AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Another cat up a tree. But maybe this one was more like a wounded kitten.
“Look, Frank, if I was sure he was an adult, I wouldn’t bother. Adults can make their own choices about how they want to live. We can offer our help, but if they choose not to accept it, that’s on them. I know that. I’ve lived that.” He paused, taking a deep breath. “But if I’m right, he’s not an adult. Just take one look at him. You’ll see what I mean. And we’re expecting some pretty low temperatures again. This winter has been crazy.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Alright then. S’pose I could try to talk to him. What else can you tell me about him?”
“Not much. Like I said, he won’t let anybody in. Oh, but he loves to read. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kid without a book sticking out of his pocket.”
Hm. Suddenly, the case of the bookstore’s missing paperbacks was making a hell of a lot more sense to me.
“He’s here now, actually, but go easy on him. He’s not very talkative. Kind of guarded, like I said.”
“Show him to me.”
We stood, and Theo opened his office door. There was a kid lurking right outside with greasy dark brown hair and a look of terror on his face. I knew it was the kid in question. It was clear by his proximity to Theo’s office door that he’d been trying to listen to our conversation, but before I could even attempt to talk to him, he looked up at me, taking in an eyeful of my uniform and hat and the gun on my hip, turned on a heel, and ran right out the front door into the falling snow.
CHAPTER TEN
SAMANTHA
“Man, it’s really comin’ down,” Brady said as he drove us up Route 20 to Frank’s house. “It’s been snowin’ off and on for weeks. I’m over it.”
His old Sentra was on its last leg, so he’d borrowed a ten-passenger van from Ace’s House, and I was fidgeting in the front seat. My feet wouldn’t stay still, and no matter where I put my arms, I was uncomfortable. It felt like I was slouching.
It was nerves.
The cold text conversation I’d had with my dad before I’d called Brady for a ride wasn’t sitting well with me, especially when he’d asked, “And how are you doing with that whole Florida thing?”
Like miscarrying a child and losing the ability to have more was some unspeakable mistake I’d made. But saying the words would’ve meant having an actual conversation about my feelings and admitting that he had feelings about losing the opportunity for grandchildren. And my parents just didn’t do feelings. And further, admitting that they had the same feelings about anything would be like admitting their biggest weakness. My parents never agreed on anything on principle, except for work.
It still struck me as funny since the movies they made were always deep, emotional pieces. My parents always had the ability to pull heartrending performances from the actors in their movies, but neither of them could talk to their only daughter about her miscarriage and infertility.
Go figure.
When I hung up, I felt this pull to see Frank. I needed to see him, to apologize, but there was something else. I wasn’t sure what it was about, but I wanted to look in his eyes and tell him that I wasn’t disrespecting him when he’d overheard me, and when I experienced gut feelings like this, I tried to act on them. Who knew what life had in store for you? Why not investigate?
If I had been willing to admit it to myself, I would’ve known the pull to see him again was about the look in his eyes when he looked in mine. The curiosity there. The attraction.
His smile.
Activating the romance book club phone tree, I called Billie, who texted Abey, and she told me Frank owned a small piece of property past the edge of town. Brady confirmed it when he agreed to drive me out there, because of course he knew where Frank lived. Everyone knew everything about everybody in this town, even if they weren’t friends.
But now, gripping the Tupperware cake holder I’d borrowed from my gramps’s cupboard tighter on my lap, I was having second, third, and fourth thoughts about showing up at Frank’s house uninvited.
“It’s your birthday,” Brady said. “You sure you wanna do this? You could stay in town. We could order dinner instead.” Peering out his windshield, he winced at the snow dropping down on us in heaves, the wind gusting it this way and that. “You might get stuck out there forever.”
But I had to apologize. I was mortified that Frank had caught me gossiping about him. I hadn’t actually been discussing the firmness of his—well, I guess I had been, but not that muscle. My face flushed and my stomach clenched just thinking about the mix-up and the irritated look on his face in the coffee shop.
He had to know I wasn’t really that immature.
“Just keep driving, please,” I said. “If I think too much about it, I’ll tell you to turn around.”
“Okay. If you’re sure.”
“I am.” It was what my mouth was saying, but the flutter in my chest was telling me to jump out of the van. Maybe I could hide in a snowbank and hibernate until spring came. The embarrassment would’ve worn off by then, right?
My “follow your vibes” free-spirited personality seemed to be failing me in the moment. Honestly, I’d never had a harder time making up my mind. The desire to see Frank was strong, but his voice was loud in my head every time I remembered his words at the restaurant: “Always imagined I’d have a family by now.” It was like a permanent stamp in my brain.
Brady dropped me off on Frank’s gravel drive, down a dark country road off the main highway, and after confirming there was sound and light coming from the house, I reached in through Brady’s rolled-down window to kiss his cheek, then waved him away.
