by Rachel Hanna
"I like that," he said, with a slight smile. Even though it was hot, she felt some cool shivers run up her spine.
"It's my messy librarian look.” She turned back and forth like she was posing for a camera.
“I used to have a huge crush on our school librarian when I was in elementary school. Mrs. Dalrymple. She wore these long, plaid wool skirts, support hose and chunky little heels that had these big gold medallions on them. And, most importantly, she smelled like pancakes."
Kate let out a loud laugh that echoed around the canyon. "That's a visual I didn't need."
"She was hot. I mean she was like sixty, but anybody who smells like pancakes is good in my book."
She couldn't get over how much she enjoyed spending time with him. He made her laugh. That was something that Brandon had never really been able to do. For a long time, Brandon had made her feel safe, but he never had a funny bone.
"Are you ready?" She wasn't, but she nodded her head anyway. They stood at the top of the water, and he grabbed her hand once again. "Just hold on to me."
Seconds later, they leaned forward slightly, sat down on their butts and went flying down the rock. It wasn't that long, but it was a wild ride. She struggled to hold onto his hand, before her fingertips finally slipped away as they hit the big pool.
To her surprise, it wasn't super deep. When she went under the water, she immediately felt the bottom, so she assumed it was probably only seven or eight feet deep.
When she came up for air, she saw Cooper a few feet from her, bobbing above the surface, a big grin on his face.
"What’d you think?" he called over to her, the sound of the water behind them making it a little harder to hear.
"That was amazing!" she called back. It really had been. Kate had never been a risk taker. The one time she had ridden a roller coaster when she was a teenager, she’d thrown up on her friend and spent the rest of the day with vertigo. Brandon had tried to talk her into skydiving, and that was a big fat no. One of her friends wanted her to go parasailing on vacation at the beach, and she had refused that too.
Cooper swam over to her. "Wasn't that cool? Gosh, it's been so long since I did that, but it really brought back old memories."
"I bet. Can we do it again?" Kate asked, a sly smile on her face.
Cooper stared at her for a long moment. "Really?"
"Yeah. I've never done anything so exhilarating in my life!"
"What about this?"
Without warning, she felt his hands pull her closer, and then she felt his lips on hers. Warm and wet and welcoming. And then she realized that the most exhilarating thing that had ever happened to her was what was happening right now.
Chapter Seven
Mia was second-guessing everything about her life right now. As they pushed away from the dock, she suddenly felt very trapped. Being alone with Travis had never been a good thing for her. He had a way about him, one of those personalities that everybody wanted to be around.
Back in high school, all of the girls swooned over Travis. He was an old soul, as her mother would say. He wrote poetry, took photographs and even dabbled in painting. Yet he was also a star on the baseball team and had even wrestled for a year, almost making state champion.
He was one of the most well-rounded people she’d ever met in her life, which was one of the reasons that it hurt so much when he left. She’d always felt like he was too good for her, and when he drove away that day, it was just further confirmed in her mind.
At first, they were both quiet, the tension between them thick enough to cut with a knife. Mia thought for a moment about her swimming skills and whether she could just "accidentally" topple over the side of the canoe and make her way back to the dock. Of course, then she’d look like a dirty, drowned rat by the time she got back to the B&B.
"I'm glad you agreed to come with me," Travis finally said.
Travis stopped rowing and put the oar in its holder. The lake was so still and beautiful, like a piece of glass. There was no sound, other than the occasional squawking bird off in the distance. The blue tinge of the mountains above them cast a perfect reflection against the stillness of the water. It was beautiful, but she was more uncomfortable than she had been in a while.
"Well, I knew you weren’t going to let it go, so I thought it best to just humor you."
He chuckled under his breath. "Well, whatever the reason, I'm just glad you're here with me."
She couldn't take it anymore. "Travis, why are you doing this? I agreed to let you stay here because of your father, but I don't understand all of this." She waved her hand in the air, gesturing about everything that had been going on between them since he showed up. The tension. The uncomfortable moments. The towel.
"What do you mean?"
"You could've just come here and stayed out of my way. Just like any other guest. I don't go out on canoes with the other guests."
"Then why are you here with me right now?"
"That's a good question. Honestly, I have no idea."
"Look, I knew I needed to get you away from the B&B for a few minutes so we could talk."
"Talk about what?"
"The past."
She shook her head and put up her hands. "No. I don't have any need to talk about the past."
"You know, you've always been like this. Sometimes you can be really insufferable."
She stared at him, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide. "Excuse me? I’m insufferable?"
"You might be a tiny little person, but you're as stubborn as a mule."
"Oh yeah? Well at least I don't leave people behind and take off to New York City and forget they ever existed!" she said, screaming so loudly that it echoed around the canyon. She slapped her hand over her mouth, trying to keep any more words from flying out that she wasn't expecting.
Travis looked at her for a very long moment and then looked down. “You’re right."
"What?"
