Page 30 of Mine For The Winter

“Oh my God, look at you here,” Everley said, picking up a photograph. “I’d forgotten how long you’d grown your hair after you shaved it off. Man, it was pretty.”

“Is that my dad next to you?” Cole asked.

“Yeah.” Kris nodded. “I think it was taken at prom.”

“And that’s my mom?” The jersey was momentarily forgotten. He was staring at the picture of the three of them, standing together, laughing. Kris and Lyle in their tuxedos, Kelly in a dress she’d made by hand because money was tight and it didn’t extend to buying prom gowns back then.

“Can I have this, too?” Cole asked, his voice soft.

Kris and Everley exchanged glances. “The glass is broken,” Everley said. “Why don’t I fix it and then see if it’s okay?”

See if it was okay with Kelly.Kris should have probably asked her before agreeing to give Cole the jersey, after all.

He blew out a mouthful of air, making the dust dance in front of him. “That’s a good idea,” Kris said gruffly. “Take the jersey now, and we’ll see about the photograph.”

“Were you and my dad best friends?” Cole asked.

“Something like that.” Kris lifted the next box, and luckily this one stayed intact. It had ‘trophies’ written on it. So his grandmother had gone to his parents’ house to box everything up and bring them here.

He had no idea why that made him feel so emotional. Guilty, too, that she’d loved him so much to keep his stuff when he’d left town without a backward glance.

Just like Everley had said, his toolbox was at the bottom, making him think that his nosey cousin had probably rifled through these boxes herself. That made him feel calmer. She never meant any harm.

She just liked knowing everything that was going on.

Cole’s phone beeped. He pulled it out of his pocket. “My friends are here.” He looked at Kris again, still clutching that jersey. God only knew what Kelly would think when he came home with that.

“Tell your mom I gave it to you,” Kris told him. “If she asks.”

“Okay.” Cole nodded. Then a moment later he spoke again. “Can you come watch me play hockey next week? It’s a big game and nobody else can come.”

Everley bumped her shoulder against his arm.

He wanted to. He hated that Cole had nobody there to support him. Hated that Kelly wanted to be there but couldn’t because she had to keep the tavern open.

“Ask your mom,” Kris told him. “If it’s okay with her, it’s okay with me.”

“Thank you!” For a moment it looked as though Cole was going to hug him. But then he rolled his shoulders, as though remembering he was way too cool for that. “Gotta go. Laters.”

He ran for the stairs and Kris yelled after him to wait, because he couldn’t let him wander around alone. He’d at least make sure he met his friends and was safe.

“Somebody has a little hero crush on you,” Everley whispered in his ear.

Yeah. That’s what he was afraid of. And maybe what he wanted, too.

9

KRIS – AGED 17

Lyle was smoking again. He’d started last year, but Kelly had reamed him out about it, so he’d stopped for a while. But he’d started again and gotten more stealthy about it, but not stealthy enough because coach had caught him and thrown him off the team.

Kelly didn’t know about that yet. She would have already reamed Lyle out if she did. Of the three of them, she was the one with her brain screwed on.

Sensible. Grown up. Pretty as hell. That’s what she was like. She’d spent most of this year studying like crazy to try to get her grades up because she’d selected the courses she wanted to take at Marshall Gap Community College next year.

So the two of them had started studying together, while Lyle hung out with some older guys he knew who already worked at Walker Woods.

But Lyle was here, now, as they stood outside the Winterville Inn, on Kris’ break from working in the kitchen. Lyle wasn’t working yet, said he was enjoying his last bit of freedom before he became a full time employee at Walker’s.

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