17
Travis
I got to my dad’s… my house by about 8:30 so I would have some time to look around before Danny arrived. I walked around the outside, surveying the house a little closer than I had the first time I was here with Abby. The outside definitely needed some work. The gutters needed to be replaced, the porch needed some boards replaced and a new paint job, and the outside of the house looked like it could use some fresh paint as well. The yard was a decent size since it was a corner lot, and there was plenty of mowing that needed to be done, something I didn’t know how I would feel up to with my leg.
It’s funny how things could change in life so quickly. Before that last fire call, everything was going smoothly, I was in perfect health, and might have even thought of myself as a pretty rough and tumble guy. I wasn’t scared of anything, never hesitated to make a move, and made decisions easily. Ever since that fire, the events and the injury, I didn’t feel the same. I second-guessed myself with nearly everything, from what groceries to buy to how to deal with Abby to even figuring out if I should back here to Canon for all this. Even when I first got back to town, I didn’t know what direction anything was taking, but somehow, after seeing Sophie last night, it feels like things are starting to fall back into place.
I sat down on the front steps as I waited for Danny to arrive. The steps creaked underneath me as I sat and I took a look around the area. It was peaceful, and the few people that were walking the sidewalk all said hello, waved or nodded, even if they didn’t know who I was. Maybe this was the kind of life I was ready for, and the kind of life Abby needed now.
I looked up, staring out into the street, and saw Danny’s truck go flying by the house in the direction towards Sophie’s place just down the street. I wondered if maybe he forgot where the house was, but just a minute later, here he was, coming back from the other direction, and he pulled into the driveway right behind my car.
Danny hopped out of the car and stretched as he slowly walked over to me. I couldn’t help but notice that it looked like he was wearing the same outfit he wore last night.
“Morning, Travis,” he said to me as he came up to me sitting on the steps.
“Hey Danny,” I said to him, covering up my eyes a bit as I squinted at him as he stood in the sunlight. “ I thought maybe you forgot where the house was. I saw you go by here and then come back around.”
“Oh, that,” he said, grinning at me. “No, I remember where the house was. I just had to drop Mary off at Sophie’s.” Danny reached up and tugged at his cap a bit.
“Really,” I said trying not to sound as surprised as I was.
“Don’t get the wrong idea, Travis,” he said to me defensively. “I would never take advantage of a situation like that. I drove her home, and helped her into the house and was getting ready to go when she looked like she needed someone watching her. I helped her upstairs and made myself comfortable on the couch downstairs, like a gentleman. When I woke up in the morning, she was there standing next to the couch, barely dressed and smiling at me, saying she wanted to thank her hero for getting her home.” Danny smiled a shy smile. “ She’s a heck of a woman,” he said. “Anyway, how’d things go with you and Sophie?” he asked me.
“Oh, I just walked her home. We talked a little bit, but not much. I’m going to her place for dinner tonight though,” I said proudly.
“Wow, good for you Travis.” Danny sounded genuinely surprised. “I’m sorry if that sounded wrong,” he said apologetically. “Sophie just doesn’t have the reputation of dating much around here, so she must really want to see you if she’s going out with you, nevermind inviting you over for dinner.”
“I guess so,” I said to him not knowing what else to say.
“So, let’s take a look at the house,” Danny said, slapping his hands together.
We walked around the exterior of the house for a bit, and Danny took a close look at everything; from the siding to the window frames and more. He even crawled under the porch in the front and the back to check the foundation.
“Well, it needs some help outside,” he said to me as he wiped the dust off himself after getting out from under the front porch. “The foundation is sound, so that’s good. You’ll have to replace the gutters for sure, and I can’t tell you about the roof until I get up there to look at it. That one window on the far side looks like it should be replaced so you may want to do them all at once to save yourself a headache. It definitely needs some new paint too, and you probably want to replace the front porch.”
“Anything else?,” I asked. It sounded like a lot of work to me.
“We still need to looking inside,” Danny told me as he walked up to the front door. I walked over and unlocked the door, and we stepped inside. It was still hard to believe just how immaculate the place looked inside. Danny checked the wood floors as he made his way across the living room towards the kitchen. He checked the walls, the appliances, and the cabinets, and was impressed by what he found.
“So far everything looks pretty good,” he said to me. “Some of this stuff is practically new, maybe less than a year old, so you’re in good shape there.”
I was relieved to hear that much as Danny made his way around the kitchen and through the doorway back into the hall. He went up the stairs to check the bedrooms up there, and I followed close behind him. He looked at both bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs, paying special attention to the smaller bedroom.
“This is all new in here Travis,” He said to me.
“You mean the paint?” I asked him.
