by Liz Isaacson
“You’re here,” he managed to say.
“Yes, Gray.” She laughed again, and Gray wanted nothing more than to kiss her.
“Dad,” Hunter said, and Gray fell back a step automatically.
“Hunter,” he said, taking a few steps to crush his son in a hug too.
“You did great, Dad,” Hunter said. He held up his phone. “I clocked you at two hours, fifty-seven minutes, and twenty-nine seconds.”
“Incredible,” Ames said. “I knew you were going to crush it.” He also took Gray into a hug and slapped him on the back. “Elise came?” he whispered in Gray’s ear.
But there was so much going on, from music to people cheering, to more runners joining the fray.
“Let’s go over to the meadow,” he said, his breathing starting to quiet. “And I need something to drink.”
“I’ll get you a Gatorade,” Hunt said, jogging off to one of the nearby drink stands.
Gray turned toward Elise and extended his hand for her to hold. She easily took it and fell in step with him. “You remember my brother, Ames,” he said.
“Of course,” Elise said, peering past him to Ames. “Nice to see you again, Ames.”
“You too, Elise. I didn’t know you were coming.”
“Neither did I,” Gray said, squeezing her hand. “You’re a sneaky one.”
“You liked the surprise, though, didn’t you?” she asked, a teasing quality in her voice.
Gray had liked it, yes. He’d been shocked to see her standing in Civic Center Park, but thrilled at the same time. He’d wanted to rush over to the fence and kiss her, but she’d told him to run, and run fast.
“I’m definitely glad you’re here,” he said, reaching for the bottle Hunter was bringing him. He’d been planning to take Hunter fishing this week—their first trip of the spring—and talk to him about Elise before they made their weekend trip to Coral Canyon.
But now….
He drank and drank, buying himself some time. Finally, he said, “Hunter, this is Elise. You remember me telling you about her?”
Hunter’s eyes lit up, and Gray thought perhaps he really didn’t mind Gray dating. “Yeah, sure, Elise.”
“Elise,” Gray said. “My son, Hunter.”
“Oh, I know who you are,” Elise said with a big grin. She stepped right into Hunter, who was already taller than her, and hugged him. Hunter wore pure surprise on his face, and then he relaxed into the hug. Seemed to enjoy it, even.
Gray sure did like watching the two of them embrace, because he’d always wanted someone who wouldn’t be different around Hunter. Gray raised his eyebrows as he grinned at his son, and Hunter just smiled back.
Elise stepped away and looked at the three of them. “So what do we do now?”
“I have to turn in my bib,” Gray said, heading toward the official’s tent. “I’ll check my unofficial time, and then we can do whatever. There’s a big party here in the park. We can go to lunch.”
“We were going to go out to the farm,” Hunter said.
“We can do that too.” Gray almost lost the ability to swallow, though, because if they went out to the farm, he’d have to introduce Elise to his parents. As his girlfriend.
It’s probably time to do that anyway, he thought as he handed over his bib. Though he probably should’ve started with telling them he had a girlfriend before he just showed up with one.
A man under the tent handed him a paper with his unofficial time, as well as his bib number so he could look up the official time on the website in a few days. He handed it to Hunter and asked, “Will you put this in the backpack, Hunt?”
Once his son took the paper, Gray looked at Elise, his eyebrows up again. “What do you think, Elise? Do you want to go out to the farm?”
“Sure,” she said easily, and he didn’t think she quite understood.
“Oh, boy,” Ames said. “Elise, my mother and father live on the farm.” He glanced at Gray. “And judging by the way my brother’s face has turned all white, he either needs something to eat really fast, or he hasn’t even mentioned you to our dear mother.” Ames looked at him with nothing but pure joy and absolute knowing in his smile.
Gray lifted the Gatorade bottle to his lips again, finishing the rest of it before speaking. “First up is eating. I’m famished. Second…yeah, I better text my mother and let her know my girlfriend is in town.”
“Or that you even have a girlfriend,” Hunter muttered.
