Chapter 12 #2
“Great!” Sergio says, clapping his hands together. He turns to look at the rest of the group, all of whom look stunned. “We’ll see you all later.”
“Yeah … see you later,” Rose says, though her lips purse and a deep furrow wrinkles the space between her eyebrows. She turns to look at Jeremy. “Don’t hesitate to call me if you need help with anything.”
Jeremy laughs and winks at her. “I think I can handle these two boys for a few hours.”
“You could always put Sergio in his kennel up in the house,” Holden says, clapping Sergio on the shoulder.
From there, he grabs Rose’s hand and leads her towards where their skis are so they can get on the slopes for the afternoon.
She’s looking over her shoulder as they go, glaring at Sergio the entire time.
Sergio gives her one last little wave as they begin to walk away, resisting the urge to grab Jeremy’s hand like Holden grabbed Rose’s.
It’s an odd thought for him. He’s never been one to hold someone else’s hand, but something about the way Jeremy’s hand feels in his whenever he helps steady him getting off the ice has Sergio seeing the simple act of affection as desirable.
He could hold his hand. He could walk him to the car, to the barn, through the throngs of people at the New Year’s Eve party.
But right now, Jeremy is far more likely to rip his hand away from Sergio as if he’s been stung than reciprocate the gesture.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” Jeremy asks with skepticism in his voice.
“Nah. I’m done skiing for the day.”
Jeremy shifts Henry to rest against his other shoulder, then glances at Sergio as they walk. He looks as if he’s trying to decipher what angle Sergio might be playing. “I hope you’re not expecting me to entertain you.”
“Nope,” Sergio says, even though that’s exactly what he’s hoping for as he opens up the back door of the car. He stands by, watching over Jeremy’s shoulder as he straps Henry into his car seat. A task presumably made easier by the fact that Henry is currently out cold.
Once in the car and heading toward home, Sergio continues to make what he hopes is a light conversation, knowing full well that Jeremy could turn on him with one wrong word.
It’s happened on other versions of this day, and if the history of his never-ending New Year’s Eves has told Sergio anything, it’s that he never gets a new tactic right on the first try.
So, it is best to tread lightly. However, Sergio, always the over-confident man that he is, doesn’t let that stop him from forging ahead with something new.
After all, there is freedom in knowing that no matter how badly he screws up, there’s always another today.
“It’s really nice of you to help Rose and Holden out like this,” Sergio says from where he sits in the front passenger seat of Rose’s Audi.
“It’s the least I can do,” Jeremy says, his eyes on the road, his hands set at ten and two. “Besides, I love Henry. So, it’s not like it’s hard.”
“Yeah. Henry does make things easier, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. Very much so.” Jeremy smiles, and it makes Sergio’s heart flip.
For as long as Henry has been alive, Sergio has imagined himself at all of Henry’s milestones.
And now, thanks to this second, third, ninety-ninth, two hundredth chance, he sees Jeremy there in some capacity, witnessing them as well.
“And I can tell he really likes you,” Sergio says. “He gets so excited when you’re around.”
Jeremy takes his eyes off the road for a brief second and looks at Sergio. “Same can be said about you.”
“What? That I’m also excited to be around you?”
“No.” Jeremy laughs and shakes his head as he returns his gaze to the road. “I meant he gets excited to see you. You were practically all he could talk about yesterday.”
Sergio’s cheeks warm and flush slightly, and he thinks about what Henry had told him before about Jeremy being excited to see Sergio as well. “And what about you?” he asks.
“What about me?”
“Were you excited to see me?”
Jeremy pauses and appears to think about this. He removes his left hand from the steering wheel and tugs at the corner of his eye before answering. “In a way, I was.”
“But not anymore?”
“Well, we didn’t exactly have the kind of reunion I had imagined. So, no.”
A frown pulls at Sergio’s lips. “I’m sorry about that,” he says and takes a breath. “Honestly, I hadn’t realized.”
“It’s fine,” Jeremy says with a sigh. “I shouldn’t have expected you to keep tabs on me.”
“No. I think you’re right. Any decent human being would have.”
Jeremy chances another glance at him again. “You’re not that bad.”
“Tell that to Rose,” Sergio jokes.
Jeremy sucks in a breath through his teeth. “You are right about that. She may take a little more work to impress than I do.”
“A little?” Sergio plays it up. “I’m straight-up terrified of her.”
“You should be. She’s out for blood.”
