Finding the Love Back (4 page)

“Dolce! Sit!” Ava calmed Dolce down and gave a polite smile and wave at the older gentleman in the truck. He nodded and tipped his hat, still wearing a scowl on his face. Ava knew not many people in Conner drove luxury cars. Not that there weren’t people that lived there that couldn’t afford it, but it just wasn’t that type of place. People didn’t have to drive around in expensive cars to impress anyone because no one was impressed by wealth and status much in Conner. The Conner family, for which the town was named, was a family that owned much of the land in the area. The family still owned a dairy farm and they were very well respected. Other than the Conner clan, there were a few families that had old money like the Beiderman family and the Carters.

A chill went up Ava’s spine because she hadn’t thought of the Carter family in ages. Those memories had been buried a long time ago. She hadn’t thought of Christian Carter since the last time she’d seen him when he came to Atlanta to visit her a few years after she left Conner. Ava swallowed the lump in her throat because she didn’t want to think about Christian right now. Christian had made it clear years ago where the two of them stood and he hadn’t hesitated to walk away from her so as far as she was concerned, he wasn’t deserving of the energy she had to put forth thinking of him. She had enough to deal with having to go the hospital to see about her father. The last thing Ava needed right now was a trip back down memory lane thinking of Christian.

When Ava pulled up to her childhood home, it somehow looked smaller than she remembered. It had once been her entire world. As she got out of the car, she waved to her neighbor Ms. Stanton who was outside watering her lawn in the early morning.

Ms. Stanton paused before waving. “Well now, Ava Marie. It’s good to see you.” Ms. Stanton turned off the water hose and approached her. Dolce jumped out of the car and danced around in the front yard, only after stopping to sniff the neighbor’s sandaled feet.

“Good to see you too, Ms. Stanton.”

“Guess you are home to see about your father. That’s wonderful.” Ms. Stanton spoke her comment so that all of her words rolled together in one breath.

“I am,” Ava said as she closed the car door. She saw Ms. Stanton staring at it on the sly.

“Looks like you been doing well for yourself up there in Atlanta. And you colored your hair. But you still have the prettiest blue green eyes like your mother did. Lord and with the freckles and dimples, you are looking more and more like Marie.” Ms. Stanton finally took a breath and sighed at the end of her statement. She stared at Ava.

“Like I said, it’s wonderful to see you, Ava Marie. I know your daddy’s going to be happy to see you. I’ve been getting the mail for him and looking after the house. Let me know if there is anything you need me to help you with.” Ms. Stanton turned to start walking away. Ava wondered how old her neighbor was. Ms. Stanton walked with a bit of stiffness in her step. She stood there with a flowered pair of capri pants, sandals and a pink shirt with matching pink visor. She was always older than Ava’s  parents. Marie and Reginald had Ava when they were in their late thirties after years of miscarriages. Ms. Stanton had always been motherly towards Ava’s mother Marie and when Marie had died of cancer, Ms. Stanton had taken it hard like she had lost a daughter of her own.

“Oh, and it’s so interesting how you kids return to town. I guess you’d been interested to know that Christian Carter had come home recently as well.” When Ms. Stanton spoke, she still had her back turned to Ava and she had gone back to watering her lawn. She spoke as though she was uninterested in what she was saying herself. When she finished her statement, she simply threw her hand in the air and waved again to Ava, who knew that it meant that the old lady was done speaking and the conversation was over.

 Ava waved again and walked in the house, her mind going over the information that her neighbor had just shared. Christian was back in town. Now why had Ms. Stanton shared that with her? That was a bit of info that she didn’t need to know right now. Dolce followed Ava in the house. Her phone rang just as she was sitting down her bags at the front door.

Looking at the screen, she could see that it was Bobby.

“Good morning, Ava. I was able to get us some reservations this week for dinner. I hope your schedule is open.”

“Oh gosh, Bobby. I’m not even in town.” Ava rubbed her forehead .

Bobby paused. “Wow, okay. Last minute trip?” She could hear the frustration in his voice.

“Something like that. My dad is in the hospital. I had to come home to see about him.”

“Is there anything that I can do to help you? Wait a minute. Where is home? I don’t think I realized that you weren’t from Atlanta. I guess I just assumed.” Bobby sounded a bit hurt.

“I don’t think I ever mentioned it or anything,” Ava replied. “Look, I have a lot to take care of here and I just arrived. Can I call you back?” Ava tried to sound as pleasant as possible. Truth was that she wasn’t in the mood to talk with Bobby right now. She had a lot on her mind.

“Sure. I know you probably have a lot to do. Call me if you need anything.”

“I will. Thanks, Bobby.” Ava ended the call. She felt so bad that things weren’t on a romantic level with Bobby because he was such a nice guy. She had actually felt more of a spark just thinking about the past with Christian than she felt in the present with Bobby.

Ava took a deep breath trying to change her focus. As she walked around the house, she saw that not much had changed. The only thing that changed was that her father had turned the guest room into a sort of workshop. He had all of his model planes and ships on display and there were a few that he was working on sitting on the table. Her bedroom was still the same. It was like there was still a high school teen living there. The only change was that her father had made a collage of all of the magazine articles and a local news article on Ava that talked about her work as a rising celebrity stylist in Atlanta.

