Page 10 of Heartbeat Harmony (Hearts in Hawthorne #2)

Chapter

Five

A utumn said goodbye to Eli after lunch ended. She had insisted upon paying for her portion even though he told her it could be written off since they had spent a good amount of it discussing various things regarding Triple H.

She got into the car she had rented yesterday and drove back to DFW.

Summer had texted when she got on her flight at LaGuardia, saying she was on time.

Autumn checked the American Airlines app and saw that was still the case.

She made a mental note of the terminal and baggage claim and parked, going inside to wait for her twin.

Minutes later, Summer breezed through the glass doors, spotting Autumn, and rushing toward her. They hugged long and hard, and she had to blink rapidly to keep tears from spilling down her cheeks.

“Oh, why did we have to wait for a wedding to see one another?” Summer asked. “You know, now that you’re between jobs, you should come to New York. I can play tour guide for you. You’ve never visited me or the city. I have so much to show you.”

Autumn had always wanted to travel but never had the chance to do so.

Marrying straight out of college and going to work to put Flint through med school hadn’t left any money for extras.

She couldn’t afford a cup of Starbucks, much less a flight to Manhattan.

That would change with her new job. Her salary would increase dramatically, but she would have to work a year or more before she could put in for vacation time.

Still, she would plan a trip to visit her twin and see all the places Summer talked about.

Summer hugged her again spontaneously. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re going to be on your own now. Flint stifled you, Twinnie. You’ve been married your entire adult life. You’ll finally get to live a little.”

“Like you, Ms. Workaholic?” she teased.

“Okay, maybe I do work a lot, but I love what I do. At least most of the time. Oh, there’s my bag already. Boy, that never happens. I think it’s the first one coming down the carousel.”

Summer collected a suitcase large enough to have been taken on a two-week trip to Europe. She rolled it to where Autumn stood. “Where to?”

“Follow me.”

She led them to the rental, and Summer placed her suitcase inside the trunk, dwarfing the one already in there. They got into the car and went through the tollbooth, getting on the highway.

“All right, I waited to ask until we were on the road. Tell me about your interview.”

“Well, I didn’t get the charge nurse position,” she began.

“What? That’s criminal. I know you had to be the best candidate for it,” Summer insisted. “You have experience. Great references. Just let me know the name of the jerk who interviewed you, and I’ll kick his ass.”

And Summer would. She had always been the more outgoing of them. The one who spoke up when Autumn was quiet. The one who never put up with bullying or nonsense and would protect Autumn with everything she had.

“His name is Dr. Eli Carson, and no ass kicking is necessary. In fact, you might want to do a little ass kissing. He thought I was better qualified for a different position.” She waited a beat. “Director of Nursing.”

Summer absorbed this information. “That sounds as if you’ll be in charge of all the nurses at the hospital.” She let out a huge squeal. “That’s awesome, Twinnie! Tell me everything.”

She cleared her throat. “The story starts the day before the interview. When Eli drove his car smack into my rental.”

Summer gasped. “What?”

Autumn walked Summer through the story, with many interruptions from her twin. Her sister had never been one to let an entire story go by before she asked questions. Instead, Summer wanted details throughout Autumn’s retelling of the events.

“That’s like a meet cute out of a romance novel,” her sister said.

She could feel her cheeks heating and focused on the road ahead.

“You’re too quiet,” Summer noted. “Spill. Wait. It was a meet cute! You like this guy. What does he look like? Hot as hell or just really cute? Tall or short? Dark hair or?—”

“Stop,” she insisted. “He’s very nice-looking, but he’s my new boss, Summer. Besides, I’m not even divorced yet. And when that happens on Monday, I need the ink to be more than dry on the papers before I jump into a relationship.”

Summer shook her head. “I’m not saying leap into an affair with your hot boss.” She paused. “But you could think about it.”

“Summer!”

“What are you going to do, Autumn? Do you have some timetable in your head about how long you suffer in silence and be alone—and lonely—before you’ll allow yourself to date again?”

“No,” she said brusquely. “I just think I should give myself some time before I even think about dating. And when I do dip my toe into that pool, it most certainly will not be with Eli.”

“See? You’re already calling him Eli and not Dr. Carson. That’s a sign, Autumn.”

