Page 11 of Summer Message

“No. It’s fine.” My hands are done shaking. “I was expecting it to be my cousin. She’s the only one who calls besides my parents, and they’re in the other room. You caught me off guard. How are you?”

“I’m good. I carried my mom into my bed. She had too much fun tonight.”

“What did you do?” I curl in bed deeper and start to relax.

Matthew tells me about taking her to all the line dancing bars they could find. His mom danced while him and Al watched and laughed.

“We’re taking her to the Grand Ole Opry tomorrow night. We’re surprising her.” I hear shuffling and beeping. “I'm heating up some lasagna, so sorry for all the noise. How was your night?”

“Mine was great. We stopped working around four thirty and went to a BBQ thrown in my honor. I got to meet a lot of my students and neighbors. We talked about the Fourth of July potluck. I thought I lived in a small town before, but that was nothing compared to this. My town would put on a nice Fourth of July firework show where we sit at the park. This town has a town wide potluck. Everyone pitches in for sparklers, and some of the houses have different activities for people to take part in. I'm going to like living here.”

“So, you have plans for the Fourth then? I was going to see if you wanted to do something.” Matthew’s voice drops from cheerful to above a whisper.

I do a little shake while I’m sitting in my bed. I can’t believe he’s asking me out. “You're more than welcome to come as my date. It’ll be nice to have someone to talk to other than older couples trying to set me up.” I laugh.

“It's a date. We have a few weeks to get to know each other, so maybe we can meet before then to get over the awkwardness?”

My stomach flips as his voice shakes out of nervousness.

“Let's see how things go between now and then. You have work, and I still have this house to fix up. I'm sure we’ll meet before the fourth, though. I promise.”

“Sounds good to me. You sound tired. Are you okay?” His voice is full of concern.

“I am tired. We've been working so hard. But I think I'm going to make us take tomorrow off. So I can talk longer if you want.” There's an awkward silence, then we both start laughing. “I feel like I'm in high school.”

“Me too. I want to talk but don't know what to talk about. Texting is easy, but phone calls and face to face are completely different.”

“I agree. But texting also makes for a lot of fighting too. I know my cousin Randi and her fiancé Charli were constantly fighting because someone misread the tone in a text message.”

“I have a group chat with my siblings and it's like that a lot too. I often tell them to get bent because I'm not a dick like they think I am. I'm the baby who gets everything.” We laugh.

“I'm the baby too by two hours. Randi and I were born the same day. I came a month early. My grandparents babied me more than anyone else. They loved all their grandkids equally, but I got spoiled a little bit more. I always stayed at their house every chance I got.”

“My grandparents liked my cousin the best and made sure we all knew it. He moved to another country for work. My grandparents still talk about him so much.”

I feel my eyes burning as I try to keep the tears from flowing. I still cry thinking about my grandparents and all they’re missing out on. “I miss my grandparents. They left all of us money that they'd been saving since we were all born. It's one of the reasons I'm able to work on my house and make it a dream come true. If it wasn't for them, I don't think I'd be here.”

“Well, thank you, grandparents. I couldn't imagine who would've found my balloon message if you hadn’t.”

“Can I ask a question?” I'm a little apprehensive about asking, but I need to know.

Matthew laughs into the phone which makes me smile. “I’m an open book, so please ask away.”

“What were you looking for with that balloon message?”

6

Matthew

I was waiting for that question to come up.I take a deep breath before giving her my honest answer.

“I'm new to the area just like you, and saw that vid on TikTok we talked about. A couple of people tried and found a relationship, but I wasn't anticipating that at all. I was looking for someone to talk to and hang out with, especially when Al goes off to Titans camp soon. Friendship is good for me, so no pressure. I do like the fact that we're going to go on a date, though.”

“We are? I don't remember agreeing to a date.” Kristina laughs.Her laugh is like music to my ears. I could listen to it all day.

“The Fourth of July and meeting before. Or am I overreaching?” I'm beginning to feel not so sure.

“I'm messing with you. It’ll be nice to have someone to hang out with and see where it goes. But no pressure, okay?”

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