A Summer Romance (21 page)

She pushed the door open and slowly stepped
inside. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the murky
darkness and then another second for her mind to register the fact
that Aaron wasn’t home.

The furniture remained just as it had been
before but there was a feeling of emptiness permeating the air. She
walked to his room and confirmed that he was not asleep in his bed.
She noted with a sudden feeling of panic that his books were gone.
He was gone.

She didn’t even remember the walk back to
the big house. She didn’t bother turning on a single light as she
crossed through the house and climbed back into bed.

~∞~

Apparently two days of missed calls was all
Andi was willing to put up with. She woke Maggie by plopping down
on the bed beside her.

“I have coffee,” she said in a bright
sing-song voice as she held out a styrofoam cup. The strong smell
of coffee invigorated Maggie’s senses and she opened her eyes to
look up at her friend.

“I also brought chicken soup, just in case
you really were sick. It’s down in the kitchen,” She told, her
standing from the bed and crossing to the windows to pull open the
curtains.

“What do you mean in case I really was
sick?” Maggie asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and grabbing
the cup of coffee off the nightstand where Andi had left it for
her.

“I know that Aaron left,” Andi said
matter-of-factly.

“How did you know?” Maggie asked. Andi just
looked at her with an expression that said she knew everything that
went on in this town and Maggie ought to know that.

“How are you?” Andi asked as she crossed
over to the closet.

“I’ve been better,” Maggie answered
honestly. “But I suppose I’ll live.”

“Good to hear, cuz we’ve got stuff to do
today,” Andi said, emerging from the closet with an armful of
clothes which she tossed onto the bed in front of Maggie. “Get
dressed, I’ll be downstairs.”

Curiosity drove Maggie to follow Andi’s
command. A short while later she was joining her friend
downstairs.

“What exactly do we have to do today?”
Maggie asked warily.

“We’re going to Savannah to do some
apartment hunting. Plus we’ve got to go by the Mercer campus. Today
is the last day for late registration.” Andi looked intently at
Maggie, waiting for her response.

Maggie hesitated. She wasn’t sure what she
wanted anymore. Did she still want to move to Savannah or was she
going back to Boston? Over the last few days so much had happened,
so much had changed that she hadn’t really had time to process it
all, to consider her options and her next move. She looked over at
Andi who was watching her expectantly and she just couldn’t bring
herself to hurt her friend. She decided to humor Andi, reasoning
with herself that it would be good to get out of the house at
least.

“Just let me grab my purse,” she said, and
Andi smiled.

~∞~

Maggie spent the long drive to Savannah
trying to figure out what she was going to do. She asked herself if
Aaron had been the only reason that she wanted to stay in Georgia.
She vaguely remembered contemplating the move before they had
become serious, but for the last month she’d been imagining their
life together in Savannah and now it seemed almost impossible to
imagine her life there without him.

Andi allowed Maggie the time to think. She
didn’t push her to talk but she also wouldn’t allow her to wallow
for too long. Anytime Maggie would start to get lost in her own
misery Andi would suddenly pipe up with some cheerful bit of
conversation to distract her. Maggie was grateful for her friend’s
presence. She needed her energy right now to keep from getting
swallowed up with despair.

It didn’t take long for Maggie to realize
that Andi had put a lot of thought and effort into this outing. She
had six appointments scheduled to view apartments all over
Savannah. At first Maggie was just going through the motions with
her, commenting on the size of the kitchen or the view from a
window. But by the third apartment Maggie actually found herself
picturing her life in Savannah with Andi. She started paying
attention to things like the Chinese place on the corner that would
probably have good take-out and asking questions like whether or
not they allowed cats.

By the time the girls had stopped for lunch
Maggie was actually smiling occasionally without having to think
about it. She was beginning to feel like herself again and that’s
when she realized that the self she felt like was who she’d become
when she’d moved to Georgia and it was still who she wanted to be.
Aaron had been a big part of that, but he wasn’t the only part. He
wasn’t the only reason to stay.

