Chapter 15 #3
AJ didn’t talk, he’d gone on fishing trips and literally not said one word, but that was okay.
Unlike other people in his life, his grandfather didn’t mistake his silence for rudeness or think AJ felt left out.
He just let him be, which was exactly what he needed.
There was a wordless understanding between them, a fact that felt as rare and precious as a blue-ribbon trout, that he just wanted to tune the rest of the world—his brother mainly—out and just be in nature.
That was AJ’s idea of rest and relaxation.
That is why Hope Falls had always represented happiness and acceptance to AJ.
Now that Papou was gone, he wondered if it still would.
He’d only been back once since losing him, and that visit hadn’t counted.
It was skewed because he had spent the first night with Poppy in Pine Ridge and the second in the hospital with his mom while his, stepdad, recovered from surgery.
Both were variants polluting his constant.
That wouldn’t be the case now. Hopefully there would be no more emergencies, and Poppy made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.
He’d called and messaged her more times than his pride would like to admit and had not gotten a single response.
Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her.
His brain was still fixated on her face, her scent, her voice, her touch, and her taste.
He'd tried so hard to scrub her from his memory, but she was seared into it. His body actually ached when he thought about her. He felt ill. If it weren’t for her, moving to Hope Falls would be a much easier decision.
But being across the country from her and not getting on a plane to show up on her doorstep and find out why she wasn’t returning his calls and messages had been difficult, if all he had to do was hop in his car, he wasn’t sure how he’d stop himself.
This weekend he knew he’d see her. She was obviously going to be at Liam and Frankie’s wedding since she was Liam’s baby sister. And it wouldn’t just be a weekend. AJ Airbnb’d a home through the holidays to test out how he would feel if he became a permanent resident of Hope Falls.
He hoped that once he saw her again, whatever spell he was under would be broken.
That the fixation he had on her would subside, and he’d be able to move on with his life.
If not, he may have to have a lobotomy. He was only half joking.
He’d gotten stuck on a few things before that had taken over his entire life and become unhealthy, but never a person.
Whatever this was he was feeling, it had to lessen, there was no way he could actually feel more.
Now, driving down Main Street, nostalgia welled in him.
Sue Ann’s Café with its bright striped awning, Two Scoops Ice Cream, where Papou and Yaya used to take him and Niko every Saturday during the summer for malts, the wooden sidewalks, old-fashioned lampposts, the walking bridge over the river that ran beside downtown.
He let the window down just enough so that he could inhale the cold air until his lungs burned, just to confirm that Hope Falls was still real.
The air was thinner and colder than he expected, tinged with wood smoke and the faint chemical tang of de-icer.
As much as he wished he could go take a shower and decompress, he’d promised Yaya that he’d visit her as soon as he got into town, since he hadn’t done so during his short trip for his mom’s wedding.
He didn’t take full responsibility since the groom had a heart attack and the family had to spend the day after the wedding in the hospital, which was the day he’d planned on spending with Yaya.
She wasn’t one to hear excuses, though, so he would be getting her visit out of the way upon crossing the city limits.
AJ wasn’t sentimental, but he was, at heart, loyal to a fault.
He’d made the promise knowing she would hold him to it, and she did.
A text had pinged his phone as soon as he landed in Sacramento with instructions to pick her up at the new bridal store on Main.
He replied that he’d text her when he was outside.
As much as he loved his sister, he did not want to go into a bridal shop after already being on a plane and in two airports.
Which is why when he pulled into a parking space in front of Ivory and Lace Bridal Boutique, he messaged her to let her know he was there. When he saw Yaya walking towards the entrance of the shop, he got out of the SUV and walked to the passenger side and opened the door.
“My boy, my boy, my boy!” Yaya exclaimed as she patted his cheeks and kissed each one. “My handsome, handsome, handsome boy! My most handsome, handsome, handsome grandson!”
Yaya thought it was hilarious to refer to AJ as her most handsome grandson since he and Niko were twins.
Niko claimed that she was ‘confused’ and meant him, Yaya told him she was not confused.
