“I’m sure you’re special to someone. Like your family.” I glanced at him as slyly as I could and realized I’d made a mistake.
“I haven’t got any.” That explained why he was available for Thanksgiving with people little more than strangers.
“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
“You didn’t know. No harm done.” But there had been. I was flip about something that could have been sweet and I’d ruined it. And I’d hurt someone on a holiday that revolved around family.
“I still had no right saying that when your personal life is none of my business.”
“Well, if we are speaking our minds and overstepping our bounds, I’ll even the score and say I think it’s too bad you’re avoiding your family today of all days.”
“I’m not avoiding them.”
“Then what are you doing up here instead of sharing the day with the type of family some of us have wanted all our lives?” You know how sometimes it is easier to tell a stranger about deeply personal things? This wasn’t one of those times. With those strangers, you know it is a onetime exchange, and after the catharsis of confession, the odds of encountering them again are so slim the risks feel irrelevant. With the way his roundup of the exotic animals was going, I had no confidence Graham was going to be out of my life soon enough to share anything but half a peanut butter sandwich. But having stepped in it the way I did, I couldn’t be churlish about it.
“I’m trying to figure out how to deal with some changes I don’t like, and I am not doing a very good job of it.” I gave the tortoise a pat just to do something with my hands.
“Anything I can help with?”
“I doubt it.”
“Give it a try. You wouldn’t believe how many times I get called out for domestic disputes because I am the nearest officer on duty.” I looked at his face and decided to risk it. There was no one in the family I could talk to, and Piper had opted to spend the holiday in her RV with Dean, celebrating in a less orthodox manner.
“The problem is my father.”
“But he wasn’t there.”
“Nope. He missed his favorite holiday for the fifth year in a row.” That pesky nostril was stinging so bad it felt like a hornet had crawled up in there and was tap dancing its way back out.
“I can’t imagine him giving all of you up willingly.”
“Only his heart gave up and I doubt it was willingly. He had a massive heart attack right in the middle of his sugar bush. Loden found him when Dad didn’t come to supper.”
“I’m sorry to hear it.”
“So was I when they called me at college to let me know.”
“That must have been a hard call to make and an even harder one to receive.”
“I didn’t take it at all well. Celadon says that’s one of the reasons the family babies me so much. Why they don’t always tell me things.”
“So is that what this is about? Someone’s not telling you things?”
“The family didn’t bother to let me know my mother was replacing my father with his best friend, Lowell.” I sat with a thump down onto the ground. My knees may not have reached thirty, but they were starting to hurt. A stone in the path dug into my backside and pretty much summed up my day, a pain in the butt. “I decided to head out here before I said something I’d regret. You can’t really ever take things back.”
“From the reaction to your exit, I’d say it looked like the silent treatment instead of a mature choice to mind your words.”
“Are you sure you weren’t imagining things? Everyone was so busy they probably didn’t even notice I left.” Graham sat down beside me and stretched out his legs. He had dressed neatly and respectably for Thanksgiving dinner but his trousers probably could have stood up to an emergency animal-wrangling session and come out none the worse for it in the end.
“I’m pretty sure of what I saw. You’re the one with a vivid imagination. Anyone who sees mountain lions in New Hampshire is possessed of that.”
“Is that your attempt at lightening up the tone of this conversation?” I stretched forward to tug the tortoise back within arm’s reach.
“It is.”
“It’s a good thing your specialty is animals. Your people skills could use some work.”
“Maybe I just need the right person to give me some pointers. Know anybody who might be willing to give me some private lessons?”
“My friend Piper loves fixer-upper men. Why don’t you try her?”
“Perhaps I’ll do just that.” Graham stood and reached a hand down to me and gently pulled me to my feet. “We’d better get this guy under cover before it gets any colder and darker. And I don’t know about you, but I want another piece of pie before I head out.” He bent over the tortoise and lifted it easily. I was both impressed and annoyed. We silently covered more ground in ten minutes than I had in half an hour and arrived back at the house just as the sensor light winked on over the kitchen door. I helped Graham settle the tortoise into a wooden crate in the back of his truck. Then wondered what I was going to do with myself.