22. Graham
TWENTY-TWO
GRAHAM
The walls of my hotel were closing in on me. I’d already racked up thousands of steps in the small space. It was time to check out, time to go back home. The camp was over, and I had six more weeks before my own year started.
Yet I couldn’t stop thinking about Holly. Or Jonah. How cute he was and how silly and also how smart. I couldn’t stop thinking of the way Holly tensed and stepped back when I asked for a hug. I had a hundred reasons to stay away from her and take her warning that we wouldn’t work to heart, go back to Denver, and restart my own life, but every time I reached for my suitcase, my hand froze.
Walking away from Holly again, or rather, letting Holly walk away from me again, felt like the biggest mistake. Everyone in her life left her.
What would it take for me to convince her I would stay?
“This.” I decided. “This right here. Staying. Right here.”
Screw the life I had in Denver and the summer break that would involve hanging out on some friends’ boats and jet skis. I had six weeks before I needed to start thinking about the school year.
My lips twitched as I fought a grin, and I looked out the window at NCWU’s campus and the mountains beyond.
“I have six weeks.”
I grabbed my wallet and phone, tucked both into my pocket, and grabbed my suitcase. If I only had six weeks to get Holly to open up to me, try one last time to see what could happen between us despite her warnings, I couldn’t be in Boone.
I needed to be in Deer Creek.
By the time I got to my truck and tossed my luggage into the back seat of the crew cab, my plan was forming.
There were still things that had to be said. We were far from over.
I started my truck and pulled out my phone, quickly going to a vacation rental site. I didn’t need much, but I had to be close, and this time of year, rental prices dropped, so I found a long-term rental available, booked it, and then I finally pulled out of the hotel’s parking lot, leaving Boone behind. I was grinning, fingers tapping on the steering wheel, cementing the rest of my plan.
Six weeks to scale Holly’s impenetrable walls.
Six weeks to dig my way into Jonah’s sweet little heart—which might be the easiest of all.
Six weeks to convince her we could do this.
The drive to Deer Creek had me restless, and I forced myself not to speed through the windy mountain roads. I had to slow down, be diligent and intentional, and I also had to take the biggest risk of my life one more time.
Twenty minutes later, I pulled into The Premier Grille’s parking lot, among a dozen other trucks and SUVs. Due to the last-minute booking, I couldn’t get in until the late afternoon, so with nothing else to do, exploring Deer Creek became my new mission.
Starting with lunch.
A smiling brunette with her hair pulled back into a low ponytail, wearing a polo-style shirt with The Grille’s logo on it, greeted me with a smile.
“Good afternoon. One today? Or are you expecting more?”
I wasn’t expecting anything, but I had a load of hope bursting inside my chest. “One. And is Holly working?”
“She’s in the office,” the hostess said. “Follow me.”
As she led me across the restaurant to an empty booth, she glanced back and asked, “Can I tell her you’re here for her?”
“No, thank you.” I slid into the side of the booth that gave me a better view of the restaurant and the doors to the kitchen and checked her name tag. “At least, not yet, Annie. Maybe after I’ve eaten. Thank you.”
“No problem. Enjoy your meal. Your server will be right with you.”
I’d shown up last night after the dinner rush, not wanting to surprise or interrupt Holly while she was busy, but today’s visit was completely different. Over half of the tables were filled, and in a far corner were four local cops. Easy to spot since they were all decked out in uniform. I’d driven past the police station on the way here, although it wasn’t the first time I’d been in it. The station was close enough the officers could walk over for a meal. I figured they were frequent visitors.
I tucked into the menu and scanned it even though the few times I’d come to eat here, everything had been great. I went with the Homemade Smokehouse burger that boasted of those crispy fried onion rings that were so damn good and an in-house-made Carolina barbecue sauce.
“Hi there, I’m Emma.” Another young girl appeared at the table. “Here’s some water for you. Can I get you anything to get started? Or are you ready to order?”
I placed my order, complete with an appetizer of onion rings, fries on the side of my burger.
“Anything to drink?” The server didn’t write down anything I requested but held her pen to a tablet.
“No, thanks, I’m good with water. Oh, but can you make sure I have a side of mustard with my fries?”
Personally, I thought it was wretched, but I also knew Holly loved it.
“Mustard?” She shook off the surprise request. “Sure, sir.”
I handed her my menu, and when she was gone, I tapped on my phone’s screen.
