Page 54 of Where Are You Now
The preacher’s face split into a wide smile. “Well, that will be just fine.” He clapped Lucas on the back. “We’ll be glad to have ya.” He addressed Ava. “And you take care. We’re here whenever you want to visit.”
The preacher moved along to others, and Lucas and Ava walked into the sunshine.
“Want to go to lunch?” Lucas asked, taking her hand and helping her step across the natural landscape toward his Range Rover. “We’re all dressed up. We could go into Nashville.”
“Sure. I’ll text Mom and ask if she wants me to bring anything home for her.”
Lucas opened her door and helped her step up from the brush and get settled in the bucket seat. Then he got in and put the car in drive. Dorothy waved when they pulled away, and Ava returned the good bye.
As they drove toward the city, she fired off a text to her mom. Martha responded that she didn’t want anything but to have a blast. Then put the phone in her lap.
“So you’re thinking of coming back next Sunday?” she asked Lucas.
“I might. I’m not a super religious person, but the sermonhit me right where it should. I’ve been secluded lately, and we’re not made that way. I need to figure out how to be of help to people again.”
“The preacher’s message actually answered a few questions I’ve been wondering about.”
He glanced over. “Care to share?”
“It made me want to put more effort into the people who are important to me,” she replied, fixing her eyes on him.
That look of contemplation took over his features once more. “Where do you want to eat?” he asked, abruptly changing the subject.
She shook her head. “I’m from out of town, remember? And you’re driving. Where do you want to go?”
“I know a place.”
Lucas turned up the radio and put the windows down, the cool air blowing Ava’s hair behind her shoulders. She put her hand out the window and let her fingers glide over the wind as the trees, showing off their autumn leaves, whisked by.
“This reminds me of the summers before you moved. You’d learned to drive well before you should’ve, and you and I would take rides up and down the hills on your property in the old farm truck when your parents weren’t home, remember?”
He nodded, his grip on the wheel now much more mature than the young wrists that had rested on it so confidently when he’d driven her around at fifteen.
“You’d get going pretty fast along the dirt road. I felt like such a rebel.”
“When I got to Charlotte, I had to take my driver’s test. The instructor praised me for my parallel-parking skills, and I told the woman, ‘I could back up a truck to a trailer and hitch it at thirteen.’” He grinned. “I’m not sure the woman knew what to do with me. But I passed.”
Ava laughed. “That sounds so much like you.”
“I lost that part of me years ago. You bring it back out.”
They made their way into Nashville and over to Hamilton Street, where Lucas showed off the parallel-parking skills that had earned him a driver’s license. He got out and opened her door, helping her down onto the street in her heels.
Having beat the lunch crowd, they arrived just as the restaurant opened. The hostess showed them to the elevator that would lead them to a rooftop bar. When they arrived at their floor, they walked through one wall of sliding doors open to the outside and found a table. The whole space was bathed in deep yellow light from the sun shining through the large umbrellas that shielded the dining area. Bright green potted plants dotted the space, making the atmosphere feel like summer.
“The Nashville skyline is visible from every angle out here,” Ava said, shielding her eyes from the sun as she took in the view.
Lucas pulled out a chair, and she sat down.
“Should we get a cocktail?” he asked, peering at the menu.
“I’d love one. Surprise me.”
He pursed his lips, dragging his finger down the list. “Sweet or tangy?”
“Sweet.”
When the waitress came over with two glasses of water, he ordered them both a drink called “Amore y Fuego” and got them a few tacos and tapas to share.
