I wasn’t worried about anything now. Rebecca would go with me. I was sure of that.
“I just need to deal with some things is all. I have a lot of financial matters to handle there,” I told her as she stared at me. “It’s hard to explain.”
“I think that you need to really think about life. Is money that important to you, Austin?” Mom looked at me with a serious gaze. “Seems to me that with all of the money that you have now, you’d be able to get someone to take care of this for you.”
I could, but I was a control freak. Maybe I needed to see the city again to make a final decision. I had to feel what it was like there again and compare it to now, but the idea of Rebecca saying no again broke my heart a little. There was no way that she would refuse to come with me again.
“I know that Rebecca loves North Reed, Mom. She loves me, too, though. She’ll come with me.”
We dropped the subject, and she asked if salad sounded good for dinner tonight. It was weird seeing Mom serving things like that, even if it was a loaded salad with plenty of vegetables. I knew she was going to have a blast buying fresh veggies from people in town, and I could even see her starting a vegetable garden of her own. I’d tell the guys about that and have them help her set it up.
“Perfect. I like that you’re embracing all of these new things, Mom.”
She beamed at me. “Anything for your dad,” she assured me.
I reminded myself to order her a new laptop so she could get a Pinterest account going and find new recipes. Nothing fancy, but something portable that she could carry around the house if she was cooking or relaxing on the couch. They had a computer in the office, but it was a dinosaur and way too slow for anyone to work with. She’d love something smaller. I mentioned the site to her, and Mom perked up at the idea of looking at so many different ideas to do. I knew that Rebecca and Kim would enjoy it, too, as some of the women I knew in New York were all over it. It wasn’t my thing at all since I wasn’t all that into decorating. I knew there were recipes, but I liked a few preferred dishes that I’d been taught to make in New York.
I’d surprise Mom with the computer. I thought that Dad might like it as well. He was relaxing a little more nowadays, and there was a lot of stuff on the internet.
After our talk, Mom asked me if I’d stick around the house while she went to town. I agreed and went to see if Dad was sleeping before I wandered over to the table. I went online and checked a site that I bought all my personal computers from, ordering a lightweight computer for them that would be here as soon as possible. That way I could set it up for them, and they would be set when I was gone. It would be a nice way to keep in touch with each other. I wandered outside once that was completed and sat on the porch with another cup of coffee to think.
It was beautiful here, with land for miles. Houses were scattered about, and the town was close by, but there was still a sense of privacy here that I’d never found in New York. Is this what I wanted from life, despite fighting that idea so hard for the last several years? Would I be content if Rebecca didn’t want to come along with me when I had to return? Could I stand the idea of missing her again, now that we were seeing each other once more?
I had no idea.
I dropped back into the chair, not that phased by the cold air. I’d lived in it since I left, so that wasn’t as new to me as the whole change in my life in general. I thought back to all the years in New York and played back the memories like a movie, knowing that I never let anybody in the way that I did Rebecca. How could I? I hadn’t met anyone who affected me the way that she did.
I heard the front door open and glanced over to see Dad. He stepped outside and grinned at me before taking a seat. “Did you mother want you to babysit me?”
“There’s no need to babysit a grown man, Dad. I was already here, so I stuck around for a while. How was the nap?”
He relaxed and took a deep breath. “Good, son. I reckon that you don’t get a chance to do a lot of that over in New York.”
I shook my head. I didn’t sleep a lot, much less nap. I’d learned to go without, but waking up here in Rebecca’s arms made me think twice about that lifestyle.
“No. There is always too much going on there.” I sipped my coffee again, taking in the relaxed lines of his face and the way he looked at me. “You look good, Dad. Keep taking care of yourself, and you won’t have to worry about anything like this again.”
“It’s a hard thing for a man to do when people start telling him to take it easy. I worked so hard all those years, and I was sure that retirement wouldn’t get the best of me.” Dad shrugged. “I suppose it might be nice to relax a little bit and enjoy the rest of my years here with Mom.” There was a question to his voice that made me wonder if he was hoping that I’d move back soon as well.
I could do anything with the amount of money that I had, but just where was it that I wanted to settle down?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Rebecca
Austin took off for his parents’ after we enjoyed some breakfast at my house, along with a little extra time in my bed. I was deeply in love with him all over again and watched him drive away. Then, I looked at my phone sitting on the table.
I hadn’t spoken to my parents for longer than a few minutes at a time in a couple of weeks. Mom hated texts and said that they were too impersonal for her. So, I sat down with a fresh cup of coffee and made the call.
“Rebecca,” Mom greeted me with a smile in her voice. “How are you?”
“I am so sorry that I haven’t done much else besides text you the last few days. It has been a little chaotic around here.”
She chuckled at the other end. “I’ll say. How’s Mel doing now? You said that he’s home.”
I nodded, reminding myself that we were talking on the phone and not in person. I still missed them so much sometimes.
“He’s home and settled. I think the doctors finally got it into his head that he needs to ease up some.”