Maggie tried to ignore the small part of her
brain that reminded her that Aaron would probably be in Savannah as
well. She wasn’t really sure if that was a reason to stay or a
reason to go. So for now she tried not to think of it.

After lunch they went by the Mercer campus
and Maggie applied for acceptance in the medical school. It wasn’t
until she was filling out the paperwork to have her records
transferred that the reality sank in. Medical school was still an
option for her. It was that final realization that her dream of
becoming a doctor was still a reality which helped her to see that
her life was not over.

What she’d had with Aaron had irrevocably
changed her, and losing him had nearly destroyed her. But she had
survived and she would go on. She would probably never stop loving
him, never stop missing him. But her life would go on and maybe
someday she could be happy again. Not the kind of happy that she’d
had lying in his arms in the barn loft, but some semblance of happy
at least.

“Thank you for getting me out of the house,”
Maggie said as they drove back down Devereaux Lane. It had been a
long day and Maggie was grateful for the exhaustion. It meant sleep
would come easily.

“I’m glad you came along,” Andi said.

“Me too,” Maggie replied honestly.

“You’re going to be okay,” Andi said
softly.

Maggie sighed heavily. “I know.”

As they approached the driveway Maggie
noticed a black car driving down the road ahead of them. For a
moment it appeared to have been stopped on the road in front of the
house, but now it was disappearing into the distance. Something
about the car stuck in Maggie’s mind, but she couldn’t place it.
She couldn’t figure out why it made her feel so uneasy.

“Did you see that car?” Maggie asked as they
turned into the driveway.

“What car?” Andi slowed down and looked
around.

“Never mind.” Maggie shook it off. “It was
probably nothing.”

Getting back to work was cathartic. Ms.
Brandy was happy to have Maggie back in the shop and Maggie was
happy to be there. Dusting shelves and conversing with customers
was far better than lying in bed and wallowing. She still had an
empty ache in her heart that she suspected would never go away, and
questions that she was resigned to never having answers for, but
life must go on.

Maggie began seeing the black car on her
road on a fairly regular basis. She decided it must belong to
someone who lived farther down the lane and after a while she
stopped paying attention.

She still drank her coffee on the veranda in
the mornings, looking out over the orchards and gauging the
progress of the harvesting crew. It was almost over and soon she
would be leaving. She actually longed for that day to arrive. Too
many things at Devereaux Manor reminded her of Aaron.

After the cleaning crew came through and
changed the bed linens his scent was no longer with her when she
went to sleep which brought on another wave of heartbreak. He was
slowly slipping away from her, being erased from her life a little
more each day. She hoped it would be easier when she was in a new
place, a place that held no memories.

She still looked for him every morning as
she watched the harvesting crew arrive. She suspected he was out
there in the fields directing the crew, but she never saw him. If
he did still care for the property he managed to do it only while
she was at work. Eventually she began to wonder if he’d brought in
someone else to handle the task to avoid seeing her all
together.

Her days off work were the hardest. There
was too much time to think about what could have been. On those
days she tried to lose herself in books because it was much easier
to read about someone else’s heartbreak than to face her own.

She was systematically reading through the
vast selection of novels in the library, but when her system led
her to grab a copy of
Great Expectations
she decided she’d
had enough reading for one day. She left the library feeling
betrayed. The one place that had become her refuge from her pain
had now pulled it into sharp focus.

Reading the title of that book had brought
back a flood of memories from the night when she and Aaron had
stood in the barn together discussing its merits, watching
fireflies, making love, sharing their pasts, and promising their
futures. It had been one of the best nights of her life and one she
did not care to remember.

As she crossed into the foyer she wondered
what time it was. She was hoping Andi would be off work soon so
they could go to a movie, anything to distract her from the
memories that wouldn’t stay at bay. The sound of the doorbell
surprised her, perhaps it was later than she’d realized and it was
Andi answering her silent prayer. She happily opened the door wide
expecting to find her friend.

