Page 5 of The Birchwood House

Audrey watched her daughter’s car pulling out of the driveway, smiling and waving. As soon as Michelle’s headlights were out of sight, however, Audrey’s smile faded.

Now what?she asked herself, heading back to the couch and curling up on it again.What’s my next step?

Her first thought was that she should go to sleep, but she felt restless. Besides, she wanted to ponder her situation for a while. Michelle had done an excellent job of distracting her from her grief, but Audrey wanted to face the music now. If she really was going to change her life, she needed to think about what she was going to do.

She thought about her part-time job at a craft shop in town. She loved her job, and she would be sad about leaving it, but it wasn’t enough to keep her living there. Besides that job, what else was keeping her from going somewhere else?

Just Michelle,she thought, shaking her head,and she just said she wants to come with me. I wonder if she really means it?

Audrey lay down on the couch, leaving the lights in the living room on. She hugged a pillow and stared up at the ceiling. She knew one thing for sure, and that was that she couldn’t stay in her house anymore, not after her life had been shattered. She needed to start somewhere fresh, where she could make new memories and heal.

She fell asleep, and her dreams were filled with images of sunlight on the ocean, and the smell of flowers and baking bread.

CHAPTER TWO

Michelle’s eyelids fluttered open and she groaned, feeling disoriented from sleepiness. She saw patterns of sunlight flickering across the ceiling of her apartment, and she stared at them for a moment, wondering if she was still dreaming. She couldn’t remember seeing something so beautiful first thing in the morning ever before.

She rolled over and looked at her clock, noticing that it was very late in the morning. No wonder she’d never seen light patterns like that on her ceiling before—she’d hadn’t slept in so late since she was in high school!

She let out a chuckle, thinking that it was a little nice to not have any responsibilities that day. She didn’t have to spring up in a panic and rush off to work. Her body had clearly needed the sleep, and she’d been able to just rest as long as she’d needed to.

She watched the light as it shone through a glass orb that rested on her windowsill. That was what was making the light dance on her ceiling, she realized. The sunlight filled the orb with a breathtaking glow, and she stared at it for a few moments, wanting to simply appreciate its beauty before facing her reality.

But try as she might, she couldn’t keep thoughts about the day before from her mind for long. The news about her fatherhad been even worse than the gut-punch of losing her job, and she shut her eyes tightly for a moment, hardly able to process the idea that he would leave her mother for another woman.

I thought we could trust him,she thought, her heart sinking.And I thought I could trust my bosses at work too.

She pulled back the covers and got out of bed, her heart heavy. She padded into her kitchen on bare feet, feeling groggy and distressed.

What do I do with myself?she wondered as she listened to her coffee machine gurgle. It let out a rich, nutty aroma that she found soothing.Normally I would be at work right now.

She sighed. Getting to sleep in might have been nice, but she didn’t like not having a purpose for her day. She didn’t want to simply sit around and do nothing.

All at once, she remembered the conversation she’d had with her mother the night before, about starting over somewhere new. A spark lit up in her, and she felt a rush of excitement. She grabbed her laptop off her desk and sat down on the couch with it, opening it and beginning to type rapidly into the search engine.

I could go anywhere,she thought, smiling a little.Anywhere at all.

The choice felt overwhelming but also thrilling. She looked up Nashville, and then New Orleans. Feeling intrepid, she even typed in Hawaii. She thought that all of those places seemed wonderful, and she was intrigued by them, but she wanted something in her to click when she looked at a potential location. She had an inkling that her gut would just know when she’d found the right place for her.

She got up to get herself a cup of coffee and returned to the couch. She searched for other cities, but nothing seemed to click for her.

Maybe I need to go somewhere in person first,she thought.

She glanced at her phone, wondering if it was a good time to call her mom. She hadn’t wanted to wake up her mother in case she was also getting much-needed sleep, but she knew that since it was now nearly noon, her mother was almost certain to be awake.

She dialed Audrey’s number and listened to it ring. She closed her eyes, hoping that her mother was feeling better and had gotten good rest. She couldn’t even imagine going through what Audrey was going through.

“Hey, hon!” Audrey answered after just two rings.

Michelle froze. Her mother sounded energetic, even excited. Michelle was thrilled her mother was feeling better, but she was confused by her sudden enthusiasm.

“Hey! Are you doing okay?”

“Yes. I am. I—well, how would you feel about coming over? I can make us some chocolate chip waffles and we can use up the last of that whipped cream.”

Michelle’s stomach, filled with only coffee and anxiety, grumbled loudly at the thought of waffles. “That sounds amazing. Did you want to talk about something? You sound excited.”

There was a pause on the other line, and somehow Michelle knew that her mother was smiling.