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The hostess probably pins up fifty tickets, and the stack doesn’t seem to dwindle in the least. Since everyone inside the restaurant is busy eating or visiting, I think I’m the only one who saw it.
Seven just bought all of those meals and acted like it was no big deal.
I have to admit, with everything Seven is doing to help out, I’m feeling like his worthless counterpart.
A family of five stands up and vacates a table near me. With only four waiting staff, a single busboy, and one hostess in this restaurant, I see my opening to jump in and help.
Seven
My phone dings with an incoming text just as I finish fixing the generator and get it back up and running. It had some old gasoline and needed a new spark plug, and now it’s humming along.
Cammy: My flight is showing online that it's still departing tomorrow. Is it still ok if I come?
Seven: We don't have power right now but the generator is running and the house is still standing.
Cammy: Who needs electricity anyway? Hugely overrated.
Cammy: Please tell me that the boat survived.
It figures that Cammy cares more about the boat than electricity or running water. When she comes to visit, I can barely keep her off the damn thing. She'd go out fishing on the boat everyday if I let her.
She likes the peace and quiet of being out on the ocean as much as I do. It’s something that we have in common.
Seven: The boat survived out in the bay. I'll ask them to pull the anchor and bring it back to the marina tomorrow. The water is still a little rough right now. We should give it another day before we go out.
Cammy: Your sense of adventure is astoundingly underwhelming. Are you sure we're related?
Sarcasm… yet another thing we have in common.
Seven: Looking forward to it kiddo. Let me know if your flight is delayed; otherwise, I'll be at the airport at three to pick you up.
Cammy: Can't wait. See you soon!
I check the time on my phone before pushing it back into my pocket.
It’s been a little over an hour since I left Brynn in the restaurant to come out and see what I could do.
I’m not a mechanic, but I learned how to do a few things growing up with a dad who owns a farm equipment sales and mechanic shop in Minnesota.
My dad is one of the handiest people I’ve ever met. He can fix anything, and my mom is one of the hardest working. He handled the mechanic shop while my mom managed the office and the equipment salesman on the other side of the shop.
I heard they finally sold the business to retire last year, but that’s just the information I got from Cammy since I haven’t talked to my dad since I came home one Christmas during my rookie year to find out that Josslin still wanted to marry a Wrenley brother… just not me.
My older brother Eli came home on an honorary discharge from the Marines after suffering from an incident overseas that caused him to almost lose a leg. His battalion lost two men that day, one of whom had been my brother’s best friend since elementary school.
When my fiancé decided to make a brother swap, Eli was facing a long road of recovery and crippling PTSD, so naturally, my family rallied around him, and that was my plan, too. Right up until he decided that Josslin was part of his recovery plan.
My parents begged me to let it go.
“He needs Josslin more than you do right now,” my mother pleaded.
“I’m not happy about how they handled this son, but the most important thing we can do is focus on Eli’s recovery. He’s lost so much already, and your life is just getting started. You’ll find someone else,” my dad tried to reason.
I guess I’m the asshole for not understanding how sleeping with my fiancé behind my back, in the house I bought her for our future together, was his only solution for recovery.
I left on Christmas morning, and I’ve never been back.
My mom calls every couple of months, though I don’t take her calls except on her birthday once a year. Some habits are hard to break, and as much as I resent my family for taking my brother’s side, my dad raised me with a strong sense of honoring the woman who gave me life, so she gets her token call on her birthday.
