Author's Note: I thought I'd go ahead and do an update since I had this chapter ready, next chapter will be on Sunday. Thank you for reading, leave a review and tell me what you think. Thanks to everyone who has followed and added this story to their favorites.
Chapter Two
Kinsey pushed away from her computer desk and then stood. She stretched her arms above her head and walked out into her shop. It was nothing special, just a little store that fit somewhere between antique and craft store. Kinsey had always been the artsy type of girl. Flower arranging, scrapbooking, photography, and piano were some of her most beloved hobbies. Her true talent, however lied in drawing and painting. It was her truest escape and she did it as often as she could. For a while after her son passed away, Kinsey couldn't bare to paint or draw a single thing, but then Lauren found some of her old sketch books in the storage closet beneath the stairs in their home. It sparked her desire to draw again.
"I brought you a chai latte from La Roux," Rachel Montgomery said, holding out a clear plastic travel cop with a red straw. "You've been very quiet today, is everything all right?"
Kinsey smiled and took the beverage from her longtime friend and coworker. She was blonde, green-eyed, had the cutest button nose, and had the best fashion sense. Rachel and Kinsey met in seventh grade and had been inseparable ever since. They were meant to be sisters. "I'm fine, Rach."
"You know what 'I'm fine' sounds like coming from you?" Rachel asked before taking a sip of her own tea.
"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me." Kinsey walked to the register counter and sat on the cushioned bar stool.
"It sounds like 'I'm in desperate need of a mani-pedi and lots of red wine because my husband is a jack-ass'," Rachel said with a smile and batted her long lashes.
"Wow, you sure do get a lot out of two simple words." Kinsey shook her head and sipped on her tea. The day had been rather slow, but it was also only 10:15 am. People would be sure to mosey in around lunch time.
"Kinsey." Rachel placed her drink down on the counter and stared at her friend. It was that worried mother hen look that Rachel had somehow mastered in tenth grade when Michael Worvath dared Kinsey to play seven-minutes in heaven with him. It was bad because Michael was a senior and had a girlfriend, who just happened to be the head cheerleader at their school.
"Rachel." Kinsey didn't want to talk about it. She wanted to get through today, so she could deal with the attorney tomorrow and then mourn over the weekend and then things would go back to normal when Lauren was home. They would bake some chocolate chip cookies and she would tell all her horseback riding camp adventures.
"I can tell when you aren't happy, and you, Mrs. Tate haven't been happy for nearly a month and it looks like it's getting worse." Rachel rested her arms on the counter and leaned forward. She lowered her head to catch Kinsey's pretty hazel eyes. "You don't talk to me anymore, I'm getting worried."
There it was again, the worried mother hen look. Her eyes would get sad, her lips would have the slightest downward curve, her eyebrows would scrunch just a little, and she'd tilt her head slightly to the left. Kinsey straightened on the stool and smiled warmly. "I just miss Lauren."
"It's not just that," Rachel sighed and then shook her head. "It's Nathan, isn't it? What's going on between you two? I thought things were getting better."
Kinsey fought the urge to let out a snarky laugh. Nathan was bitter and upset and frustrated. And she understood that for a while, but he was just so selfish only caring about himself and his job. Nothing else mattered except for golf tournaments and the price of oil. He was an oil buyer, who lived on his phone. Nathan made lots of money, more than enough that Kinsey had been able to turn her hobby into her job. After she had Lauren, Kinsey opened up her store 'Southern Charm' and it had been wonderful. They had the perfect life, two beautiful kids, a nice house, and they were in love…and then the accident happened. Kinsey stared blankly at the counter and quietly sipped on her tea. The day that Ethan died, Nathan was never the same.
"Jack Henderson passed away yesterday." Kinsey was sad about his death, but he was only a small part of why she had been quiet all morning. The real reason was that Nathan didn't even seem to care that someone she knew and cared about was gone.
Rachel gasped and placed a hand on her chest. "Oh honey," she said softly and came around the counter to hug Kinsey. "I'm so sorry."
Kinsey stayed silent and hugged her friend back. She wanted Rachel to drop the Nathan thing, Kinsey just really didn't want to talk about him and their problems.
