Return to the Beach House (14 page)

They were settled in the truck and headed toward the highway when Grace said, “How would you feel if I could scrape enough money together to fly someplace to meet you for a weekend?”

“I’d love it. But I don’t think your folks would appreciate you flying off to spend the weekend with a guy you’ve only known a couple of weeks, and I don’t want them mad at me.”

“I don’t want you to go,” she admitted. “I wish you could just stay here and ride the waves and figure out who you are and what you want to do with your life. Why do you have to go wandering around in this old truck? What’s with that?”

“I’m running away from home,” he said, more to himself than to her. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I just didn’t know how.”

“Your dad was lucky. Think of all the awful things that could have happened to a thirteen-year-old kid.”

“But they didn’t. The awful thing waited until he was a grown man and supposedly protected by a great job and lots of money and thick concrete walls and steel beams.” Christopher pulled off the highway and headed to the valley where several orchid growers had discovered the perfect climate to raise their product.

She was crying again. “I don’t want to lose you.”

He reached for her hand. “You won’t.”

Almost too softly for him to hear, she added, “I think I love you.” Before he had a chance to answer, she added, “I know that’s crazy. We’ve only known each other a month.”

“How long does it take?”

“Don’t tease me about this. I’m serious.”

“I am too. I knew I loved you from the minute you shared your sweet potato fries with me at Carpos. I’ve never known anyone as outgoing and funny and easy to be around as you are. You don’t give a damn who I am or how much money I have or what happened to my father and grandfather.”

“Okay,” she said with a sheepish smile. “You convinced me. But tell me again.”

“I love you.”

“For sure?”

“Yes . . . for sure. And for always.” He could hear voices in his mind insisting that he was too young, too inexperienced, and too naive to know what love was. He knew without question that they were wrong.

“All right. I’ll promise not to bug you anymore about when you’ll be back. I’ll even keep my texts below fifty.”

“A week?”

“A day.”

“What if that’s not enough for me to tell you what it’s like standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon?”

Grace caught her breath. “Save the Grand Canyon for when I’m with you.”

“What about Yellowstone?”

“Oh—that too.”

“This isn’t going to work.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’ll try harder from now on.”

He pulled up to the side entrance of the nursery. Grace leaned across the seat and kissed him. She tasted like strawberry gum and smelled like lavender. “I’ll see you later.”

She looked up and saw her father waiting for her. “Gotta go.” She kissed Christopher again, this time, for her father’s benefit, with less yearning. She got out of the truck and disappeared into the greenhouse. Andrew smiled and waved as Christopher turned around to leave.

For the third time that morning he tried manipulating how many days he needed to get back to New York in time for his birthday so he could stay with Grace just a little longer. Birthdays were important to his mother, none more so than his eighteenth. According to Google, if he drove ten hours a day it would take him four and a half days, not counting delays or traffic or any of a dozen other possibilities. Five days seemed reasonable.

Driving twelve hours a day so that he could get there a day sooner, and giving him another day with Grace, would scare the crap out of both his mother and grandmother. He didn’t have the patience to listen to the warnings that would rain down on him like the backside of a hurricane.

Simplifying his life was turning out to be more complicated than he’d ever imagined.

Chapter 12

Christopher pulled the truck into the back of Tanner Motors where Kyle had told him to park. Of course that was because Kyle thought he was there to return the truck and wanted it left where the mechanic could pick it up and look at it before it went in to be painted.

Kyle must have seen Christopher pull up because within minutes he came out of the office and headed his way. “Good to see you again,” he called. “Are you in a hurry, or do you have time for lunch?”

“Lunch sounds great.”

Kyle looked around. “Where’s Alison?”

“She’s not coming.”

He cocked an eyebrow and studied Christopher for several seconds before nodding. “I hope you don’t mind, but Alison has told me about what you’ve been going through.”

“It’s okay. She’s told me a lot about you too.”

“All good, I hope.”

“For the most part.”

Kyle chuckled. “I can see it’s a mistake to lead with my chin around you.”

“Sorry—couldn’t resist. Actually, I’m pretty sure she likes you just the way you are.”

“Nice to hear. Thanks. The feeling is mutual.” He started back toward the office. “Give me a second to close up and we can get out of here.”

Christopher hesitated. “It might be better if we took care of the paperwork on the truck first.”

“All right. Although there’s not much to do. Just a couple of things to sign and it’s a done deal.” He frowned. “Someone’s picking you up, I assume?”

“I hope it’s not necessary. I wanted to talk to you about buying the truck.”

Kyle opened the door and held it for Christopher. “Take a seat,” he said. “I’ll get your file.”

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“I told your grandmother that you’d fall in love with that truck, but she couldn’t see it at the time. I’m not sure she can see it now. But there’s just something about those old five-window beauties that pulls me in every time. I would have kept it myself if I’d had the room to store it.” He tossed the file on the desk and sat opposite Christopher. “Would you like me to arrange to have it transported back to New York? I know a couple of companies that aren’t too expensive and do a good job.”

“I’m going to drive it. That was one of the things I wanted to talk to you about—whether or not you feel it’s up to the trip mechanically. I haven’t had any trouble around here, but it’s over three thousand miles between here and New York.”

“That truck could handle a dozen round-trips to anyplace on this continent, including Alaska.”

“Alaska?” Christopher’s eyes lit up.

Kyle sat back and studied Christopher. “Want to tell me what you’ve got in mind?”

