Chapter 21

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

J oey stepped from airplane to the jetway, dragging her carryon behind her. It fit on top of a much larger bag she’d collect from the claim in only a few minutes. Daddy followed her at her pace, though he possessed much longer legs than she did.

Everything about her felt too slow, and Joey wasn’t even sure why. Maybe because she’d packed up everything she owned in New York City, put it in three suitcases, and had just arrived back in Wyoming.

Wasn’t the air supposed to be fresher here? Weren’t her burdens supposed to be lighter? Maybe when she got to the condo where her grandparents lived, all of those things would suddenly manifest themselves.

As it was, she and Daddy walked to the baggage claim, picked up her bags, and headed outside into the spring sunshine. She’d been home for Bryce and Codi’s wedding, of course, and she’d see a lot more of them this summer, as she’d arranged to work at her cousin’s ranch in the mornings. Feeding horses.

“Roo, this way,” Daddy said, and she automatically turned to go with him. She had no idea where he’d parked when he’d come to the city a couple of days ago, and she let him do the heavy lifting of guiding them to his truck and putting in the suitcases. All she had to do was lay her backpack in the back seat of his truck and get in the passenger seat.

She did all of that, and Daddy filled the cab with his big personality and presence. “Ready?” He didn’t look at her, because he seemed to sense that she didn’t want to have his eyes on her.

“Yep.” Her voice sounded far more chipper than she felt, and she relaxed further once Daddy got out of the parking lot and had them headed back to Coral Canyon. With the pure blue sky overhead, Joey finally felt some of herself returning to her mind and body.

“Okay,” Daddy said. “Let’s get the painful stuff out of the way on the drive there.”

Joey’s muscles immediately tensed up again. But she nodded and said, “Okay.” She drew in a deep breath. “I know some of what you’re going to ask, so I’ll just start.”

“Shoot,” Daddy said.

“First, yes, I’m going to go see Mom. It’s just not that fun anymore, and it’s like she keeps track how much time in Dog Valley I spend compared to Coral Canyon, and she like, has this tally for how many minutes I spend with Grams, and how she compares it to how long I do things with Grandma Sally.” She huffed out her breath. “It’s honestly a little easier just not to see her.”

Daddy didn’t say anything, but Joey saw the slight flex of his fingers on the steering wheel. “I didn’t know she did that.”

“I guess I never told you.” Joey watched the white-capped mountains sail by on her side of the truck. They’d soon turn and drive away from the Tetons, but she sure loved being so close to them. “But it’s not fun to go see her. She works from home, and I feel like I’m on top of her in that house.”

“You have a bedroom there, right?”

“Yes,” Joey said. “I’m going to go see her tomorrow and stay through the weekend. Then I’ll be back in Coral Canyon for a bit. Grams and I are going to work through some recipes in the afternoons. I’m helping with Gramps in the evenings, because that’s when she’s tired, and I’m doing the morning feeding for Bryce and Codi at Rising Sun.”

“That’s a lot, Roo.”

“I need to be busy, Daddy,” she said, her voice barely filling her own ears. “I think better when I’m busy, and I’m trying to get God to tell me what to do.”

“You’ve asked Him?”

“Why the tone of surprise?” Joey finally found the will and courage to look at her father. “Yes, I’ve asked Him. Many times, in fact.”

“And what’s He got to say?”

“He’s very dodgy,” she said. “He either says nothing, or He says something like, ‘Do what you’d like, Joey. I trust you.’” Familiar frustration frothed within her. “I don’t know what I’d like to do. That’s the problem. I just want someone to tell me what to do.”

“I’m sure I can call you up at least once a day and boss you around,” he said, plenty of teasing in his voice. His big, cowboy smile matched his hat, and Joey loved him so much.

He’d come before Spring Break too, just out of nowhere when she’d broken down in sobs on the phone. He’d only been there for just over twenty-four hours, but it had been enough to get her feet back on solid ground.

She’d gone ahead with her plans to live with her grandparents in Coral Canyon, and Grams had sent pictures of the bedroom Joey would have only yesterday. The curtains had been recently sewn, and Joey loved her daddy’s parents so very much. Grams loved her back without conditions, and Joey felt like she had an old soul. One that connected with older people far easier than anyone her own age.

“We got you that car,” Daddy said. “It’s at the condo already, and Gramps has the keys.”

