Page 22

Leaving the Nest

When it came to Kyle, I was stuck in neutral—engine idling, but not exactly able to move forward just yet, even though I wanted to. Fear was a tricky thing. I couldn’t let the same happen when it came to Charlie. It was time to set things right between us, because I didn’t like where we stood. That meant a faux liquor run was in order, and as the holidays approached, I decided to embrace the theme entirely.

“Hey,” Charlie said as I came through the door, but he raised his eyebrows, which meant he was likely surprised to see me. Because he stood behind the counter near the entrance, I was left with the choice to pause and talk to him, or keep things breezy and go about my shopping. I planted my feet.

“Hi.” I nodded a minute, nervous but refusing to acknowledge it. “I’m pretending I’m here for loaded eggnog.”

“But you’re not?” he asked, giving me very little back.

“No. I don’t even like eggnog, which feels like a holiday sin, but alas.” I shifted my weight. “I do plan to buy something, so no reason to throw me out.”

He scratched the back of his neck, looking less than comfortable. “That’s not really my management style.”

“If you still hate me, that’s okay. But I want you to know that I’ve always thought you were a great guy. You and Jill are an adorably sweet couple, and if I was ever going to have a brother, you’d be a pretty awesome choice.” I held up a hand before he had a chance to respond. “And for what it’s worth, your dad and I did submit for a DNA test. I don’t want you to think that I’m just grasping at straws. I’m not out for any kind of personal gain from your family.”

He nodded, regarding me. “That’s good, because we don’t come from much. We’re not rich people.”

“Me neither. And I promise, I’m harmless.” I smiled, but he didn’t say anything, making this whole exchange feel one-sided and slightly awkward. I looked behind me, trying to fill the space. “Yeah, so…I’m just going to shop now. Just grab a few things for the, uh, season.” I backed away, which left me nearly knocking over an entire display of Fireball. His eyes went wide and an arm went out until the swaying stack settled. I turned back to him. “My bad. All’s well. I think.”

I’d said mostly what I wanted to say, which counted for something. This relationship, if there ever was going to be one, would have to take shape slowly and without me jackhammering it into what I wanted.

“Why don’t we all have dinner some night?”

I whirled around to find Charlie standing at the end of the seasonal aisle, hands in the back pockets of his jeans. Facial expression dialed to tolerance.

“Me and Jill. You and Kyle. That’s her name, right?”

“Yeah.” I swallowed my overt surprise. “No, that’d be great. Dinner.” I exhaled, enjoying the relief that washed over me.

“She came in here once.”

“I’m sorry.” I frowned, trying to follow the thread. “Who did?”

“Um, Dr. Kyle. She had a couple thoughts, so I listened.”

“She did?” I blinked, thrown off guard. “Wait, you did ?”

He shrugged. “I try to be polite when I can.”

“Right. I just hadn’t realized she’d stopped by.” I took a beat, trying to decide whether I’d moved past it. Nope. Couldn’t do it. “What did she say?”

“Mainly, she wanted me to know that your heart was in the right place and that you didn’t ask for any of this either. That maybe you just wanted a chance to get to know me.”

It was all true. “I would like that chance. So, yeah. Dinner. And maybe swing by the BeLeaf booth at the Jamboree.”

“We’ll make the tail end of it. I’m out at the other location this weekend.”

“Jake mentioned something about that.”

Charlie met my gaze. “He’s been lighter since the two of you have been talking. I’ve never seen the guy smile with teeth before. But there they are.” He paused a moment. “That’s cool to see.”

“I can definitely identify with that.” It was inexplicable, but in the short time I’d spent with Jake, he’d done the same for me. He could never fill the space that Lindy had left, or my parents, but he’d begun to create his own. I truly hadn’t anticipated any of this. I didn’t know whether to hug Charlie or hold on to the lump in my throat until I could get to the car and cry properly. As confusing as this new family discovery had been, it was also a gift. A second chance at a family. And I was so damn grateful.

“I’ll have Jill check her schedule for that dinner. Anything I can help you find?” He gestured to the four shelves in front of me.

“I’ll just take these,” I said, blindly grabbing for two giant bottles that were complete mysteries to me. It was only alone in my car that I looked down and laughed. “I guess we’re doing peppermint bark shots tonight.”

Apparently, it was meant to be. A lot of things were.

* * *

“Wow. So, you’re now planning social outings with your father and mending fences with your brother,” Jonathan said, as we waited in the short line at the library. The new Sarah J. Maas novel was on hold for Jonathan, who was next on the wait list. He’d been counting the moments until he made it to the top.

