Chapter 24
By the time Josie got home from the hospital with her mother, the sun had already set. She was starving, and she smelled the food that Kendra and Scotty were cooking immediately when they walked through the door.
Her daughter had never been much into cooking, so she was surprised that they were preparing dinner. She had called Kendra before leaving the hospital to let her know they were on their way home and explain what had happened with her grandmother. Kendra had avoided saying “I told you so,” but Josie knew she thought it.
A part of Josie felt really silly and stupid for overreacting and thinking the worst of her mother, without even giving her a chance to explain. And the way she had treated Walker was almost worse. This man who had done nothing but care about and help her, she had pushed aside in order to have an absolute hissy fit.
There was a good chance he wouldn’t want anything else to do with her. The thought of not having him around, even just as a friend, made her stomach ache.
“What are you cooking in here?” Diane asked as they walked into the kitchen. Her mother was surprisingly spry for somebody who had spent the night in the hospital.
“Grandma! I’m so glad to see you up and walking around. How do you feel?” Kendra hugged her tightly.
“I feel just fine, sweetie. No big deal.”
“Glad you’re feeling better. Are y’all hungry? Kendra found a great recipe online for chicken casserole. She’s been working really hard,” Scotty called from the stove.
Josie smiled at Scotty. “I bet she had some help.”
Kendra followed her mother’s gaze. “Scotty’s an excellent cook, actually. He made the biscuits.”
“I’m starving, but before I eat, I really wanted to talk to Walker. Have you seen him?”
Kendra looked at her, her head tilted slightly to the side. “He didn’t text you?”
“No. Why would he text me?”
“That’s where I got the recipe for the biscuits, actually. I walked over to the guest house, and he was packing.”
“Packing? Where is he going?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not really sure. He just told me he was going to be away on a boating trip for a while. He left a check for rent over on the table.”
Josie ran to the table and looked at the check as if it was going to give her some kind of clue as to where he was going. Of course, it didn’t. She noticed it was a check for the next two months of rent, and that made her nervous. Her hands started to sweat. Where was he going? Was he even coming back?
“This doesn’t sound good. He didn’t have any kind of trip planned when I talked to him yesterday.”
Diane reached over and took her hand. “I’d bet everything I have that he’s down at the Riverwalk right now.”
“What if he’s already left?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
Josie nodded. “I hate to skip out on dinner. Save me a plate!” she yelled, grabbing her purse and running out the front door.
* * *
Josie drove quickly down to the Riverwalk. The restaurant was already closed for the evening, and the area was eerily silent. All she could hear was the occasional frog in the bushes near the water.
She looked around but didn’t see anyone. There was no sign of Walker, and she didn’t even see his truck.
She sat down on a bench and stared out over the moonlit water. The time they had sat here together before was so romantic, but now she felt lonelier than she had ever felt in her whole life.
How could she have let this man get away? She didn’t deserve him, that much was sure. Maybe she deserved somebody like Craig who would leave her when the chips were down. Maybe that was her karma for living her life the way she had.
Even though her childhood had definitely done a number on her, Josie knew she’d had every ability to change when she became an adult. She just wouldn’t do it. Every time things got hard, she lashed out at the people around her.
Coming back to Happy Harbor had been something she never thought she’d do, but it had turned out to be one of the biggest blessings of her life. She felt safe here. Peaceful. Loved.
Her relationship with her mother was something she intended to work on, just like Diane worked on her sobriety every day.
She couldn’t wait to watch her daughter go to college and live out her own dreams.
These were things she couldn’t even imagine just a few weeks ago. But the one big blessing that was missing right now was the man she never expected to find in her hometown. Right in her own backyard. The universe was funny.
She listened to the water as it lapped against the dock, and she wanted to cry. She wanted to break down. Thankfully, she held it together, not wanting somebody to find her sobbing and think she’d had some sort of psychotic break.
“Are you okay, ma’am?”
She looked up to see Leonard standing there.
“I’m fine. What are you doing down here at this hour?”
“Mind if I sit?”
She pointed next to her. “Sure.”
“Sometimes I come here in the evenings when the grief gets too big.”
“The grief?”
“My wife passed away last year. I miss her most at dinnertime. We would sit together and watch the nightly news with our TV trays in front of us. I suppose we should’ve sat at the kitchen table like proper folks, but we enjoyed it.”
“I’m so sorry. How long were you married?”
“Fifty-two years. We met in high school.”
“That’s amazing that you had such a long marriage. I wish I would’ve had that.”
“Oh, dear, you’re still young enough.”
“I’m not so sure anymore. The person I think would be a great match has kind of given up on me, I think.”
“What makes you think that?”
“I sort of said some things I shouldn’t have. I ran away when things got hard. I had a lot of hard childhood stuff come back to haunt me.”
He smiled. “I know your mom and your grandma. I understand about your childhood. But you can’t let that ruin the rest of your life.”
“I’m starting to understand that. I made a mistake and said some things last night that might have ruined any chance at a relationship.”
“Oh, I don’t think you’ve ruined anything. We all make mistakes. I was married for fifty-two years, but it doesn’t mean they were all perfect. We fought like cats and dogs sometimes, but in the end we were always best friends. We always came back together. That’s the way true love works.”
“I don’t know if it’s love. I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Well, I can give you this piece of advice, even though you didn’t ask. Communication is the most important thing in a marriage or any relationship. Without it, there’s always going to be hurt feelings, and that’s never good. But you can’t run away. You’ve got to be in it for the long haul. No escape routes.”
Josie nodded. “Wise advice. What do I do if the person has left town? I don’t even know where he is.”
Leonard stood up, letting out a grunt as he did. “When somebody loves you, they’re never too far away.”
He turned around and walked away, disappearing into the darkness. For a moment, Josie wondered if he had been some kind of apparition. Maybe she should go back to the hospital and get her head examined.
Sighing, she stood up and walked toward her car, ready to get home. Maybe she’d take a hot bath and drown her sorrows in a big vat of ice cream though she had little appetite.
“Leonard gives good advice.”
She quickly turned around. “Walker? I thought you left.”
He had a bag slung over his shoulder. “I was going to, but then I realized that isn’t who I am.”
She walked closer. “Who are you?”
He inched forward. “I’m a man in love with a woman who likes to give him a hard time.”
“Oh yeah? She sounds incredible,” she said, smiling slightly.
“She is, but, man, is she a lot of work!”
“Is that so?”
“But, you see, no matter how hard I tried to leave her behind so I could clear my head, my stupid heart kept pulling me back. So, I just sat here for hours on this boat I borrowed from my friend and stared up at the stars, trying to figure out what to do.”
She stepped closer. “And what did you come up with?”
“I decided that I would love her enough for the both of us.”
“What if she loves you too?”
“Then all the better,” he said, closing the gap between them. He looked down at her, cradling her chin in his hand. “I couldn’t leave, not even for a day.”
“I’m sorry about what I said. I reverted to some bad old habits. I was wrong about my mom. She has changed, and it turns out I’ve changed too.”
“You love me?” he said, going back to her previous comment.
“I do. And that terrifies me.”
“Change is always scary, Josie. That’s why I’m here, so you don’t have to go through it alone. You never have to go through anything alone again. Just don’t threaten to leave, okay?”
“Happy Harbor is my home now. Nana got what she wanted in the end. I’m home with my mother and daughter, and I’ve got a wonderful man. I run her beloved restaurant and live in her beautiful house. I miss her, but she blessed me more than I could ever have imagined.”
“Can we kiss now?” he asked, smiling down at her as he cupped her cheeks with his big hands.
“I thought you’d never ask.”