“Yeah, I’ll catch a ride with Hudson.”
“Okay,” he says, walking toward his truck.
“Yo, chief.” I walk over. “Ellie say anything to you about the letter I sent her?”
“You sent her a letter?”
“Guess she didn’t.” I slip my hands into the pockets of my jeans. “Don’t worry about it,” I say, sliding one out and patting his shoulder. “I’ll see ya.”
“You okay, Tommy?”.
I look back at the girl. “Yeah. I’m good, chief.”
*
I lift her up and press her back against the door of the hotel room. She smells like whiskey and a choice I’ll regret in the morning, but I’m tired of feeling like this. The girl I want doesn’t fucking want me, so I’m gonna be with someone who does.
She grabs at my shirt, and I pull away and toss it over my head. Her hands go to my hair, and I move us from the door to the bed. Her fingers go to the button on my jeans, and I step back and kick my boots off before my pants go too. The girl I only met thirty minutes ago is already lifting her dress up, so I grab the bottom and pull it up and over her head.
“What’s your name?” I ask, grabbing my wallet out of my pants.
“Josie.” She kinda giggles.
“I’m Tommy. Nice to meet you, Josie,” I say before I climb back on top. I rip the condom packet and strap up.
“Nice to meet you too,” she moans as I sink inside her.
*
I wash my face and flip the light switch off. Leaning against the doorway, I look over at Josie sleeping. I’ve got to let this girl know this was a one-time thing. I feel like shit for sleeping with her when she was clearly drunk. I walk over and sit down on the bed.
“Josie.” I nudge her, and her eyes blink open. “We’ve got ten minutes before check-out time.”
She groans and sits upright; the sheet falls to her hips and reveals everything I didn’t really see last night. She quickly pulls it up.
I clear my throat and stand. “Here are your clothes.” I toss them onto the bed. “I’ll go grab some coffee from downstairs.”
After we check out, we walk down to Banner’s and get into my truck.
“Where do you live?” I ask her. She tells me, and I head that way.
“You lived here long?” she asks.
“Yeah, moved here from Chicago when I was a teenager,” I reply. “What about you? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”
She shrugs. “Moved here a few years ago with my parents. My dad’s a professor. After they build the new college closer to town, he’ll transfer there, but now he’s working at the one south from here.”
“Yeah, I heard about the school. I’m trying to work on it.”
“You do that kind of work?”
“Yeah, I’m going to school to be a construction manager.”
“Oh, cool. What school are you going to?”
I smirk. “The one your dad works at.”
“Oh.” She kinda smiles and bites the inside of her cheek. “My house is just up here.”
Once I come to a stop, Josie undoes her seat belt and goes to open the door.
“Josie.”
She turns to look at me.
I rub my jaw. “Um, look, this was fun, but we both were really drunk and…”
“It’s fine, Tommy. I’m not looking for anything serious right now either.” She saves me from having to be a total dick.
“Yeah, okay. Well…I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah,” she agrees, smiling before she climbs out. She starts to shut the door, but stops and says, “You hang out at Banner’s a lot?”
I shrug. “Most nights after work, yeah.”
“Okay.” She shuts the door and waves before she walks toward her house.
*
I ride back through town and stop by Chevy’s to grab a bite to eat. It’s Saturday morning, so it’ll probably be packed, but I’m craving some pancakes.
Opening the door, I walk to the bar and slide onto an open stool. Looks like I just missed the rush.
“What’ll you have, Tommy?” the waitress, Jena, asks me.
“Pancakes, a regular coffee, and a water.”
“Black?”
“You got it,” I reply. The door opens, and Cash comes walking in wearing running shorts and a sweaty T-shirt.
“Morning, son,” he says, taking a stool beside me.
“Morning. You’re running kinda late today.”
“Yeah, I slept in a little. Figured you’d still be asleep with how many drinks you were throwing back.”