“It’s weird to hear you refer to them that way.” We stepped forward, two back. “I’m not sure I’ve thought of them in those terms fully.”

“I like to be ahead of all the fads.” He laughed. Because we both knew it wasn’t true. He was a proud nerd, one of the reasons I adored him.

“You could have knocked me over with a feather when Charlie suggested dinner. I was preparing for a lifelong nemesis.”

“I wasn’t. That guy is universally loved in this town for simply being nice and neighborly. I had a feeling he’d come around.”

“Well, that makes one of us.”

His smile dimmed. We stepped forward, second in line, now, to the front desk. “So, I have news.”

“Tell me all of it. With the BeLeaf transition and our new, hot significant others, I feel like I’m falling behind.”

“Well, the headline is that I’m leaving the nest.”

I stared at him, not following the thread but feeling a little uneasy. “I might need some more information.”

“Christian asked me to move to Austin with him, and I said yes.” His eyes went wide, as if to say Can you believe it?

“Got your book right here,” Darlene said, grabbing a copy from the circulation cart just as my world slipped into an alternate reality, one without Jonathan, my best friend. We’d been inseparable for two decades, and now we were going to follow each other on social media and wonder how things were going? No. I couldn’t accept this.

Jonathan accepted the book in quiet victory, surely feeling the weight of this announcement and its effect on me. “The wait has been torment,” he said politely to Darlene. I waited for him to finish checking out his book and followed him in silence to a nearby reading corner. One of the soft bench seats was open, and we snagged it and the privacy it offered. “I was waiting to tell you until we had a quiet moment.”

“Is this real?” I asked. “You’re honestly leaving?” My voice sounded like a squeak, stripped of all strength and semblance of normalcy.

“It’s real.” He shook his head as if marveling at all of this. He was a goofy kid at peak happiness.

My moment wasn’t going as well. “But you two have only been dating a couple of months. Maybe a little more time should go by before you uproot your whole life. Maybe we could hit pause for a second so I can catch up. Maybe we should scrap this whole idea and rewind the last five minutes.”

“I hear you. Yes, it’s been quick. But these months have changed everything. Christian just gets me in a way no other guy has.” He smiled the silly smile of someone gaga in love. “And he makes me feel like this fucking awesome catch, like he’s the lucky one to be with me, which is just unbelievable.”

“He is the lucky one,” I said without hesitation. “And what about the periods of time when you’re not feeling your best? Your support system is here .”

“He’s been great on my more painful days.”

I actually couldn’t argue. Christian seemed to take great care of Jonathan when he wasn’t at his best. They were a great match. I still didn’t understand why they couldn’t be a great match here . “Fantastic. All of it. But why the move?”

“He’s been offered a promotion.”

From what I understood, Christian worked in hospitality for Elite Resorts and managed a large beach property twenty miles away.

“It’s too good to turn down. He said he couldn’t imagine leaving me now, not after everything. Plus, I think it would be pretty cool to live in a city.”

“Yeah,” I said, dejected. “Pretty cool.” The truth was, I couldn’t be angry when all I’d ever wanted was for Jonathan to be happy. In fact, I rooted for him daily. And here it was, happiness on a platter. I couldn’t make this about me, as much as I wanted to cry right now.

“Hey. We’re gonna be just as tight as we always are.” The tears in his eyes made mine well up. He was going to miss me, too. “We’re just gonna have to live on FaceTime more than we’re used to. You’re gonna be so sick of my endless calls.”

“Never,” I said, leaning against him on the bench seat.

“And you’re gonna need to rake up some frequent flyer miles.”

“Imagine me, a jetsetter.” We sighed in unison. Jonathan was leaving me. My Jonathan . Surreal. “When?”

“He starts the new job in six weeks, so we’ll need to be there by then.”

A pause. I looked up at him. “You love him.”

“Yeah. I do.” Another pause. “Do you love her ?”

Way to throw it back in my court, I thought. I held on to his question a moment, making sure I gave it full weight. Finally, I turned back to him and nodded. “I do.”

“Gonna tell her?”

“When it’s right,” I said. “Unlike some people, I like taking my time, enjoying the journey.”

“That’s not what this is,” Jonathan said easily. “This is you looking both ways before crossing the very busy street.”

“That’s the thing about busy streets. They’re dangerous. More often than not, you get smashed like a reckless frog. Do I look like a reckless frog to you?”

“I can honestly say I’ve never once called you that, even in private.”

“There ya go. You, however, might be one.”

