The Weight of Perfection: Grand Harbor - Book Three Read online

  Our food was brought to the table and it was delicious. We talked about the beach, how beautiful the sunsets were around Lake Michigan, and talked about other commonalities, like food and movies and music. Finally around nine p.m., I knew we had to eventually separate.

  “I have to work early tomorrow, so I should probably head out,” I stated, grabbing my beach bag as we stood up from the table.

  “I hate Sunday nights. This weekend was…good. I wish it would keep going.”

  “That’s the beauty of the modern-day calendar. There are more weekends to come. And lucky for me, Deborah is always eager to pick up my Saturday shifts, as you witnessed.”

  “I have to wait until next weekend to see you again?” I loved the way he looked back at me as he said it, insinuating five days was too long of a wait.

  “You can see me any time you want,” I said quietly, laying it all out there. Truthfully, it was probably too soon for me to move on like this after everything that’d happened with Nathan. I probably needed more time to process things given how long we were together – but when I was with Luke, those were the only moments when I felt completely free from the hurt of what I’d been through.

  “Tomorrow is pretty busy for me, I have a lot going on, but can I pick you up on Tuesday?”

  “I work until six.”

  “How much time do you need after? Maybe I could pick you up at seven for a late dinner?”

  Enough time to change out of my ugly blue polo shirt.

  “That would be perfect.” I wanted to blurt out that I didn’t care how busy he was tomorrow – that I would drive to his house at ten o’clock tomorrow night just to see him if that was the only free time he had, but I didn’t want to seem crazy. After all, what was a couple of days? I was reckless now, right? No expectations. We could keep things casual. Except for his face. And his firm chest. And his perfect hair. My thoughts were far from casual.

  “Is this a bad idea?” His question broke up my thoughts.

  “What?”

  “I just…” He hesitated.

  “You’re second guessing this?”

  “Yeah. Maybe. A little.”

  “Why?” I narrowed my eyes at him as I asked.

  “I just… This weekend was fun.”

  “That’s your rationale as to why we should stop this? Do you have something against fun?”

  “No, it’s not that. I just…” He paused again, gathering his thoughts. “I know you think you want to be reckless, but you’re not. You don’t have it in you. That’s not who you are.”

  “And?”

  “Well, like you said, maybe cautious girls shouldn’t fall for reckless boys.”

  “Why not? What could go wrong?”

  “Honestly? Everything.”

  Chapter 6

  Monday morning, I so badly wanted to recount my entire weekend to Deborah, but instead I was sent over to our Sandy Bay branch because they were short a teller. Usually Kathleen was our floater, but she was out on emergency maternity leave and her backup was on vacation in Belize, so I was sent instead. That branch was about twenty-five minutes away, so I didn’t arrive until closer to eight-thirty. I said hello to the few familiar faces who’d trained at one point at my branch, and introduced myself to the two other employees I’d never met. It had to be longer than six months since I last worked at this branch as a fill-in. I didn’t do it often.

  Around eleven, just as I was about to switch to the drive-through position, a young guy in a Tigers hat walked in. It took me a minute to recognize it was Luke.

  “Hey. What are you doing here?” I couldn’t contain my smile. I hoped it wasn’t too obvious.

  “Lexi? What are you…you never…how did…” He stumbled over his words, seemingly caught off guard to see me.

  “One of the girls called in, and…”

  Before I could finish my sentence, three guys in black clothes and black ski masks entered the bank, instructing everyone to get on the ground. I froze.

  Rebecca, the teller next to me, wasted no time pushing the panic button under her counter. We’d been through these drills a hundred times, and I’d even been robbed twice before, but never by three armed men at once. They all had handguns.

  “Get on the ground!” One of the masked men barked orders, and I obliged, raising up my hands, then sliding down to the floor behind the counter. I could no longer see Luke.

