“Just trying to figure you out.”
“I’m not that complicated, sweetheart.”
His constant changing of endearments and nicknames makes me smile.
He eases back into the booth but his hand still covers mine. “Ask whatever you want to know.”
I think for a moment. There are so many things I’m not sure where to start.
I go with an easy one. “Where are you from?”
“Michigan.”
“Did you go to college?”
“No. I signed out of high school and then spent a few years playing on minor league teams. First Florida and then Moonshot.”
“Does your family still live in Michigan?”
It feels like his body tenses as he reaches for his whiskey glass with his free hand. It’s the only question, so far, that I don’t know the answer to—or at least the Google answer. His smile is still intact though so maybe I imagined it.
“They do. What about you? Is it just you and your sister?” he asks.
“Our parents passed away when I was eleven.”
“I’m so sorry. Eleven?” The sincerity in his tone isn’t surprising, I’ve gotten it enough in the years since it happened, but his earnest expression goes beyond the nicety of the words.
I nod to answer his question. “Thanks. It almost feels like another lifetime now. They’ve been gone longer than I had with them.”
“I’m really sorry.”
I don’t usually share the details but he’s looking at me with so much compassion that I feel compelled. Or maybe I just want him to know more of me.
“It was a freak accident. They were driving home from the grocery store in the middle of a bad storm and a tree fell on the car.” If I really let myself go back to that day and the weeks and months after, I can feel that all-consuming grief of losing them. But the truth is that over time the pain has dulled. It’s not as suffocating, and I don’t spend as much time wondering about what things could have been like.
It’s easier now to push on, keep busy, not linger too long in the sadness. It doesn’t stop me from missing them or wishing they were here, but it’s hard to imagine my life any differently now.
I sense that Travis wants to apologize again but instead his mouth pulls into a flat line and his fingers brush lightly back and forth over the top of my hand.
“Wren and I went to live with our grandmother after that.”
“Is she still…”
I nod before he can finish the sentence. “Yeah, she’s alive and living her best life. She moved to Arizona over the summer as soon as Wren graduated high school. That was her dream before…retire to Arizona and spend her days in the sun, playing tennis and doing water aerobics. Doing all the things she put off while raising her grandkids.”
I set out to get to know him and somehow, it’s me doing the talking.
“Do you have any siblings?” I ask.
“Nope. Only child.”
“I would have guessed that. You have strong only child vibes.”
He grins. “Coming from an oldest, I’m not sure if that’s a compliment.”
“I’ll never tell.”
He laughs softly. “You and Wren are close?”
