Take Me Away (Southern Bride 6)

I suddenly wanted to talk to Nolan. Hear his voice. I reached for my purse and pulled it out. I only had one percent battery left. Standing, I set it on the cordless charger and made my way to the bathroom that was attached to my bedroom. After a quick shower, I brushed my teeth and wove my hair into a braid before heading downstairs.

“Mom? Dad?” I called out as I walked into the kitchen. No one was around, but there were fresh blueberry muffins in a bowl in the middle of the table, so I knew my mother had been up earlier. She loved to cook, and I swear, she’d made fresh blueberry muffins each and every morning for as long as I could remember. I thought for a moment that my folks might be having their coffee out on the back porch since it seemed to be a nice day out, so I pushed the door open and stepped outside.

“Mom? Dad?”

Nothing.

With a frown, I turned and headed back into the house. It was only seven in the morning—they couldn’t be gone yet.

I opened the garage door and saw both vehicles were still there.

“Mom!” I cried out louder. Then I heard a thump from somewhere upstairs. I headed up the steps and called out again.

“Dad! Mom! Where are y’all?”

“In the attic!” my mother called back. I couldn’t help but note the slightly panicked sound in her voice.

“The attic?” I asked as I opened the door and made my way up the steps to our attic. “What are you doing up here?”

When I got to the top of the steps, my father was closing up a trunk and quickly locking it. My mother brushed her hands off and laughed. “My goodness, everything is so dusty up here.”

I smiled. “What’s in the trunk?”

“Nothing of importance. Old family stuff,” my father stated.

I tilted my head slightly as I looked at them both. Something on their faces didn’t seem right. More secrets they were keeping from me? But their odd expressions were gone before I could really look at them closely.

“You two are up and at it early. Why are you up here going through old trunks?” I asked.

“Your mother insisted she had an old antique mirror up here that she wanted to paint and put in the dining room,” my father said, reaching down and planting a kiss on my mother’s cheek. She smiled and patted the side of his face.

“Thank you for looking, sweetheart. I know it’s around this house somewhere.”

I leaned against a wood beam and smiled. “You do realize you could probably go buy one and antique it yourself.”

She huffed. “Why would I want to do that when I have one already? Maybe it’s in the space above the barn.”

My father held up his hands and then started to walk down the steps. “That is where I draw the line, Amy. I am not crawling up into that space. Hell no!”

I laughed. “Oh, come on, Daddy. Are you afraid of bugs?”

He shot me a dirty look over his shoulder as he descended the steps. “No, but I am of snakes. And the last time I was in there, I saw two!”

“Come on, Linnzi, I have fresh muffins,” my mother said as she walked by me.

I went to follow her but stopped. My eyes swept back across the attic and to the trunk. Suddenly I felt the strangest pull toward it, and I had the urge to see what was really inside it. If my parents honestly thought I believed their lame excuse, they were insane.

“Linnzi?” my mother called back up from the bottom of the steps. “Are you coming?”

With a quick look at her, I nodded, glancing back at the trunk. “Yes, on my way.”

As I walked by my bedroom, I heard my phone go off.

“Let me check that message. I’ll be right down,” I called out as I ducked into my room. I smiled when I saw who it was from.

Nolan: I hope I’m not waking you. I’ve got to run an errand for Paul and head into town. Did you want to come along with me?

I quickly hit his number and waited for him to answer.

“After all this time, you still don’t like text messages, do you?” he asked with humor in his voice.

I laughed. “No, I’m still not a fan. I’d love to go on an errand with you.”

“Great, I’m going to leave here in a few minutes. I’ll pick you up in about twenty? Dress warm, a cold front is moving through today.”

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. “Okay, I’ll see you then.”

“Perfect, see you in a bit!”

When the call ended, I sighed and felt my cheeks burning slightly from the wide grin on my face. Another day with Nolan. This time, though, I was ready to find out more information about my past with him. The tightness in my chest that I felt every single time I thought about the accident seemed to ebb some, allowing me to breathe slightly easier.