Jena sets Cash down a water, and he picks it up. “Thank you,” he says. He downs the whole thing.
“Yeah, just was craving some pancakes.”
He nods. “You gonna let me win my money back next Friday?”
I grin. “You can certainly try.”
He pats my back. “All right. I’ll see ya. I’ve got to help Mark cut up a tree. He had a big one fall at his property. It’ll be good for firewood when winter comes.”
“If you need my help, let me know.”
“Come on out after you eat. You can take some wood with you.”
“Sounds good,” I reply.
“Jena, thanks for the water,” Cash says as he throws some bills down onto the bar.
“Water’s free, Cash,” she says. He doesn’t reply. Jena sets down my coffee as he walks out.
“Thanks, Jena.” I look over at a newspaper someone left from earlier. Picking it up, I flip to the houses for rent section. I’ve been looking for weeks now, trying to find something so I can move out of Ronnie’s house. Hudson and Rose have already gotten their own place, so it’s just the drunk and me when he does come home. I skim through and spot one a little outside of downtown. I decide I’ll ride by there before I head over to Mark’s.
*
Pulling up to the small house, I put the truck in park and step out. I see the front could use pressure washing, and there are a few loose steps on the porch when I walk up them. I look around back and see the yard is a nice size, but it’s missing fence on one whole side, and the grass needs cutting. I don’t have a dog, so I don’t really care about the fence. I could fix the steps and borrow Mark’s pressure washer and lawnmower. I look back at the paper and see a number to call.
“Guess this place is as good as any,” I say to myself as I dial the number.
*
The chainsaw sounds behind me as I chop up wood with an axe. Mark cuts the limbs and tosses them into a pile while Cash cuts the tree itself. The chainsaw goes off, and I look back and see Cash wipe his brow. I also see Hudson’s car pull up.
“Someone call my brother?” I ask.
“I did. Wanted to see if he and Rose needed to grab some of this firewood,” Mark says.
“He better get his ass to work,” I reply as he comes walking back here.
“Yo, you know what you’re doing with that thing?” Hudson yells over to me.
“I know what I can do,” I reply with a grin.
He laughs and walks closer, pulling out his smokes from his front pocket. “You got another one of those?” he asks Mark. “Where I come from you don’t get nothing for free.”
“There’s one in the shed,” Mark answers.
After Hudson walks back over with his axe and a pair of work gloves, he grabs some wood that’s been cut up, and Cash helps Mark move the big limbs into a burning pile.
“You go home with that chick last night?” Hudson asks me. I see Cash look over in my peripheral. I don’t feel right talking about this around him, but he’s gotta know I’d move on eventually. Shit, it’s been almost three years I’ve waited on his daughter.
“I went to the hotel,” I reply.
Hudson grins. “Well?”
“Well, what? Nosy ass.”
“Come on, man. Tell me some details.”
“Oh yeah, like you tell me details about you and Rose.”
“That’s different,” he
says, slamming the axe down and splitting the wood in half. He kicks them apart and tosses the pieces into the pile we’ve got going.
“How’s that different?”
“Because I love Rose. This is just some random chick you picked up at a bar and took to a hotel.”
I shrug. “True. It was fine.”
“It’s been a while, huh?” Hudson says to me a little quieter so they can’t hear.
I look over to make sure they can’t. “Yeah, man. Considering I never slept with you-know-who, it’s been a long fucking while.”
He nods. “Well, I’m glad you’re moving on. It’s been time.”
I shrug because I don’t know if you’d call having a one-night stand moving on, but whatever.
Chapter Eighteen
Ellie
It’s my twenty-first birthday and a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I’m sitting at a bar surrounded by my roommate’s Jenny and Binny. Binny’s a girl. She got stuck in a closet bin when she was a kid playing hide-and-seek, and the nickname stuck. Jenny’s a blonde who wears overalls and Chucks. She grew up on a dairy farm and was in 4-H. Oddly, she’s going to school to design video games. She’s badass at playing too.
