Authors: Heidi Hutchinson
She
sat up in the chair and tried to straighten the kinks in her back.
She grimaced as it popped and pulled.
It’s
tough getting older
,
she thought wryly.
Being
an adult sucks,
she had concluded during her first layover of the trip. Leaving Luke
was the most painful thing she had experienced and she still wasn’t
in a place where she could properly grieve. Surrounded by strangers
and airport personnel, she couldn’t very well break down into
choking heaving sobs, she would cause a panic. She would have to
wait till she got home.
Home. It was still
so far away. She hadn’t told anyone she was coming home so no
would be expecting her. She figured she’d rent a car and drive
to the Lodge and crash for a few days until her clock readjusted.
Maybe she would just stay in bed for the rest of her life. Yes, that
was the new plan.
At long last, the
call came over the intercom to board her final flight. She shuffled
through the line with the other passengers, feeling more raggedy than
she had her whole life. Just an hour more. She focused on the next
step.
As she settled into
her seat, the flight attendants reminded them to please turn off
their cellphones during takeoff. Lenny glanced at hers painfully.
She had left it on, hoping Luke would call. But he hadn’t. No
one had. Not Harrison or Sway or Mike. No one had called or texted
to even check on her. The heaviness in Lenny’s chest increased
substantially as the plane started its taxi down the runway.
***
When they left the
airport in Boston it got ugly. Harrison openly wept and Blake was so
pissed he threw his luggage at a sign and they had to be escorted
from the building. The guys had yelled at Luke. They demanded to
know why he had let Lenny walk away. Why didn’t he chase her?
What was stopping him? Wasn’t he supposed to be in love? They
were beyond disappointed in their fearless leader. He had no answers
for them. Instead he set his jaw and got in a cab and took off.
Sway got incredibly
emotional and called a girlfriend to come pick him up. Carl
shrugged, muttered something about “rock stars” and got
his own cab.
Mike was angry. But
he was handling it better than Blake whose face was now a lovely
shade of purple. He rubbed his temples in the back of the taxi that
he was sharing with Blake and Harrison.
“
Harrison,
please stop crying,” Mike grit his teeth together.
“
I’m
sorry,” Harrison sniffed pitifully.
“
It’s
alright, man. Just try to calm down.” Mike tried to be
understanding. But he didn’t understand. What was that
bullshit Luke had said about wanting to marry her?
“
I’m
gonna kick his ass” Blake declared. “I don’t care
if he is Luke freaking Casey. I’m gonna knock him out.”
“
Get
in line,” Mike muttered.
“
What
the hell are we supposed to do now?” Blake asked pointedly. “I
thought Lenny was a permanent member of this band. Sonofabitch!”
“
So
did I,” Mike said.
The cab brought them
to their building where they all had their own separate loft in the
same massive structure. Luke had bought a large colonial style house
in the countryside. Sway’s living quarters were a small
apartment near the TD Garden where he lived in complete anonymity.
But Blake, Harrison and Mike had lived in the same building for
years.
The elevator slowly
rose to their floor, Harrison leaning heavily against the steel
doors.
“
Let’s
go get her.” He muttered, his breath making a fog on the
metal.
Blake and Mike
exchanged glances but didn't respond.
“
We
can go to Wyoming and get her. Tell her it was a misunderstanding.
She’ll believe us. We’ll bring her back and Luke will be
so happy he…” His voice trailed off.
“
He’ll
what? Propose?” Mike reacted with more bark than he intended.
“Right. She tells him she loves him in the airport but that’s
not enough to ask her to stay. But we forcibly bring her back and
suddenly he sees the light?”
The door to the
elevator opened on Blake’s floor and they all got out.
Harrison hung his
head and shuffled along in front of them, stopping at Blake's entry.
“We have to do something.” He said quietly.
“
Yeah,
get over her,” Mike said sardonically.
Blake wrestled with
his key before opening the door and going straight for the
refrigerator.
“
God
bless you, Claudia,” he said out loud, pulling a huge chocolate
cheesecake out of the fridge and setting it on the counter. Claudia
was his housekeeper and she faithfully left a massive dessert in the
refrigerator for Blake on the day he returned from a long tour.
“
You
guys want to drown your feelings in some serious calories?”
Blake produced forks and tossed them down.
“
Why
not?” Mike answered. It was better than going down to the
corner and buying a bindle, which he had thought about for maybe a
millisecond.
Harrison took a bite
of the cake and started crying again. “We have to get her
back,” he lamented.
“
How?”
Blake asked contemptuously, “If Luke doesn’t want her
around what can we do?”
“
We
can fire Luke and put Lenny in his place.” Harrison’s
eyes lit up at the prospect and it made Mike chuckle.
“
That
might work actually.” Blake assented with an emphatic nod.
“I’m so pissed at him, I don’t want see him for a
very long time.”
“
Me
either.” Harrison shook his head in disgust. He pulled out
his phone, “I’m calling her.”
