Page 6 of The Complication with the Best Man

She bites her lip to not laugh at my joke. “I meant with Adley. You’re acting like I just said you couldn’t have a popsicle before dinner.” She grabs my wrist. “Come on.”

I fight her, but she’s right, time to act like an adult, and adults face their problems head on. Right?

“Fine.”

Twenty minutes later, I’ve gotten dressed in a pair of leggings and a T-shirt, and I’m in the passenger seat of Palmer’s car with a package of saltines on my lap. I guess it was Palmer’s congratulations gift. The pregnancy nausea sucks.

“So when are we going to get there?” I ask for the tenth time, but Palmer doesn’t bother answering.

Man, she’s really mastered the mom thing. Thank God I have her to help me through this. She just keeps driving out of town until we’re on a small road surrounded by trees. I look at everything we pass, unsure where we could be. I thought I knew every nook and cranny of Lake Starlight.

Eventually, she turns onto a short gravel driveway lined with trees in front of a rustic cabin. It too is surrounded by thick woods, and though the cabin looks as if it’s seen better days, it has a charming Hansel and Gretel fairy tale feeling to it with the arched door and shaker shingles.

I don’t unbuckle and look at her. “What is this place?”

She presses the button, and my seat belt unclicks. “Come on.”

“If this is some ambush, I’ll never forgive you. Is someone in there?” I open the passenger door but step out cautiously.

“Just come and see,” Palmer says.

I follow her up the old brick walkway toward the arched sky-blue door that reminds me of my great-grandma Dori’s eyes and the tint of her gray hair. I was in my early twenties when she passed away, and I miss her to this day. She was a force to be reckoned with.

Palmer slides a key out of her pocket and unlocks the door, pushing it open, motioning for me to go in.

The cabin is just as small as it looked from the outside. There’s a living room, a small kitchen with a table and chairs, and a short hallway that I assume leads to a bedroom and bathroom.

It takes me a moment before I look at the walls and see photographs of Great-Grandma Dori and Great-Grandpa Philip, a man I only know from pictures and stories since he passed well before I was born. The pictures consist of them here, by the lake, and skating when they were much younger. It’s only of them. There are no pictures of my parents, or Palmer’s, or any of my aunts and uncles.

“Is this a love den?” I turn to face Palmer.

A laugh bubbles out of her. “It was theirs.” Her eyes fall to a picture of Great-Grandma Dori standing in front of Great-Grandpa Phillip on bended knee. It’s a tad grainy and age is definitely getting it to, but it was their proposal for sure.

“I didn’t think our family could keep secrets. Am I the only family member who doesn’t know about this place?”

She shakes her head and explains to me that the cabin was left to our eldest cousin, Calista, by Great-Grandma Dori. She saw it as a place for each of her great-grandchildren to find refuge and peace during a time of need. Calista passed it down to Brinley, who passed it to Lance, who then offered it to Palmer. Each one of them needed a place to escape from their reality, where no one knew to find them.

“And once you feel more settled and have your plan, or if you see one of the cousins struggling, you pass it on to the next person of your choosing.” She smiles as she looks around the small, dated space. “It’s like a refuge in the storm. When everything beyond these walls is a mess, you can come here to try to make sense of it. You feel her, right?” Palmer wipes a tear on her cheek. “I felt her energy the first time I walked in.”

I nod. She’s right. It’s as if Great-Grandma Dori is here to talk to and give me advice. It’s like heaven to have somewhere to disappear to where no one can find me, and I can take the time to figure out what I want for myself.

I draw her into a hug. “Thank you.”

When I pull back, there are tears in both of our eyes.

I hope this place will be helpful, she signs.

“It will be.” I give her a watery smile, willing the words to be true.

Surely I’ll figure this out and come out the other side.

four

HARPER

For the next two days, I pretend there’s nothing going on in my life. Any time I think about the pregnancy or feel nauseated, I push the thought out of my head and continue on with whatever I’m doing.

I’m not exactly conflict avoidant. Well, maybe I am because when a problem presents itself in my life that I don’t feel equipped to deal with, I have a bad habit of pretending it doesn’t exist until it becomes so overwhelming I have no choice.

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