Snow Day

by Shannon Stacey, Jennifer Greene

  Of course, Camille either didn’t know what had transpired between Delaney and Brody, or didn’t care. She was determined to make conversation.

  “I don’t know how you do this, day after day. Taking care of everything, I mean. But I’m so glad you do it. And you can bet I’ll be letting everybody at the town hall know that, too.”

  “Thanks, Camille. I appreciate that. Alice just buttered some more toast, so grab it while it’s hot.”

  But the older woman reached out and put her hand over Delaney’s. “We’re so lucky to have you, honey.”

  “Well...I’m not going anywhere.”

  Camille moved on to get her toast, but Delaney could tell by the look on Brody’s face he hadn’t missed her comment. His jaw was tight and his eyes were about as flat as she’d ever seen them. “How lucky for Tucker’s Point.”

  “Hey, you heard your mom. They feel lucky to have me.” As opposed to a certain man who didn’t seem to think she was worth moving back to Maine for.

  He followed his mom and John stepped up for eggs. Fortunately he did nothing but give her a sad look and shake his head, which was easy enough to ignore.

  Finally, everybody had eaten—including the volunteers—and Delaney could hide in the back of the kitchen, where the sinks were. Brody’s closed expression haunted her and she wasn’t halfway through the dishes when she sank to the floor, soapy hands and all, and broke into tears.

  * * *

  ALL IT TOOK was a road crew stopping in for coffee and telling them the roads were passable for excitement to buzz through the gym. Between the salt they’d dropped throughout the storm and the sun shining today, the ice had melted off the main roads fairly quickly. Some of the back roads were still treacherous and nobody wanted the citizens of Tucker’s Point going out needlessly, but there was light at the end of the tunnel.

  Unlike the others, Brody knew the light was a train. A big, black, smoke-belching steam engine of heartbreak chugging steadily toward him and no matter how he braced for impact, that sucker was going to hurt.

  He’d hoped to get a chance to talk to Delaney privately, but she’d suddenly become the most sociable person in existence. She was never alone. Alice or one of the other volunteers made the trips to the supply closet, and Delaney flitted from person to person, never giving him the opportunity to pull her away without making a scene.

  When she’d come out of the kitchen earlier, he could tell she’d been crying. The thought of her tears twisted him up inside and he knew he couldn’t leave things like this between them. But she wasn’t making it easy for him.

  Sandy, who was lounging on the cot next to him with a sleeping Noah on her chest, reached her foot over and kicked his leg. “Hey. Earth to Brody.”

  “Just lost in thought. You need something?”

  “Nope. We’re good.”

  Mike had gotten called out just as he was wolfing down the last of his eggs, and Brody suspected it would be a while before he got another break. With roads to salt and downed trees and who knew what else out there, he’d be racking up some overtime.

  “The roads are open now,” Sandy said. “You should go.”

  Brody shook his head. “I’m not leaving you and Noah here. You’re stuck with me until you can go home.”

  “Mom and Dad are here, and Mike will be in and out for breaks. You’ve already missed so much work, and you really don’t have to stay.”

  “I’m staying.”

  Sandy sighed. “You hanging around here isn’t going to change her mind. It’s just going to drag out the pain of you leaving again.”

  So her concern wasn’t for him. It was for Delaney. “I never pretended I wanted to be here. Or that I’d be staying.”

  “You’re going to be as stubborn as she is, and it’s not going to get either of you anything but a cold, lonely bed at night.”

  “So you see that she’s being stubborn?”

  “Yes. But maybe you missed the part where I said you are as stubborn as she is.”

  “I don’t want to talk about this.”

  She glared at him over her baby’s head. “Of course you don’t. You don’t talk about what’s going on in your life. You just leave a note and disappear.”

  Brody groaned and scrubbed his hands over his face. They’d hashed out Sandy’s feelings about his running away several times in the first few months after he’d left Tucker’s Point, but she didn’t pull punches when she was mad at him.

  “I don’t mind talking if I think it’ll do any good.”

  Sandy’s cell phone rang and she fished around under her hip for it. Having forgotten her charger, she’d only been turning it on a few times a day, but once she found somebody with the same type, she’d started leaving it on.

  Brody tuned out the conversation which, by the sounds of it, was with her husband and kept his eyes on Noah so he wouldn’t be tempted to look around for Delaney again. He might be having his heart ripped out of his chest but, dammit, he had some pride, too. No mooning over a woman who wouldn’t move to Connecticut for him.

  Okay, that wasn’t totally fair, he told himself. There was a difference. Brody lived in a condo that meant nothing to him in a town he had no emotional ties to. It wasn’t that simple for a woman who not only loved her hometown, but somehow felt as if her identity was wrapped up in it.

  Sandy ended her call and dropped the phone next to her. “Mike said he went by the house and the power’s back on. He checked the pilot lights, too, so I can go home now. And so can Mom and Dad. He went by there, too.”

  Those were the magic words offering him parole from Tucker’s Point. He could take his family home, then point his rental south to the airport.

