Chapter 16 Leo
Chapter sixteen
Leo
NOW
We went to the official Coleman Creek tree lighting celebration after Marley and James unpacked their car.
To my pleasant surprise, I recognized many of the faces.
Katy and Kasen were there, along with lots of people I remembered from James and Marley’s wedding, including some of their students and fellow teachers.
I also scoped out the six city blocks designated for next weekend’s Holiday Hoopla, three on either side of the enormous tree.
Several people who’d heard about my offer to help set up for the event sought me out to offer their thanks.
“It’s crazy how so many people already know about that,” I said to James after receiving a handshake of gratitude from the mayor.
He grinned and shrugged. “Small towns.”
James still had classes to teach, but Will offered to assist me when he wasn’t with Maureen at her store.
In theory, Will was a property developer in Seattle, splitting his time between there and Coleman Creek, but he’d mostly been on hiatus from that while he’d helped Maureen get her businesses up and running.
After consulting with Katy and the mayor, I agreed to start construction on Wednesday morning, hoping that everything would be ready by Friday afternoon for the Hoopla on Saturday.
It was a tight timeline, but since they always set up the event the same way, I could work with last year’s plans.
Just after the mayor’s speech, I glanced over and saw Miranda’s phone light up with a FaceTime request from Stone. She ignored it and stuck the device in her pocket.
She did the same thing the following morning during breakfast, and again that afternoon while we were helping Marley and James put up more outdoor decorations.
I asked her about it as we were getting into bed Sunday night and she demurred, saying she’d been too busy in the moment to pick up.
I wanted to press her on why she hadn’t tried to call him back—and I knew she hadn’t since we’d been together the whole evening—but I didn’t want to spoil the ending of what had been a near-perfect weekend.
Instead, I pulled her into my chest and threw my leg over her. She giggled as the mattress protested with a loud squeak.
“Is that another way you’re trying to sell the story, Bear?” she asked playfully before wiggling her midsection, causing even more noise from the mattress, not to mention a groan from the old bedframe. “Trying to fire James and Marley’s imaginations?”
“Such a troublemaker,” I admonished with a grin.
I wrapped my arms around her, calming her movements, but as she lay peacefully against me, I spared a thought for what my brother must be thinking.
Especially after our conversation this summer.
I could tell James wanted to ask more questions.
About everything. I’d caught him staring at Miranda and me a few times, his features assessing and puzzled.
But so far, he hadn’t asked me directly.
I owed him an explanation, but I couldn’t talk to him about how things had changed with me without spilling the beans on the whole story.
On Monday, Miranda logged off an hour early and informed me that we were going on an adventure.
“I thought @theadventurousmiranda was hanging up her hat?”
She booped me on the nose. “This is a Coleman Creek brand adventure. No aesthetic edit required.”
Ten minutes after leaving the house, we pulled up in front of the bowling alley. I laughed. “You could have just said bowling.”
“We’re not bowling. I already told you why we’re here.”
I thought about it. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
We went inside, and Miranda waved to an elderly gentleman behind the desk before leading me to a far corner of the building, next to a bank of lockers. “There it is,” she announced.
In front of us was a gleaming steel pole with a large black phone box attached. A paper phone book with “1995-1996” printed on its spine sat on top of it.
“Pick up the handset and pretend to make a call,” Miranda instructed, holding up her phone. “And I’ll take your picture. Very meta.”
“I’ll do you one better.” I picked it up and produced a few coins from my pocket. After slotting the quarters into the massive box, I punched the buttons. A second later, Miranda’s phone buzzed in her hand.
“You have my number memorized? That’s hard-core, Bear.”
I rolled my eyes as she took my picture. “You do realize I grew up in a world where there were lots of these,” I said.
“Sure. But that was your childhood. Totally different. I envy it.”
Without her needing to explain, I understood. The nine years I had on her meant she hadn’t had quite the analog childhood I had. But we both had an attachment to simple things.
“Maureen once told me she left Coleman Creek because it felt like the land that time forgot,” Miranda said wistfully. “And also that she came back for the same reason.”