“
Nah,
man. Her phone is probably off. Just wait a couple days, let her
get home first.” Mike said reasonably.
“
Okay.”
Harrison begrudgingly put his phone down.
***
Luke had been
driving for a awhile, he wasn’t sure how long. He had gotten
home and unloaded his luggage inside his big empty house. The house
he had been planning on bringing Lenny to. Then he got his old
pick-up out of the garage and started to drive. He didn’t
really have a plan; he just didn’t want to be in his house.
Not without her.
He stopped at a tiny
gas station to fill up. It was cold and he pulled his leather jacket
tighter around his neck as he waited for the pump to stop. He looked
around at his surroundings and decided to buy a map.
He spread the map
out on the seat next to him and gave it a good look. Pennsylvania.
Why did Wyoming have to be so fricken' far away?
He started the truck
and pulled back out onto the road. Maybe the drive would give him
time to think about what he would say to her when he got there.
The
guys were pissed at him. He knew they blamed him for Lenny leaving.
Shouldn’t
they, though?
He didn’t want her to leave, that was the last thing he had
been expecting. He'd been completely blindsided. But as she broke
down the details, the obvious dawned on him. They lived in separate
worlds. Goodbye had been inevitable.
No,
that wasn’t right either. She had left because he hadn’t
explained his plan to her. He had left her out of it. Of course,
she had been making plans, too, it seemed and had left
him
out of it. Why hadn’t they been talking to each other about
this? Because they were enjoying the moment. Moments. All of them.
Sure, he could’ve
dropped to his knees in baggage claim and proposed right there. But
wouldn’t that have seemed forced? Especially since he didn’t
have a ring yet? And what if she had said no? That thought scared
him the most. She said she loved him but then she left. She
just…walked away.
He regretted
everything that had happened so far that day. He needed to get away
and think. He had to fix this somehow. He had to get to her. Show
her that he loved her, not just say it.
***
Lenny didn’t
know how long she’d been sleeping but it still didn’t
feel like enough. She pulled the covers tighter over her head and
cursed the daylight filling her bedroom.
She had taken a cab
all the way to the Lodge when she had landed in Jackson Hole. It was
not a cheap ride but she hadn’t called anyone she knew for a
ride because she didn’t want to talk to them. Anyone.
She had heard Duke
coming and going downstairs but he had never come up to check on her.
He had to know she was home, she’d left her luggage strewn at
the bottom of the stairs. It only added to her self-inflicted
misery. No one cared about her.
She checked her
phone again. Still nothing.
Lenny angrily pushed
the covers off of her and glared at her giant windows letting in all
the horrible light. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her luggage
stacked neatly in the corner. Obviously Duke had brought them up.
That meant he had checked on her after all. Lenny felt worse for
thinking harsh thoughts about him.
She got out of bed
and dragged herself to the bathroom. She stared at her face in the
mirror with loathing. She looked terrible. Black mascara smudges
all the way to her chin, her eyes were red and puffy from hours of
crying into her pillow. Her hair was matted and greasy, she hadn’t
showered in days. She was wearing an old ratty pair of shorts and
Luke’s t-shirt that she had kept after he said she could.
So,
this is my life
.
She thought as she examined her atrocious appearance.
No
wonder Luke doesn’t want me. I look like death.
She heard her stomach rumble and frowned. She hadn’t eaten in
a while, maybe there were some cookies or something stashed in the
kitchen.
She took the stairs
slowly, trying to listen if Duke was home or not. She didn’t
want to see or talk to anyone right now. She crept into the kitchen
and started rummaging through cupboards, finally finding an unopened
package of Oreos. She poured herself a glass of milk and shoved a
few cookies in her mouth as she headed for the stairs to go back to
bed.
“
Hey,
she lives!” Duke said from behind her. Lenny froze in her
tracks. She thought about continuing on upwards without saying
anything. But she slowly turned around, swallowing her mouthful of
cookies.
She was confused at
first by Duke’s clean shaven face, it took her a moment to
adjust. She'd never seen him without a beard and she almost didn't
recognize him.
“
You
look awful.” Duke stated with a serious frown.
“
Thanks,”
Lenny said forlornly, shoving another cookie in her mouth and wiping
some milk dribble off her cheek.
“
I
mean, you look like you need a shower.” Duke tried again,
frown not flinching.
“
You’re
not helping,” Lenny glowered. “What happened to your
face?
Duke reached up and
stroked where his beard used to be. “I thought it might be
time for a change. It was making me look older.”
“
Whatever.”
Lenny said with no conviction.
“
Sorry.”
Duke took a step towards her, discomfort all over his face. “You
wanna talk about it?”
“
No.”
Lenny said and turned to go back to her room. “The world is a
horrible place and I’m going to die alone in my room.”
She heard Duke
stifle a laugh at her response. “Maybe you should have
something better to eat than cookies.”
“
No,”
Lenny said belligerently.
“
Lenny…”
Duke began nervously, “I…there…are some people
I’d like you to meet.”