“Marie from the hotel offered only the blankets.” He chuckled. “They have a strict policy against people taking their flatware. I did the best I could.”
“This was all really nice of you. Thank you,” I responded sincerely. I was still amazed by the effort he had put into the entire thing. It really said a lot about who he was, and I knew I was falling too quickly down the rabbit hole to ever escape this. I needed Sawyer Grant in my life on so many levels.
“This isn’t the last time, you know,” he stated, leaning back on his elbows. “I’m serious about taking you to the cabin when we get back to Nashville. We’re going to sleep outside all over again, and you’ll be hooked.”
I’m already hooked. Making plans for the future made me nervous but excited at the same time. I needed something to look forward to more than ever, and I was grateful for that.
I checked my phone, surprised to see it was only seven o’clock. I wanted to give it a little more time before calling my mom for an update on the chance she was actually getting some much needed sleep. She had texted after they’d landed and checked into the hospital late last night but relayed she wouldn’t have any further news until sometime this morning once the doctors were in.
“I have a podiatry appointment in an hour,” I groaned unenthusiastically.
“You make fun of me for reading the newspaper, and you have a podiatrist? Are you eighty?”
“It’s not for me, it’s for my grandma.” I giggled. “I’m on duty today, so first it’s that then her hair appointment. Don’t make fun of my glamorous life.”
“I’m spending the day learning about the many wonders of the small intestine,” he shot back. “Let’s not pretend your day is more exciting than mine.”
I lay back down on the blankets, stretching out my body. The thick covers were surprisingly more comfortable than I would have suspected given we were technically sleeping on the ground.
“We should probably talk about tomorrow,” I said hesitantly, afraid to bring it up. It was almost as if not talking about it made it less of a reality. “Are you still planning on leaving town after the conference is over?” I questioned, hoping not to sound too emotional about it. It was what it was.
“I haven’t changed my ticket yet. I don’t want to impose. I meant what I said last night. I’m not trying to meddle, and I certainly don’t want to be in the way. Maybe it’s best if I head back and we meet up later, once you get back to town. Once everything settles a bit for you.”
“I want to live in here.” I sighed, taking it in all in. That was true: I wanted to stay in this white castle forever, completely tucked away from the rest of the world. It felt like nothing bad could get to me in here. “I’m twenty-three, and I want more blanket forts in my life. There, I said it.”
“I could make that happen for you,” he replied somewhat seriously. “We can escape from the world and live in a tiny linen house, with junk cereal and twinkle lights. I’ll protect you from squirrels, and we can go canoeing, and read the paper, and schedule our podiatry appointments together. It would be pure bliss. I swear, I could make all of that happen.”
“I want you to stay,” I whispered, pulling him into me. I kissed him hungrily, and I meant those words. “Stay longer. Please.”
“Then I will,” he replied softly as he trailed kisses down my neck. His hands grazed the soft skin underneath my shirt, and I shuddered despite the comfort of the thick, feathery blankets surrounding our bodies. I pulled at his shirt, and he slipped it off in one smooth motion. I knew this blanket fort was about to mean so much more to me than it had when I’d awoken.
Chapter 12
Sawyer and I struggled to separate our bodies, but as it neared eight o’clock, I knew I had to go. I felt bad leaving him with the task of taking apart the fort on his own, but I had to make my way to my house to get my parents’ car. If I missed getting my grandma to her appointment, I would never hear the end of it.
“Are you sure you don’t want a ride? I can come back and finish taking all this down,” he offered politely as I grabbed my suitcase.
“I think I deserve to do the walk of shame to my house,” I teased. “Honestly, I need the fresh air to get this stupid grin off my face before my entire family knows where I’ve been.”
He kissed me one last time, and I was relieved he’d decided to stay in Mountain Ridge for a little longer.
“Does this mean I’m now worthy of reading some of your notebooks?” He smirked.