“Hey,” Gray said. “I keep your secrets.” He glanced at Elise, wondering what she thought about him keeping her all to himself. She wore a sunny expression, and he hoped that it wasn’t fake. In his starving state, he was having a hard time thinking about anything but getting something to eat.
“Food first,” Ames said. “You text Mom, and I’ll find us somewhere to get a lot of carbs.”
“Let’s go to The Counter,” Hunter said. “It’s around here somewhere, right, Dad?” He looked around, as if the restaurant would magically pop up.
“Other side of twenty-first,” Gray said. “It has a killer cheddar burger.”
“Deal,” Ames said. He frowned at Gray. “Did you text Mom?”
“In the last five seconds? No. Leave me alone.” He glared at Ames, softening his gaze when he looked at Elise. “Do you have a car? Did you walk down here?”
“I walked,” she said. “I’m staying at the Sheraton, which is right by Civic Center Park.”
He nodded and looked at Ames. “So we’re all with you, Ames. I don’t know where you parked, so lead us out.”
His brother started weaving through the crowd, and Gray followed. He did manage to ask Hunter for his phone, and he did text his mother that they’d be coming out to the farm in an hour or two.
That’s great, his mom sent back. How was the marathon?
Great, Gray said. I’m pretty sure I qualified.
That’s great, Gray. Will you stay for dinner?
Leave it to his mother to not get what a huge deal it was to qualify for the Boston Marathon. It was only something Gray had been working toward for the past eight months. But really, would he stay for dinner?
Yes, he sent, because he might as well stay for dinner. And Mom? My girlfriend is coming with me.
His phone rang in the next beat of time, and Gray chuckled as he answered his mother’s call. “Hey, Ma.”
“Don’t you dare tease me, Gray Hunter Hammond. You have a girlfriend?”
“Yes, Mom. She came down to watch me run.” He shot a look at Elise, who just smiled at him and kept walking. He’d looked at her cards and drawings every day since Valentine’s Day, and he missed her powerfully.
“Well, I’ll be.” When that was all she said, Gray knew he’d really surprised her. His mother always had something to say, and it sure was nice to stump her for once. He chuckled as Elise moved up to walk beside Hunter. She asked him something, and Hunter seemed to light up as he turned toward her to answer.
Gray fell back another step, and not just because of extreme hunger. He felt like he existed on one side of a pane of glass, and Elise and Hunter on the other. He couldn’t hear them, but he could see them. Watching them interact was like a warm blanket on a cold night, heating his soul in places he hadn’t realized it had caught a chill.
In that single moment in time, when Elise laughed and Hunter joined her, Gray could see her as his stepmother. He could see the three of them as a family.
“Gray?” his mother asked.
He shook himself out of the fantasy and blurted, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m here.”
“I’ll get some dough rising,” she said. “I’m so excited to meet your girlfriend.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Gray said, and he ended the call. He was excited to introduce Elise to his parents as the woman he was dating. He was. He just happened to be a bit terrified of the huge steps they were taking too, though he told himself he was ready.
He was.
Wasn’t he?
A couple of hours later,
Ames finally turned off the highway and onto the dirt lane that led to the farmhouse. He’d refused to drive even a mile over the speed limit, and Gray’s patience was at an all-time low.
“Here we go,” he said as he looked around the bucket seats of Ames’s truck. “The house comes into view…here.”
Ames passed the trees, and the farm and the farmhouse spread before them.
“Wow,” Elise said. “Look at all of this. It’s beautiful.” She looked at Gray with wide eyes and squeezed his hand.
They’d had a great lunch, where he’d eaten a lot of French fries, his whole burger, and a chocolate chip cookie. She’d conversed effortlessly with Ames and Hunter while Gray got his brain cells working again, and he sure did love having her in his life.
“I grew up in this house,” Gray said. “All of us boys worked this farm. Hunt and I work out here quite a bit these days.”
“I do too,” Ames said.
