Happenstance: Part Two (Happenstance #2) (5 page)

The bell rang, but I kept the phone in my lap and tapped the screen anyway.

Feeling better?

:) Hey. Yeah? Why?

Just checking. You were kinda wheezing earlier.

Nah. ;)

;)

The phone slid smoothly back into my pocket, and the exhilaration of breaking the rules came over me as Mr. Barrows began his lesson. I’d seen so many people do it before and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why they would risk getting in trouble, their phone taken away, or detention. It was clear to me in that moment why they did it, and it had nothing to do with the text message itself.

I promised myself I wouldn’t do it again, but that wasn’t the only promise I would break that day.

FRANKIE WIPED THE CHOCOLATE SYRUP
on her apron and swore, promptly covering her mouth. “Oops.”

“As long as you don’t do it with the speaker on,” I said with a wink.

“I’m feeling a little off today.”

“Nervous?”

“About what?” she asked, even though she knew exactly what I meant.

“Did you forget about your date with Mark?”

“I did, actually, thanks for reminding me,” she said, pretending to check something on top of the shelf on the wall next to the drive-through window.

“You’re such a liar.”

She gasped. “Rude!”

I giggled, and then Frankie laughed. After trying to stop laughing for a full minute, we both began to cackle. A thunderstorm had rolled through an hour before, and the rain had Main Street sparkling under the streetlights.

“I’m so glad the days are longer,” Frankie said after wiping her smeared mascara. “Gives me time to play with the kids when I get off work.”

“Does Mark know you have kids?” I asked.

“What is your obsession with Mark?” she teased. “Probably. He’s only lived here a couple of months, and I’m sure everyone at Kay Electric has given him my credit score and sexual history by now. Just kidding. Not really.”

“Didn’t Barbara send him your way?” I asked. Barbara was in billing at Kay Electric, and Frankie made her laugh every time she came through the drive-through. The weekend before, Barbara came through on her way home and told Frankie all about Mark, the new lineman from Alabama. He was cute and sweet and single, and he loved to laugh. Barbara asked Frankie if she could give him her number, and to everyone’s surprise, Frankie wrote her number on a napkin and held it out the window.

Three phone calls later, Frankie agreed to a first date. She had been dropping and spilling things and messing up orders all evening. Even Weston noticed when he visited for a few minutes after practice.

She looked at her watch. “Welp. That’s closing time, kiddo. How do I look?” She was rocking her curves in a newer pair of capri jeans and a purple plaid button-up shirt.

“Covered in chocolate, which I bet he’ll like.”

She laughed and pulled off her apron. “Thanks, Erin. Have a good dinner with your…Sam.”

“I will. I’ll have a fantastic dinner with my Sam.” I smiled. I liked the sound of that.

I could hear Sam’s Range Rover idling on the other side of the back door before I opened it. He smiled bright when our eyes met, and I waved to Frankie before climbing into the passenger seat.

“I ran off and forgot my purse again,” he joked. “Mind if we stop by the house before we grab dinner? My phone’s in it.”

“Sure,” I said.

Sam pulled onto the road, and we drove south. The first minute or two was quiet, and then Sam cleared his throat. “You can change the station if you want.”

“This is fine.”

“How was work?”

“Uneventful for the most part. Weston stopped by. Frankie has a date tonight.”

“Julianne wanted to call during the storm. I assured her you wouldn’t be too scared.” He chortled to himself, but then looked to me when I didn’t respond. “I’m sorry. Were you? Should we have called?”

“No, I like storms.”

Sam nodded, relieved. “I do too. Julianne, not so much. We got a dog once so when I wasn’t home and it was storming, Julianne had a buddy, but it wasn’t meant to be. It aggravated Sonny’s asthma.”

“You mean Weston’s?”

Sam thought about that for a moment and then conceded. “You have a point. The dander would have triggered his asthma too. Back then, though, we saw Sonny nearly every day. For a long time, Weston only came over if Peter and Veronica forced him to play with the girls.”