If I were staying, there were calls that needed to be made.
I put a temporary hold on my mail, not that I got much more than advertising fliers and coupon pamphlets, and sent a few texts to friends asking them to keep an eye on my place.
Tanner and my dad were on my need-to-call list, but the conversations I needed to have with them would be done later.
For one, Tanner knew . He’d kept in touch with Tracey, and while I knew that because it came up occasionally, he never said a word about Holly. Granted, I didn’t ask, although I had to bite my tongue not to. But he could have told me. I had not one single doubt he’d known about Jonah this whole time and where Holly was.
My dad would be a different story. He was still good friends with Sophie’s family, and eight years later, they were still understandably reeling from the loss of their youngest daughter. But things changed.
People changed.
At least I hoped so.
* * *
My onion rings came out, and I dug in, closing my eyes with each glorious bite. More customers came in until the restaurant was almost full, and the teenage girls worked like a well-oiled machine. I had yet to catch a single glimpse of either Caroline or Holly, but I tried to be patient as I played a hockey game on my phone and enjoyed my onion rings.
A shred of hope came when Holly walked out of the silver doors that led to the restaurant. Since I’d been keeping an eye out, I saw her immediately and then grinned down at my phone.
She had a serving platter in one hand, and if I’d been a betting man, I would have already known it was my lunch.
I didn’t look up from my phone when she stepped to the edge of my table. The plate was flung down harder than necessary, and I slowly glanced up.
“Good afternoon.”
She scowled at me, and she looked so frustrated with me I bit back a grin. “Mustard with fries? Really?”
“Maybe it’s growing on me.”
I slid the plate closer to me and chomped on a crisp onion sticking out from the bun. It smelled incredible, and the small bit of barbecue sauce on the onion hit my tongue with the mix of vinegar and tang.
“No one but me likes mustard on fries.”
“Not true.” To prove it, I dunked my own fry into the mustard and took a bite. Man, that was horrible. I had no idea what she ever saw with that. “Did the waitress tell you?”
“No. Caroline did when Emma told her that someone ordered mustard with a side of fries. Caroline knew it was you right away.”
“She’s a smart cookie. I like her.”
I could do this all day long, but Holly scanned the restaurant and sighed. “I thought you were leaving today.”
“I was. Change of plans.”
Another quick look from Holly around the restaurant. With the way her eyes narrowed, I assumed she was taking in every table, making sure all their needs were met, maybe seeing if she knew anyone. When her gaze hesitantly reached mine, she dropped into the booth across from me, sliding her serving tray into the booth next to her.
Without asking, she stole a fry and dipped it in the mustard.
I pushed the plate closer to her and grabbed my burger.
Before I could take a bite, Holly asked, “What are you really doing here?”
I bit. Chewed my food. Took my time. Holly rolled her eyes, but she appeared tired of this game already.
So was I. I was so tired of playing games.
“I have six weeks until I think about heading back to start getting ready for the school year. I’ve decided I’m spending it here.”
That wasn’t fully true. I would need to either go home for a day and grab my computer and some other things, and I would need to spend time doing some professional development learning and reading. I typically spent the summer making lesson plans for the following year, figuring out what worked the previous one when things were still fresh so I didn’t have to take time to do it during the school year. Sure, things changed, but doing the bulk of the work over the summer kept my school year less stressed, especially during the hockey season. Fortunately, that didn’t start until October, so hockey season was only a drop in the bucket of items I’d need to worry about.
“Why?” Her shoulders dropped, almost like she was defeated and exhausted. Didn’t blame her. I was a lot to deal with.
She’d have to suck it up, because while I was tired of playing games, I had one last one to start, and this time, I intended to win.
“For you,” I told her, and I wasn’t surprised when she blinked and her lips parted. “You said you didn’t think we had a chance of working out. I intend to prove you wrong.”
* * *
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.” I didn’t introduce myself, and I skipped the niceties altogether when Tanner’s voice said hello through my AirPods.
“Graham?”
“Yeah, it’s me. How could you not tell me about Jonah?”
“Oh crap.” There was a beat of silence, and then he said, “Tracey said she didn’t want you to know. Sorry, man, but you were going through a hard enough time. I didn’t want to make it worse.”
I wasn’t sure if it made it worse or better if he knew this entire time or not. “You’ve known since the beginning?”
