Just then the door opened and the doctor walked in.
“I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it. I’m going to head out, but I’ll be by with Dad later.”
“Thank you, Eli.”
I stayed one extra day in the hospital. I suspect it was due more to ensuring that I was fine and wouldn’t sue the hospital since I was injured in the line of duty on the hospital premises. If I was going to sue anyone, it was Lyle Mason, but since his mother died, that seemed too mean. With that said, I did call the sheriff's department to find out what had happened to the protesters. Several had been arrested for obstructing access to the hospital. Others were taken in for trespassing and failure to disperse. None were arrested for causing physical harm, but I supposed it was best for the town if the incident was put past us.
During my extra day stay at the hospital, when I didn’t have visitors, I grappled with whether or not I should try to contact Nick again. Surely, he’d want to know that I was okay. But then Peggy, who I guess decided I wasn’t the enemy anymore, told me Nick had called the hospital to check on me. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk to me, so I didn’t call or text.
The next day, I was back at work, and I spent it working on everything but Ms. Mason’s legal case. There really wasn’t anything to do at this point, but also, I needed a break from it and everything around it. Perhaps that’s why Nick left. Maybe he needed a break from it all too.
I spent that evening with my father, who seemed to miss Nick too, but didn’t say anything.
“You know Dad, maybe I or Eli can take you to the zoo,” I said as we sat together.
“We can all go together,” Eli added.
My father shook his head. “Nah.”
I looked at Eli who shrugged.
I kept trying. “Okay. That’s your and Nick’s thing. But what can we do as a family?”
My father seemed to perk up at that.
“We could go gamble and see a show in Reno, or really live it up and head to Vegas,” Eli said.
“Or we could go to wine country,” I offered. “There is a wine train.”
“All those sound fun,” my father said reaching over to take a hand from each of us. “Just being with you like this is fun. Thank you.”
“We love you, Dad,” I said.
He squeezed my hand. “I love you too. You know, maybe we could go visit your mom. I haven’t done that for a while.”
“You visit Mom?” Eli asked.
“Nick used to take me sometimes. Not in a while, but—” He looked at Eli, I suspected to see how he’d respond.
Eli’s jaw tightened in the way it did when he was pissed but didn’t want to let it out.
“I just figured it would be hard on you two,” my father explained.
“Dad, we’d like to go with you to see mom. I haven’t been since I returned to town,” I said, feeling bad that I hadn’t visited her grave. I looked at Eli, giving him a nod to join in.
“I haven’t been in a while either,” he said.
“She’d be happy we were here together,” my father said. “All she wanted was for us to be happy.”
I couldn’t say we were happy, but I, at least, could be grateful for what I had. “She’d be annoyed that we weren’t saying grace before we ate,” I said, hoping to lighten the mood.
My Dad smiled. “You’re right.”
That night, I headed back to my apartment that still wasn’t completely unpacked. I realized that subconsciously, I didn’t want to finish. That would mean I was staying, and when I first came home, I wasn’t ready to commit to staying beyond the time my family needed me. But as I opened a box of photographs and other décor, I realized I was ready to stay. My life here wasn’t perfect, but neither had it been in L.A. At Goldrush Lake, I had my family and a history. My memories of my mother were everywhere, from the park she took us too when we were kids, to the hill we’d go snow tubing at in the winter.
In some ways, I’d been like Eli, expecting the world outside me to change and bring me happiness. But if I was to have success and contentment, it was up to me, and that started by committing to making my life here work. A job and my family were more than many had. I didn’t have the love of a good man, but I didn’t have that in LA either. I didn’t need a man to be complete. And who knew, maybe someday in the future, I’d meet someone else.
I laughed at myself as I thought that. It seemed impossible anyone would capture my heart like Nick. But Nick was gone, and so I had to hope that somewhere out there was another person who could come close and would pass through the tiny town of Goldrush Lake.