Chapter 24
Olivia
Do you want to swap out with me tomorrow morning? I can drive up to Gracie’s so you and Adam can come back to Sweet River to work on festival things.
Also tell Gracie I’ll be bringing along fixins to make my world famous grilled cheese
We arrived at Gracie’s apartment complex in the late afternoon. It was a shiny, new complex that must’ve only been built recently. Adam and I jogged up the stairs with plastic bags in tow.
I knocked on the door a couple of times. A friend of hers with a short afro and big, brown eyes answered the door. “Oh good, you must be Lucy!”
“That’s me. Lucy the big sister,” I said and then nodded toward Adam. “This is Adam, my…” an awkward pause before I continued, “colleague?”
“Colleague?” Adam winced before adding, “I’d like to believe I’m so much more than that.”
“Come on in, Lucy and Adam-who’d-like-to-believe-he’s-so-much-more-than-that. I’m Jasmine, by the way.” Jasmine stepped aside so we could walk through the doorway.
“Can I set these here?” I held the bags over the round, maple dining table.
The apartment was compact. The kitchen could only fit a couple of people at a time, the small dining table was tucked into a corner of the kitchen, and the living room fit only a futon and a brown, leather chest substituting a coffee table.
“Set them wherever you like. Make yourself comfortable,” Jasmine said.
“Where’s the patient?” Adam asked.
“She’s in her room watching Gilmore Girls.” Jasmine gestured toward the bedrooms off the kitchen. “Her ankle is elevated and she’s rotating icing it.” She lowered her voice. “I’ll be honest with you, she’s been a mess. She poured a lot into this intensive and has been preparing and practicing 24/7. It’s been her life. She also has herself on this tight timeline. Everything crashing down, plus the lack of sleep and painful injury, has her really shaken up.” She looked at me. “You coming down here will be good for her.”
“She’s been so busy I haven’t gotten to speak with her much lately. How’ve things been before the fall?” I whispered.
“At the beginning of this semester she seemed determined and focused. Lately, though, the stress and exhaustion has been mounting. I was just telling her I think she fell because her body was too tired.” Jasmine leaned her hip against the dining table as we spoke.
Adam was standing off to the side, taking in the concerned whispers like a new guy in the office trying to figure out where he belonged.
“I’ve been worried she was overworking herself,” I said. Since Gracie learned to walk, she’d been going at the fastest possible speed.
“I’m just glad I was here today. I’m leaving in,” she glanced at her watch, “an hour for the airport to head out on my study abroad trip in Europe. I won’t be back for three weeks.”
My eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh! Are you all packed? I can’t believe you’re standing here chatting with me. Go get ready!”
She crinkled her nose. “Don’t worry about it. I was packed days ago. I’m all set to go, my Lyft will be here soon. My chariot awaits.”
We embraced in a warm hug. When we broke apart, I heard a muffled, “Is that Lucy?” coming from down the hall.
I ran down the hall to Gracie’s room.
“Gracie,” I said softly on sight. Her leg cast was propped up on a tower of pillows. Her eyes were pink and puffy.
She didn’t speak, just raised her arms out to me. An urge, not quite maternal, but definitely in that family, tugged on my chest as I wrapped my little sister up in my arms. She sniffled into my shoulder.
“Hon,” I said into her wavy, blond locks. We pulled apart. Her eyes landed behind me.
“You must be the infamous Adam,” Gracie said. Her voice might have been raspy from tears, but it still had a glimmer of mischief.
Adam stood in the doorway. “That’s me,” he said, then bit his lip as he leaned against the doorframe. I settled onto the bed beside her with its lilac duvet and soft, pink pillows.
“Thank you for driving Lucy here,” Gracie said, patting my leg.
“For sure,” Adam said. “We’ve got a bag of things if you need anything.” He pointed toward the kitchen.
“I have your prescription, too.” I stood up. “Are you thirsty?”
Gracie’s chin quivered. “Guys.” She grabbed my hand. “You’re so sweet. I don’t even know what I need, honestly. I feel all out of sorts. I’m just happy to have you here.”
Adam held up a finger. “I’ll be right back.”
I turned to Gracie, taking advantage of our moment alone. “Jasmine said things have been rough.”