"I want to apologize, Mia. I did so many things wrong that it's hard to even add them all up."
"I'm listening," she said, softly, just wanting to know how this was going to play out.
He took in a deep breath, blew it out and then rubbed his hands over the tops of his legs, something he had always done when he was nervous. "I always thought that I wouldn't be living my full life if I stayed here in this place. I love Carter's Hollow, but at that age I thought you were supposed to leave high school and go take on the world. And when I got that opportunity, it went to my head. I felt like it was my only option of ever making something out of myself."
"We had dated for over two years, Travis. And you drove away like I didn't even matter." Her eyes started to well with tears, so she turned her head and blinked quickly, trying to will them away. Her logical mind told her that it was ridiculous to be this upset over something that happened so many years ago.
"I know that's how it must've felt. But I knew you would never leave this place because of your mother. You made it very clear you had to stay here and help her after Bobby died. So, I thought if I went and made something of myself, you might be willing to take a chance to come be with me."
“Okay, so even if that's true, why didn't you ever send me a letter? Call me on the phone? I don't know, send a Telegram or a pigeon with a note?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. At first, I was so focused on what I was doing at school that I just kept my head down. I wanted to have some real success to write home about. I didn’t want to fail right out of the gate and have to crawl back home with my tail between my legs. Plus, I knew that if I talked to you, I would miss you so much that I would just turn around and come right back home anyway.”
"Do you know how much that hurt? It was like a dagger to my heart."
He looked at her, his face soft, regret painted in every little line that was starting to form. "I'm sorry. I really am."
"Then you got married?"
He sighed. "I met Nanette in my third year of college. By that point,
I hadn't even come home to visit. I knew you hated me. I felt like I had to start over. So, we met through a mutual friend, she was smart and nice and loved me, so we got married about a year and a half later. We were only married for two years before she got diagnosed."
"I'm so sorry. I have no right to even talk about your marriage."
"Look, I want you to know everything about my life. You can ask me any question you want. I know things may never be the same between us again, but even if we had some kind of friendship, that would mean the world to me."
"What have you been doing in your career?" she asked, hoping that question would divert him away from asking her to be his friend.
"Well, that's the most embarrassing part of this whole thing."
"Why?"
“You know how much I loved taking photos, especially of the nature around here. I loved it. And I thought that's what I'd end up doing for my job, maybe being a travel photographer or something like that. But for more than a decade, I’ve been a fast food photographer."
"What is that? A fast food photographer?"
He laughed under his breath. "You know how when you go to the drive through at those fast food places and they have those delectable photos of hamburgers and parfait cups on the board where you order?"
"Yes…"
"Well, I'm the guy who takes those pictures. Pretty impressive, huh?” He rolled his eyes and shook his head.
That made her feel heartsick. She didn't want anything bad to happen to Travis, and all this time she thought he was jet setting around the globe, pursuing his love of photography. Instead he’d been stuck somewhere taking pictures of hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, widowed and not pursuing his dreams at all.
"I never expected that."
"Neither did I. But sometimes we make choices that put us on a path we don't even recognize. And that's where I've been all these years. I still live in New York, and every day I go into my office and make crappy food look really good."
"Yeah, the food never looks anything like those pictures," Mia said, laughing.
"You wouldn't believe the tricks we employ to make you want to eat it," he said, with a wink. “So, in the end, I became the exact person I didn’t want to be, Mia. I thought you were crazy for staying here, getting stuck in Carter’s Hollow. The fact is, I’m the one who’s been stuck all these years.”
She didn’t know what to say. “I better get back before the peach cobbler burns.”
He nodded, picked up the oar and started rowing toward the dock again. "I'm glad we got a chance to talk, Mia. I hope we can do it again sometime soon."
"Maybe," she said. Right now, she had no idea how to feel.
Evie pulled back her covers and took every pillow she had in her room plus a couple from the guest rooms that were unoccupied, and put them underneath. Pulling the cover up, she tucked it under the pillows like a burrito to make it look like someone was sleeping in the bed.
It was just getting dark, so she would have to wait a little while longer before she could make her move.
Thankfully, her mother and Cooper were out on a date after spending the day hiking. She liked Cooper, but it was unusual for her to see her mother spending so much time with someone. It’d always just been the two of them, and there was a small part of her that was starting to feel a little jealous. The last thing she wanted to do was lose another parent like her dad had lost interest in her so long ago.
Her Aunt Mia was downstairs cleaning up after dinner, and Travis had gone to see his parents. The other couple, the old people, were probably in their room for the night after eating dinner with Mia downstairs.
The meal had been a little awkward and uncomfortable. Mia tried to be engaging, but it was obvious something had happened between her and Travis earlier in the day because the conversation was kind of strained. The older couple didn't really talk much at all, and Evie didn't know why they were even on this vacation.
