The Secret of You and Me - Melissa Lenhardt Page 0,45
while Lynchfield would never be considered diverse, we were managing to pull in diverse tourist groups. My hope was some of these tourists would be charmed by our people, our history, our quintessential Main Street, our proximity to Austin, and our 300 days of sunny skies, and would return as permanent residents.
The question was, would I be here to greet them?
When Ray died, and I knew Nora was coming back, the courageous part of me hoped it would be as if no time had passed, all of the bad feelings would be forgotten, and the connection we’d had would return. I’d been stupidly optimistic and wrestled with the question, What if Nora asks me to leave with her? What a pipe dream. We couldn’t get through a conversation without fighting, and she had someone waiting for her back in DC. Alima.
Still, I pushed the beautiful smiling face I’d seen on Nora’s phone from my mind and let myself dream. If she asked, would I leave my family, my daughter, my friends, and the career I’d built for life with a woman who was practically a stranger to me? She seemed like the old Nora, but how much was framing, seeing her in all the places we fell in love? What was she like in DC? What kind of life did she live? Who were her friends? Besides Alima, that is. Whatever her life, Nora had moved on from Lynchfield, and me. If I ever were to put my daydream of escaping into action, the destination wouldn’t be Nora’s front door, which was where it had always ended.
The door to the popcorn shop beside me opened with a jingle. Tiffany stuck her head out and said, “You okay? You’ve been standing there for five minutes.”
“I’m fine.”
In the front window, the old-fashioned popcorn machine was making a new batch. The muted pops sounded like tiny gunshots.
“Want a fresh bag?”
“No, thanks. Going to lunch at my mother’s. Maybe later.”
Tiffany eyed me suspiciously, and I tried to walk off.
“How’s Nora? Kyle drove by the courts last night and saw y’all playing.”
My stomach twisted and sweat popped out on my upper lip. “Nora nearly won.”
“The more things change, huh?”
“Yeah, but I can still beat you.”
Tiffany laughed good-naturedly. “Like I said.” She’d just lost to me two weeks earlier, and it wasn’t even close. “Will I see you at church tonight? They’re serving fried chicken for dinner.”
“Wish I could, but I have a meeting, and I’m late for one now. See ya.” I turned away, the smell of buttery caramel corn following me, and making my stomach growl despite its constant state of turmoil.
I stopped when I saw Ray’s old truck parked next to my car, with Nora half in and half out of the cab. The door rattled when she shut it.
“Oh, hey, Nora,” Tiffany said. “We were just talking about you.”
Nora raised her eyebrows, and I clarified, “I told her you nearly beat me at tennis.”
Nora nodded, shoving her hands into a baggy pair of old jeans. “It was all I could do to keep up. I’m sore today in places I haven’t been sore in years.”
“You should come to the church tonight for dinner. Wednesday night, you know. Fried chicken,” Tiffany said.
“I have so much food at Ray’s that I won’t need to eat out for a month.”
“Are you staying that long?”
“I don’t know.”
“You two should catch up,” I said. “I have to go.”
I got into my car as quickly as possible, but Nora knocked on the window. I rolled it down.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“I have a meeting.”
“Two minutes.”
I sighed and unlocked the doors. She settled into the passenger seat and said, “I need to apologize...”
“You did that last night.”
“...for the last eighteen years.”
I finally looked at her. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail of convenience instead of style. She wore no makeup and what had to be an old shirt of Ray’s with the sleeves cut off. The only thing that kept her from looking like a Dust Bowl farmer was her brightly colored running shoes. It was a ridiculous outfit. She was still the beautiful, fresh-faced All-American girl I fell in love with. My heart raced, and the breath went out of me.
Why did she have to come back? Why did I have to see her? I could have stayed away. People would have gossiped about my absence, but hell, I’d been through it already. I’d had Jack Daniel’s to console me then.