Constant Surprises (Wrong Numbers Series) (3 page)

“Yeah,
I try to send Dad every article about the restaurant whenever I find one. He
sent me a picture of him with the bulletin board. I swear I almost died when I
saw it.”

“Oh
yeah, Roy is back home.”

 
“When did he get in?”

“This
afternoon. I must say he is looking real good too.” Sandy smirked.

“I
bet he does still look good.” Amie sighed. “Remember that time when we all went
to the river for a swim when we were in ninth grade?”

“Yeah,
I remember that day. It was the day when you cut your foot on that rock.”

“Remember
when he came to my rescue? He took off his shirt and used it to put pressure on
my foot and stop the bleeding. We got in the back of Steven’s truck while he
kept helping me with my foot. I didn’t tell you this, Sandy, but I got the
chance to kiss him on the cheek that day. I thanked him for being so nice to
me.”

“Oh
my God, woman, why in the hell, no wait a minute, how the hell could you have
kept such a juicy secret like that from me! We are supposed to be sisters! Do
you remember what he did when you kissed him?”

“He
didn’t do anything at all. Except I swear he turned a bit red then said no
problem at all. I felt like such an idiot for doing it, but I had built up all
of this courage to get him alone. All I wanted to do was just talk with him and
tell him how much I cared for him. But I choked and ended up giving him a peck
on the cheek.” Amie fell quiet for a long moment.

“Amie,
are you okay?” asked Sandy.

“Yeah,
I was just thinking is all. I probably just need some sleep. Listen, I’ll see
you and the girls at one. Give everybody my love.”

“Will
do, sis, praying you’ll have a safe trip home,” said Sandy and the women hung
up.

* * * *

Amie kicked off her
shoes and sat down on the couch. She took out the headband she normally wore to
keep her thick hair off her face. She ran her fingers through her hair. Her
heart bounced in her chest thinking about Roy. Even after all these years, just
hearing his name did something to her.

The Fulton boys were
always the talk of the town with most of the girls. Both were tall, blond,
blue-eyed handsome men. Any woman would have been happy to have one of them on
her arm. Amie was no different. The girls spent hours throughout high school
chatting about Amie’s crush. The fact Amie was of mixed raced led her to
believe she never stood a chance with Roy.

The memories were
cemented deep into a part of her mind she tried not to visit too often. Roy
Fulton had been her school crush since the day they were playing on the
playground in the swings.

“I
betcha
can’t go higher than me!” shouted an eight-year-old Amie running over to the
swing set.

Roy was right behind
her, wearing a pair of Wrangler jeans, a blue shirt, and sneakers, even back
when he was a kid he was adorable. “
Nuh
uh, I’m
gonna
go higher than you, Amie!” Soon they were both
grabbing a swing next to each other. “Ready!”

“Set!” Amie said.

“Go!” Roy said.

They started swinging
back and forth, something they did every day during recess. It was the only
thing she could do to get close to him without having the teachers bugging her
to stay away. Even as a little girl, adults would make assumptions about her
and tried to keep her away from the other kids. But after her parents
complained about the blatant racism to the principal, her teachers weren’t as
open about it.

Pumping her little
legs, she looked over watching Roy staring back at her. They kept their eyes on
one another getting higher and higher. But something happened. Her seat started
to buckle underneath her sending her sailing into the wind and landing hard in
the sand. When she tried to stand up, the swing came back hitting her shoulder
blade with a sickening smack, making her fall back down again with a scream.

“Amie!” he shouted. He
jumped off the swing running over to where she lay on the ground. He helped her
up. She was crying and spitting out mouthfuls of sand.

“My shoulder,
ow
…my shoulder hurts so bad, I want my mommy!” Amie cried.

“Ms. Mackenzie!”

Thankfully Amie had
only suffered a big bruise on her upper back. Although it was bad enough for
her to stay home from school for a couple of days. On the second day, she was
at home in bed eating soup, a sandwich, and drinking some of her favorite apple
juice.

“Amie, you got a
visitor, sweetheart,” her father Richard said with a smile peering in from the
hallway.

Soon she saw a big
bouquet of flowers walking towards her with Roy holding them tightly together
in his little hands. He took off his cowboy hat when he stood next to her bed
looking every bit of nervousness. But when she smiled at him, the look of worry
slowly melted away replaced with that sweet smile of his. “Are those for me?”
she asked with a sparkle in her eyes.

“I thought I would
bring them to you because it was my fault you got hurt.” He handed her the
beautiful bouquet of assorted flowers. She held them close to her, taking in
the sweet smell.

“It wasn’t your fault,
Roy, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have tried to get up so high on that swing.”

He sat down on the side
of the bed next to her. “No, it was my fault cause if I hadn’t kept telling you
I would get higher than you on the swings, we wouldn’t have went and did it. I
got so scared for you, Amie. Then you started crying, I got even more scared
for you. When are you going to be back in school?”

“Probably at the end of
the week,” said her father who was still standing at the doorway watching the
two of them talking. “It was sweet of you to bring her flowers.”

He then asked, “Say,
Roy, would you like something to eat?”

“No, sir, I’ve got to
head on home my mom is out in the car. If it’s all right with you, Mr. Brown,
can I come by on Saturday and sit with Amie?”

“Sure you can, son.
I’ll come pick you up at noon,” Richard said.

Abby came into the room
carrying a bottle of children’s liquid aspirin to help ease Amie’s aches. A
smile came across her face when she saw the flowers. “Wow, you got flowers,
wasn’t that sweet of Roy to bring you those today. Let me give you your
medicine then I’ll go put these in a vase.” She poured a spoonful of the red
liquid onto the teaspoon. Amie opened her mouth only to make a face while she
swallowed. Taking a sip of juice, hoping the taste would go away didn’t help
her much. She got up under her blanket to get comfortable.

