Hearing a faint noise coming from my phone, I realized that I was still connected with Jules. I replaced the phone to my ear only to jerk it away at her constant yelling.

“Julia! I’m sorry,” I tried to get in.

“What the hell is going on? One minute you were there then nothing!”

“Baylor, I just saw Baylor,” I yelled, trying to be heard over her incessant chatter.

“Oh shit!” She screeched, “What happened? I didn’t hear any words exchanged.”

“That’s because there weren’t. He acted almost as if he didn’t know I’d be here which doesn’t make any sense, because he sought me out.”

“Maybe he was just stunned to see you so soon? You know, completely threw him off kilter to see you standing before him.” I supposed she could be right. I shrugged my shoulders by way of a response, as if she were standing right in front of me. Once I made it outside of the airport I let her go promising to call her again if there were any more interactions with my past.

I slid my phone back into my pocket and looked up at the lined cars in the loading/unloading zone and was hit with another wave of nostalgia. Sitting there parked just three cars up from my fathers, was Baylor’s ’85 maroon Camaro. Call it instinct, but there was no doubt in my mind that it was his. I couldn’t believe that he still had it after so many years. The body had more wear and tear such as a little rust on the bumper, but I imagined him taking care of it with precision and grace. With a man like Baylor taking care of it and showing it the attention it deserved, it was no wonder it still ran.

“Eden?” the sound of a woman’s voice hijacked me from the lust-induced state I was in after seeing Baylor and his car as she came up and pulled me in for a friendly hug.

I slowly looked to the left and then to the right wondering who the hell this wackado was and why she was invading my personal space.

She finally released me from her clutches and I was able to take the first real look at her face, trying to wrack my brain to place where she knew me from, and then it dawned on me, “Marcie?”

Whirling a hand in the air, as if to say, the one and only. “I know, I look different. After college I lost the glasses.” That was it, the defining factor! “It’s so great to see you! Hey, a bunch of us are going to Tillie’s Tavern tomorrow evening if you’d care to join us?”

I knew that I had nothing better to do so I promptly accepted her invitation and we exchanged cell numbers. I couldn’t resist wondering in the back of my mind if I would run into Baylor there as well and we’d finally get our chance to talk.

Chapter 4

Baylor

“Daddy!” I heard Norah yell which pulled me out of my gawking trance. Was that…? Was Eden really standing in front of me? I couldn’t actually believe it. I almost wanted it to be a mirage or a figment of my imagination due to the idiotic way I just stood there frozen in time, watching her as I passed by.

The walkway ended and Norah ran in my direction. When I craned my neck to look back where Eden had been standing just seconds ago, it was empty, she was gone. I knew my expression was dumbfounded when I focused back on Norah who was running my way with Dean trailing behind her.

“I found Uncle Dean!” she exclaimed as she leaped up to give me a brief hug.

Dean took in my surprised and no doubt flushed expression and his lips upturned into a sly smile as he pointed a finger at me, “You saw Eden too, I can read it all over your face!” Norah immediately dropped her arms as she tried to look behind me searching for the object of my teenage obsession.

“She’s already gone,” I admitted with a hint of sadness and defeat in my voice. “She surprised me; I honestly didn’t think that she would come back. I couldn’t even find the words to speak to her or even attempt to move.”

“I talked to her right after I got off my plane,” Dean muttered and my eyes instantly snapped up to his. “Yeah, I saw someone who I thought was her rushing to the bathroom so I hung back and waited until they came out. When she emerged I knew it was her, she was in a disheveled state, but it was definitely Eden!”

“What did you say to her?” The desperation in my voice was unlike any I had ever heard, but I had to know what was said between them. Did she mention me?

“She mentioned that she came in yesterday but had to come back today to retrieve her luggage. I was stupid and tried to ask what happened all those years ago, she clammed up and took off. She did say that she was going to the reunion.”

So many different thoughts and scenarios were playing in my mind. Did she bring her husband along with her for the reunion? What did happen all those years ago? I didn’t know if I would ever get my chance to ask her, but as long as she was alone I would make it my mission to actively seek her out.

Dean was dying to go to Tillie’s Tavern, so the next evening Norah went to Polly’s house for a sleepover so we could go. It wasn’t unheard of for Norah to stay at Polly’s on a school night, but once she heard that Eden was actually in town she asked to stay for the entire week. She wanted to be ‘out of my hair’ in case I ran into Eden to see if there were ‘any feelings still lingering after all these years.’ I couldn’t contain my laughter after those exact words left my daughter’s lips. I didn’t know where she got her intelligence from, it definitely wasn’t from her mother and well, to tell you the truth I don’t think it was from me either.

Pulling open the thick wooden door to the oldest tavern in Oregon, the smell of beer permeated the air while the drunken singing of karaoke threatened to burst my eardrums. I had forgotten that it was Monday and karaoke was on the menu; if I’d remembered I would have chosen another place. Dean came up behind me and slapped his hand on my back, “Damn, I’ve missed this place.”

I would miss this place too if I had moved away. The beer was cheap, and the down home cooking by Tillie herself was top notch. Roll all of those amazing factors in with the ambiance and you had a place to call home. The entire structure of the building was held up with exposed wooden beams that ran parallel on the ceiling and vertical into the floor. Over the years the long wooden bar itself had been replaced several times, but they always tried to make it look authentic to the time period. Several beers were on tap and I didn’t hesitate in dodging people on my way to order a pitcher for the two of us.

I reached the bar, and saw that Tillie’s granddaughter Maisie was working behind it with a white towel tossed over her shoulder and her perfect tits on display for everyone to see. Her normal attire was always a black tank top and that night was no different; once she realized it was me standing there her entire demeanor changed and a flirty smile graced her lips. It was no secret that Maisie had a thing for me, as she tried to get me to go home with her every time I came in. She was beautiful enough in her own right but I couldn’t focus enough to appreciate the beauty that was before me. Not with the fact that I had seen my first true love yesterday and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to get her off of my mind.

From behind me I heard the song changing and a bunch of women giggling from up on the stage. I turned just in time to see Eden and Marcie both take microphones from off the stands, place them up to their lips and began singing their song.

Marcie’s eyes had to constantly stay on the screen that was feeding her the lyrics but Eden seemed to know them by heart as she danced across the stage. She had always made it a point to stay up to date with all the upcoming music back in high school, since she wanted to go into Radio Broadcasting. I wondered if that’s what she ended up doing.