Second Chance at the Orchard Inn, page 20
Aurora never thought she’d have anything in common with Erica Burr, yet here they were.
There was pain in the history of Aurora’s hometown, but there was also a lot of sweetness. People and places weren’t all good or all bad. They were both, and she found she appreciated the good more because of the bad.
“Thank you for looking for me and talking to me.” Erica sat up. “It’s nice to know people care.”
Aurora did care. She never would’ve believed it, but she wanted the best for Erica and hoped she found happiness. “You’re welcome,” she said. “I’m glad I found you.”
“I should probably call my mom, huh?”
“Yes, and I was supposed to call my sister if I found you.”
Erica opened her arms. “I’m sorry if I caused you guys any trouble. I can pay you for your time.”
“It’s okay, really. One of the benefits of planning a simple wedding.” Aurora hugged her former enemy, wondering what other surprises her life had in store.
Erica stepped away to call her mom, and Aurora was in the middle of group texting Cece and Beth when her phone rang.
“Aurora.”
“Hey, Beth. Good news. I’ve found the runaway bride and all is well. Better than well. Erica is the happiest and most authentically Erica I’ve seen since I’ve been home.”
“That’s good, but Aurora—”
“And she helped me realize that what you want in life changes, and that’s okay. It’s okay to drop back and rethink your options. Anyway, she’s safe, and not marrying Ted. We should be headed home in a minute.”
“Aurora.”
“What?”
“Jude’s dad had a heart attack.”
The earth tilted beneath Aurora’s feet and she grasped a light post to keep from stumbling. “What?”
“Cece is pulling back around to the park now to get you and take you to the hospital.”
Her sister said something else. Something about where or when, but it was all static in her ears. All she could hear was Jude’s voice, telling her how much family meant to him.
Chapter 21
Traffic lights flew by in a blur.
She and Cece made it to the hospital in mere moments and found part of Jude’s family huddled in the ER waiting room. Jenna sat with their mother as Jude paced.
“Hey.” Aurora rushed to his side. “What happened?”
Jude shrugged. “He was in the kitchen with Mom and just…collapsed.”
“I’m so sorry.” Aurora put her arms around him.
“He’s in surgery now. I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, the agitation rolling off him. “They haven’t told us anything.”
“I’m sure we’ll hear something soon,” his mother said. “He’s in the best place to get help now.”
“I know, Mom. But…”
“Please sit down,” Linda urged him.
Aurora glanced at her sister. What should she say in a moment like this? She wanted to be there for Jude, without overstepping.
Rather than sit, Jude continued pacing.
Bonnie and Meredith arrived a moment later.
“Hey, Aurora.” Bonnie sounded surprised.
“Where’s Wyatt?” Meredith asked Jenna.
“Max kept him at home. Neither of us thought he needed to be in an ER waiting room.”
“Agreed.” Bonnie hugged her.
“I’m just so relieved to have Max home at a time like this. I don’t know what I’d do if he was out on that rig right now.”
Jenna caught Bonnie and Meredith up on what little they knew about their dad. Then the siblings all embraced and sat down, including, finally, Jude.
Aurora and Cece sat next to him, and he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.
She wanted to comfort him, place a hand on his back, talk to him, but it might be odd with his family right there. They wouldn’t know about her and Jude, how they’d reconnected or where they stood.
If she came across as too familiar, how would they react? Was it strange, her and Cece even being here?
Bonnie studied her closely, Jude’s mom occasionally casting glances her way.
Next to Bonnie, Meredith gave her and Cece a small smile. Meredith wasn’t technically family either, but she appeared at ease. At home. Maybe Aurora was missing something, because she very much felt like an outsider at the moment.
Jude sat back with a sigh.
Aurora leaned closer. “You okay?” she whispered.
“No, I’m not okay,” he said, his voice clipped.
“Can I get you anything?”
He shook his head and dug a hand through his hair. “No. Answers about my dad?”
Aurora shot a glance at Cece, who gave her a slight shrug.
She should be better at this. She consoled her sisters all the time, so why did it feel like she was mucking this up completely?
“I’m sure they’ll come out in a minute and let us know what’s going on,” Aurora tried.
“It’s been minutes already.”
She placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping to offer some comfort. If he felt her, he gave no indication.
They sat silently for a while, Aurora praying for the right words to say.
“Why can’t they tell us what’s going on?” Jude asked no one in particular.
“He’s going to be okay,” Aurora encouraged.
“You don’t know that.”
“Your dad is strong.”
Jude sat back, shrugging off her hand. “I just…I should’ve been there. I feel awful, because the last time we spoke, we were arguing over a stupid restaurant.”
Aurora bit her lips together, moving her hand back to her lap. She knew she shouldn’t take his comment personally. He was upset and stressed. It didn’t mean anything, and she shouldn’t take it on board. But her heart still twisted in her chest.
The restaurant was far from stupid, but now wasn’t the time to point that out.
