Always and Forever (17 page)

“Probably. You two belong together. Everyone knows it. You two even know it deep down.
But right now I’m sure he’s gonna have to lick his wounds for a couple days, but in
the end I’m willing to bet he’ll forgive you.”

That gives me some hope. “Thank you,” I mutter. “Maybe I should leave now so I can
talk to him?”

“No, I don’t think that’d be smart. He’s mad. Give him a couple days to cool off.
Look, you’ve got two more days there. Use them to relax and take some time to clear
your head then when you get home, you can go talk, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay. And I don’t know how I’ll ever pay you and Clay back for this. Can you
set up a payment plan for me but with zero percent interest?”

She laughs. “Don’t worry about it. You know we were happy to help. But if you screw
things up even more when you get back, I just might have to set that plan into motion.
And believe me when I tell you that Clay’s not above charging you the current APR.”

“I’ll give you my firstborn, how about that?”

“You don’t make amends with Brody you might not get a firstborn for some time,” she
says with a snort.

“Gee, thanks. Glad he’s my only option.”

“You know he is.”

My turn to sigh. “I know. Thanks, Greer. Give Addie a big, fat, slobbery kiss from
Auntie Piper for me.”

“Will do. Talk soon.”

We hang up and I call Mom to tell her I’ll be home on Friday. I ask about my store
and she tells me everything’s still going well.

“Mom? Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, Piper. What is it?”

She knows Brody was here but I haven’t told her about my latest screw up. “I’ve never
seen you and Daddy fight. You’ve had arguments, I know, but nothing major. How come?”

She chuckles. “Oh, honey, believe me, we’ve had some knockdown dragouts over the years.”

I frown. “You have?”

“Of course.”

This shocks the hell out of me because I’ve never heard them even raise their voices
to each other. “When?”

“Just over the years. The worst one was when you were about three. There was a recession
and Daddy thought he was going to be laid off at the bank. That was before he became
the branch manager. He was so upset, so angry all the time and nothing I did made
it better. Then he just shut me out. Wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say. It
got so bad that one night I told him to take what was his and leave. You know what
he did?”

“What?”

“He picked me up and went out the front door.”

Oh, my God.
Oh, my God!

“Mom,” I whisper as tears sting the backs of my eyes. Wow.

“I know. After that, I knew we’d be together forever.” I hear her sigh the same time
I do.

“That’s so romantic,” I say.

“Yes, it is. Your father can pull out all the stops when he wants to.” She chuckles.
“Our last big fight was when you and Brody broke up. Daddy wanted to go set him straight
but I told him to stay out of it.”

“He did? You did?” I had no idea.

“We didn’t talk for almost a week but he finally understood that it wouldn’t have
done any good. He was just being protective of his little girl,” she explains.

“That probably wouldn’t have gone too well.”

“That’s why I didn’t let him go. So what’s this all about?” she questions.

I tell her what happened.

“Well, that’s to be expected. All of it,” she states about his reaction to my ridiculous
decree. “Honey, that boy loves you. Over the years, I’ve learned that the time to
worry is not when you’re arguing. That means you think there’s still something there
to fight for. No, the time to worry is when you stop fighting. That’s usually when
it really is over.”

“God, I’ve so screwed things up,” I announce dejectedly.

“It’ll be fine,” she soothes.

“You think I should come home early? I mean, if I stay, won’t it look like I don’t
care?”

“Well… I don’t think it’d hurt to come home sooner,” she points out.

“Then I’ll check out tomorrow. Thanks, Mom. You’re the best!”