-#-
AJ stood beside the wrestling ring and watched as one of his student's practiced his bumps on the ropes. He nodded his head and waved for the teen to come down. The black haired boy slipped through the ropes and jumped onto the mats around the ring.
"You're doing really good," AJ said as he clapped him on the shoulder. "I think next week you'll be ready to do some basic moves. How does that sound, Jake?"
"Sounds damn good, AJ." Jake was beaming, he had just started a week and a half ago. AJ saw himself in the teen, a young kid just trying to make it through life. Jake's mother worked two jobs, his father was in prison, and his little sister had cystic fibrosis. Wrestling was the one thing Jake had to escape. AJ understood that feeling very well. He was a little older than Jake when he first started wrestling. It was Jack, who had introduced AJ to the sport.
"All right, go on home. I'll see you next week."
"Thanks, AJ." Jake waved and jogged over to the locker room.
AJ grabbed hold of the ropes and pulled himself up. He stared at the ring for a moment and then closed his eyes. His memories started flooding back to him. Jack started him on a basic regiment, saying AJ needed a way to feel like he could do something. At first AJ wasn't sure what that meant, but over time it became clear. Wrestling let him unleash any aggression he he, it was a therapy that no other sport could provide. Jack pushed him and believed in him, when he couldn't do it for himself. His father always told him he'd never amount to anything, and for years he believed it.
"What are you thinking about?" Sasha Banks, his gym manager, assistant trainer, keeper, and shoulder to cry on, asked as she climbed onto the other side of the ring. Her shiny purple dyed hair was combed up into a ponytail and she had on an oversized hoodie. Despite Sasha's small frame, she was one tough cookie in the ring and loved wrestling more than anyone AJ had ever met.
"I got a phone call last night," AJ began and rubbed the back of his neck. "My friend passed away."
Sasha frowned. "Oh, AJ. I'm sorry."
"It's all right. He lived a good life." AJ forced himself to smile.
Sasha ducked through the ropes and walked across the ring. She stood in front of him and stared at him with worry. They had been friends for a long time now, going on five years. They met in Boston, when AJ was looking for a gym. He lived there for about two years before he decided to move back to the south. Sasha followed him soon after. They weren't in love, nor had they been anything more than friends. When he asked her why she came down, Sasha told him that AJ liked running away from good things, so she'd follow him until he was happy. AJ thought he was happy, but Sasha always disagreed with him. Since then, Sasha has been his constant companion.
"I gotta go do some stuff," AJ said, avoiding her eyes.
Sasha nodded. "How long are you going to be gone?"
"A few days, I'll be back by Monday." AJ jumped down from the apron. "Take care of things while I'm gone?"
"I do that even when you're here," Sasha teased with a laugh.
AJ shook his head and lifted his hand as a goodbye. He walked over to the garage doors that were open to a beat up parking lot that was sprouting with a few weeds. Sitting on the dock, AJ saw two of his other trainers taking a lunch break. They were laughing and joking around while eating some cajun shrimp.
"Hey AJ, wanna have a round?" Seth Rollins, one of the hardest workers in the gym, asked before taking a swig of his water.
"Can't, I gotta head out for a bit." AJ walked over to them.
"You coming back later today?" Roman Reigns, a big burly Samoan, asked.
AJ shook his head. "I'll be back next week."
Seth and Roman exchanged looks. AJ never left the gym for longer than a few hours. His whole life was this gym. Occasionally, Seth would joke that AJ shouldn't even have an apartment because he was always at the gym. Without fail for the past two years, AJ was the first to arrive and the last one to leave.
"Is something up?" Roman had one leg hanging off the dock edge and the other scrunched up toward his chest.
"Just some business I need to take care of," AJ replied with a shrug. "Sasha will handle the office stuff, you guys keep an eye on everyone else."
Seth and Roman both nodded as AJ walked down the concrete steps. He made his way across the parking lot, still feeling their questioning eyes on his back. Plucking the keys of his truck out of his back pocket, AJ unlocked the door and climbed inside. He put the key in the ignition and the 97 green Chevy roared to life. It was noon, so he'd be in Kingsland before four o'clock. AJ put the truck in reverse and backed out of the parking lot.
