Another Love Another time

Chapter 36: Oh my!

River

I wake up feeling like a freight truck ran over me. I'm glad Auggie and I have everything out in the open. At least I do, who knows if Auggie has told me everything, he says he has. I rub the sleep out of my eyes. I need coffee. I wonder if Auggie is up yet. Last night I had to cut our conversation short. It was getting late, and I was maxed out emotionally. I needed a good night's sleep before we got further into it. We are not even close to being done with our conversation. But I need to make sure he doesn't say anything about JD to anyone.

I think I can smell coffee. Maybe he's already up. He stayed in the spare room last night. I roll out of bed and throw a hoodie over my shirt and sweatpants. I open the door and he looks in my direction. He turns around and grabs another coffee cup and pours me a cup. He hands it over as I walk into the kitchen. "Thanks." I blow on it to cool it off. I take the first sip. "Hmm heaven."

"River, we need to finish" I hold up my hand and interrupt him. "We have all day to finish our conversation. Let me enjoy this right now." I take another sip. "The only thing I'm worried about right now is you promising not to tell others who attacked me. I don't want anyone to ever know. That stays between us. If you need to talk about it; you to talk to me or Baxter." He sighs.

"I may not like it, but I'll respect it. I won't say anything. I know it doesn't mean much to you right now, but I give you my word. I won't say anything." He's right I don't trust his word right now, but I need to be able to trust him. God please don't let him let me down again. I take another drink of my coffee.

"This is me trusting you. Trusting you to do something that you say you will do. If I find out, you tell anyone it will be the last straw. We are talking about someone's life. I understand I've had a lot longer to come to terms with it. Just give it time. He's not the guy who attacked me."

"Ok. I will." He reaches over and grabs my pinkie and I feel the butterflies for a second when he brings me out of my thoughts when he says, "I promise River. I won't say anything." I nod acknowledging what he just said. We sit in a comfortable silence drinking our coffee. It's always been like this, neither of us feel like we have to say anything, just enjoying each other. I'm so conflicted right now. I'm still mad he lied to me, but when I'm with him I feel this connection to him that I just can't shake.

Our bliss is interrupted by a knock on the door. "Who could that be?" It's way too early for the company. I really hope it's not Melissa trying to start something.

Auggie stands up, "I'll get it." I take another sip of my coffee and when I hear my mother, I roll my eyes. I look up and see all three of them: Aunt Connie, Aunt Jess, and my mother. They all walk in; they must have already stopped for coffee, since I see cups in all of their hands. Good I didn't want to share my coffee anyway.

"What do we owe the pleasure? This will have to be a short visit; we have to work." I start to walk back to the kitchen to refill my cup and the group follows me.

Aunt Connie looks at Auggie, "Did you stay here last night?"

I answer for him, "Yes, in the spare room." She just looks at me. I know she wants to say more but then my mom starts to speak.

"Melissa called me last night crying telling me you attacked her and broke her nose." She sighs, "Why can you both just get along? Maybe if you sit down as adults and talk..." Auggie goes to say something, but I hold my hand up to let him know I got this.

"Did you just ask why I can't get along with Melissa?" I ignore the comment about breaking her nose. She fucking deserved it. Especially after what she did. "You want me to sit down as an adult? Whose mom, are you? I love you and that is why I moved here, but I'm this close," I hold up my pointer finger and thumb with zero space in the between them, "to selling or listing my house and saying fuck it all. The only reason I haven't is because dad wouldn't have wanted me to. He's the only one who took my side. Ever!" I look at Auggie implying he never took up for me either. I look back at my mom and she seems taken aback. "He's the only one who could see through her." They know I'm speaking about Melissa.