I parked the car and waited in silence for a minute, wondering what the old woman was up to.
“Are we going to sit here all day or are we going to go in?” she asked.
I took the key out of the ignition but I didn’t move. “We’ll go in once you tell me what’s going on,” I said.
“What do you mean? There’s nothing going on here, just a Granny who wanted to catch up with her oldest grandchild.”
I narrowed my gaze at her and didn’t trust a word that she said.
“There’s no way that you listened to everything I just said and don’t have one word to say about it.” I smiled at the wily woman. Something was definitely going on and I couldn’t help but love her character and her antics.
The door creaked as she opened it and hopped down to the pavement. “I’m going in,” she declared.
Without another word she shut the door and walked toward the entrance to the back door of the banquet facility. While the restaurant parking lot seemed to be busy, the banquet area was quiet since it wasn’t yet the weekend.
If I wanted to know what she was up to I had no choice. I was going to have to follow her. With a sigh I creaked my own door open and hopped out of the cab. Granny was already inside by the time I made it to the door but once I opened it my heart nearly stopped in its tracks.
Suddenly that smell of vanilla hit my memory hard as I looked upon Rosie for the first time since she had shattered my world.
Chapter 4
Rosie
There are ghosts in everyone’s past. Ghosts that haunt you even when their presence is nowhere to be found. Though Alex had moved hours away, his megastar presence was always large around town. Every game day people would gather in bars all across the town to watch him play. Just about everyone had a jersey with his name and football number, the same number he wore in high school, stitched onto the back.
If that wasn’t hard enough to escape, every place I turned in town there was a shadow of him, of something we’d done together. The pond where we’d skipped rocks during the day but recklessly skinny dipped under the moonlight. The ice cream stand where we and tried all one hundred flavors of ice cream in one summer. The drive-in movie theater, where we went farther than first base for the first time.
The town was riddled with Alex and sometimes it was hard to deal with that. If I could have escaped, if I could have run away from the pain of him, I would have and I thought often enough about it. But where would I go? I knew in the world, everything I had, was settled inside that tiny town. There was only one person outside of that little town who may have wanted me with him, but Alex never did come back for me.
When Granny entered the banquet hall alone, I thought that maybe I had gotten lucky. That maybe Alex had gotten too busy or decided to wait for her somewhere else in town, but I had no such luck.
There he was. His presence, just like his build, felt like he alone could fill the room. And I just stood there, struck dumb by the mere sight of him, unable to determine if I was happy to see him or angry. If it still hurt so deeply inside that the pain was real, or if that too was in my memory.
“Rosie.” His voice came out deep and rough, like gravel under those old tires.
My voice came out nearly a whisper as I said his name. It felt as if my entire mouth had gone dry and I had forgotten how to speak.
“Oh that’s right!” Granny spoke up from where she was sitting at the table with Jenny. “I forgot, you two know each other don’t you?” she asked.
Alex looked at her, a dawn of realization on his face. “I knew it,” he mumbled.
I didn’t know what he knew but I did know that Alex was standing right in front of me, close enough to touch. Or scream at. And I really did feel torn as to which it was I wanted to do.
“I didn’t know that you worked here,” he said to me.
I tried to speak but only noises stumbled out of my mouth.
“She’s only here part time, she runs a major horse farm,” Jenny answered for me. “People come from all around the country to go to her summer camps. There’s an entire celebrity clientele that she has.”
I blushed at her admission of my success but felt a small bit of satisfaction as Alex’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Wow, that’s really amazing, Rosie,” Alex answered.
“Thanks,” I said, my ability to speak finally coming back to me. As well as my senses. Granny’s party was nothing more than a job and I needed to keep my head together to get through it, no matter how much those blue eyes pierced into mine. “Granny called to say she wanted to discuss some of the details for the party. My manager isn’t here right now so Jenny and I are handling whatever Granny needs. We want to make sure that we throw her the most perfect party,” I said.
I gestured toward the seats next to Jenny and Granny and Alex followed me over. I let Jenny take over after that, proud enough that I was able to even say that much to him. If I could just keep myself professional for the weekend then maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with the rest. If I kept him and my emotions at arm’s length then I could handle it all. I’d be able to get through the weekend and hopefully not run into him for another five years.
Neither Alex nor I were needed at the table with Granny and Jen. They talked about every aspect of the party, from decorations to appetizers, while Alex and I sat there and listened in. The way he twirled his high school ring, one that I noticed he still wore proudly, I knew he was nervous. He was always a guy who would fidget when he was nervous and I stifled a smile that he was feeling the same way I was. And also that after all of those years, I still knew him that well.
His eyes flickered up from his ring to catch me watching him, studying him intently. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment at being caught and I quickly glanced away, but not before I saw a small smile dimple his cheeks.
