Finding You At Christmas

Grocery Shopping

Harper’s POV

   “Would you like to go to the grocery store really quick with me and Kevin,” Nancy asks. 

   “Yeah sure,” I say standing up from the chair in Elena’s room to follow Nancy. 

   “Ok let’s go,” she says grabbing her purse. 

   We head out the door with Kevin grabbing the car keys leaving the kids at home. He climbs in the driver's seat of their vehicle and Nancy gets in the passenger seat. I crawl in the back seat and sit in the middle so I can talk to them both. I listen to them chatter in the front seat. They show me things about the town as we head to the grocery store. Once we are at the store Kevin parks. I look around and notice it’s busy this time of day. 

   “Is it always this busy?” I ask looking at the time. 

   It’s almost six in the evening now. For a little town, this place was crazy.  

   “Yeah. Most of the town is getting off of work so it’s busy right now but it’s about to get busier. We got here at a good time,” Nancy answers. 

   We quickly walk into the store getting a shopping cart and start down the aisles. Nancy pulls out her shopping list and starts to get the things she needs. We start in the fruit and vegetables area of the store. Then we move to the canned goods section of the store. Nancy then stops while looking down at her list. 

   “Honey, can you go get me a sack of red potatoes?” 

   “Yeah,” Kevin answers as he turns to walk back towards the vegetable aisles. 

   Once he’s out of sight Nancy turns to me while grabbing a few cans of green beans off the shelf. I can tell by the look on her face that she wants to talk about something. Then again when didn’t she? 

   “Everyone has been telling me not to ask this but I want to know. Not just because I’m nosy but I don’t want you to be lonely.” 

   I can tell where this is going and I know what my answer will be, the truth. I nod for her to ask her question as she looks at me to make sure it’s ok. 

   “Have you thought about dating at all,” she asks concernedly. 

   “I’ve actually been on two first dates, but neither of the guys I went on dates with interested me.” 

   “Well, that’s ok. I’m just glad that you are looking or at least thinking about looking,” she says with a smile squeezing my arm lightly. 

   We go back to grabbing the items we need. Kevin soon comes back with his bag of potatoes. He acts like it’s heavy and makes this huge show of putting in the cart. Me and Nancy both bust out laughing at him. 

   Nancy then turns to me and says, “alright your turn. I need two pounds of rainbow trout and two pounds of salmon.” 

   “Ok. I’m on it,” I say with a smile and turn to go to the meat counter. 

   When I get to the meat counter there are two other ladies getting items in front of me. I stand there and wait silently to be helped. Once one of the ladies is finished the young man behind the counter smiled brightly at me. I smile back, returning his energy. 

   “What can I help you with ma’am,” he asks in a thick Spanish accent. 

   “I need two pounds of rainbow trout and two pounds of salmon,” I answer. 

   He quickly goes to work on getting what I asked for. Once he’s done he hands everything to me over the counter smiling. I continue to smile back at him. 

   “Have a nice night ma’am,” he tells me. 

   “You too,” I say waving and turning to leave the meat counter. 

   As I started to walk back the way I came, I wondered where on Earth I would find Nancy and Kevin now. I didn’t know what else she needed so there’s no telling where they were. Thank goodness this store is set up like the one back home.  

   Out of nowhere, I hear someone call out “Ivey.”

   I stop to look around in confusion to see if someone is actually calling me by my last name. A large amount of people still call me by my last name, but not anyone I would know here. At least I don’t think so. 

   I look to my left then to my right and that’s where I find a familiar face in the crowded store. I see Caleb Harrison and Peter Edwards standing there in their border patrol uniforms walking towards me. 

   I’m stunned seeing them here. I didn’t think I would ever run into them ever again. Especially not here. What were they doing here?  

   Caleb looked just like he did years ago with the muscle mass of Hercules. He had to be over six feet tall. I mean I’m short at five foot and he towered over me like it was nothing. I remember his honey colored eyes, blond hair and a handsome clean shaven face. He was such a good looking guy, it’s too bad he’s a complete ass all the damn time. 

   Peter is shorter than Caleb but still taller than me. He had a sweet face with blue eyes and blond hair. He looked like he had gained some weight around the middle. Normal married life will do that to a man they say. If they are happy they get a little thick. I don’t think that applies for them all though. As they both walk up to me I can’t take my eyes off them as if they weren’t really there. 

   “Hey Ivey,” Caleb says. 

   “Hey, Harrison. Hi, Edwards,” I say back. “What are y’all doing here?” 

—————

Caleb’s POV

   Me and my friend Peter had just gotten off work and were getting ready to leave after dropping our vehicles at the office. 

   “Hey, I need to go to the store for some stuff. You want to come with,” Peter asks. 

   “Sure, why not,” I answer while putting my dip into my spit bottle. 

   We both climb into our everyday vehicles and drive to the store. We find parking spots in the same row in the parking lot and walk towards the store entrance. The store was quickly getting busy with everyone getting off work. 