She sighed. “Jas is right. I was a mess after I fell. It’s a grade two sprain, so it hurt like the dickens.”
“I don’t even want to imagine what kind of mess I’d be with any grade sprain,” I said, although I’d been referencing the events leading up to her fall. I looked at my sleepy, swollen-eyed little sis and decided to not push it.
Adam swept back into the room with a cheese board covered in candies, snacks, a Gatorade—almost everything we’d bought laid out for her. Even the fuzzy, brown teddy bear was situated in the center. I grinned, imagining Adam digging around in the cupboards to find the board and thoughtfully setting it up.
“What is this?” Gracie sat up as he placed the board before her on the bed. She immediately grabbed the bear, pulling it to her chest. “I have every healing elixir a girl could ask for.”
After eating some snacks, Gracie fell asleep snuggled against the teddy bear from Adam. She slept for hours. Adam and I switched out her ice and went through her fridge to make ahead any easy meals she might need over the next couple of weeks. Adam even had the idea to go over the note from her doctor so we could have an idea of her recovery timeline and what she would need.
Mom and Olivia both called, and the three of us had a group call situation going on for a while as I worked in the kitchen. We decided that Adam and I would stay here until tomorrow and Olivia would come for a few days since her schedule was “wide open”, as she put it. Mom would arrive by the end of the week, cutting her trip a little early. She sounded quite relieved to get out of backpacking.
“So, Adam drove you there, huh?” Olivia said near the end of the call. I clicked the volume lower on my phone.
”Mhmmm,” I hummed, busying myself with a bowl of apples on the counter with my phone wedged against my cheek.
“Gracie texted me a picture of the bear he picked out for her,” Olivia said. “She said she’s named him Adam Jr.”
“He got her a bear?” my mom asked as if this was the sweetest thing she’d ever heard. “I didn’t get a picture. I hate being out in the wilderness. I’m getting zero reception.”
“Adam is pleased about Adam Jr.’s name,” I said. Adam glanced over at me with a coy grin from his place on the futon.
“Annoying Adam is not so annoying, now, is he?” Olivia sang.
“Ihaven’t been able to sleep all summer…and now, I feel like my whole body can finally relax,” Gracie said from her cushy bed while I switched her ice pack.
“It just took immobility, huh?” I joked.
“It just took my big sister,” she said sleepily. I wished I could wrap my little sister up in a warm blanket and protect her from the world—from herself.
“Dinner is ready!” Adam shouted from the kitchen.
“He made dinner?” Gracie asked, scooting up in her bed.
“He made chicken soup. He googled a recipe while you were asleep and ran out to get all the ingredients,” I said in a hushed voice.
Gracie put her hand to her heart. “He’s a smitten kitten, isn’t he?”
I kept my voice low. “He’s just like this. He’s very?—”
“Adorable. He’s Adorable Adam,” Gracie said matter-of-factly. “Annoying Adam no more. He’s Adorable Adam–buyer of teddy bears and maker of soup from here on out.”
As if on cue, in walked Adam, the same cheese board from earlier now holding a bowl of homemade chicken soup and a slice of buttered sourdough bread.
“You know, I thought chicken soup was for colds.” Gracie giggled as he set her dinner on her lap.
“Now it’s for sprained ankles, too,” I said, trying not to melt straight into the carpet as Adam set dinner up for my injured sister. He dropped a straw into her glass of water.
“I also read that chamomile tea could help with her nerves and I know you’re stressed,” Adam offered. “After dinner, I could brew you a cup?”
Gracie shot me a swoony look before answering Adam. “Tea after dinner sounds perfect.”
Gracie fell fast asleep after her mug of tea. Adam and I cleaned the kitchen, discussing Little Women the book versus the latest film adaption.
After the kitchen was clean, Adam and I stood facing each other in the living room. What now? Hanging between us like the moon in the night sky.
“I saw a pool outside,” I said, not even realizing I had noticed it until I said it.
“I didn’t bring any swim trunks. I guess neither of us brought anything,” Adam said, then he grabbed my hand, rubbing my knuckles gently. “We could go dangle our feet? Talk?”
Talk. My heart leaped in my chest. “That sounds really nice.”
I left a note written in Sharpie on Gracie’s nightstand.
Out by the pool. Be back soon. Text if you need me.