“I’m coming back,” Grant swallowed. “I promise.”
Hailey shook her head. “Don’t misunderstand me…I don’t doubt your intentions, Grant…”
“This is different than when I left after the summer,” Grant argued.
“How?” Hailey asked.
“Isn’t that obvious?” Grant countered.
“Because we’re so much closer now?” Hailey asked. “That doesn’t mean you won’t leave; it only means it will hurt more…”
“I’m coming back!” Grant shouted, throwing his arms up in mock surrender.
“How can I be sure of that, given your history?” Hailey yelled.
Grant started walking off, clearly frustrated with the conversation.
“You shut down faster than anyone I’ve ever known in my life,” Hailey stomped.
“Oh well,” Grant shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”
“See there! Why should I trust you, Grant?” Hailey demanded.
Grant spun around, his voice booming,“because… I love you!”
Hailey’s mouth fell open. “What did you say?” she gulped. Given the sheer volume with which he had announced his revealing proclamation, Grant assumed Hailey’s question was rhetorical. Her face broke into a smile. “Did you mean that?”
Grant nodded. “I do.”
A peace seemed to fall over Hailey’s features. “I love you too,” she cried.
“I know,” Grant nodded.
Hailey was sitting on the front porch steps of the church that night after Wednesday night Bible study, staring out into the field where the children ran and played under the light of a solitary streetlamp. Principal Jordan had missed the last day of school before Christmas break with the flu, so it was up to Jack to close up the church house after the Wednesday night meal.
Maude, Maybelle and Nora walked from the white, wooden doors that led to the small fellowship hall where the congregation had just enjoyed country fried steaks and white gravy with mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and turnip greens.
“I mean it, Nora Jean, take this leftover cornbread home with you,” Maude was saying. “You’ve got plenty mouths to feed over there at Jack’s.”
Nora heard the insinuation, but she didn’t take the bait. “Well, the kids will sure eat it,” she agreed pleasantly.
“I talked to Dottie before the service,” Maybelle added. “She tells me that boy of yours is headed back to North Carolina.”
Nora paused. “Well,” she said finally, “he’ll only be gone a couple days.”
Hailey let Nora’s words, “he’ll only be gone a couple days…he’ll only be gone a couple days” play over and over in her head. The women had reached Maude’s truck, where they were loading extra jugs of sweet tea into a large ice chest in the back. They were out of earshot, and Hailey stood, ready to head home when she heard the faint sound of a piano playing. It stopped her in her tracks, and she moved slowly toward the sanctuary. The sound was melodic, much more smooth and practiced than anything Donna Simmons had ever played during Sunday service. Drawn toward the sound coming from the piano, Hailey slipped into the church. The lights were down, and she was surprised to see Grant sitting behind the piano hidden in the shadows of the pulpit.
He turned his head when he heard the door creak open, but he didn’t stop playing.
Hailey walked down the aisle and slid easily onto the piano bench next to him.
“I had no idea you could play,” she said softly, as if not to disrupt the music.
“I don’t play often,” Grant shook his head.
Sitting there on that piano bench, Hailey realized she had never before ventured up on stage to sit behind that piano…the piano her mother had sat behind every Sunday during the time she was pregnant with her.
“Who taught you to play?” Hailey gulped.
Grant ran his fingers along the keys, bringing his song to an impressive end. “Jill Scott,” he said, his eyes smiling though his expression didn’t change.
“Who’s Jill Scott?” Hailey asked.
Grant put his arm around Hailey. “The love of my life,” he declared.
Hailey rolled her eyes.
“She was my American tutor in Japan for awhile,” Grant smiled, “until she became too eccentric for my conservative parents, and they abruptly ended our promising relationship.”
Hailey placed her hands on the keys of the piano, and her heart raced as she thought about the moments she had missed with her mother, the moments she would have inevitably spent right here, learning how to play. “Will you teach me how to play?” she heard the words slip from her lips before she could rid her tone of the raw emotion she heard in her own voice.
“Sure,” Grant replied, and he slid his fingers over hers, moving them into place.
Hailey had never felt such emotion rise up in her over moments missed with her mother, and she knew why she felt that pain more tangibly tonight. Tears running over her cheeks, she pulled her hands away from Grant’s.
“What’s wrong?” Grant called as Hailey bolted down the aisle, wishing she had never followed the sound of the piano into the church. She was only halfway down the aisle when Grant caught up with her. He took her hand and pulled her into a pew.
