Page 19 of Down Memory Lane
Travis audibly exhaled his relief before standing and helping his father with the plates, Felix shaking his head at his brother who seemed unable to deal with change. The man was far too inflexible. His mom dishing out her famous blueberry crumble to the group had Felix’s mind off his brother and onto the sweet dish in front of him. It was one of his favorite desserts, but he was feeling absolutely stuffed from the pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw Aiden had made. The longer he looked at the purple pastry, the more Felix felt like his belt might unbuckle from the pressure applied by his belly.
“If it’s alright with everyone, I think I’ll go check on that batch right now.” Felix patted his slightly rounded stomach as he stood, hoping the stretch would help digest the veritable buffet that sat in his gut like a rock. “I need to walk off all that food anyhow.”
Felix walked around to where Autumn sat and placed a hand on her shoulder. When her blue eyes met his, she was already nodding. “I’ll be fine. Go ahead.”
Smiling at them still having the ability to communicate silently, Felix turned only to stop when he heard the words, “I’ll go with you,” spilling from Beckett’s mouth. Kissing his fiancée on the cheek, he stood and slapped Felix on the back.
The next thing Felix knew, all four of his brothers had left the table and were walking with him toward his cider shack. Gazing around at their concerned faces, he rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh at their acting like mother hens. “I hope you all realize that you’re not at all subtle,” he griped. Their blatant attempt to check up on him was touching, but unnecessary. “I’m fine. I already had my little Come to Jesus talk with Lottie last night.”
Nate snorted, but luckily Beckett cut him off before he could launch into another lengthy diatribe about the woman and her gossipy ways. “Well, I’m glad you had someone to talk to, but you can’t fault us for being concerned.” He clasped Felix’s shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze as they stepped into the brown wooden shed Felix had converted into his cider brewery years ago. “Watching someone you love lose a piece of who they are sounds rough, and we can’t just sit back and not check in on our baby brother.”
Felix balked at being called a baby, but reminded himself that Beckett said it with love. Stepping over to his latest cider concoction and checking the seals on the growlers to make sure they were airtight, he shot a look at the other men. “Where was this concern when we were growing up and you would ditch me during hide-and-seek?” He finished checking his bottles and spun around on his brothers. “One time, I stayed out in those trees for almost an hour.” All four of the men looked slightly ashamed, and Felix swore he could hear one of them snickering a little.Assholes.
“We’re sorry about that,” Aiden said. Felix raised a brow to call him on his bullshit because if anyone had been the leader of the campaign to ditch him, it was the eldest Kemp. It was hard to feel too upset since Felix couldn’t imagine wanting to hang out with someone almost a decade younger than him when he was a teen either, but it was still a dick move. “Okay, maybe not sorry, but we can all recognize how immature of us that was, but we’re older now and yeah, we’re concerned about you, Felix.” In a rather uncharacteristic display of warmth, Aiden pulled him into a hug.
Felix had seen the man soften ever since Nicole came into his life, and he had to admit that it felt good to get a hug from the brother he’d always looked up to while also always being the slightest bit afraid of him.
“What are you doing?” He mumbled into Aiden’s shoulder.
Aiden scoffed and held him tighter. “Hugging you, dumbass.”
Felix felt Aiden nod against him and the next thing he knew, he was in the middle of a Kemp brother dogpile. Strong arms enveloped him, and despite him having thought it unneeded moments ago, he got a little choked up at the care his brothers were showing him. It wasn’t unusual for any of them to hug, but all of them together had him feeling like crying again.
After a solid minute of embracing, Felix wiggled his body to disperse the large group. “Alright, alright,” he sniffed. Surreptitiously wiping a couple of tears away, he shoved at his brothers lightly. “Thank you for that, but I really think I am going to be okay.” He hoped he would anyway.
Felix always tried to look on the bright side, to see the silver lining in the storm clouds, but that was difficult to do when you were facing what felt more like a hurricane in the form of memory loss. It was scary as hell, but he was hopeful that at the very least, the friendship that he and Autumn had formed and maintained over the last decade would bounce back. The romance part of their relationship? Well, that was still a giant question mark, but maybe with time, she would come to see him that way again.
“You sure?” Nate asked. They were the closest in age, though not necessarily the closest in personality. Nate was just as friendly as Felix was, but he was also far more ambitious, causing his affability to sometimes take a back seat to the aggression that was needed to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible. “We’re here to talk if you need it.” As he spoke, his phone chimed and he rolled his eyes at the screen. “Well, they’re here to talk. I have to go deal with another town emergency.”
Travis snorted. “Someone paint their house blood red again?”
