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I place my arm around Grandma and lean my head on her bony shoulder. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” We just stand there, the wind tickling my hair across my face, the birds chirping in the background, staring at a stone of what could have been. After a while, Grandma whispers, “She’s perfect,” and I know she’s talking to Mom and not me.
I’m far from perfect, and that’s okay. I can learn. And grow. The more I think about what Cade did—if I take out the fact that everyone saw my disaster of a house—I can see how selfless he was. How everyone was. Taking the time out of their day. The wood. The paint. The work. They all came together and did that…for me. I’ll never be able to repay them.
Scratch that. That’s something the old Charley would say. I don’t have to repay them. I can just accept it, can’t I? They did it because they like me or because they love Cade.
“Grandma…”
“Yes?”
“Can you drive me to a town called Spring Hill?”
She smiles. “I stopped cooking when you needed me to pick you up, so road trip it is. Please just tell me we’ll be able to eat turkey at some point today.”
“I don’t want to ruin your Thanksgiving.”
She lets out a breath. “This is my first Thanksgiving without Gerald, but my first reunited with you. We might as well make it memorable.”
I squeeze her hand, and the both of us jog back to the car. My grandma’s pretty cool. She can move like no one’s business. Once we get in the car, she holds out her hand. “Operation Get Your Fella Back?”
I give her hand a shake. “Get my fella back.”
If he’ll have me…
I stretch in the seat,yawning while I try to make out the next street sign. “There, Grandma. There it is!” I point excitedly at the highway sign announcing Spring Hill.
She whoops, pressing on the gas a little more. She’s been a racecar driver the entire time, weaving in and out of traffic and telling other people to get out of her way. In her words: “We have a guy to catch.”
In between that, she told me all about her and my grandfather’s relationship. From start to finish, she made it sound like a fairy tale, the kind of love you would drive half a day for and show up on his doorstep asking for forgiveness.
“Any word from the friends?”
I check my phone. I sent texts to Kenna and Bailey, but with Thanksgiving, they’re still unread. “Nothing yet.”
“Did he ever say anything about where he lived?”
“They’re having it at his grandma’s house.”
“He gets additional points for that.”
I chuckle. “Except I don’t know where it is. He talked about a football game him and the neighborhood kids would play at a park.”
“Well, we can drive all around the town. We’re bound to see something.”
“I don’t know how big Spring Hill is…”
The answer: Not very big but big enough that it’s not like I can pull over and ask anyone on the street if they happen to know where Cade Farmer’s grandmother lives, though Grandma suggests we do that multiple times.
My stomach ties up in knots.I could ask him myself. Text him…
“There’s the school he went to.” I point toward the purple-and-yellow banner hanging from the front entrance.
Grandma pulls in to see if we can ask anyone, but the parking lot is as empty as can be and so are the fields. Everyone is with their families…and I guess so am I. I reach over to place my hand on Grandma’s leg. “Thank you for doing this and not thinking I’m crazy.”
“I know what it’s like to love someone,” she tells me. “I would comb the ends of the earth to tell your grandfather how much I love him one more time.” She comes to a stop at the exit of the school. “Right or left?”
I look both ways, but obviously, I have no idea, so I just go with my gut. “Right.”