He looked out the passenger side window. Sasha was standing by Seth and Roman now. The three of them waved, and AJ waved back before driving out of the parking lot. His gym would be fine without him. Those three would take good care of it.
-#-
Rachel practically shoved Kinsey out the door of Southern Charm, telling her she needed to be home. The truth of the matter was, home wasn't really home anymore. With Lauren at her camp and Nathan only caring about work, Kinsey liked being in her store where she could be distracted. So when she was out of the store and standing in front of her silver Jeep Cherokee, she got in and started driving. It was like she was on autopilot. Her body just drove her across town, but her mind was elsewhere. The town of Kingsland just blurred outside her windows. She had moved away when she was twenty to attend Rhode Island School of Design. That was where she met Nathan, and somehow the pain of losing AJ faded away with him.
Kinsey parked her Jeep outside of a cemetery. She got out of her Jeep and stared through the wrought iron fence that went around the perimeter. Biting her lip, Kinsey stuffed her hands into the back pocket of her jeans and walked to the entrance. She came to this cemetery everyday for three months when AJ left, and then every week for an entire year. For some reason, Kinsey always hoped that he would come back. Of course, he never did.
Her boots clicked on the paved path that cut right through the middle of the cemetery. It was a nice and big cemetery with beautiful shade trees and plush green grass. The groundskeeper did a good job maintaining the area. Kinsey stopped on the seventh row and started walking to the gravestone beneath the mossy oak. It had been a long time since she'd come to his grave…Keith Styles—AJ's younger brother.
Kinsey sighed softly and knelt in front of his grave, reading the dates carved into the gray granite: March 21, 1979 - June 5, 1995. Keith would have been thirty-seven years old, maybe would have had a family and perhaps he would have turned his life around. The truth of the matter was they would never know, since he died when he was sixteen.
"Kinsey Malloy?"
She looked over her shoulder and stood up. The air in her lungs had disappeared as her eyes gazed upon a face she had not intended to see. Her mouth went dry and somehow she was still standing when all she wanted to do was fall down. What was he doing here? Maybe she shouldn't be so surprised. This was what she had wanted twenty-one years ago when she waited for him.
"AJ?" Kinsey managed to get out in a voice barely above a whisper.
He nodded slowly. "Yeah."
In twenty-one years AJ Styles had hardly changed. His hair was longer now, he had a few wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, and he had a beard. Those blue eyes were the same that had enchanted her every night under the Georgia stars, and his lips looked as kissable as they always had. He wasn't supposed to be here, he wasn't supposed to look as good as he did, and he certainly wasn't supposed to remember her. After he left, Kinsey hoped the reason he didn't come back was because he just forgot about her. Yet here he was standing three feet away, remembering her name and saying it like they had never been apart.
"What are you doing here?" Kinsey asked, trying to keep herself from running back to her Jeep and fleeing like a coward.
"I got a call from an attorney, he told me about Jack and something about his will." AJ looked Kinsey's up and down. "You look beautiful."
Her heart skipped a beat and her muscles tensed. "I should go."
AJ looked down at his worn leather boots and then caught Kinsey's eyes. It had been a long time since a man had looked at her like that. "I won't be here long," he said, stuffing his thumbs into the pockets of his dark washed jeans. "After I meet with the attorney tomorrow—"
"Tomorrow? At 10:00am?" Kinsey asked.
"Yeah."
Kinsey nodded. "Me too."
He smiled, it was small and faint, but it was something she never forgot about him. "So I guess we'll see each other tomorrow?"
"I guess so." Kinsey glanced over to her Jeep across the cemetery. "I should really go, I'm running late." It was a terrible lie, but Kinsey's couldn't stand there any longer. She needed to leave before everything she had been ignoring took over her.
"Yeah, okay. It's really good to see you again, Kinsey." AJ stepped aside, to let her pass.
"You too." She brushed her dark hair behind her ear and flitted past him.
