Page 7 of Meet Me in Aveline

I swallowed hard, wondering if I could get my hearing back, if maybe all I needed was for my ears to pop and open up. Darcy inched closer to me, as though with any sudden movement, I might explode, but I didn’t say anything. My mind was racing with questions.

Where was Tuck?

Was he okay?

Had he been hurt?

Last I’d heard, Tuck was still in the Army, and he had only been back to Aveline once in the last decade, and that had been when his father had died five years prior. I hadn’t seen him then. I’d made a point to avoid all the places I knew he would be, and he’d popped in and out without so much as a whisper.

I found my voice buried beneath a layer of anxiety and what I could only assume was nausea forming in the back of my throat.

“WhataboutTuck?” I asked, finally finding words. “Is he okay?”

Darcy bit the inside of her cheek. “Tuck is coming home. That’s all I know.”

SIX

2005

LETTIE

The etiquette brunchhad been just as boring as I’d expected, but I’d put on the show of a lifetime. I’d dabbed at my mouth with my napkin with such delicacy, I was sure my mother would have fainted with pleasure. I had sat at that table, a perfect lady on the outside—poised and proper—while on the inside, I had been screaming.

I was planning out my summer the following week, a week after school had ended, when my mother called me down to the foyer. That’s when I saw Theo Martin standing with his hands in his pockets, his hair combed to one side, wearing slacks and a blazer despite the unbearable heat outside. I sighed, knowing that whatever Theo and my mother were up to, I wasn’t going to like any of it.

He looked up at me as I walked down the grand staircase, and I looked at my mother, immediately seeing the joy all over her face.

“What’s going on?” I asked, looking from Theo to my mother.

“Remember what I said about greetings, Violet,” my mother murmured before she raised her voice so Theo could hear. “Theo, here, has something he would like to ask you.”

My eyes widened and I felt my heart drop into my stomach. “Oh,” was all I could manage to utter.

“Go on, Theo.” My mother beamed at him, and I squirmed, shaking my head.

Theo was obviously nervous. Beads of sweat began to drip down from his forehead over his brow. I’d never thought of myself as the kind of girl to make someone sweat, but there we were. I wondered if it was even because of me or if it was the five foot seven woman with eyes like daggers staring him down.

His voice quivered. “Violet Carlton, would you be my date to the movies on Saturday?”

My mother’s face relaxed as she squealed before pulling herself together. Her hands were clasped in front of her, and I felt a wave of nausea float over me. She was positively mortifying.

I looked blankly at Theo. I did not want to be his date on Saturday, or ever, for that matter. I became acutely aware of my dress and pulled it away from my skin. It was itchy, and the bobby pins in my hair were poking my skull. I was getting hotter and hotter by the minute and felt like I couldn’t breathe. I needed to escape, to find somewhere where the air wasn’t so thick and where I wasn’t surrounded by marble floors and paintings that were worth more than most people’s homes.

I had to leave.

“I, uh…” I stammered. “I… I forgot something. I have to go. I’ll be back, Mother, I promise. I’m sorry.”

I ran out of the house and to my car before anyone could stop me.

I started driving with nowhere in particular to go, just knowing that I had to get away. I knew I was going to be in trouble for running out of the house and for being so rude, but I was willing to take the punishment for a few hours of peace.

I kept driving—ten minutes, twenty minutes—until I saw a welcome sign for a town I had never heard of. The sign read, “Meet Me in Aveline.”

Aveline.

I liked the name of the town. It reminded me of my favorite book—one I had loved since I was first able to read—Anne of Green Gables. Avonlea was the fictional community in the book, and Aveline’s name reminded me so much of it that I felt drawn to see it.

Driving through the town, I felt a smile creep onto my face. On the main stretch of road, I saw a slew of old buildings. I noticed a bakery, a diner, and a market on a street called Magnolia, and I felt like the entire town had been pulled straight from a Hallmark movie. I kept driving, noticing a gazebo in the middle of a field of grass, and to the left was an old building and a white chapel. A few pedestrians walked down the street, and there were several bikes parked in racks at the curb. There was something about this place that made me feel like I belonged.

---