Kyle was a little unsettled from having a short night when he walked into the Mercer-Howe office in Wychbold on Thursday morning. He didn’t even stop at the communal coffeepot before going right to Mike’s office.

“Congratulations,” Mike said as soon as he saw him. “Bob called me and told me that you got the job.”

“I’m a little surprised. It’s a better deal than I thought they might offer.”

“Well, I think you’re worth it, and you’ll probably earn your salary. That’s a bigger and more complex operation than we have here, and I expect you’ll have to do some catch-up right off the bat.”

“That was the impression I got from Bob,” Kyle said. “I’m looking forward to getting out there and getting to grips with it.”

“I’m sure you are. Look, that’s something we have to talk about. Bob and I had to kick it around a bit. I’m sure you know that I’d like to have you here for inventory, but he doesn’t want to delay that long. I think I told you that could happen.”

“Yes, and I’m a little concerned about it.”

“Well, like I said, we kicked it around, and what we came up with is that I’d like to keep you here until two weeks from tomorrow. That’ll give you over a week to get out there and get settled in, and still be able to start right after the first of the year.”

“I’d figured on something like that. I know it’ll mean moving over the holidays, but there doesn’t seem to be any better way to do it. It just means I’ll have to be ready to go when the flag drops.”

“Are you going to be able to manage it? I mean with the holidays?”

“It shouldn’t matter. Two weeks will give me plenty of time to get everything arranged here. I could probably do it in two or three days if I wasn’t working, so I ought to be able to get on the road no more than a day or two after my last day here.”

“That might mean you have to be on the road over Christmas.”

“If I do, I do,” Kyle shrugged. “It really isn’t a big deal to me.”

“Good enough. Go check your e-mail and see what’s accumulated on your desk, and then later this morning let’s get together and work up some plans for getting rolling on the inventory early.”

Kyle went back to his cubicle, thinking about the schedule. Once he got to his office, he looked at the calendar, and sure enough, unless he delayed until the last minute he was going to be gone by Christmas. The way the holiday and the weekends fell, if he was home for Christmas he was going to have to race out to Fort Collins immediately afterward and not have much time to set things up in his new apartment and get used to the town. Worse, it didn’t leave much slack; if a winter storm were to come along, he could get way behind schedule easily. If he had to waste time, he knew he’d rather do it on the other end.

That meant there was no real chance to spend Christmas with his folks, unless they could do something early, like the Saturday after he left the job in Wychbold. Once again, he wasn’t sure he really cared if he had Christmas with his folks or not; he still felt burned about the way they’d come down on him about Chelsea.

He hadn’t talked to them very much for two months – he still had the call blocking on – so they knew nothing about this and he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell them until he was already out there, but this made it a little different. Was it time to repair the fences? It was something he would have to think about.

He was busy enough with work the rest of the day that he didn’t have time to think about it very much. Maybe this was one time where he could use some advice from Chelsea.

When he got home that evening he was thinking about the mechanics of the move. It seemed likely that he had enough room under the cap of his pickup to move most everything he had. He had a sofa in the living room that was the biggest thing in the apartment, but it was a piece of junk and he wouldn’t care if he left it behind. They had furniture stores in Fort Collins, after all, and the sofa he had wasn’t worth the gas it would take to move it. He wasn’t sure how he would get rid of something that big, but there had to be a way.

Beyond that, it was mostly going to be a case of having to pack up and do it, getting the things he was least likely to use packed up soon, but there was some decision making to do there, too.

Somewhere along in there, he pulled a frozen meal out of the freezer and put it in the microwave. There wasn’t a lot of frozen stuff left in the freezer and it was pointless to take it with him, so he’d either have to eat it up or throw it away, and the same thing went for much of the stuff in the refrigerator. He sat down at the kitchen table and ate the meal, nothing like the wonderful Mexican dinners he’d had in Fort Collins, and decided to call Chelsea before he got busy figuring out what to pack first.

As soon as he threw the remnants of the meal in the trash, he sat down and called her number, but all he got was voicemail. He left a message to call him back, and got back to thinking about moving.

