Running On Empty (Fleur de Lis Book 2)

by A. L. Vincent

  “Hey, Ms. Delchamp,” one of the boys said as she started to close the door. “Lemme holla at dat girl who just pass by! She cute!”

  “No,” she said with a laugh as she shut the door. “Holla at her later.”

  After they all sat down, Grace said, “It’s Friday. That means vocabulary quiz.”

  “A quiz?” Jean Wayne asked. “Already?”

  “Yes. Already.”

  “Now, surely there’s something we can do here. Some kind of deal we can make.”

  “Nope. No deals.” She began passing out the quizzes. “Next Monday, we’ll do our next vocabulary set and we’ll start The Great Gatsby.”

  Several students groaned.

  C’mon three o’clock, Grace thought.

  ***

  Gabe

  After doing carpentry work for Glinda all day, Gabe couldn’t wait to get in the shower and get cleaned off. He dried off and wrapped the towel around his waist. He shrugged shoulders that were tight from swinging a hammer all day. He didn’t know how Noah did it. Noah was used to it, Gabe thought. Gabe was not. He was not out of shape. He did work out, but strumming a guitar and running on a treadmill was not the same as daily manual labor.

  He had gotten a text from Bennett earlier. He was getting some gigs lined up for the holiday season to fill in between the tour dates. The holiday season was always busy with Christmas and New Year’s parties.

  But what about Grace?

  Something was finally going on with the two of them. He was making progress, but it was slow. He could see her slowly coming out of the dark place she had been. Maybe they could figure something out. Austin wasn’t that far from Bon Chance. Maybe he could talk her into coming for a visit. If she liked it, maybe she could stay.

  Gabe shook his head. That was a lot of maybes. Maybe he should just get dressed and head over to Snapper’s. The future would just have to work itself out, as Glinda would say.

  ***

  Grace

  “I need a drink and a shot of Patron,” Grace told Carly as she sat down.

  “That bad?”

  “Oh my God,” Grace said. “I don’t know how I’m going to do another whole week of this next week.”

  “It should get easier,” Carly said. “It’s just something new.”

  “It’s something, all right.”

  “Well, I’ll get you that shot. It should help. Allison is coming tonight too. Y’all can talk about whatever it is school teachers talk about.”

  Grace laughed. “I am not a school teacher.”

  “You are for now, aren’t you?”

  Carly left to make the drinks and shots, and Grace leaned back on the barstool, resting her knees on the bar.

  Carly returned, having made a shot for herself as well. She never let anyone take shots alone.

  They grabbed the small cups and tapped them against each other. “To Friday!” they said before downing the shots.

  The Patron burned Grace’s belly as it went down and she fought a grimace. Patron tasted good, but it was potent.

  Grace was still sitting there when Gabe showed up. Her heart sped up a little when she saw him walk through the door. He grinned when he saw her.

  After exchanging handshakes with the regulars, he walked over to Grace, hugging her before he took a seat beside her.

  Carly was quick to set a drink down in front of him. The bar had gotten busy for the Friday happy hour so she didn’t have time for casual chitchat, only a, “Hey how are you,” and, “Let me take your money.”

  “I see you survived your first week of work,” Gabe said.

  “Barely, I think. Man, I wanted something to keep me busy, and that’s what I got. This homecoming thing is going to get crazy. Floats, dances, all that.”

  “You’ll be fine.”

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  The side door opened and the DJ/karaoke guy started wheeling in his equipment. Behind him was Allison.

  Grace smiled when she saw her walk in. “Thank God. I need some pointers. I don’t know how much shop talk she’ll want to do on a Friday night. I’m not extraordinarily excited about talking about school myself.”

  “So how did it go?” Allison asked after sitting down beside Grace.

  “It was okay,” Grace said. She gave Gabe and Allison a review of the week. She told them about the procedure Nazi, the unruly second hour, and the home ec teacher.

  “I told you they were conservative,” Allison said, laughing.

  “I didn’t think they would be that bad! It is like something out of that movie Footloose. Oooh, speaking of which, we should play some of that on the jukebox tonight.”

  “Definitely,” Allison agreed.

  “There’s the preacher’s daughter and everything. She’s already tweeted about me from what the kids have told me.”

  “Seriously?” Gabe asked.

  “Yeah. I made a remark sometime during the week about gay people after the subject of my predecessor came up. Said I didn’t care what people did. Girl posted that teachers should not be putting such ideas in young people’s heads.” Grace shook her head. “No wonder the dude went nuts. I may be running around in the park naked myself by the end of the year.”

  “You’ll be fine,” Gabe said. “If you can handle all those Bourbon Street drunks, you can handle this.”

  “I hope so. Let’s talk about something else for a little while. How about we play the jukebox too? I’m ready to relax.”

  “Sounds great,” Gabe said, reaching for his wallet for some cash. “I’ll do first round. You just sit and enjoy.”

  “He’s cute,” Allison said as he walked away.

  “Yes, he is,” Grace agreed.

  “And the way he looks at you…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Girl? You can’t see it?”

  “Gabe?”

  “Gabe.”

