Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
When you find a person attractive, that’s what love is.
From the group text chats of Ellie, Ali, and Mae:
ALI : Abe says he is not in love with you.
ELLIE : That’s good news since I’m not in love with him. We had a good time though. Talked about our kids the whole time.
ALI : Ugh. You people with kids never shut up about it. Yes, yes. You have kids. I GET IT.
ELLIE : Wait until you get one.
MAE : Look at this photo of Louisa. Look what she can do now!!! Isn’t she the cutest, sweetest, most precious thing you’ve ever seen?
ALI : She’s laying on a blanket. I expected more from the three exclamation points. What exactly is it she’s doing?
MAE : She’s smiling and it’s not from gas.
ELLIE : She’s adorable! I remember the day Oliver did that. I should find those photos. I think I took a hundred of them.
ALI : I need new friends.
“How you doing, Ellie?” Teddy asked as he traipsed into the café a couple of weeks later, wearing a worn t-shirt and a pair of shorts.
He still looked too thin, but he was lighter these days.
Spring had melted into an early summer and now, in late May, we were already getting scorchers in the nineties.
Gil was finally, cautiously, speaking to Teddy.
I liked to think it was because of our talk a few weeks ago but whatever had spurred him on, it was nice to see the two of them looking through photos together or talking about Teddy and Ollie’s childhood.
Gil was always kind and polite and they never seemed to veer into more serious topics.
“Let’s get you something to eat, shall we?” I ushered him into the dining area. Gil was already there with a stack of file folders.
“Gilbert,” Teddy said, giving him a hearty pat on the back. “What do you have here?”
“Lots of stuff. I found it all in Ollie’s room.” He opened one of the folders and removed a stack of photos. “Have a seat. I bet you know the people in these photos.”
I left to get Teddy’s place and returned as he was saying, “…and we snuck out of the house to do it.”
“What happened after?” Gill asked.
Teddy chuckled. “Amelia ratted us out ’cause we wouldn’t let her come, too. Whoo-ee, I got a whupping for that. I haven’t thought about that in a long time.” He smiled wistfully before setting the photos aside and pulling the plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes toward him. “Glad you found those.”
“I made copies so those are all yours.”
“That’s awfully nice of you.” He pointed with his fork at me. “Isn’t he a nice guy?”
Gil picked up another file folder. “I was hoping I could go over this stuff with you.”
With a flourish, Teddy unfolded a paper napkin and laid it across his lap. “I suppose it’s time to answer your questions. Ollie said you’d have some.”
“I’ll let you two talk.” I rose from my seat, but Gil stopped me.
“I think you should stay.”
“Okay.” I folded myself back in the seat.
“So, what’s the story, Teddy?” Gil asked. “What happened with Ollie and my grandmother?”
“It’s a long, sad one.” He took a bite, his expression thoughtful. “I don’t look so good in this, I guess. But here goes…”
As Teddy explained, Ollie and Amelia had been sweethearts for as long as the both of them seemed old enough to understand what it meant. “Joined at the hip, those two. Heck, I was Ollie’s best friend, and she was my sister, and I was the one who usually felt like the third wheel.”
Ollie graduated high school two years before Amelia and settled in to work at the café. “Amelia had her heart set on college and Ollie was planning on joining her, not for school—he was a terrible student—but there was talk of a marriage.”
But two weeks before Amelia was to head off to college, Ollie’s father had a stroke. “It was real sad. He couldn’t hardly talk after, let alone walk. He needed care around the clock.”
“And Ollie didn’t have any siblings,” Gil said. “There wasn’t anyone else to take over the café, was there?”
“Indeed. Ollie’s mother had her hands full taking care of her husband.” Teddy finished off his meatloaf and pushed his plate aside. “Is there any more of that apple pie?”
“I’ll get you a piece.” I stood. “Keep talking.”
“So, Amelia went off to school on her own.”
I brought the pie back to the table. “When did she figure out she was pregnant?”
“I’m not exactly sure.” He shoved a forkful of pie into his mouth. Chewing slowly, his eyes drifted shut. “Ellie, I don’t know how you make it so good.”
Gil and I watched him eat for a good three minutes before Gil cleared his throat. “And then what?”
“Oh, right.” Teddy straightened in his seat.
If I didn’t know better, I would say he was enjoying having an audience hang on his every word.
“Amelia started classes, and she loved it. She would call home once a week to tell us all about it. There were letters, too. There was a boy she met who took a liking to her, I remember her telling us about him. She let him down easy, but they remained friends.”
Gil held up a stack of envelopes, yellowed with age. “She wrote to Ollie, too. Found a whole stack of them.”
“Did they have a plan?” I asked. “Were they still planning on being together?”
