Chapter 12 Ransom
RANSOM
Ransom spent the days following the celebration at the open-air market feeling like he was living in a dream.
During that whole day, the kids had been so excited to explore all the booths and play with friends. And Ransom had felt happier and more relaxed than he’d been in a long time.
And he knew that a big part of that had to do with having Hailey by his side. It wasn’t just all their old friends and neighbors smiling or winking at seeing them together. It was the way he felt more like his old self when she was near—more like his real self.
Hailey had always made him want to be a better person. And now that he was an adult, he had so many more opportunities.
He just hoped that he could manage to hold onto that feeling when she left this time.
On Monday, he’d given the dogs a nice training session in the paddock and then taken them for a good run. After they had eaten their breakfast and he’d done individual trainings, including trying to puzzle out a job for Shadow, he headed up to the house for lunch.
But instead of fixing his own lunch, he had decided to bring bread, cheese, butter, and a can of tomato soup up to the big house, hoping that Hailey was at home.
He found her sewing curtains while Aidan finished painting the living room. Ransom fixed lunch for all three of them and then helped Hailey hang her new curtains in the library.
With all the work, the room was transformed, but still familiar.
She had done a beautiful job brightening it up with white paint and then adding layers of pillows and throws and now the curtains to make the space feel extra cozy.
The splash of color on the bookshelves drew his eye to the books, which were nicely arranged with a few knickknacks interspersed on the shelves as well.
“Aidan lent me his ladder so I could clean the little chandelier,” she’d told Ransom proudly.
The crystals in the chandelier were bright and clear, adding little rainbows of light to the walls here and there.
Hailey wanted to pick up a few little things for the living room from the church thrift shop, so Ransom offered to take her in the truck.
It turned out to be a good thing, because in addition to some smaller items, Hailey found a pair of high-backed wooden benches that she said were probably inglenook benches.
Ransom wasn’t really sure what an inglenook was, but he thought they would look nice on the porch, and they seemed to make Hailey very happy.
So she had paid for everything and then he loaded up the hodgepodge of treasures in the truck and they headed back to the house.
And so the week went, with Ransom sneaking up to the big farmhouse for an hour or two whenever he could and watching Hailey transform the place into a fairytale version of the home he had always loved.
“Does it bother you to see so many changes?” she asked him one day.
“Not at all,” he told her, wishing he had the right words to explain. “It sort of feels the same, even with the changes.”
“That was my goal,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “I’ve always loved your house, and the way a person felt welcomed in and comfortable from the moment the door opened. I’m trying to accentuate that, not lose it.”
“Well, you’re doing a great job,” he told her. “You always do.”
That had her looking down modestly, her cheeks darkening slightly as his heart raced.
“When can we see Hailey again?” Mae asked that night at supper.
“She’s fun to hang out with,” Travis added.
“Soon,” Ransom told them. “She invited us to her party this weekend. We’ll all have to be on our best behavior.”
“What party?” Mae asked suspiciously.
“She’s fixing up the farmhouse so that lots of people can have parties there,” Ransom reminded her. “This weekend, she’s having some people over to see if they like it. If they do, they might tell their friends.”
“I don’t know if my friends would want to have a party at someone else’s house,” Travis said worriedly.
“No, that’s not why we’re going,” Ransom told him with a smile. “We’ll just be there because we’re her friends.”
“Is Hailey your girlfriend?” Mae asked casually.
Travis turned to him too, apparently very interested in the answer.
“No,” Ransom told her. “She’s not my girlfriend. What made you think of that?”
“Nick’s daddy told his mommy that she was your girlfriend,” Travis said quietly.
That actually made sense. Ransom realized he probably should have talked to the kids about their history already.
“That’s because when we were in high school, we were boyfriend and girlfriend,” he explained. “But not now.”
It was the truth, there was nothing going on between them anymore, but it still stung to say it out loud for some reason.
“Did you break up?” Travis asked, looking horrified.
“Yes,” Ransom said. “We were young. I was going to join the Army and she was going to go to New York to be an actress, so we broke up.”
“That’s sad,” Mae said softly.
“It was very sad,” he heard himself admit. “It took a long time for me to start to feel better about it.”
Honestly, he still wasn’t sure he really felt a whole lot better about it.
“But she can be your girlfriend now,” Mae said reassuringly. “Because you’re not in the Army anymore and she wants to be a person who has parties at their house.”
“Well, it’s more complicated than that,” Ransom said.
“No it isn’t,” Travis said. “Why don’t you want her to be your girlfriend? She’s really nice.”
“And she likes us,” Mae added approvingly.