  “Everyone else, down!” There were shuffling feet and a few whimpers from the lobby. “You, get back up!” It took me a second to realize he was speaking to me. I stood up like he instructed, and I felt like I was going to throw up. “Empty the drawers. All of them. You have two minutes.” The other two men headed to the back, out of my eyesight.

  I fumbled with the drawer, my hands shaking. At one point I swear I could feel the gun touching my side, and my body went numb. As he instructed, I slid all of the bills into the black bag he was holding, moving on to the next drawer. By the time I made it to the third drawer, I could hear sirens in the distance before I’d completely empty it. One of the masked men from the back called out to the guy next to me, referring to him only as “D,” instructing him to head to the back. He reached into the drawer himself for the rest of the bills, then muttered something under his breath.

  “Why’d he pick the pretty one? They’re always the slowest.”

  “D!”

  “Get on the ground!” he shouted one last time. He bolted as soon as I slid back down, and twenty seconds later, I could hear cop cars swarm the building. It sounded as if multiple cars peeled out of the lot, and I hoped they could catch them.

  Four cops entered the bank, weapons drawn, and I still laid on the floor, tears streaming down my face. Once the officers secured the building, they instructed us to stand up. Rebecca was sobbing uncontrollably next to me.

  I straightened my skirt, locking eyes on Luke. I’d forgotten for a moment he was even here.

  “Lexi, are you…are you okay?” Luke’s face was full of concern.

  My hands were shaking and I felt sick. I wiped the tears off my face, trying to compose myself. Before I could respond, the bank manager, Charles, was corralling all of the tellers together, making sure we were okay. The girls from the back were pretty shaken, and I had no idea what’d happened back there.

  Within sixty seconds, the cops had us all separated, asking question after question. I recounted what had happened, unable to provide them with much helpful information.

  How tall was he? I’d guessed six-foot-two? Taller than me for sure, but not really as tall as Nathan, he was six-five. I wasn’t sure exactly how tall Luke was, six-foot-three? Four? My brain was all over the place.

  “And one more time, what did he say to you while you were at the last drawer?” The cop was writing everything down on a notepad, asking me repeat questions we’d already gone over.

  “I can’t remember the exact phrasing, something about why I was chosen – like, ‘I can’t believe he picked the pretty one, she’s too slow’ or something like that?”

  “He picked the pretty one?”

  “Yeah, that was the part that struck me, he mumbled like, ‘why did he pick you,’ like someone else told him to come to me instead of Rebecca? I don’t know. I wasn’t even supposed to be here today, I work at the Grand Harbor branch. I was just filling in for Kathleen. She’s beautiful, long blonde hair – maybe he meant to pick her? Or maybe they thought I was someone else? I wasn’t supposed to be here today,” I repeated, still rambling and shaking from what had happened. I looked over to another desk area on my left, where an officer was questioning Luke. He was finished before me. They didn’t seem to ask him nearly as many questions. He stood up, and I could hear him say something about waiting for me, but the officer led him out of the building anyway.

  I stared at his strong arms as he passed. Why did I choose him that night of the concert – because he looked safe? I remember saying something to that effect. But those strong arms couldn’t save me today. I wa
s no safer around him. Life still happened, and no matter his strength, he couldn’t protect me from everything.

  He offered me a sad, apologetic smile, as if he mirrored my thoughts – as if he wished he could’ve stopped what had happened. My hands were still trembling as I responded with a gentle wave, watching him head out the main doors to the parking lot.

  The officer kept me there for another hour, rehashing everything I saw, making me feel less and less sure about everything. They wanted more information on the other two masked men who entered the bank, but they passed by me so briefly. One of them was thin – I could tell his black clothes were baggy on him. The other one was thicker – a little overweight maybe? They were all blending together. I could hear the guy’s voice in my head. Why’d he pick the pretty one? But if I ever heard his voice again, would I even recognize it? It was a normal man’s voice. He had on sunglasses to hide his eyes, and there was nothing distinguishing about his mouth. I imagined I could walk right by him, or sit next to him at a restaurant tomorrow, and I would never know.