“Sonny had asthma?”

“You didn’t know?” Sam asked.

I shook my head.

“I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me. She denied it as much as Weston does.”

“He doesn’t talk about it much.”

“He works pretty hard to impress you. I’ve never seen him act like this.” Sam said, lost in thought for a moment before snapping back to the present. “Anyway, since Sonny was over at the house so much, we decided to get rid of…huh. I can’t even remember its name.”

We pulled up to the curb, and I waited. It didn’t occur to me that Sam hadn’t pulled into the drive until I saw Julianne standing next to another vehicle. Not her white G-Wagon, but a red BMW. With a big, white bow on top.

Sam got out and walked around to my side of the Range Rover.

“This isn’t happening,” I whispered before he opened the door.

I stepped out. Sam and Julianne were both beaming.

“We’ve missed a few birthdays and Christmases,” Sam said.

“Graduation is coming up too,” Julianne said.

I pointed to the shiny red paint. “Is this for me?”

Sam held up a small, black remote with a few silver buttons. “It’s not the same as holding up keys, but this goes to your new car. We hope you like red.”

I choked on my own spit. “Do I like—? You’re joking.”

They both shook their heads, and I did the same.

Their smiles fell away, and Julianne held out her hands, walking toward me.

“Please let us do this. I’m not even sure who came up with the idea. Both of us, I think.”

Sam nodded in agreement.

Julianne continued, her voice shaking. “And you need a car, honey. You’re eighteen, and you work hard, and…you should have a vehicle.”

Their faces and then the car began to blur. Before I could stop the tears from pouring over and spilling out, my cheeks were already wet.

Julianne’s lips trembled, and she began to cry too, quickly covering her mouth.

Sam wrapped his arms around me. “Please let us do this for you.”

“I don’t know how to even accept something like this. This just gets crazier every day, but in the best possible way. Not because of the things. It’s not the things.” The words came out funny and muffled, and I wasn’t sure if they could even understand me.

Sam put the remote in my hand and then hugged me to his side. “It’s a year old, excellent condition, and it has a nine point one safety rating. The keys are inside that remote. It’s a push-button start. I filled up the tank and checked the fluids myself. Will you drive us to dinner? I can show you what all the buttons do.”

I shook my head again. “I don’t think I should. I don’t have a lot of experience driving, and—”

“You drive Weston’s truck sometimes, don’t you?” Julianne asked.

I nodded.

“I need a ride to dinner before I starve to death.” Sam was trying to tease me as gently as he could, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

I wiped my eyes and looked to Julianne. “Have you had dinner?”

She nodded. “Go spend some time with your…”

“My Sam,” I said.

Sam liked it too.

My face fell. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. This…Thank you. Thank you so much. This is amazing. It just feels too amazing. It’s kind of scaring me a little. I feel the better things get, the worse it’s going to feel when it all goes away. Not the things. I don’t mean the things.”

Julianne held my cheeks with both hands. “You’re our daughter, and we bought our daughter a car. That’s all. It’s not wrong. It’s not to set you up for disappointment. It’s just a car.”

“It’s not just a car.” I looked back at the candy-red BMW sitting in the drive and then down at the remote in my hand. I really had a car. I could drive myself to school. To work. To college. To the grocery store. To the Laundromat, if I still had to go there. I didn’t, but I could drive there if I did. “You don’t know what this means to me. I don’t think I could explain it to you.”

“You don’t know what you mean to us,” Julianne said.

I pressed my lips together. “I’m really nervous about driving it.”

They laughed, and Julianne snapped dozens of pictures while Sam went over the basics, and then she waved as I
very
slowly backed out of the drive.

“You’re doing great,” Sam said as I pulled up on the signal lever and turned right.

“I’m going to wake up any minute,” I said, shaking my head. “This is just too wonderful to be real.”

Sam chuckled. “I’m glad you like it. It’s a relief. We were afraid you wouldn’t like it and be upset.”

