It was good to hear her laugh even if it was just a little and tightly contained. He missed the sound of her laugh.
He should have known she wasn’t going to stay at the ranch forever. On some level, he probably did. What he hadn’t expected was for her to break up with him and cut off all possible lines of communication with no way to know if she was all right.
Maybe the last part had haunted him the most. She’d clearly been through some kind of trauma in her life. At sixteen, he’d noticed the bruises she covered up with makeup despite never calling her out on them.
But for tonight, he would set aside his questions because Mama Bea’s food demanded full attention, and he couldn’t think of a better person to share a meal with than Audrey.
“The meal you mentioned is Grandpa Lor’s favorite,” he said to Audrey.
“I bring it to him the first Monday of every month.” She practically beamed when she said it.
“I didn’t know that,” Duke responded, surprised by the admission.
“Oh,” she said, clearly keeping something else from him.
“You can’t leave me hanging like that,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot and found a spot way off to the side.
“Not to change the subject, but there sure are a lot of cars in this parking lot,” she noted, the stress back in her voice.
“Yes, there are,” he agreed.
“Mind if we order on the phone for pickup and just eat in the truck?” she asked.
“We can do that,” he said, figuring there was a story behind the reason she didn’t want to be around folks right now. Was she worried about being tied to the Napier boy’s death? And how others might react to her because of it? Or were her tingly, being-watched senses being triggered again?
AUDREY PULLED HER phone out of her purse and put in her order after searching the vehicles in the lot. “What’ll you have?”
“The same as you,” he said. “It’s Bea’s specialty.”
“I’m holding off on dessert until after dinner,” she said, focusing her attention on the screen while hoping he didn’t decide to push her on the reason she wanted to sit in the truck. “Can’t have the ice cream melt.”
“I didn’t know Bea opened her business up to online ordering,” he said, sounding impressed.
“Progress,” she chirped. “Businesses had to change up over the last few years if they wanted to survive. Bea’s place was no different.”
“I’m glad she did,” he said. “Survive, that is. I can’t imagine a Mesa Point without Bea’s place.”
“The food scene would definitely suffer,” Audrey agreed, hearing the note of tension laced her own voice.
As much as she wished she could relax and forget, she couldn’t.
“So what happens now that the order is in?” he asked.
“They’ll bring it to the truck if we park in a designated spot,” she explained. “Or I’ll get a text and one of us can run inside to pick it up.”
“I’ll do it,” he quickly said.
“You don’t mind?”
“No reason to,” he answered as he cut off the truck’s engine and cracked the windows. He leaned his seat back like he was sitting at home in a recliner. “At least the evenings are starting to cool off. We won’t fry in here with all the windows cracked.”
“That’s the only thing I don’t like about living in Texas,” she admitted. “The heat.”
“Ever think about moving somewhere else?” he asked. “Somewhere cooler?”
“Me?” she asked, surprised he would even ask. “No. Texas is home despite its imperfections.”
She fixed her seat to a more comfortable position so she could look out the windshield up at the stars. The velvety sky seemed to go on forever. It was one of the many things she loved about living in Mesa Point. She saw the vastness of the sky, and it reminded her that she was just a speck in a bigger, broader universe. That as much as her problems seemed insurmountable at times, she was insignificant by comparison.
“How about you?” she asked, turning the tables. “Ever see yourself leaving the state, living anywhere else?”
“I have a lovely home in Austin,” he supplied. “I’m close to Lake Travis where there are rolling hills and wineries. Restaurants have moved in. I have every kind of food I could want at my fingertips. But I can’t say the place feels like home. I haven’t felt that since I moved away from the ranch, to be honest.”
“Ever think about coming back?” she asked, wanting to know the answer to that question more than she wanted to admit.
Her cell buzzed, indicating a text. She checked the screen before turning it toward Duke for him to take a look.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, putting his seat up but keeping it far back from the steering wheel. “Hold tight.” He opened the door and then paused. “You’ll be all right in here alone, right?”
“I’m fine,” she said, realizing it had become her favorite new word to describe herself despite being far from the truth. It wasn’t exactly a lie. More like wishful thinking. Could she wish it into reality was the real question. “What I mean to say is that I’ll be fine.”
Duke turned back and smiled in a show of perfectly straight white teeth. He’d always had the kind of smile that lit campfires in her belly. It worked years ago. It worked now. And she couldn’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t. “I’ll be back in a snap.”
Audrey returned the smile and nodded. “I’ll be right here.”
Here was where she’d returned when she couldn’t force the Remingtons, or more specifically Duke, out of her thoughts. She’d almost slipped earlier and told him that his grandparents asked her to stay away while he visited, figuring it would be easier on him.
They didn’t make her feel shame for how she’d left things. They hadn’t judged her.
