Breaking Free

Chapter 1-2

“That’s okay, she made it work.”

“She did, yes, and he was a good match for my oldest. He lets her be brave, and she not only gives him family, but the need for family.”

“Yeah, his parents weren’t nearly as awesome as you and Grandpa.”

“Well. Few are.”

Janelle laughed. “And at least two of my cousins upheld the tradition of marriage at twenty.”

“Ah, those two. They both should have waited. Maybe not as long as you, though.”

Grandma’s phone beeped and she picked it up to check the message. Janelle leaned over as she sighed.

“What now?”

“Your aunt received koden from her old neighbor and she’s deciding how many stamps to send in the thank you card.”

Aunt Linda’s father-in-law had passed away several weeks before. The Japanese had a tradition of koden, which meant sending money to grieving families when they experienced a loss. For reasons that weren’t clear to Janelle, Japanese American families on the mainland had then added to the tradition by sending postage stamps in their thank you cards. The number of stamps was determined by how much money had been sent. That amount of money was also important, to avoid giving insult. Grandma Yuki had a list of how much she’d sent, who she’d sent it to, how much she’d received, whose loss she’d received it for, and the corresponding number of stamps. Janelle found the whole thing fascinating, but was kind of hoping it would die off with her generation.

“Sometimes I wish this stamp tradition had been kept to the mainland,” Grandma grumbled as she waited for her daughter to respond. “This wasn’t something my mother had to deal with.”

“But then you wouldn’t be able to help Aunt Linda with her family and neighbors in Michigan.”

Grandma gave her the side-eye. “Cheeky.”

Janelle just grinned as the phone beeped a response.

Grandma typed out another message and hit send, then leaned back, looking pensive.

“You didn’t know him, did you?” Janelle asked, gently.

“We met at the wedding, many years ago.” She reached over and patted Janelle’s arm. “I’m okay. Sometimes I forget how old I actually am. I don’t feel like I’m seventy-four, but then someone from my generation dies, and I remember that I won’t be around for much longer.”

“Grandma!”

“Shush, it’s a fact of life. But I want to be there for your special moments, and your cousins’. I want your mom and your aunt to be able to ask me how many stamps to send, or how much koden is appropriate, even if they argue with my opinion.”

The very idea of her grandmother not being around made Janelle’s heart ache. She loved the woman with her whole heart and knew that Grandma’s loss would be devastating for the family. To not be able to send a photo of her and Naomi trying on outrageous dresses in Beverly Hills, as she’d done last week, or just to call and get the latest news on life in Hilo. She was suddenly happier than ever that Grandma had decided to come to Colorado for Rose’s wedding.

Nell closed her eyes, her mind going back over their earlier conversation. As she’d said, she wasn’t opposed to the idea of marriage, not at all. It was just getting harder and harder to imagine falling in love, wanting to tie herself, her future, to a man, but if she did, the idea that Grandma might not be there to see her married was too horrible to consider.

But here she was, on her way to a wedding. Seeing Rose and Ethan together had made her heart tingle in a way that her loins had steadfastly refused to do for ages. It made her incredibly happy to see them in love, and she had no doubt that theirs would last.

Janelle grinned as Naomi, meeting them at luggage claim, picked Grandma up in an enthusiastic hug.

“Grandma Yuki!”

Grandma’s expression tried to maintain stoic, but she lost the battle and offered a wide smile. “I’ve missed you, too, Naomi. You didn’t come to the island last year.”

Naomi carefully lowered the older woman to the ground and stepped back. “I wanted to, but the timing just didn’t work out. Next time.”

“Good. Now, where are our bags? I’m anxious to meet this Ethan our Rose has decided on, make sure he’s good enough for her.”

Janelle waited until they were settled into the rental car, then leaned forward from the backseat. “So, how are the plans going? Is it crazy yet? Has Rose morphed into a bridezilla? I can’t imagine it.”

Naomi scoffed. “Of course she hasn’t. She’s being chill, though now that we’re three days out, things have sped up a bit. For tonight, they’re staying in for a quiet dinner while we get settled in. First thing tomorrow, it’s on. There’s a list of things for each of us.”

“And tomorrow is the bachelorette party.”

“Yes. Anna has ordered the stripper, the decorations you shipped are in a box in Ethan’s office that he swears he hasn’t opened, and one of us needs to pick up the desserts at the bakery while we’re running around doing other things.”

“Whew,” she said quietly, seeing that Grandma’s eyes had closed. “Sounds like everything is coming together.”

“Yes. Cal and Jin, Rose’s friends, had a nice dinner delivered from that restaurant we went to, Monarch?” She met Janelle’s eyes in the rearview mirror.

Janelle nodded. She definitely remembered their night out at the fancy restaurant when they’d come out to meet Ethan.

“The guys gifted it to them so they could have one last quiet night in before all of the craziness happens. Ethan was going to insist on driving to pick you up tonight, because it was snowing and I’m not exactly experienced with that. But it finally stopped and I convinced him I could handle it and he and Rose should have their night.”

“When do Jennifer and Brad get in? They’re staying at the same B&B as us, right?”

