“No, thank you, Ashley. Even just last night and today while you were with your friend, Liz, I realized how much I missed your company. Tonight was nice. Very special. Thank you. Sleep well.”
She let Tootsie out for her last trip of the day, and Tootsie followed her to her room. But instead of caging her right away, Ashley let her pet sit beside her in bed while she read Priscilla’s journal.
July 14, 1916
Dear Journal,
I’m starting this today on the first day in my new home as Mrs. Priscilla Lucier. Perry and I were married a week ago and honeymooned in Boston. We dined at lovely restaurants, stayed at a nice hotel, and saw two shows while in the city. We took a ride on swan boats powered by men peddling the boats. We walked the lovely gardens and did some window shopping. The shops there were far too expensive for us to buy anything, but I didn’t care. We didn’t care. We were so happy to be together and finally married after a year of courting.
I have to admit the wedding night was difficult, but Perry did his best to make me comfortable, and it has been easier since that first time. I hope to be a good wife to him in that department and to fill our home with love and many children. We both want children. Perhaps we’ll have them sometime soon.
I’m busy settling my things in with his, but will try to write often to record our lives so that when we’re old and gray, we can look back on these words and remember how young and happy we were.
Priscilla.
Ashley closed the book, slipped it into her night table drawer, and smiled. “She was a happy bride, Tootsie. That’s nice. But I’ve got to get some rest, or I’ll never get up for work tomorrow.”
She got up and put Tootsie in her crate. Moments later she was fast asleep. An hour later, Perry visited her in her dreams, and she felt the satisfaction of his powerful lovemaking take her away to places beyond her wildest dreams again and again. When the sun came up, she was refreshed and fulfilled, ready to work hard for the company she loved.
Chapter Twenty-three
Perry had dinner waiting for her that night in a crock pot, which she had taught him to use, and she was glad that’s all it was because Travis came home with her. So, she did not call Perry’s name when she came through the front door with Travis. Instead, she bent down to greet Tootsie and spoke up loud enough for Perry to hear, “Tootsie, look who I brought home, our friend, Travis.” That way, she knew Perry would make himself scarce.
Having danced with men that weekend while out with the ladies made Ashley realize she needed a relationship with a real, live man. Since she knew Travis was interested, she thought he might be a good person to start with. Yet, at work, when she invited him to come home with her to dinner, she had stressed that it was only as a friendly gesture to thank him for the help he’d given her on the house and to show him how much more she’d accomplished since he’d visited her last.
After she asked him, she had second thoughts. If they ended up dating, it would complicate things at the work site. So, she decided to keep it very platonic. They’d have dinner, maybe watch a show or play a game, and off he’d go. No kissing, nothing romantic. The more she thought about it during the day, the more she regretted her decision to invite him, but the invitation had been extended and accepted, so she couldn’t back out.
Tootsie greeted Travis like a long-lost friend, and he went out to the backyard and tossed a ball around with her for a while as Ashley prepared a salad and sliced a loaf of beer bread she’d baked the night before. While she was rushing around the kitchen to get things done, she felt the familiar breeze behind her.
“Why did you bring him here?”
“You can’t be seen,” she said as she turned to look at Perry. He was just a specter. He’d stripped himself of his clothes and makeup and without them, if she didn’t know his figure as well as she did by that time, she would have seen more of a cloud of dust than anything.
“I know that. I’ll keep our secret. But he’s not a friend. He’s a man. This isn’t ladies night like with Liz. This is Travis. I see the way he looks at you. He wants you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We work together. We’re friends. And even if we weren’t just friends, it’s none of your business. We’re not married. You don’t own me.”
Perry emitted a growl like an animal ready to pounce on its prey.
“Ashley, I’ll just go in and wash up before dinner,” Travis said as he and Tootsie came through the kitchen door, and as quickly as that Perry was gone.
The two of them had a fun time chatting over dinner, swapping stories about their co-workers, and talking about their days as kids. Coming from a larger family, he had many more stories to tell. After dinner, they both took Tootsie for a run. Then, true to her promise to herself to keep it platonic, she offered that they either watch a movie or play a game. They decided on Upwords, a word game with some similarities to Scrabble without the complex words. Each was a great competitor.
When it was time to leave, Travis said, “This was fun. If there’s a next time, I’d like to treat you by taking you to dinner somewhere, so you don’t have to cook.”
“That would be nice,” she said.
They didn’t kiss, they didn’t shake hands. Neither knew for certain where their relationship was headed. But they were willing to wait it out.
As Travis took the first step down on the eight-step front porch, a very strong gust of wind rushed past, and he was knocked off the steps onto the cobblestone pathway below.
“Oh my God, Travis, are you alright?”
He lifted his head slowly, and she saw blood trickle from his forehead. “I think I broke my leg.”
“Should I call an ambulance?”
“No, just take me in my truck or yours.”
She rushed into the house, grabbed her purse, and locked the door behind her. Then she helped him into her truck and got him to the emergency room as fast as she could.
Fortunately, they weren’t busy and took him in almost right away. One of the bones just below his knee was broken. They reset it and put him in a cast, and the cut on his forehead needed five stitches. Ashley stayed with him throughout all of it knowing full well where the gust of wind had come from and feeling so very sorry that she had brought Travis into that danger. But she also wouldn’t share that with him because that was her secret and her burden to keep.
When the doctors were finished with Travis, he asked her to drive him to his parents’ home. He’d stay with them for a few days while he got used to the crutches. They seemed like nice people. She assured them that Travis would be paid during his time off the job site and that he needed to take whatever time the doctors advised to heal. She apologized over and over for the accident.
“Ashley, it wasn’t your fault. It was a freak accident. That gust of wind came out of nowhere and caught me off guard is all. Stop stressing. I’m okay. But thanks for your help at the hospital tonight. I appreciate it.”
“We do, too,” his mom said.
“It’s the least I could do,” Ashley said.
Travis’ father rode with her in her truck to retrieve his son’s truck from her house. “He’s really enjoying the work for your company. I knew he was bored with us, but I didn’t have anything else I could offer him, so I’m glad this work came up.”