Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Holt
For the thousandth time since yesterday when Grandpa called, I wonder if I’m doing the right thing. Sometimes surprises aren’t good when you’re dealing with eighty-year-old hearts. I’d never be able to let the guilt go if our surprise caused Gracie to have a heart attack on top of her dementia issues. Then I saw Grandpa’s outfit when I picked him up this morning and I got on board with what this was: a very sweet romantic gesture. The kind that’s been in the making for sixty years.
“Do I look okay?” Grandpa asks, standing next to my Jeep with a bouquet of flowers I have no idea where he got. His suit is too big for him now, but I don’t mention it. It’s pressed and clean, making him look like a million bucks.
“You look like half the ladies here at Sunny Shores are going to trample me to get to you.”
“Aghh.” Grandpa bats the compliment away with his free hand. “There’s only been two ladies I’ve ever had eyes for. Your grandma.” He pauses, his eyes looking far off into the distance. When he speaks again, his voice holds a reverence he must have kept inside for sixty long years. “And Gracie Graham.”
I put my hand on his back and gently turn him in the direction of Gracie’s condo. “Well, you’re in luck. You got forty years with Grandma, and you’re about to see Gracie again.”
He has me straighten his tie before he lets me knock on her door. It swings open quickly after and Maple fills the doorway. I love the smile that tilts her lips before her gaze swings to Grandpa. Her eyes go wide and then she’s practically beaming.
“Surprise!” I say dumbly.
“Well, am I getting lei’d or what?” Gracie’s playful voice comes from behind Maple.
A choking noise comes from my throat, but I don’t think Grandpa even caught what she said. Maple shifts to the side and Grandpa’s too busy staring at Gracie to do something mundane like use his ears. The two elderly people stand in the doorway, eyes on each other, bodies not moving. Maple and I look back and forth between them like we’re watching a particularly entertaining pickleball matchup.
“Hank,” Gracie whispers, her eyes filling with tears.
“Gracie Mae,” Grandpa says gruffly. He suddenly remembers his manners and thrusts the flowers forward. Gracie doesn’t drop her gaze from his, but she takes them from him just the same. “I always brought you?—”
“Dogwoods,” Gracie finished for him.
I’m starting to feel like we’re in the way of an epic reunion. Like maybe these two want some privacy, and Maple and I are standing in the way of that.
“We should…” I trail off, looking to Maple, like she has any idea of what to do here.
“Yes, let’s get inside where we can sit and catch up.” Maple puts her arm around Gracie’s shoulders and steers her back into the condo. “I’ll go put these in water for you.”
I put my hand on Grandpa’s back and shuffle alongside him. When we get to the living room, I point to the couch where he sits. Gracie also takes the couch. Maple heads for the kitchen, probably to find a vase. The two old lovebirds are still staring at each other, maybe cataloguing all the ways in which they’ve changed over the years.
“You look the same,” Gracie says, still sounding shell-shocked.
“And you’ve grown more beautiful.”
Wow, Grandpa’s got game. I have memories of him and Grandma together, but they’re hazy. I have no idea if he was a player in his younger years. That’s just not something you normally ask your grandfather.
“Well, this is a surprise!” Maple comes back in the living room, the flowers in a vase, which she places on the coffee table. She comes back to my side and we stand there, watching the two of them as they ignore us to stare at each other.
“Grandpa called me yesterday. Asked if I’d come pick him up so he could see Gracie today. I hope the surprise was okay.”
“More than okay,” Gracie answers. Then she leans to the left and places her hand on Grandpa’s knee. “Have you had a good life, Hank?”
He places his hand on top of hers. “I have, but I never forgot about you, Gracie. I never got to tell you I’m sorry.”
Gracie shakes her head violently. “No, it’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
Grandpa is just as adamant. “No, it’s not okay. I left without a word and that will forever be my life’s regret. Please tell me you ended up having a good life. If you say you did, maybe then I can start to forgive myself.” Grandpa’s voice warbles at the end there.
Gracie swipes her hand under her eyes, actively crying, but she doesn’t let go of Grandpa’s hand. “I had a wonderful life. I found a good man and had two children. Multiple grandchildren, including Maple here. I don’t regret a thing.”
Grandpa nods. I watch a tear slip down his weathered cheek. Maple rests her head against my shoulder with a shaky inhale, so I pull her close.
“My father, he wasn’t a good man. We moved so many times. Always because he couldn’t hold down a job. He found happiness in a bottle while my mother and I barely scraped by. I didn’t want to introduce you to all that ugliness, Gracie. I didn’t want you to think differently of me.”