Really, the biggest problem he had was the Triumph, which was still sitting out in the storage shed. The simplest answer was to just leave it there for a while, maybe until spring, when he could fly back and drive it out West. That idea quickly ran aground when he realized there was no quick way for him to get from Midway to Wychbold that didn’t involve renting a car, and then what would he do with it?

A better idea might be to leave it at his folks’ place or in a storage building near there – but once again, he felt burned over what had happened with Chelsea and he didn’t want to ask any more of them than necessary. He realized that solution was as bad as leaving it in Wychbold.

That left the final answer, which was to take it with him. It was what he really wanted to do, anyway. He hadn’t spent any time investigating the roads around Fort Collins, but there were mountain roads not far away that would be an absolute ball to drive in a sports car like the Triumph. So the best answer was to trailer it out there behind the pickup. It would be a load for the pickup – it wasn’t a big bruiser like the ones some people he knew drove, but there wouldn’t be any mountain driving just getting to Fort Collins. That meant he had to rent a trailer for a one-way rental, which wouldn’t be impossible. Besides, if he didn’t have enough room in the pickup, he could always fill the car with some stuff, too.

He decided to take the bicycle with him, too. It had been optimized for riding on dirt roads, and really wasn’t a street bike, but in his quick visit to his new hometown he’d discovered that it was a very bike-friendly place. It would be no trick to buy a good road bike for riding around on the streets. He found himself looking forward to spring when he could get out and ride a bit.

He sat there for a while, just musing about what living in Fort Collins would be like, and thinking about some of the problems he would be facing in the next few days. Time spent in planning now meant less time wasted when it counted.

Time passed as he thought about things, and made a few notes. It wasn’t until quite a bit later that his cell phone rang; when he answered it, he heard Chelsea’s voice. “Hi, Kyle,” she said. “I just got home and got your message. I’m sorry it’s so late, but I thought I’d better call.”

“Wow, you must have worked late.”

“No, I was out with a guy who comes to the library every now and then. We had a nice dinner, and went out to see a movie. The movie was kind of lousy, but it was nice to get out. It gets a little lonely around here without you.”

“A nice guy?” he asked, feeling a little sick at heart. Although he didn’t have any hold on her, it was not pleasant to think about her dating someone else. But then, why should he care? They were just friends now, and the events of the last few days had just put her farther away.

“Oh, nice enough to go to dinner and a movie with,” she reported. “But I don’t think any more than that. I sure would never dare to tell him about Chastity.”

“That knowledge getting out could be a problem for you in the long run.”

“Yes, it could, and I’ve known it all along. That was the good thing about you, Kyle. You knew about her before we became friends, and even then it caused you problems. Have you patched up things with your parents yet?”

“No, not yet, and that’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” He took a deep breath, and went on. “Chelsea, I just got back from Colorado yesterday. I’ve got a new job in the Mercer-Howe plant in Fort Collins. It’s a damn good job, a real step up, and I’ll be making a lot better money than I am here.”

“That’s great news, Kyle! I know you never talked about it much, but I could feel you were frustrated with the job you had.”

“Yeah, realistically I’ve grown beyond it. Apparently I did a good job here, since my boss gave me a real good recommendation and seems happy I got it, even though it’s going to dump some more work in his lap at an awkward time. But I’ have to be out there before New Year’s, and that leaves me with a problem.”

He went on to explain his thinking about the schedule of the move, and that the most orderly way to do it would be to be on the move over Christmas. “I don’t know whether to just load up and go, or to call my parents and get with them early,” he explained. “Waiting for Christmas is not an option. I’m going to tow the Triumph out to Colorado on a trailer, and that means I need to plan on it taking at least three days. I could drive it quicker if I didn’t have the car, but towing it is the easiest way to get it there. It’s going to be a load so I have to take it easy. What do you think I should do?”

“Kyle, I know you’re very angry with your parents for interfering with your life, and that I was the cause of most of it. But at the same time, they are your parents, and you ought to have some respect for them. I mean, I haven’t always gotten along with my parents as well as I could have, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen them. That’s why I’m going to visit them over Christmas, to try and put some of those things in the past. Maybe you should make an attempt to smooth things over before you go to Colorado. After you’re there, it could be a long time before you see them again.”

