Page 6 of Stay this Christmas
I darted through the door and back into the PT room, ready to throw myself head-first into an abyss of soul-sucking insurance forms. Fiesta Village had been my happy place for the last three years, but now, with the arrival of one volunteer yoga instructor, I’d rather be anywhere else.
Reminding myself this was only temporary, I tried to shake him from my mind like an Etch-a-Sketch. Sam had traveled the world seeking out new adventures—he would leave Magnolia Ridge again sooner or later. I would just have to wait him out.
TWO
sam
Harper madeher quick escape into the next room, insulted by the term I’d used.
Friend.
Clearly, I’d overshot. I’d known getting back into her good graces would be an uphill climb, but I hadn’t thought she would shut me out so thoroughly. Not that I really deserved open arms after the way I’d left things between us. I should probably be grateful she spoke to me at all.
I’d meant to jump right in with an apology, try to start fresh and get to know each other again. I hadn’t expected her to be happy to see me, but I’d still hoped. But the shock and bitterness in her eyes my first day here had crushed those hopes down to a superfine dust. Since then, her thinly-veiled aversion to me had knocked my confidence down a few pegs, and I’d avoided mentioning our past.
Like a chicken.
In the PT room, she sat at her desk and opened her laptop. Her auburn hair fell in a braid down the middle of her back, a sliver of her face visible at this angle. We were only separated by about twenty feet and a pane of glass, but it might as well have been ten miles.
You ever make a mistake, and you know it’s the wrong thing when you do it, but then you go on making it anyway?
That had been me the day I walked away from Harper Webb.
My best excuse? I’d been seventeen and stupid. Harper and I had been everything to each other, but I’d decided breaking up with her before she went away to college would be best for both of us. She could focus on her studies, and I could do my thing without anybody being tied down. High school sweethearts didn’t last, anyway, so better end things sooner than later. Give us a clean break, and we could move on.
I mentioned I was seventeen and stupid, right?
“You’re running late today,” a voice said from behind me.
I wiped the moony look off my face and turned to find my grandpa Glen shuffling into the exercise room, his cane in one hand and a wooden box under the other arm. Today, he wore trousers with a belt and suspenders, which seemed overkill. Did Fiesta Village have a pantsing problem I hadn’t heard about? He also wore a blue fleece jacket over his plaid flannel button-down. Just looking at him made me sweaty. Although December, temps still climbed into the mid-fifties most days, but the residents here dressed as though they were preparing for the Iditarod.
His gaze went straight to the glass wall, and Harper beyond. He smiled as if I’d made an emotional confession.
“I see. You’re thinking about what a fool you’ve been.”
His laughter didn’t take away the sting of his words. Ihadbeen a fool, a thousand times over. I’d come home to try to repair the damage, but didn’t know if I could yet. Hard to know where to start when I’d made such a mess of things.
“I’m always thinking about that.”
I pulled the wooden Backgammon box from under his arm. Double-checking I would leave the exercise room as tidy as it had been when I arrived, I turned back the way he’d come. He didn’t have much interest in the yoga I taught here, but he liked playing backgammon with me after. Our twice-weekly sessions gave me plenty of quality time with my grandpa, along with the added bonus of lessons on how to lose with grace.
I kept my pace slow to match his as we headed to one of the free tables in the main hall. When Grandpa first announced his intention to move into Fiesta Village three years ago, I hadn’t been on board with the idea. I’d never been to a retirement community before, and my expectations had been fairly pitiful. Think uncomfortable rooms with stale meals served by frowning employees who couldn’t wait to quit. But the Village very nearly qualified as luxury—certainly more luxurious than any place I’d ever lived—and now that I’d been here a while, I wouldn’t want to see him anywhere else.
“You fall on your knees begging forgiveness yet?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
I wouldn’t exactly say I’d had the opportunity. Harper made sure we spent as little time together as possible, speaking to me only when given no other choice. Seeking her out outside of Fiesta Village seemed a sure way to get a door slammed in my face—or worse. She’d never held back from punching me in the arm when I deserved it, and I definitely deserved it now. If I’d immediately agreed to Olivia’s suggestion to add another session to my volunteer schedule last week, well, I guess I still had a spark of hope left, after all. Tiny, maybe, but holding out.
“Dragging your feet isn’t like you.”
I hitched a shoulder. “I’m turning over a new leaf. I’m patient now.”
He laughed again, well aware my default decision-making setting was just a huge red button with the wordsDo it!emblazoned on it.
“Sensible, too.”
“Nice to meet you, Sensible Sam. Does this new leaf of yours include winning at backgammon, for a change?”
