I closed my eyes as I pulled her close. “I know, I know. I love you.”
“And I love you. Always and forever,” she whispered.
Grabbing my purse, I quickly made my way out the door before being stopped by a wall in the form of one Maxwell Harp. His huge hand tilted my chin back to meet his green eyes. “You okay, Mags?”
I cleared my throat and quietly said, “I will be, Max.”
His lips grazed my forehead as he squeezed me tight. “We’re here, babe.”
My chest filled with emotion, fear of the future, love for these friends who were more family than anything else I had. “I know, Max. I need to get home.”
“Text Emma when you get there, okay?” he asked, pulling back to look at me and wipe away some of my tears.
“You bet, Dad-o.”
With that he pushed me away, laughing. I moved away to my car and looked back, seeing Max pull out his phone as he grabbed the steaks with his other hand and whistle for Poppy to follow him into the house.
I shook my head as I drove down another country road and realized with a start that I’d driven myself to the road that Sully and Emma’s parents lived on. Rateliff sang on as I sang with him. The lyrics for “You Need Me”filled my car. I laughed at the irony of the song. Yeah, I might need more than a few people in the near future. That wasn’t going to be easy for me.
I passed the Sullivans’ place and looked to see if Lee or Anna was outside, but neither were there. Glancing at the clock in the car, I figured they’d likely be cleaning up after dinner or even settling in for a relaxing night. Lee was likely watching a ball game. Anna would be reading or knitting. I’d spent so much of my childhood there it felt as close to home as my own house, maybe more. Not my dad’s fault he wasn’t around a lot. As a single parent he’d done what he could to make sure we had what we needed. It just hadn’t always worked out.
My phone lit up in the phone holder on my dash. I glanced at the navigation screen of the car and saw “Dad calling.” Speak of the devil.
Tapping the screen, I answered the call. “Hey, Dad.” Turning away from Lee and Anna’s, I began to drive toward town. The rolling fields of the bison farm were on one side of the car, a preserve on the other. Without the music filling the night air, I could hear an owl in the distance and the crunch of gravel under my tires.
“Princess.” My dad’s gravelly voice greeted me, making my eyes water once again. Damn.
“How did I get so lucky to warrant a call today?” I asked. As a long-haul trucker, Dad and I tried to schedule our calls so that we could do them on an afternoon he wasn’t driving, preferably over Zoom so I could see his face. We weren’t scheduled for another call for another week.
“Pulled in to Kansas City early and thought I’d call my girl and see how she was. Meeting another driver for dinner in a few, so I don’t have long, but for whatever reason, really wanted to say hi today,” he replied.
I smiled. My dad had tried his best once my mom was gone. It had just been the two of us, and thank God. It was hard enough to make ends meet with just us. Getting his CDL license my senior year had really been a godsend for him. He loved the lifestyle and had even been able to save up some money in the past ten years.
“You following our rules, Dad?”
Dad laughed, I’m sure recalling our long-agoconversations about the rules he had to follow if he was going to be a long-haul truck driver. In my seventeen-year-old mind, it was important that he walked for at least thirty minutes around a rest stop, or wherever he was, when he was done with the hours for the day. Truck drivers sat so much of the day. He needed to work in some activity. He also had to stock up on fruits and vegetables he could eat in the cab to keep his heart healthy. And, most importantly, he had to be a safe driver.
“You know it, sweet girl. Tonight I’m even going to have a vegetable.”
I gasped in shock. “You’re familiar with those?”
His easy laughter made my heart lighter. “It’s those little green things, right? Circular in shape?”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes, though I know he couldn’t see me. “Peas, Dad. And yes, that would be great for you. Maybe go wild and have a salad?” I drove through town and around the courthouse square.
Highland Falls had been settled in the mid-1800s. The town was a mixture of older buildings dripping of history to newer spaces. I doubted it would ever grow too big. The town limits were within an area that measured around ten square miles with a population right around ten thousand.
Everywhere I drove, I saw memories. Coming around the square, I could see the bench that Emma and I had eaten ice cream at all summer long when we were preteens, trying hard not to crush on the boys in our class doing skateboard tricks across the way. I passed the new bookstore, Pages, as well as a few other restaurants.
It was a Friday night, and people were out strolling the sidewalks that were lit with older lampposts that had been part of the Main Street revitalization grant the city got a few years back to fix up the downtown area. It helped. I think now more folks saw the downtown area as a destination for eating and socializing than they used to. Small restaurants were opening and doing well. I’m sure the success of The Homestead helped them see they could make a go of it too. There were some tables outside restaurants on the sidewalks, folks scattered here and there under strings of white lights. I settled.
“You there, princess?” my dad called to me.
Oops. Got lost in thought there for a bit. “Yeah, Dad. So everything is good?” Turning left, I headed away from the downtown and toward my duplex.
“Yep. The routes have been great lately.”
“You still listening to audiobooks on your rides? Need suggestions?” My dad spent hours in the cab of his truck. I’d introduced him to some amazing podcasts, but a few months back he’d asked if he could read something I was reading and we could talk about it. Since he likely didn’t want to dive into the romance books I read, I recommended a popular young adult book my seventh graders were reading, and he’d devoured it. Since then I’d set up a page for my students to leave recommendations for him and reviews. He would check it when he could and leave his thoughts on what he read back to them. It was a way for him to be connected with my life that I hadn’t realized he’d wanted.
