“Oh, I’m sorry.When did that happen?”
“A week before Lizzie passed away.”
My eyes widened at the weight of dealing with divorce when Lizzie’s death blindsided everyone.“Ouch.That was a rough month for you.”
A teeny smile, but one all the same, tickled the edges of his full lips.“It gets better.”
“Better?”
“In between those two events, I lost my job.”
“Triple whammy.Yikes.”I ran my hands down the length of my dark jeans.
“But two of those three didn’t upset me much.I found my calling and a new place to set up roots, quite literally.”He winked.“Second Sun Winery – which is much nicer than the crusty office job I had.Wine, I’m good with.People?Not so much.Wine makes sense – predictable variables, measurable reactions.Relationships...”He lifted a shoulder.“Less quantifiable.”
I looked at him carefully, assessing what he wanted to say and what he needed to hold back.He and Lizzie, being only a year apart in age, were quite close, and I knew from seeing him at her funeral how hard that had been, add on an impending divorce and a job loss.I shook my head and dove in.“What happened?To cause the separation?”
“She cheated on me.”There was no malice in his voice.“With my buddy.Do you remember Christopher?”
“From high school?The grunge guy?”
He laughed, full and throaty.“That’s him.Or was.Last I heard, although I wasn’t listening very hard, he was still trying to make it in a band.And jokes on Ash, he was never that good.”
“Still, it’s not cool to cheat.Just end the relationship if it’s not working out and move on.”I shook my head.“So not cool.”And totally foolish, in my opinion.I wouldn’t have betrayed Tristan for anything, not that he would’ve even have given me the chance.
“Relationships are hard, am I right?”
“Not that I have one to speak of, but yeah, he was a lot of work.”
“Wait, you mean since you and oh what was his name?”
“Gregory?”I filled in quickly, hoping he’d forget his unfortunate nickname.
“Yeah, since you and Daddy Long Gregs parted, you haven’t been with anyone?”His eyes went wide and he pulled his body to the left angling toward me.
The distance between us suddenly made me feel as though I had a contagious disease.Which was true in the dating world.
“When a guy finds out you have two kids, it’s a deal breaker right out of the gate, and I was always upfront with each date about my kids, since they mean everything to me.I’m not ashamed to say everything I do, or have done, was for them.But I haven’t had a second date since high school.”Shame, ocean bottom deep, heated my cheeks at the lack of dating roster.There wasn’t even a list to recall.
“I can’t believe that.You’re amazing.Raising two kids on your own and look at you!You’re brave and resilient, and a knockout.”His eyes widened again as if the words should’ve been locked up and never allowed to see the sunlight.
The compliment was so unexpected, my body didn’t know what to do.It cranked my thermostat to record high levels and singed my cheeks beyond anything I thought they were capable of.I was giving off enough heat to warm the interior of the truck cabin.
I barely squeaked out a ‘thank you’ and tapped the audio button.“Music?”
“Sure...what do you prefer?”
“Nothing much beats a littleBarenaked Ladies.” I scrolled through the app and found a playlist of their greatest hits and hit play.
––––––––
After singing (badly) through ‘One Week’ and rolling past endless rows of trees and fields, our conversation drifted to safe topics: the weather, his route, and our first destination.
The clock read just past one as we turned off the highway into Ridge Heights; a postcard little town tucked into the mountain valley.
He drove down the main street with store names like Gallagher’s Hardware, Meeples & Magic, and the aforementioned Coffee Loft.
“There it is,” Tristan said as he drove past and made a sharp right.“Small-town legend.Locals would riot if it closed so we’ll stop there after.First, I need to make a quick drop.”
