Chapter 28 #2
When I say everyone is out, I mean everyone is out. There are apartments above the diners and restaurants, even the sheriff’s department and post office, so people stand on roofs, tossing lights across the street to their neighbors across alleys and grass.
I almost stumble as I watch them string the lights, a wrinkle on my brow. It’s insane. They take Christmas lights to a whole new level here. I’m surprised they didn’t use an air cannon to string lights up on the mountain that overlooks the town.
I should have known. It isn’t like I wasn’t warned that the entire town banded together for Christmas, starting festivities on the first and lasting past the new year.
I stand outside the diner doors, watching and observing an entire town coming together for a holiday.
It’s almost…magical. A month ago, I would have scoffed at that.
But now? I don’t know, I’m just about buying into this Wonderland situation.
There’s even a food truck decorated in lights parked down the street by the creek.
It’s strange and something I think people would only see in movies. I feel like I’m in Whoville, and if I glance to the top of that mountain, I’ll find the Grinch sneering down at us all with his little pup.
Shaking myself out of it, I open the doors. Darcy smiles by the counter, wiping away stray crumbs from one of the local teenagers, who’s making googly eyes at her.
Christian sits in the corner, facing me. His eyebrows are drawn together as he peers out the window, watching everyone milling about.
I pull out the chair across from him, the legs grinding against the tile floor.
He looks up at me, gripping a mug of coffee like his life depends on it.
“Hey.” He clears his throat, his eyes darting to Darcy as she brings me my usual mug of coffee. He waits for her to leave before continuing, “I didn’t know if you’d come.”
“Arlo pushed me out the door.” I sip the delicious brew, realizing I made a pot in Arlo’s apartment, and he kicked me out before I could drink any.
“You stink.”
“Still?” I groan. “I’ve gotten used to it.”
“It’s faint, but still there.” He nervously clears his throat again.
“Look, I want to apologize.” He winces at that while I just sip my coffee and let him talk it out.
“I should have said something sooner. There were a hundred different ways I could have handled that situation, and I think I chose the wrong one.”
“You think?” I raise a brow and scratch my chin.
“Look. I’ve known since Eric died that my parents wanted me to talk to you.” I swear the ceramic cup may shatter in his hands. His knuckles turn white as he uses it as a lifeline. “I’m sorry about that too.”
“Specify.”
“I should have shown up at the funeral. I don’t know if he told you, but we were slowly beginning to talk again, having lunches here and there.” Blowing out a breath, he sits back.
My throat closes up, and I’m not sure I can respond, but somehow, I do. “He didn’t tell me.”
“I asked him not to. He wanted to, of course, I just…” He runs his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t think you’d see me.”
“You didn’t try.”
“Neither did you,” he counters.
I swallow my retort. All the anger I have stored inside threatens to spill out, but that won’t help this situation.
“You’re right,” I reply, my anger fading.
Grief for my best friend rises after all these weeks, but also happiness that he and Christian mended their friendship.
“I didn’t reach out, and I don’t know if I would have listened if you had.
” I knock on the countertop. “But you could have reached out in a better way than coded texts.”
He winces again before nodding. “I see now why that would have seemed weird to you.”
We sit in silence as Darcy brings us food. She gives me a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and a heaping side of bacon. She knows me so well.
I dig in, waiting for Christian to explain his parents. I won’t go back on my promise to Lark, I won’t let them take her.
“My parents only want the illusion of a grandchild. All their friends now have grandchildren, and they suddenly feel like they are missing out.” He slides his eggs around on his plate.
“I know what they are doing is wrong, but I’m nothing, Wren.
I made nothing of myself. It was the topic that Eric and I beat into the ground.
I wanted to become something, live for something, and he was helping me with that before—”
“He died.” It sounds just like him. Even from the grave, my bestie is looking out for the rest of us Earth dwellers. “What did you want to do?”
“Same thing I always wanted,” he whispers.
It’s an answer I already know, one we spoke about years ago. “You still want to be a teacher.”
“History.”
“I heard you got your teaching degree.”
“Yeah, so did my parents. I told them I was getting a business degree and even paid off my guidance counselors to lie to them—until graduation day.” He drops his fork. “They threatened to make me pay all of the student loans if I didn’t do what they wanted of me.”
My heart hurts for him, for the path they forced upon him. “Now?”
“I know the choices I made were the wrong ones. I know I allowed them to dictate my life, and all I hope is that you’ll realize that the choices I made were done out of fear.” He swallows, leaning forward. “Let me make it up to you, Wren.”
“How, Christian? There is a chasm between us, I don’t know if either of us can mend.” I swirl my syrup around my plate.
“I promise to keep my parents in Georgia and prove I can be the man Eric believed I could be. Let me get to know my daughter,” he begs.
“Okay,” I whisper, taking a bite of my pancakes.
“That was too easy,” he says, shocked.
“That’s because you haven’t met me yet.” Kenzie pulls up a chair, wearing a chilling smile on her face. “I’m about to make sure your promises hold up in court.” She doesn’t even introduce herself as she sets a recorder between us. “Shall we begin?”
“Here?” Christian asks in surprise.
“Welcome to small-town life. Buckle up, Southerner, because we’re about to upturn your entire life,” Kenzie answers.
It takes everything in me not to laugh, because she isn’t wrong.