Gracie shakes her head again. “I knew who you were, Hank. That’s all that mattered to me.”
“But the church robbery was something else. He’d never done something like that before, and to this day, I don’t think he did it. But I knew the whole town would think he did. My family name would come with a cloud of shame. I couldn’t let that shame touch you. When my parents told me we were leaving in the middle of the night, I went willingly. As much as I loved you, I had to protect you.”
Gracie sniffles, her breath coming in hitches now. At least she finally got closure on what happened all those years ago.
“I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for you and me,” she finally says.
“It just wasn’t our time back then,” Grandpa agrees, nodding sagely. Then he looks back at Gracie with a sparkle in his eyes. “But maybe it is now.”
There’s so much hope in his voice it makes my own heart break. Gracie whimpers and suddenly the two are embracing, both crying and whispering to each other as they rock back and forth. If I squint my eyes, I can just imagine the two of them sixty years ago. See the youthful glaze of innocent love that had been snatched away too soon.
Maple looks up at me, and I kiss her quickly.
“Let’s give them some space,” I whisper. She nods, tears welling in her own eyes.
“They can spend the day getting caught up and then we can have them over for dinner tonight at the cabin.”
“Sounds good.” I take her hand and pull her to the front door. The two lovebirds don’t even notice our exit. When the condo door closes behind us, the heat of the mid-morning sun hits my skin. I tilt my head back and soak it in for a moment. What a crazy summer it’s been.
“I’m so happy I could cry,” Maple admits, her forehead dropping to my chest. I smile down at the top of her head and rub my hands up and down her back.
“It’s crazy to think they might have a second chance at a sixty-year-old love story.”
Maple’s head lifts and her piercing blue eyes find mine. “I want that for us. Not the breakup in the middle, of course. But I want a love that lasts for decades, through deaths, generations, and setbacks.”
I’m nodding, agreeing wholeheartedly with her, even as part of me immediately worries she’ll eventually get frustrated with me like Macy did. “I want that too. But I’m not easy to live with, you know.”
Maple shakes her head, her eyes more determined than ever. “No, that’s not true. No more true than the crap Dexter tried to get me to believe about myself.”
I love how fiercely she loves me. I love how she defends me. I vow to do the same for her.
“I’ll never hurt you, Maple. Stifle you. Turn you into someone other than who you want to be.” It’s a promise I know I can keep. It’s a promise I’ve never wanted to keep before but now means everything. I’d rather lay down my life than hurt this woman.
“And I’ll never belittle you or make you feel like you’re less than the most generous, perfect man I’ve ever met.” Maple’s eyes turn glassy again. “We’ll grow old together here in Anchor Lake. Raise a family. Build a legacy of truly loving people, meeting them where they are, and growing with them. No secrets. No missed chances. That’s what I want, Holt.”
“And I’ll give it to you. Every single thing.” I dip my head and take her mouth in a deep kiss, the two of us feeling emotionally vulnerable and so in tune with each other it’s like we’re breathing the same air. When we pull back it’s only enough to rest our foreheads together. “Go to dinner with me tomorrow. A real date. You and me. It’ll be the start of our forever.”
Maple’s answering smile is what makes my heart beat now. “Yes.”
“Dock & Dine Bistro at seven.” I’ll have to call Reece MacGowan, the owner, and see if I can pull some strings to get a reservation. I know they’re normally slammed all summer long. I think of all the meals I made Maple at the beginning of summer, when I couldn’t even be bothered to put a shirt on, and wince. “I’ll be a proper gentleman.”
“Not too much of a gentleman, I hope,” Maple replies with a wink.
I groan, wondering how this woman can be so perfect for me, and steal another kiss. “We’ll have to have dessert back at the cabin.”
Maple’s cell phone rings, interrupting our moment. She fishes it out of the back pocket of her shorts and answers it.
“Grandma? Everything okay?”
I look at Gracie’s condo right behind us, ready to dash in if something is amiss. But Maple giggles right away, and I know everything is fine.
“Yeah, I was thinking we’d have you and Harold over for dinner tonight before Holt has to take him home. Is that okay?”
Maple listens, nods, and then lets out a hoot. “So, you’re letting a boy sleep over, then?”
I grin, thinking how happy Grandpa must be to have an invite to spend the night with Gracie at her condo.
“You know I’m happy for you. You don’t have to explain a thing to me.” She nods again, her voice quieter when she replies. “You were right. Anchor Lake is magical.”