I almost said I would come there, but I knew he didn’t need me as a distraction. He’d have asked if he wanted me there. “It’s okay. I already figured you were busy.” That was the best reassurance I could manage. I wanted to cry in my coffee and feel sorry for myself.
“I promise soon I will get up there. I miss you,” he told me and I could hear the sincerity in his voice. This wasn’t easy on him either.
“I miss you too,” I told him.
“Talk soon, I love you,” he said.
“I love you,” I replied and then he hung up.
I pressed end and sat my phone back on the table then reached for my coffee. I had expected this, but it hurt nonetheless. Not only that but he hadn’t asked me one thing about my job or life here. He was always short on time and I never got to tell him anything anymore. We used to talk about everything.
Tears filled my eyes and I let them fall. I needed a good cry and it wasn’t hurting anyone for me to cry alone in my house. I missed Griff. I missed Gran. I missed having someone to tell things to. Griff wasn’t just my boyfriend but my only friend. I didn’t have many friends in Nashville, simply because I learned at a young age that no one wanted to be my friend. They wanted to be near me so they could be near my dad. To say they met someone famous. Even worse to slip him a CD of them singing or a song they wrote. I had stopped having friends a long time ago. When I had met Griff, he hadn’t even known who Denver Copeland was and I had loved him for that.
Tomorrow I would get up and go grocery shopping and maybe go shop for Christmas decorations but right now, I was going to sit home and sulk. It was warm inside and I knew outside it was still freezing. Besides I was good at being alone. I’d been alone most of my life.
Cleaning house and unpacking the rest of my boxes had only been enough to keep me busy until lunch. I was now done with my egg and avocado sandwich. I had nothing to do. I stood in the kitchen, looking out the window at the people out in their yards. You would think it wasn’t overcast and forty degrees. These folks had thick skin.
Deciding I needed to get out, I went to grab my fur-lined boots and then my heavy coat. At least I could go for a walk. I needed some exercise. I also needed to acclimate to this climate. Staying inside bundled up wasn’t going to help with that. I was almost to my mail box at the end of the drive when a red truck slowed down in front of the house. It came to a complete stop and the driver side window rolled down.
“I thought Fleur was full of shit but damn if you don’t look good, Sailor Copeland,” Derek Young said, looking older but still handsome.
“Hello, Derek,” I said smiling up at him. “It’s good to see you.”
“Creed’s already taking you out I see. Didn’t take him long,” Derek replied.
I paused not sure how to respond to that.
“No it doesn’t,” Creed replied, and I spun around to see him walking across my yard heading our way.
Derek chuckled. “Like old times. Almost,” he said and shook his head.
I felt like I should clarify that it was not like old times. Creed wasn’t the love of my life and I had a boyfriend. I wasn’t sure how to phrase that exactly and I didn’t have to because Derek nodded his head at me. “See you around, Sailor.” Then he rolled up his window and pulled back onto the road.
I turned back to Creed who was now standing beside me. “He thinks we’re dating,” I told him.
Creed shrugged. “Good.”
`I frowned at him. “Good?”
He gave me a crooked grin. “Old habits die hard.”
I wanted to be mad at him, but instead, I laughed. Today had been a crummy one so far and seeing Creed made it better. I wouldn’t dig too deeply into that.
“Want to come see the place? I’ve had some remodeling done. Just started moving in today,” he told me, nodding toward the house next door. His house. The Sullivan house. The last place I saw Cora alive. I wasn’t sure I could go inside that house.
“Okay,” I said instead. He was moving into that house again. He had good memories there and I understood that. I had good memories there too. Most of them had Cora in them. I wasn’t sure I was prepared to face that after all this time. However, I wasn’t going to tell him that. It seemed too difficult to express. We weren’t close anymore. I didn’t feel safe sharing my feelings to him as I once had. Especially when it was about Cora.