Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Eleanor’s nerves were shot. She didn’t care that saying so made her sound like the crotchety old lady character in a novel. She was frazzled.
Logically, Eleanor realized that she was putting too much pressure on this day out with Garrett and Jeremy. But her logical brain was not running the show this week.
She really, really wanted her son and her boyfriend to hit it off. Was that too much to ask?
She’d fretted a bit before deciding that lunch was the perfect start.
Everybody got hungry. Everybody liked lunch.
And then, once everyone was feeling happy and full and chill, maybe they would move totally naturally to a different activity.
She had a few planned, but she wasn’t going to make it sound like they were planned. She’d be chill. No muss, no fuss.
Or something.
Because, yeah, maybe she’d already seemed a little nervous when Jeremy had left bright and early that morning for a hike he and Shane planned to undertake.
Apparently, it was a tourist attraction in the area, not that Eleanor was a big person for paying attention to local trails. Give her a walk on the beach any day.
Jeremy had gotten himself up before the sun, something that his younger teenage self would have rather pulled out his own teeth than do, and Eleanor had dragged herself to the kitchen to bid him farewell.
She’d blearily watched him fill up his backpack with water and snacks, then lace up his hiking boots.
He’d kissed her lightly on the cheek, then paused before leaving.
“You cool, Mom?” he asked.
Eleanor stopped arranging and re-arranging the salt and pepper shakers.
“Uh, yeah,” she said. “Totally. Why?”
“Oh, nothing,” he said. “Just that you seem like you’re about to leap out of your skin. And you’ve been super twitchy this whole trip.”
She could tell from the smile on his face that he wasn’t really worried. He probably knew exactly why she was acting so weird, but he was also considerate enough not to press her on it, which she appreciated.
“Nope, I’m good,” she said with a light shrug. “And I think I’ve been acting normal.”
“Right. Totally normal,” he agreed, shaking his head at her antics. “Okay, see you later.”
“Tell your uncle I said hi! I want him and Winnie over for dinner this week!”
He gave her a wave and then headed out. A few seconds after he left, Eleanor heard the door downstairs click shut.
Eleanor hadn’t calmed down since. But finally it was almost noon, which was the time that Jeremy and Shane were due back from their hike and Eleanor, Jeremy, and Garrett had planned to meet at Main Street Diner.
Not that she was counting the minutes or anything like that.
She was just throwing her purse over her shoulder when her phone rang. She fumbled in her coat pocket for her phone, saw June’s name flashing across the screen, and pressed it to her ear.
“Hey, honey, what’s up?” Eleanor asked.
“I am the worst,” June said by way of greeting.
“You’re definitely not,” Eleanor responded immediately.
“Ah, you say that now, but you haven’t heard what I’m going to ask yet.
Because I know that Jeremy is in town and you’re soaking up your time with him, but I just got a call from Benjamin’s school that he’s not feeling well, so I have to go pick him up and bring him home.
But I have a house cleaning job that I really can’t miss, and Miriam is volunteering at an event for the Historical Society, and Winnie is there too, and Cadence and Diana are both at work, and Levi is busy on calls with his record company, and—”
“Take a breath!” Eleanor interrupted with a laugh. “What I’m getting from that is that you need someone to watch Benjamin?”
She kept her tone light, because she could tell that June was genuinely distressed to ask, but internally, she was conflicted.
She’d done all this waiting and waiting, and now she was supposed to…
what? Let Jeremy and Garrett have lunch without her?
Where they could say or do anything and she wouldn’t be there to see it?
But she remembered what it felt like to be strapped for childcare and to feel incredibly guilty over asking for favors. And being a good friend was more important than babysitting two grown men while they had a conversation.
Even if she really wanted to babysit the heck out of them.
“It’s only for an hour and a half,” June assured her.
“I’ll be there,” she promised. “I was heading out the door anyway.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re a lifesaver.” June’s relief was palpable, and it made it clear to Eleanor that she’d made the right decision. “Seriously. I owe you times a million.”
“Hey, what are friends for?” Eleanor asked. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be there.”
She and June hung up, and Eleanor quickly sent texts to Garrett and Jeremy explaining what had happened. They both responded almost immediately, urging her to take her time. She could meet them at the diner whenever she was done.
“This is good,” she told her reflection as she pulled out of her driveway. “This is great, actually. It will give them a chance to really connect, without me in the way. It is better, probably.”
Yes, indeed. That was her claim and she was sticking with it.
Benjamin looked a little worse for wear when she met him and June at their house, although June reassured her that she’d checked Benjamin’s blood sugar and this wasn’t a crisis, just a normal part of the ups and downs of adjusting to his diagnosis.
“My phone will be on the whole time if you need me,” June promised, giving Benjamin one last kiss on his forehead. “And I’ll be back ninety minutes.”
Both Benjamin and Eleanor assured her that they would make it through that time by cozying up in front of a movie about a boy who learned to ride a dragon.
He explained every element of the plot to her in great detail, and Eleanor enjoyed getting some little kid snuggles from Benjamin as they watched.
She only checked her phone about ten times, which she felt was very reasonable and not at all bonkers.
She didn’t have any texts.
When June returned, smelling pleasantly of the non-toxic cleaning solution she used and looking just a little bit more frazzled than she had when she left, Eleanor just about jumped out of her seat, even though she and Benjamin were at one of the most exciting parts of the movie.
“Benjamin, this was awesome,” she said. “Tell me how the movie ends next time I see you.”
“Oh, I’ve seen it before,” Benjamin said, barely taking his eyes from the screen. “They make friends.”
