Page 32 of Let It Be Me

32

RILEY

W e touchdown in Charleston and immediately fight through the cluster of other passengers to grab our bags and to get a good rental car. The sliding doors open and humidity slaps us both in the face.

“Welcome to South Carolina, Riley,” Sarah presents the outside to me like she’s Vanna White.

“Is it always so wet?”

“Not all the time,” she says and holds her hand out, tipping it back and forth. “But we are coming up on the hotter months, which means the humidity will be at an all time high.”

“You’re lucky I love you. I wouldn’t brave this weather for anyone.”

“I’m honored,” she jokes as we get the key for our car.

The instructions for how to find our car is easy enough and we argue over who’s set to drive. But Sarah being the native, wins that she already knows where to go and that I should just enjoy the drive. While driving there, Sarah’s hand wraps around mine and I take in the view. Palmetto trees occupy almost every empty space and it’s just so beautiful down here. Thirty minutes later, she pulls into the entrance of our hotel.

I turn to Sarah with my eyes wide.

“I don’t want to hear a thing about how expensive this might be.” She says and holds a finger to my lip to stop me from doing just that when she parks.

If I’m careful with where my money goes, Sarah is even more careful. We both obscenely track our expenses and save every receipt for our monthly purchases. Which aren’t a lot as we’re both homebodies. But when we do spend our money, we keep track of where it goes.

After we’re checked in and parked, we make our way to our room. It’s a simple one bed with an incredible view of downtown. I don’t expect us to spend much time here so I don’t pay too much attention to the details.

“Let’s go get some food. What are you in the mood for?” Sarah asks and puts her things in her small Chanel clutch.

“Something light. Seafood, maybe?”

She nods her head with a smile. “Now, that I can do. There’s one within walking distance.”

Hand in hand, we walk to the restaurant. Sarah plays tour guide on our walk and her joy while here is something I don’t even think she notices. But I won’t be the one to point it out to her.

We get to the restaurant right before the dinner rush is set to begin and decide to just share our food. She finally gets me to try boiled peanuts and they’re not that bad. Same with oysters and I see why they’re considered an aphrodisiac food. The mood in the restaurant is light and fun. Bricks cover one side of the wall and wooden planks cover the other. It’s a very mom and pop space and I can see why it’s so popular.

Towards the end of dinner, I can sense Sarah getting antsy, so I pay for our meal and take her back to the room where I make her forget her name until she passes out.

I wake up to the sound of feet shuffling across the floor. Feeling across the bed and there being a cold space means that it’s Sarah.

She’s murmuring to herself and hasn’t noticed me awake.

“Hey,” I say, groggily.

Sarah jumps at my voice interrupting her thoughts. “Hi.”

Today is the day that we go to her parents house. We figured that the earlier in our trip that we go to see them, the better.

“How long have you been awake?” I ask and pull my discarded pajama pants on, moving to sit at the foot of the bed.

“Not long,” she tells me quickly, but backtracks when I raise an eyebrow at her. “About thirty minutes.”

I hold my hand out and wait for her to grab onto it. “You can do this. You are stronger today than you were last week, last month, hell even last year. Sarah Jane, I am in awe of you. Let’s get this day started and then we can come back here and I’ll wipe away anything bad that happens.”

She leans forward, dropping her forehead against mine. “Okay.”

I sneak a kiss on the tip of her nose and head to the bathroom to get ready for what lies ahead.

I do my best to distract her through the lead up to seeing her parents. But when we pull up to their house a little while later, I even find myself nervous. Sarah’s hands are white-knuckled on the steering when I look over .

I drop my hand on her headrest and carefully run my fingers through her hair. “You can do this.”

She takes a deep breath and releases the hold on the wheel. The car turning off is next and I match her motion when she opens the car door and steps out. I look straight ahead to the house that raised her. It sits on a main street with white siding and light brown brick making the home look inviting. Sarah and I walk hand-in-hand up the steps in tandem and she rings the doorbell when we’ve reached the top.

Her hand squeezes mine and I give her a reassuring rub of my thumb against the top of her hand. The door opens to her Dad who’s scowling. But his face smoothes when he sees it’s his daughter.

“Sarah,” he breathes out and takes off his glasses.

“Hi, Dad.”

He looks like he’s seen a ghost. Probably thinking he’d never see his daughter again. “Please, come in.” He says, and opens the door wider, stepping aside to let us in.

Stepping in the foyer, I see where Sarah gets her taste for the fancy things. What might look like an affordable entryway table is actually more than some make in a month. I should know as my interior designer tried to get me to purchase one.