“Yes, and so is Pablo. All of them get in tomorrow early afternoon. Jennifer and Brad will wait for Pablo, and they’re sharing a car to get here, then Pablo and Brad will go away and leave the B&B to us for the bachelorette. We’re taking over the whole place for the party since it’s all just us.”

Ah, Pablo, another friend from their old college group, one she hadn’t seen in a few years. So much of the group had scattered after college, it wasn’t unusual for them to only meet up at weddings. “I kind of wish Jennifer and Brad were bringing the baby so we could see her, but it’s nice they’ll be able to have this time away, too. Cammie’s so cute, though it would have been weird to have a four-month-old at the bachelorette. And, wow, I haven’t seen Pablo in years. I guess since Samantha Carney’s wedding.”

“Didn’t he hit on you at her wedding?”

“Yes, but he was drunk.”

“And you were there with…” Naomi squinted at the road ahead. “Derek. No, Darnel.”

“Yep, Darnel. We’d been together six months, but only lasted three after that.”

“He wanted to go to grad school in Nebraska.”

“I told him I wasn’t interested in Nebraska, but really it was more that I was tired of him moving from school to school rather than actually getting started in anything. I mean, if he’d had a realistic end goal, I could understand, but I really think it was just easier for him to keep being a student than to start paying his student loans.”

“You were not wrong, my friend.” Naomi glanced at her mirrors and moved lanes to pass a semi-truck. “Pablo seems to be coming single, and he was fairly attractive, as I recall. I want to say I’ve heard he’s a veterinarian now?”

“I think I heard that, too. But, I mean, come on. He’s a guy who hits on women who are in relationships.”

“Fair point.”

When they were an hour out, she called the pizza place in Wildlife Ridge, City Pizza, and told them when they expected to arrive at the B&B, prepaying with her credit card, including tip, and asking that the pizza arrive before they did. It had been a long travel day for Grandma, and she’d already told Rose that they would just head straight to the B&B and see her bright and early in the morning.

When she’d hung up, she sat back and watched the road race past for a few minutes. She’d been so excited, but also sad, when Rose had been the first of them to make a move, literally, by leaving Los Angeles and going to Colorado. Her plan had been to see if living there, in a lower-cost-of-living town than LA, would work, but really as a starting point to being able to live anywhere in the world. She dreamed of traveling while still supporting herself with her computer business. But she’d ended up falling in love with Wildlife Ridge, as much as she’d fallen for Ethan.

Still, she and Ethan were going to travel. Instead of a honeymoon, they were beginning a six-month stay in Spain. They’d bought a fixer-upper house in Wildlife Ridge that they were going to work on once they returned.

Janelle wanted to travel, but just for vacations. She wanted to find somewhere to settle down and be comfortable in her own place. Not that she wasn’t comfortable in LA. Exactly. Sort of. She liked being able to go to museums once in a while, liked that there were restaurants galore, but really, she was kind of a homebody.

Those were once-in-a-while activities for her; there was no need to live in a big city like Los Angeles when you didn’t love going out to the theater or a fancy restaurant or a concert three nights a week. And it definitely wasn’t worth the traffic and crowds.

She’d taken a couple of vacations to small towns, hoping to find one that felt like home. So far, she had liked one, been annoyed by another, and had been indifferent to the third. The one she liked, in Eastern Washington, was a possibility, but she wasn’t really sure it would hold up for the long term.

But, then again, she wasn’t making a lifelong decision. If she moved once, she could do so again.

Naomi and Grandma were having a murmured conversation, and Janelle realized she’d let her eyes close. She opened them to find that they were approaching Wildlife Ridge. Time to stop worrying about her future and start enjoying her time with friends.

One side of the highway was mountain, and the exit to Wildlife Ridge branched off the other side, nestling into a small valley that was backed by more mountains that she couldn’t really see at night. It was more of a feeling of their looming presence and a lack of light.

But the town was lit and inviting. Main Street was where nearly all of the businesses in this town of less than twenty-five hundred people were located. There was only the one gas station first thing off the exit, one two-story strip mall and then several restaurants, including a couple of fast food joints, a Starbucks, and other miscellaneous shops.

She remembered a library, a Masonic Temple—she wasn’t exactly sure she knew what that was—and a sheriff’s station from her previous trip. The elementary school, and the junior and senior high school were just off Main Street, as were several small neighborhoods and a couple of apartment buildings.

Very quickly they passed the end of Elk Street, a one-way road that they wanted to be on. Only a few yards down, they were able to turn left onto the street. Elk Street made a giant cul-de-sac and came back around to Main. The space formed by the road was a giant lawn dotted with several trees, a little amphitheater, and Town Hall. This is where the wedding would be held.

When they had completed the loop and were most of the way back to Main Street, they turned right onto Glaring Road and made their way to the Columbine House B&B.

She’d made the arrangements for their stay and for the bachelorette party with Bob Bares, the owner, who was quick to come to the door to greet them and help them with their bags. She was very glad to see that the photos online hadn’t done the beautiful house justice, and their rooms were excellent. Let the wedding weekend begin!