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One bit.
Pulling in front of a single-wide trailer, he quickly got out of the truck and stomped the entire way inside the trailer. Stepping out of the vehicle, the symphony of clanging metal and rumbling engines captivated me, signaling the bustling construction site as men moved slowly about. A large, A-framed house stood before me. The sheer scale of the house dwarfed the construction workers, indicating its massive size once completed.
“I don’t have all day!”
Jumping, I ran for the trailer and entered, coming to a complete stop.
Oh. My. God!
The place was a pigsty!
Boxes piled upon boxes. Papers strewn everywhere. Trash billowed out of three trash cans. As I looked down, I saw a layer of rocks, dirt and grime covering the floor. It was going to take me days, possibly weeks, to clean and organize this place. How in the world did he get anything done?
“Well, what are you waiting for?”
Looking up, I gaped at the man who stood in the middle of the room glaring at me. Gulping, I said nothing as I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.
The first thing I did was remove the trash cans from the trailer. I didn’t know what was in them, but it smelled as if something died a horrible death. Tackling the boxes took a bit longer. I was going through one of them when Chase walked into the trailer, huffed and walked back out. Ignoring the man, I continued until I found a box with a single name written on it...Ellie.
Looking around, I opened it and saw it filled with hundreds of pictures. All of a young, beautiful woman smiling happily. Some were of just her, while most of them were of her and a younger-looking Chase. In all of them, he looked adoringly at her as she smiled or laughed. Carefully looking at each one of the pictures, I noticed how happy Chase looked. As if the woman in his arms was his moon and stars. He looked at her just like my dad looked at mom.
I didn’t know how long I sat there on the floor of that dirty trailer, looking at picture after picture of a life Chase once had, wondering where the woman was now. I got my answer when I looked at the bottom of the box. There, under all the pictures, was a Ravenwood newspaper, with Ellie’s beautiful face plastered on the front page.
My heart broke into pieces as I read about the beautiful woman who died in a horrible accident. It seemed the whole town mourned, none more so than her husband, Chase Montclair.
“Today is a sad day for the residents of Rosewood as we mourn and celebrate Eleanor Eugenia Montclair or affectionally known as Ellie. Always eager to greet anyone with a smile, Ellie was a native-born resident of Rosewood, growing up and then marrying the love of her life, Chase Montclair. Ellie loved everything about her hometown. She was the first to volunteer and eager to help. She touched the lives of many who knew her. All who loved her will mourn her departure. She is survived in death by her husband, Chase Montclair. Parents, Jake and Maggie Matthews and her three brothers. Eleanor Montclair had no children. Funeral service is today at noon at the Rosewood Cemetery.”
Wiping the tears that ran down my face, I picked up another newspaper. Like the one before, Ellie’s face was on the front page.
“Para-rescue and first responders call off the search for a missing local woman. It was three days ago when hikers came across Eleanor Montclair’s car on the south facing slope of Rosewood Mountain. The authorities have been unable to find Montclair, leading them to suspect that she did not survive the crash.”
Lowering the paper, I cried for a woman I never knew.
My heart was breaking all over again. The pain was still fresh from my own parents’ death. I could only imagine how Chase felt. To lose the love of his life like that had to weigh heavily on him.
A pain he still suffered through.
Picking up both papers, I placed them back in the box, and carefully returned the pictures as well when someone banged on the door. Moments later, I heard him shout, “It’s five o’clock! I’m not waiting for you! Let’s go!”
Quickly wiping my eyes, I closed up the box and pushed it behind the others. Leaving everything else as it was, I rushed from the trailer just as he started the truck. Jumping in, I barely had time to shut the door before he put his truck in drive and sped out of the construction site.
Like this morning, he said nothing on the ride home and I was thankful. I wanted so much to ask him about her but I didn’t know what to say to him. Part of me wanted to learn everything I could about the woman who captured the attention of the gruff man I found myself drawn to.
I now understood the pain in his eyes.
The same pain I still felt when I thought of my parents.
We were both in mourning.
I knew grief affected everyone differently. While it seemed Chase closed himself off to it, I embraced it, letting it swamp me, allowing my emotions to spill over at times. Healing from death wasn’t easy. Some people never got over the loss of a loved one, while others found a way to move on.
For me, I had no choice.
My brother needed me. And while I wanted to curl into a ball and forget the world, I couldn’t. As for Chase, he had his brothers and the club, but I knew he kept his grief hidden under layers of pain that had now become a part of him, like a second skin.
Laying my head against the window, I silently prayed for a man who wanted nothing to do with me. I prayed he found peace and solace. That one day he would open his heart to the world again and let joy back in. Because even in the bleakest of times, I knew it was joy that would prevail.
It had to.