“You’re impossible,” she told her twin, exasperated and yet loving Summer at the same time.

“Okay. So, no dating the Hot Doc. But I do hope you will not impose some arbitrary timeframe and stay locked away from the world. You might not feel like dating for a long while, and that’s okay.

But you might meet someone interesting, and if you do, you should go out with him.

Autumn, it’s been years since I think you had fun, much less great sex. ”

She gave her twin the side eye.

“All I’m saying is be open. Don’t have some list of imaginary rules you must abide by. Go with the flow.”

“Frankly, I can’t see myself dating anyone anytime soon.

I’m hurting, Summer. My marriage of eight years is ending.

Yes, it hasn’t been good for the last several years, and I didn’t see much of Flint.

We’d become more like roommates than spouses.

It probably helped that I caught him naked with another woman.

My love for him had been hanging on by a thread, and that snapped it. But I’m emotionally raw.”

She didn’t speak for a few minutes before saying, “I’m eager to start over. Get to know myself. I appreciate that I’ll be living in Hawthorne again, and I know I’ll be really busy, learning the new job and meeting new people.”

“Mom said there’ll be lots of new people moving to town. Doctors. Nurses. Support staff. I hope you’ll find a few friends among them. And maybe go out with those friends and have some fun.”

“That would be nice.” Autumn sighed. “Honestly, I’ve worked so many hours over the last several years, I didn’t have time for friends.

Or me. Any free time was sucked up taking clothes to the Laundromat or shopping for groceries.

I’d love to simply read a book after work or watch something on TV.

Have dinner with a girlfriend. Work out. ”

“Well, I’m thrilled for you.” Summer paused. “Where are you going to live?”

“I’m going to hit Mom and Dad up about that. I’d like to stay with them a couple of months while I look around. Mom has said there’s not much available in housing, though there are new apartments and houses being built because of the influx of people coming to Hawthorne.”

“They’ll love having you home. Mom will spoil you rotten with her cooking. You’ll also get to see West and Kelby.”

“Isn’t that crazy that he’s the new head coach at our alma mater?” she asked.

West had played in the Super Bowl only a few months ago.

He had retired from football and come back to their hometown, landing a position on the high school’s coaching staff.

A week ago, however, Coach Markham, West’s mentor, had suffered a heart attack and had decided to retire from coaching and education.

Since he was the school district’s athletic director, he had asked West to take over as AD and head coach of the Hawthorne Hawks.

“I’m sure it’ll be strange to him, being on the sidelines and not out on the field, but if anyone can be successful at coaching, it’s West,” Summer said.

“I always liked Kelby,” she said. “I can’t believe they’ve gotten back together after all these years.”

“Second chance romances are a big trope in romance,” her twin said.

“I think a lot of people out there wish they could have a do-over with an old flame. West and Kelby are simply proving that given a second chance, they are making a go of it. I’m happy for her, especially since she’s had a rough go of things. ”

“Like what?” she asked.

Her twin laughed. “You really don’t watch any news or read anything online, do you?”

“I told you that I haven’t had two minutes to myself in what seems like years. What’s up with Kelby? Obviously, I know she got divorced. I remember she married that UT quarterback, but I don’t know how long that lasted.”

“To make the proverbial long story short—and I’m getting this from social media—I haven’t talked to Kelby or West about any of this. She married Bax. He got injured his first year in the NFL. Turned to alcohol and then drugs, so Kelby dumped him.”

“That’s awful.”

“Oh, it gets worse. Bax was arrested several months ago for murdering someone. I think his bookie, but don’t quote me on that.

And he got shanked by one or more inmates while incarcerated and died.

It was all over the news. Naturally, Kelby came up.

Pictures of her and Bax were all over the internet. ”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Kelby has such a good heart. She didn’t deserve a loser jerk like that.”

“At least she’s free now, and West is taking advantage of that. Ooh, I see Sonic. Pull in now. I’ve got to have some Sonic ice.”

Sonic Drive-ins peppered Texas, and the twins thought they had the best crushed ice. They both ordered large Dr Peppers and sipped on them as they drew closer to Hawthorne.

When they arrived, they claimed their luggage from the car. By then, their parents had rushed outside, eager to see their daughters. Hugs were exchanged, and Dad rolled their suitcases into the house.