25. Holly
TWENTY-FIVE
HOLLY
“What’s he doing here?” Jonah asked, peppering me with this thousandth question of the day as he scanned the large menu board in front of us and drooled over all the cupcakes, beignets, donuts in the cases. “Camp is done, and he doesn’t live here. That’s weird, right, Mommy?”
Not so weird, actually. I should have known he wouldn’t leave. Should have known hoping he would leave would make my hopes come true.
He’d said he was staying. He was staying.
So much for avoiding him.
“Promise we can go say hi when we get our treats?” He bounced on the balls of his feet as he asked.
“I promised, Jonah, and you know I keep my promises.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” he sang.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. What a great kid. Sometimes I wondered how much I was actually teaching him, how good of a person I was raising, but then he said things like that in his sweet little voice, and I wanted to trap him at this age forever.
Although I was pretty sure every age he hit so far was my favorite.
I said a quick prayer I’d keep feeling that way as he grew and turned into a preteen and then a teenager.
“Well hi, friends!” Millie pushed through the back door, her blond hair pulled back into a bun, her eyes glimmering with excitement. To date, I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her frown. She had that perpetual happiness about her that made me envious. “Early for treats today, isn’t it, Jonah? You must have been a very good boy.”
He gave her a serious nod. “Yup. I was. Made my bed without being asked and everything.”
He flung out his arms as wide as they went.
“Well.” Millie laughed. “Sounds like you definitely earned a treat. How can I help?”
“Only two and some ice cream, Jonah,” I reminded him.
The extra two treats were bribes. Our friends couldn’t join us at the park, and he’d been so disappointed. Maybe it wasn’t the best parenting strategy, but it worked in a pinch.
“And two scoops of ice cream in a bowl. Superman and bubble gum.”
“I’m on it. Anything for you, Holly?”
“I’m good.”
The downfall to letting him pick treats was I didn’t have enough money for my own, but I didn’t mind. It was only ten in the morning. I’d save my treat for when I could dive into the ice cream already in my freezer.
“All right, then.” She gathered our things, rang us up, and as we were leaving and Jonah was merrily sucking a spoonful of Superman ice cream, I hoped he forgot all about Graham.
“Now can I see my coach?” He slurped off the rest of his spoon and grinned at me. His teeth were bright blue, and he had a ring of pink growing around his lips.
I held back my sigh. “Sure.”
Some days, I really wished his memory wasn’t so great.
I didn’t hesitate to go next door. This time, my arrival would surprise Graham instead of the other way around. Just once, I’d like to see him thrown off-kilter like he made me feel.
Britta’s and Millie’s were owned by a grandmother and granddaughter. Millie went to a culinary arts and sciences program after high school and returned wanting to open up her own bakery. There wasn’t a lot of property available at the time, and she’d had little funds. To help, Britta cut back the size of her restaurant, renovated it so Millie could have her own space, and then slashed her hours to only serve breakfast and lunch.
Aunt Caroline had been thrilled with this news, and for a few years until more restaurants were built and opened, the only place in town to get any decent dinner was The Grille. Max’s Tavern was around, but they served mostly burgers and bar food, so Caroline practically ran a monopoly on serving locals and tourists dinner. Sales and profits soared for Caroline. I’d never seen her happier.
Because of the connection between Britta and Millie, it was a locally-kept secret that you could take your food from one establishment to another, so I pushed through the front door, and with my shoes weighed down by my lead weights of hesitation, we entered Britta’s.
Graham had a bite of fried chicken at his mouth. As I caught his eye at my arrival, he froze.
A slow, smirking grin stretched across his face, and it was that look that made my heart skip a beat. That stupid, attractive smirk.
“Hi, Mr. Coach!” Jonah cried. He slipped past me and hustled to the table, sliding into a chair across from Graham like he’d been invited.
I rolled my eyes at him and then followed.
“This is a surprise.” Graham set his fork down and leaned back in his chair. “What brings you two here?”
“It’s my town,” I drawled, but it lacked heat. Somehow, Graham slithered past the weakest spots in my defenses. “Why are you still here?”
Next to me, Jonah happily slurped on his ice cream.
Graham glanced at Jonah, and then his eyes pierced mine, freezing me in my chair. “One, you don’t own the town, so I can be anywhere I’d like, and two”—he leaned in closer and lowered his voice—“I think you know exactly why I’m here.”
Warmth flooded me from my chest to my toes. I shook it off before the heat reached my brain and burned my common sense. “You shouldn’t be. There’s no point.”
“And I think you’re worth fighting for.”
“We’re fighting?” Jonah asked, and Graham chuckled, smiling at him.
“No, buddy. Your mom and I aren’t fighting. Fighting for something is trying to win.”
“You want to win my mommy?”
A slow, sleek smile stretched across Graham’s face that made my toes curl in my faux Birks. “You bet I am.”
