Jocelyn piped in.
The expression on Anne’s face could be described as mortified, but Jack decided not to focus on the negative. She could protest all she wanted, but apparently the team was on his side.
He smiled. “Then I’ll pick you up at eight.”
Friday evening, Anne propped up her mother’s arm, made sure everything she could want was within reach, and armed with her mother’s long grocery list, she set out to do some shopping. Bart sat in the family room attentively at Beverly’s side watching over her.
On the drive home odd tidbits from life elbowed their way into Anne’s mind. She drove down familiar streets, each with a memory attached, and having spent so much time with her mother and spoken to both her brother and sister yesterday, everything seemed to invite reflection.
She hadn’t minded getting knocked off the pedestal when Lucas had come along. She enjoyed having a brother … at first. Mom kept calling her the “big girl,” even though she wasn’t sure she liked the new title or what it meant. As Lucas got older, she discovered she could make him laugh, and Mom was happy about that, so she did it a lot. He was a good laugher back then. Now? Not so much.
Though they hadn’t seen each other in three years, they occasionally spoke on the phone and emailed back and forth on a regular basis. Lately, Lucas’s take on life seemed so cynical, and it worried her. She missed her brother and couldn’t wait to see him. Besides, the sooner he got home, the sooner she could go back to Portland and her new job.
She cruised past her old grammar school and its single-story 1950s blah architecture, the place where her mother still taught fourth grade. A thousand more memories crowded her head. How many times had she defended Lucas when he’d gotten into trouble there? Early on they’d teamed up and stayed united when it was apparent Lark could do no wrong. Maybe he could use someone in his corner these days too, and she shouldn’t rush off right after he got here.
Coming home put a bittersweet taste in her mouth with so many landmarks holding memories. She drove past the park where she used to play and thought how when Lark came along she’d been five and it felt as if Mom had sent her to school just so she could be alone with her little brother and baby sister.
When Lark was a baby, she had fluffy white hair, and she didn’t have to say one word to get Mom and Dad to smile, all she had to do was be there. Anne learned if she read her books out loud, Dad would clap his hands, so she read everything she could find aloud, and knew early on the importance of being a high achiever.
So why was Lark the one in med school?
She huffed a breath and glanced toward the sky. Let it go, Anne. You’re thirty and you’re an adult. If you want to go to medical school, you can apply. Truth was, she liked being a nurse, and back when she’d taken the MCATs and had scored well, her parents simply didn’t have the money or the desire to take out humongous loans. She couldn’t blame them. When Lark was ready to apply to college, they owned their home and Dad’s Great Aunt Tessa had left him a windfall in her will. If there was one thing Anne had learned, it was that life wasn’t fair and timing ruled the day and it was a futile task to try to figure out why anything worked the way it did.
What more proof did she need than her best friend dying shortly after her eighteenth birthday, just before graduating?
She drove past the Whispering Oaks Gymnastics Center, which used to be nothing more than a huge garage with mats, and remembered her mother waiting for her during class. It occurred to her that when her mother was her age, she had already had three kids. Not that Anne wanted three kids, but the possibility of a boyfriend at thirty would be nice. Her dating history had been anything but a success, with the last real relationship ending over a year ago. Somewhere along the line she’d figured her miserable excuse for a love life was likely because somewhere deep inside she still carried a torch for Jack.
Must all thoughts lead back to Jack?
The streets seemed more crowded than when she’d left, and there were strip malls on far too many corners. There seemed to be fewer trees, too. At least the surrounding hills hadn’t changed. She’d missed them. In the distance she could see Boulder Peak jutting its rocky nose above the hilltop, and immediately tried to divert her thoughts away from the invitation to hike there. With Jack. Jack. Again, thoughts about Jack.
What would it be like to spend time with him? She’d much prefer to dodge the whole thing, but everyone had plotted against her and she’d had no way out. Maybe she could sprain her ankle between now and tomorrow morning?
And speaking of Jack, wasn’t that him heading into TGI Fridays with a pert redhead by his side?
She slowed down as she drove past one of the three main restaurants in town feeling like a stalking teenager. Her heart raced as she looked closer. At least he wasn’t holding the woman’s hand. So what was the deal about asking her to go hiking?
Time marches on and she’d been gone for a while now, so she couldn’t exactly hold a grudge if Jack had a girlfriend. She groaned over getting swept up in the crappy moment. Why did she feel like she was in high school again mooning over the jock that got away? Sure, Jack, take the good ol’ buddy hiking, buy the redhead dinner. Now thoroughly confused, she hit the gas and headed for the market.
A half hour later, she parked the car in the garage and entered through the kitchen with the bags, where Bart met her. “Good boy. Did you take care of mommy?” His tail thumped the nearby counter.
She put everything away, grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and took a swig. Mom was asleep in the recliner in the family room, so she plopped down on the same couch from which she used to watch Buffy, glad they hadn’t gotten rid of it with the remodel.
Mom had apparently fallen asleep watching some reality show about crab fishermen, and the narrator’s voice sounded just like her father’s. Loud. Friendly. Baritone. Maybe that’s why her mother smiled in her sleep? Anne hoped Dad was getting used to his huge cast and lack of independence. He’d seemed restless and impatient earlier today when she’d visited him, which didn’t bode well for when he came home after the weekend.
Something pushed against her back. She pulled it out as she took another drink. Grandma’s fancy embroidery decorated a small lacy pillow Anne had seen her entire life: Good things come to those who wait.
She wouldn’t dare call her grandma corny, but so far the catchy saying hadn’t panned out. Her fingers traced the precision stitches.
Just how long was a girl supposed to wait?
The next morning Anne glared at her puffy eyes and sallow complexion. Would Jack notice if she put on some mascara? For hiking? She imagined sweat getting into her eyes and the black smudges under her lids when she rubbed them in the glaring sun. Maybe not.
What would they talk about? Would everything focus around Brianna? She wasn’t sure she was ready to talk about her personal life with him, wasn’t sure he deserved to know anything. Why had she agreed to go hiking? Oh, right, she’d been bamboozled into it.
If she kept things superficial, she might bore him to death, then maybe he’d leave her alone so she could finally forget him.
Concentrate on the hiking, Anne. The hiking.
The doorbell rang. One last pat of her uncooperative hair then she jogged down the hall to answer it. It wasn’t Jack, and the disappointment surprised her. Why work up a perfectly good case of jitters for nothing?