“Well girls, I can’t thank you enough for staying late to help an old woman tonight. You must be starved, please come to the house for a good meal. My daughter has been cooking all day,” she offered.
Before I could decline the offer, Jen happily accepted for the both of us, but not before giving Granny a small wink. I didn’t even want to think about what those two were up to.
“Well that’s just wonderful! Lock up the place and follow us on home. We’ll see you girls soon!”
Granny stood from the table and my eyes traveled back to Alex who looked as horrified as I felt. He didn’t want me there any more than I wanted to be there and as he stood and followed his granny to the door I had to stop myself from kicking Jen, hard, under the table.
“How could you do that?” I yelled at her.
But instead of looking apologetic her eyes were bright with mischief. “Didn’t you see the way he was drooling over you? After what he did to you, leaving you that way, you deserve a little revenge! By the time this weekend is over he’s going to be cursing himself for missing out on you, for not coming back. Have a little fun with it! Oh, but first, we have got to get you out of those clothes.”
Chapter 5
Alex
I didn’t say a word to Granny until we had made it back to the farmhouse. I didn’t know what to say. I was too stunned with everything that had just happened.
It wasn’t as if I had expected that I’d come home and avoid everything about Rosie but I hadn’t expected to have her sprung on me either. Walking into that banquet hall, seeing her in food stained clothes, her fair hair falling in pieces from her ponytail, she looked just as perfect as the day I drove away.
Everything in me screamed for me to grab her, take hold of her, swing her in an embrace and not let go. But I restrained myself with every muscle I had in me. It was nearly impossible to sit at the table across from her, my muscles coiled at the difficult task of keeping myself from trying to touch her. To stop myself from making sure she was real.
But to spring Rosie on me like that, without even a word about her, and then to make it worse and invite her to dinner was just not right.
Granny and I were in the house before I finally said something to her.
“That was your plan all along? You didn’t need to go to set anything up for the party did you? You just wanted me to run into Rosie. Why Granny?”
“What makes you think this is all about you? What makes you think that I just didn’t want an awkward run-in at my party?”
It was almost embarrassing but I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe I was being selfish, having been used to things in my world being all about me. But then again, Granny was still Granny, and I couldn’t believe that was her pure motive.
“So why invite her home then? I saw her and we got the awkwardness out of the way just like you wanted. There was no reason to invite her here.”
“Can’t someone just be hospitable? The girls stayed late, they must have been hungry, and your mom made a feast tonight. Besides, I miss that Rosie. She was a part of this family for a long time and she doesn’t come around anymore.”
Since we were young Rosie and I had always been friends. She lived just down the road and when we were old enough to run down the road to each other’s houses without a parent, we always had an open door to us. She was just as much of my family as I was. Which was why no one was surprised on the day we realized that being just friends wasn’t good enough.
I’ll never forget that day, the day that she was no longer my tomboy best friend. It had been a long summer with Rosie away at a horse camp and I was left alone to work on my family’s farm. She came back two weeks before school started again and after her parents brought her home, the first thing she did was saunter down the road to my house. She wasn’t a girl with pigtails flying behind her as she ran, but a young woman with hair that shone in the sun and a body developing under her tiny t-shirt.
I almost didn’t recognize her as she made her way to where I was in the fields where the sweat from the sun was dripping down my body.
“Wow,” she said when she saw me. “You look different.” Her eyes raked over me and I did the same to her, but I couldn’t find any words for her.
I hadn’t even realized I’d changed myself, my body becoming stronger and toned from my work in the field, my skin tanned from the days spent glistening in the sun. From the moment we saw each other, the new more adult versions of ourselves, we were even more inseparable than we’d been before.
But this time, we weren’t just friends.
I shook those memories away. Rosie was family before, years before, when she had held my heart but hadn’t yet shattered it. But that wasn’t the case anymore. She didn’t have a right to be around my family, to be a part of it anymore.
“Granny, she shouldn’t be here for dinner. It’s just not right.” I tried to argue but she simply shrugged her shoulders and looked out the window.
“Well, it’s too late. She’s here.” Granny started to head out of the front door to meet Rosie but she turned around one more time. “Maybe it’s time that you two finally put this all to rest. It’s been five years, Alex. You need to move on, one way or another.”
“What does that mean ‘one way or another’?”
But again she shrugged at me, playing coy as if she didn’t think she knew better than everybody else. When she stepped outside I looked at Rosie through the window, a sight I hadn’t seen in such a long time. The site made my heart clench at the feeling of being homesick, not just for the home but for the people too.
One person in particular.
Maybe Granny was right. Maybe it was time that I finally moved on.
Chapter 6
Rosie
The whole way to Alex’s family’s house, I pouted and argued with Jen.