“Not a chance, but it means I’ll let you down nicely by saying I’ll at least think about it in the very distant future. Will I see you later tonight?” I asked suggestively.
“I have a presentation to prepare.” He ran a hand through his light-brown hair. “I have to meet with a group of people after the conference tonight to get it done. We’ll probably need a few hours to put it together. Tomorrow’s the last day of the conference, so we only have tonight. How late will you be up?”
“Depends on how the day goes,” I said reluctantly. Obviously I hoped for good news on my dad later, but on the chance this day got complicated, I couldn’t make any promises.
“Call me later?”
I nodded then quickly made my way to the walking path that led to my neighborhood. I had to pick up a pretty brisk pace to get there in time. As I walked in the front door to my parents’ house, at least fifteen people stared back at me.
“There she is,” my grandma Sally said excitedly, clasping her hands together. “I knew you were coming for me. Your brother said you’d abandoned me, but I knew better.”
“Warren, why would you say that to her?” I sneered, punching him in the shoulder. “Grandma Sally, I would never abandon you. I’m just a few minutes late. We’ll still make it. They always ask you to get there fifteen minutes early, but you’ve been going there regularly for two decades, so I think they’ll let this slide. Let’s go.”
“Where did you end up last night? I saw Brie at the gas station around eleven, so don’t you dare try to tell me you were with her,” Warren pried.
“None of your business.” I brushed him off. The last thing I wanted to do was explain my relationship with Sawyer to my annoying little brother. The house phone rang at that moment, and I was glad to have all the attention taken off me.
Warren answered the phone, and I could tell by the way his face lit up that it was my mom. He put it on speaker phone.
“He’s going in for surgery in about an hour,” my mom explained. “This doctor still has some reservations about his prognosis, but he’s the best there is. He can fix the problem, namely the two valves and the aorta—he can repair all of that. He’s just not certain that will undo the damage that’s already been done to your dad’s heart, but he’s at least going to attempt it. And if for some reason that’s not enough, they can install a pump to help his heart work. So we have some options.” She sounded rested, and I was thankful for that. As always, she seemed a little too cheerful for the situation, but that was her strength, and she seemed to have it in abundance. Sometimes in the midst of my doom and gloom I wasn’t sure how I was her daughter.
My mom went on to explain that the surgery would take about eight hours. She promised to call after it was all over, and I had some sense of relief. Something was happening, which felt like such a big weight off my chest after all the waiting we’d done up to this point. It had been such a horrific week thus far, but the doctor last night had been right. Today was another day. My mom was there, and my dad had more fight in him. Hopefully that would be enough.
I quickly raced my grandmother out the door as soon as we hung up the phone, and although we were a couple of minutes late, no one gave us any grief over it.
Once the appointment was over, I talked my grandma into doing something moderately irrational. Instead of going to her regular salon, I convinced her to let Brie do her hair instead. She’d known Brie since we were little, so it wasn’t a totally crazy idea, although I knew Brie was a bit more . . . um, m
odern than Grandma Sally’s longtime hairdresser, Edith. Grandma Sally agreed, and we made our way to Brie’s salon.
Maybe it was the change in the air from the news about my father, but Grandma Sally felt more free-spirited than she usually did at the salon. She thumbed through an “over fifty” magazine and chose a hairstyle that was a little lighter than her current hair.
“Are you sure?” Brie looked to me for reassurance. “Your mom won’t be mad?” she asked me quietly.
“Just go with it,” I confirmed, happy for the change that was happening all around me. It felt like the right time for something like this, as silly as it was.
Grandma Sally had recently had her hair permed, so that was out of the way. She just needed some color. Brie put the dye in my grandma’s hair as we sat around making small talk. Once she was under the heat machine, I finally had a chance to tell Brie all about my night—and morning—with Sawyer. She gasped and covered her mouth.
“Really? You and Jeep Guy,” she gushed. “I’m happy for you, Whit. I really am. You deserve to be happy.”