A feeling of pride swelled in Ava’s chest. She hadn’t been aware that her father was paying attention to her career. A tear threatened to fall, but she held the tears back. She still had to go to the hospital and see about her father and she needed to be as composed as possible.

Ava looked at herself in the mirror and pulling out her makeup kit, she decided that a bit of eyeliner and some lip gloss were in order. She made up her face and pulled her shoulder length hair up into a messy ponytail. When she pulled her hair off of her face, she could see the resemblance between herself and her mother. She had the same olive toned skin as her mother and the only difference was that Ava had colored her brunette hair to a blonde. Otherwise, she was looking more and more like Marie Collier as Ava got older.

Ava poured some food for Dolce and made him promise to be good while she was gone to the hospital. Dolce agreed by licking her on the hand as Ava pet him on the head. Although she wasn’t in a rush to get to the hospital to see her father in such a bad condition, she couldn’t stay at the house any longer. There were too many memories there and they were all fighting to come back to her at the same time.

Chapter 6

Nadine was extremely helpful. She spent the next hour clearly explaining to Ava her options. They expected her father to make a healthy recovery, but he had some damage from the stroke to his left side. Ava sat in with her father for another few hours. At first, he was asleep but when he awoke, a tear rolled down his cheek and he did the best he could to squeeze Ava’s hand. No words needed to be spoken between them. The void of being apart for so many years immediately closed in the span of a few seconds. Ava was happy that she’d come home. She knew that she couldn’t leave until she knew that her father was settled comfortably in the house. And she knew that it would take a bit more than the four or five days that she had allowed herself. She decided to play it day by day to make sure that she took care of everything that needed to be taken care of.

Ava told her father that she would be back to the hospital later that evening to sit with him. He nodded as best he could. When Ava made it out to her car, all of the emotions of the day came flooding back to her. Tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably. She hadn’t been home in so long and to come home to see her father in the hospital hurt her. She had the chance to make time to come home earlier when he was well and she didn’t.

She knew that things had to change and she was willing to do so. She decided that she would go back to the house and take a nap before she started trying to help her father get the house in order. Once she turned down her street, she saw that there was a vehicle parked in the driveway. It was a charcoal grey Range Rover.  She didn’t recognize it and wondered who was there for a visit.

She parked her car behind the SUV and hopped out, ready to see who her visitor was. When their eyes met, she couldn’t believe who was standing there in front of her.

“Hey doll.” The richness of his baritone voice took her back to a time she had long forgotten. Standing there dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of distressed jeans was Christian Carter.

“Wow. I wasn’t expecting you.” Ava tried to speak without stuttering.

“How did you know that I was here?” she asked.

Christian chuckled and the dimple in his chin became more pronounced. He raised his sunglasses to reveal his soft hazel eyes. He still had that boyish look she remembered, but he was even more handsome in his maturity. His dirty blonde hair was perfectly sculpted and spiked and he looked like he had just walked off of a beach with his sun kissed tan. He was a bit more muscular than Ava remembered, but then and again, they were in their early thirties and the last time she’d seen him they were about twenty-one.

“Well, Ava Marie, it’s pretty hard for anyone in Conner to not talk about the gorgeous young blonde that is in town from Atlanta driving around with a red Benz.” He held his hand out pointing to her car.

She hadn’t thought of that. “Oh, I wasn’t even thinking of that. Look, do you want to come in? It’s pretty hot out here.”

Christian smiled and nodded. He walked closely behind her and she almost melted when he touched her in the small of her back.

Ava fumbled with the key trying to open the door. When she finally opened it, Dolce met her and her guest at the door.

“This is my best friend, Dolce.” She reached down and picked up her dog. Dolce looked behind toward Christian who put out his hand so Dolce could smell him. Dolce sniffed and gave and approving lick.

“Cute,” Christian replied. He looked around the house. “Not much has changed I guess. Just like my parents’ house.”

Ava set Dolce down. “I don’t think much changes here in Conner.”

Christian browsed the pictures on the fireplace mantle. It was a trip down memory lane, seeing pictures of Ava in different stages of her life.

“Ms. Stanton, my neighbor told me you were in town too,” Ava remarked. Christian set a picture he was looking at back down on the mantle and began to walk over to her.

“Yes. I just got back to the states after a business trip to France.”

Ava nodded impressed. “Sounds fun. I haven’t been out of the country yet. It’s on my bucket list.”

The two of them were standing in close proximity, but still so far away. Christian twirled his fingers while he was thinking briefly of his next move. He stared at Ava Marie Collier, the woman who had once been his childhood sweetheart. She was gorgeous, an unassuming natural beauty. She still had that twinkle in her blue green eyes and he thought that the blonde hair color was striking on her. He remembered how he liked to kiss her freckles on her cheeks and how they would sit for hours in her backyard as kids dreaming about how they would take over the world. He knew in that moment that what he wanted to do was right.