Page 9 of Accidentally Falling For My Best Friend
Then I take a deep breath, wanting my voice to be strong as I continue. “He promised me that he would protect you and make sure you were okay. Well, now it’s my turn to make that promise in his honor. Parker, I promise I won’t let anything bad happen toyou or your mom,” I say, and he pulls my arm around him tighter as his shoulders shake with his tears.
“Thanks, Oak,” he eventually whispers, and I hope he believes me, that he knows how important he is to me, and that I never want him to feel alone.
“WillParker have to move or change schools?” I finally find the courage to ask my parents the question that’s been eating away at me for the last few days.
We’re leaving his dad’s funeral. I wanted to go straight home with him, but my parents told me to give him some time with his mom and that they’d bring me over to his house later after we’re all out of our suits.
“No honey, he’ll still go to your school, he won’t have to move,” my mom answers, and I feel like a huge weight is lifted off my chest.
“His dad had life insurance,” my dad adds. “So his family will get some money from that. But we also spoke to the school and your hockey coach. They’ve arranged scholarships for Parker to ensure that his mom doesn’t need to worry about his tuition or fees. We were planning to keep that part anonymous, though, so maybe don’t tell Parker. We don’t want him or Judy to feel like a burden,” he explains.
“Thank you, that was really cool of you to do.” I’m so relieved I won’t lose him. Not that anything could ever stop him from being my best friend, but I still want him at school and close to me.
“We’ve also spoken to Judy and let her know that if the time comes when she wants to work, we’ll find her a job with one of our companies,”Dad says.
“Has she ever worked before?” I ask. The whole time that I’ve known Parker, she’s been a stay-at-home-mom.
Mom replies, “Yes, she has a degree in Hospitality Management and has worked in hotels. Maybe she’ll want to help us at Caldwell House.”
That’s the fanciest hotel my family owns in Chicago. My dad took over after my grandpa retired from Caldwell Corporation. He runs a bunch of companies, multiple Caldwell Hotels, the Chicago Werewolves Ice Hockey Team, and more that aren’t as fun.
“Yeah, that would be cool,” I agree.
I’m so lucky to have the family I do. My parents really are amazing people. We have a lot of money, and even though we’ve had nannies and drivers and stuff, my parents have always been super involved with all of our lives. My dad’s parents are also really close with us—we do dinners at their house once a week. My mom’s parents are in Florida, but they’re great as well.
Living with four brothers isn’t always easy, but I would do anything for them. Beckett, my older brother, is probably my second-best friend after Parker. They’re all Parker’s family too.
I hope that he knows that.
5
PARKER
EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD
“Hurry up, we’re going to be late for work,” I warn.
I’m standing at my front door waiting for Oakley to put on his uniform. “Not everyone’s parents own the hotel, ya know,” I remind him.
“Yeah, your mom is just the General Manager,totallydoesn’t matter,” he teases, finally passing me as he heads out the door.
My mom’s been working at Caldwell House since I was fourteen. She became super involved in every part of my life after Dad died, like she was afraid for me to leave our house without her.
I think it helped that Oakley was always with me, though. We’d always spent a lot of time together, and we had sleepovers most weekends before my dad passed. But after he died, it was like we couldn’t spend a full night away from each other if I wanted any sleep.
In the very beginning, on the few nights that Oakley’s parents had him stay at home, I couldn’t sleep without having horrible nightmares, and I would wake up screaming. My mom couldn’t sleep either, so I think she was relieved when Oakleywould stay over and she wasn’t stuck lying awake in a bed next to me, or hearing my screams every night.
Luckily, Oakley has never been uncomfortable sharing a bed and was always willing to spend the night or invite me to his house. Something about knowing he’s next to me calms me enough, even when I’m sleeping, that I don’t have any nightmares if he’s there.
After a few months of encouragement, Mom decided to start working for the Caldwells, and she slowly seemed to return to the mom I’d always known. In the months after my dad died, it was like she was a shell of her former self, going through the day to day but without any real emotions that weren’t grief or fear. She seemed completely lost without him. But after settling into a new routine, she started smiling again, wearing makeup and doing her hair like she used to.
Caldwell House is a great fit for her. She’d worked in and managed hotels after college. She actually met my dad when his restaurant opened a location connected to the hotel she was managing at the time. She started at Caldwell House as a part-time front desk manager. The woman who’d previously held the position was expecting, and they spent her pregnancy training my mom to cover her maternity leave. When she returned to work, they split the hours, helping each other out when needed.
Mom loved it, and the flexible hours meant that she still had plenty of time to go to my hockey games and school stuff. If she did have to work, I would just go to Oakley’s house. At first, I was worried I’d feel like a burden or like they were babysitting me, but I quickly realized that nothing had changed. His family has always welcomed me like one of their own, the only difference now was that if it was a school night, I was allowed to sleep over.
The first time we visited my mom at work, Oakley and I were both fascinated by how much goes into the behind-the-scenes ofrunning the hotel. We’d both stayed in hotels plenty with hockey tournaments and on vacations our families had taken, but when my mom took us on a tour and showed us all of the different jobs that were required to keep it all functioning, we were hooked.
That day, Oakley went home and told his dad that he planned to take over the Caldwell Hotel brand when he grew up. His dad took him seriously, and when we were both sixteen and were old enough to work, we started as bellboys, competing to see who could carry more or racing each other to see who could complete our tasks first. By then, we both knew hockey wasn’t our future, so we decided to quit the team and focus on working. We still love working out though, and have always made fitness a priority to make time for around work and school.