We follow him into the living room in the back of the house and he excuses himself to get his wife. Huge windows take up the two walls letting in all of the natural light. Sarah and I drop onto one of the loveseats and I bring my arm around her waist, pulling her to me. Whispering words of praise and love as I do my best to naturally bring her heart rate and breathing down to normal. Her hand falls to my thigh and wraps around when her parents walk into the room .

Sarah’s body stiffens when her Mom surveys her. Probably judging her for her clothing choice or her hair in its natural wavy style. I love Sarah in every state of done and undone, so i have trouble accepting that her Mom expects her to be polished all of the time.

“Sarah.” Her Mom coldly says as she takes a seat in a chair across from us.

“Mom.”

“To what do we owe this visit?” Her Dad asks with more excitement as he sits in a chair next to his wife.

Sarah looks to me and I give her a small nod. “A few things happened this week and it brought on my first nightmare in over a year.”

“Oh, not this again,” her Mom scoffs.

“Mrs. Callahan, I urge you to listen to your daughter before you lose her for good.” My voice holds no room for argument.

“Erica,” Sarah’s dad scolds his wife who looks put off by being put in her place again. “I’m listening,” he tells his daughter.

“Kamryn’s sister is being verbally abused by her boyfriend. She’s changed herself to fit what he looks at. She’s no longer the girl I met when Kam introduced us. And it reminded me of my relationship with Paul.”

Her Mom’s expression brightens. “Oh, he’ll be so happy to know you’re back in town.”

“Are you high mom? Because how you’re correlating that with thinking I would ever want him back is beyond me.” Sarah holds onto me tighter.

“He still loves you.”

“I don’t give a shit if he becomes President. He cheated on me and that’s not something I would ever excuse. Never mind the fact that he constantly shielded me from the negative side of living in this bubble, when the best thing would have been for me to see it first hand. Because if it’s one thing I learned it’s that I deserve to be cherished. I deserve to be loved and treated like I matter. I deserve to see everything, the good and the bad.”

“Paul, did all of that,” her Mom says, still holding onto hope that a relationship between them will restart. Biting my tongue while she dismisses me sitting next to her daughter is hard.

“No he didn’t. He just made you see what you wanted to see. Don’t you get it Mom? The longer you keep thinking he’s this perfect guy, the easier my decision is to cut you out of my life.”

“You can’t possibly be serious.”

“Would you rather have your daughter or some guy whose only claim to fame is his last name?” I ask because I can no longer take her dismissiveness towards Sarah. Towards me.

Her face relaxes as much as the botox will allow and I see something I said making it through to her. But it’s hard to undo years of behavior in a day. And Sarah’s Mom is that.

“I would love to be part of your life,” Sarah’s Dad tells his daughter and leans forward.

I feel Sarah’s body trembling at this first step. “I would love that Dad.”

His gaze turns to me. “We haven’t been formally introduced. I’m David.”

I take his offered hand and shake it. “It’s nice to officially meet you. I’m Riley.”

“I have to thank you for loving my daughter in the way I’ve failed. I was so focused on other things that I let other people take the reins on her. For that, sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I’m glad she has you in her life. She hasn’t been happy in a long time and I could never pinpoint what that was. Until you came along and her happiness, her spirit lifted higher than I ever thought possible.”

“Sarah has brought a joy into my life that I didn’t know I needed.” I wrap my arm tighter around her and kiss her on the forehead. “Loving her has been one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. I know all too well how easy it is to lose the people you love.”

“What can you give her that Paul can’t?” Sarah’s mom, Erica, asks in a dismissive tone.

“A piece of mind that I’ll love her and provide for her, build her up and not tear her down, support her when she needs it, and laughter. So much laughter that she’ll never know what her life is like without it. And I’ll do all of that the way my parents did because I have had two of the best examples of how to be an amazing partner.”

We sit in silence as what I said hangs in the air. I’ve told Sarah I love her multiple times. But I don’t think she knows how far and how deep that love runs. She leans into me as she waits for her mom to meet her on her side. When she turns her nose up at us, Sarah accepts defeat and taps my leg to signal it’s time to leave.

“Well, Dad, we’re going to head out. I would love for you to come and visit us. We can catch a baseball game and you can maybe meet Riley’s parents?”

“I would love that, sweetheart.” He says and we stand up from our seats. Her mom stays seated and ignores us as we walk to the door. The goodbyes are still slightly filled with tension but Sarah’s spirits are much higher than when we got here.

We spend the rest of the week doing everything the hotel suggests. Rainbow Road and The Battery are the top two places that were at the top of our list. We eat more in that week than we usually do and walk more than normal. And by the end of the trip, with a final visit from David, Sarah is excited for what’s to come and how her relationship with him will develop now that she’s older.

Multiple times this week, I told her how proud I am of her, how much I love her, and how much I can’t wait for more of this; enjoying this life that we’ve begun to create.