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Chapter 20
The school was officially out for the summer. I was relieved that I could have some time without my kids breathing down my neck and focus on the house and the moving process. I still had a lot of packing, cleaning, and reviewing to do for my room but not having the students in school helped me accomplish more.
Since my room was farther down the hall than the other teachers, I could play music through my speakers without worrying about other admin hearing. The rows of files and folders felt like a wave of overstimulation. The sound of instrumentals in my speakers and the feeling of paper after paper was my muse that morning. I sorted through files, daydreaming of my move and the not-so-new home I would soon inhabit.
My music was interrupted by a ringing. I looked at my phone to see an unknown number calling, I hesitantly answered as I figured it was the same spam calls I had every other day.
“Hello?” My voice was just over a whisper.
“Hey June, uh this is Beau.” Beau had never called me before; he had emailed me here and there questions about design, memos, etc. I felt my neck heating up, anxious as to what he could call about.
“Hey Beau, is everything okay?”
He cleared his throat. “Um yeah. There’s been a slight accident...Grant fell off a ladder and messed his arm up pretty bad.”
My stomach dropped and I stood up, ready to grab my purse and keys to head there.
“Oh my God. Is he okay?”
I hear voices in the background but I’m unable to tell what they’re saying.
“Yeah, he’s fine now. But he just got home from the hospital and they’ve got him on a lot of painkillers. I was planning on staying with him tonight but I have to run to the other projects we’re doing. Is there any chance you could stop by and just check on him?”
My heart hurt at the thought that Grant had no one else to watch over him and without second-guessing, I said yes. I grabbed my belongings and headed out of the school, quick to avoid anyone asking for favors as my time was now all his.
I stopped by a pharmacy on the way there, grabbing any ice packs, heating pads, and a few of his favorite drinks that he had mentioned previously.
When I pulled up to Grant’s house I saw Beau’s car in the driveway parked next to my favorite old truck. I walked inside faster than I could think.
Beau was leaning against the dining room table, and when I approached him, I noticed Grant lying back on the couch with his arm over his eyes like a sleeping baby.
I whisper, so as not to disturb him “Is he okay?”
Beau takes a look at the bags in my hand and back up to my worried face, which he grinned at. “Yeah, he’s fine. Just higher than a kite and I can’t watch over him.” I nodded my head and watched him leave, prepared to take care of the one man who always managed to take care of me.
Grant slept for almost an hour while I was there. Meanwhile, I was so bored and anxious that I began cleaning. But of course, ever so organized Grant had the place spotless. I wiped down the countertops and repositioned a couple of things in the cabinets. I opened the fridge to tackle whatever he had in there but of course, he had containers in there that kept everything organized. I pretended to not notice the unopened case of sugar-free Vanilla Coke sitting off to the left. Just in case I came over?
I walked down the hall, noting the clean and masculine scent that hung in the air. He had already taken me through the house once, but it was so large I couldn’t find the bathroom without getting lost. I turned the corner and opened one door in hopes I found my destination. Instead, I was met with his office.
The dark green walls and black furniture fit Grant perfectly. I casually strolled past his desk, I couldn’t help but be curious as to what he had his office like.
I sat in his leather desk chair and spun around. His space was perfectly organized and clean, which was so Grant. His work clothes were about the only dirty thing in his life. Every other part of him was precise and organized.
I stopped spinning when I felt a little dizzy and looked over at his desk. It didn’t have much on it, a laptop, mouse pad, stapler… a frame?
In the corner of the desk sat a 4x6 black picture frame. I reached over and pulled it towards me, and my stomach dropped at the sight of the picture.
It was me.
It was me in the flower fields. I was leaning over, picking tulips, not paying attention to Grant or having any idea that he was taking a picture. With scissors in my hand and a big smile on my face, I had probably been in the middle of laughing at one of his many sarcastic comments throughout the day.
My mind drifted back to Grant’s previous statements.
I never had anything worth putting in a frame.
But there I was. In a frame on his desk.
I turned the picture frame over and saw it still had a price sticker on the back. Joy sprang through me at the thought of Grant going to print this picture out and buying a frame just for the occasion. He would never admit it aloud but I knew it meant something more than he was willing to show. And that was all the confirmation I needed for now.