  They shut the bank branch down for the rest of the day, and finally dismissed all of the employees. My manager, Rhonda, came by to check on me. She’d felt guilty for sending me to that branch this morning, but of course she had no way of knowing what was going to happen. No one did. She instructed me to take the rest of the week off to regroup myself, but I wasn’t sure that was helpful. I didn’t exactly feel like going back home alone to my apartment. Instead, I planned to head to Sophia’s lighting store downtown. I knew Olivia and Miles were gone in Chicago for the night, but at least Sophia would be around.

  One of the officers escorted me out of the bank to my car in the back of the parking lot. I thanked him, and as he walked away, I noticed Luke’s blue truck was still in the lot. He climbed out and made his way straight over to me.

  “Lexi, are you okay? I can’t believe…”

  “Yeah, um, I’m fine, I guess…” I stammered, still shaking. “I…why were you…how did you know I was at this branch today?” That was something I couldn’t figure out as the officers shot off their repetitive questions, asking me to detail everything in front of me. “You came to see me?”

  “No.”

  He paused, and I wasn’t sure why.

  “So you just…”

  “I needed to open an account, remember? Now that we’re kind of hanging out, I thought that would be weird to have you do it.” He shrugged.

  “Why would it be weird?”

  He reached into his back pocket, pulling out a small brown leather wallet. He held out a handful of folded up checks. “See all of these? They total a whopping one hundred and twenty-eight dollars. Total. Wouldn’t I look like a jackass opening an account for barely a hundred bucks? You’d never go out with me again.” He laughed, lightening the mood. “It’s embarrassing.”

  “I don’t care how much money you make. That’s not something I would…”

  “I have more money,” he cut me off. “I have normal bank accounts in Grand Rapids with money. I mean, not lots of money. I mean, I’m not trying to say I don’t have a lot, or that I do…” He was tripping over his words. “Sorry, this is all coming out wrong. All I wanted to do was set up a local account for all of my grandpa’s checks. They’re not much, and he writes them down to the exact cent to reimburse me for anything I spend on his house. I don’t want to take his money, I’m doing this for my mom. I just want to put it all into an account that I can eventually tie into his own checking account so he can just keep using the funds down the road without knowing it.”

  “That’s kind of sweet.”

  “Yeah, well so much from sparing you from seeing my name on an account with only a hundred and thirty dollars in it.”

  “You realize in the bank’s system, even if you deposit it at a different branch, I can still see everything, right?” I couldn’t help but crack a smile.

  “Well, I realize it now that you said it. Clearly I didn’t think all of this through, and now I’m still the jackass with a wallet full of eight-dollar grandpa checks and no bank account, so that’s that.”

  His lips curled, and despite the heaviness of what happened this morning, my body felt a bit calmer and my hands trembled less.

  “Do you have to head back to your other branch, or…?”

  “Oh no, not a chance. I don’t think my brain can function again today after all that. They gave me the rest of the day off. The rest of the week, actually, other than some counseling thing they want me to attend tomorrow. I was going to head into Sophia’s shop for a bit. I wasn’t sure where else to go. I feel too nervous to be alone right now.”

  “Can I take you somewhere?”

  “Don’t you have to get some work done today? Doesn’t your grandfather have appointments or something to be at? Yesterday you mentioned you had a lot of stuff to do…”

  “His vision screening was supposed to be at one today, but that was cancelled. His next appointment isn’t until three-thirty. We have a little time. Actually, I’ll just reschedule it. It’s just a blood draw, we can do that tomorrow. This seems more important, don’t you think? I agree, you shouldn’t be alone. Can I show you something?”

  “Okay.”

  He reached out for my hand, and his warm skin felt comforting against mine.

  “You’re shaking,” he commented as he led me over to his truck. “I don’t think you should drive. I know it’s out of the way, but you can come with me now, and then we can come back for your car later? When you’re not so shaken up?”

