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My grandfather’s bushy, unkempt eyebrows crowded his forehead as he tried to remember. This was where things usually got hazy for him.
“Maybe it’s because his older brother is like the sun, and he’s like a rain cloud. The two don’t mix well.”
My breath nearly caught because he never mentioned me. Not ever.
“Thought you said you had just the one grandson?”
Gramps shook his head like he was confused. “I do…but after the accident, I only have one.”
I was walking too close to the fire; I knew this. I knew I was about to get burned, and yet I couldn’t stop myself.
“Did something happen to one of them?”
A small sigh escaped his mouth as he focused on his hand, laying down a set of cards that didn’t follow suit. I let it slide, like all his other hands.
“Well, the bright one…he wanted to shine so bright, the cloud was driven away. But, we decided to keep the cloud and asked the sun to shine somewhere else.”
The talking in metaphors was new. Usually, he just came right out and said what happened. I’d sit and listen, as a form of penance. I’d hear what I’d done through my grandfather’s memory, and then I’d want to go back in time and change it all.
Like I usually did.
“You have any brothers?” Watery blue eyes met mine, and for the smallest second, I worried he’d remembered me. But his eyes searched mine, no expression on his face. No memory whatsoever.
I cleared my throat and answered how I always did.
“Not anymore.”
18
RAE
After a weekof purging Davis out of my life with my best friend, I was starting to feel better. We’d burned, cut, and laughed about almost everything inside my box, and the two others I found deep in the back of my closet. I hadn’t mentioned what Carl had said about Davis, because it didn’t need to be mentioned. Davis was nothing to me and always would be. However, Nora had caught on to my demeanor the next day, and while I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about it, I knew her sudden interest in finding us dates had something to do with it.
My date, Blake, was a loan officer down at the bank. He’d just returned from college, and based off the number of bad pickup lines he delivered, I had to assume he had been popular enough with the ladies. They didn’t work on me, and by the end of the night, I bid him goodbye without setting up a second date or giving him a goodnight kiss. My heart felt wooden, like it was heavy and old, cumbersome to carry within my chest.
Not to mention, Carl’s voice was stuck in my head, lodged deep down in my stomach, making it ache and hurt all week. I didn’t want to think about Davis and Lydia, or him with whoever it was he was asking about in the diner, but it was as if a loop was playing in my head and I couldn’t get it to stop.
Thankfully, it was the start of a new work week, which meant I would have something to keep me distracted from the fact that Davis hadn’t reached out since seeing him outside the diner. Even after discussing the misunderstanding, he’d yet to place another order, and while I had been making a few deliveries here and there, most of the mountain orders had stopped over the past week. Maybe it meant I could focus on helping businesses with marketing or look for a place of my own.
“Rae! Oh good, you’re here.” My dad called out to me as his eyes met mine for only a second or two before returning to the berries in front of him.
I set my purse and jacket down on the small cabinet reserved for the employees.
“Morning, how can I help?”
My mother chose that moment to breeze out of the office, her face was flushed as though she’d been crying, and she had circles under her eyes. She was normally bright and happy, never worried unless something had actually happened.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, slowly crowding her. I waited to ensure we weren’t being listened to and then turned her around by her shoulders. Her eyes were watering, which made my gut sink.
“Mom, tell me what’s going on.”
Flicking her eyes to the side and then down to her feet, she sniffed. “We’re sinking, sweetie…and the regular delivery orders we used to get kept us afloat,” she murmured, keeping her gaze down. “I’m not sure what to do.”
Her brows furrowed, and I knew I’d fucked up. I was the reason he hadn’t been placing orders.
“Thomas hasn’t placed an order in over two weeks, and for whatever reason, the other mountain orders haven’t been coming through either. I know everyone is hurting right now, but we haven’t had a month this rough for as long as I can remember.”
I shook my head, trying to piece together a way to fix this that didn’t include me begging Davis. “But you have customers in here all the time; it feels like business is booming.”