Savanna sits beside me, and a few guys who have decided to join us sit to the right of Binny. Most are piss drunk by now, but I’m not.
“Are you having fun?” Savanna leans in to me. I shrug. “No?” she questions. “It’s your twenty-first birthday.”
“Just not into it tonight.” I twirl the napkin that’s in front of me on the bar. Travis, one of the guys who joined us, lights a cigarette and the smell reminds me of poker chips and drawn-on Converse.
She nods. “Is it about that letter?”
I shrug again. I told her about Tommy a long time ago. She knows he was my best friend back at home. She also knows about everything else.
“Look, I know it’s not my business, but seems to me you miss the hell out of the guy. You’ve got two choices here.” She signals to the bartender, and he walks over. “Two shots of whiskey, please.”
He nods, and I look at the ring of condensation on the bar from her beer she just lifted to her mouth. She swallows and lays it back down.
“You can stay sad and pretend like you don’t want to be with him.”
“That sounds like a good choice.” I roll my eyes because that’s exactly what I’m doing, and clearly it’s not working. The bartender sets our shots down.
She lifts her brow. “Or, you can grow some balls, let go of things you can’t control, and go home. Tell that boy you miss him. Kiss him and fucking be together.”
“But he’s with someone.”
She lifts her dreads up and wraps them on top of her head. “Ellie, if that boy loves you as much as you clearly love him, then trust me. He may be with someone, but he isn’t with someone. She picks her shot glass up.
“To taking chances,” she says.
I lift mine too. “To taking chances.”
*
Green falling leaves change into a golden brown as the trees grow barer and the weather turns colder. School is good, and my new life is working out okay. If I told you I didn’t miss home, then I’d be lying, but I like the fact that hardly no one knows my story here and not a lot of people care to ask. But when they do, it’s always the same.
“Where are you from? What do your parents do?”
“My dad’s the chief of police in a small town called Green Ridge.”
“What about your mom?”
“Mom’s dead.”
“Oh no, I’m so sorry. How did she die?”
I think most people expect you to say something different than suicide. Cancer, bad car wreck, she was climbing Mount Everest and fell to her death. But just like their questions, my answer is always the same—she killed herself. And then you get that look. That I-don’t-know-what-to-say look. That look of sympathy and horror mixed together. That look that’s full of so many questions, but they don’t know you well enough to ask. The worst is from the people who believe in heaven and hell. They truly make me feel great. Because you know what the Bible says, and just from their face you know what they think about your mom and her eternal afterlife.
I mean, come on. We’ve all seen What Dreams May Come. The chief is Robin Williams, and my mom is without question Annabella Sciorra. But this is no movie and there is no boat that’ll take my dad on a scary ride to find her and bring her back to us. This is true life at its finest, and in life a lot of times you don’t get a do-over. You don’t get a second chance to make it right. You get what you’ve done and that’s that.
I turn the knob and step inside our dorm just as my phone rings. I reach into my back pocket and pull it out, answering as soon as I see who it is.
“Hey, stranger.” Aunt Leigh’s voice is nice to hear, and I kick the door shut behind me and drop my bag onto the floor.
“Hey, how are you?” I ask as I sit down on the couch.
“Everybody’s good here,” she says. “Well, not everybody. Mark twisted his ankle.”
“Oh no. How did he do that?”
“Working on someone’s porch last week. You know how he does his side work. He didn’t know a board was behind his foot and he tripped backwards over it.”
“Yikes,” I respond, wincing.
“Yeah, yikes.”
“Leigh, can you make me a cup of coffee?” I hear Mark yell in the background.
“Coffee? It’s the afternoon,” she replies.
“I know, but I’m getting sleepy.”
“Lord help me, I’ve had to wait on him every minute of every day,” she whispers into the phone. “He’s driving me nuts.”
I laugh. “For better or worse, right?”