AJ knew she only said it to mess with Niko because Niko cared, and AJ did not.
AJ thought it was unkind to his cousins, who were also her grandsons, but Yaya never had any issues having favorites.
She felt like it was “the way of the world.”
The drive to Yaya’s was very short, less than five minutes, and Yaya talked the entire time about the bridal appointment and Frankie’s dress. AJ was doing his best not to listen. He honestly did not want that information stored in his head.
As they turned onto his grandparent’s street, it hit him that Papou would not be tinkering in his garage or outside working on his jeep.
He wouldn’t be sitting on his porch smoking a cigar at night or sneaking cookies from the kitchen when he thought Yaya was asleep in her chair.
It was the first time AJ had been to their home since he’d passed.
He hadn’t expected to feel emotional about the visit, but his chest ached and he felt queasy.
When he parked in the driveway, he noticed that there was a brand new front door.
He didn’t mention it, in case it was a sore subject.
He assumed she would tell him the story since she loved to tell stories.
He walked around and helped Yaya out of the SUV, and as they made their way up the steps, he noticed that the front door wasn’t the only thing that was new, there was a camera above it.
He wondered if this was the influence of her boyfriend, Mr. Arthur Santino. They walked inside, and AJ had no sooner shut the door than he was being yelled at. “Come, come, come!”
AJ said a quick hello to her healthy cat Garfield, while he was petting the tabby, who could stand to lose at least ten pounds, when he noticed there was a camera in the front room and motion sensors in the hallway.
When he walked into the kitchen, he saw that she had a brand new stove, it was state-of-the-art with fail-safe shut off.
There was also a camera in the kitchen, motion sensors, and a brand-new back door.
Both new doors were able to be accessed remotely so someone could check on their phone if they were locked or not.
“Sit, sit, sit!" Yaya had already donned her apron and was filling a bowl with stew.
AJ wasn’t hungry at all, but he knew better than to say that to Yaya. She would not take no for an answer. It was pointless to resist when he knew he’d end up eating it anyway.
“That’s a nice stove.”
“Yes. Liam, he do all this for me.”
“He did? When?”
“The first day he came to see me. When Frankie have hangover. Next day, all this.”
Liam had done all this for Yaya before he and Frankie were even together.
That tracked. It also made AJ feel like shit that she clearly needed someone keeping an eye on her.
He’d been so upset about Papou passing, he hadn’t even given a thought to Yaya’s safety.
She’d always been so…capable. So feisty.
Seeing the measures Liam had taken only made AJ moving to Hope Falls make more sense.
She sat the bowl down on the table and yelled despite him being a foot away from her. “Eat, eat, eat!”
He lowered into the chair, took a bite, and was immediately transported back to his childhood.
Yaya sat across from him, rolling pin in hand, working on dough as she told him about the gossip in her canasta group, the senior yoga classes she’d been taking, and, of course, more praises about her gentleman friend Arthur Santino.
While he was at his mom’s wedding, he’d heard the story about Mr. Santino, who was 90, stepping in and assisting his neighbor when her abusive ex showed up, taking a bullet for her.
AJ assumed he had just stepped in front of her and shielded her.
That is not what happened. AJ watched the footage, and what Mr. Santino had done looked like it was an action sequence out of a Matrix movie, so he looked into him.
Growing up, during the summers and holidays AJ spent in Hope Falls, Mr. Santino had been a mysterious figure in the town.
He kept to himself, and there’d always been whispers about what or who he was.
The general consensus was that he worked for the mob and was hiding out.
Some people believed he was in witness protection.
AJ had never been tempted to use his resources and skills to look into him until he and Yaya started to spend time together.
If he had ties to any sort of dangerous people, AJ needed to know.
What he discovered was that Mr. Santino worked for the CIA in what is now the Special Activities Center Special Operations SAC/SOG as a paramilitary operative who was trained and tasked with conducting lethal, covert missions, including targeted killings of specific individuals, which was functionally assassination.
In layman’s terms, Yaya was in very safe hands.