“Oh, yes. Ollie planned to move as soon as his father was better and could take over again but…” Teddy shrugged.
“He never got better, did he?”
“’Fraid not. Back then, the Holder family owned most of Main Street. Kept Ollie busy from sunup to sundown. I rarely saw him, and I lived here.”
“I didn’t know they owned more property,” I said.
“Oh, sure. It’s all been sold off now.” Teddy fiddled with his glass of iced tea, his eyes downcast. “About three months after she left for school, we got a phone call. She’d married that boy who had a crush on her.
It was right out of the blue and none of us knew what to think.
We hadn’t even been invited to the wedding.
She told us it was all so sudden because he was shipping out to Vietnam, and they wanted to do it before he left.
That was true. Now I know she was also about four months pregnant. ”
“That’s it?” A wave of anger rolled through me on Ollie’s account. “Did Ollie have any say at all in this?”
“You gotta understand, this was the mid-sixties. Being pregnant and unwed was not the done thing. Not like now, anyway.” He smiled sheepishly at me.
“Years later, I found out she’d written to Ollie and begged him to come to see her.
She didn’t want to tell him in a letter, and she was afraid to come home for fear someone would figure it out. ”
“But Ollie didn’t go,” Gil said.
“He was underwater here, trying to keep everything going. He couldn’t just leave for a week.”
“If he’d known…” I whispered.
“If he’d known.” Teddy nodded.
Gil leaned back. “And she didn’t tell anyone about the baby?”
“Not at first, but when your mother was born, I figured it out.” He tapped his head. “Always was good at math. I wrote to her and asked. She made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone, even Ollie.”
“Why didn’t she ever tell him?” Gil asked, his voice low.
“She knew Ollie was under enough pressure and she didn’t want to pile it on. By then, she was married. Her new husband knew of the baby and agreed to raise her as his own. I told her to tell him, but she was stubborn. Felt like she was protecting Ollie and all and doing right by the baby.”
Gil crossed his arms. “How did Ollie find out?”
His cheeks reddened. “I had a bit too much to drink one night, and I let it slip.”
“What did he do?” I asked.
“Only fight we ever had.” He pointed at a faded half-inch white line on his forehead near his hairline. “Left me with this scar, he did. Your grandma was in her twenties by then. Ollie made me tell him everything I knew about his daughter. Then he hired a private detective to find out the rest.”
“That’s what all this is.” Gil opened the file folder. “There are yearly reports from the PI going back years. He knew everything about us.”
Teddy nodded. “Ollie wanted to go introduce himself and have a place in your mother’s life.
He went so far as to drive over to where she was living up in north Texas somewhere.
Parked in front of her house and watched for a long time.
He said she looked so happy. He got to thinking what would happen if he just showed up in her life and decided he’d rather her be happy.
He didn’t want to mess up her life. So, he turned around and drove back to Two Harts.
Never tried to reach out again. But he always kept track of you all.
Knew everything about you. I think he understood Amelia’s thinking, deep down—she thought she was doing this in his best interest.”
Gil pulled out yet another folder.
“How many of those do you have?” I asked.
“A lot.” He opened it. “These are all receipts for college tuition. To my college. I was told I had a scholarship.”
Teddy snorted. “Wasn’t no scholarship. It was Ollie. He was real proud of you.” He pointed to me. “You, too. Used to go on and on about how much you reminded him of Amelia.”
“Really?”
He squinted. “Oh, sure. You with your big smile and always being so nice to everyone. And that boy of yours. He loved that boy.”
I blinked back tears.
With a chuckle, Teddy waved a hand between Gil and me. “He had this big idea if the two of you met, you’d get along real good.” He leaned closer like he was telling us a secret. “Personally, I think his whole plan was to play matchmaker.”
I made the mistake of turning my head. My gaze caught on Gil’s and held. The look in his eye made the rhythm of my heartbeat change, become slow and languid. I wondered what he was thinking behind those dark-blue eyes, and was it of me…of an us that didn’t exist.
Teddy chuckled, pulling my attention away. “I’m serious. Ollie was a romantic. He used to write poetry to Amelia. You were his favorite people. He liked to say you two needed each other. Too bad he had to die to make it happen.”
“Teddy, we aren’t a…” I took a deep breath. “We’re business partners. That’s all.”
Teddy snorted and stuffed a large forkful of mashed potatoes in his mouth. “Sure thing.”
“Why do you think he never gave me a chance to meet him?” Gil asked.
“I think mostly he didn’t want to interrupt your life. He just wanted to know you were happy and healthy. I guess that was enough for him.”
“Maybe that is enough,” Gil murmured.
Teddy leaned over and patted Gil’s shoulder. “Don’t be too hard on Ollie. Always made me sad but I guess I understood. Ollie loved you enough to let you go.”