He took a deep breath and pulled his shoulders to his ears, knocking me off him. “If this is what reckless frogs feel like, sentence me to the lily pad.”

“When did we get to be so poetic?” I asked. “I’m really proud of us.”

“Same. A pecan latte and some reading?”

I stood. “Sold.”

The time we spent together that day was slow paced and awesome. We read our books, sipped our warm drinks, and chatted intermittently, as if we had all the time in the world. The only problem was, now I knew that wasn’t true. There was an expiration date on our regularly scheduled friendship. I felt the tick-tock of every second that passed, knowing it was one fewer that we had together. I didn’t know what I was going to do without Jonathan in my daily life. It was honestly something I never thought I’d have to face. We were supposed to find people to get married to, live next door to each other, raise our kids side by side, and watch them grow into the same caliber of best friends we were. This all felt horribly wrong, but what else was I supposed to do but support this person I loved as he reached for the life he longed for?

I could do this, hard as it was. I could adjust. For him. For my friend.

* * *

I woke up the day of the Jamboree with a much-needed excited spring in my step. It felt like a special day, and that’s because it was. I looked forward to so many aspects of today, it was hard to dim the smile that accompanied me from room to room as I prepared for work. Even the temperature was perfect. A crisp fifty-six degrees, ideal for a light jacket and warm cider by the bonfire later.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before everything that could possibly go wrong at the store certainly did. First, the registers all froze at the same time, some sort of system-wide glitch. Then a pallet of cranberries overturned, leaving smashed remains all over aisle two like a scene from a Christmas horror flick. Customers tracked the smashed skins and juices all over the store like the footprints of a killer’s hasty retreat. Maya had to go home early because her morning sickness was in full force and the cranberry massacre had triggered a strong bout of nausea.

Down a checker, the checkout lines, now entirely manual, were unusually long and customers were not happy. The general state of the store felt chaotic and unorganized to the point that I wanted to sit on the floor and give up. To help push myself through, I raced to the break room to grab a cup of coffee before heading back into the trenches, only to watch the machine sputter its last breath. Noooo! All my fault. I should have replaced the thing when it started acting up months ago.

“We’ll get you a newer, fancier model,” Peter said, and clapped me on the shoulder. At least he was here today. “I will happily make you a cup from it.”

I’d say one thing: Having a boss like Peter had gone a long way. He was knowledgeable, collaborative, and kind. Because he lived a couple of hours away and oversaw a group of stores along the coastline, we only saw him about once a week. However, when he was around, he always found a way to improve our service and the store overall.

He was in town today for the Jamboree and had brought his wife, who also seemed like a down-to-earth, truly easygoing person. I’d promised her my blueberry muffin recipe, which I didn’t give out to just anyone. It was all about the butter-salt ratio. “And please tell Maddie that the roasted turkey legs are all the way at the back of the park, near the winter wonderland. And if she wants to see the Dickensian carolers from a good spot, she needs to be near the Christmas tree maze twenty minutes before their start time. This town goes crazy for top hats. It gets rabid. I’m not even making that up. It’s like their own personal boy band.”

“Will do,” Peter said. “And I get it. Top hats bring all the girls to my yard, too. Now, get out of here and set up the coolest booth ever. Feed the people. Make us famous.”

“You think I can risk heading over with all this going on still?” I looked around the store that felt anything but calm. Mrs. Rabniki had just let out a little scream as Jim Deavers snatched the last box of cinnamon candy canes. I made a mental note to up the order next week.

Peter cracked his knuckles. “I’ll open up register three myself. It’s been a while, but I can scan groceries with the best of ’em. Look out, Dreamers.”

Peter was honestly an adorable person with his shiny dark hair and glasses. Faber would have died before helping an actual customer. I enjoyed the rumors that Faber was nursing his wounded ego alone in his oversized house, pining for Harlowe while cursing her name at the same time, wandering around his front yard in his bathrobe, muttering curse words at passing pets. He’d rebound. People with money often did. But I planned to take solace in the little bit of karma coming his way in the meantime. Maybe he’d pick up an annoying case of the hiccups, too. Would serve the bastard right.

When I arrived at Bountiful Park, the wind whipped through the trees, which caught me off guard. It didn’t feel like holiday wind whipping, and instead came with an undercurrent of foreboding. I paused in concern, wishing I’d checked out a more recent weather report. The BeLeaf booth would require some extra reinforcements to keep the salami slices from spiraling into the air and the cheddar cubes from tumbling into oblivion. I certainly didn’t need my charcuterie table heading off to Oz on me. Maya was supposed to come with me to set up for the Jamboree, but it looked like I’d have to make do on my own.