Right now, all she needed to worry about was safely getting out of the house and over to the party. Dustin had given her directions on how to get there, but he said he would meet her at the tree just so she didn't get lost in the dark woods. It wasn't overly far, maybe a mile and a half, but she knew her mother would've told her no if she had asked.
Making it look like she was asleep in her bed was the only way she knew how to get out of the house and be able to have fun without worrying. She would sneak back in before morning, and nobody would be the wiser.
She peeked out her window to make sure the coast was clear and quietly opened it. Thankfully, her window went out onto a flat part of the roof. There was a large tree nearby that she could shimmy down, her climbing skills having gotten better since moving out into the country.
Before she knew it, she had slid down the tree, only one little scrape on her inner thigh, and landed on the ground, her backpack slung over her shoulder.
She looked around again just to make sure nobody could see her and then scurried up the driveway, hoping like heck that her mother and Cooper didn’t come home right at that moment and see her.
Thankfully, nobody was coming and she was able to get to the tree. Dustin was standing there, leaning against it, waiting for her.
"What took you so long? The party has been going on for an hour."
"Look, it was all I could do to get out of there. Dinner went on and on."
"Did you bring your own burger?"
"I thought you were joking about that."
He shook his head and laughed. "We are simple people here, and we like burgers. Don't worry. I brought one for you."
“Good. Let's get out of here before we get caught!"
She followed him through the dark woods, down one trail and then another. He seemed to know them like the back of his hand, and that was a good thing because she had gotten lost in them already more than once.
Finally, off in the distance she could see a huge bonfire. Smoke was billowing out of the top of it into the dark night sky. People were laughing and talking. She saw a game of corn hole over on one side and then a group of giggling high school girls on the other. She would steer clear of them. Those just weren’t her type of people.
Of course, she saw plenty of people drinking cans of beer. She wasn't about to try to go home with alcohol on her breath. Her mother would never let her out of the house again.
Behind the area was a huge water tower with Carter's Hollow painted on the side of it. She had seen it when they first drove into town.
"Let me introduce you to some people," Dustin said, taking her around to several of his friends, mostly guys. They all seemed nice enough, much more down to earth than the type of people she knew at her high school back in Rhode Island.
For the next couple of hours, they all sat back and relaxed, watching the fire and eventually cooking the burgers. People were telling her stories of crazy things Dustin had done over the years, like tipping cows and toilet papering the school principal’s house. Most of the kids had known each other since elementary school, and she wished she had those kinds of relationships with friends her age. But she really didn't.
"So you're from up north?" One guy, nicknamed Bubba, asked her. At least she hoped that was only a nickname. He was wearing a pair of jeans stained with Georgia red clay, a pair of work boots and a flannel shirt. His hat, which was, of course, turned backward, had dirt on it too. She wondered what he’d been doing all day.
"Yeah. Rhode Island."
"Never been there before. I ain’t been north of Tennessee!"
"Don't mind Bubba. He's not exactly a world traveler," Dustin said under his breath.
"Why are you so dirty?" she asked Bubba. Everybody laughed.
"I work on my daddy's farm. Had to catch a pig today. He didn't want to be caught.” Again, everybody laughed. Evie had to admit that they were easy to get along with, even some of the girls. She didn't feel judged. They seemed genuinely interested in her, Which was not something she was used to.
"Why do y'all meet
here at the water tower?"
"Should we tell her?" Bubba said. The crowd erupted in a loud roar.
"Tell me what?"
"Every year, right before school starts back, we climb up to the top of that water tower. We paint our school's mascot and tag it.”
“Tag it?”
"You know, spray paint. Like graffiti,” Bubba said, throwing up his hands.
"Oh, I'm not doing that. I'm terrified of heights."
"You gotta do it. It's a tradition!" Bubba insisted.
"You don't have to go if you don't want to," Dustin said quietly.
If there was one thing Evie couldn't tolerate, it was people thinking she was a coward. And right now, every person was looking at her. "So do you all climb up there?"
"No. Only the brave among us," Bubba said. "Usually me, Dustin and the rest of these idiots right here."
A bunch of the guys lifted their cans of soda or beer in the air. None of the girls said a peep. This was her chance to stand out.
“Okay. Fine. I'll climb it,” she said. Surely it couldn’t be all that different than climbing a tree. Tree climbing didn’t scare her, mainly because the trees she climbed weren’t terribly tall.
But Evie had never in her life planned to climb a water tower. She had no idea how that was going to go, especially since she was terrified of heights. It was one of the reasons why she hated to fly. Besides, car trips were more fun. You got to see a lot more things.
Thankfully, the first thing she noticed was that there was a ladder attached to the side of the huge metal structure. That didn't make her feel a whole lot better. What she really wanted was some kind of a cable that attached her to the thing.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Dustin asked.
"Absolutely. I don't wanna be seen as a chicken," she said, her stomach churning.
If her mother ever found out about her doing this, she would kill her. There's a good chance she’d ship her right back to Rhode Island, even if just as punishment. But that didn't stop her.