The salon door chimed, and a guy with broad shoulders, light shoulder-length hair, and a gorgeous accent walked in, asking if the salon accepted walk-ins. I made huge eyes at Brie.
“Um, yeah,” she stammered, clearly nervous in this handsome guy’s presence. “Have a seat there, and, um, I’ll be with you in just a minute.” One of the other hairstylists looked like she might be finished with her client before Brie, but I could see Brie’s suggesting with her eyes to her coworker that she definitely had this one covered.
“Holy moly, was that a Thor accent?” I whispered excitedly.
“Not at all. It sounded British.” She laughed quietly. “But who cares? Look at him. He’s like six foot five with a face like that? I’ll make an exception on the accent.”
“I can actually help you now,” she said to the gentleman just before he sat down in the waiting room. “You can have a seat in chair three.” She pointed to the open seat. As soon as he was out of ear shot, she whispered frantically, “Your grandma has exactly eight minutes left under the heat. It is imperative that you watch the clock for me so I don’t get distracted. She can’t stay under there too long. Do you understand? Her hair was recently permed, so it’s delicate as it is, and with the light hair color, she cannot stay under there too long. Eight minutes. Got it?”
I nodded and shooed her back to the hunk. “I’ve got this. Go get Thor.” I winked at her, and she was off. I sat in one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room and thumbed through a book of short hairstyles. I felt like I needed a change, but I wasn’t sure I had the courage to do something drastic. I’d been hiding behind long hair all my life, and I didn’t feel ready to let go of that just yet. Maybe Brie was right: a good solid trim and some highlights may be enough to lift my mood.
A few minutes later my phone rang, and it was my mom’s cell number. I stepped outside to answer it.
“Hi, daughter of mine,” my dad said on the other end. “I just wanted to give you a quick call before my procedure. I think I’m here for a colonoscopy or something.”
“Dad, you’re getting your heart cut open today,” I said warmly, appreciating the fact that he still had his sense of humor.
“Oh, thank goodness. That’s much less personal than the other end of my body,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Come on, Dad, aren’t you a little scared? Freaked out? Worried?”
“Worrying doesn’t get you anywhere,” he said with a positive tone. “This is what it is. I’m just thankful I get one more chance to tell you I love you and that I’m proud of you. I know I said it the other night, but I have another chance to say it so I will. You are greatness. Everything you have left to do, you will do. I don’t have any doubts about that. You have people surrounding you who see nothing but greatness in you. Continue to surround yourself with those people, and you won’t have to worry whether you’ve ‘made it.’ Stop thinking you have yet to achieve anything. You have all the time in the world to come into the person you are meant to be, and I know with certainty that you are full of greatness.”
Slow tears fell, and the emotional pit in my stomach grew yet again.
“You said it yourself,” he continued. “I have a lot to do. I need to dance with you at your wedding and make shadow puppets on the wall with my grandchildren. And I still haven’t fixed the dishwasher yet. Your mother will never let me go before that happens, so I’m not planning on going anywhere.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you too, Peaches. I’ll talk to you soon.”
We hung up the phone, and I sat on the curb, weeping. His words always got me. There was no way I could lose him. It meant too much. It hurt too big. According to the doctors, my dad was already more than halfway there and there was little hope, but I didn’t accept that to be a hard truth. When it came to death, there was only one side or the other. It was never half true. Despite the odds against him, I wanted nothing more than to ignore it all. I hung on to his words that we would in fact talk soon. That’s all I had left of him.
I regained my composure and went back into the salon. Brie was giggling and having a very animated conversation with the foreign stranger. I smiled, excited for her to finish so I could get the full scoop on him. They looked like they were enjoying each other’s company.
I glanced around the salon, finally making eye contact with Grandma Sally.
Grandma Sally!
Her hair! I was supposed to get her out of the heat thing . . . what, six minutes ago? Eighteen minutes ago? I had lost track of time while on the phone or perhaps afterward, when I was sobbing in the parking lot. My mom was going to kill me.