“Need some help?” Elizabeth asked, appearing out of nowhere. She placed a palm square on the tablecloth to help secure it.

“God, yes,” I said. I quirked my eyebrow. “You’re here early.” Elizabeth didn’t have a booth to set up, and the hour before the Jamboree was reserved for vendors only. Not that I minded in the slightest.

“What can I say? I live for these seasonal events. Did you know I didn’t sleep last night?” Her eyes were wide and happy. While Elizabeth and I were kindred spirits in our love for small-town culture, she did have me by a nose in the obsessed category. “Plus, I’m in charge of the bake sale table benefiting teen runaways.”

“Of course you are.” Elizabeth Draper had always been our resident saint and do-gooder. She participated in anything and everything there was to join.

“Put me to work.” She placed a hand on her hip and quickly studied the early stages of my booth. “What do you need?”

“Any idea on how I can keep the wind from whisking all this away.”

“Is that a real question?” she asked with a gleam in her eye. “I’ll be right back.”

We spent the next fifteen minutes using the Velcro and double-stick tape Elizabeth conveniently kept in her car for her odd jobs gig to secure anything that moved to the table. I dared the wind to attempt even the most modest lifting of our trays once Elizabeth straightened to survey her work. “Yeah, that’s definitely going to do it. Now you just need to replenish enough and overlap the snacks so that they act as each other’s weight and anchor.”

“Food science comes in all forms.”

She offered a high five, and I honored it with a hearty smack.

“Hey, there. I’m off early. Where’s the people in the old-timey costumes?”

We turned at the sound of Devyn’s voice, and without preamble, Elizabeth melted into her arms for a kiss. I should have looked away but was too surprised by their instant heat. Oh, they’d definitely been beneath the sheets a lot lately. Zero doubt in my mind, and good for them. Given the steam in my own relationship, there was no need for envy. These days, there was nothing to do but cheer them on. I knew that level of happiness now and could spot it in others. Speaking of which, I scanned the area for Kyle, wondering when I’d catch a glimpse of those blue eyes. She likely wouldn’t make an appearance until an hour into the Jamboree, but I missed her and couldn’t wait to experience the event hand in hand. Once the booth was up and running, I had a schedule for a few of my employees who were interested in clocking the hours, which would also allow me time to enjoy the evening. The wind hit hard, and a chill moved through me. That felt kind of ominous.

Devyn and Elizabeth turned to me, looking about as unnerved as I felt. “The weather’s weird, right?” Devyn asked. “We weren’t scheduled for any kind of storm, but it feels like something’s in the air.”

“Probably just a blip,” I said, moving past it. I focused instead on the heavenly scent of gingerbread, cider, and something smoky on the grill a few yards away. I would definitely need to taste-test whatever it was before the night was over. This could still be fun.

An hour later, I had to retract the sentiment.

The wind had not only amped up but decided to bring its friends: rain, thunder, and lightning. The Jamboree had barely begun when the Christmas trees began to fall. The food that hadn’t been blown away was getting rained on, and people were running for their cars chased by large raindrops that fell aggressively all around us.

As I began moving our supplies into the wagons beneath the L-shaped table, I caught sight of the bounce house in the distance sink in on itself. People rushed past with hoods on, clutching their holiday favors to their chests. A strand of gold garland flew by as the sound of holiday music was drowned out by the clap of thunder that rolled through the sky. I was worried about Kyle. I hadn’t seen her, yet this was around the time she thought she’d arrive.

“I’m gonna take all this to my truck,” Buster called.

“I’ll be behind you with the rest in just a few minutes!” I yelled back. That’s when I spotted KC Collette and Gray heading past the booth. I shielded my eyes from the rain with one hand. “Hey, KC! Have you seen Kyle anywhere?”

She shook her head, dark hair drenched against her forehead. “And I haven’t been able to get ahold of Dan either. They were supposed to drive here together.”

“I imagine traffic is a little chaotic. Where did all of this come from?”

“This whole storm was supposed to miss us,” she called over the newest clap of thunder. “At least that’s what Channel Five said this morning. This is madness! We better get out of this rain.”

“Yes, and be safe!” I waved goodbye and spent the next five minutes loading up the soggy remnants of my booth, heartbroken that the event was not to be and amazed by how much water my clothes were apparently able to absorb. As I pulled the second wagon full of ruined food and decorations to the park entrance, I took a moment to look back. The once festive scene had been replaced with a frantic scramble. Above all else, my brain kept repeating one key phrase: Where is Kyle ?