“Bleh,” she says. “So, what’s up with you, kid?”
I exhale. “Nothing new to report my way.”
“What? No broken bones or crazy frat parties to talk about?”
“Nope, no broken bones and you don’t want to hear about these stupid parties.”
“Yes, I do. Come on. I’m getting old. I need to relive my youth through you.”
“Well, there was this one last weekend…”
*
I haven’t been home in three years, but driving down these streets makes me feel like I haven’t been gone a day. There was a time I thought I wouldn’t be back. Funny thing how things change. Always changing our thoughts, our ways. Nothing stays the same except for maybe small towns. People move away. The buildings grow older, but mostly things stay unchanged.
I drive through town even though I could bypass it. A strong sense of nostalgia hits me, and I take a slow breath as I pass by shops with wreaths on the doors and people walking the sidewalks and through the small park. Some wave and some don’t, but most give a polite smile or nod.
I see Piper walking out of the chief’s office. She locks it behind her as I pull up to the curb. I grab the handle to roll my window down and lean out.
“Closing up early?” I yell out to her. She turns around and gives me a huge smile.
“Well, Ellie Williams.”
I put the truck in park and open the door. She’s in front of me before I can slide out, and once I do she wraps me in a hug.
“Your dad know you’re here?” she asks.
“He knows I’m coming, but I haven’t told him I made it yet.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to see you. He’s been cooking all day. We’re having a big Thanksgiving gathering at the town square tonight.”
My eyes grow wide. “Town square? I thought we’d have it at home.”
“Well, that was the original plan, but Anne thought it would be nice to have it in town so everyone could bring a dish or two. That way everyone can eat. You know her big heart and all. So, of course, your dad couldn’t tell her no.”
My first thought is, I’m going to have to see Tommy…and his new girl. Why didn’t I stay back at school? I must be stupid. How could I think I could come to Green Ridge and not see him at all?
/> “Let me look at you.” She eyes me and smiles. “You seem different. I can’t put my finger on it, but I think school agrees with you, Ellie Williams. Still pretty as ever, of course.” She winks and drops her hands from my shoulders. “I can’t believe you haven’t been back, not once. Your dad has missed you something serious! Come on. Let’s get home so you can make his day.”
She lets me go, and I climb back into the truck with knots in my stomach. A town dinner. The whole town? I’m not ready. Even after all this time, I’m still not ready.
*
An apron was shoved at me after my dad hugged me so tight I felt my back pop. We haven’t stopped moving since I walked in the door, and we’re catching up on life, school, and Green Ridge. I’m twenty-one now so Dad handed me a beer even though it’s not even lunch yet.
Piper wraps plastic forks in napkins while Dad stirs this and seasons that. The funny thing is, he’s wearing Mom’s apron and Piper doesn’t even say anything. I still don’t understand their relationship.
“Taste this, Little Miss. Tell me if it has enough salt.”
“You already know it does, Cash. You’ve tasted it, I’ve tasted it, and Anne has tasted it,” Piper says, winking at me as I put the spoon into my mouth.
“Well, you can never have too many testers,” the chief says back to her.
“It’s great, Dad,” I say, putting the spoon into the sink. He grins and takes a sip of his beer like the proud cook he is and should be. He’s always been great in the kitchen.
“Hello!” We hear as Anne walks around the corner. “Door was open so I came on in. I’ve got tablecloths. Can these ladies take a break and come help?” She looks over at the cook.
“I just got Ellie back, and you’re already taking her away from me?” My dad pouts, and we three laugh.
“I won’t be gone long.” I untie my apron and put it in his hand before I pat his shoulder.
*
I’m on one end of a table while Aunt Leigh is on the other. Her brown hair is pulled through a baseball hat and she laughs with Aunt Maci as they talk about last weekend. Apparently, the two went out and got a little drunk at Banner’s.
Chasing Ellie: A Chasing Fireflies Spin Off Page 14