Christopher didn’t know how to express himself without sounding like he’d been smoking a peyote-filled pipe. Mostly, he didn’t want to come across all mystic and new age. He hadn’t been in California long enough to pull it off. “There’s a lot of country I haven’t seen and a lot of people I haven’t met. I figure I’ll never have another time or another opportunity to just take off and wing it. Once I start school, everything will change. I’ll get caught up in my classes and grades and riding again.”

He struggled to find the words that would help Kyle understand, realizing instinctively that he would be the person his grandmother turned to when she was trying to figure out what was up with her wayward grandson. “I want to know what it’s like to come to a road and follow where it goes just because it looks interesting. For one year in my life I want to experience real freedom. Then I’ll go back and do what’s expected of me.”

“Are you sure one year is enough?” Kyle asked. “What if you like that feeling of freedom so much that you can’t give it up?”

“Not going to happen. Somewhere inside me I’m still my father’s son. It would hurt too many people.”

Kyle sat back and took several minutes to absorb what Christopher had told him. “I know a lot of good people pretty much all around this country. I’m going to give you a notebook with their names and addresses and phone numbers. If you need something, if you break down, if you’re in trouble, you can call any of these people and they will be there to help you as soon as they can. Think of it as a kind of roadside insurance.”

Christopher grinned and shifted in his seat. “Thanks. I appreciate it, but I hope I’m never in the position where I have to call on any of your friends.”

“You never know. You just might get a hankering for a home-cooked meal. Any one of them would love to have you stop by. And I know your grandmother and mother would feel a whole lot better knowing there are people out there ready and willing to take care of you. Consider them part of the ‘whole lot of people you haven’t met yet.’ ”

“Is that what’s called an ulterior motive?”

“It comes from being a parent and grandparent myself.” Kyle changed the subject as he began sorting through the papers. “What about the horse you came here to buy? I thought Alison said you’d found one you liked.”

“I bought him. I’m going to leave him here, and they’re going to continue his training while I’m gone.”

“That should go a long way to convince your mom and Alison that you’ll be coming home eventually—but I have a feeling it might have more to do with you thinking about settling out here eventually.” Kyle opened a file next to his desk and pulled out a sales contract. He tapped the stack of papers on his desk to even them, looking at Christopher over the top.

“I’m going to deny I told you this should you ever feel the need to pass it on, but I think this trip is the best thing you could be doing with your life right now. Hell, I’d be trying to bum a ride if it weren’t for everything I’ve got going on around here—your grandmother included.

“Just be careful,” he went on, trying hard to keep his words from sounding like a lecture and almost succeeding. “Not everyone deserves your trust. And no matter how much that mushroom growing in the forest looks like the one you get back home in the grocery store, don’t eat it.” He locked his gaze on Christopher’s. “You get what I’m saying?”

“Stay away from drugs.”

“And booze. Not only because you’re too young to drink it legally, but because we’re all too stupid when we’re drunk to see when we’re headed for trouble. There will be plenty of time to do that kind of stupid stuff when you get home. Stay away from it on the road.”

With startling clarity, Christopher suddenly saw what it would have been like to grow up with a father and was filled with an ache that nearly choked him. Did Kyle’s daughters feel the absence of their mother with the same longing Christopher felt for his missing father?

“One more thing,” Kyle added. “Always look and act like you’re down to your last twenty dollars. This country is filled with good people, but there are some bad ones in the mix. Don’t tempt them.”

“How can you tell the difference?”

“For the most part, you can’t. The guy you meet nursing a cup of coffee at a hole-in-the-wall diner could turn out to be a gentle schizophrenic who’s only looking for a kind word, while the happy-go-lucky fatherly sort who slides onto the stool next to you at that same diner could be reaching for your wallet while he’s slapping you on the back.”

“I hope you’re not telling my grandmother this stuff.”

Kyle laughed. “Not a chance.” He passed the stack of papers across to Christopher. “Did Alison happen to mention that she’s coming back after your birthday?”

She hadn’t even hinted it was a possibility. “When did this happen?”

“This morning. She got a call from the woman who owns the house where you’ve been staying. Seems the couple who were supposed to be there in July can’t make it after all.”

His grandmother couldn’t be staying because of him, not when he was leaving in the morning. Which meant it had to be Kyle. Somewhere in the back of his mind he had to have figured this out, but he’d been so caught up in his own world that he hadn’t given hers more than a cursory thought. “This is turning into an interesting summer.”

“We have some things to work out,” Kyle said. “My life is here, and hers is in New York.”

“It used to be in New York. Now, with my mother moving to Connecticut and me taking off, there’s not much to hold her there anymore.” The words were difficult, the idea even more so. The house he’d lived in for over half of his life, the horses and barns and paddocks, the town, the neighbors—these were home, the place he’d counted on always being there. But he had no right to ask or expect his grandmother to maintain a home just to accommodate his occasional visits. She deserved the same freedom he longed to experience.

“Memories are powerful magnets.”

“I’m beginning to understand that.” Christopher dropped his gaze to the papers in front of him. “Are you going to try to talk her into staying?” He wished he hadn’t asked. Selfishly, he wasn’t ready for her to start a new life. A huge part of his independence was tied to knowing his mother and grandmother would be there if he called.

“Yes,” Kyle admitted. “I’m not crazy about the idea of a long-distance courtship. We both learned the hard way that you can’t count on tomorrow.”

Christopher tried to put a positive spin on his grandmother moving three thousand miles away. “At least I’ll have family around if I manage to get into Davis.”

“I thought you were going to Penn State.”

“It’s a long story.”

“I have time.”