   I don’t know how the hell I got stuck pushing the damn shopping cart but I did. We walked around the store getting random ass things Peter apparently needed. This guy never seemed to amaze me with the amount of junk food he needed. I couldn’t eat all that sugar. My abs would disappear within minutes and I can’t have that.  

   Once he was done picking out his items he asked, “do you need to get anything now?”

   “Yeah, actually I do,” I answer and turn the cart to walk towards the meat counter. 

   I wasn’t paying much attention to the people in the store until we got close to the meat counter. I looked to see how many people were being helped and how many people were standing in line waiting to be helped. That’s when I saw her. Standing at the meat counter getting items. What was she doing here? 

   Mrs. Ivey looked as beautiful as the last time I saw her. Her hair was still dark brown but had gotten longer, to where it was now down to the middle of her back. I remember her icy blue eyes that were always filled with happiness and comfort. She was an amazing person. I would always give her s**t every time I saw her and be an ass like I am to everyone, but she was different. She would give me s**t right back. Most people didn’t do that.  

   When the guy behind the counter handed her, her items, I was having an internal battle with myself. Do I stop her and chatt or do I just act like I didn’t see her at all? As she started to slip away I made up my mind quickly. 

   I called out loudly, “Ivey.”

   I could see Peter out of the corner of my eye look at me in confusion then he started looking around. I then left the shopping cart with him and quickly walked after her. She had stopped dead in her tracks and was looking around for someone calling out to her. She spotted me quickly and stared at me. She had this stunned look on her face. This is the last place she would be expecting to see me of all people, I’m sure. She then looks behind me and I realize that Peter is following me with the shopping cart. 

   Once I get up to her I say, “hey, Ivey.” 

   “Hey, Harrison. Hi Edwards,” she says... “What are y’all doing here?” 

   “Hi Mrs. Ivey,” Peter says from behind me. 

   “We both transferred here to Weslaco about a year and a half ago,” I told her.

   She just nodded her head with a small smile on her lips. 

   “What are you doing here,” I asked. 

   “I’m here to visit friends for the Christmas Holiday,” she sighs out heavily.  

   “Oh. Well where’s Joel at,” Peter asks. 

   I didn’t take my eyes off of her. I could see a flash of pain run through her eyes but it was gone quickly and was replaced with confusion. Then she put up walls and her face was then void of all emotion. What had happened in the past three years since I had seen them? 

   “Y'all don’t know,” she asked, shaking her head looking from me to Peter. 

   She shifted her weight a little and then I caught sight of her left hand. There was no wedding ring on her finger anymore. What was going on? Has something bad happened? 

   “Don’t know what,” I ask, tilting my head down towards her. 

   “Joel was killed in a car accident over a year ago,” she softly tells us. 

   Her words hit like a sack of bricks to my stomach. Oh My God. How had that happened and we didn’t find out? How did she get through something like that? How was she doing? I had so many questions running through my head. Peter snapped me out of my thoughts by talking to her first and wrapping her up in a hug. He’s a hugger. 

   “I’m so sorry Mrs. Ivey,” he says.  

   “Thank you,” she says as she releases Peter from their hug. 

   I’m still standing there in shock. Then realize that I need to have some type of reaction. I step towards her and wrap her in a hug that I noticed she wasn’t prepared for. To be honest I wasn’t either. I’m not a hugger. What was I doing? I think this is the first time I have ever touched her in any way over the six years I’ve known her. She then relaxes and hugs me back. 

   “I’m so sorry,” I tell her softly.

   “Thanks,” she says as we back out of our hug. 

   With me still standing in her space I ask while looking down at her, “how are you doing?”

   “I’m doing alright,” she says simply. 

   I nod in response. Was she really doing ok? 

   “I need to go find my friend Nancy and see if she needs me to get anything else,” she then says trying to back away from us. 

   “Alright. Would you like to catch up with us later? Every Friday night we go get a few beers,” I suggest. 

   I really want to make sure she’s ok. I remember how in love she and Joel seemed. Not only that but she’s been through a lot over the years. With his death on top of it, I’m sure it broke her.  

   “Ok. Yeah, that sounds good,” she answers. 

   I quickly reach into my pocket and grab my phone out, unlock my screen and go to my contacts. I know I don’t have her number in here. I never did. I only ever had Joel’s number.  

   I hold it out to her saying, “here, put your number in so I can tell you where to meet us.”

   She puts her package under her arm and takes my phone. Then she programs her number into my phone. She then hands it back to me and I look at my phone. It says “Harper Ivey” on the screen with her number. 

   “Alright I’ll see y'all later then,” she says with a small smile. 

   “See you later,” I told her. 

   “Later, Mrs. Ivey,” Peter says and waves.

   She then turns to walk away. I was honestly excited to go have a drink with her but I wasn’t going to show it. Not to anyone.