“Mr. Branson?” she asked, taking a step back
in surprise.

“Good afternoon, Maggie, isn’t it?” he
asked, stepping forward. She glanced over his shoulder and noted a
very familiar looking black car parked in the driveway. Her heart
began to race.

“W…what are you doing here?” she stuttered
feeling very anxious under his penetrating ice-cold stare.

“Where’s Aaron?” he asked as he took another
step forward, forcing Maggie to take a step back. She realized with
alarm that he was now inside the house. His tone was friendly but
something in his expression was not.

“Aaron’s not here.” Maggie answered with a
strength in her voice that she did not feel.

“Are you sure? I thought I saw his truck.”
He looked around the room as he spoke, taking in their
surroundings. Maggie took another step back to put some space
between them.

“Aaron’s not here. I thought he was in
Savannah working for you,” Maggie said weakly. His eyes zeroed back
in on her with the gaze of a predator spotting its prey.

“Savannah? So he did take that job,” he
said, taking another step toward her and closing the distance
between them. Maggie could feel the panic gripping her.

“You aren’t Mr. Branson are you?” she asked,
taking a large step away from him.

He reached out and grabbed her wrist in a
firm grip. “I never said that I was.”

“What do you want?” Maggie asked, trying to
pull her hand away. He clenched her wrist tighter making her
wince.

“I was really hoping Aaron would be here so
that I could deal with both of you at the same time.” All pretense
of kindness was gone. His eyes flashed with anger as he wrenched
her wrist until she cried out in pain.

“Who are you?” she asked as she struggled to
pull her arm free.

“I’m the man you are trying to steal this
house from!” he shouted angrily. “All of this, this belongs to my
family, to me! It should have gone to my grandfather years ago when
his brother died! But that whore of a daughter just couldn’t stay
where she belonged. Now she’s stayed holed up in this house all
these years, just holding onto it so we couldn’t have it! Well, I’m
tired of waiting. It’s mine and I’m taking it!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Maggie cried. “I’m not trying to take anything from you.”

“You don’t think I know about all the
snooping you’ve been doing?” he screamed as he twisted her wrist
even farther and she felt the bones crack. “When she first told me
that the crazy old woman had brought Aaron here I knew they were
trying to steal my inheritance, trying to keep from me what was
rightfully mine! I couldn’t let that happen, but then I realized he
didn’t even know. I could take my time, figure this out. But you
just couldn’t leave it alone could you? First with the picture and
then that damn journal, I barely got that away from you before you
showed it to him. I really wanted to leave you out of this.” His
voice softened and he stroked her cheek gently. She flinched away
from his touch.

“You’re the one who took those things?”
Maggie realized.

“I could have done it that night, you know?
I watched the two of you sleeping. I stood there and held your fate
in my hands. But I still wanted to spare you. You believe me, don’t
you? I didn’t want to have to hurt you. I tried to get you to
leave, both of you. He took the job in Savannah, why couldn’t you
just go home with your mother like you were supposed to?”

“You sent those letters?” Maggie realized
with a sinking feeling, like the floor was dropping out from under
her.

“You should have just left. That’s all you
had to do. And I just needed to find all of the evidence. I needed
to make sure there wasn’t a trace left behind. No more loose ends.”
His tone sounded pleading, as if he wanted Maggie to understand. “I
just needed the file. She said I had to find the file. But you just
kept snooping! Couldn’t mind your own business. You have it don’t
you? Where is it? Where’s the file?” His face contorted with rage
as he twisted her arm even farther bringing her to her knees.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Maggie cried.

“Don’t lie to me! If you would have just
left it alone I could have kept you out of this!” he screamed at
her as tears streamed down her face from the pain. “But you just
couldn’t mind your own business,” he sounded genuinely distraught
as his mood drastically shifted once again. “If you’ll just tell me
where the file is, then maybe I could let you go,” he suggested
hopefully.