“There’s plenty for everyone.” Her chance meeting with Betty was the reason Avery always packed her plates full. There was always someone to cheer up or bribe with a treat along her path.
The side door opened, and one of the medical assistants waved at her. “Get back here, girl. We’ve been waiting on you all day.”
Avery’s worries fell away, and as she stood in the break room, chatting with staff as they came and went, she felt . . . whole. Content. Everyone was happy. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was chatty and excited as they perused and collected their goodies.
And while she caught up with some people she hadn’t seen in years and met others who’d come to town after she’d moved away, a small piece of her mind recognized the insignificance of her contribution. She realized that even though her moment in their lives here was fleeting and probably meaningless, it still gave her joy. And nowadays, joy came in such tiny doses, she was grabbing what she could get when she could get it.
Which spun her mind right back around to Trace. Last night’s uncomfortable ending aside, Trace brought a lot of joy into Avery’s life. Before they’d slept together, he’d brought laughter and friendship and a fresh perspective on their screwed-up world. Their first night together had brought more laughter, a bonding deeper than friendship, and ultimately a sense of joy she couldn’t say she’d ever experienced before.
Now . . . now she didn’t know. And despite her own suggestion they take some time apart, she wondered what kind of message she’d be sending if she went into the café to see him later today.
Two of the front desk clerks wandered from the break room with small plates of fudge, passing Belle on her way in. She stopped short and lifted her brows at Avery.
Grinning, Avery reached for one of the kitchen drawers, pulled out a Ziploc bag, and held it up. “Cabernet, Merlot, and Syrah dark-chocolate truffles.”
Belle clapped her hands, squealed like a little kid, and rushed to Avery. She snapped the bag from her fingers just before wrapping Avery in a bear hug and almost tipping her over.
They laughed together, and when Belle pulled back, she leaned against the counter, opened the seal, stuck her face in, and breathed deep. “Oh my God. What a high.” She closed and sealed the bag with a grin that just wouldn’t quit. One that reminded Avery a lot of her brother, Mark.
“Wait until Toby gets ahold of these.” She reached out and squeezed Avery’s hands. “Thank you so much. This is going to be such a treat for my honey. He’s been working so hard.”
Belle’s fiancé was a PG&E linesman who worked long, tough hours and took a lot of calls. The way they both worked at making their relationship succeed both mystified and touched Avery. “I’m glad.”
“I’ll pair it with the new nightie I bought from Victoria’s Secret and a bottle of his favorite Bordeaux,” Belle said with a coy smile, “and I think I’ll even the score for that night away in Napa he got for me a couple of months ago.”
“I’d say so,” Avery told her with attitude. “They’re my best batch ever.”
Belle laughed. “Perfect.” She reached in her pocket and extracted cash. “What do I owe you?”
?
?Are you kidding? No way.” Avery waved her off and crossed her arms, tucking her hands away when Belle tried to push twenties into them. She nodded to the single table, where her tray was almost empty. “This is more than enough. I couldn’t ask for a better testimonial than everyone at this office raving about my sweets. Just get them all to show up on opening day, would you?”
“Deal. Thanks again.”
“Anytime.”
Belle slipped her truffles and her cash back into the front pockets of her scrubs and wandered to the table, picking at toffee crumbs. “Mark’s mentioned you more than once.” She turned a silly grin on Avery and raised her brows with a playful, singsong, “We could be sisters-in-law.”
Avery choked out a laugh. “Oh, jeez, Belle, you’ve got to be kidding.” She shook her head, wincing at the mere mention of marriage. “Believe me—I’m doing Mark a favor.”
Belle tipped her head and shrugged. “I know. I told him that’s why you were turning him down. He usually gets the girls easily, you know? I think he sees you as a challenge.”
Avery closed her eyes on a sound of dread.
“Just ignore him and he’ll go away.” The scrape of a chair along the floor pulled Avery’s eyes open to Belle taking a seat. She wrapped an arm over the back and leveled a serious, concerned gaze on Avery. “How are you doing? I haven’t seen you since David’s engagement announcement hit the Internet.”
“I’m okay.” She lifted a shoulder, not caring much about David’s life at this point. She’d created enough of a mess in her own. “Shitty way to find out, but I doubt there would have been a good way. And considering he almost got blown off the face of the earth on his third tour and never bothered to call and tell me about that, it would have been incredibly odd for him to actually make a phone call to tell me about this.”
“I’m so sorry, sweetie. I was shocked. Did you know? I mean, about the affair? Did you see the signs?” She didn’t wait for an answer before she shook her head. “That’s just not something I ever saw David doing. He was so two hundred percent into you when you left. But I guess people change, right? And I guess you really never know someone, right? I mean, Toby and I spend so much time apart that I feel like I’m getting to know him all over again when he’s home.”
Avery recognized this chatter; she’d heard it a lot over the last couple of years. First from fellow army wives when initial rumblings of the divorce surfaced. Then again once it became a reality. And it started all over when she’d come home.
Everyone wanted some magical insight into their own relationship by way of her failure. Some kernel of knowledge that would give them a sense of security, assuring them that what happened to Avery wouldn’t happen to them.
“I knew things weren’t right between us,” she said, “but I never saw any signs that he’d checked out completely and had found someone else. And, yes, their engagement was fast, but feelings can sometimes happen between two people quickly when the situation is right.”
Her feelings for Trace had been instant and ramped up out of control within weeks of working with him. And look at her now.