Jude didn’t look at her as he spoke. “I hate arguing with him.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
“What if our fight— You know? What if the strain from our fight and pushing the restaurant on him caused—”
“Don’t say that.” She made him meet her gaze. “Don’t even think that. This isn’t your fault.”
“Pushing him about the restaurant and arguing certainly didn’t help though.”
“What are you two talking about?” Jude’s mom asked.
“Nothing,” he answered quickly.
“It didn’t make this happen either,” Aurora whispered, sitting back.
“I’ll never forgive myself if he doesn’t pull through. I can’t lose him like this.”
“I know.” She tried to be soothing.
“Well, that decides it then.” Jude clamped his lips together.
Another beat of silence passed, and she felt the nauseous foreboding of something awful. She’d seen that look on his face before. That locked jaw, the angry grinding of his teeth. She remembered another time when his open, affectionate gaze went blank. Hard and distant, determined to shut out everyone and everything, except one misguided notion he clung to like a lifeline.
“Decides what?” she dared to ask.
“We can’t talk about the restaurant anymore,” he bit off. “Not any of it, not anytime soon.”
Aurora sat up and stared at him, the room and everyone in it falling away.
He was going to throw away this dream, his plans, this very real future, for both of them, out of…out of guilt?
“We can’t,” he repeated, his jaw set. “It’s too much for him to handle. All that matters right now is my dad. Not some restaurant that might never happen. I’ll never forgive myself if he doesn’t pull through.” Jude shot up from his seat and marched away.
Aurora’s stomach plummeted.
Might never happen.
Why wouldn’t it?
He’d offered her a dream. Not just the restaurant, but the two of them, together again. It wasn’t just his dream to take or leave. She thought they had a future.
And the connection between the restaurant and his dad’s heart attack was a stretch. John Jones had always had blood pressure issues, even ten years ago.
The line Jude was drawing was as ludicrous as the connection between her supposedly standing in the way of his future at eighteen.
“I need some air.” Aurora blindly pushed herself to try to stand, but Cece stopped her with a hand on hers.
“Don’t walk out of here,” Cece murmured.
“What?” She eased back down and leaned into her sister.
“You can’t leave. Not now.” Cece’s gaze went down the hall and back to Aurora. “Jude just stormed off. If you take off, too, it won’t look good. Stay here. For his family. I’ll go see if I can find Jude.”
Her sister made a good point. As gut-wrenching as Jude’s distance was, as easy as it would be to run and hide right now, she wasn’t eighteen anymore. She was stronger than that.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Moments later, Jude’s mom stood and stretched her back. “I need some coffee,” she said, looking right at Aurora. “Come with me?”
“Okay.” Aurora didn’t particularly need caffeine at the moment. She needed Jude to explain how his mind worked, but Linda asking her to join her was more direction than question.
They walked down the hall and around the corner, into a vending area with a free coffee machine.
Linda Jones hit the buttons for a black coffee and waited while it brewed.
“I’m so sorry this happened.” Aurora crossed her arms in front of her, hoping this exchange went better than the one with Jude had.
“Thank you.” Linda frowned. “Oh, honey, you look ready to cry when I’m the one that should be bawling.” She extended her arms and took Aurora into a hug.
“I’m sorry,” Aurora said again, heat rushing to her face. “I’m here to comfort you. Not the other way around.”
“Maybe we can comfort each other. How’s that sound?”
Aurora breathed deeply. That sounded nice. “Thank you. And if there’s anything I can do, I will. You guys have always been good to me.”
“Thank you, dear.” Jude’s mom leaned away. “Did Jude say something to upset you?”
She brushed off the question, unwilling to bother his mom with everything else on her plate. “No ma’am. I’m just worried about Mr. Jones.”
Linda chuckled. “It always tickled me how you called him Mr. Jones. So formal.” She picked up her coffee and urged Aurora forward to get her own.
She hit the button for hot chocolate instead.
“You know, Mr. Jones is going to be okay,” Linda stated, with no small amount of authority.
Aurora stood up with her hot chocolate.
“He was talking to me when they brought him in.”
“He was?”
“He was in bad shape, granted, but the EMT told me I called in time. See, John’s daddy had a heart attack, two in fact, and his granddaddy had a heart attack. All the Jones men deal with this. My Mr. Jones won’t take his meds regularly and he doesn’t eat right. He never has.” She sipped her coffee like she’d seen the future and knew what to expect. “He says I harp on him, but after this, that man won’t see red meat again except on Christmas Eve and his birthday. He calls vegetables, or anything healthy, rabbit food, but I can tell you one thing, he better strap on some big ears and a fuzzy white tail, because rabbit food is what he’s going to be eating from now on.”
Aurora couldn’t help but smile.
“I kept telling him this would happen. I think I’ve mentally prepared myself for years. And while I’m worried, I’m less so after the EMT talked to me.” Linda patted her arm. “So, try not to be so upset, okay?”
“I’ll try.” Aurora sipped her hot chocolate and decided to open up to the woman who was once like a second mother to her. “I was a little upset before, even though I said I wasn’t. And, I feel bad saying, not just about your husband.”
“I know. I have two daughters of my own and I used to know you pretty well, dear.”