Gray needed to talk to Elise about the idea of him buying the farm, moving his parents into the granny house, and living out here.
“I love it,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah. I love farms and ranches and small towns.”
“That’s why you’re in Coral Canyon,” he said, looking at her.
“Sort of,” she said, looking away.
“I sense a story,” he said quietly.
“There’s a story,” she said. “I’ll tell you later.”
“Maybe we can take a walk around the farm this afternoon.”
“I can’t believe you can even walk at all.” She met his eyes. “You ran twenty-six miles this morning.”
“In under three hours,” Hunter said, looking at Gray with admiration in his eyes.
Gray grinned at him while his feet reminded him with a twinge of pain. “It’ll be a short walk.”
Ames brought the truck to a stop, and they all started getting out. Before Gray could close his door, his mother called hello from the porch, and a sigh moved through him. Instead of a walk around the farm this afternoon, he really needed a nap.
“Grandma,” Hunter said, running toward the porch. His mother hugged Hunter tight and said something to him. He nodded and headed into the house, probably to get his grandfather from the office.
“Hey, Ma.” Ames hugged their mother, and Gray took Elise’s hand as they walked up the steps toward his mother.
“Mom.” He hugged her too, feeling her anticipation way down deep in his own bones. He stepped back and faced Elise. “This is Elise Murphy. Elise, this is my mother, Beverly.”
“You can call me Bev,” she said. She pressed one hand over her heart, practically breathless. “Look at you. You’re so pretty, and who knew Gray would ever bring home another woman?”
“Mom, you’re embarrassing me.”
She didn’t even look at him. “You’re forty-four. You don’t get embarrassed.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you, ma’am,” Elise said, reaching for her hand. “Gray has a lot of good things to say about you, your husband, and this farm. I’m so pleased to be here.”
“How old are you, dear?”
“Mom,” Gray said, his irritation rearing. “You don’t have to know everything up front.” He shook his head as he looked at Elise. “I should’ve warned you better. You don’t have to answer that.”
“Where did you two meet?”
“You’ve met her too,” Gray said, a brick of dread settling in his stomach. “She lives in Coral Canyon. She was at Colton’s wedding and at Wes’s celebration.”
“She lives in Coral Canyon?” Mom looked at him, surprise mixed with fear. “Are you going to move there too?”
“I don’t know, Mom.” Gray looked away from Elise. Bringing her here without prepping both of them was a mistake. Heck, he wasn’t even prepped for this conversation.
“Gray,” his father said, and Gray turned with relief. “Hunter said you had someone for me to meet.” His eyes flicked to Elise, and shock moved through his expression too. “Oh, I see you do.”
Gray wanted to march Elise down the steps and take her back to his house. He could order pizza and put on a movie and fall asleep to recover from the morning he’d had. Instead, he said, “Dad, this is my girlfriend, Elise Murphy.”
“Girlfriend?” His father’s voice could’ve called dogs. He recovered quickly and said, “Of course. I’m Chris Hammond. Welcome to the farm.”
The funny farm, Gray thought, and he wondered what he’d been thinking bringing Elise here, especially when Hunter said, “Dad, Grams said she needs help getting to the bathroom, and she wants you to do it.”
Chapter Nineteen
Elise had a whole conversation with Gray as he hesitated for a moment. She found it entirely unfair that he could look twice as handsome while blushing, and she lifted her hand as a way to tell him to go help his grandmother. She’d be fine.
But one look at Bev and Chris, and Elise wasn’t so sure. They were sizing her up big time, and she didn’t feel like she’d pass.
“Grandma,” Hunter said, and that caused Bev to turn. “Dad says we shouldn’t make Elise stand on the front porch.” He came toward the three of them, and he smiled at Elise. “C’mon, Elise. I’ll let you in.”
“I didn’t say she couldn’t come in,” Bev said, turning to follow them. “Did I say that?”
“No,” Chris said. “But we were just standing on the porch, and we don’t need to heat the whole farm.”
