See Megan Run (21 page)

"I do have a phone number."

"Right." Megan moved to the island and leaned
against it. "You still haven’t answered my question. What are you
going to do? I don’t want you to…" She shrugged, knowing the
housekeeper was being left in a barely part-time position. "I’m
sure Dad had enough saved up that I can give you some money, if you
need it."

"Oh, no." A hand waved in the air. "Keep your
money. I’ll do just fine on my own. I planned far ahead for the
future and my nest egg would impress even you. Now what am I going
to do? What I should have done years ago, and that’s teach Nicole
how to cook."

"So, that means you’re never going into
retirement."

Jane zipped up the pail. "Maybe, but it’ll
make us both happy." She folded her hands over the blue material
when the beat of silence continued. "I’m not going to ask. You can
relax."

"I don’t mind you asking."
Because I know
you love me
. Megan let out a breath and spoke her fears. "I’m
still unsure. What if I’m doing the wrong thing? I love…this
house."

"The house?" Jane cocked her head to the side
and made a noncommittal noise, then continued, "What does your
heart tell you to do?"

"Why don’t people ever say ‘what does your
head tell you to do?’ It makes more sense to make decisions
logically."

"It’s safe, but it’s not as romantic."

She shouldn’t have come to talk to Jane.
Megan realized it a few words too late. She reached for the
work-worn hand of this person who was so dear to her. "I’ve got to
go. Mom’s waiting."

Jane sighed. "I should have told you to not
hurt yourself."

Megan glanced down before speaking. "I love
you, but you can be—"

"You’re not too old for me to throw you over
my knee."

"Scary thing is, I believe you." Megan tried
to smile and failed.

"Don’t stay away so long this time."

Lips pressed together for a moment, Megan
replied, "I won’t."

Jane rounded the island and enveloped her in
a hug. The smell of brown sugar and butter laced the air and Megan
took in another breath, just for prosperity.

"You lie," her surrogate mother murmured
against Megan’s hair.

Megan closed her eyes. "Maybe."

"I love you, too," Jane whispered.

*****

"I guess that’s it." Megan closed the trunk
to her car a little extra hard. The noise bounced back and sounded
like a gunshot in the empty circular drive of her home.

"I wanted to see you off." Nicole said, still
glowing from the day’s events.
Damn her and her glow
, Megan
thought. Okay, she liked her mother, a whole lot more than when
she’d first come back, but this wasn’t the last face she wanted to
see.

Aiden.

She ground her teeth. To think she fancied
herself in love with him. Okay. Okay, honesty. Head-over-heels,
I-can’t-breathe-without-you, I-need-you-until-the-end-of-time in
love with him, and had he not avoided her the whole day? Was he
here to see her off and beg her to stay?

No.

"Thanks, Mom, but I think you have a groom
waiting somewhere."

Nicole waved her hand. "We have the rest of
our lives, and our flight doesn’t leave until ten o’clock tonight."
Nicole hesitated.

And, Megan thought of asking, how do you know
it’s the rest of your life? Instead she kept her mouth shut, and
Nicole finally said, "We’ll only be gone five days. Shep can’t take
too much time off. Do you know when you’ll be back?"

Her mother’s sentences ran together, and
still Nicole couldn’t hit the right subtlety. "Well..." Megan
looked up at the house. The white paint shone in the dusky light.
The pillars cast shadows over the wide porch.

It was hers.

It was huge.

It was empty.

"I don’t know," Megan finished the sentence.
"I’ve taken off a lot of time from my business."
I need time to
forget how Aiden smelled, walked, talked, smiled, made love to
me
. "I need to get back into the groove of things." Megan
frowned. A lifetime ought to do it. "I don’t want to make promises
I can’t keep."

"But..."

"I promise to be here for Christmas."

Nicole’s face went blank. "That’s in six
months." Nicole waved her hand as if to say ‘never mind.’ "Call, at
least."

"I will."

"I’m going to miss you." Nicole clasped her
hands, looking unsure what to do or say.

Megan took a deep breath and a step forward
and hugged Nicole. For some reason this goodbye felt right. Like it
wasn’t a goodbye, but a see-you-later. Megan laughed to herself.
Well, I’ll be. "I’m going to miss you, too, Lady." Megan grinned at
the long sigh.

