Page 78 of Deck the Hauls

Dana sounded genuine enough. Staying with her would save money and make life a lot easier since I didn’t have my rental car anymore.

I smiled. “Well, if that’s fine with you, I’d like that. I can take the couch.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

DANA

After crawling through traffic for an hour on the Gowanus Expressway, we decided to grab a coffee in Dumbo and wait for the roads to quiet down.

“I really didn’t think the traffic would be that bad given the holiday,” I said as we exited a trendy café in a converted warehouse, coffees in hand, and walked down the cobblestone lane toward Manhattan Bridge. My legs had stiffened more during the drive and walking over the uneven cobblestones sent pains shooting up them. But the fresh air and the iconic view of the bridge, framed by tall red-bricked buildings, was worth it.

We stepped out between the buildings and walked through the small park to the river, where a stunning view of the two bridges and the Manhattan skyline greeted us. The last time I’d visited the city had been with Kelsey, four years ago. We’d seen Hamilton, walked around Central Park and gone to the Met. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“Do you want to sit here?” Emily gestured at a stone step.

I nodded. “My legs would love that.”

As we sipped our coffees, we watched two small kids throwing pebbles into the river, laughing.

“My brother and I used to spend hours trying to do that at the river at our farm,” I said, watching as the kids’ dad demonstrated how to skip a rock across the water. “I never did get the hang of it.”

What was Jake doing right now? It would be back to a normal day on the farm for him and my parents. Bedding down the loafing sheds, unrolling hay bales to feed the cattle, fixing the tractor heaters. Business as usual. With Kelsey.

Huh. The thought of them together, the memory of Kelsey and me exploring Manhattan together, ached a little less than usual.

“So you were close growing up?” Emily asked, hugging her coffee cup to her chest.

The kids were throwing handfuls of pebbles into the water now, having given up any attempt to skip stones.

“Sorry. It's totally fine if you don’t want to talk about him,” Emily added.

I’d never told anyone about Jake and Kelsey, except for my parents on the day it happened. Since it seemed to be getting easier to think about them, perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to talk about them? Talking it through might help.

“We were pretty much inseparable. Living on a farm is more isolating than city life. You can’t just walk to your friend’s house to hang out, so we spent a lot of time together. We’re only eighteen months apart and had similar interests too. We’d spend the summers climbing trees and playing in the river and on the sketchy tennis court Dad made Mom for her birthday—he’d made it smaller than a standard court to avoid cutting down any of the surrounding trees. It was perfect for us kids.”

“That sounds delightful,” Emily said as a blue-and-white ferry appeared from under the Brooklyn Bridge.

I smiled. “It really was an idyllic childhood. After school, we worked on our parents’ farm. We’d planned to both build houses on the property so we could live and work there and take over the farm together when our parents retired.”

I took a sip of coffee, watching as the boy nearly slipped off the rock, his sister grabbing his arm to steady him just in time.

“So what happened to change all of that?” Emily asked.

I swallowed. “A few years ago, I had a girlfriend, Kelsey. We’d been together for five years. We lived together, talked about our future together. We spent a lot of time with my family together.”

My fingers traced the side of my coffee cup. It felt so strange talking about Kelsey out aloud.

“Three years ago, we had Christmas dinner with my family. Kelsey had seemed a little withdrawn for a couple of months. I’d tried to talk to her about it, but she brushed it off. I thought perhaps it was because she was struggling with losing Bowie the Christmas before…” I let out a breath. “After dinner, we settled down to watch the football game, but then Kelsey went to take a nap in my old room. And then Jake took off for a nap as well.”

Emily’s eyes widened. Did she have a hunch where this was going?

“The game was a blowout, so I went to change so I could help Dad in the barn. I walked up the stairs and heard Kelsey and Jake talking in his room. I didn’t catch exactly what they said, but I heard Jake say, ‘We need to talk to Dana.’ I walked in, asked them what was going on, and it all came out. They’d almost kissed. And it wasn’t the first time either. There’d been attraction bubbling under the surface between them for well over a year. They’d tried to ignore it, but it had been getting stronger.”

“Oh god! I am so sorry,” Emily said. “What did you do?”

“I stormed out of the house and down to the river, trying to process it all. Kelsey found me there a while later. She was a mess. She said she had feelings for us both, and she didn’t know what to do.”

Emily whistled under her breath. “What did you say?”