Nate (A Texas Jacks Novel) (45 page)

Hawaii, ready or not, here we come
.

Present day

It’s that wonderful, magical time of year, where anything can happen, and children’s dreams come true. It also happens to be my most favorite time of the year, but maybe I'm a little biased, since I was born only a day before my favorite holiday, Christmas.

Since I had the day off from work, I decided to take a stroll down Holly Lane, the main street in Holly Grove, before I met with my friends. The air is cool and crisp; people are trying their best to stay warm, bundled up in sweaters, scarves, hats, and gloves. The sidewalks and streets are covered in snow, while the sun hangs low in the sky this late morning. Everywhere you look, you can see Christmas decorations in the window fronts of the town’s shops, and in the middle of the town square, there’s a very large, decorated Christmas tree, ready and waiting for the annual tree lighting ceremony to take place.

Holly Grove is a small town with a slower pace of life, not in a hurry to catch up with the rest of the world. My love for this town has grown over the years. While the rest of my classmates and friends were eager to get out of this town and explore the world, I was content to stay here. I’ve never felt that strong need to leave, so here I am. This is where I’ll stay.

I continue my walk towards
Noelle’s Café,
where I plan to have brunch with my two best friends, Ava and Jenifer. They both came home this year for the holidays, and I can’t wait to catch up with them. It’s been nine months since we’ve seen each other last. They’re so busy with their own lives that communication has become like an art form these days. Both girls are still in college, have boyfriends, and work odd jobs in the summer.

As for me, I’m currently single, and mostly content with life, living in my own apartment, and still working at my family’s pharmacy. Sure, I’d love to have someone special of my own to be with. I miss the hand holding, shy smiles, the kisses, and just being around the one you truly love. It’s been a year since my last relationship, and my heart still hasn’t picked up the pieces of its shattered self. I know it’s going to be a long time before I’m ready to find someone again, so I just take every day one step at a time. Eventually the pain will lessen, and I’ll finally get to the point where I can actually move on. It doesn’t mean that it will hurt any less than it does now, but I know that I can’t dwell on the sorrow of my loss forever. It’s best that I get off this topic, or I’ll be in a melancholy mood for the rest of the day, and who wants that when I have a brunch date with my two best friends to get to?

Pushing my thoughts to the side, I enter the café where the girls and I are meeting. This month it’s decorated with a Christmas theme. Noelle, the owner of the café, has hung decorative ornament balls in the front window, with white lights lining the outside of the window, which will be turned on later in the evening. There’s also an elaborate-looking holly wreath hanging on the door, with a giant red bow at the top in the center, with little berries, ribbons, and gold jingle bells intertwined throughout the wreath.

Inside the café, there’s a small Christmas tree sitting in the corner. Every year, Noelle puts the tree up and adds name tags to the branches. This tree represents the giving tree. Everyone is encouraged to draw a name tag and buy a present for the unknowing recipient who is in need of some help during the holiday season. Usually the names are of children whose parents can’t afford much, or the elderly in our town who have little to no family around to give them something to put smiles on their faces. I can hear faint Christmas music playing through the speakers in the ceiling as I survey the tables, where Mason jars are filled with colorful candy canes sitting joyfully in the center. The jars all have garland bunched up around the bottoms, with little red bows attached in a few places.

I immediately recognize Ava and Jenifer, and make my way further into the café toward them. They both have big smiles on their faces, and quickly get out of their seats for a round of hugs. It’s so good to see their beautiful, happy faces, and to hear their voices again.

“Hey! It’s good to see you ladies. I was beginning to think I was Casper the Friendly Ghost these days,” I joke.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve been so busy with school this term, then finals, and finally meeting Jay’s family. Life has been such a whirlwind lately,” Jenifer says with a dreamy look. Just seeing her face brings a slow smile to my own. She’s happy, content with what she’s doing, and more in love than ever.

“Well, it looks as if this relationship just got more serious if you’ve already met Jay’s family. Does that love struck look on your face and all of the stars in the universe shining from your eyes mean that you got the stamp of approval from his parents?” I tease her.

“Yes! They were great, and we had a wonderful visit. I can’t wait to go back up to their home and spend some more time with everyone. I feel like I really fit into his family. Jay will be here in a couple of days to meet my family next. Since we did Thanksgiving at his house, we decided he would come here for Christmas. My parents are eager to finally meet him, and I feel like it will go smoothly. You know how laid back my family is,” she gushes at us.
I think someone is on cloud nine, and the high she’s on isn’t just sugar, but bona fide love.

“Well, this is good news, then. Maybe we can have a get-together with all three families before you leave. I think maybe we should have a birthday bash for Hollie. Let’s keep up with the Christmas Eve birthday party tradition, but invite all of our families to come.” Ava says, overly excited. I want to join her in that feeling, but I don’t know if I’m happy about it.
Celebrating just isn’t the same anymore, not ever since—

“Oh, that’s a great idea, Ava!” Jenifer exclaims, jolting me out of my thoughts. Turning toward me now, she continues, “We can coordinate with your mom.”

Sighing, I say, “Yeah, sounds like a plan. Just tell me when and where, and I’ll be there.”

Yeah, right.

Hmm
, it looks like it’s time to turn the spotlight toward someone else.

“And what about you, lady?” I eye Ava with a quirked eyebrow. “What’s your lame excuse for the lack of communication? Other than you leaving a voicemail telling me that you two crazies were coming home for Christmas.”

“Well,” she says slowly, with a grin, “I’ve got some important news I wanted to share, and I knew if I called you, I wouldn’t be able to tell both of you at once.”

