Chapter 11
Grant
Iquietly sing along to yet another version of Jingle Bell Rock on the radio as I watch Clara’s building.
Grabbing my phone, I touch the screen to make sure I haven’t missed any messages.
Nothing.
Asher gave her a new cell phone a few days ago, and I’d hoped she would text us, but she doesn’t. Asher told her to let us know when she was going to sleep each night, but that’s the only message we ever get.
She might think it’s strange to text her bosses outside of work time, especially when she spends every day with us, but I wish she would. I suppose I could text her, but what would I even say?
Thinking of you. Yeah, right…
What are you doing right now?
That would inevitably lead to her asking what I was doing, and I’m not sure staking out her apartment to make sure she’s okay would be an answer that wouldn’t send her running.
Not that we were stalking her; it was just that her building was full of meth-heads and junkies.
She didn’t belong there. She was too kind and pure to be in a place like that.
It was clear she’d never touched drugs in her life.
I rest my head back in my seat and change my car radio to another station. I like Christmas music and all, but after three hours, I need a break.
The snow continues to fall outside, and I think about her lack of appropriate outerwear. I glance at my passenger seat, where a brand new red snow jacket waits for her. I picked it up on my way here tonight.
I’ve been wanting to do it for days, but I was afraid of how she would react. However, today’s snowfall pushed me into action. She’ll get sick being outside in a denim jacket in this weather.
I think about the gloves that Asher bought her, and my hands tighten on the steering wheel in frustration.
I know he likes her, and considering the fact that he barely dates, I should step back, but I can’t.
There is something tangible between Clara and I, something I’ve never felt before, and I don’t want to let it go.
Of course, I had to figure out a way to get Asher and Leo to back off. Leo flirts with a lot of girls, but I can tell it’s different with her. The way he looks at her tells me he wants her.
They are my best friends, and I couldn’t lose them over a girl.
But I also didn’t want to lose Clara. Is there a way to convince them to back off?
What they are feeling can’t be nearly as strong as the way I feel about her.
And I think she feels it too; I see the way she looks at me. She’s afraid, but I think she likes me.
The door to her building opens, and she steps out, pulling her jacket tightly around her as she shivers.
“What the hell?” I glance at the time, nine p.m. “Where is she going at this time of night?” I watch as she walks down the street, and when she’s far enough away I start my car and follow behind her, making sure to keep enough of a distance that she doesn’t see me.
After twenty minutes, my phone rings. I put it on speakerphone as I keep my eyes glued to her. The snow is coming down a little harder now, and I don’t want to lose her out here.
“Hey.”
“Hey, what’s going on? You coming back soon or what?” Asher asks, sounding annoyed. He wanted to come out here, but I made the argument that we should rotate shifts. He didn’t like it, but he agreed.
“She’s on the move.”
“What? What do you mean? Isn’t it snowing?”
“Yeah, she’s walking somewhere. I’m following her in my car.”
“Don’t lose her.”
“I won’t.”
“Which way is she heading?”
“I’m not sure, she—wait. She just turned down Leslie Street.”
“Leslie? There’s nothing down there, just the train yard.”
I stay silent as I think about what business she could have in a train yard this late at night.
“You don’t think she—” Leo starts, but Asher and I both cut him off.
“No.”
“Hey, I doubt she’s selling drugs, but why else would she be going there right now?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I tell them.
“Hang tight, we’re coming,” Asher says, as rustling comes through the phone.
“You don’t need to—”
“We’re coming,” he says, more adamantly this time. “We don’t know what kind of people are there or how many.”
I sigh and nod, even though he can’t see me. “Fine, I’ll wait for you before I do anything. Unless I think she’s in danger.”
“We’ll be there in ten,” he says before hanging up.
Eventually, the train yard comes into view. When Clara heads inside and I lose sight of her, I quickly park on the side of the road and jog after her, grabbing my phone and turning it to vibrate so the ringer doesn’t give me away if the guys call.
I peek around a train car and see her walking down a track, between two trains. She keeps glancing around nervously.
“Fuck, what have you got yourself mixed up in?” I whisper to myself in frustration. I thought she was smarter than this. But it makes sense; she probably had drug dealers in her building who gave her the product. She comes out here to make the sale, or maybe she’s just the delivery person.
Makes her some money and she can remain clean. Well, if that’s the case, I’m putting an end to it tonight.
She turns and heads to a small building at the end of the track that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s located right by the parking lot. She opens the door, and light spills onto the tracks as she enters, closing it behind her.
I grab my cell and text what’s going on to my group chat with the guys, then I sprint down towards the building she went in. Before I get there, she exits, making me dive under the closest train car to hide.
I lift my head and see her standing in the middle of the track, her eyes moving around. She looks scared. Fuck, she probably heard me. I’m the one causing her to worry. She quickly moves towards the closest train and pulls herself up, then opens the door and steps inside.
I make a move to follow her, but a man steps out of the building she was just in, so I shrink back down to watch him. Is he going to follow her? What the hell was happening here?
He switches off the light and then closes and locks the door. To my relief, he doesn’t follow her; he heads to the parking lot, and I soon see his Civic pull out onto the road.
I grab my phone and tell them to park in the lot. Now that it’s empty, they can get closer without being seen.
I itch to go after Clara, to see what she’s doing in there, but the guys will be here in less than two minutes. The lights flick on inside the train, startling me. I frown at the lit train. From where I’m lying on the ground, I can’t see anything other than the light.
I slowly crawl out as the crunching of tires on gravel has me looking towards the parking lot. I see Leo’s truck pull in, so I stand and move to meet them.
They get out, their eyes glued to the lit train car. “Is that where she is?”