“Yes, and I’m looking forward to having the space, too. At least maybe I can live a life out there without them jiggling my elbow all the time. That business with you was the final straw. There was no need for them to act the way they did.”

“It’s in the past, Kyle. Try to keep it there. I shouldn’t be an issue with them any more.”

“I know it sounds good to say it, but I’m sure it’ll be dragged out and I’ll be beaten over the head with it. That’s part of why I haven’t talked with them in a while.”

“Kyle, maybe they realize you’re angry. They know where you live, don’t they?”

“Yes, they’ve been down here.”

“You’ve been blocking their calls, so maybe they understand that they went a step too far. If they were really worried about you, wouldn’t they be down there knocking on your door?”

“Yeah, I suppose,” he agreed. “Maybe they’re giving me some space. And maybe, as far as that goes, Dad might not have told Mom about what he found out about you. Somehow I doubt that she’d appreciate him hitting the website, which apparently he did fairly regularly. I don’t know if he still does or not.”

“I don’t know either, and I’d need his IP address to find out. Back when this first happened, I looked for him in my sales accounts. I didn’t find him, unless he’s using a credit card without his name on it, or just looking.”

“Unlikely, but not impossible,” he replied, after thinking about it a little bit. “If he hasn’t told Mom, then the issue with you is between him and me. But if Mom isn’t aware of it, she’ll still be pushing at me about things like marriage and grandchildren.”

“Which wouldn’t be as effective if you’re in Colorado, would it?”

“Yeah, maybe you have something there. Look, all I can do is think about it.”

“Think about it hard, Kyle. You shouldn’t cut them out of your life completely if there’s no real need to. These things pass.”

They wound up talking for quite a while, less about her than about him. He told her about his new apartment, and how much he’d liked Fort Collins from what he’d seen of it. He didn’t get into the thought that it might be easier for him to find someone to date there, someone he might have a future with – he wasn’t exactly withholding his thoughts from her, it was just that the subject never came up.

Finally there was nothing left to talk about. There had been no expressions of love on either side, but it was clear that they were still friends, although he didn’t want to bet when or even if he’d ever see her again. She left him with the thought, “Kyle, please think about making up with your parents, at least a little. It doesn’t mean you have to do it all the way, but at least leave the door open a crack.”

“All right,” he told her. “I will.”

By the time they ended the call, it was much too late to call his parents, not that he wanted to that evening. The best that he could do was to think about what she had told him – and some were the things she’d told him without using words.

While it was clear that they were still friends, and seemed likely to stay that way, any chance of it getting any further seemed more remote than ever. Sure, the date with the unnamed guy could have been something casual, and it very likely could have meant nothing by itself – but the fact that she was dating at all did mean something. From what he could see, it meant that she had given up any hope of working out anything with him. That wasn’t any surprise, since she’d told him long before to think about finding some other girl. He hadn’t really tried, but being in Wychbold had much to do with that, and the better chances in a bigger town were part of the appeal of Fort Collins in the first place.

The hell with it, he thought. It was well and truly over with, and he might as well get used to it. She would be a pleasant memory, and that was all.

For much of the next day he thought about calling his parents. He really didn’t want to, and was leery about getting together with them, even if it wouldn’t be at Christmas, but Chelsea’s words stayed with him and caused him to consider the problem from a little different angle. Finally, he realized that he might have two separate problems, not just one – and they might cancel each other out a little. There was no way of finding out short of sticking his toe in the water.

If his parent’s work schedules hadn’t changed – and they hadn’t for years – there was a brief period after work when his mother would be home and his father wouldn’t, so that was when he called. A little to his amazement she was glad he called. “Kyle, it’s good to hear from you! We’ve tried to call you dozens of times, but your phone has always been busy.”

“There must be something wrong with it,” he lied. “The phones down here are a little goofy. I haven’t noticed anything from other calls. I guess I’ll have to call the phone company.”

“Do that, please. We missed you at Thanksgiving, and we’d like to know if you’re going to be up for Christmas.”

“There’s a little problem with that, Mom,” he said. “I’m going to be moving to a new job, and I’m going to have to be on the road at Christmas.”