  “It might take a while for the houses to get back up to temperature,” he heard himself saying. “And all the pipes need to be checked.”

  “He said the pipes all looked okay, and he checked the faucets. The water lines didn’t freeze.”

  His mind raced, trying to cover any and all reasons they couldn’t go home yet. Which didn’t make sense, seeing as how that was all he’d wanted since he drove past the welcome sign on his way in. “The roads are probably still pretty bad.”

  “Mike wouldn’t have said you could take me home if he didn’t think it was safe. He’d do it himself, but they want to get all the side roads done so everybody else can go home, too.”

  So this was it, then. He was free to go. All he had to do was help his family get their things together, drop them off at home and he could head to the airport. Or maybe he’d drive back to Connecticut just to clear his head. He was already so behind on work, it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

  But he also had to say goodbye to Delaney. He had to look her in the face and do it like a man this time. And, as much as leaving her the note had hurt, he knew this would be so much worse.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  DELANEY KNEW IT was coming. She’d seen Sandy on the phone and a few minutes later she’d started packing up her belongings, as had her parents. And Brody. Their power had been restored and they were leaving.

  With each trip he made out to his rental carrying bags, her stomach knotted up a little more. She had no idea if he’d try to talk to her. She’d managed to avoid being alone with him since the disaster outside, and he might just walk out the door and not come back.

  But after his last trip out to his car, he scanned the room until he spotted her. He moved with swiftness and purpose, and she knew there was no dodging him this time. When he reached her, he simply gestured toward the doors that led to the hallway. She went, but only because she was afraid she might cry and she didn’t want to do that in front of an audience.

  “I’m taking my family home,” he told her once they were alone. “And then I’m leaving.”

  Even though she’d expected them, the
words sounded wrong to her ears. “At least you’re saying goodbye this time.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “You made your choice, Brody. Again. Go back to your life and don’t worry about me.”

  He shook his head. “We can figure this out.”

  She wished she could believe that. “We want different things in life. No amount of figuring will make that work out.”

  “I’m going to call you.”

  And wasn’t that a promise sure to make her sit and mope by the phone for days? Even weeks? “Please don’t. It’ll just make it harder to get over you. Again.”

  She looked into his gorgeous green eyes, wishing words would magically come out of his mouth that would make everything okay.

  “What’s between us is real, Delaney.”

  “But it’s not enough, is it?”

  “That’s not fair. The choice you’re asking me to make is not fair.”

  “There’s no answer that’s fair to both of us.” Her bottom lip started to tremble as tears formed in her eyes. “Please don’t make this harder. Just go. Please.”

  He went and, even though she’d told him to, every step he took away from her felt like a dagger to her heart. Maybe notes were better, because she hadn’t had to see the look on his face as he walked away.

  Brody had looked as devastated as she felt, and Delaney knew it would be a long time before she could think of him without reliving this moment. If ever.

  When the door swung closed behind him, she wrapped her arms around her stomach and sank slowly to the floor. He was gone and there was a good chance, after this, she’d never see him again.

  Except when she closed her eyes.

  * * *

  BRODY DROVE SANDY and Noah home first. She was exhausted, and she was so excited to sleep in her own bed she didn’t want to wait the extra time to drop their parents off.

  “I can stay with you,” their mom offered. “Help with Noah so you can catch up on your sleep.”

  “I love you, Mom, but I honestly want to curl up in bed with him and be alone. There have been so many people hovering and holding him and, while I really appreciate it, we need some alone time.”

  “I understand, honey. But once you’ve had alone time, you call me if you get tired or overwhelmed and Mike still isn’t home.”

  She promised she’d call if she needed help and then wrapped her arms around Brody. “I’m going to miss you. And so is Noah.”

  “I’ll be around more often,” he promised. “And I’ll check Facebook every day so make sure you keep it updated.”

  “Brody, are you sure you—”

  “Don’t.” He kissed the top of her head and gave her an extra big squeeze. “I’ll call you soon, okay?”

  The ride to his parents’ house was slower. The roads were narrow and trickier to navigate, and there was a lot of debris littering the way. But it wasn’t the drive that made his shoulders tense and his fingers tighten on the steering wheel. As the houses got a little more run-down and became more multifamily units than single family, his tension ratcheted up.

  When he pulled into the driveway of the small Cape he’d grown up in, with its faded and splintered shingle siding and an ancient roof, he hesitated before taking off his seat belt. Part of him wanted to sit in the car and tell them he’d call them later, but he couldn’t do it. These were his parents.

  After grabbing their bags, he walked slowly up the familiar walk with its uneven pavers and followed his parents through the front door. Cigarette smoke, old meals, the pine-scented cleaning stuff his mom used and a lingering trace of the fishing boats, though his father had retired. The scents of his childhood.

  The sight of the battered kitchen table and the ancient brown couch and recliner beyond it made him twitch.