“Not just the paint, but the walls are new too. Someone put up all new sheetrock, probably new wiring too. And the flooring in here is new, too. They did nice work,” Danny noted.
“I wonder who did it,” I commented as we walked back down towards the stairs.
“I wish I knew,’ Danny told me. “They’re either good competition or someone I should hire,” he said as we went down the stairs. He checked the bathroom in the hallway, and then came out.
“I have to tell you, Travis, the inside of this house is fantastic. I didn’t see one thing I would change,” he told me. “That will save you a bundle on the work to do. You thinking of fixing the place up and selling, or are you going to live here?”
I paused when he asked me that question.
“I haven’t decided yet,” I answered honestly.
“Well, I know houses don’t sell for the high prices here like they do in other areas, but if we fix up the outside of this place, you could get good money if you wanted to sell. I don’t think it would take long either,” Danny said as he took his cap off and scratched his head.
“Of course,” he then added, “it’s the perfect place for just two people to live, or maybe three,” he said as he grinned at me.
“Let’s not get too far ahead of things Danny,” I told him. “Sophie and I haven’t seen each other in a long time, and… well, there’s a lot of history to get passed still.”
“I get it,” Danny said to me. “ Just seems like maybe it’s fate to me. You come all this way, maybe looking for a new place to start, here’s this house just waiting for you, and the girl you want in your life is here after all these years, lives down the street, and wants to see you? It doesn’t get more perfect than that if you ask me.”
“I guess we’ll see how it goes,” I said as I slapped him on the back and started walking towards the door. Danny followed me out onto the front porch as I turned and locked the door.
“No one locks doors in Canon, Travis,” Danny said with a smile.
“Force of habit,” I said to him as I turned the lock. “So can you get me an estimate for the work?” I asked him as we went down the creaky porch steps.
“Sure, I’ll work something up for you. I can drop it off at your Mom’s later today or tomorrow, and then if it works for you, maybe we can pick a day next week to start working. You should call Carl Peterson if you want someone to clean up this lawn for you. He can get his crew over here and make it all look nice,” Danny said to me. We had reached his truck, and he opened the door and reached in and grabbed his leather case. He pulled out a card and handed it to me with Carl Peterson’s number on it.
“Thanks, Danny,” I said to him. “Thanks for everything.”
“Glad I could help,” he said as he got in his truck and started it up. “I’ll get you that estimate. Enjoy your date tonight,” Danny winked at me as he backed out of the driveway.
I took a quick look down at my watch and saw that it was only 10:30. I still had plenty of time before the date and figured I could get over to Mom’s house and maybe catch a nap before I started getting ready.
I was back at Mom’s house in no time at all and walked in. I called out to Mom and Abby, but they must have already left to go to the restaurant for the day.
I’m surprised Mom could get Abby out of bed, I thought to myself.
I slowly made my way up the stairs, feeling a twinge in my leg as I got to the top of the stairs. I had done more walking in the last two days than I had done since they had me doing physical therapy, and I was feeling it. I kicked my boots off and laid back on the bed, letting out a deep sigh. I closed my eyes, feeling the faint breeze in the room coming from the window. It was still a little early before it would get too hot outside, and the breeze felt good.
I tried to put all the thoughts out of my head so I could get some rest, but it seemed like every time I started to drift off, something would pop back in to catch my attention. Whether it was worrying about Abby, Mom, my job, our future, the house, Dad’s secret life, or Sophie, there was always something there.
Eventually, my exhaustion got the better of me. I was dreaming, a good dream for a change. Sophie and I were together in Dad’s, now my, house, sitting on the couch together, while Abby was on the floor with her headphones on, her head in a book. The three of us were there, happy… more so than I had been in a very long time. I slid my arm around Sophie and pulled her close to me, kissing her deeply, feeling her lips pressing softly against mine. We slowly broke the kiss, and I could see her smiling at me, telling me she loved me.
The dream seemed to just go on casually, with not much happening, as we moved through the house, having dinner, getting Abby off to bed, and then finally going to bed ourselves. I could see myself taking hold of her and making love to her like I had always wanted to but never got the chance to. She was so responsive and reciprocal with her moves and motions, and the whole experience was amazing. The passion was there, it was intense, and it felt so real that when I was jolted awake by the sound of a text message coming to my cell phone that I couldn’t believe my bad luck for not getting to see it all through.
I glanced over at my phone and saw it was 4:30. The text message was from Abby:
“Have a good time on your date while I slave away working, LOL. Love you.”
Even though we had been here for just a short time, Abby seemed much more relaxed and happier, and she was even talking to me more than she had in weeks.
Maybe this is the place for her, I thought.