“A new job? Where?”

“Colorado,” he said, resolving to not be more specific at this time. “It’s a company transfer, so it came down without a lot of warning.”

“Is Chelsea going to be going with you? She seemed like such a nice girl.”

Good God, Kyle thought. Dad didn’t tell her a thing. Of course, if he had told her about Chastity White, she would have wanted to know how he found out, and he could be in deep shit if he did. “No, Mom. I haven’t seen Chelsea in months. She got a new job in South Carolina back in October. We’ve talked on the phone a few times, and I guess she’s dating someone else now.”

“Oh, dear, what a shame! I liked her a lot when you brought her up here that time. I really thought perhaps she might be the one for you.”

“She might have been, if things had worked out a little differently,” he replied, thinking fast. “I liked her a lot, but it just wasn’t going to work out.”

“Have you been seeing anyone else?”

“No, there aren’t a lot of prospects in this town, which is part of the reason I’m glad I’m moving. It’s a bigger town, and I hope the hunting will be better.”

“Well, I hope so too. You need someone nice in your life. She seemed like she would have been a very good fit for you.”

“I thought so too, but it’s all water under the bridge, now.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. But I’m sorry you say you can’t be up here for Christmas. Is there any chance we could get together and maybe have some sort of a pre-Christmas?”

Kyle thought fast. That was the point of this call, and the fact that his mother hadn’t been told a thing about Chastity White put a different spin on things. Since his father hadn’t done it so far, he most likely wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag for a holiday gathering. That most likely meant that he could get in and out without catching any trash about Chelsea from him. He might be able to cut the visit down to an hour or two, and if the crap got too deep he could always leave. At least that way he would have made the effort.

“It’s possible,” he sighed. “I’m pretty well buried with work right now. They want me to get as much of the annual inventory report done as I can before I leave, and in what spare time I have I’m going to have to be packing and getting set to leave. Then, I’ll have to be loading the truck the Saturday before Christmas so I can get on the road. I might be able to sneak away for a few hours, but that’s about it.”

“Are you going to need any help with that?”

“I don’t think so,” he said, and an inspiration and an excuse came over him. “The kids will be out of school down here then, and one of the guys I work with has a couple of teenage sons who can help me with the big stuff and heavy lifting. I’m planning on loading up the truck and getting on the road, since I need to allow extra time. I’ll be towing the Spitfire on a trailer, so it’s not going to be a fast trip.” It really wasn’t a bad idea, even if it had come out of the clear blue sky, but he didn’t doubt he could find a couple of kids to help him out for a few hours.

“Well, if you need any help, you be sure and let us know.”

“At this point I think I have things under control, but things have a way of going crazy, too.”

“How about if we get together at noon on the Saturday before Christmas?”

“That might work.” A part of him still didn’t want to do it, but there was a little guilt involved, too. “I probably won’t be able to see you for long, though. There’s going to be too much to do, and I’m going to be under a time limit. Oh, and Mom?”

“Yes?”

“No presents, please. I’m guessing I’m just not going to have much room in the truck. If you give me anything, it’s just going to mean that something else is going to have to be left in a dumpster here in town. I’m not going to have the time to do any shopping myself.”

“All right, but you’re taking all the fun out of Christmas.”

“It can’t be helped this time. If I waited around until Christmas Day, I’d be way behind the eight-ball in getting out to Colorado and getting my apartment set up.”

After he hung the phone up, Kyle relaxed a little. This might not be as bad as it might have been. In a way, he really hated to have to cut most of his ties with his folks, but maybe it was a blessing, too. They had always been pretty controlling about his friends, and maybe that came from his father as much as anything – after all, the reason he had the Triumph in the first place had been to keep him from hanging out with his buddies.

Those days were now past, he thought. Maybe it was a good thing his father had blown up about his seeing Chelsea, because it put some distance between them that was badly needed. Maybe that was his Christmas present from Chelsea.

Though he’d pretty well given up hope about her by then, he knew he’d be missing her on the holiday. He sure would rather be seeing her than seeing his parents, but it wasn’t going to happen, and he knew it.

Merry Christmas, Kyle. Maybe things will be better in the new year.

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