“I promise, Carrie, I’ll be a better aunt than I am a sister.” She’d promise anything to keep the tears forming in her sister’s eyes from overflowing.
“You’re not a bad sister, Monie.” Monica cringed at the old nickname, and Carrie paused a moment. “I just miss you. Do you think you’ll ever marry?”
If anyone else had asked, Monica would have blown off the question, but she wouldn’t do that to Carrie. “Honestly, I don’t know. I suppose I’m not as opposed to the idea as I once was, but if I’m going to give up my life as I know it, the man would have to be pretty incredible to make it worth it.”
“What about the man who stayed with you at the hospital?”
“What man?” Monica’s forehead creased and she jerked her head. No one had stayed with her at hospital except her parents. Her boss and a few co-workers had visited, but that didn’t constitute staying.
“I believe his name was Rex or something like that.”
“Huh?” Monica’s heart thumped, yet the blood flowing through her came to an abrupt stop. That didn’t make any sense. She hadn’t seen Rex since last winter, hadn’t talked to him since except that middle-of-the-night call last week. “How do you know that?”
“Mom and Dad told me, said he barely left your side. They thought he may be someone special to you, but all he would say is you were injured protecting his cousin.”
Monica willed the pounding of her heart to stop. Surely that couldn’t be true. Why would Rex have stayed by her at the hospital, especially after the way they left things between them? And why hadn’t anybody told her he’d been there? Why hadn’thetold her?
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Carrie, but he’s just a friend.” Even she didn’t buy that, but her brain couldn’t process it all.
“You believe what you want Monica Lyn Hughes, but no man is going to stand guard at the hospital bed of a woman who is just his friend.” Carrie tried to keep a straight face, but the glint of amusement in her eyes belied her excitement.
Could it be possible that Rex had been serious? With a clarity unseen before now, Monica knew where she would go first, and she couldn’t wait until tomorrow to leave. She gave Carrie a hug. “I’m sorry, but I have to go.”
Carrie returned the hug, squeezing as tightly as her enlarged abdomen allowed. “Don’t be sorry. Go work out whatever it is between you and him. Love’s too precious to waste.”
“I love you, Care-bear. I’ll be a better sister from now on, promise.”
“You’ve always been the best.” Carrie backed away. Her eyes watered, and she made a scat motion with her hands. “Now, go. I’ll explain to Mom and Dad.”
“Thank you.” She ran downstairs, gave her parents a hug and kiss goodbye, then rushed to her car, ready to embark on a new adventure.
Before she could leave Pennsylvania, she had to load her bags from her parents. Her phone rang as she pulled into their driveway. She ignored the call from her boss and ran inside. Ten minutes later, she sat in the front seat again with Rex’s address programmed into the GPS.
Night fell, and she pulled into a convenience store to fill the gas tank and grab a cup of coffee. Prudence told her to stop off for the night, but her heart urged her on. Too much time had been wasted.
The sun rose somewhere in Tennessee. She’d lost track of where exactly she was. Doubts surfaced in the light of day. Was she doing the right thing? What if it was too late? How would a relationship with Rex work with their lives established thirteen hundred miles apart?
After twenty hours on the road, she could barely stay awake. She had only stopped for necessities along the way, eager to reach her destination. As she drove through Baton Rouge and crossed the mighty Mississippi, she was reminded of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge crossing the Potomac back home in DC. Was it still home? She didn’t know anymore.
She didn’t know much of anything except that she needed to see Rex.
Soon she came to the Basin Bridge and her heart lifted. Eighteen miles of scenic swampland awaited her as she drove across. She turned the air conditioning off and rolled her windows down, breathing in the unsullied air. Coming to the rest stop in the middle length of the bridge, she pulled over and got out to stretch her legs. The air was fresh and hot, lacking the humidity from months before when she was here.
A girl could get used to eighty-degree temps in late September. The landscape of south Louisiana was vastly different than her rolling hills of Pennsylvania and Washington DC suburbs, but from the moment she first came to the area, she had fallen in love with it.
Refreshed from her stop, she returned to her car and took a deep breath. Next stop—Rex’s house.
ChapterSix
Rex threw the final load of laundry into the dryer. He’d put off the housework last weekend and paid for it now. Typically, he preferred to get it done and over with on a Saturday morning, but he’d spent that time on the bayou with Jenna who was home for the weekend. She’d opted to stay with him instead of their mother as usual, and they made the most of their rare time together.
He called out to her, asking if she wanted him to put a load going for her. The sound of water running in the bathroom was her only answer, which meant he wouldn’t see her again for a while and his water bill would reflect his sister’s love of long showers. How had they ever survived growing up with one bathroom in their parents’ house?
The beignets Jenna brought from Café Du Monde last night teased him from the counter. He’d eaten two before going to bed, and another this morning. There was absolutely no reason he should have a fourth, but he popped one in the microwave for a few seconds anyway, justifying it by counting the calories he’d burned in his early morning workout before heading to the bayou.
A car door closed outside, and he left the kitchen to look out the front window. Unconvinced he wasn’t dreaming, he had to blink several times to see that it was really her. Assured that Monica really was outside, he opened the door and stood against the frame.
