Page 49 of Tumbleweed Temptation
“Austin, you have to get over that. You have to get over how people treated you before you left. You’re a doctor now. You showed them all what you’re made of. I can’t believe you want to keep talking about those days. They were awful awful days. Why do you want to relive them?”
“She was innocent, Ginny.”
His quiet voice softened her mood, relaxed the shoulders she hadn’t realized were tense. “I know that. All of us who were on the bus know that. A lot of our families know that. I don't know what you’re hoping to change.”
“I really didn't want to come back. We’d signed that contract, though, and I got a lawyer to work it down from ten years of serving the town to only seven. Being here brings everything back, the good times and the bad times, especially because the town hasn’t really changed, you know? I still feel like I can walk in the diner and Mom will be in the kitchen. Twice when I’ve left the grocery store, I turned to walk to my house instead of here.”
“Have you been there? To the house?”
“I can’t. Who lives there now?”
“Trey and Vivian Lopez, and their two kids. They have it fixed real cute, though it took a while to get used to the bus not being parked in front.”
He drew in a breath and shifted the ice pack over his eye, then lowered it. “Will you take me to see it?”
Take him? Why did he need her? “You mean right now?”
“Yeah. I won’t be able to sleep until I see it.”
She shook her head. “We are not going to walk down a dark street this time of night. I mean, this is West Texas. Everyone’s armed, and they see people walking down the street, they might shoot first and ask questions later.”
He grunted.
“You won’t be able to see much, anyway, at night.”
“No, maybe not.” He rested his head against the back of the couch. “I don't want to go see it by myself. That’s why I’ve been avoiding it.”
She could understand that. “I promise, it’s being well taken care of. Trey and Vivian love it. Their kids love it. It’s a happy place.”
“Mom did her best to make it a happy place when we lived there.”
“Your mom was just that kind of person. She always made the best of everything. I remember that about her.” She put her hand on his arm. Grief, she got. “That’s the good thing about coming back here, where people remember your mom. In Baylor, no one knew her, no one could remember her with you. Here, a lot of us can.”
He nodded, his gaze averted, his mouth pressed closed, his throat working. “Sometimes that makes it easier and sometimes it doesn’t.”
She nodded. “I get that. You want me to go?” Maybe he wanted to give into his tears in private. And she did need to get up in just a few hours to get to work.
But she didn't want to leave him alone. He seemed so melancholy. She shouldn’t have brought up his mom. She should have just kept her mouth shut.
She glanced about the room. “You don’t have a TV?”
“Yeah, in the bedroom, but it’s just an antenna, so not a lot of options. I watch more on my laptop.” He stretched forward, trying to get up, and she pushed him back.
“I’ll get it. Where is it?”
“My room, but...”
“What am I going to find in there? Your porn?” she asked, walking to the door of his actually really neat bedroom.
“Nah, I keep that under the bed. Old habit,” he countered.
She retrieved the laptop from beside his bed. “I don't know anyone who actually makes their bed,” she said as she returned to the living room.
“Just something I got in the habit of doing. Guess it doesn’t matter now that I live alone.”
“I guess I didn't know—you didn't live alone in Waco?”
“Three roommates.”
