Page 74 of Unravel Me

“You grew up spending your summers here?” I ponder aloud, my thumb rubbing her hand as we walk together.

Audrey peers up at the house as we approach the oversized arched front door.

“Kind of. In between different summer camps, this is where I’d be. The property has been in the Elson family for five generations now. It was built in 1905 or something like that. My father inherited it.” She exhales a heavy breath, her eyebrows shooting up as she turns to me. “And Andrew will get it next.”

“Not you?” My eyebrows crinkle as I look at Audrey. She lets out a small, cynical laugh.

“It’s lovely here.” She squeezes my hand. “But this isn’t me. I was more than happy to let Andrew have it. He’s the one who wants to carry on the legacy.”

“And you want...” I ask, as we are frozen on the front stoop.

“I want to build my own legacy. Whatever that may look like.”

Instinctively I put my arm around Audrey, pushing the front door open.

“Let’s do it, then.” I wink at her, taking a step inside.

Live music fills the entire property, full of people arriving and chatting throughout the backyard, which overlooks the bay. The inside of the house is beautiful, filled with ambient light, but somehow feels cold, too. I couldn’t imagine a child running around in here, because even though this is supposed to be a beach home, there is nothing welcoming or casual about it. Even at thirty I barely feel comfortable walking on the floors.

Audrey pulls me through the kitchen, where the catering staff is busy organizing trays of food. She leads me out a side door onto the expansive deck.

“Audrey.” I turn towards the deep voice as Audrey slightly tenses beside me before dropping her hand from mine.

“Dad.” Her reply is clipped, and they embrace quickly. I don’t love the way he is looking at her, like he is evaluating, scrutinizing everything about her. And I don’t like how she diminished herself the moment we pulled onto this street.

“Dad, this is Rhett.” Audrey gestures, touching my arm lightly.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Elson.” Our hands meet, his grip tight as he peers into my eyes behind the sunglasses that he likely thinks hide the judgment.

“Rhett,” is all he says as other people shuffle around us, their eyes on the man shaking my hand.

“Is Mom around?”

Samuel flashes a quick, pearly white smile at his daughter.

“She was talking to the Claremonts’ a moment ago, making her rounds, as she does.”

We nod in sync, and I plaster on my best smile, waving quickly at her father who dismisses himself.

“I need a drink,” she mumbles through a fake smile.

I agreed and we made our way to an outdoor bar set up near the sparkling pool. Audrey decides to not wait for the absent bartender and starts mixing us drinks. She claims homefield advantage and I can’t help but watch in awe as she balances two glasses in her hands, pulling the top of a whiskey bottle open with her teeth, her eyes flashing up to me, devilishly. She spits the top onto the ground, wiggling her eyebrows at me. This is the Audrey I know.

“It's not snake eyes. That's what I need right now. But this will do, right?”

I clear my throat and nod because I want nothing more than to wrap my hands around her tiny waist, pull her into my arms, and whisk her away from here, kissing her until she begs me to stop.

“Neat?” She holds the bottle out arm’s length showing me the label. “It’s the good stuff.”

“However you want to make me, baby.”

She hands me a glass, slips her hand in mine, and pulls me away from the party.

“I want to show you something.” Audrey takes a gulp of whiskey as we walk around the back of the pool house into a garden of blue hydrangeas. Her shoulders finally relax when we are hidden out of sight.

“This is where I would hide during family parties.” She plays with the gold necklace around her neck. “I didn’t think I'd need to keep running away at this age.” She casts her eyes down, but I lift her face back to mine.

“You don’t need to protect me; you know that right?” Audrey bites her lip. “There’s no more hiding. I can’t hide my love for you Audrey, and I have a feeling you can’t hide it for me either. Let’s go back out there. You might have felt like you needed to hide in the past…but you didn’t have me.”