I sat up in bed, feeling sweat on my body as the day had gotten warmer while I slept. I walked down to the bathroom to take a shower to start getting myself ready. I cleaned myself up quickly in the shower and glanced at myself in the mirror. I had a little more stubble today, but I liked the idea of not having to shave every day like I did when I was in the department. It made me feel a little more badass than I had been lately, so I decided to leave it. I splashed on a little cologne for good measure and walked back down the hall to get dressed.
I hadn’t brought any fancy clothes with me for this trip, and it’s not like I had that much you would consider fancy outside of the one suit I owned. Anyway, I didn’t think I had any need for anything fancy, let alone that I would be going out on a date, so it was going to be jeans, a white button-down shirt, and my boots, and that was going to have to do.
It was about 5:15 and I was ready to go. I decided maybe it would be a good idea to pick up a bottle of wine, so I headed over to the one liquor store in town and picked up a bottle of pinot noir to bring along. I didn’t know much about wine, but the lady in the liquor store seemed to think this was a good choice, so I went with it. As I walked out of the liquor store and was walking back towards my car, I passed Rainbow Bouquet, the local flower shop. I decided to head in and see if I could get some flowers for Sophie.
I walked into the small shop, the bells on the door jingling as I entered. I was hit with the sweet mix of floral smells as I made my way up towards the counter, where the woman behind the counter was putting together a bouquet for an older gentleman. The older man turned to look at me as I came up behind them, and he did a double take.
“Travis?” he asked, like he was greeting an old friend.
I had a little trouble placing who he was as he faced me.
“Yes?” I replied.
“I’m Fred Perkins, I own the dry cleaners down the street from your Mom’s place,” he said to me as he held out his hand for me to shake.
I took his hand and shook it, vaguely remembering the place since it was where my Mom always brought the uniforms for the restaurant.
“How are you Mr. Perkins,” I said politely. “ I apologize, I didn’t recognize you. I haven’t… I haven’t been around much lately.”
“Oh don’t worry about it Travis,” he said to me as I released his hand. “ And call me Fred; you’re a grown man now. It’s nice to see you back in town. I’m sure it makes your mother very happy.”
“Yes, I think it does,” I replied as the woman coughed politely to get Mr. Perkins attention. She handed him the nicely wrapped bouquet of a mix of red roses and lilies.
“Nice arrangement,” I said to him, pointing at the flowers.
A blush came across his cheeks. “Oh, these. Yes, well, hopefully, it will make her happy. You have a nice night, Travis.” He said as he smiled and started to walk away.
“You too, Fred,” I smiled and turned to the woman at the corner.
“He comes in every week and gets the same arrangement every Saturday,” she said as she watched him walk out the door. “It’s very sweet.”
“Yes, it is,” I said, thinking that it is nice that he does that.
“What can I help you with these evening?” she asked me as she cleared the counter off.
“Well… I have a date tonight, with someone special, and I wanted to get her some nice flowers,” I said feeling a little embarrassed.
“It’s nice to see some young men still think it’s important to make a lady feel special,” she said with a big smile. “Did you have anything in mind?”
“I know she likes daisies,” I said to her.
At least she used to like daisies, I thought, hoping she still did.
“Okay,” the woman said to me. I have some nice white daisies. How about if I mix in some pink roses and make a bouquet for you?”
“That sounds perfect, please,” I responded.
She went over to her refrigerated case and got the daisies and pink roses out.
“Are six roses okay?” she asked me.
“I guess that’s fine,” I told her, not knowing what seemed right or not. I watched as she expertly arranged and cut the flowers, so they created a beautiful bouquet. She then wrapped the flowers in white floral paper and handed them to me.
“They look fantastic,” I complimented her. I paid for the flowers and wished her good evening.
“Enjoy your date,” she commented as I walked out.
It seems like everyone is wishing me a good date tonight.
I made my way to my car, placed the bottle of wine and the flowers on the front seat next to me, and looked down at my watch. It was 5:45, so I guessed it was time to head over to Sophie’s.
Better get going now, so I don’t get stuck in traffic,” I said to myself with a laugh. I could already see some of the shops closing up for the night, and there were hardly any people on the streets, even though the sun was still shining brightly on the late August day.
I slowly drove over towards Sophie’s place, passing my house on Collins as I went. I pulled up in front of her house and turned my car off. I got out and walked around to the passenger’s side and opened the car door to take out the bottle of wine and the flowers. I closed the car door and looked up at Sophie’s house. I could see the front door was open and could faintly hear some music playing, coming through the screen door and down the walkway.
I made my way up the walkway, and the front porch steps, hearing my boots scuffle on the boards beneath my feet. I knocked lightly on the screen door and waited for Sophie to reply.
Here we go.