I thought about what it must have been like for them to see disappointment in Alder’s eyes when they gave her a car on her sixteenth birthday. At the next stop sign, I made sure to look Sam directly in the eyes.

“You didn’t have to get me anything. The way you’ve been so accepting and understanding is more than I could ever ask for. But this is absolutely incredible. I love it. I can’t thank you enough.”

Sam’s smile stretched wide, and he settled back into his seat. “I can’t wait to tell Julianne you said that. She’ll be so happy.”

I pressed my foot on the gas, and the car that wasn’t just a car responded immediately, taking us to the restaurant.

When we arrived, it took nearly ten minutes for me to park, and then Sam instructed me how to turn off the ignition and lock up. He walked me across the parking lot and reached to open the door, but it swung open before he could.

The Mastersons stepped out, and Carolyn audibly gasped. Her platinum hair, thin and sparse from years of bleaching, was pulled loosely back into a low bun, her white, crisp collar popped up in the back and folded down in the front. When her mouth opened, her entire face shifted with it, as if the skin were so tight, it all had to move as a unit. She was nearly skeletal, but her husband, Harry, was round and breathed heavy, just from the walk from their table to the door. Unlike Carolyn, Harry couldn’t trouble himself to make any expression at all. Only his eyes moved to see whom she was reacting to.

Sam cupped my shoulders, and the air between us was immediately tense. “Hi, Harry. Carolyn.”

Carolyn collected herself and then arched one brow, looking me over like Sam had plucked me straight from the city dump and into the privilege of her presence.

“So she’s living with you now?” Carolyn asked, her voice breathy and full of disdain.

“Not now, Carolyn,” Sam said, encouraging me into the glass double doors.

Just as I took a step forward, Carolyn took a step to stand in front of the door.

“Do you have any idea what we’ve been through, Sam?” she seethed.

“I’m really not comfortable discussing this in front of Erin, Carolyn. Please,” he said, gesturing for her to step aside.

She didn’t. “I am devastated. Julianne is my best friend, and I treated Alder like a daughter. Do you know how sick and twisted this all is? I can’t even talk to Julianne about it because you have your new family now, and she doesn’t want negativity. Is she
kidding
me?”

My brow furrowed.

Harry stood there, stoic.

Sam glanced down to me and then back to her. “Julianne’s right. Our priority is Erin, and it’s not a good idea for you to be around her, considering…” He hugged me to his side. “I’m truly sorry, Carolyn. But I won’t discuss this now. We’ve all been through a lot, and now just isn’t the time.”

We went through a second set of doors and were greeted by the host. The walls were covered in bright paint and detailed murals, and the speakers played a Spanish tune just loud enough to be heard over the low murmuring of the patrons. Dozens of heads turned to see Sam and I walking down the aisle to the end booth.

Sam shifted nervously as the waiter took our drink orders and then leaned in to speak. “I’m so sorry about Carolyn. I didn’t know they would be here. They’ve been fairly private since the girls passed away.”

“Understandable.”

“Julianne and Carolyn disagree about our choices.”

“That must be very hard for Carolyn,” I said.

Sam paused, surprised at my comment, and then chuckled. “Yes, well, I’m sure it is. Julianne is usually very…amicable. Carolyn isn’t used to being ignored. As I’m sure you could sense, it’s a bit tense between us.”

“They don’t believe I’m your daughter?” I asked.

He pushed up his round glasses. “It doesn’t matter to me or to your…Julianne. We are only interested in a smooth transition for you at this point, and…Oh, Erin. I’m sorry. That sounds pretty clinical.”

“You don’t have to dumb it down for me, Sam. You’re a surgeon. I expect you to speak intelligently.”

Sam laughed once. “Well, I’m not speaking to you as your surgeon. I’m speaking to you as your Sam.”

I grinned. The term was definitely growing on me.

My phone buzzed. “It’s Weston,” I said. I read the message, silently first, and then read it aloud to Sam. “Julianne showed me pics of the car. Badass.”