Clearing my throat, I stand straight and examine the room. Pink, just like she said. Except the sheets and blankets on the bed are a floral white that must have replaced the princess ones she’d once mentioned having, and the frilly curtains I imagined hanging on the windows are white sun-blockers that shade the room.
“Cute,” I remark, walking over to the half-empty bookcase and examining the odds and ends on it. I pick up a dusty frame of a younger version of Rylee and a tall girl with curly hair. “Who is this?”
She stops pacing enough to walk up beside me and study what I’m holding. “That’s my best friend.”
“Moffie, right?”
Her head jerks back slightly. “You remembered?”
“Hard name to forget,” I say casually, setting it back down. There are multiple colors splattered all over the girls in the photo like they got into a paintball war. “You two look happy. What’s on your faces?”
I look over to see her absentmindedly staring at the image from around me. “Moffie dragged me to a highlighter party. We all wore white and got sprayed with paint by the people hosting it. It turned into a rave. Well, our version of one anyway. We don’t really get a lot of them here in the boonies.”
Smirking, I examine the other knickknacks. A sad looking stuffed teddy bear is on the top shelf, missing an eye and part of its ear, next to it is a line of bear figurines in all shapes and sizes that she must collect, and a few books that don’t look like they’ve ever been read.
And… “Is that a VHS tape?” I grab it and look at the cover. “Haven’t seen one of these in a long time.”
“I used to have a VCR to watch them at my apartment,” she tells me. “My grandma gave it to me as a housewarming present to be unique. She’d said it was ‘something old’ even though Grandpa Al reminded her that was for weddings.” A frown settles on her face. “I think she knew by that point that she’d never see me get married. It wasn’t too long after I moved that she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. It’d spread quickly from there.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Ry.”
She takes a deep breath and wipes under her eye with her finger. “She also gave me these bears because they’re her favorite animal. There were hundreds of these at their house until Grandpa Al told her she had to get rid of some because they took up too much room.”
“Are they both…?” She talks about them enough where I figured they’d passed on, but I never wanted to ask to ruin the memories she always got lost in that led to her beautiful smiles.
I watch her lips press together, her eyes focused on the animal figurine closest to her. “I was really close to them, like I’ve mentioned before. Grandpa Al especially. There was something special about their love, like it couldn’t be beat. He married her after she got divorced from my bio-grandpa who’s somewhere in North Carolina I think. We don’t talk. I don’t know what happened between them, all I know is that Al is her one. And Al…he always considered me one of his own. Treated me like family and taught me his passions. I miss them both, but I know they’re together and happy.”
“I can only imagine how hard that must be for you,” is all I say before changing the subject. “What’s there to do around here? Something quiet that we’d be able to enjoy?”
Her lip pulls into her mouth as she glances up at me through her lashes. “There’s a mini golf place not far from here. Right outside of town. I’m not sure it’s open right now though, they’re usually seasonal for when the weather is nicer. Last I knew, they closed around Columbus Day so we’re a few weeks late. They serve ice cream too and people around here used to love going in the summertime.”
“Did you?”
She shrugs. “I was never very good.”
“Well,” I declare, “I say we find out for ourselves.”
“Garrick, they’re probably not—”
I hush her. “Leave it to me, Rylee. Money speaks, and I happen to have a lot of it. We can invite your parents too and extend an olive branch.”
“They’ll interrogate you.”
“I’ll take it.”
“They’ll ask personal questions.”
“I’m an open book.”
“Garrick…”
“Rylee. Deep breaths, love. Remember what we talked about? Inhale for three, exhale for three. I can take whatever they throw at me. I’m used to it.”
“You’re used to the parents of women you marry asking you a million questions about yourself?”
I snicker at her dry humor. “I’m used to people throwing questions at me for no reason at all, but unlike those situations, I have every justifiable reason to answer these ones now.”
We stare at each other, uncertainty in her eyes and determination in mine. She knows by now that I don’t give up easily, and I can tell that bothers her to some degree. Even though this is her domain, I still push her because we have a better chance at getting out of the house here than back home.
Time out together.
With her family.
Enjoying each other’s company.
Finally, she relents. “My dad does love mini golfing.”
23
Rylee
My parents decide to sit mini golfing out even though Dad grumbled about it. With his ankle, he wouldn’t be able to get around easily, so it makes sense why they stayed behind.
The owner opened just for us after Garrick pulled out his wallet and flashed him the stacks inside. Seeing how much money he carries makes me squirm, like at any minute someone will pop out of the