“Thank you so much,” Joey said. “Daddy, I—you know I appreciate all you’ve done for me, right? Paying for school and my life and everything. I really do appreciate it.”

“I know you do, Roo.”

“I don’t think I’m going to go back to the Culinary Institute.”

“When’s the deadline to let them know?”

“July fifteenth,” she said.

“So six weeks,” he said.

“Yeah. ”

“There’s still time then.”

“Yeah,” she repeated, though she wasn’t sure what she needed time for. She could cook in Coral Canyon without the fancy degree from an overpriced institution. She could start her own business like Aunt Ev’s brother, or she could just find a job in town. Coral Canyon had grown a bit in recent years, and while it had slowed and leveled off, there were plenty of restaurants to choose from.

She wasn’t really sure what else she’d like to do, but as Daddy drove, Joey decided she was sick of feeling like a dandelion seed someone had blown off into the wind. She didn’t want a current to push her around anymore, and she needed to make a decision and do something.

If it didn’t work out, she’d make another one, and do something different. Eventually, she’d land on something she was supposed to do, right?

Dear Lord, that better be right.

“Living arrangements,” Daddy said. “Your mother. A job. Grams and Gramps. The car. What else?”

“You tell me,” Joey said.

Daddy shifted in his seat. “I want you to know that you are not invisible in our family.”

“Except I kind of am,” she said.

“Not to me,” he said with plenty of conviction. He made the turn onto the long highway that led straight east to Coral Canyon, and he looked at her. “Not to Georgia. Absolutely not to OJ or Anaya. We see you, and we love you, even when you’re not physically with us. In fact.” He hit the T hard, and Joey grinned at him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he grumped at her.

“You just got fired up.”

“Yes, I did,” he said. “Because I was going to say, in fact, when you’re gone, you leave an enormous hole in all of our lives, and it’s us who has to figure out how to live without you .”

Joey’s smile faded, and she hadn’t thought about any holes she might be leaving behind when she wasn’t at home. “I don’t think that’s true.”

“Well, you’re wrong,” he said bluntly. “So we’ll get you moved into Grams’ tonight, but Georgia has a big meal planned at the house. Then you can go up to Dog Valley tomorrow like you planned, start at Bryce’s, all of that.”

She nodded, and when he said all the things she had going on, it did sound like a lot.

“I just have one more thing to say,” he said.

“Shoot,” she said, mimicking him from earlier. From the things he’d said his whole life.

“Please come see us too,” he said. “Georgia has a whole box of books for you to read this summer—or however long you’re here—and we miss our princess, who used to skip around with so much life, wear only pink sparkly skirts, and stay up too late reading.”

Joey’s eyes teared up, and she quickly brushed at them. “I miss her too.”

“Maybe you could work with Georgia at the bookstore sometimes,” Daddy said. “Like you did in high school. She says sometimes she just walks around the shop, thinking of you and doing things the way you would.” He cleared his throat. “All right, that’s all I’m gonna say about it. You’re an adult, and we’ll respect whatever you decide to do. Maybe it’s easier not to see us too. I don’t know.”

“Daddy,” she said, her voice a touch on the sharp side. “Of course it’s not hard to see you guys.”

“But maybe it is.” He glanced over to her again. “I get that. Sometimes we don’t go to family stuff, because it’s just easier not to. Sometimes things hurt that we don’t understand, or they’re irritating for reasons we can’t name. We get it, I promise.”

Joey tugged on the sleeves of her sweatshirt. “Did you ever just not know what to do with your life?” she asked.

“I want to say yes,” he said. “But the truth is, no. I’ve wanted to play the guitar since I was eight years old. I’ve been writing songs since I was ten. And Uncle Tex was older than me, and when he started talking about a band, I was seventeen years old. I would’ve dropped out of high school and gone with him if I thought Gramps would let me.”

He chuckled. “He would’ve hunted me down and forced me back to the classroom.” He sighed then, and Joey allowed her smile to come to her face. “It took Georgia a while to figure out how to open a book shop,” she said. “Maybe I’ll ask her about it.”

“Talk to Bryce too,” Daddy said. “He drifted for a bit, what with college, and then moving, and working at a bar, then a training facility. All that. ”

She nodded. “I’ll talk to him about it.”