Felix chuckled at the reminder. Apparently someone had painted their house the garish color in retaliation for their neighbor constantly mowing their lawn at seven in the morning. That had taken Nate a good three weeks and multiple mediation sessions with both neighbors to fix.
Nate flipped Travis the middle finger. “Not this time. I guess a tourist parked a big truck in one of the spaces off Main Street and Miss Finch is worried it will drive away her business.” He stuffed his phone into his pocket and gave Felix one more quick hug. “Seriously, call me if you need anything.”
Felix smiled and pushed his brother out the door. “Will do.” The rest of them followed Nate out of the building and back over to the porch. Before they got there, Felix turned to his brothers one last time. “Thanks again, guys. I’ll remember to lean on you for help.” After another round of goodbyes followed by even more once they rejoined the party, Felix was left with just Autumn and their parents. There was a photo album on the table that Felix recognized as a scrapbook his mom had made of his elementary school years.
His mom caught him staring at it and shrugged. “We thought Autumn could look at some photos from when you guys were little to see if it helped anything.” She smiled apologetically as Autumn flipped the pages. “I wish there were more than just the few class photos in there.”
Autumn looked over at his mom and beamed. “This is wonderful, Cora. Thank you.” She flipped the page and started to giggle. “If nothing else, it was worth it just to see this picture.”
Felix peeked over her shoulder and groaned at the photo before them. It was from fifth grade and he was wearing a Pokémon shirt stuffed into pants that he’d pulled up past his belly button. His hair was sticking up at odd angles and his eyes were half-closed as he mugged for the camera. Felix had always been a big fan of silly faces in pictures, but right now he wished he’d taken that to far less extremes. Wiping a hand down his face, he leaned over and closed the photo book, earning a pout from his friend. His attention snagged on Autumn’s bottom lip for a moment, and he wished so badly that they were alone and that she remembered him better so that he could lean over and nibble on it.
Shaking off the desire to taste his best friend again, something he’d longed to do every second of every day since she drove away from him, Felix stood and held out a hand to her. “How about we go look at some more recent pictures. Ones where I actually know how to dress myself.”
Autumn chuckled as he plucked at the front of his faded graphic tee. It was from a concert they’d attended in high school, and while the rock band was no longer together, their music lived on in his heart and his clothes. “Are you sure those even exist?” Felix bumped her with his shoulder, happy to take the dig because she was teasing him just as she always had. “Fine, fine.” She walked around the table to give her mom and dad a goodbye hug. It was less awkward than before, but he could still sense that Autumn wasn’t fully comfortable with them yet.
That didn’t seem to be the case with him, however, as she came right up to Felix’s side and leaned into him. “Ready to go?” Far too happy by her proximity to do anything other than nod, Felix waved off the rest of the group, placed his hand at the small of her back, and guided her toward their apartment. When they were at the top of the steps, Autumn turned to him with a smile reminiscent of the old Autumn. It was wide, bright, and lit him up from the inside. His whole world existed in that smile, and Felix took a mental snapshot of it to conjure up later when he inevitably worried about her again. At least in this moment, she was happy. “Thanks for lunch. It was a lot, but it was fun too.”
Ushering Autumn through the door, Felix stopped to give her hand a squeeze. “I’m glad it was fun, and I can only imagine how crazy it must have been for you.” He walked them over to the couches and took a seat, hoping that some time with just the two of them would help to relax her. “So many new people.”
She nodded. “But they were all great, and I can’t wait to hang out with Willa and Nicole again. They seem really nice.”
“They are.” Felix felt a pang of sadness that Autumn didn’t remember how quickly she’d become friends with the two women, but it seemed that history was repeating itself in that regard. Perhaps it would do the same with them. Grabbing his laptop, Felix booted it up and navigated to his picture folder. “Want to look at some newer photos, or has it already been too much?” He was very cognizant of the fact that her brain was still recovering and didn’t want to do anything to cause a setback, but at the same time he was itching to remind her of just how close they had truly been.
Autumn considered his question before settling back into the couch. The move caused her sweater to dip a little lower, showing a hint of cleavage. Feeling the telltale stirring of desire low in his belly, Felix shifted on the couch and tried to concentrate on the screen in front of him. “I’m good,” she chirped. “My brain doesn’t feel too overloaded, and I know we’re focusing on the present, but it couldn’t hurt to look back just a little, right?”
Felix nodded, avoiding looking at her again until he got himself under control.Must not lust after recovering friend.“Sounds good.” He finally turned back to her, his brow furrowed with concern. “Just let me know if it becomes too much, okay. You’re the priority here, Auts.”