"I asked for that one." Nicole snuck in a
kiss before Megan backed up.

Megan’s eyes betrayed her and strayed down
the road. No Green Demon in sight. The bastard. "I better hit the
road."

"Okay."

"I promise I’ll call."

"Okay."

I’m stalling
, she thought, and
Nicole’s eyes seemed to say it was okay, and because they did,
Megan got into her car and pulled out of the drive. Checking her
rearview mirror every two seconds, Megan was at the end of the road
when she could have sworn, hoping for any sign, that she saw a man
standing under the oak tree. She trained her eyes on the road and
said, "Goodbye, Aiden."

Chapter 20

"I quit, and I mean it." Lynne slapped her
purse on Megan’s desk.

It had been seven days since she’d come back.
Seven very long, endless, without-Aiden days.
Get over it. Get
it out of your mind. You’re over him
. It wasn’t going to last
forever anyway. She had a business to run. She didn’t have time to
stew. There were numbers to crunch. The last thing she needed was
one of Lynne’s temper tantrums. Megan sighed, keeping her own
temper in check. "Why are you quitting?"

"I refuse to work in this funeral parlor any
more."

"It’s a clothing store." Megan bit off each
word. Her own conscience was bad enough. Hell, so was the phantom
pain keeping her up late at night when work no longer kept her
busy. She did not need the change in the atmosphere voiced. "I see
no dead bodies, and I also don’t smell any formaldehyde."

"Could have fooled me, with all the black
you’re wearing and the moping like somebody’s died. I. Quit."

Megan watched Lynne turn, about to leave. She
sighed again, wondering if it was time to go to the doctor for
something to deal effectively with the incessant Riverdancers in
her head double-tapping on her temples. No, it was not like that
commercial at all. Depression did not hurt everywhere.

"See," Lynne said. "This is what I’m talking
about." She marched back to the front of the desk. "You don’t even
care I’m about to walk out on you."

"All you do is sigh. All. Damn. Day. I can’t
take it anymore. Either you get over Aiden, or you go get him
back."

Megan flinched. "We’re in the red."

"Because the funeral parlor ambiance has
scared away the customers." Lynne slammed her hands on the desk.
"And for goodness’ sakes, that’s this week’s totals. You’ve been
pulling in a profit for the past month, might I add, under my
supervision."

Lynne was waving her hands now. This was
going to take forever. Whenever Lynne waved her hands, it meant she
was on a roll. It meant at least another thirty minutes of her
jabbering before she shut up. Megan sighed and waited it out.

"Matter of fact, we need to get more
inventory, because stuff is flying off the shelves." Lynne huffed,
catching her breath. "You sighed again, and don’t change the
subject. This is about Aiden."

Megan placed a hand over her eye. Was she
developing a twitch now? No, it was not like the damn commercial.
Megan took in a deep breath to calm her nerves.

"You’re an employee." Megan began. "I don’t
want to talk about my personal business with an employee."

"I. Quit. Did you forget that one part? So
technically I’m not an employee anymore. Now about Aiden."

Megan looked at the ceiling. "This isn’t
about Aiden."

"Well, a broken heart, then, because it’s
bleeding all over the cashmere sweaters."

A definite twitch. She rubbed her eye in a
circular motion to make it stop. Not a good sign. "Do you want your
severance pay now, or in a few days?"

"I want you to be happy again." Megan looked
up abruptly. "Well, that got your attention." It was Lynne’s turn
to take a deep breath. "I can’t keep working with you when you are
like this. It’s depressing. You’re depressing. It’s depressing the
hell out of me watching you come and go like a ghost. For some
obscure reason, I love you." Lynne huffed again. "And the
depression thing is screwing up my libido, because I’m worried
about you 24/7."

Megan could take the lecture, but this
heart-to-heart stuff was going to push her over the edge. Okay, it
wasn’t an eye twitch. Megan blinked rapidly. She’d been holding
tears back. If she cried again, it would mean she did care he
didn’t call, hadn’t written, and wasn’t playing Sarah Rose on a
beatbox outside her bedroom window. If she talked about it, she’d
cave and go back and ruin her life. "So you want to wait a few days
for your severance. I’ll call you when I have it."