“If you win, what’s the prize?” He slurped a spoon of bubble gum ice cream. Bless the innocence of little kids.
I reached across his bowl and grabbed a napkin. “Wipe your chin,” I told him before glaring back at Graham. “There is no prize.”
He smirked right back. “Oh…I think there is.”
* * *
“So, what are you two doing today?” Graham slipped his hands to his hips and tipped his chin to the sky. He and Jonah talked about hockey, and Graham finished and paid for his meal.
I should have left sooner, but once Jonah got started on something, it was hard to get him to redirect. Also, there was a part of me who enjoyed watching him light up talking about something he enjoyed with a man who understood it. I was trying to learn and definitely knew more than I did in those few games I saw in college, but there were some things that I still couldn’t help him with.
And God bless the person who ever saw me on a pair of ice skates. After the first few attempts of trying to teach Graham to skate, I gave up and put him in lessons. I spent more time falling and sliding than Graham, and he’d been three.
“We’re going home,” I said. It was the one place where he couldn’t follow, unless he’d done more stalking. Someone in town would tell him what neighborhood I lived in.
“We are?” Jonah whined. “I wanted to see Paul. Or maybe , Mr. Graham could take me skating?”
His eyes lit up with excitement. I sucked in a breath. This was why I didn’t want Graham here. Jonah would latch on to him, Graham would someday leave, and then my boy would know the pain of watching someone you care about walk away.
Graham watched me like he saw every fear flicker through my brain and gave Jonah a soft smile. “Maybe another day, Jonah. I have to head back home today.”
“You’re leaving? ” Jonah cried.
“Oh darn,” I quipped. “So soon?” I snapped my fingers together in an aw-shucks gesture.
Graham’s chest shook with laughter, something that wasn’t hard to miss since his shirt could have been painted on to him.
“Don’t get too disappointed. I only packed for camp. I’m heading home to grab clothes and work things.”
Shoot. I should have already considered that.
“But you’ll be back, right, Mr. Graham? And then you can take me skating and help me?” Jonah’s tone was so pleading even as his little chin wobbled. He’d been around Graham for a few hours, and already he was getting attached.
I couldn’t bring myself to stop it even seeing the ending play out.
“Of course. As soon as it’s okay with your mom. Just not today.”
“All right.” His shoulders slumped, and he glanced up at me. “Can I go back to the park?”
“Look for cars and stay where I can see you.” The park was right across the empty street, less than fifty yards away.
“Sweet!” He held out his tiny fist to Graham, who returned the fist pump and then took off running.
“Cars!” I shouted, cupping my hands around my mouth before he could run into the street.
He pulled to an abrupt stop at the curb, looked back at me, grinned and waved, and then looked both ways. My eyes followed the movement, and once he was across the road safely, I turned back to Graham. “I don’t want you here.”
“I plan to change your mind. We still have things to talk about, and until you can give me a few hours to do that, I have no plans to leave.”
“And if I give you that time?”
“I intend to use every second to convince you that taking a chance on me isn’t a risk.”
He was so cocky, so sure of himself. It irritated me and drew me in with equal measure. He’d always done that to me. Made my head spin and made my feet feel firmly planted and secure.
I had my eyes on Jonah at the park and didn’t dare look at Graham to see the smirk he’d proudly wear.
“When?” I finally muttered. Best to get this conversation done and out of the way.
“When’s the slowest night at work, or when can you get away?”
It was Saturday, by far our busiest day.
“Tomorrow,” I admitted. Maybe Graham would give up this foolish notion that he could find all those missing puzzle pieces from years ago and make us fit.
“Tomorrow then.” He grabbed his keys from his pocket and spun the ring around his thumb. “And do me a favor?”
“I thought I already was.”
He chuckled. “You’ve gotten sassier since college. I like it. Unblock my number.”
“How do you know I haven’t deleted it?”
“You haven’t.” He rocked back on his heels.
“How very presumptuous of you.”
Graham’s grin continued to grow larger. “Maybe, but I know you have it. You might have done what you thought was right, but that doesn’t mean you wanted to say goodbye to me completely.”
I glared at him.
He smirked. “Tell me you deleted it, then, and be honest about it.”
I was a lot of things, but I wasn’t a liar. “How do you get that large head through the neck hole of your shirts?”
His hands went to the bottom hem of his shirt and curled around it. “Want me to show you?”
“No,” I cried and yanked my gaze back on Jonah. But I was smiling, and it seemed stuck there. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t wipe it away.
“Unblock me, Holly.” I swore he’d moved closer. “And don’t skip out on seeing me tomorrow. I won’t give up nearly as easily as I did all those years ago.”
With that parting threat, he turned and whistled as he headed back to his gray truck.
I hadn’t seen it when we hurried up to Mellie’s, but I wouldn’t forget it.
If he was intent on sticking around, I still believed it was smarter for me to avoid him.
Maybe after tomorrow night, he’d finally see how beneficial that would be to both of us.