“Called Tracey one night to hang out, and he was screaming in the background. Then she and Holly got into an argument about how to calm him down. It all happened so fast it took me a minute to figure it out, but yeah. Listen, I’m sorry. But she was adamant she didn’t want you to know. It was senior year. You’d already gone through the Sophie stuff…you know?”
The Sophie stuff. Like my best childhood friend dying was a thing to be managed. My lip curled, and I bit back the anger before it came across. “I can’t freaking believe it.”
“Wait. How do you know? Oh…you found her, didn’t you? You’re still looking? After all these years?” He sounded part shocked, part disgusted.
“I’m not hunting her down,” I drawled and rolled my eyes. Not like he could see that part. “I’m at Jackson’s hockey camp, and guess who showed up to pick up their kid while I was helping him with skates after his drills?”
“Who? Oh…oh dang.” He coughed and then laughed, and then I wasn’t sure if it was a cough or a laugh, but it irritated my senses. “That’s wild. She walked back into your life after all this time, huh? That’s kind of cool. Kismet or whatever that’s called.”
“Yeah, Tanner. Kismet.” This guy. He might have been hit in the head with too many hockey pucks this season. Swore he kept getting dumber by the week.
“So what’d you say?”
“I said hi. She said goodbye.”
“That’s it? After all this time?”
I scratched at the scruff on my jaw. “And then I showed up at The Grille and told her I was staying in Deer Creek for six weeks.”
It was a definite laugh this time that filled my ears. Tanner howled like there was a full moon. I shook my head and checked the kitchen cabinets in my rental until he composed himself. There were basic seasonings I could use and some coffee for a Keurig. The small two-bedroom place wasn’t much, but it was mostly used as a winter ski chalet. From the back patio, I could potentially ski right out the backdoor and down to the lift. Probably why it costs more than the upper two floors.
“That’s wild , G. You’re not actually considering it, are you?”
I couldn’t tell if he thought it was a good thing or not. Probably wasn’t. There was a chance the high schoolers over the years had hurt my brain too much. Maybe I was the one getting dumber by the minute.
“In the rental now. Only packed for three days, so I need to head home and get some stuff, but yeah. I’m pretty serious. You going to tell me this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done?”
“Not the dumbest . But maybe the riskiest?” He coughed and cleared his throat. “Listen, Tracey and I are friends, right? We don’t see each other much, but we talk every couple of weeks. And she’s been worried about Holly for a long time. There’s a lot going on there, with her folks, her aunt, the restaurant…Jonah. I just…don’t screw with her, you know? And give her time? Frankly, I’m not sure six weeks is enough.”
“Has to be enough to start a foundation. What’s going on with her folks?”
I’d assumed she had no contact with either of them, but was I wrong?
“Not helping. I’m staying out of this and not giving you anything.”
“Well, I know about Caroline’s stroke and that she half-owns the restaurant.” The fact she never shared that had hurt in the moment, but that was always how getting to know Holly had been. Tiny, quick jabs of pain in between the times I’d never felt happier.
“Huh. So you’re there and staying. Can’t wait for Tracey to find out. That’ll be fun. Maybe I should come down.”
“Stay far away.” Tanner turned everything into a joke and a good time. He was good to have around, definitely, but not now. “How’s the offseason going anyway?”
He was in Iowa, working hard to get his big shot. His team had lost in the playoffs in the last series before the finals, fighting for the Calder Cup, the AHL’s Championship. He had two more years on his current contract, but he was also getting older. He either got called up soon and given his shot, or he’d soon have to join me in teaching. He was only twenty-seven, but even now he was running out of time. Not that I’d ever tell him that, but it was hard to watch nineteen—and twenty-year-olds getting to play when you were still down below, fighting it in the trenches.
“It’s all right. My body is sore, like always . But I’ve been healthy for the most part, so I’m working with a trainer on my agility and flexibility to help with some of that. The guys and I are going down to the Keys in a few weeks for a long weekend, but I was thinking of coming to see you.”
“Give me time alone with her. Let me see what progress I can make on my own.”
“All right, G. Man, this is wild. Glad you’re not pissed at me or anything, but I do think it’s cool you found her. Just move carefully, right? From what Tracey said, she’s not going to leap into your arms and declare it love at first sight.”
“Trust me, I know. Talk soon, Tanner. Keep your chin up.”
“You too, man.”
I hung up the phone, tossed it to the corner, and then picked it back up again.
Holly might not want much to do with me, but she wanted the best life for her son.
And he needed new skates.