Lynne sighed, but still had the look of
determination. "Take a walk with me."

"A walk?"

"Yes, you put one foot in front of the other.
It’s kind of like moving."

A walk she could do, because although she
hated to admit it, The Boutique had started to feel like a funeral
parlor. "Okay."

She saved the QuickBooks document and grabbed
her purse. As she locked up the store, she finally thought to ask,
"Where are we going?"

"For a walk, around the corner."

Megan let her shoulders relax and followed
Lynne’s step, forcing herself not to think. If she thought too
hard, or let her thoughts float around, they always went back to
him. Instead she blanked her mind and didn’t tune back in until
Lynne stopped. Megan looked through the store window. She should
have known better. Lynne had the "look." The one that said,
I’m
more stubborn and underhanded than you
. "This is unfair."

She read the sign over the door. Happily Ever
After. She looked back through the store window. There were rows
and rows of wedding dresses.

"All is fair in love and war."

Megan flinched. "Don’t ever say that to me
again." She heard the catch in her voice. Oh, boy, she was close.
There was going to be a flood if she didn’t get out of here. Lynne
must have read her thoughts, because she grabbed Megan’s arm and
dragged her into the store.

"Here’s the deal. Try on one dress. It can be
the ugliest dress you can find, and I’ll leave you alone. I won’t
quit. I won’t say Aiden’s name ever again, and when Christmas time
rolls around I won’t remind you of the promise you made to your
mother." Lynne put her hands up.

"That’s it?" Megan could...not do it.
"No."

"We can do this the easy way or the hard
way." The way Lynne’s eyes narrowed, the hard way didn’t deter her
friend at all.

"I don’t know why I’m letting you talk me
into this."

"It’s your id."

"Stop taking those psych classes."

"You’re going to thank me, in a few
minutes."

"Doubt it."

"Pick a dress." Lynne said, with the hard way
still in her eyes. Megan pulled the closest dress off the rack.
"That one’s ugly. Put it back."

"But you said..."

"I lied." Lynne crossed her arms.

Megan began going through the racks. "No
wonder this store is empty. Where’s the person to greet us?"

"I paid them a hundred bucks to get
scarce."

"What?"

"I knew you’d put up a fight."

"You planned all this?"

"Yes. Dress." Lynne was back to the hard
way.

Megan found one in her size. It was strapless
and smothered with beads and weighed a ton. "I’ll get dressed and
be back. You don’t have to hover."

Lynne nodded silently, then said, "Don’t make
me come back there."

"Yes, Lieutenant," Megan replied before
closing the dressing room door. Five minutes later, minutes full of
muttering curses at herself and the yards of material, she had the
dress up to her armpits. The door opened.

"Figured you’d need help with the buttons,"
Lynne said.

"What if I was still naked?"

"I’ve got the same goods." Megan felt the
dress tightening as Lynne tugged and pulled behind her. "Okay,
close your eyes. I’ll lead you to the mirrors."

Megan obeyed but had to say, "I don’t believe
I’m doing this."

"I told you, it’s your id."

"I can’t remember, but what’s the id part of
your brain?"

"Ego is what denies you all the good things.
Id is the part of you that wants the good things. Now open your
eyes."

Megan did and had to bite her lip to keep it
from trembling. She breathed out of her nose until it passed. She
was just in a dress. A very beautiful dress. Lynne placed her hands
on Megan’s shoulders. She met her friend’s gaze in the mirror and
the "hard way" softened to something else.

"Now tell me why you don’t want to go back to
Aiden?"

"This isn’t what we agreed on."

"I thought I already pointed out that I
lie."

"It wasn’t on your résumé."

"Everyone lies on their résumé. Tell me about
the promises he made to you when you guys were younger. You never
told me."

There was that phantom ache again. Megan
tried to breathe around it. He’d promised they would get married
once they graduated from high school. She ran her hand down the
dress. It was really beautiful workmanship, something she would
never have been able to afford if they had gotten married then. She
could afford a dress like this now. The more she thought about it,
the more she realized the superficial excuses weren’t holding up.
She glanced at Lynne, who was waiting for her to answer.