“Let’s roll through the home improvement store over in Red Leaf.”
Since I didn’t have anything on my agenda except staying in the house and being sad, running errands with Bright seemed like a cool idea. “Okay.”
By the timeBright and I made it back to Perkins’s house, she was cooking dinner. That was when I realized that Bright and I had spent the entire day together. Perkins invited him to stay.
“Thanks, sis.” He dropped a light kiss on Perkins’s cheek after the invite. “I’m hanging out with the bruhs. Playoffs tonight. We’re ’bout to see what those Portland Trailblazers do.”
“Next time.” She gave him a hug.
“Have fun.” I waved as he walked toward the front door.
One thing I’d learned about Jackson Falls was that people didn’t always lock their doors. So, neither of us followed him. When she heard his pick-up truck start, Perkins turned to me.
“Uh, so the two of you have been together since you left to get breakfast this morning?”
“Yeah. He took me to a breakfast spot, then we went by City Hall to sign up for the 5k run.”
“Oh yeah? For the Stream Violet Festival that’s coming up?”
“You know about that?”
She gave me a look that read, “please be serious.”
“Of course I know about that. You’re the one that’s new to Jackson Falls. Me and my daughters are official residents.”
“Okay,” I joked, giving her a fake attitude.
“Nah. It’s a really big deal for the town. All of the seasonal festivals are a big deal. They bring in tourists and tourists bring in money. Plus they promote community and culture and blah blah blah.” I giggled. “What happened after y’all left City Hall?”
“We went by Mama’s new bed and breakfast and checked it out. It’s really nice. Has five bedrooms and all of them except for one has a connected bathroom. It needs work, but it really could be a smaller, more charming, more budget friendly version of the lodge.”
“Nice. How was it spending so much time with Bright? He strikes me as the most playful Strong brother. Him and Bayliss play all day.”
“It was . . .” I hesitated as I thought about how it was. “It was cool. Bright is funny and he does play a lot. But he’s on his business when it comes to building and everything. When wetalked about what the bed and breakfast would need, all of his ideas sounded good.”
Perkins removed the food from the oven. Because she had to cook for three kids, herself, and sometimes me, Perkins favored sheet-pan meals. As she plated the steak bites, roasted potatoes, and string beans onto plates for the girls, I quickly filled two pitchers with iced water. One, I set on the table just as it was. The other, I turned into grape lemonade Kool-Aid by adding the flavor packets and sugar.
After my oldest niece, Harlowe, blessed the food, we began to eat.
“Since you signed up for the 5k, I’m guessing that you’re getting back into running. I hated when you gave it up. You used to be so into track when you were in high school.”
“Yeah, Bright convinced me to do it. I did used to love it.”
“Why’d you stop running?”
“Xander hated it, so he wouldn’t run with me. And it didn’t seem safe to run around our neighborhood by myself.” I thought about how many things I’d given up because Xander didn’t see the value in them. Since I didn’t want to sink into a funk, I pushed those memories behind me. “Anyway, we’ll see how my return to running goes.
Later that night,as I prepared for bed, I got a text message from Bright. It was an unknown number, so I didn’t recognize it initially.
Unknown Number:Practice for the 5k starts at 0700 hours tomorrow.
Me:Who is this?
Unknown Number:Who would be texting you about the 5k you signed up for?
Me:How’d you get my number, sir?
Unknown Number:My brother is married to your mother. I can get any information I want about you Bailey Marie Kingsley.