“You remind me of Uncle Mav,” Daddy said. “It takes a lot of courage to recognize that you’re not doing what you want to do, and then do something to change that.” He reached over and squeezed her hand. “I’m really proud of you, Roo.”

She didn’t know what to say, because she didn’t think she’d done much for anyone to be proud of. With that hard conversation done, Daddy turned up the radio and simply drove, leaving Joey to her thoughts.

She simply stared, the same way she had on the airplane, and before she knew it, Daddy made the turn into her grandparents’ condo complex. They had a ground unit in the corner, and Grams came outside before Daddy even had the truck in park.

Joey started to weep before she even unbuckled, because her grams had always been the epitome of someone who loved and accepted her exactly for who she was. “Grams,” she said as she jogged toward her grandmother.

“Joey-girl.” She opened her arms for Joey and received her right into her bosom. “You finally made it.”

Joey gripped her as tightly as she dared, and then she stepped back. “Thank you for letting me do this.”

“Of course. I’ve got a grocery list going too, and we can add to it before you get back from your mother’s.” She beamed at her and added, “Gramps is on his way out.”

Joey turned toward the condo and went that way, her heartbeat so full of life and love. She found Gramps inside the condo, using his cane as he walked slowly toward the door. “Gramps.”

She moved over to him and hugged him, his soothing voice in her ear finally making her feel absolutely welcome here. Maybe because he said, “Welcome home, Roo,” or maybe because while Gramps didn’t smile a whole lot, he loved hard and that meant more than anything else.

“Now, Grams says you’re going to do everything I say without arguing.” Joey pulled back and smiled at her grandfather. “Is that true?”

He scoffed, a familiar flash of attitude firing across his expression. “I suppose,” he said.

“You’re walking good with the cane.” She grinned at him. “And don’t tell Grams, but I’m gonna make sure you eat really well this summer.”

Gramps smiled at her, and oh, that was worth the world. Joey giggled, glad she felt well enough, happy enough, to be able to do so. “I won’t say a word to her.”

Daddy came barreling through the door then, two of Joey’s big suitcases with him. “Daddy,” he bellowed as if Gramps had had surgery on his ears and not his abdomen. “You’re lookin’ good.”

Joey knew for a fact that Daddy saw his father several times a week, but they still embraced, and as Grams came back inside the condo too with Joey’s smaller bag, she suddenly had a flash of what life must’ve been like for her grandparents before all of their sons had started returning to town.

She couldn’t even imagine them here alone, but they had been. Only Uncle Gabe had lived within an hour of Coral Canyon, and Joey swore she saw the hand of God in that moment, standing in the small kitchen of a condominium in a fifty-five-plus community.

For God had brought back all of Grams’s sons. And He’d given them all new wives, and they’d all built their families right here, where Grams and Gramps could see them, love on them, and enjoy them.

What a blessing , she thought as she took her bag from Grams and let her lead the way down the hall as if the bedroom would be hard to find. “I made up the bed,” Grams said. “Abby brought new curtains. Your momma brought over your favorite pillows.”

Joey stopped in the doorway and took in the room. The walls boasted white paint, but the curtains shouted with pink-and-white clouds. The bedspread boasted more pink, with a giant rainbow stretched across the middle of it.

Joy burst through Joey, especially when she took in the furry pink pillows—which were her favorite—and the billowy, pink netting that came down from the ceiling. “I love this,” she whispered. “Thank you, Grams.”

“Georgia came to do it,” Grams said. “She, Dani, and Abby mostly put the room together. I just gave them the canvas.”

Joey turned into her grandmother and hugged her. “I will thank them.”

“We love you so much.” Grams hugged her and then Daddy came wheeling the bags into the room.

“You’re standing in the doorway, Roo. Move it or lose it.” He kept on coming, and Joey got out of the way before he ran her over with her own suitcases.

“Look at my room, Daddy.” Joey gestured to it like she’d put it together herself. “Isn’t it amazing?”

Daddy pushed her suitcases against the wall opposite the bed and turned in a full circle, taking everything in. “Well, this looks just like you, Roo.” He grinned and slung his arm around her shoulders. “Feel good?”

“It feels great,” Joey said. “Yeah, it sure does feel good to be here. To be back in Coral Canyon.” She looked up at him, a lot of lines connecting into a picture of her future.

“To be home.”