“This is a horrible idea, probably the worst you’ve ever had. You know what he did to me, I was humiliated! And now you’re forcing me to face his family and have an actual meal with him? Wasn’t it bad enough that I have to serve them at the party? Couldn’t that just be the end of it?”
I had to admit that when she had made her argument about going while we sat in the empty banquet room, I had a moment of insanity where I thought it wasn’t a bad idea. Truthfully, I did miss Alex’s family almost as much as I had missed Alex. Growing up, most days were spent on their farm playing in the trees or causing mischief in the barn. Once we started to date, they had taken me in even further, acting as if I was already their daughter-in-law, which everybody believed I would be one day.
I had believed that too.
I had been completely devastated when I’d not only lost Alex but lost my second family as well, and seeing them would be nice. And Jen almost had me convinced that seeing Alex was also a good idea. We had gone home to my house to pick out some tight jean shorts and a fitted plaid shirt. I fixed my makeup and ran a brush through my hair. At the very last second, I’d kicked off the flip flops in exchange for my battered old cowboy boots. They held just as many memories as his old truck that I’d seen in the parking lot.
As we left my house I had almost convinced myself that seeing him would be a good thing. That I could show him that I’d weathered the storm he’d left swirling inside of me and that despite the wreckage he’d left, I was surviving. I held my head high for the first few minutes of the drive, but I quickly fell to pieces, desperately wanting to pull out of the whole thing.
I may be doing well compared to some people we knew but compared to Alex, I was just the small town girl he’d left behind. The one he hadn’t come back for. The one whose heart still ached as she watched the stars line up at night and wondered who he was watching them with. Or if those big city lights had made him forget the magic that could be found in that night sky
“This is a perfect idea. He hasn’t seen you or heard from you in five years. You’re probably the only woman he knows who was able to just cut him out and not go begging after him. He needs to see what he lost and this is the perfect way to do that.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore what he thinks of me. It’s not like anything is ever going to change. I’m done with Alex Croft.”
I knew Jen rolled her eyes as we pulled into the driveway of Alex’s farmhouse. Before we even got out of the car, Granny and a big dog came out of the house to greet us. I opened my door but I still heard Jen as she snarked under her breath.
“The day you are done with Alex is the day that I become a millionaire.”
I didn’t have time to answer as Granny came up to hug us both. It was a small town so everyone already knew everyone. But Jen being my best girlfriend since we were kids made her an extension of me and I knew Alex’s family would be happy to have her there too.
Jen and Granny took over the conversation, while I trailed behind on the way inside the house. The screen door still creaked and it felt as if I had just stepped back in time to a home that hadn’t changed one bit. Even the smells that came wafting from the kitchen were familiar, buttery chicken and potatoes, sweet rolls baking in the over and the spice of an apple pie. My mouth watered and I realized I had forgotten how many family meals I’d eaten in that house and how delicious they always were.
Even if I didn’t want to see Alex, I was going to make sure I enjoyed the meal just like I always had.
“Rosie, Mama had to run out to the store for some extra ice cream for the pie. Would you mind checking on things in the kitchen for me?”
That was another thing I loved about being so close with Alex’s family. They were never Mr. and Mrs. Croft, but always Mama and Pops. I had to smile just a little at being in the house. Some things just never changed and that felt good.
But the good feeling ended quickly when I saw Alex was in the kitchen too.
Granny. That woman was always up to something.
Alex looked up from the gravy he was stirring and I saw several emotions pass across his face in a flash, though I tried to pretend that I had seen nothing at all. I glanced away from him quickly, hoping that he didn’t read what had crossed my own face. It was impossible for me to even know what my own feelings were. They all fe
lt so jumbled together, one bleeding into the next.
“Sorry,” I told him. “Granny asked me to come check on things in here. She said your mom ran out for extra ice cream. But it looks like you have things under control in here.” I turned to walk back out of the kitchen.
“Actually,” his deep voice always with the power to stop me in my tracks. “I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing in here, I never inherited my mom’s cooking ability. I could use the help.”
Chapter 7
Alex
I wasn’t lying. I had not inherited my mom’s cooking skills. Though there were very few people I’d ever met who did know how to cook like my mom. Still, when Granny decided to go greet the girls, I had decided it was better for me to hide in the kitchen.
Jen was someone I wanted to dodge almost as much as I wanted to avoid Rosie. I’d been close with Jen too when we were in school and not just because she had been Rosie’s best friend. But when I stepped into the banquet hall I could see the way she had looked at me, like a bug that had crawled out from under the couch. So I knew that seeing her at the dinner table was going to be wildly awkward as well. Not as awkward as being around Rosie, but still not something I wanted to do.
Yet, Granny had caught my intentions and had sent Rosie in after me. It never ceased to surprise me at how wily that woman could be.
Catching Love Page 2
