AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Right now, I’m mostly just trying to make sure she’s in town tonight. If she’s leaving, I’m still going to tell her how I feel. But I figure it would mean more if I could make the message a little more memorable. Something tells me Andi would appreciate that.”
Her mom’s eyes light up. She gives her husband a squeeze, even though he looks completely lost by what’s going on. “See how well he knows her?”
“Are we leaving tonight or not?” Andi’s dad asks. “I am so damn confused.”
“Not leaving,” she says, whacking him on the head.
“Okay. This is the plan. So far…” I say.
42
ANDI
I check the time again. I’ve watched Cade perform every hockey move he has in his arsenal about ten times, listened to Meemee describe every single classmate and every single boy in her school who likes her–apparently, they all do. My brain hurts from the three icees I’ve downed and my hands are cold.
All this, and I’m still waiting at the harbor with no sign of Jesse or Caroline to relieve me of my babysitting duties. It’s not just odd. It’s suspicious.
I look around the harbor and see the growing number of people gathering. Families are making their way down the snowbank from the street and parking lot. People are bringing their skates and the teenager manning the skate rental building has shown up with her friends.
The pyrotechnics guy is already out on the ice making last minute preparation for the show tonight and the townspeople Caroline enlisted to help are all here. It’s drawing closer and closer to night time and I can’t imagine why Caroline wouldn’t be here yet.
I sigh with annoyance and finally pull out my phone to call Caroline.
Thankfully, she picks up. “Hey, um,” she says, sounding a little odd. “Are you on the road with your parents already?”
“No… that’s the thing. I kind of agreed to watch Mikey’s kids for a little because I thought you or Jesse would be here soon to take over. But it has been hours. I was wondering if everything is okay. I thought you would’ve come down to the harbor by now.”
“Oh, yeah. Everything’s fine. I had to run some last minute errands with Jesse. He’s going to be a little late, but I should be there in like thirty minutes. Can you make sure all the lights are on? Just turn them on manually and bypass the timers. I don’t want to risk them not turning on when they’re supposed to.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Sure.” My stomach is sinking, though, because it’s getting close enough to the Frostival finale that it’s going to be hard to imagine simply walking away instead of staying another hour or two to see it all play out. I’m also wondering why Caroline seems so unapologetic about leaving me to handle everything on my own.
“You’ll have to wait for Jesse to take over the babysitting though,” Caroline says. “I’m not sure when he’ll be there, exactly. Sorry. I promised Mia I would walk her through the whole DJ setup. Our normal guy couldn’t come and she’s nervous as hell about running the booth for the event.”
I look down at Meemee, who looks back up with a blue-stained smile–she moved on from her strawberry icee to raspberry and now blueberry.
“Okay,” I sigh.
Eventually, Jesse should show up. I can still leave like I planned, it’s just going to be even harder to walk away from this amazing night now that I can see it all coming together before my eyes. Of course, seeing Jesse again is going to be the real test. Can I really walk away from him twice? I barely made it out of the bed and breakfast earlier, and I only pulled that off by aggressively pretending I couldn’t see him.
I gesture for Meemee to follow me to where the switches are for the lights. They’re strung all over the ice from the poles we had set up with Adam’s help and along the bank leading down to the harbor. The rental shop, concession stand, and makeshift DJ stage are also lit and decorated as much as we could. There’s a twelve foot Christmas tree with presents for all the kids in town beneath it, all donated by Jake and the guys, a photo op set up where kids can get a picture with Santa, a table showing off the houses that won the gingerbread contest, and a few fold-out tables we covered with red and green construction paper holding finger foods, drinks, and party bags for kids.
In an hour or so, some of the guys are going to bring out grills and make hamburgers, hotdogs, and barbecue, too.
I call my parents while I manually flick on all the lights, feeling a pang of sadness when I see how beautiful they all are. I imagine the whole town under these lights tonight as people skate on the ice and eventually dance and watch the fireworks show. I don’t know how a dance on skates works, but it’s apparently something they’ve done here for years, so it must be possible.
“Hey,” my dad says into the phone. “We’re fine. Everything is okay.”
I frown. “Okay? I was just calling to say I might need you guys to wait a little longer to drive me back. I got kind of hung up with something here and I’m not sure when I will be able to leave.”
“That’s great,” Dad says. He makes a noise like someone just hit him. I hear him talking quietly off the phone and then my mom’s voice and maybe a man’s voice. “I mean, sorry, Kiddo. Just keep us posted. We, ah, had some car trouble. I’m trying to take a look at it now. Not sure if I’ll have it ready to go tonight.”
“You don’t know anything about cars,” I say slowly. “What good is looking at it going to do you?”
There’s a long pause. “I think it’s the hydraulic fluid.”
I grin. “Hydraulic fluid? Is that even a thing in cars?”
“I’ve, ah, got Mickie here. Mickey?” he asks someone. “Mikey, sorry. Mikey the mechanic.”
