Page 6 of Heart Set on You

There was never a question about who we would live with from that day forward. The farm became our new home, our grandparents became our legal guardians. Looking back, I wouldn’t wish that first year on my worst enemy, but in time we made it through to the other side.

In the years since, many memories of the time before the accident have faded, others lost forever. But some remain imprinted so clearly in my mind that they feel like yesterday. I’ll never forget how Mama looked when she worked in her garden. Wearing her favorite faded yellow sundress and a wide-brimmed hat to protect her fair skin from the sun, her feet bare, toes dusty. Or when Daddy came home from work in the evenings, going straight to the kitchen, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. If I close my eyes, I can still taste the Herbes de Provence, her secret ingredient in her chicken pot pies.

Now, sitting in a Vancouver hotel, that heart-shattering day that changed my world forever feels like a lifetime ago.

I giggle as Gran fills me in on the latest gossip from back home. Deer Lake may have a population of 7,300, but it is home to more than its share of small-town drama.

“You wouldn’t believe the way Linda Baker treated my friend Marcy when she went to the Sunny Side Up for lunch last week,” she tells me, dishing on the owner of Deer Lake’s busiest diner. She sighs. “Bless her heart. But Linda wouldn’t know southern hospitality if it fell out of the sky, landed on her face and started to wiggle.”

“Never a dull moment,” I laugh. “I miss you guys. So much.”

“Rylee.” She looks at me with her you-better-quit-that face. “Don’t you be worrying about us.”

“I never said I was,” I say, knowing that Gran can see right through me. Sometimes she knows me better than I know myself.

“You think I can’t tell when my only grand-baby girl is worrying? What’s the worst that could happen here? We’re just fine.”

“If you ever need me, I can always leave here early,” I insist. I’m supposed to be in Vancouver for 8 more weeks, until the film is scheduled to wrap, but I find myself worrying about them a little more every day. “Anyone could do my job here-“

“Rylee-Jay.” Gramps stops me. “Don’t you sell yourself short. You would be absolutely irreplaceable and I’m not just saying that because I’ve loved you all your life.”

I fight the urge to get all weepy. He’s definitely biased, but it still feels good to have someone believe in me.

Gran chimes in, always wanting to have the last word. She leans in closer, her neatly coiffed gray hair filling the screen. “We have lived our life, now it’s your turn. We will not be the reason you don’t live out your dreams. This world needs you.”

My Gran was the one who told me to leave Deer Lake. She took my hand in hers, her grip strong and her voice full of love, and said I needed to find my place in the world. It’s what my parents would have wanted and there was no way she was going to hold me back. That was four years ago.

My best friend Meg had moved to Los Angeles to be closer to her dad shortly after we graduated high school. Her parents had divorced when we were kids and her dad moved to West Hollywood for a job in the film industry. As soon as Meg arrived, he put her up in a two-bedroom condo, all expenses paid, while she was going to film school. She had been begging me to come live with her and after that talk with Gran the time finally felt right. I left for the west coast, moved in with Meg and started film school a month later. It wasn’t something I ever saw myself doing, but I needed a change, and it sounded interesting at the time.

“I know,” I say quietly, shifting my gaze to the window of my hotel room. The sky is dark, the streetlights flickering through the sheer curtain. I drop my head, feeling the familiar push-and-pull on my heart at the thought of my grandparents needing me and me not being there. It’s a guilt that has panged in my chest every day since I left Deer Lake and seems to only grow stronger the older they get.

“You know that I worry about you two,” I tell her. “I just hate that you are at the farm all by yourselves.”

“We aren’t alone, sweetheart. We have Cole and Cara.”

“But they don’t live with you. What if something happens and you need me and I’m so far away?”

My oldest brother Cole lives three miles from my grandparents with his wife Cara and their three small children. They’d gotten married straight out of high school, Cole taking a job at the largest automotive garage in town. Five years later, he’s still there except now he owns it. The day I left Deer Lake, the responsibility of taking care of our grandparents fell straight onto Cole and Cara’s shoulders. I’m grateful they took that on, but I know they could use a break. They have three little kids and a business to run, and our grandparents need more help than they used to. My other brother Walker feels the same way I do, and wishes he was around more to help. He calls whenever he can, but that isn’t often seeing as he’s in the military and living overseas.

I can’t ignore the fact that my grandparents are getting older. At 76, they are starting to slow down, and my gran is becoming more forgetful. I’ve noticed it in our conversations, and my sister-in-law has filled me in on a few incidents as well. Cole won’t dare tell me because he's afraid I’d jump on the first flight home. And he’s right.

I’ve already decided that this will be my last film. I have to listen to my heart. I need to go home and take care of the people who took care of me when I needed them most.

“You have nothing to worry about. So shush, sweetheart, and tell us more about that hunk of a man you’re working with.”

“I’m not working with him, Gran. He’s the star. I’m just the one running around set like one of those chickens in your yard.”

At the mention of Miles, my mind drifts immediately to our run-in today. There’s no doubt he is the sexiest man I have ever seen, with those long, dark lashes and chiseled features. He looks like every one of my fantasies come true – he even smells delicious. That’s not what stood out the most though. It was the way he looked at me, like he wanted to know me. Me. Like somehow, he cared about the no-name PA who was getting an earful from his co-star. Violet Michelson can be a lot to handle, but there’s no denying that she is drop-dead gorgeous and totally glamorous – in other words, she’s everything I am not.

“With a face like yours, you should be the one starring opposite him if that director you work for had half a brain,” my gramps says, interrupting my thought spiral.

“Thanks, Gramps,” I say with a smile. “You’re sweet, but there’s one big problem with that idea.”

“What’s that, sweetheart?”

“I don’t know how to act,” I tell him, and they both laugh. They’re the cutest.

A few minutes later, I yawn, nestling my head into the pillow. My gran notices and tells me to get my beauty sleep, so I look my best for “that handsome movie star” tomorrow. I shake my head at them. They never let up on me finding my soulmate and giving them great grand-babies. But a man like Miles Bennett falling for a small-town, country girl like me? Bless their hearts, as Gran would say.

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