There were about a thousand reasons it wouldn’t work, but he wasn’t really sure how to explain it to his kids. He didn’t always even understand it fully himself.
“She’s really scared of dogs,” Ransom reminded them, landing on something simple that might satisfy them.
“She could get used to them,” Travis offered.
Ransom highly doubted it, but he knew that it wasn’t the real reason his chances with Hailey were hopeless anyway. He decided it was better to just tell the kids some of what he was really thinking, so they didn’t get their hopes up.
“She probably won’t be around for long,” Ransom explained. “Soon, her agent will find her a new job, and she’ll go back to New York to be an actress again.”
That idea was met with sad silence.
Toward the end of the week, he took the kids to the library after school.
They always loved all of the children’s programs, and the big Christmas tree was already set up by the circulation desk with ornaments you could choose in order to adopt a family for the holidays.
As they pulled in, he told Travis and Mae that when their reading group was done they could choose an ornament.
“We get to buy their presents?” Mae asked as they walked through the parking lot to get to the main doors.
Families with kids were spilling out into the lot and lawn as one of the other reading groups must have just let out.
“We do,” Ransom told her. “Does that sound like fun?”
“Yes,” she said, nodding.
They walked through the lobby of the building, which was also home to the municipal office, and Ransom pushed open the door to the library.
A wave of warm air greeted them along with the cozy hush of the blessedly quiet space.
Ransom was surprised to see his old best friend, Jensen Webb, along with a sweet little toddler boy who must be his son, Henry.
Ransom knew that they were bound to run into each other sooner or later now that Jensen was home again.
There wasn’t much room to hide in a small town like Trinity Falls.
He was also surprised to find that the dread he had been feeling about seeing his friend had mostly melted away.
Ransom had been feeling better about pretty much everything this week, and he realized that maybe this was the perfect time to mend another bridge.
Seeing Jensen alone with his boy made him realize all the more just how much the two of them needed each other now. And this was as good a moment as any to start making things right again.
Of course, he had no idea how to do that. But he’d heard from Chris Bell that Jensen had recently helped Willow out when her car broke down out on Route One. So he went with that as his way in before he could overthink things.
“Hey, Webb,” he heard himself say in what he hoped was a relaxed and friendly way. “I heard about you and Willow. I talked to Chris.”
Jensen blinked at him in surprise for a moment, and Ransom figured that was no more than he deserved. He hadn’t talked to his best friend in years now. Of course the man was stunned.
“He told me the old folks were saying you got her a tow truck and everything,” Ransom went on, hoping that if Jensen saw he was determined to be friendly that maybe he would let his guard down. “That was really nice of you, man.”
“It was no problem,” Jensen replied at last, the tension in his face melting away. “It’s really good to see you. And the kids.”
We don’t even know each other’s kids. How did I ever let that happen?
“This is Travis,” Ransom said, raising the boy’s hand, then Mae’s. “And this is Mae. Say hi, guys.”
The children said hello and Jensen introduced little Henry, who seemed to be charmed by the bigger kids who bent to smile at him.
And just like that, a welcome sense of relief washed over Ransom. He hadn’t been willing to admit how much he missed his best friend, or what a toll their break was taking on him. Things weren’t fixed, not yet, but he thought that it might be possible to at least start that process.
“Listen,” Ransom said. “We should get together soon. Why don’t you come by on Christmas, like old times?”
He wanted to say out loud that he had been an idiot and he wouldn’t blame Jensen if he never spoke to him again. But that wasn’t the kind of thing you got into in the middle of the public library.
Besides, he was pretty sure his best friend knew exactly what he meant. He always did.
“Sounds good,” Jensen said simply, nodding.
But the look in his eyes told Ransom that he was moved by the gesture, and Ransom cursed himself inwardly again for letting so much time pass without even trying to make things right.
“Come on, Daddy,” Mae said a little too loudly, tugging Ransom’s hand. “We’re going to miss story time.”
Miss Helen, the head librarian, was just coming by and she frowned at Ransom.
“Let’s use our library voices, Mae,” Ransom reminded her softly before turning back to his friend. “See you later, Webb.”
Jensen smiled at him and Ransom felt something click in his chest, like a window that had been closed for far too long was finally opening to let in the light.
He headed up the steps to the children’s section with the kids, and he sat in the back, like always, but he couldn’t seem to pay attention to Miss Caroline’s stories.
Everything is changing, he realized as he thought about having his little sister and his best friend back in his life again. I’ve been letting my hurt and my pride get in the way. But that’s finally changing.
Hailey is opening my heart back up again.
He tried not to let himself wish for more than her friendship, but every day it was getting harder to believe that he could really hold back his feelings.
What if she decided to give me another chance?
What if she stayed?