“You’re pregnant! I knew it. Of all of us, it had to be you.” I throw out at her with a grin on my face.

“What? No!” she feigns exasperation, but laughs right along with Jenifer and I, knowing it’s the furthest thing from the truth. “And keep it down. We don’t want the town gossipmongers out spreading that to my parents before I even leave the café.
Yeesh!
Can you imagine?” she laughs, and sadly, we can all imagine. This is a great town that we love dearly, but there really are some incredible gossipers around here.

“You’re getting married. Are you trying to beat me to the altar?” Jenifer punches Ava in the shoulder.

“Okay, Miss Violence. And no, it’s not that—well, at least not yet. I do have my suspicions that Sean is planning something before the year is out.”
I just hope she isn’t getting her hopes up too high if it’s not what she’s expecting from him.

“Anyway, what I was trying to say when you two chatty Cathy’s couldn’t put a cork in it, was that I have some exciting news. I wanted to tell you both in person. Sean got a job offer from
Mentor Graphics
!” she excitedly shares with us. “And guess what?” she asks without waiting for our reply. “It’s here, in Oregon. Isn’t that exciting?” She beams at us.

She’s extremely happy, but I don’t know why she couldn’t share that with us over the phone or individually.

“Okay. And what does that mean exactly?” Jenifer asks.

“It means that Sean has asked me to move back to Oregon with him, and I’ll be semi –closer to home. I’ve already checked out the schools where he’ll be located, and I can transfer all of my credits to one of them. He made a trip out to meet the team of people he will work with, and has already found us a nice apartment close to his job. Isn’t that exciting?”
Okay, maybe the girl does know what she’s talking about, and Sean will be proposing sometime soon.

“Wow. That’s just—wow. What do your parents think about it all?” I ask her.

“Well, they weren’t happy at first. It will be a big change, as well as a pain to move and get all of my paperwork for school done and things fixed and all of that jazz. But, they are slowly accepting it now. I don’t see how they can’t be happy, though. I’ll be closer to home, after all.”

“Don’t you think you’re a bit young for such a big step? Why not stay at school where you are and finish out the year? Give yourself time to prepare. That would give Sean a chance to settle in, make friends, and get to know the area before you go out there to meet them.” Jenifer, the sensible one of our trio, rationalizes. Or at least tries to, with Ava.

“Sean and I have been together for 12 months now. We are happy, and we know what we want. We are both on track, with his career and my education. This is an awesome opportunity, and Sean wants to share it with me. Why wouldn’t he? And why wouldn’t I want to go? I don’t want to be separated for another half of the year,” she says with a frown. “Don’t you think we’ve been separated long enough?” she asks before she automatically realizes her slip. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Holls! That was very insensitive of me.”

“Its okay, Ava. You didn’t mean anything by it. No need to worry.” I assure her. “And we are excited and happy for you and Sean. We just want to make sure it’s the right decision for you. But if you feel this is a good thing, and you’re positive, we will do our best to support your choice,” I say, reaching over and squeezing both of her hands with my left hand, while giving her my best smile. “It just means we will see you even less than we do now, and will probably hear less from you, too.” I add with a little pout. “You know how much we love and adore Sean. Please don’t think we meant anything negative about him.”

Just then the waitress comes over with waters, a plate of Noelle’s homemade pumpkin bread, and our menus. We set about slathering the warm bread with butter and watch it melt quickly. My mouth is watering, and all of a sudden, I’m starving.

“Good morning, ladies. It’s great to see you three. It’s been awhile since you’ve all been in here together. Do you need a minute to look over the menu or do you already know what you want?” Jinger asks us enthusiastically.

“No menus for us. I’m pretty sure we will all want our usual order.” Jenifer eyes Ava and I, to which we both nod, and she turns back to Jinger. “We’ll have three mugs of pumpkin spice hot chocolate with whipped cream, and three orders of pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes. Along with three sides each of sourdough toast, bacon, and the cheese and onion scrambled egg mix.” Jenifer tells her.

I hand Jinger back the menus, and thank her with a polite smile, before returning my attention back to my friends.

“Okay, if I wasn’t hungry earlier, or after my walk here, just listening to that order is making my mouth water,” I tell the girls as Jinger walks away with our ticket.

We hear a
ding
, then Jinger shouts, “Order up, Jerry!”
Here’s hoping Jerry isn’t a slow poke, and we’ll see our food sometime this year.

And just like that, we fall back into our old habits and catch up with each other, laughing and joking while I update the girls on the recent gossip that’s been spreading around town. That always gives us a good laugh or a few tears, depending on the news.

Jinger comes back over after about 20 minutes to deliver our scrumptious-smelling food, and we all dig in.
Who cares who’s here watching, this is too good to not tuck into right away
. A little while later, one of the girls decides to be the brave one and bring up
him
in a roundabout way. Well, Ava did semi bring up the subject a bit ago, but I should have known I wouldn’t get out of this café without a little interrogation on the status of my own love life.

“What’s going on in the fabulous and exciting life of Hollie Reed?” nosey old Ava asks.

“You already know all there is to tell. We just sat here for the past 45 minutes, hashing it all out. What’s left to discuss? Zip, really.” I try to change the subject, but before I can think of a topic to start in on, Jenifer jumps into the conversation.

“Really? Nothing? No good looking new guy in your life?” she asks, like she knows something I don’t.

“Umm, honestly? I have no idea what you’re getting at with this line of questioning.”

“Oh.” Ava says, shooting a furrowed look at Jen.

“Oh?” I ask her curiously.
Is there some new rumor in town going around that even I hadn’t heard about yet?
“What’s this about? Have you heard something that I haven’t?”