“Grandma, I think it’s time,” I said with a fake smile, hoping she wouldn’t notice my panic.
“Damn!” Brie shrieked. “You forgot about her?” She dropped her comb and scissors and ran over to Grandma Sally. “It’s fine, it’ll be fine,” she said reassuringly. I wasn’t sure she was telling the truth.
She helped my grandma to a chair near the sink and looked at me worriedly. “Your mother is going to kill me,” she mouthed so my grandma wouldn’t hear.
“Sorry, I was outside talking to my dad, and I forgot to watch the time,” I whispered. “How’s it going with Thor?”
“Well, when he sees what I’ve done to this poor lady, I’m guessing our date for tomorrow night will be off.” She tried to look serious as she said it, but I could see her fighting a smile.
“I knew it,” I mouthed back as she tended to my grandma. I was so excited for her. “Grandma, Dad is going in for surgery now,” I said to distract her as Brie tried to reconcile my mistake. “He sounds really good. My mom should be calling us in about eight or nine hours with some news.”
She nodded happily, and I could tell she was oblivious to what had happened to her hair. Brie was a miracle worker, so if anything had gone sideways, I was sure she could fix it.
Sure enough, Grandma Sally’s hair was way too light, and the texture was a bit like cotton candy. It wasn’t a great sight. Brie suspected she’d had her hair permed even more recently than Grandma Sally had said, which was another issue. Brie was able to get some of the curls back, but they weren’t nearly as tight as when we’d started. The color was way lighter than what she originally picked. I told her she looked stunning, of course, and went on and on about how her light hair color was perfect for summer.
After a few more minutes working with Sally, Brie turned her attention back on Thor, bringing me into the conversation.
“So Alex wants to go to Murphy’s tomorrow night to see Kip Bentley,” she explained, no doubt laughing on the inside as I scrunched up my face at her. “I told him you and Sawyer were planning to go. We could all go together?” How had this turned into a group date?
“Oh, yeah, well, I’m not sure Sawyer is available, I’ll have to check,” I stammered, unsure how else to respond. I had no desire whatsoever to see Kip, especially not at o
ne of his shows, where I was forced to stand there like I was a fan, enjoying his music.
“I thought his conference ended tomorrow,” she added, referencing what I’d told her just minutes ago when I’d explained he would be staying in town a little longer despite the end of his attendance at the seminar. “I think he’s free. It will be fun.”
“I hate you right now,” I whispered into her ear as I gave her an awkward hug goodbye. “Grandma Sally and I are going to go. Thanks for everything,” I said a little too loudly to compensate for what I’d said privately. “I’ll let you know about tomorrow night.”
“Great. Alex and I will meet you there at eight,” Brie replied. I glared at her, but she dismissed it, getting back to Thor’s haircut. “I’ll call you later, Whit.”
I gave her another death glare as I ushered Grandma Sally out of the salon with her platinum-blonde too-fuzzy hair. I suppose it could have been worse—it all could have fallen out. This was at least a little more . . . temporary. If she ended up hating the color, Brie could darken it up a bit—eventually, once the dye settled.
I drove Grandma Sally home and spent the rest of the afternoon with my family. We put together a thousand-piece puzzle, played Yahtzee, and ate food brought over by neighbors and friends from my parents’ church. Brie even joined us for a few hours, which was wonderful. Warren annoyed me less throughout the day, which was also a plus. There was something about waiting. I think it created some solidarity between us for the time being. I was sure that as soon as we got the news that my father was okay and out of surgery, he would be right back to razzing me about Sawyer.
Around six o’clock, the house phone finally rang, and I knew that was it. I think I held my breath until Warren put the phone on speaker.
“He’s awake,” my mom said in her bubbly voice. “He’s still pretty out of it, but we didn’t need the pump. His heart appears to be beating on its own.” There was a collective sigh of relief.
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