Page 82 of Revelry
We both sat in silence for a second, just watching everyone in the yard. Ron dropped his corner of the sign and it flopped down onto the driveway, Tucker nearly losing his balance on his ladder trying to hold his end up while Momma Von chastised them both.
Julie and I just laughed.
“Are you excited to go back?” she asked.
I took a deep breath, memorizing the way the air in Gold Bar felt in my lungs. “I don’t think that’s the right word. I’m ready, I suppose. Ready to get back to work and back to the boutique. I miss having that routine every day, and I definitely miss my team. They’ve been holding down the fort for too long.”
Julie smiled at that. “You’re going to miss us, though?”
“Terribly.”
Julie grinned wider, but then her smile fell and she plucked a stray weed from between the boards of the porch and picked at it with her fingers. “You know, I think you’re really brave, Wren.”
I tilted my head toward her, resting my cheek on my knee. “Why’s that?”
“You never met my mom this summer,” she said, still picking at the small flower. “She doesn’t go outside the cabin much. Not because she doesn’t want to, but because of my dad. I love him, I do, but he’s an awful husband.”
Julie shook her head, keeping her eyes trained on her hands as she continued.
“He’s always so mean to her. He yells at her to cook more or clean more, and then when she does, it’s never good enough for him. The steaks are too done or the floors are still dirty. He goes to work all day but doesn’t want her to leave to go make friends or spend time with the few she has. He expects her to stay home andhandle the house, even though I’m grown now and there’s nothing much for her to handle.”
My heart ached, because I realized my life with Keith hadn’t been too far from that of her mom’s. But maybe that kind of life was okay for her. I reached out and squeezed Julie’s wrist. “I’m sure your mom is happy. I’m sure she loves your dad.”
“She does love him,” she agreed. “But that’s the problem. She should have left him years ago, Wren. Maybe even before I was born.Definitelyafter. There’s been nights where she’s crawled into my bed and we’ve cried together. I’ve begged her to leave. I told her I would go with her. But she loves him, and she knows he won’t be able to take care of himself if she leaves. So, she just sacrifices everything she loves to do and everything she wants to be to make him happy. Or try to, I should say.” Julie shook her head. “I wish she had the courage you did, to make a life of her own... to find her happiness. I wish she could have met you.”
My throat squeezed and I forced a swallow, both saddened and honored by how Julie saw me. “I don’t know that I’d say I’m brave.”
“I would,” she said without hesitation. This time she turned to face me, too. “Zeek and I got in a fight.”
“I wondered why he wasn’t here. What happened?”
Julie took a deep breath, exhaling it through flat lips. “He’s mad at me because I applied to a bunch of different colleges. Not one of them is near here. He’s going into his junior year and I’m going into my senior year, so he thinks I’m going to leave him next summer and we’ll break up.”
“Couldn’t you guys try long distance?”
“That’s what I said, but he says long distance relationships are doomed from the start. We fought all night about all of it. He wants me to stay, wait a year for him and then make a decision together. But I don’t want to wait. I have dreams, I have things I want to do.”
She leaned her cheek down on her own knee so that our eyes were level, scrunching her nose at me with a smile.
“Being around you this summer just made me realize that I want to do the things that make me happy. I want to follow my dreams. And I think in the process of being who I am, and doing what makes me happy, I’ll find a guy who loves me for exactly who I am. A guy who makes me happy, too.”
This time my heart surged with a mixture of pride and awe. I wasn’t sure I’d ever inspired someone before, or that I’d ever thought I even had any kind of notion to inspire. But here was a young girl with her whole life ahead of her and she looked at me as an example of something she wanted to be, not something to avoid. Even though I was divorced. Even though I didn’t have a single thing figured out.
Or maybe I did.
Maybe she was right. Maybe Iwasstrong for leaving, brave for chasing my dreams. Maybe, though my life path was different than I’d ever thought it would be, and different than what the “right” path is in some peoples’ eyes, it was perfect for me. And maybe Icouldinspire others to find their own happiness, no matter what that may be.
Looking at the genuine admiration on Julie’s face, I knew that last part to be true.
“I bet you and Zeek will work it out,” I finally said. “Just give him a little time to process.”
“I hope so. I love him, Wren. I do. But I love me, too.”
I couldn’t help it, I leaned over and hugged her. There weren’t words to tell her how much her sharing this part of herself with me meant to me.
When we pulled back, a movement at the end of the drive caught my eye and I glanced over, finding Zeek there. He stood with shoulders slumped, hands in his pockets, eyes on where Julie sat beside me. I cleared my throat and nodded toward him and Julie followed my gaze.
She gave me a soft smile before hopping up and trotting down the stairs. I watched her walk to him, his eyes never leaving her, and when they reached each other, they embraced. He pulled her close, whispering in her ear, both of them nodding and Julie’s eyes glittering with unshed tears.
