Audrey had only agreed to go to book club because tonight there was a special guest there who Viv had secured to speak at Read Between the Lines on Valentine’s Day morning. It was sort of the culmination of everything her sister had put together. Dr. Vanessa Cupid who had written two New York Times bestselling books on relationships had been a huge get and Audrey wanted to support her sister. She also brought the leftover baked goods that she’d stocked up on over the week which would go to waste if she hadn’t. It turned out heartbroken Audrey baked. A lot.
Her week had gone like this.
Monday night it had been double fudge brownies.
Tuesday was cookie night, she’d made peanut butter, oatmeal raisin cookies and M&M because they were the closest to chocolate chip without actually being chocolate chip. She figured it would be a while before she’d be able to make chocolate chip cookies again.
And last night she’d gotten really crazy and baked cinnamon rolls. From scratch. It was amazing how many hours were in the day when you couldn’t sleep because the man you loved had slept in your bed and even though you’d washed the sheets twice you could still smell him.
She wondered if his scent had imprinted itself on her olfactory nerve. Was that possible? Could his DNA be inside of her? Well, that was a silly question. His DNA had definitely been inside of her.
Tonight, she was doing this, but as soon as she was done she was going to go home, have a glass or bottle of wine, and probably cry.
Tomorrow night, she was pretty sure she was going to go to the dance. She did love to dance, so she figured it would only be punishing herself if she didn’t go.
Then, Friday was the rehearsal for the wedding.
Saturday was Valentine’s Day and the wedding.
Sunday she was working a double and then she planned on taking Viv up on the offer to take a few days off. In the eight years they’d run the shop, she hadn’t taken more than one day off at a time. But she needed it. And her sister had suggested it, since she’d been MIA because of her singles week project.
Audrey wasn’t sure where she was going to go. Or what she was going to do. But she needed to get away. For the first time in her life, Hope Falls wasn’t her safe place. It wasn’t the place where she felt happiest. Hope Falls wasn’t her dream come true.
All week she’d seen people running around town with the sweats that Viv had designed with the Hope Falls Effect on it. Apparently, Audrey was immune. She wasn’t going to get her happily ever after. She wasn’t Lorelai and she wasn’t going to end up with Luke.
Each day she thought that Josh would show up and tell her how much she meant to him. That he’d been an idiot for freaking out and leaving her house half-dressed, with his pants around his knees, carrying his shoes. She honestly thought that scene only played out in movies.
Audrey checked her reflection in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were a little red, but she could just say she was tired. Viv should buy that since she’d been the one holding things down at Brewed with the help of Manny and Carly, of course.
As much as she wanted to support her sister, she was hoping she could just do a stop by, show her face, drop off the goodies and be home within twenty minutes curled up on the couch with Lucy like she had every other night since she couldn’t sleep in her bed. Last night even Frank had snuggled with her. As much as she appreciated him putting in the effort, it did make her realize just how pathetic she was that even her narcissistic cat felt bad for her.
She sniffed and grabbed the container that held the cinnamon rolls, cookies, and brownies. As she walked up to Tessa Maguire’s house she saw Karina Black and Sam Holt-Reynolds seated at the kitchen table. The two women were her oldest sister Grace’s age and had been friends since childhood. She remembered seeing them a lot at Mountain Ridge because they were also friends with Amanda, and Lauren who was a realtor who her sister Grace now worked with. The four girls used to call themselves the Fabulous Four. Audrey remembered thinking that they were all so cool.
The Hope Falls Effect had worked on all four of the Fabulous Four. The women were happily married and madly in love. As was nearly everyone else that was at book club. Over the years that Audrey had lived in Hope Falls, she’d witnessed first-hand one love story after another play out. Heck, in the past six months she’d witnessed two of her own sisters.
But when it came to her own love life, it looked like Hope Falls had zero effect on it.
Karina’s face lit up when Audrey entered the back door. “Ooh, are those goodies?”
“Yep.” Audrey set the container down and Karina ripped into the aluminum foil like a kid at Christmas. Sam joined her and the two both went for the cinnamon rolls.
“There you are!” she heard her sister’s voice behind her. “Finally.”
Audrey turned around and smiled widely at her sister. “Sorry, I was listening to SmartLess. They had on Reese Witherspoon, so…”
Viv knew how much Audrey loved Reese, Sweet Home Alabama was her all-time favorite movie, so she was sure her sister wouldn’t question her delay.
Viv’s eyes narrowed. “You already listened to that podcast.”
Damn. She never thought Viv listened to her, apparently she’d underestimated her sister.
“It’s a good one.” Audrey smiled with a slight shrug.
She started to head into the room where the rest of the book clubbers were gathered but she felt herself being yanked into the laundry room off of the kitchen.
“What are you doing?!” Audrey asked as Viv slid the pocket door shut behind them.
Her sister pointed her finger at her accusatorily. “You weren’t listening to the podcast, and you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Audrey tried to step around her sister to get out of the small room but Viv put her hand on the door, blocking her exit.
“You are not leaving here until you tell me what is wrong.”
Audrey didn’t know if it was the lack of sleep, or the fact that she’d watched single people flirting all week, or if it had all just gotten to be too much for her to keep inside, but for whatever reason when she opened her mouth the Niagara Falls of confessions came spilling out. She told her sister everything from her intimate admission at Dining in the Dark, the motorcycle ride after dancing, her telling Josh that she wanted him to be her first, the cabin, the sex, him showing up at her house, the sex again, and finally him telling her that he thought she should see other people and her not hearing from his since he left her house half-dressed, carrying his shoes on Monday morning.
When she finished, she wasn’t sure what she expected her sister to do, but staring at her blankly as she blinked her eyes several times definitely wasn’t it.
Finally, Viv spoke. “You’re a virgin?”
“What? No. Didn’t you just hear what I said. Josh and I had sex.”
“No.” Viv shook her head. “Yes, I did. I mean before that. Before Josh, you were a virgin?”
“Yeah.” Audrey wasn’t sure why that was so shocking. It’s not like she’d had Viv’s dating life.
“But what about Chris? You two were together for like four years. Mom put you on the pill.”
“Chris came out freshman year of college.” Audrey knew that her sister knew that, but she figured she’d jog her memory.