If he had to guess, he would say that his grandmother knew nothing about her new boyfriend’s past. If she did, half the town would know by lunch.
Lydia Costas was a sweet woman, with the best intentions, but keeping information to herself was not one of her strengths.
It surprised AJ that Mr. Santino and Yaya were even a couple, they were so opposite.
So, if Niko ever asked him about the two of them, he would honestly say yes, he was surprised.
Yaya was loud and loved being the center of attention.
Her opinion was always made known in every situation, whether it was her business or not.
Mr. Santino, by contrast, seemed constructed entirely out of secrets, as if each cell in his body was encoded with classified information.
He blended into the background, never wanting to be in any spotlight, much preferring the shadows. Maybe that’s why they worked so well.
The reason he left the service was tragic. His wife of nearly thirty years, who also worked for the CIA as an intelligence officer, was killed in the line of duty. When that happened, he was done. He walked away and never looked back. He moved to California and was no longer an active asset.
From what AJ was able to find, he’d been approached on more than one occasion to come back. The first fifteen years it was as an operative, then as a trainer, and even as of a year ago, he’d been asked to consult, but he’d always declined.
“So! What is answer?” Yaya clapped her hands, causing a puff of flour to float in the air, pulling AJ out of his wandering thoughts.
He stared blankly at his Yaya.
“When?!” she shouted.
“When what?” he asked.
“When you settle down? Make great-grandbabies?”
“I don’t want children,” he reiterated. He wasn’t sure how many times he had to tell her before she’d listen.
“Ahh.” She waved her hand dismissively. “You would be great father! Best father! So smart! So patient! So handsome!”
“Appearance has nothing to do with the quality of parent you are,” AJ pointed out.
Yaya slammed the rolling pin down onto the table with a loud thud. “Of course it does! Good genes! Good babas!”
“Babas” was Greek for “dad.” There was a knock at the back door, and when it opened, Mr. Santino stood on the porch with a huge bouquet of flowers.
AJ saw his grandmother’s face light up as the screen door squeaked open and she received the floral arrangement.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” Mr. Santino apologized.
“I was just leaving. I need to go take a shower.” AJ stood and kissed Yaya on the cheek before nodding at Mr. Santino. “Nice to see you.”
“You too, AJ.”
Most people, especially those who were virtual strangers, could not tell AJ and Niko apart, but after discovering Mr. Santino’s background, it didn’t surprise AJ at all that he had no issue with it.
AJ made his way out of the house, and as he closed the door, his phone vibrated with a text.
As he walked to the truck, he read the message from Niko asking where he was staying for the wedding.
He responded, letting him know that he’d gotten an Airbnb.
Niko asked if he minded him crashing there.
AJ didn’t have to ask why Niko needed a place to stay.
He would bet money that he’d left his lodging until the last minute, and now that the first snowfall of the season was forecast, tourists from all over were flocking to the town for skiing.
He was sure his brother thought he’d be able to get a room at the Mountain Ridge Resort or the Mountain Meadow B&B, or an Airbnb, but the town was getting busier every season as tourism increased.
AJ wasn’t thrilled with having to share his space with his twin. Unlike other twins who he’d heard had difficult times adjusting once they moved away from each other, he’d thrived in having his own personal space.
Despite that, he sent his brother the address to his accommodations.
AJ: 412 Aspen Trail Drive
Less than a second later he received a response.
Niko: Ohhh, someone’s fancy.
AJ, Niko, and Frankie used to ride their bikes in the Hope Falls Hills, where Aspen Trail Drive was located, and talk about how they would have a house there someday. Well, Niko and Frankie would talk about it. AJ never said much. He’d always planned on buying a home close to Papou and Yaya.
He climbed behind the wheel and looked up.
When he did, he saw his grandmother putting the flowers in a vase.
It was strange to see another man in the kitchen with her.
A man who wasn’t Papou. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but he did know he was happy for Yaya.
And he knew Papou wouldn’t want her to be lonely. But it was still strange.
It seemed he wasn’t the only one having a fresh start.