Collision of The Heart by Eakes Laurie Alice

Author:Eakes, Laurie Alice [Eakes, Laurie Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503936287
Publisher: Waterfall Press
Published: 2016-08-23T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Only once before in his life did Ayden not want to go to church. That had been the Sunday after Mia left alone for Boston. He didn’t want to answer the questions about where she was, see the sympathetic faces, or potentially hear a sermon that would prick his conscience over his reasons for staying instead of keeping his word to Mia to go.

This Sunday morning, he faced the curiosity of friends, neighbors, and colleagues as to whether or not he would continue his courtship of Charmaine Finney or renew his relationship with Mia. The only way to avoid such speculation would be to suggest Mia sit with someone else instead of his family. She could. Any number of people would welcome her in their midst. But his family and his conscience wouldn’t allow him to cast her off so publicly.

Mia’s presence seemed to be why Dr. Finney prodded Ayden toward a commitment when he had heretofore seemed happy with the courtship. With more men coming the following week—or whenever the tracks had been cleared for train travel—to interview for the position Ayden now held on a temporary basis, he had said he would choose an appropriate time and place. Friday, while Mia was in town, seemed like a fine day, if Charmaine would be unavailable on Valentine’s Day. The proposal would surely be accepted and once and for all lay to rest any rumors that he and Mia would renew their engagement. It would stop Ma from trying to bring about that renewal. It would secure his future as a professor at the college, the work he had most wanted since talk of moving Michigan Central College to his hometown began.

Ayden had returned from the Finney household with light steps through the powdery new snowfall. At last, he would have what he wanted most—his own home, established near his family and work he loved. In a few years, he would stand a good chance of becoming the head of the Classics Department. Life could not get much better.

Then he had opened the door and saw Mia calmly icing a cake at his parents’ kitchen table. Her lips were pursed and her brow furrowed, as though she labored over one of her articles or essays. She glanced up at him, showing a dusting of pounded sugar on her nose, and a mist settled between his heart and the brightness of his future. His hands fisted. The urge to slam one through the plaster wall of the kitchen surged through him. He shoved his hands into his pockets and leaned against that wall for support until his breathing slowed and his heart stopped racing. Then he told Mia he intended to make Charmaine an offer by Friday.

Something in her life of being shuffled from indifferent family member to indifferent family member, then her career in a heartless city, had taught Mia to hide her feelings behind a smooth mask of indifference. She could even smile without changing that lack of interest, as she did at that moment.

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