Page 91 of Townshipped
I chuckle.
Em:But I’m sure Aiden can live without me—very sure. I’ll tell him I’ve got plans.
Laura:Don’t be so sure. I think he’s more attached to you than you know.
My heart swells at Laura’s words. Is Aiden attached to me? I’m obviously attached to him. But does this go both ways, or is he merely physically attracted to me and acting out his overdeveloped hero complex? I guess time will tell.
Paisley comes home mid-afternoon, chatting a mile a minute with Ty about her new friend and her teacher and the activities she did at school. When I ask her about her day, she saysfineandgood. So, I’m reduced to eavesdropping on the details she shares with her baby brother.
I pop into Aiden’s office to tell him I’m going out with the girls tonight. He asks where we were going.
He doesn’t even look up from his laptop when he adds, “Is this their top secret reservoir thing?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. They didn’t tell me. Will you be okay with the kids alone?”
“We’ll be fine,” he says, running a hand across the back of his neck and letting out a long sigh.
He still doesn’t look me in the eye. With the kids playing in the other room, the urge to walk over to him and comfort him feels like an irresistible tug. I could stand behind him, rest my hands on his shoulders and knead the worry out of his muscles while he allowed all the tension to drift away into my massage. For once, he could need me instead. I could be there for him if he’d let me.
Just before dinner, a car pulls up the driveway. Aiden’s making hot dogs and macaroni, Paisley’s requested meal for her first day of school.
“Somebody’s here!” Ty calls out, running toward the door.
“Those are my friends,” I say.
Friends. I smile to myself.
I say goodbye to Aiden and the kids and follow Laura out to the car. Lexi’s in the front seat. Shannon and Jayme scoot over to make room for me in the back.
“So, can I know where we’re going now?” I ask.
“No way,” Laura says, at the same time as Shannon says, “The res!”
Laura gives Shannon a look in the rearview mirror. “Remind me not to tell you my secrets.”
“You already tell me your secrets. And, for the record, I keep them.”
“What secrets?” Jayme asks.
“Nothing!” Laura says, and then in a more restrained voice, she says, “I mean, nothing.”
Lexi laughs. “Definitely nothing. I’m so convinced.”
The ease between these women fills the car, drawing me in. A thin membrane—strong and invisible—separates my status as a stranger holed up on Aiden’s farm and the possibility of being accepted as one of this band of girlfriends. I want to tear through the barrier like a high school football player rushing onto the field through a paper banner.
I feel unexpectedly ready to belong here, to stake my claim, and to be claimed in return. My past may be coming back to me in pieces, but I can’t imagine going back to it. I have to start living forward regardless of what’s behind me.
Laura pulls the car onto a dirt parking lot bordering a large grassy lawn and some patches of shrubbery that edge right up to a small lake. Trees line the surrounding area in clusters.
Lexi pulls a basket out of the trunk; Jayme grabs a backpack and Shannon grabs a few blankets. We spread out on the ground, and once we’re all settled, we dig into some of the best fried chicken I’m sure I ever ate, alongside potato salad and bean salad. The air gets cooler as we chat and laugh over our meal and the sun drops toward the horizon.
When our plates are empty, Laura enlists Shannon and Jayme to help carry a bundle of firewood to a firepit I hadn’t even noticed only twenty feet or so away from where we’re all spread out.
Laura lights the fire on the first try, using a starter stick and some matches she brought.
“I’m getting too old for this,” Lexi says as she pulls her coat around herself. “I’m a mom now. It’s too hard being away from Poppy for more than an hour or two.”
“Don’t start going all soft on me, Lex,” Laura chides. “I plan on us being like Mabel, Esther, Memaw, and your aunt Glenda still doing this well into our seventies. We need this.”