Well, Eleanor supposed that made sense, given that it was a kids’ movie.
“Perfect, now I won’t worry,” she told him, exchanging a grin with June. “Okay, going now! Bye!”
“Thank you!” June called as Eleanor beat a hasty retreat. Eleanor shot her a wave over her shoulder. Thanks were all well and good, but Eleanor was going nuts wondering what was happening between Garrett and Jeremy.
She hurried to Main Street Diner as fast as she could without breaking any laws. She was still very much aware that she was acting completely outrageous over this, but she had given up trying to rein it in. She was just running with it at this point.
She burst through the doors of the diner, drawing the curious glances from a few people, some of whom she knew from the bookstore.
“Uh, hey, Janine,” she said to a middle-aged lady who read like three thrillers a week. “Sorry, I’m just meeting my…”
Except they weren’t there. She looked at every table twice.
No Garrett. No Jeremy.
She checked her phone.
No text messages either.
She sent them both another message, then waited a few minutes to see if they would respond. When her phone remained mulishly silent, she wandered back to her car.
Where had they gone?
She headed back to the bookstore, which had a few customers and her part-time employee, but neither her boyfriend nor her son was there.
Another text. And still, no response.
She checked Juniper Café, wondering if maybe they’d needed a cup of coffee, given that Jeremy had gotten out of the house so early that morning. They weren’t there either.
By the time she decided to check Nuts and Bolts, Garrett’s hardware store, she was feeling a little bit worried. They were both adults, so it wasn’t like they needed to answer her every message, but still. The worry was there, nagging at the back of her mind.
When she reached the store, it too seemed to be quiet and empty at first glance, but then she heard voices from the back room. She hurried in that direction, stress starting to mount in her shoulders, which were hunched up tight. She pushed the door to the back open…
“And this is where you’d use the block plane?” Jeremy was asking as they both were bent over a small part of the barn door that Garrett had been working on for the past week or so.
“Yeah, for sure. Here, want to try?” Garrett handed Jeremy a tool that, if you’d asked Eleanor, she would have said was a door stop.
Jeremy hesitated. “You want to let me do it?”
Garrett shrugged. “You can’t do much damage with a block plane unless you’re really trying to. And you seem to know what you’re up to.”
Eleanor was reminded of all the times she’d gotten to see Jeremy learn a new skill, and how proud of himself he’d always been.
Whether he was a little boy learning to sound out words for the first time or a teenager with his fresh driver’s license, he’d had the same beaming sense of satisfaction that poured off him.
Eleanor felt herself practically tear up at the sight.
She waited until Jeremy was done making a smooth line with the tool before knocking at the doorway to get both men’s attention.
“Hey, guys,” she called lightly.
Jeremy and Garrett were almost comically in sync as they turned to look at her, first with welcoming smiles, and then with expressions of dismay as they realized that she had no reason to be there.
“Oh man, Mom,” Jeremy said, wincing. “Did we ditch you?”
“Shoot,” Garrett said, hurrying over to his workbench, where his phone was plugged in. Jeremy’s phone was next to it, but since Jeremy’s phone wasn’t about a thousand years old like Garrett’s, he didn’t yet need a charge. “Oh, shoot, shoot, Ellie. We totally ditched you.”
“It’s fine,” she said, no longer bothered now that she knew that they were not in peril… and visibly getting along. It was basically all that she could ever have hoped for. Well, that and lunch. But she would take this.
“We did get you a sandwich though,” Garrett said, holding up a take-out bag from the diner. Eleanor practically collapsed in relief.
“I love you both so much,” she said, then paused, worried that Jeremy might feel uncomfortable about this effusiveness between his mother and her boyfriend.
But the two men were exchanging a high five.
“I feel like we crushed it,” Jeremy joked to Garrett.
“Eh,” Garrett said. “We could have probably answered our phones.”
“Okay, fair.”
Eleanor was enjoying watching this exchange, but she was also desperately curious.
“So, uh, what’s going on here?” she asked, pulling out the club sandwich that they’d gotten for her.
“Okay, Mom, no offense, but you totally buried the lede when you said that Garrett was a hardware store owner. He’s also a total pro at carpentry.
I swear, I learned more from him in the last half hour than I learned in the whole semester of my woodworking class.
I was already looking forward to taking another class, but Garrett’s really showed me all the ways that it can be way more than a hobby. ”
“That’s amazing,” Eleanor said, feeling flush with pleasure.
“Yeah, I…” Jeremy looked slightly nervous, and he glanced in Garrett’s direction for support; the older man gave him a nod of reassurance. “I might be considering changing my major. I’d do business as a minor so I know how to turn it into a real career but…”
“Honey, that sounds amazing,” Eleanor reassured him when he trailed off, looking apprehensive.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” she said.
Perhaps detecting that they’d hit a conversational wall, Garrett took pity on them. He stepped up to Jeremy’s side and clapped him fondly on the shoulder.
“He’s got a real knack for it too,” Garrett said. “The planes he makes? Real smooth for a beginner.”
“I… don’t know what that means,” Eleanor admitted. “But I’m thrilled for you, Jer. And I love that you two have found something to bond over.”
The two men exchanged an amused glance.
“I told you she couldn’t go more than five minutes without mentioning it,” Jeremy joked.
“She made it two or three though,” Garrett said back. “That’s pretty impressive.”
“Oh har de har har,” Eleanor snarked, although she wasn’t truly upset that they were teasing her. The day hadn’t gone the way she’d expected, but it had still exceeded her wildest expectations.
What had she even been worried about?