  “Yeah, I just, my nerves…”

  He stopped, put a firm arm around me, and leaned down to kiss me. It was slow and sweet and everything I needed right now. My nerves calmed down and I kissed him back, thankful that he stayed. He was everything I needed to take my mind off of what had happened.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, slowly pulling his face away from mine. “I should’ve handled that differently.”

  “There was nothing you could’ve done.”

  “What if there was?”

  “They had guns, Luke. You can’t stop people intent on doing something like that. They clearly had a plan. You wouldn’t have been able to prevent it.”

  He pulled me closer and whispered into my hair. “What if I could have?”

  Chapter 7

  “Where are you taking me?” I stared out the passenger window, realizing we definitely weren’t headed back to Grand Harbor. We were heading further north.

  “Oak Shores.”

  “To your house?”

  “Not a chance. It’s way too soon for you to meet my grandfather. Today has been traumatic enough. You don’t need that in your life.”

  I wondered how bad his grandpa really was. I’d been around plenty of old people visiting Sophia’s grandma at her assisted living facility. Most of them seemed sweet and kind. Of course there was the occasional grump who always complained about the food or the air conditioning, or the one older man who said he dreamed about me wearing only my suntan, but they seemed pretty harmless.

  “Does it feel weird to be back home after being away for a while?”

  “Yeah, definitely. A few things have changed, and I barely recognize the place. They put in a new bridge downtown and it makes the entire city look unfamiliar. But then I run into some old lowlifes from high school, and it feels like nothing has changed at all. I have an aggressive love/hate relationship with that place.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “There are just…a lot of memories there, that’s all. In some ways, that town built me. Riding our bikes down Cricket Hill, rugby games over in Crone’s Park, fracturing my left arm over by the old water shed…” He held out his left elbow toward me and I could see a sizeable scar. “But the people there – that’s what broke me.”

  There was heavy emotion in his voice, and I wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell me.

  “A girl?” It was a blunt question, but I had to know.

  H
e chuckled. “No, nothing like that. I mean, there were girls, but nothing noteworthy. I dated the homecoming queen, as cliché as that sounds. She was knocked up by someone else before the end of our senior year. That’s pretty much what this town does to people. It sucks you in and kills your dreams.”

  “Gee, I’m so glad you’re bringing me here,” I said sarcastically. We both laughed.

  “Sorry, maybe I’m being a little melodramatic.”

  “What dream did it kill for you?”

  “Ah, we’re going there, are we?”

  “In all fairness, you brought it up. Now I feel like you have to tell me. If you didn’t knock up the high school cheerleader, then what exactly went so wrong?”

  He maneuvered the truck up to the top of a ridge sitting high above the town. He backed it into a dirt lot, leading me out to the back of the pickup truck. He propped me up on the tailgate, sitting down next to me. From this high up, you could see Lake Michigan far out in the distance. It was a beautiful spot. The town below was charming and quaint, but then spread out in front of us was such a massive, breathtaking body of water. The sun glistened off of it and I knew why he had such a fondness for this place.

  “My dream sounds dumb now, obviously. But it was legit when I was seventeen.”

  “All dreams are legit at seventeen. I had my entire life planned out by then. I wanted to be a vet. I was sure of it. Then my neighbor’s Pug got pretty scratched up by a coyote once and was bleeding everywhere. Part of his ear was torn. One look at it and I threw up all over the sofa. We’re not all cut out to live out our childhood dreams.”

  “Yeah, that’s true.” He laughed softly, staring out toward the water. “I wanted to play professional hockey, like every kid up north here. It didn’t happen, obviously. The elbow was a setback, and there were some other things as well. I never really had a backup plan. There were other things I wanted to do, but life got in the way I guess. Lots of family stuff. Remember you thought I had a sister when we met? You have no idea how much I wish that was true. I would’ve been a lot better off with anything other than my two half-brothers. They were half my problem.”