” Alex told him sternly. “My life is there, not here. You’re just some two-bit high school math teacher in a small, crappy town. I’m a big shot in the city. That’s what is stopping us being together, because we live in two very different worlds.”
“Alex.” Mark looked at her with hurt in his eyes. “We can make this work.”
“No, we can’t,” Alex declared firmly, pursing her lips together.
“Please, don’t do this. Don’t push me away. It’s taken so much for us to get here,” Mark pleaded, feeling her slipping through his fingers.
“That’s the point. Relationships shouldn’t be work, they should be easy. When you’re with someone, it should enhance your life not make it more difficult. My friend Ashley met a guy in Italy, and now they’re getting married because they love each other, and love is really all you need.”
“Don’t you love me?” Mark asked, his voice breaking.
“I did once,” Alex answered. She didn’t like being this way, being so cruel, but she kept thinking about that moment at the train station, when he let her go so he could be a father to the child that didn’t even exist. He picked his ex, the baby, over her. She wasn’t sure she could ever forgive that.
“Just give me a chance to prove myself,” Mark begged.
“Shouldn’t you be getting back to class?” Alex asked, her voice sounding crisp and unfamiliar even to her.
“I’d hate to think of all the children you’re neglecting to teach algebra to while you sit here and waste your time.”
“You’re pushing me away because you’re angry, and you have every right to be,” Mark said, standing up and dusting down his coat.
“But I’m going to prove to you how much I love you, how I’m the guy you should be with. Just you wait and see.”
“Unless you’ve invented a time machine, that’s not going to happen.” Alex scowled at him.
“I’ll make you believe in me again, Alexandra Heron. Just you wait and see.” And then he turned and jogged back down to the school, back to the classroom of students he’d briefly abandoned under the ruse that he’d left something in his car he needed to go and retrieve.
Alex watched him leave and then let the tears start falling down her cheeks. It had been a mistake to go back to the school, she knew that now.
****
The warmth of the train made Alex drowsy as it thundered through the countryside, taking her back to the city. She smiled to herself at the image of her mother directing the deliverymen as she filled their old home with new furniture. Somehow, Jackie Heron seemed ten years younger as she moved about the familiar rooms of the empty house. The worried, haggard expression that had clung to her eyes was now gone, replaced by a hopeful, positive look.
Andy was due to visit the house the following weekend. He’d cried when Alex delivered the news about it to him over Skype, not caring if his housemates saw. It was as if all the pain the three of them had been clinging to for so many years could finally be relinquished.
Alex’s phone buzzed, causing her to stir sleepily and check it. Ashley was calling.
“Hey, Ash,” Alex greeted fondly, always happy to hear from her best friend.
“Alex, hey, you okay?” Ashley sounded like she was right beside her when she spoke even though she was on the opposite side of the country. Alex loved how modern technology enabled her to feel connected to the people she loved no matter where she was.
“I’m good, just heading back to the city. I was back home in Woodsdale for a few days.”
“How was it? Did your mom love the house?” Ashley asked, having been privy to Alex’s plans.
“Yeah, she loved it.” Alex smiled.
“Of course she did!” Ashley beamed. “I can’t wait to see it!”
“Yeah, me neither.”
“You sound tired.”
“The train makes me tired,” Alex admitted and then yawned.
“Well then, I won’t keep you too long. But I’ve got some exciting news. Before you ask, no, I’m not pregnant.”
“Then what is it?” Alex asked, sitting up, intrigued.
“A few weeks ago I put in for a transfer, to work for a different governor’s campaign.”
“Okay.”
“And today I find out that I’ve got it.”
“That’s great!”
“I haven’t got to the good part yet.” Ashley giggled.
“So what’s the good part?”
“The job is in New York City!”
Alex squealed in her seat as she held the phone to her ear, causing fellow passengers to scowl at her in disapproval.
“That is amazing!” Alex gushed. She couldn’t believe it. Her best friend would be coming to live in the city. She’d no longer be alone! Alex was overwhelmed thinking of all the great stuff they could do together.
“I know!” Ashley cooed down the phone. “I mean, obviously Ricardo will be coming with me too, but I was thinking we should aim to live in the same apartment building so we’d be neighbors. What do you think?”
“That sounds perfect.” Alex smiled.
“You’re tired, so I’ll let you rest. I’m glad things went well with your mom. I just wanted you to be the first to know about the job. I can’t wait to live in the same city. I’ve missed you so much.”
“I’ve missed you too,” Alex replied, a tear dropping down her cheek. She said goodbye to Ashley and ended the call and looked out of the window at the landscape whirring by.
Suddenly things were looking brighter. Her Mom
was happy again, back in the house where she had always belonged. And now Ashley would be joining Alex in the city; they’d be together once more.
But something was keeping Alex from enjoying it all, from being truly happy. She searched her feelings and sighed at the realisation that in spite of everything, she still loved Mark, and without him in her life, she struggled to feel whole. There was no baby now, which meant they could be together. But Alex was scared to let him in. He’d hurt her more than she thought was possible. With everything in her life going so well, why would she risk inviting in someone who could ruin it all?
****
“Are you quite sure about this?” Judith Winters, the principal of Woodsdale High, asked as she raised a drawn-on eyebrow and scrutinized the resignation letter she held in her hand.
“Yes.” Mark nodded emphatically.
“Very well, then.” Judith scrawled her signature of approval onto the letter, cementing his release from his teaching contract.
“Obviously, you’ll stay with us until the end of the year. The students will be disappointed to see you leave, as will I.”
“Thank you,” Mark replied graciously. “It was a difficult decision to make, but I feel like it’s time for me to move on.”
“I accept that Woodsdale isn’t the most cosmopolitan of places,” Judith drawled in her slight southern accent. “In all honesty, I’m surprised we held on to you as long as we did. A young man of your calibre could teach anywhere he wanted to.”
“That’s kind of you to say.”
“So where will you be going?” Judith asked out of curiosity, leaning forward in her leather desk chair.
“I’ve been offered a teaching position in New York City,” Mark replied brightly.
“Ah, the Big Apple.” Judith nodded. “Well, good luck to you, Mark. I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for there.” She extended her hand, and he shook it.
“Thank you, I’m sure I will.” Mark grinned broadly.
Living with Love (Lessons in Love) Page 15