“The heater isn’t even on,” Bev said. “We’re in that weird weather zone where we don’t need the heater or the air conditioner.”
Elise sure did like listening to the two of them converse back and forth, but she really liked going with Hunter into the kitchen, where he asked her if she wanted something to drink. “Just water if you’ve got it.”
“Grandma has these really awesome flavored lemonades,” he said. “Colton likes the guava one. My dad’s favorite is the mango. I like the raspberry.” He pulled one of those out, and the bottles looked really fancy. Much bigger than any bottle of lemonade Elise had seen before, with textured glass on the neck, and a wide mouth with a bulky silver cap.
“What other flavors do they have?” She joined him in the kitchen. “And what else do you know about your uncle Colton?”
Hunter looked at her, his eyes wide and innocent. Elise grinned at him. “He’s always teasing me about something,” she said. “I’d love to get some dirt on him.”
A hint of mischief entered Hunter’s expression. “This is a good one, then.” He leaned a little closer, as if they were conspirators about to share trade secrets. “He’s afraid of ducks.”
Elise burst out laughing, tipping her head back and really letting the sound out of her throat. “Ducks, wow,” she said, still giggling.
Hunter finished laughing too. “And geese. He basically doesn’t like birds.” He took out another bottle. “Strawberry. I think that’s all she’s got.”
“Understandable about the birds.” Elise took the bottle. “Strawberry is great.”
“So Elise,” Chris said, and she turned away from Hunter and the fridge. “What do you do in Coral Canyon?”
“I work at the lodge where Colton and Annie met,” she said. “And Bree and Wes, I suppose. And I own a landscaping company.”
“Ah, good for you.” He smiled, and the gesture seemed genuine. “I suppose you’re fairly ingrained into society?”
Elise blinked and handed her drink back to Hunter, because he held the bottle opener. He popped the top on her lemonade and gave it back to her. She took a drink, wondering if she could guzzle the whole thing as she tried to come up with an answer.
She wasn’t even sure what “ingrained into society” meant. No amount of drinking would buy her the ability to Google that and figure out what he was asking. She set her bottle on the counter. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“He’s wondering how mobile you are,” Bev said, and Elise felt like she needed a master’s degree
to talk to these people.
She looked at Hunter, silently begging him for help. He just shrugged and went around the island to the table. She wanted to go with him, but she faced Gray’s parents again. “I have a car,” she said, sudden realizations hitting her. “Gray and I haven’t decided what to do about the distance thing.”
The distance thing. She wished a tornado would strike the house and suck her up into the funnel. But here in the Rocky Mountains, there wasn’t going to be any tornado to save her.
“So you’re not very serious,” Chris said.
“Dad,” Gray said. “What are you asking her?” He’d just re-entered the living area, a very old woman on his arm. “Elise, come meet Grams.”
“Excuse me.” Elise kept a plastic smile on her face while she ducked around Chris and Bev. She knew what they were asking. If she and Gray were serious, why hadn’t they talked about serious things? Why didn’t they have a plan for their future?
Very good questions, in Elise’s opinion.
“Grams,” Gray said, holding her hands to steady her while she sat in a recliner. “This is Elise Murphy. We’re dating.” He smiled at the old woman and tucked Elise against his side. “Elise, this is my grandmother. My father’s mother, Opal.”
“Opal, lovely to meet you,” Elise said, feeling her smile change into a real one.
“You too.” Opal looked at Gray, and then back to Elise. They looked at each other and back to her. “I like her, Gray.”
“You do, huh?” He chuckled and sat down on the nearby couch. Elise joined him, perching right on the edge of it. “She said five words to you, Grams. What do you like about her?”
“Oh, you boys. You just think I’m old, but when you get to be my age, you have a feeling about a person.”
“Is that right?” Gray asked. He looked at Elise. “I hope I live to be ninety-eight.”
“Are you ninety-eight?” she asked Opal.
The older woman practically puffed up. “That’s right. And these boys are going to be the death of me.”