The Best Of Us. Robyn Carr

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СКАЧАТЬ to travel, writing everywhere she went, taking Leigh with her now and then.

      Johnny’s parents sold their house and moved to Arizona to enjoy the warmer weather while Leigh went on to not one but a double residency. And she wasn’t lonely—she had many friends within her field just as her independent aunt had many friends within her profession. She dated now and then but nothing clicked. And that was fine, Leigh was happy and accepted she would be just like Helen—active, self-sufficient, free and fun-loving. But probably not attached.

      Helen kept in touch with Dottie Holliday and Leigh learned Johnny had married, had a couple of kids; they were having trouble making ends meet sometimes. Johnny even got in touch with Leigh when she was a new ER doctor. He asked her if she was happy and she said, “Deliriously.” Johnny had said he thought maybe the biggest mistake of his life was letting Leigh get away. “Actually, that isn’t what happened,” Leigh said. “You dumped me. You practically left me standing at the altar.” And she hung up on him. Not long after that she learned that Johnny had divorced and remarried.

      She got over him, of course. She even relented that her life was much better than it would have been had she married Johnny at the age of twenty-one. And then Aunt Helen told her she’d heard from Dottie Holliday again. By the age of thirty, Johnny was unhappy in his second marriage.

      And Leigh thought, Whew! Dodged a bullet indeed!

      Not long after Helen retired from her teaching position, she said that she wasn’t planning to live the rest of her life in Chicago. “As much as I love it, I’m over the winters here. Of course, I’ll be back often...in spring, summer and fall. I’m shopping for a more hospitable climate.” She spent a few months in California one winter, Florida another, even Texas once. Leigh often visited her for a winter respite and Helen always came home for a long summer stay. Helen also returned to the Chicago suburbs for Christmas but it didn’t take too many of those visits to confirm that she was right—she’d had enough of those harsh winters. That was when Leigh started thinking maybe she also could use a change. Their Naperville house was paid for, their incomes were sufficient; they hadn’t spent twelve months of the year together in a long time. It was time for Leigh to find her special place.

      “Timberlake, Colorado?” Helen had asked. “What’s the population there? Three hundred people, six hundred elk?”

      “Something like that,” Leigh said. “You can visit me in the summer when it’s warm and I’ll visit you in the winter wherever you are. I’ve only signed a two-year contract so this is just my first possibility. Who knows? I might end up in Maui!”

      “Can we please try La Jolla?” Helen asked.

      “We’ll see. You’ve been indulging your wanderlust for ten years now. It’s my turn to have a look around. I’ll try to settle on a place where you won’t slip on the ice when you’re old and brittle. You know I’ll always take care of you. You always took care of me.”

      “I’m not planning to get old and brittle,” Helen threw back. “That’s why I keep moving! It’s the best defense.”

      So, the time was coming up. Helen would spend most of her spring and summer in Timberlake with Leigh. The house in Illinois was sitting empty for longer and longer now with Leigh in Colorado and Helen always on the move.

      Leigh had clearly learned the importance of autonomy from Helen, who was so comfortable being a single woman. It took her a long time to get over Johnny Holliday and there had not been a man with real potential in her life since him. She had had a dalliance here and there, but nothing serious. Her sixty-two-year-old aunt was her best friend, and quite the girlfriend she was. She wrote books, traveled the world, tried living in new places, taught writing classes all over the country and online and had a wonderful group of writer girlfriends everywhere. She’d been on a couple of writers’ organization boards of directors, toured to promote her books and had even taught a summer writing course at Boston University. She was open to anything, it seemed. She was fearless and Leigh thought she was beautiful. And she believed her—Helen had no intention of getting old, no matter how old she got.

      Leigh knew her move to Timberlake was good for her. She needed to establish her own life but, if she was honest with herself, sometimes she missed having a best friend of the male persuasion. I think we should just get married. You’re perfect for me. Rob was kidding, of course. He had no way of knowing those were the words that she most wanted to hear but that most terrified her.

      A person often meets his destiny

      on the road he took to avoid it.

      —Jean de La Fontaine

       2

      “THEN DAD HIT on Dr. Culver,” Finn said.

      All movement stopped. Everyone in the kitchen froze. Present were Rob’s younger son, Sean, his sister, Sidney, and her husband, Dakota Jones. And of course Rob. He had made dinner and Sidney and Dakota wanted to check on Finn since the accident.

      “I guess those pain pills are stronger than I thought,” Rob said.

      “Dad, you totally hit on her. And I think she liked it.”

      “This sounds interesting,” Dakota said, leaning back on his chair.

      “Go ahead and tell us all about it, Finn,” Sid said.

      “He almost passed out from the blood and stitches. He was sitting on the floor, I guess to keep from fainting, and she told him to stay down. Then she rubbed his shoulders or something and talked to him real soft. Oh, and the nurse gave him a bowl to puke in.”

      “You puked?” Sean asked. It was hard to tell if he was appalled or thrilled.

      “I did not puke,” Rob said. “I got dizzy and light-headed. Not from the blood and stitches but... Through all the injuries these two have had, this one actually scared me. I thought he’d cut his hand in half. When the doctor had it under control, I had an adrenaline drop. That’s all it was. She told me not to try to get up too fast. She rubbed my shoulders and head for a minute.”

      “And Dad said, ‘Marry me.’”

      Rob shrugged and grinned. “In that position, I think that’s just what you do. I admit, I forgot you were in the room for a minute.”

      “No kidding,” Finn said.

      The doorbell rang and Sean shot away from the table with a hearty, “I got it!” A moment later, the sound of female voices talking and laughing came from the living room.

      “Can I be excused?” Finn asked.

      “Sure. Of course.”

      The house was full of teenage girls, momentarily. They were all fussing over Finn. They brought him flowers and chocolate, let him tell his war story, which Rob was relieved didn’t seem to include him hitting on the doctor. Rob counted. There were six of them. All adorable. All around seventeen. Included among them, Finn’s girlfriend of the past year, Maia—a sweet beauty.

      Dakota took a drink from his bottle of beer. “That never happened to me,” he said.

      “Or СКАЧАТЬ