“Hi, Sonia,” Scarlett says with a quick wave.
We’re just about at the back door when I hear my name being called.
I turn around and I don’t want to believe what my eyes are seeing, but this town doesn’t hide anyone or anything. “Well, I’ll be a thorn on a tick’s behind,” she says.
“Ma.” I’m unenthused, as she might expect me to be. “What are you doing back here?”
I forget Scarlett’s with me for a moment as I’m trying to keep my head from exploding with inappropriate things to say to the woman who forced half our family into the ground. Thankfully, Scarlett is already versed in my past so it isn’t a secret, but I don’t need this particular rendezvous at this exact moment.
Regardless, I walk toward her, keeping Scarlett’s hand locked within mine.
“George and I decided to come stay here for a spell and visit with Laurie-Cate. Of course, we would have liked to see you too but that’s hard to do when I’ve been prohibited from speaking to you.” She elegantly sweeps her feathered bangs away from her eye, giving a show of her apparent facelift. Her dreams have finally been answered I guess, and it’s like her previous life never happened. I have spent years wondering if she even misses her dead daughter, never mind the man who would go to the ends of the earth for her.
“Well, good for you,” I tell her. “I best be goin’ now.”
“Who is this?” she asks, looking over at Scarlett. “Oh, I recognize you. You work here, don’t you?” This is the first time Scarlett hasn’t spoken up when asked about her presence. Her hand is gripping mine tightly, and I’d pay to know what’s going through her head. In any case, I just want to get the hell out of here before Ma says something I’ll regret.
“This is my girlfriend, Scarlett,” I tell her. “Have a nice stay.”
“Austin,” Ma says as I’m turning back for the door. “There’s something I want to say to you.”
I’m Pa’s boy through and through, and I have too much respect for the wrong people in this world, so I turn around and look this woman in the face while holding my tongue with all the strength I have. “What’s that?”
“You can do much better than some floozy front desk girl, don’t you think?”
My blood boils as I process her words, and I open my mouth, ready to let all my rage loose on her. “You know—” I try to say what I’m thinking, but Scarlett shockingly interrupts me.
“I’ll have you know, Ms. Trace, I am not some floozy front desk girl. In fact, I have a business degree from Boston University, and five years of hotel management experience. I’m sure that’s more than your lovely stepdaughter, Laurie-Cate, can say for herself. Am I right?”
“First off, little miss, my name is Mrs. Gilly; Mrs. George Gilly.” She holds up her ring finger for all of us to see the thousands of dollars dumped into one measly diamond. “And, Laurie-Cate is an outstandingly brilliant woman any man would be honored to stand beside.”
“Ah,” Scarlett says. “Is that why you wanted your son and stepdaughter to get married?” Scarlett’s voice echoes throughout the entire lobby, and while I should be mortified, I’m proud as hell of this girl with the biggest goddamn mouth I’ve ever seen.
“Oh. My. Word. Gracious, you are a tart, aren’t you? This is what you want for your life, Austin?” Ma looks Scarlett up and down as if she were trash.
“We only just started dating, Ma, but let me tell you something. If this girl wanted me next to her for the rest of her life, I’m pretty sure I’d be okay with that,” I scoff with anger. “You go on back to your new family, and leave me the hell alone. You hear?”
“At least I have a family,” she says. Thankfully, Scarlett yanks me away and pulls me toward the door before I can do or say anything else.
We’re outside and I still feel like I’m suffocating. “Hey,” Scarlett says. “Look at me.” She places her hand on my face. “She is not worth your anger.” I’m boiling inside and I know I’m must be redder than a tomato right now. I can hardly catch my damn breath. “Breathe.”
I look into Scarlett’s eyes and everything else around me fades into the distance. She’s got these soulful, hazel eyes mixed with the colors of a crisp autumn day. That, and her hair’s blowing in the breeze, sweeping over my arms as she holds onto me like she feels what I feel. How is it, she’s got a hold of me, and yet, I can’t let go of her? “I want you to be mine, Scarlett. I’m sorry I introduced you as my girlfriend back there, but it’s what I want. Truthfully. Even if you go back to Boston, I want you to be mine. You’ve had too much of an impact on my life in the past month for me to forget you.”
Scarlett takes my hand and leads me around the bend to her studio apartment. She pulls her key out of her back pocket and lets us inside before closing the world out. She pushes me down onto her bed and crawls onto my lap, then loops her arms around my neck.
“I’m sick of making decisions, Austin.”
“That’s all life is,” I tell her. “Plus, it’s just an interview for now. But, if you want it, I want you to get it.”
She tightens her arms around my neck and kisses me softly as her hair billows around my ears. Her scent, her touch, it’s everything I never knew I needed from a person.
Scarlett pulls away just enough to look me in the eyes. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“And I don’t want to hold you back,” I tell her.
“Then it looks like we’re in a bit of a pickle,” she says with a fluttering faint smile, in her best Southern drawl.
“In a pickle?” I question.
“Isn’t that what y’all country folk say down yonder?” she continues.
Even in this dreadful moment, this girl finds a way to make me laugh. “Oh, darlin’, stick to y’alls Bahston talk.”