  Grace turned on her stool to look at him. She thought of the looks and glances, the touches. Gabe? How long had he been interested in her and she not seen it? She turned back around and sipped her drink. “He is sweet. And cute.”

  Allison laughed. “Not many cute and available guys come into Snapper’s. I’m partial to Noah’s friend, Kevin, myself.”

  Grace grinned. “You should go for him.”

  “Oh, I’m going to. I think I might start by inviting him to talk to my students one day.”

  “There ya go,” Grace said. “I can put a little bug in Noah’s ear as well.”

  “Nah, not yet. Let’s see how it goes after the visit.”

  Grace lifted her glass in a salute. “Let’s cheers to that.”

  “To new beginnings,” Allison said.

  “To new beginnings,” Grace agreed.

  “You guys are toasting without me?” Carly exclaimed. “Hang on!”

  Carly returned with a beer. “What are we toasting to?”

  “New beginnings,” Allison said.

  “Hell yeah!”

  The girls lifted their drinks in the air and clinked them together.

  “To new beginnings!” they said in unison

  ***

  Gabe

  Finished at the jukebox, Gabe turned back to the bar. He froze when he saw Grace smile as she toasted with the girls.

  It was a genuine smile, one of the few he’d seen lately. His stomach flip-flopped seeing that old familiar light in her eyes. She was coming back from whatever dark place she had been in. He was smiling too as he rejoined them at the bar.

  “What did you play?” Grace asked as he sat down.

  “You’ll see,” he replied. “A little bit of this, a little bit of that.” He had played songs he had heard her play on the jukebox before and a few of his own favorites. Nothing too serious. He wanted to be sure that she had a good time. He just wanted to see that smile she was wearing stay right where it was.

  “How was your day?” she asked him.

  He shrugged sore shoulders. “Glinda kept me busy today. I did several
repairs. Now that the season is dying down there are more vacant cabins to do general maintenance on.”

  “I’m sure she loves having you here.”

  “She does.” He patted his stomach. “I’ve been well fed. If I keep this up, I’m going to have to start working out with all this manual labor.”

  “Oh, let me see.” Grinning, Grace leaned over and put her hand on his stomach. His stomach tensed under her soft touch. Her hand stilled, and her eyes shot up to meet his.

  Her smiled slipped then, her eyes filling with something that wasn’t humor. She bit her bottom lip, and Gabe had to resist bending down and placing his lips on hers.

  “Hey, guys! You singing tonight?”

  Gabe muttered a quiet curse as the karaoke guy placed a huge binder between Grace and him, along with small strips of paper and pencils.

  Grace inhaled a breath like she’d been punched in the stomach. She took a long drink, then replied, “No. I won’t be singing tonight.”

  “Maybe later,” Gabe said to the DJ, and was relieved when he moved on to the next group.

  He took a long sip of his own drink.

  Damn, damn, damn.

  So much for progress.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Grace

  Grace took The Great Gatsby, along with her writing journal, and walked down the beach. It was Sunday and she wanted to read a little of the book before she started with the students. Allison had sent her some plans, and with a little reading today, Grace felt pretty comfortable with the next week.

  She took a moment to stretch and enjoy the view. The sun was beginning to set, and the pastels were reflected on the water. She had just leaned back and opened the book when a shadow fell across her. It was Gabe. He dropped down on the sand beside her.

  “Whatcha reading?” he asked.

  “This book,” she said, showing him the cover.

  “The Great Gatsby, huh? I think I remember reading that in high school,” he said.

  “We read this?” she asked.

  “Yes, in junior English. You don’t remember because you slept, then cheated off me on the tests.”

  “I did?” she asked.

  “Yes, you did,” he said. “Then they made us watch some crappy old movie with Robert Redford.”

  “Oh, I remember that,” she said. “Sorta. It’s amazing I made it through college.”

  Gabe grinned. “I know, right?”

  “Actually, I didn’t mind college. I didn’t feel so different there. More people like me. I think that’s why I like my second hour so much. They remind me of myself when I was that age. The whole class actually. They’re a bunch of rebels who speak their minds.”

  “You? A rebel? No…” His eyes widened in pretend shock.

  She slapped him on the arm with the book. “Shut up. What did you bring to drink? I could definitely use a drink now.”

  He poured a Southern and Seven from his ice chest and handed it to her.

  “It’s not so bad though,” she said finally.

  “What isn’t?” he asked.

  “The job. I’ve had worse. And the kids are fun.”

  “That’s what matters, isn’t it?”

  “I guess so.”

  He leaned down on the sand beside her, resting on his elbows. “I talked to Bennett on Friday. He’s lining up some more gigs. You should come visit. You have those breaks at school. You could sit in with us.”

  “Already?” The thought of him not being there made her uneasy. She had come to enjoy his gentle presence. She looked at him, and he was frowning at her.

  “I need to get back to Austin. To the band. To my job.”

  Grace nodded. She understood. She didn’t like it though. She took another drink.

  “Not too soon though.”

  “Maybe I’ll take a trip out to Austin for the holidays”

  “Come visit. You may want to stay.”

  Leave Bon Chance again? She had just started to regain her footing. Thinking about leaving made her heart race and palms sweat. She was safe here.