“I know. But I have it on good authority that she’s simply looking out for you.”
Jeremy’s shoulders slump. He stays quiet as he turns into the Harings' driveway, then hits the button to open the garage door. “It’s not her place to do that. I can look out for myself.”
“And is yourself telling you to look out regarding me?”
“That is yet to be determined,” Jeremy says and brings the car to a stop in the garage.
“I’ll do my best not to raise any alarms,” Sergio promises and exits the car.
From there, he moves to where Henry is in the backseat and opens that door to pull his still-sleeping body out of the car.
Jeremy reaches to grab him out of Sergio’s arms, but Sergio waves him off. “I’ll carry him down the hill.”
“Thanks,” Jeremy says, closing the car door, then hitting the lock button.
Once outside the garage, he shuts the large garage door using the keypad and leads the way down to the barn.
He looks over at Sergio again and nods his chin towards Henry.
“I’m not sure when he’s heavier. When he’s dead asleep or wide awake and squirming around. ”
“Less chance of him kicking me in the balls when he’s sleeping,” Sergio says, deeply aware of the truth of that statement.
Jeremy lets out a whoop of laughter. “Very true.”
“Oh! He’s gotten you too, then?”
“Thankfully, no. But I have witnessed Holden be on the receiving end more times than I can count.”
“Henry’s only doing his part to ensure he never has to be a big brother.”
“Yeah. We should probably have Holden checked out. I know Rose has been wanting to have another one soon,” Jeremy says as they come to a stop at the barn’s entrance.
He shuffles his feet and appears to contemplate something.
After a moment, he looks directly at Sergio with a nervous expression, brows furrowed together, and his bottom lip trapped between his teeth. “Would you like to come up?”
“Sure,” Sergio says, trying not to sound as if being invited up to Jeremy’s is the only thing he has ever wanted.
With Henry sleeping on Jeremy’s bed, Sergio waits on Jeremy’s sofa for him to return from the kitchenette with some tea. The electric tea kettle grows louder as it edges closer to a rolling boil, and Sergio takes the time to admire the little home Jeremy has made for himself here in the barn.
The place itself is warm and cozy with no traces of the climate-controlled chill that is maintained to keep the ice frozen a level below them.
To add to the warm atmosphere, Jeremy painted the walls in a deep green, and his furniture is made of rich, brown leather.
He's hung artwork on the walls and loaded shelves with plants and his collection of books, most of them obscure titles of the magical realism variety.
But what strikes Sergio as interesting isn’t necessarily what Jeremy has displayed.
He’s more curious about what he doesn’t have adorning his walls and shelves.
There are no photographs of his days as an Olympian.
No medals or trophies, not even a framed commemorative keepsake.
It’s as if that part of his life never happened.
As if Jeremy never skated before he stepped onto the ice in the barn.
The rink is the only place left that holds any trace of his blades carving shapes into the ice.
“I hope ginger lemon is okay,” Jeremy says, handing a mug of tea to Sergio before he sits beside Sergio on the small sofa. The scent of the lemon wafts around Sergio, and the deep spice of the ginger clears his sinuses which are adjusting to being back inside from the cold.
“Anything is fine,” Sergio says, content to still be in Jeremy’s presence, especially now that he’s gotten a better glimpse of how Jeremy lives, cocooned and private.
He settles a little deeper into the sofa, resting his back against the corner so he can maintain a better view of Jeremy beside him. “It’s quite cozy in here.”
“It’s not much, but it works for me,” Jeremy says and relaxes more deeply as well.
He brings his feet up onto the sofa and tucks them underneath his seat, letting his knees knock together to rest on the cushion.
His tea, he holds close to his chest. “Better than any place I could have found on my own, that’s for sure. ”
“Rental market tight around here?”
Jeremy rolls his eyes, but not at Sergio. “Tight and ungodly expensive. Holden and Rose could probably make a killing renting this space out to someone else or using it as an Airbnb.”
“I doubt they have any interest in making money off of it.”
“Clearly,” Jeremy says with a resigned laugh. “Otherwise, they’d have given me the boot ages ago.”
“How long have you been living up here?”
“Only since summer,” Jeremy says and takes a sip of his tea.
“Where were you living before?”
“With my parents … in Jersey.” Jeremy shudders and tugs at his left eye. “I know. Embarrassing, right?”
“I don’t think so.” Sergio shrugs, even though he does kind of think so. But he’s sure there has to be some sort of explanation as to why a former Olympian was living with his parents.