Until Then (Cape Harbor 2)

When he was about an hour out, he stopped to use the restroom, unable to hold it any longer. He also bought a couple of pops, bags of chips, and candy bars. He passed by the small travel-size bottles of wine and thought Rennie might need one but decided to wait until he had her safely in his car. Before he got back on the road, he sent her a text letting her know how far away he was, and she replied, letting him know she’d be outside waiting for him. He thought about asking her what was going on but refrained. She’d tell him on their way back or sometime later, if she wasn’t quite ready. He wasn’t going to press her. Graham knew Rennie well enough to know she’d talk when she was ready.

It was dark by the time Graham pulled into Whistler. His GPS directed him to the Grandview Hotel, and when he pulled into their circular drive, the valet came to his door to greet him. Graham rolled down his window and spoke. “I’m here to pick up a friend.” The passenger-side door opened before the valet could acknowledge Graham. He smiled at the man. “And now she’s in my car. Thank you.” He rolled up his window and turned his head toward Rennie. “Hey.”

“Just drive, okay?” She pushed her suitcase over her shoulder and onto the back seat before reaching for her seat belt.

“Okay.” He did as she asked, driving out of Whistler and leaving the ski resort behind them. Rennie sat there with her head leaning against the window and with her eyes closed. Every so often, she would whimper, and he would place his hand on her arm or squeeze her hand. She never shied away or woke up.

When he pulled into a gas station to fill up, Rennie startled awake. She looked around, almost as if she were dazed and wondering how she got from the hotel to Graham’s car. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were red and puffy, and he could tell she had been crying. He squeezed her hand once more before he got up to pump the gas. She followed shortly after, telling him she was going to look for a bathroom. He kept his gaze on her as she entered the store, watched as she asked the clerk a question, and followed her until she disappeared. Once the tank was full, he replaced the nozzle, waited for his receipt, and went into the store. Rennie was still in the bathroom. He thought about knocking but wanted to give her the time she needed to cope with whatever she was going through. When she came out of the restroom, she found him in an aisle.

“Are you hungry?”

She shook her head.

“You should eat something, Ren.”

She reached for a doughnut and then put it back. She glanced up at Graham with tears in her eyes, and he nodded. “Okay. Let’s go home.” He wished Brooklyn were with them, because he wanted to go hunt Theo down and ask him what the hell happened to Rennie. Whatever he had done, it was bad, because he had never seen his friend like this.

He opened the passenger-side door for her and waited until she was in before closing it. He then opened the door to the back seat and rummaged through the bag of goodies he had bought earlier and placed them on the console. Graham closed the door and went around to the other side. He leaned in, opened the pop, the candy, and a bag of chips and set it out for Rennie. “When you’re hungry,” he told her and then did the same for himself.

Traffic was light heading toward the border. At times, Graham found himself counting the oncoming cars to keep his mind occupied. He talked to Rennie, which was more like talking to himself, because she wasn’t answering him. She also wasn’t providing any sort of commentary to keep the conversation flowing.

“Do you remember our sophomore year when we had that really minor earthquake? I don’t think it even registered on the Richter scale.” He laughed. “You were on campus, hanging out, and we were getting ready to go to some frat party or something. Was it the toga party?” He looked at Rennie for confirmation, but she was gazing out the window. He continued, “Or maybe that party was later. Anyway, so you and I are walking, and we’re goofing around. We had pregamed, and we’re feeling a bit tipsy, but then I started leaning toward the right, and you the left. People were falling, and a few people were screaming, which I didn’t get. I had no clue what was going on, and you were on the ground, laughing.

“When someone hollered out we had an earthquake, I was like ‘That was it?’ because I barely felt anything, and I remember when I told my mom I wanted to go to California for school, she freaked because of all the earthquakes, and I had to remind her they were more south. Of course, you called your mom and told her all about it; she called the Hewetts, and Brooklyn’s mom told my mom, who thought the ocean had swallowed the campus. She told me to come home right away because San Jose was dangerous.”