 
Her mom asked, “Where do you want me to put
them, sweetheart?”

“Over here on my
nightstand so I can see them,” Amie said. She had never been happier in her
life as she was at that moment. Soon the medicine was doing its job, and she
fell asleep.

Her last thought before
sleep overtook her was—she was in love with Roy Fulton.

Chapter Two

Roy was sitting on the
porch after dinner with his father Bob Fulton. Both men sat in their rockers
surveying the land in front of them. One of the men Roy admired most was his
father―hardworking and tough to most people, especially those he worked
with.

“Glad to have you home,
son, I’m sure you want to get started on your farm. We’ll go over to the feed
store and get what you need after we check on the house. Your mother and Sandy
tried to make it a bit like home.” He chuckled taking a sip of coffee.

“I just hope that they
didn’t make it too girlie.” They laughed, then got up and went back inside.

“Who was that on the
phone?” Agnes asked Sandy.

“It was Amie, she’s
coming home. The girls and I are going to have lunch with her tomorrow,” Sandy
said.

“Amie, Amie Brown?”
asked Roy.

“Yeah
,
Amie, you remember her?”

“Yeah, it’s just I
haven’t heard that name in forever. What has she been up to lately?” Roy hadn’t
forgotten about Amie Brown; she was the last woman on Earth he would ever
forget.

The group looked at him
as if he was crazy. His mother went to the bookcase to pull out an album. She
sat down, opening it up flipping through the pages. She pulled out a piece of
paper. “Abby gave me this article. I could have sworn we told you about her
having her own restaurant in Atlanta. Didn’t we tell you about that, Roy? She’s
been doing really well. Take a look.”

Roy took the article
from his mother’s hand. “The last I had heard about Amie was that she was in
Atlanta, but nothing about her opening up her own restaurant, this Cobalt Blue
Café?”

“That’s the name of the
restaurant. I’ve heard they have really good food. Hold on, she even has a
website online. Go check it out on the computer,” Agnes said.

“Come on, Roy, I’ll
show
ya
,” Sandy said. They walked down the hall to
Bob’s office. She sat down. Roy bent over her as she started typing. When Sandy
clicked the video link, the image of Amie wearing a bright blue T-shirt with
the words
Cobalt Blue Café
across the front filled the screen instantly.
She hit play, and Amie’s voice struck his heart. “Welcome to our restaurant, we
hope you enjoy looking over our menu. We also have meeting and party rooms at
the Cobalt Blue Café, where every blue plate is special.” It ended with the
staff shouting and throwing confetti as blue and gold balloons fell from the
ceiling.

Roy smiled when he saw
how beautiful she still looked. “Wow, she sure hasn’t changed since the last
time I saw her. I’m happy she’s been doing so well. I can’t wait to see her.
Remember when the Browns had that going away party for her before she went off
to cooking school? I still feel bad about what went down.”

* * * *

Ten
years earlier…

“I never thought that
our daughter would be going away on a scholarship to cooking school in France
at the famous Le Cordon Bleu. We will miss her a lot but I know that once she
is done, she will be an amazing success in everything she does.” Richard
stopped for a moment and wiped his eyes. “I haven’t been more proud of her than
I am now. We love you very much, Amie, and we hope great success for you.
Here’s to our Amie!” Richard said holding his daughter with one hand and a
glass of champagne in another.

“To Amie!” shouted the
group of people as they cheered and clapped. Richard hugged Amie tightly as she
quietly wept happy tears in his arms. She was incredibly lucky to be accepted
into the Le Cordon Bleu. It was a dream come true. Not only did she want to
start her cooking career at the best possible school, she wanted to find a path
out of this town.

“I am so happy for you,
girl,” Sandy said, giving her a hug.

The two teens mingle in
the crowd. People were congratulating and hugging Amie.

“By the way, I have a
surprise for you,” Sandy said with a smile Amie knew all too well when Sandy
was up to no good.

“Oh Lord, what is it,
Sandy?”

They walked out to the
parked cars where some of the kids from school were hanging out. They went over
to Steven and Roy who were sitting on the back of Steven’s truck. “Congrats,
Amie. Way to go, girl!” said Steven giving her a congratulatory hug.

“Thank you, Steven, I’m
so excited about going to France. Of all places in the world…France.” She saw
Roy nursing a beer looking solemn.

“So, what is this
surprise you have for me, Sandy?”

Sandy walked over to
Steven who was smiling real big. “I’m getting married!” She showed off her
engagement ring.

Steven and Sandy had
been dating ever since she was a freshman and he a junior. Amie was a tiny bit
envious of their love. It was something she had always wanted, especially with
Roy.

“You sneaky girl, oh my
God, this is great news.” She gave them both a hug and started to cry. Sandy
quickly joined in the tear fest. “So when are you guys getting hitched?”

“Well, we talked with
our parents about it. Dad doesn’t want me to get married until after I’ve completed
college, which means another four years. So we decided to just make it a very
long engagement. I want you to be my maid of honor, Amie, please say you will
be my maid of honor.”

“Now that’s probably
the silliest question you could ask me, of course I’ll be your maid of honor.”

A Corvette pulled up,
the radio was playing some too loud honky
tonk
music.
Susan Harris slide out from the driver’s side wearing a multicolored peasant
top and a pair of shorts too short for even her. All Amie knew was if Susan
bent down, all of what she possessed would be shown to the world. Her long,
dark brown hair draped her bare shoulders nicely. Even though Susan was a
pretty girl, her attitude towards Amie made her ugly. She walked over to Roy
grabbing his beer taking a swig of it.