Page 76 of Hold Me Instead
Charlie stepped back as Jeanie maneuvered from the car and gestured for her to sit. She moved almost in slow motion, taking the plate back from Jeanie, scooting into the vehicle, next to Daniel, where they’d have time to talk. Alone. Without doctors or nurses nearby…
“I’ll be back in a few,” Jeanie said, shoving the door closed.
Or Jeanie.
Charlie and Daniel watched in silence while she waved and shouted greetings to people as she approached the cookout, her bright red and white winter coat a beacon.
A brisk breeze whirled through the car, and Charlie rolled up the window. The sky had darkened throughout the day, gracing them with a nice, crisp cookout and promising a storm as soon as it ended. Sweatshirts and coats increased in size to accommodate, but it didn’t stop anyone from attending and taking their time to visit every booth, to meet the dogs up for adoption, to chat in line at the food tent. Families huddled together to eat, bundling up with blankets until they could move their bodies again.
The support from the community warmed Charlie, and watching each year grow was electrifying. There were folks who attended every single one, no matter the weather. It didn’t matter if people had pets or not, showing up and participating went a long way. It was evident the man who started it all was the force behind it.
She slid back her hood and shifted. Daniel was way more lucid than her last visit to the hospital—he’d dozed off and on, giving her time to focus on how tired and worn he looked. She’d hated it, seeing him like that. It had felt like a dream, watching nurses walk in and out of the roomas they checked on him while he gave them small smiles of appreciation for their lighthearted approach, as they told Jeanie to make sure she stuck around for a hospital dessert actually worth enjoying with him. She’d merely been part of the scene, waiting for someone to wake her up, tell her he was okay. That the concern of it happening again was gone. But no one had.
Sitting beside him now, it felt like a later scene of the same dream, with a facade of normalcy. There was no longer a hospital bed. He was at his anniversary cookout—parked yards away and staring from the safety of his SUV. He was awake, alert, and available to talk. Which meant she should say something of substance.
“How are you feeling?” Immediately, she dropped her head and closed her eyes, cursing her small-talk inabilities.
Daniel grunted.
She smirked. At least they were on the same level of communication. She opened her eyes, the plate of cookies beaming up at her.
“Did you see the bow tie on this one? They put the number forty on it,” she said, tilting the plate toward him. “Shoot. I’m sure sugar isn’t on the ‘approved’ list from the doctor.”
As if in challenge, his eyes went from the plate, to her, and back. He picked up the cookie, removed its cellophane wrapper, and bit, chewing as he looked out of the front window.
Charlie stared at the plate. She really needed to be better at looking out for him. This wasn’t helping at all, encouraging unhealthy behavior.
“One cookie won’t kill me,” Daniel said softly.
She blinked rapidly, cleared her throat. “Everyone’s been asking about you. It’s the busiest year yet, I think. So many people sending theircongrats on forty years, and well-wishes that you…that you get better soon.”
His gaze stayed on the cookout.
“We even had a couple vendors run out of stuff a little while ago, can you believe it? And the raffle entries have been steady. We’ve raised a lot of money so far.”
“Damn it,” Daniel grumbled, as cookie crumbled all over his lap.
“Oh, here.” Charlie pulled a small wad of napkins from the zippered pocket of her fleece.
“Thank you,” he said, the veins on his hand more pronounced, the joints of his fingers stiff and slightly bent as he took them from her. Focused on cleaning up his mess, he continued, “Zachary looks comfortable out there.”
She found Zachary with a magnetic pull, a gray fleece over his T-shirt, the sleeves shoved up his forearms as he worked the grill. His smile was gentle as he talked to an older couple, nodding and laughing with them as though he hadn’t been gone for years. Fitting right back in, while everyone felt the significance of his presence.
Working alongside him again made her happy. He’d been smiling all day, embracing everything with such love and care. He'd brought her food when he noticed she hadn’t stopped moving all morning. And well, there were a few times their eyes met across the way, when his smile turned mischievous and his eyes scanned her body in a way that let her know he was thinking about their kiss too.
Charlie nudged the vent, directing the heat away from her face. “Mm-hmm,” was her reply.
“Has he been following orders?”
She chuckled. “Yes.”
“I was preparing myself for the building to be repainted or something,” he muttered.
“Just the inside. Ocean blue. One wall is bright stripes, surprisingly,” she said, smirking.
“Oh,thatsounds likeyourdoing,” he said, gifting her a small smile. “I can’t go in there yet. I’m not…” He shook his head, forced a small cough into his fist as he tripped on the words.
“That’s okay, Daniel,” she said softly, watching him. His focus was on the trees, the sky, everywhere but her. “We don’t have a ‘welcome home’ banner up yet anyway.”
