Page 40 of My One
“It’s okay.” She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I rested my head against her stomach. “Take a long, hot shower, and I’ll take care of the car. It will be easier than always having to call a taxi around here.”
“I can—”
“It’s okay. The front desk should be able to help me. I’m hoping I can get a place that will deliver the car to us.”
“I love you.”
“I know.” She bent and grabbed my cheeks, bringing her lips to mine. “I’ll be back. Once I get a car, I can go to that burger place you and Easton have talked about.”
“In-N-Out?”
Nic smiled. “Yeah. I’m in Cali, so I need to see what the fuss is all about.”
“I’ll go with you,” I offered.
“No. I can do this. Tomorrow we have an even bigger day. Just relax.”
“Tomorrow we have an even bigger day?” I questioned.
“We need to figure out what to do with their bodies, right?”
“Yeah,” I agreed. Nic was right. I couldn’t just leave them even though a part of me wanted to because, essentially, they’d left me. I stood and kissed her again. “Thank you. I’ll take a number one with a chocolate milkshake.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a double-double cheeseburger, fries, and a shake from In-N-Out. Nic was in for a real treat because now I was going to show her what a real burger tasted like and not that one she loved from Shake Shack.
Avery was the strong one when we were going through our miscarriage. Now, I knew I needed to be the one he could lean on. That was what love and marriage were all about. Marriage wasn’t a fairytale like I’d thought it would be. It was to love the other person through the good and the bad times. It was to have patience and tolerance when you didn’t see eye to eye. It was enduring the hard times together, and this—Avery losing both of his parents—was his hard time.
Even though I’d never been to Santa Barbara before, I adulted my way through renting a car and getting us In-N-Out as planned. If I could manage the craziness that was NYC, I could manage the California coast. And it was beautiful. The sun was starting to set across the Pacific Ocean, palm trees were scattered everywhere, and the weather was warm but not too hot. One word to describe California would be paradise. I’m sure it didn’t compare to Hawaii or Fiji, and it was nothing like the Bahamas, Jamaica, or any other place Avery and I went on our honeymoon, but California was still like heaven on earth.
I was able to find the burger place that seemed to be centered between the ocean and the vast mountain backdrop. From what I could tell as I drove toward the restaurant, most of the buildings had terra cotta style roofs that gave the entire town a Spanish mission vibe. The town was beautiful, to say the least.
After going through the drive-thru, I headed back to the hotel where we were staying. When I entered the room, Avery was on the phone.
“Yes, Friday afternoon.” He looked over at me from where he paced near the window. “I will. Thank you.” He hung up.
“Who was that?”
“My dad’s office. They didn’t know.” Avery had on a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else. He smelled like the mountain spring scent of his body wash, and I knew he’d taken my suggestion of a shower. I hoped it helped to relax him.
“Oh, wow,” I breathed. “Do we need to call other people?”
He shrugged and plugged the phone into a charging cord on the nightstand. “I don’t know who to call. I know nothing about my parents, and I was only able to tell his work because they called his phone and I answered it.”
I handed him his chocolate shake and started to pull the burgers from the bag. Avery took the double cheeseburger I handed him and walked to the bed. He sat cross-legged on one side while I salt and peppered the fries and slid the white and red container in front of him.
“Tomorrow we can go through their phones and just call people,” I suggested.
“Don’t know their passwords,” he said around a mouthful of his burger.
I took my single cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate shake and sat next to him, matching the way he was sitting. “We have their licenses. We should go to their house tomorrow. What if they have a dog or something?”
Avery laughed. “No way would they have had any pets. My dad hated everything except baseball and making people look pretty.”
“And your mom,” I pointed out.
“And my mom,” he agreed. “I suppose he loved my mother.”
I took a few fries and stuck them into my mouth. They were salty, crisp, and pure perfection. “These are really good fries.”