I nodded. “Not gonna lie. It’s nice. The pace of things not being so quick to change. Like on Friday, when we were at The Landslide and I played a song on the jukebox. There was a diner in Seattle that had one when I was a kid, but I hadn’t seen another until I came here.”
“It’s the little things,” Miranda agreed.
“The one-screen movie theater where you can’t choose your seat or buy tickets online.
Stan at the hardware store, whose version of store credit is a spiral notebook reminding him who to bill at the end of the month.
There’s a hobby shop in town that doesn’t accept credit cards at all, and there’s not a single parking lot or street in town where you need to pay to park.
I don’t mind the city, obviously. I love living in Los Angeles.
But if I had to choose, I’d say this is more my speed. ”
Suddenly, her phone lit up with another FaceTime request from Stone.
She frowned and declined it as I looked away.
I’d noticed that he’d texted a few times since she got off work, and she hadn’t responded to any of those either.
Same as last night, I was curious but didn’t want to push her or make it weird.
“Will you ever move back here?” I asked, returning us to our conversation.
“I’m not sure,” she answered thoughtfully. “Both my sisters did, and knowing they’re here is a huge incentive. But I also feel like I’ve just begun a real life in Los Angeles. Having my job and shedding my Outdoor Barbie skin—I finally have some momentum there, like waking up from hibernation.”
I nodded, recognizing the sentiment. My wake-up moment came when I met Miranda two years ago. Her friendship added layers to my existence I hadn’t even known to want. Now, I couldn’t imagine living without them.
“Where to next?” I asked.
“We’re on the clock since I promised Marley we’d be back for dinner, and I offered to stop by The Landslide to pick up some of that cider.
” She tapped her lips. “But I suppose we have enough time to ask Bert behind the desk if we can have the keys to his Honda, so you can remember the joys of hand-cranking a window.”
I laughed as her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She ignored it.
6 MONTHS AGO - JUNE
Miranda flopped down on her bed and hooked an elbow dramatically over her face. “I was so close,” she lamented, her slurred words evidence of the many drinks we’d imbibed. “One more hand and I woulda had ’em.”
“Easy there, Panda. One more hand and the dealer would have been forced to give you a prize for being the world’s worst poker player.”
I sat down on my bed. Our room was on a higher floor, and we had a great view of the Strip. I had learned something new about Miranda today—she stunk at cards—but we’d had a ton of fun playing and exploring the city.
She turned her head toward me and opened one eye, pinching her thumb and index finger, leaving half an inch of space between them. “Soooooooo close.”
I grabbed her a bottle of water from the room’s mini-fridge.
Our families had come to California to watch her graduate from her MBA program, but everyone else flew back immediately after the ceremony because Marley and James’s wedding was next week.
Miranda was the maid of honor, but Marley gave me permission to take her to Vegas for a few days to celebrate her accomplishment properly.
Miranda’s friends from school were going to Chile on a hiking trip, and she’d turned down that invite.
She told me she considered our Sin City adventure to also be a celebration of ending that chapter of her life.
She planned to stay friendly with some in her group, but @theadventurousmiranda was winding down.
Unless, of course, her himbo of a boyfriend decided it would be good for his image for her to maintain it.
I had a feeling she’d keep posting if he asked.
I dreaded the next few months because Stone’s movie was coming out and that meant he’d be ending his ruse with Naomi.
Miranda told me they’d wait a few months and then bring her own relationship with Stone into the light.
Would I lose her then?
So far, it hadn’t been as much of an issue as I’d feared. Stone was gone so often I could almost pretend he didn’t exist.
And she never brought him up. He seemed to be a non-factor in her decision-making. When I’d suggested Vegas, Miranda had jumped into my arms and agreed with no hesitation.
I handed her the water. She chugged down half of it and forced herself to sit up, looking green.
“I know myself,” she mumbled, as if her tongue were glued to the roof of her mouth. “If I lie down in this bed, I’m gonna wake up with a killer hangover. I need to take a shower and move around a bit.” She reached out to tug my pants. “Wanna walk around the Strip?”
“It’s two in the morning.”
“Perfect.” She drank some more water. “This is the only time of day the heat won’t melt our faces off.”
Rising, she began taking off her clothes. By the time she got to the bathroom, she was down to a bra and panties.