  “You’re going to have some coffee and food before you go,” his mother said, and her tone brooked no argument so he took off his coat and draped it over a kitchen chair. “Help your father check the basement and the pipes while I cook up some tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

  It was Brody’s comfort food, and he wondered if she remembered that—if she’d chosen those foods deliberately. Because she was a mom, he assumed she had and it warmed his bruised heart some. Here was a woman who loved him unconditionally.

  Because he was helping his old man check the heating system and the basement, Brody got to visit every room in the house. His old twin bed was still in his bedroom, though the rest of it had been taken over by what looked like crafts. He saw some knitting stuff and a sewing machine and a lot of magazines that touted counted cross-stitch patterns inside. He wasn’t sure if his mom actually did any of those crafts, but she’d sure collected a lot of it.

  The pipes seemed fine and there was no water in the basement, so they made their way back to the kitchen just as his mother was cutting the grilled cheese sandwiches. Brody sat in the seat that had always been his and breathed in the aroma of his mom’s tomato soup. Nobody made it like she did.

  Maybe it was the soup or the perfectly grilled sandwiches, but Brody found himself relaxing as they all shared a meal. The Rollins family wasn’t in the habit of talking much while they ate, and he found the silence familiar and as comforting as the food.

  “I’m going to go unpack our bags and maybe start some laundry real quick.” His mother pushed back from the table and stood. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

  Brody leaned back in his chair and rubbed his stomach. “That really hit the spot, Mom. Thank you.”

  She leaned down and kissed his forehead. “I like having you home, even if it’s only for a little while.”

  “I’ll come around more often,” he promised, and he was surprised by the fact he meant it. It would be awkward, of course, avoiding Delaney, but the idea of coming back now and then didn’t make him do a mental recoil as it had in the past.

  So what if the furniture was rough and he’d have to pay extra to get the cigarette smoke smell out of his clothes. This was his family and he loved them. The house was just...the setting. Nothing more or less.

  “This place doesn’t define who I am.”

  “Doesn’t define me either, and thank God for that,” his father said, and Brody winced. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “This town doesn’t define me. This house doesn’t define me. Having a wife I love stick by me for thirty years defines me. So does having a son and a daughter who make me proud. And now I have a grandson I’ll teach how to fish and tie a decent knot someday. The people I love and the people who love me make up the man I am.”

  It was the most he’d ever heard the old man say about love and family, and Brody felt his throat closing up. This place he’d always thought made him somehow less had actually made him into the man he was. It was a house full of love and hard work and loyalty, even if the furniture was ugly.

  Brody didn’t want to be defined by a slick condo in Connecticut and expensive sweaters. He wanted to have a wife who’d love him for thirty years and more, through good times and bad. He wanted kids who’d grow up and make him proud, even if they occasionally broke his heart along the way. He wanted to be the man Delaney had always believed he was.

  “I have to go, Pop.”

  “The highway’s going to have some black ice, so you take your time and get home in one piece.”

  “I’m not going on the highway.” Brody stood and grabbed his coat off the back of the chair. “Tell Ma I’m not leaving town yet—I hope—and that I’ll call her later.”

  “Hey, Brody.” He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned back to his dad. “Your pride means nothing when it comes to loving a woman. Leave it all on the field, son.”

  * * *

  DELANEY HAD GIVEN herself a few minutes to cry, but then she’d splashed icy water over her face and told herself to suc
k it up. She could keep it together until she got home and then she’d cry herself into a state of dehydration.

  The power crews were working fast so they could head to harder-hit towns to give assistance, so almost two-thirds of the storm’s refugees had gone home already. The others were anxious to go, calling the power company or people in their neighborhoods so often the people on the other end of the lines were probably going crazy.

  When the main door opened, Delaney looked over, expecting it to be a working crew looking for a caffeine fix or somebody come to taxi a family home.

  It was Brody.

  The wild look in his eyes as he zeroed in on her made her shiver, even as she told herself there had to be a perfectly logical explanation for his being there. Maybe Sandy had forgotten something, or one of his parents.

  Of course, it had to be her that was out front, instead of Alice, who was cleaning the bathrooms.

  “Did you forget something?” she asked when he was close enough.

  “Yeah.” Her heart sank. Sometimes logic sucked. “I forgot to tell you I love you.”

  Even though she’d known he did, hearing the words come out of his mouth made her heart do a funny leap in her chest. “I love you, too. I always have. But—”

  “Don’t say but. Not yet. Not until I’m done.” He shoved a hand through his hair and blew out a long breath. “I ran away from turning into a man I didn’t want to be. But that guy who loved you... No, that guy who was loved by you? I want to be him again.”

  “You’ve never stopped being the guy I love.”

  “I want to be the guy you marry. I want to be the father of your children.”

  Delaney could hardly breathe. “What changed, Brody? I don’t understand.”

  “I changed. I stood in my parents’ house and I felt... I don’t know how to explain it. The house isn’t the home. My mom and dad are. I want you and me to be a home, Delaney. I’ll live in Tucker’s Point if it means you’ll be living here with me. Hell, I’ll live in my parents’ house again if you want me to.”