We say our I love yous and hang up so I can call and arrange for my flight then I
go down to the front desk and let them know I’m leaving in the morning. I feel much
better about things now. By tomorrow night, hopefully everything will be fixed between
Brody and me and we can go about starting our future together once again.

~~~

The earliest flight I can get is at one, which is disappointing because I wanted to
get home sooner. After booking it, I call Greer again to see if she’ll pick me up
and she argues that I should stay the two days I have left. When I pull out the big
guns and tell her that Mom thinks I should come back, she concedes saying she guesses
Mom knows what she’s talking about since she and Daddy have been married for almost
forty years. Next I call Darby to see if she’s still good with running the store for
another day. She’s says she’s happy to and is excited because this is the first time
in twenty-five years that she’s had a chance to get out of the house regularly. I
thank her and tell her we’ll get a schedule made for her when I get back. I call Ryan
last who almost bursts my eardrum when she screams in excitement at hearing I’m coming
home. And then she threatens that if I ever leave her alone for almost two weeks in
The Point again she’ll hurt me.

I decide not to tell Brody I’m coming back early because I want to catch him off guard
thinking maybe he’ll be so surprised he’ll forget to be mad at me. And during the
flight, I come up with a big speech I’m going to give him. One of the things I’ll
say—after apologizing profusely, that is—is that I don’t give a fuck what anyone else
thinks. Then I’ll tell him I love him and that nothing else matters as long as we’re
together, that he’s my always and forever too. Yep. That should do it.

When I walk into the concourse, I see Greer waiting for me and wave but as I get closer
she holds a finger out to me making me stop.

I watch as she puts Addie down on her feet and says, “Go see Auntie Piper!”

I smile huge and squat down watching as Addie gives her little girl chortle then smiling
crookedly at me, her two bottom teeth showing so adorably, she toddles to me where
I catch her up in my arms.

“That’s so good, Addie-dabbie-doo!” I hug her to me, breathing in her sweet baby smell.
“I’m so proud of you!” She slaps me in the face with her sticky hands and I have to
laugh remembering Luke’s line about jam hands from
Gilmore Girls
. I stand and put her on my hip walking over to Greer. “She’s getting good at this!”

“She walks everywhere now! Everything’s on lockdown in the house,” she replies with
a snort. “And, God, who knew my daughter would be fascinated by the toilet?”

“Ew,” I say scrunching up my face then hold Addie under her arms away from me toward
my sister. “I thought she had jam hands but now I know they’re potty hands. Gross.”

Greer laughs as she takes Addie. “We put locks on them, dummy. It’s not like Clay
and I looked at each other and said, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, so
splash away, kid!’” She puts Addie on her hip then rubs her nose against her daughter’s
tiny little button one. “Isn’t that right, pumpkin face?” Addie babbles in agreement,
clapping her hands against Greer’s cheeks.

“Gonna start calling you Potty Face,” I mumble, looking over and giving Greer a silly
face as we walk to get my luggage. She rolls her eyes. “Thanks for getting me. I know
it’s almost past Addie’s bedtime,” I say.

“You’re welcome. I would’ve sent Clay but he’s at a conference, so you’re stuck with
us.”

As we walk to the baggage claim area I play “Peek-a-Boo” over Greer’s shoulder with
my niece. Talk about a hoot. I’ve got her giggling up a storm and smacking the hell
out of my sister’s face with her palms.

“Enough. I’m gonna have a black eye if you don’t stop,” Greer mutters and I give Addie
a high five as if that’d been the plan. When we approach the carousel I immediately
(and luckily) spot my suitcases and retrieve them.

Once on the road and headed to her house Greer asks, “So, what’s the plan to win Brody
back?”

I shrug. “I guess apologize all over myself?”

“That’s probably a good start but watch it. He’s stubborn just like Kade. I don’t
know if you remember, but Kade’s the one who, when we were seniors in high school,
led the walkout protesting the school lunches. He didn’t go back until they changed
the menu.”

I snort. “I remember. And Brody
is
just as bad. Cassie said when he was little he used to hold his breath until he passed
out if he didn’t get his way.”

“I can see that. Let’s hope he doesn’t employ that trick tonight,” Greer says with
a chuckle.

We get back to her house and she makes me come inside to eat some of the leftover
lasagna she made for dinner the night before. She puts Addie to bed while I heat a
plate then eat quickly because I’m eager to get home to make amends.

She walks me out to my car when I’m finished. “Be safe. Text me when you get home,
okay?”

I hug my sister. “I will. Thank you for everything.”

“Good luck,” she adds right before I close the Charger’s door. I wave and she gives
me a thumbs up as I back out of the drive.

~~~

I pull into Serenity Point a little after ten and thing’s are pretty quiet except
for Jen’s. It’s Wednesday night which is “Free Draw Beer until Midnight” night and
there’s usually a pretty good crowd that comes out each week for it and tonight’s
no different.

