Page 37 of Keeping You

His head moves side to side slightly as he thinks. “No. I’d say that everyone will be accepting and be excited to meet you. It’s been a while since I’ve gone home for more than a day or two. I talk to my parents and sister regularly, but going home for extended periods of time isn’t easy.”

Something in his eyes tells me he means more than just getting time off work and the travel. Something at home haunts him.

“And what am I supposed to tell your parents about us being married?”

He adjusts himself in his seat. “You can tell them what you want. They’re under no illusion that you love me. They know we got married during a drunk night in Vegas.”

That surprises me. Grayson has been so set on staying married, I thought he’d want his parents to have a perfect view of our marriage. I would never tell my mom Grayson and I aren’t permanent, let alone that it happened due to a drunken mistake while on a work trip. I would never live it down.

“Okay,” I say, and he stares at me for a second before nodding.

We eat our breakfast in relative silence before he pays the bill and we’re back on the road. Watching the city fade away and the openness of the land untouched by humans is relaxing. By 10:30 a.m., the car is already warm from the sun pouring in. I turn up the AC and crack the window just enough that the wind catches my hair. The air out here feels cleaner. Fresher.

As we wind a corner on the highway, I gasp when a black bear stands on the side of the road with her cubs. Grayson slows as I crane my head to continue watching them. I’ve never seen a bear in person. It’s amazing. When we’ve continued far enough that the bear is out of sight, I turn to Grayson.

“That bear was just chilling on the side of the road with her cubs,” I exclaim.

He smiles and chuckles softly. “Yeah, you see that quite often this far out.”

The biggest animal I’ve seen in the wild is a rare deer in Stanley Park. That bear was huge. She just watched the cars pass by, not a care in the world. The further we drive, the drier the landscape becomes. The grass turns from vibrant green to a dull green-and-yellow colour. We’re on the cusp of forest fire season, so I should be prepared to see it, but for some reason, seeing it in person hits differently. I don’t know how people living out here do it. I couldn’t imagine spending every summer worried a fire might come through town and take my home.

Seeing theWelcome to Willow Valleysign has my stomach tightening. There’s no going back now. I’m going to spend the next week with my husband’s family in a town I’ve never been to.

CHAPTER 14

Grayson

Entering Willow Valley always brings with it an array of emotions. I’m looking forward to seeing my parents and Chloe, but every time I’m home, I’m faced with those memories of the past. Those memories I hope to never relive again.

My grip on the steering wheel tightens while I watch Hannah’s leg shake. Neither of us are fully ready for our arrival, but we’re here now.

My parent’s place is just on the outskirts of town. They live in a ranch-style home my dad inherited from his parents. The house is situated on around fifty acres of land. My grandparents used to have cows that grazed part of the land, but when my parents took over the land after my grandparents passed, they decided it wasn’t something they saw themselves doing. My parents have kept up with the extensive garden my grandmother had, though. My dad occasionally makes wine from the grapes that grow on the property. When I visit, my sister and I still go out and pick blueberries off the bushes for pancakes. There is so much out in the garden, I’m not sure how they keep up with it all.

I turn left down the road that leads to the only two houses on my parent’s street, and my stomach starts to turn. In a matter of minutes, I’ll be introducing my parents to my wife. Hannah’s leg starts to shake quicker. The trees that surround both sides of the road abruptly end, and the road forks into two driveways. I turn down the one on the left and follow it until the space opens up and I see both my parents’ cars and my sister’s. She knew I was arriving today, so I’m not surprised she’s home.

Hannah stares out the windshield when I put the car into park.

I reach over and place a hand on her still shaking leg and say, “They’ll love you, don’t worry.”

She half-heartedly rolls her eyes at me and says, “Of course, they will. I’m me. I’m just stressing about the fact that when you inevitably piss me off, I have nowhere to run. I’m stuck six hours from home with you in a town I don’t know.”

I can see the force behind the smile she gives me. I remove my hand from her leg and leave the car. I grab our bags from the back and meet her at the gate that leads to the house. She reaches for her bag, but I wave her off and I reach through the fence to unlock the gate.

The second the hinges creak, I hear my parents’ golden retriever Micky bark. Hannah and I shuffle in quickly as Micky barrels towards me. I drop to knees as he reaches me and licks my face furiously. After a minute, he moves on to Hannah, sniffing around her feet and up her legs.

She looks at me hesitantly, and I say, “He’s friendly.”

She nods and reaches down, scratching him behind the ears. His tongue lolls out as his eyes close. Yeah, boy, I know. Having Hannah’s hands on you is something else.

When Hannah stops, I grab our bags again and walk to the mudroom door. My parents rarely use the front door. You know if someone is knocking there, they aren’t family or a closefriend. I push open the door, because my parents never lock it, and Hannah and Micky follow me in. Micky runs through the kitchen, probably to go lie in his usual spot in the sunroom.

I toe off my shoes and leave our bags before walking into the kitchen, where I see my dad and sister sitting at the table. Chloe has a book, and Dad has today’s paper. Mom is standing in front of the gas stove wearing her signature apron Chloe and I made her for Mother’s Day when I was eight. It has our hand prints, and we wroteBest Mom Everon it.

Chloe spots me first and puts down her book before she’s running at me. I catch her and spin her around. Chloe and I did not get along one bit growing up. We fought constantly, and we never wanted to spend time together. But as we got older, we started getting along better, and now she’s probably one of my best friends.

“I missed you, big brother,” she says as I put her down.

I kiss her cheek and say, “Missed you, too, Chlo.”

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