Not like the overly cocky boy she remembered.
“It’s been a while,” she said.
He let go of her hands. “It really has. I can’t tell you how great it is to see you.”
“You, too.” To her surprise, she actually meant it.
Gallant’s eyes crinkled as he scooped up her suitcase. “Here, why don’t I get this? Can you walk? Or should I bring my car around?”
She tested her hurt ankle, pleased when it took her weight. “I can get there on my own, I think. It just won’t be pretty.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Aubrey couldn’t stop an eyebrow from arcing. The old Gallant would’ve seized the opportunity to tell her she looked pretty doing anything. But maybe he’d changed. Either that, or he wasn’t in a position to flirt. Yet when she glanced down, both of his ring fingers were bare.
He wheeled her suitcase across the road. Aubrey hobbled after him and situated herself in what proved to be a Tesla. The vehicle’s interior reminded her of a spaceship, sleek and dark and polished. As she latched her seat belt, Gallant rolled up his window, shutting out the evening chorus of crickets and frogs. “Where to? Your old place, I’m assuming?”
She nodded. “That, but maybe the grocery store first, if you have time. I could use an ACE wrap and a few things for the house. Nobody’s been inside for a while.”
Gallant made an affirmative sound and eased the car into motion.
The quiet startled her. She’d been in electric vehicles before, mostly Ubers in New York, but the city’s din had prevented her from appreciating the lack of engine noise. Here, the silence was almost eerie.
Gallant’s gaze flitted between her and the road. “So, what brings you back to Henderson? Now, I mean?”
She didn’t miss the subtle emphasis onnow. “You mean, why didn’t I come back when my dad died?”
“Yeah.” His look turned sympathetic. “I’m sorry about that, by the way. He was a good guy. But I was pretty surprised we didn’t see you afterward.”
Aubrey turned to the window. Outside, single-level homes rolled by, backdropped by a twilit sky. The warm colors belied the chill in the air, which struck her as the perfect metaphor for her feelings toward her dad—warm and cold at once. “I’m sure you weren’t the only one. But my dad never wanted a funeral. He just wanted us to spread his ashes somewhere beautiful. So my mom and I went to Switzerland.”
Gallant nodded. “That sounds like a nice way to honor him.”
“It was.”
He didn’t seem flustered by the macabre subject and smoothly moved on. “And how’s your mom doing out in... California, was it? She got remarried, right?”
“Yep. LA suits her. And my stepdad treats her like gold, which makes me feel a lot less guilty about living thousands of miles away.”
Gallant turned onto Main Street. A heavy silver watch glinted on his wrist—something expensive, though Aubrey didn’t recognize the brand.
“I’m glad she’s happy,” he said. “When she left Henderson, though... I kept thinking you’d show up. Put her house on the market, maybe.”
Aubrey wondered if she was imagining the wistfulness in his tone. As if he really had thought about her, more than once. “I didn’t need to. Rich is... well, he’s rich, so my mom hasn’t needed the money.” She paused, then decided Gallant deserved the truth after offering her a ride. “My mom’s been wanting todeed me the house, but to be honest, I’ve been avoiding coming back.”
He glanced over with curious eyes. “How come?”
She hesitated. “You know.”
“Nick Thacker,” he said. Not a question.
“Yeah.” She swallowed the thousand other words scrabbling for purchase on her tongue. She wouldn’t ask if Nick still lived here. It didn’t matter. Her stint in Indiana would only last for as long as it took to convince her ex-boss to rehire her. She would hole up in her childhood home rent-free, put her nose to the grindstone, and glue the shattered pieces of her professional reputation back together. The moment she got her job back, she’d disappear.
Gallant filled the heavy quiet. “So now you’re here to... what? Visit? Stay?”
“Visit.” She ejected the word with force. “I should be back in New York by the end of the year.”
“Oh yeah?” He chuckled. “Funny. That’s where I’m headed. Probably in February.”