  “I don’t know.”

  Gabe reached out and grabbed her hand, threading her fingers in his. “Grace, you don’t have to make any decisions now. If you don’t come, you don’t. But I will tell you this. If you don’t come to Austin, I will come back here. For you.”

  Grace’s eyes widened.

  “I came back here for you. Don’t look at me like you’re shocked. I was crazy about you in high school, and I never said anything. I let you walk away, run away to New Orleans. I’ve always regretted it too. I’m not doing that again. I’m not pressuring you though. We aren’t going to do anything you aren’t ready to do.”

  He let go of her hand to reach out and lift her chin up. He leaned down and placed a soft, gentle kiss on her lips.

  “I know something bad has happened to you. I hope one day you’ll trust me enough to tell me. And I’m willing to be patient. I’ve waited this long. What’s a little longer?”

  Tears pricked Grace’s eyes, and she looked away from him back to the water.

  “It was Brent. We had been arguing for a while. He kept coming on to me and I turned him down. He got tired of waiting, I guess.”

  She stopped to wipe a tear away, and Gabe’s hand reached for hers.

  “He put something in my drink one night. And the next morning, I woke up with him naked in my bed. Not remembering anything. I still don’t. I think that might be the worst. I know we had sex and I can’t remember anything.” She stopped talking for a few moments.

  “I don’t know if I can do this.” Her voice was soft and hoarse when she continued.

  Gabe reached out and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and she leaned into him.

  Gabe’s voice was ragged when he responded, “Not I, Grace. We. We can do this. And we will. Together.”

  Grace’s eyes welled up and spilled over with tears, and Gabe’s hold on her tightened.

  “Gabe? I will come visit. I can’t make any promises to stay. But I can’t sing. Until I can, I can’t leave here.”

  “That’s enough for me.”

  She sat there wrapped in his arms as the sun set, the moon rose, and the stars popped out in the night sky. When she finally shivered from the chill, he helped her to her feet and walked her home.

  “Night, Grace,” he said, placing a kiss on her lips, then her forehead, before walking home.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Grace snapped the notebook shut and turned to Noah. “Why should I write if I’m not going to ever be able to perform? Why can’t I sing anymore without wanting to throw up?”

  “It’s all in your head, Grace.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You have to figure out the ‘why’ on your own. I don’t know what it is, but it’s something you’re going to have to face. When you finally confront it, you’ll find your voice again. And you will be better. You’ll see.”

  “You think so?” Grace stared out at the sunrise while she waited for Noah’s answer.

  “I know so.” Noah reached over and opened the drawer on the small table between the two chairs. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Grace’s eyes widened.

  “We’re going to do some talking this morning. Want one?” He held one out to her.

  “What about Emily? What will she think about you smoking?”

  “It’s a cigarette, Grace. I picked it up in Iraq. It’s not something I do often, just every now and then. I smoke on certain anniversaries. The days I lost friends. Benjamin. She understands.”

  He was still holding the cigarette out. Grace took it. He lit it for her. She felt the burn as she inhaled.

  “It’s one of those anniversaries for me today,” Noah said. “I lost a friend, a brother, three years ago today. He was one of the kids in my command. I say kid, he wasn’t much younger than I was at the time. I was there. I saw it. Saw the explosion. Felt the heat on my face as the vehicle burned.”

  He was quiet for a moment, just drinki
ng his coffee and taking the occasional drag from the cigarette.

  “I went home with him. With his body. All the way to the funeral home. Saw his family come in after we brought him home. I don’t think I’ll ever forget their faces. The sister who sat sobbing in one of the back pews of the funeral home. I didn’t think I’d ever forget my guilt. If I had done this, or changed that, then I wouldn’t be there at that moment. And he’d still be alive. They wouldn’t be grieving, and neither would I.”

  He took another drag off the cigarette. Grace watched the smoke drift off into the pre-dawn light. She still said nothing.

  “I had nightmares about it for so long. Saw him. The explosion. I could smell the flames, they were so real. Saw the family. Saw it over and over. Until it almost made me crazy. Finally, I realized I had to let it go. I had done everything I could at the time. Life sucks sometimes. It just does. We have to deal with the hand we’re given.”

  Grace stayed quiet, unsure of what to say. She just continued to drink coffee and take an occasional puff off the cigarette. Noah had never spoken this much to her about anything, much less about what he had been through.

  He took another long drag off the cigarette. “I had to face my demons, Grace. I had to figure out what I needed to do to let them go and make peace. So one night, I sat here on this beach. I made a fire and drank and watched the fire. And just sat there until all my ghosts were gone for the moment. It was a purge.”

  He stubbed the cigarette out. “You’re going to have to purge your demons. How you do that is up to you. I can’t tell you how. And I can’t say your life will be easy after that. Mine isn’t. But you won’t find peace or your voice until you do. I believe eventually you will. You have all of us here to help you. And you’re strong, Grace. You’ve just lost your faith in yourself.”

  He reached into the drawer again and pulled out a small round charm. He held it out to Grace. It was a small globe with an eagle and an anchor. The Marine Corps symbol.