“Yeah, I haven’t looked yet; I was waiting for you.”
“What sort of criminal switches the light on?” Leo asks in confusion.
“She’s not a criminal,” I tell him angrily.
“I know, I know. But you know what I mean.”
I just hum in agreement as the three of us creep towards the train.
“Stop—” I hold out my palm to them when I hear something. We all listen closely, and then we silently move right up to the car as I tilt my head in confusion. “Is that—”
I cut myself off, sure I’m mishearing, as I strain my ears to listen more carefully.
“Is she singing Silent Night?” Leo asks, looking as shocked as I feel.
Asher pushes past me to peek in the window. “What the hell?”
“That’s it, I’m going in,” I say, unable to take the suspense anymore.
I climb up the train car and, as quietly as I can, open the door and step inside.
Her voice rings out loudly from in here, even though I can’t see her. The train is covered in Christmas decorations, and I feel even more puzzled than I did a minute ago.
Leo taps my shoulder and points to a poster on the wall beside us. Blackpine Mountain Christmas Train.
I’d heard of this; it runs around part of the mountain as a tourist attraction. But what was Clara doing here? And at night?
Her voice gets louder as she stands up, belting, “Round yon virgin—Ah!” She screams, throwing some sort of spray bottle at us as she stumbles backwards over the edge of a chair and lands on her back in the aisle, her feet in the air, somehow stuck between the seat and the armrest.
“Fuck, Clara, are you okay?” I ask quickly, moving to help her untangle herself and stand.
“Just a little embarrassed. You guys scared me. What are you doing here?” She asks, dusting herself off as she glances at us.
“I was worried about you.”
She frowns up at me. “Did you follow me?”
“Uh..” I scrub my hand down the back of my neck as I avoid her stare. “Sorta?”
“What are you doing here?” Leo asks as he tries to push me aside to stand closer to her.
“You’re cleaning the train,” Asher states. I glance over my shoulder at him and see he’s holding the bottle she threw at us. It’s clearly some sort of cleaner.
“Yeah,” she says, reaching between us to take it from him. “I clean the train when it’s in Silent Pines.”
“How often is that?” Leo asks, taking a seat beside where she’s standing.
“Every fourth night.”
“And how long does it take you?” Asher asks, moving to my side.
She shrugs. “Most of the time it’s around six hours, last time though, it took me eight. It depends how dirty it is.”
“Eight hours?” I ask in surprise as I try to do the math in my head. “You worked here the night after we moved all the gym equipment around?”
She nods, picking up a rag she dropped on the floor.
“Did you sleep at all that night?” Asher asks, sounding upset.
“No, but it’s fine. I need the money.”
“You’re running yourself too thin. You can’t skip sleep, Clara,” I tell her, placing my hand on her shoulder so she knows I’m serious.
“I know. I was only planning on doing a couple more shifts anyway, until I had enough for…” she trails off, her cheeks turning pink as she turns away, wiping at a seat.
“Enough for what?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Come on, shortcake. Tell us,” Leo says, grabbing her hand and tugging her in front of him.
“I wanted to buy a good winter jacket. Even the ones in the secondhand store are expensive. At least for me.”
A big smile covers my face, making me feel pleased with myself. “Well, in that case you can quit right now.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, frowning at me.
“I’ve got a coat for you in my car.”
“You do?” She and Leo ask in unison.
“Yeah, I picked it up for you earlier tonight.”
“Grant… that’s really kind, but you can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“It’s too much.”
“You kept the gloves Asher gave you,” I say, trying not to get upset. Does she like him more than she likes me? Is that why she accepted his gift?
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“He wouldn’t let me say no.”
Asher smiles in satisfaction and crosses his arms over his chest, looking at me like he’s won.
But I just smile back. Turning to Clara, I tell her, “Neither will I. Consider it your Christmas gift if it helps. Besides, I took the tags off, so I can’t return it.” It’s a lie, but I’ll say almost anything to get her to keep it.
“You’re really going to force this on me, aren’t you?”
Leo laughs at her question, and she looks at him as he tells her, “You make it sound like something bad. He’s giving you a gift. The correct response is, thank you, Grant.”
She turns to me and grabs my hand, giving it a squeeze as she says, “Thank you, Grant.” I can hear the sincerity in her tone and squeeze her hand back.
“You’re welcome. Now, want to get out of here?”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?” Leo asks as he stands and looks around the car.
“I can’t just quit in the middle of a shift. There is nobody else here to clean, and the train won’t be ready for tomorrow.”
Her good sense of work ethic frustrates me, although I understand why she wants to finish the job.
“Alright, we’ll stay and help you clean. But you’re quitting after tonight, deal?” I ask, sticking out my hand for her to shake.
“You don’t have to help.”
“Deal?” I say, wiggling my fingers and not giving her another choice.
Finally, she sighs and shakes my hand. “Deal.”
“Put us to work, shortcake!”
Two hours later, we’re passing Clara all the cleaning supplies as she stashes them in the cupboard.
“You know, I’ve never had so much fun working here before,” she says with a smile as she puts her denim jacket on.
“I’m glad you like our company,” Leo says with a smirk.
“I’ve also never been done so fast! I’ll actually be able to get a decent sleep tonight.”
“You can come in later tomorrow,” I suggest, but she quickly shakes her head.
She shoots me a look that has me holding my hands up in surrender. “Sorry, it was just a suggestion.” I suggested it before. I even told her to take the weekend off, but she begged to work through it.
I suppose if I lived where she does, I’d rather be at the gym, too.
If only we could convince her to move in with us. Of course, having her that close could make things tense between me and the guys.
But they had to understand where I was coming from. I didn’t just have some crush on her… I was falling for her.