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As the doctor left the room, Allison looked Jed in his blue eyes. The only thing they truly shared. “I’m done here,” she said. Then she left the room and her father behind.
Chapter 25
If, on Friday, Allison’s ride to Maine with Colin had felt like an eternity, their drive home Sunday morning passed in the blink of an eye.
He’d pulled his Honda into the driveway of her house in Providence a good ten minutes ago, and the two of them were still sitting silently, staring out the windshield. Against the gray clouds and black shutters, the house’s paint gleamed a frosty white.
Though the car was warm, Allison hugged her arms around herself. She didn’t want to get out.
The last few days, she and Colin had existed in another world. Just the two of them and the dogs, sheltered from the cold Maine air and the stress of Allison’s family drama by her beloved childhood home. After she’d left Jed (and endured an endlessly circuitous conversation with her mother about why Allison was leaving), she’d returned to discover Colin had ordered Chinese food and unearthed every streaming film based on medieval texts he could find. Somewhere between the egg rolls and a horrific attempt at adaptingThe Decameroninto a sexcapade (which starred none other than the guy who’d botched Anakin Skywalker in theStar Warsprequels, a fact about which Colin did not know how to shut up), Allison broke down about her encounter with her father at the hospital. The whole time, Colin quietly held her hand,swiping away rogue tears that snuck down her face as she recounted how apathetic Jed had been.
Confiding in Colin opened up something in Allison, and, after that, she couldn’t seem to stop touching him, or leaning into his side, or putting her head in his lap as they battle-quotedMonty Python and the Holy Grailin bad British accents.
Later, they’d ended up entwined once more between the sheets of Allison’s old twin bed, then in her very pink shower stall, and finally, at two o’clock in the morning, when Monty whined to go out, up against the back door of the house. A blush crept into Allison’s cheeks merely thinking about it.
But now that they were back, the real world was about to encroach on their perfect little bubble. Allison and Colin were still in the same grad program, they were still competing for the same advisee position and research trip, and Allison still hadn’t explained him to Sophie.
She had no idea how she was supposed to handle any of this when she didn’t know what she and Colinwere.Had this weekend simply been a retreat to the past? A one-weekend stand? Or did he want this to be more? Didshe?(Yes, the answer was yes, even if Allison refused to admit that out loud until Colin did.)
She had no answers. It was not a position she enjoyed. For all the confessions and kissing and sex that had happened over the last few days, there had been very little time dedicated to figuring anything out.
Colin let out a rough cough, drawing her out of her thoughts. “Now what?” His voice was barely audible over the chug of the heating vents.
“Huh?” Allison’s heart stuttered. Maybe she wasn’t the only one wondering where they stood.
“Are you… going inside?”
Never mind.
Her hands grabbed the door handle. Half to hold herself steady and half to… well… get out.
“Or—”
She jerked toward him. “Or?”
Smiling, Colin reached for her. “I’m going to visit my granddad. You could come.” Her heart flipped as he threaded their fingers together and raised her knuckles to his lips. “Then we don’t have to say goodbye just yet.”
She angled toward his touch. “What about Monty?” The puppy snoozed quietly in the back seat.
Colin shrugged. “He loves dogs.”
Everything but Allison’s rampant heartbeat stilled. His words were like a rope thrown to her as she dangled off a cliff. Colin’s grandfather was so important to him. Taking her to meet him meant something.
She nodded.
It was a step toward an answer. One that Allison hoped for more than she wanted to admit.
Ahead of Allison, Monty’s tail wagged, shaking his small loaf of a body under Colin’s arm. They’d paused outside of room 135, and Colin wiped his palm against his jeans before knocking.
A voice brittle with age invited them in. As Colin peeked his head around the door, the same voice announced, “Look, Janey, the prodigal grandson returns.”
Colin shook his head. A good-natured grin filled his face. “I was here two days ago.”
“Too long. Too long,” the old man replied.
Colin cast a glance at Allison as he took her hand and led her into the room. “A good day,” he mouthed.
His grandfather’s living quarters were the size of a hotel room, one half dedicated to a sleeping area, the other holding a sofa and a leather lounger aimed at a flat-screen TV on the wall. A shield with a coat of arms was mounted over the bed and a map of England hung above the dresser. Large sections of the country were colored red, bisected throughout by spots of blue, especially around the western edge.Allison recognized the pattern. It was a representation of Lancaster and York territories during the War of the Roses.