I tried calling Brody on the way back but he still isn’t answering, the stubborn ass,
so I go right to the firehouse hoping to talk to him. I park and get out of my car,
and looking through the glass door of the station before opening it I don’t see anyone.

“Hello?” I call when I’m inside. I’m greeted with silence, so I take a small look
around, going out to the garage area to see that both trucks are gone. Hm. As I walk
back outside, I call Ryan.

“Hey, you back yet?” she answers.

“Just got into town and stopped at the fire station but no one’s here,” I reply as
I get in my car.

“Pipe, there was an explosion at the gas plant and they got called out.”

“What? When?” Shit.

“Around noon. I swear, Pipe, I felt the fucking explosion in my house.”

“Oh, God. I’m coming over.” I hang up and head down Main Street turning right on Cherry
Street and pull into her drive. She meets me at my car.

“Look,” she says, pointing south.

“Oh, my God,” I whisper. The gas plant is three miles to the south of town yet I can
see an orange blaze coming from it in the dark night sky. Just then we hear sirens
and see two fire engines blaze down Main Street toward the plant.

“Those are from Hayes,” Ryan shares.

Hayes is a town just north of us and now we know the fire must be really bad if they’re
calling in backup.

“What if he gets hurt?” I whisper.

She puts her arm around my shoulders. “He won’t. He’s been doing this for over a year.
They train them—Ahhh!” She’s suddenly screaming.

I scream with her as a huge explosion flashes in the sky, bright flames filling the
horizon and a second later there’s an enormous BOOM rattling the windows in the houses
around us.

“Oh, my God!” I shriek pulling back to look at her, tears streaming down my face.
“Brody!”

She hugs me to her. “He’s okay, Pipe. He’s fine. He’ll be okay,” she whispers in my
ear.

I pull away from her and shriek, “How do you know! How do you know he’s okay? I’ve
got to make sure!”

I start heading to my car but she stops me.

“No, honey. You can’t go out there. They wouldn’t let you near it anyway. We just
have to wait.”

My legs wobble and I squat down to sit on the balls of my feet putting my face in
my hands and start sobbing. “I’m so stupid. He was there. He came for me and I sent
him away like an idiot. I told him we couldn’t get back together yet because I was
embarrassed!”

The town’s siren starts going off which means they’re calling in all the volunteer
firemen now, which could mean some of the paid firefighters have been hurt.

I stand and wipe my eyes looking toward the blaze. “If he’s hurt I’ll never forgive
myself. And I won’t even ask him to forgive me because he deserves better.”

She puts her hands on my shoulders. “Sweetie, you’re the best he could ever have,”
she answers but I give her a doubtful look. “You are. And he’s going to be fine. Just
wait and see.”

The one ambulance that our little hospital in town has flies by on its way toward
the scene, lights and siren going like crazy. Ryan and I turn and watch it go in silence.
I cross my arms over my chest closing my eyes and picturing the falling star I’d seen
when I’d come out of Jen’s a couple weeks ago. And I take back my wish that Brody
and I will work things out.

No, now I wish for his safety. I wish that he’s okay. As long as that happens, nothing
else matters.

Chapter 15

“Have you heard anything yet?” I ask Amelia who I’ve called no less than five times
over the past two hours.

“No. Kade’s out there too but he hasn’t returned my calls. I promise to let you know
if I hear anything, okay, honey?”

“Thanks,” I answer quietly and we hang up. I set my phone on Ryan’s coffee table.

“Nothing?” Ryan asks.

I shake my head and continue staring at my phone willing it to ring. It’s after midnight
and there’s no one else I can call because everyone’s asleep since they have to work
in the morning.

After the second explosion, Ryan and I had gotten in my car and gone to Jen’s but
no one there had much news. Eli West, the bartender and whose dad owns the hardware
store, had said he’d heard three guys had been hurt in the second explosion but since
the ambulance hadn’t come back through town he assumed it wasn’t that bad. And that’s
when the ambulance had sped by.

We found out it had carried Kevin Underhill who’d received a pretty bad burn on one
of his arms and Chris Ackley, Jane Ackley’s dad (she graduated in the same high school
class with Ryan and me), who they thought may have had a heart attack, to the hospital.
Jesse Jeffers, one of the plant managers, had been hit with debris but his injuries
had been superficial so they’d bandaged him and that was it.