Aurora smiled, warmed by her words as much as the hot chocolate. “Jude can be tough to read is all. And he’s upset about his dad, naturally, but he kind of…shuts down?”
“Not kind of. That’s exactly what he does.” Linda nodded and drank her coffee. “Just like his dad. Holding it all in isn’t good for their health either. They can be the most stubborn, tunnel-visioned people you’ll ever meet.”
She was right. Aurora had never thought about it that way, but Jude wasn’t that unlike his dad when it came to shutting out people and ideas.
“I know Jude gets aggravated at how stubborn his dad can be. I tell John all the time, I love him, but he’s like an old mule. But Jude is just as stubborn. They’re very different in some ways, but exactly alike in others.”
“Have you ever told him that?”
Linda stopped sipping her coffee. “Goodness no. Have you?”
Aurora shook her head.
“Can you imagine? Neither one of them would ever admit it and then they’d be mad at me for comparing them.” Linda smiled. “But you know, our faults and flaws are often just the flip side of our strengths. You can’t have one without the other. Every coin has two sides kind of thing.”
Aurora thought about that for a second.
“You see, Jude and John, both so dang single-minded and stubborn, right? But that also means they’re persistent. Driven and determined. If they set their mind on something good and worthwhile, then by gosh, they’ll get it done and done well. On the other hand, if they decide they won’t do something, then you’ll have better luck moving a two-ton bull than getting them to change their mind.”
Aurora laughed inside at the imagery.
“It can be done though.” Linda grinned. “I’ve done it before, when Bonnie first told us about her and Meredith.”
Aurora clamped her mouth shut and stared down into her hot chocolate, unsure of what to say.
For her, the love between Bonnie and Meredith was obvious and lovely. But she knew not everyone looked at things the way she did. She’d wondered if Linda and Mr.—if John—knew.
“John struggled accepting it a little bit at first,” Linda said. “Even though we wondered about it ages ago. A mother knows, and I reminded him he’d kind of always known too. In the end, his love for his daughter outweighed any nonsense in society. I just gently reminded him of that.”
Aurora admired the woman before her so much.
“So, you see, they can be reasoned with. You have to lead them to it, not force it on them. Like I’m going to do with this so-called rabbit food. Just watch me.”
Aurora had absolutely no doubts.
“All that to say, try not to worry about Jude or John. He and his dad will be okay. They just process things the way they process them, and sometimes the best thing you can do is be upfront with them, and then let them figure out the rest for themselves.”
Linda made perfect sense, and Aurora appreciated the advice more than she could express. If anyone understood Jude, it was his mom.
“I’ll be honest with you though,” Linda said. “I do worry about one thing.”
“What’s that?” Aurora stood a little straighter.
“I worry about him when you head back to California.”
The wind was knocked from her lungs. “Oh,” she managed.
“I see how he looks at you, even now, when he’s fretting over his father. He’s thinking about you, too, regardless of how it may seem. The girls have told me how much he talks about you and…” Linda stared into her paper cup before throwing it away. “I don’t want to see him get hurt again.”
Aurora stood there, stunned.
Him get hurt again? He broke up with her. He ended their relationship. Jude had broken her heart. She was the one who got hurt.
But had she broken his heart too?
“He was devastated when you left for college,” Linda said, as though reading her mind. “I know he ended things between the two of you, but I think he always regretted how your breakup played out. And I know he regretted losing you.”
Aurora wrapped one arm around herself. She knew he hated his handling of the matter, but she didn’t quite grasp that he’d regretted breaking up with her.
“I was proud of you for broadening your horizons, and look how well things turned out,” Linda continued. “But I know Jude. Underneath it all, he’s a big softie. He was heartbroken when you left, even if it was for the best.”
So maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d had to heal from their past. Thankfully, the two of them had been able to come together and repair their relationship. But now, they were back to where they’d been ten years ago.
Whether she wanted to admit it or not, her heart was already in this restaurant project and she had feelings for Jude. Again. She wanted a future with him, and he was shutting her out.
She’d already started dreaming, and this was too much like history repeating.
Was she supposed to completely throw away her chances in California for an opportunity here that Jude refused to pursue? She didn’t want her old L.A. life back anymore, but she didn’t want to stay here and long for something that’d never happen.
She’d been down that road already and she couldn’t do it again.
A lump formed in her throat, tight enough to hurt and choke. “I’m going to go check on my sister.” She gave Linda a small smile and walked away before the cracks began to show.
She hurried toward Cece and flashed her a look.
Recognizing an emergency eject when she saw one, Cece jumped up and met her halfway. “I can’t find Jude.”
“That’s okay. We should probably go.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I…I need some time and I think…I think I need to give Jude some time too? Maybe?”
Cece took her hand. “You’ll tell me more in the car?”
“I’ll tell you in the car.”
They got in the car and Cece was gracious enough to wait a few blocks before speaking. “What happened back there?”
Aurora’s lip trembled and her voice shook as she spoke. “Jude’s mom basically told me I broke Jude’s heart.”
