Come To Stay Read online

  “Oh, that’s what Ellie’s doing too. Not for work, though. She just likes to be home around the holidays and prefers studying at the town libraries here than the U of T libraries. Something about the stressful atmosphere.”

  “That makes sense. Exams are stressful, and the holidays by yourself can be really lonely. Not a good combination.”

  “Definitely not. But’s fine, she’s home now.”

  They both got food from Tim Hortons and found a table to sit at.

  “So, when did you quit hockey again?” Lincoln asked.

  “End of grade ten. I still play it with friends and stuff but that’s when I quit playing it competitively.”

  “Huh.”

  “Why? You were wondering why I was so much better at skating than you?”

  “First of all, how dare you? And second… yes.”

  “I think I’ve just kept at it more than you, Link,” Ryleigh laughed. Lincoln stared at her. “What? Did I say something?”

  He blinked and shook his head.

  “Sorry,” he said. “You’re just the only person in the world who still calls me Link.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, would you prefer Lincoln?”

  “No, no, Link is fine. I really like it actually. Just took me by surprise, that’s all.”

  “Okay, Link.”

  “You’re going to start saying it all the time now, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged. “Undecided. We’ll see.”

  “At least you’re honest.”

  They fell into a comfortable silence. Ryleigh sighed and looked around.

  “Feels like just yesterday we were kids coming here on a field trip, doesn’t it?” She asked.

  “I have no idea where the time went.”

  “Do you think you’re going to move back here after you finish university?” Ryleigh asked.

  “Honestly? That’s one of my biggest fears.”

  “Moving back home?”

  “Not so much as in moving back in with my family because I don’t think I’m going to do that. But never getting out of this town.”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “I don’t know. I have many different ideas and they’re all conflicting — I want to live in an apartment in downtown Toronto. Or maybe a nice townhouse. I want to continue to live in Canada but also a part of me wants to go to Asia instead. A strong part of me wants to live on a farm but another part of me, perhaps equally strong, has always been enraptured with the idea of living in a city.”

  “You want to live ten different lives,” Ryleigh said. “Live out every dream you ever had.”

  “Exactly.”

  She nodded slowly. “Me too. I think it’s terribly unfair that we only get one shot.”

  “Guess we have to try to make the most of it.”

  She gazed at him appraisingly.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I guess we do.”

  “Okay, I officially don’t know a single person here,” Ryleigh said after she and Lincoln made a round of the Christmas party. She had to speak loudly over the hum of everyone else and the Christmas music playing in the background.

  “Sure, you do!” He said cheekily. “You know me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine, I know one person.”

  “And Parker, Ellie, Millie and Ollie. And you pretty much know Jared since he was only a couple years ahead of us in school.”

  “I guess… Oh hey, who’s the guy with Jared? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him before.”

  “Oh, that’s Henry, his… roommate.”

  “Why did you say it like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like they’re not actually roommates.”

  “Oh. It’s not important, I’m probably wrong. Anyway, want a drink?”

  He led her to the kitchen and poured each of them a drink.

  “Should I introduce myself to your family?” Ryleigh asked. “I mean, I should probably at least thank your parents for inviting me.”

  “They didn’t invite you, Ellie did.”

  “I know, but it’s still their house.”

  “You can thank them later. I have no idea where they are right now. Probably talking to their friends.”

  She bit her lip. “I guess it can wait… What do you want to do now?”

  “We could just sit, if you want.” He gestured to the couch, which was empty save for the cat. She nodded and they walked over.

  “Your cat is really cute,” she said. They sat on either side of the cat and Ryleigh started petting her. “What’s her name?”

  “Uh, it’s Tigger,” he said. “They let Millie and Ollie name her.”

  Ryleigh giggled. “That’s adorable. How old is she?”

  “I think she’s two. They got her the first Christmas I was in university.”

  “That’s a nice surprise for when you come home.”

  “Only if you like cats.”

  Ryleigh looked shocked. “Do you not like cats?”

  “Of course, I like cats,” he said.

  She tilted her head. “Then what do—”

  “Jared is not a huge fan. He’s been scratched a lot.”

  “Oh no! But she’s so sweet. Look at her little face.”

  “Hey, I’m with you on that one! Tell it to Jared.”

  “Somehow I get the feeling he wouldn’t appreciate that.”

  “Yeah, probably not.”

  Ellie ran up behind them and leaned over the back of the couch beside Lincoln.

  “Hi?” He said. She shoved her phone in his face.

  “Did you two see this?” She demanded.

  “See what?” Lincoln asked casually. He grabbed the phone from her hand so he could see it better. Ryleigh leaned closer so she could see the screen as well. It was an Instagram post.

  “Crestwood Confessions,” Lincoln read out. “‘Saw Lincoln Wilson and Ryleigh Philips skating in the square on the weekend. Are they dating?’ Oh, great, there’s a photo of us.”

  He showed it to Ryleigh. It was a picture of them when they had just gotten off the ice, and Ryleigh was laughing at something Lincoln was saying.

  “What?” Ryleigh asked. She snatched the phone to read it for herself. “We don’t even go to Crestwood anymore. Why are they posting about us?”

  “Half the people running the page have already graduated,” Ellie said. She climbed over the back of the couch, accidentally kicking her brother in the back of the head as she did so, and perched on the top. “Same with the people following it. Any one of them could have seen you and thought it was interesting.”

  Ryleigh looked slightly disgusted.

  “I hate pages like that,” she said. “Just benefitting on other’s people’s lives, turning it into their own drama.”

  “We can ask them to take it down,” Lincoln said. Ryleigh shrugged and handed the phone back to Lincoln.

  “Not much point. So many people have already seen it. It would only stir the pot if it suddenly disappeared. Why should we care what a bunch of people we haven’t seen in two years think about us?”

  “Is it really such a bad rumour?” Ellie asked. “It’s not like it’s a huge scandal or anything. Just dating, that’s no big deal. Neither of you are dating anyone else, right?”

  They both shook their heads, then looked at each other.

  “Right,” Lincoln said in a small voice. “No big deal.”

  Ellie patted his arm and headed off, blissfully unaware of the tension in the room.

  Ryleigh frowned. “Isn’t that Ellie’s phone?”

  Lincoln looked down at the phone in his hand.

  “Yes, yes, it is.” He threw it on the ottoman. “She’ll find it eventually.”

  “So…” Ryleigh said. She twiddled her fingers together, unsure of what to say.

  “Crazy rumours, huh?” Lincoln said.

  “Yeah,” Ryleigh muttered. “Crazy.”

  Lincoln cleared his throat and looked around.

  “My parents!” He said sudde
nly.

  “What?” Ryleigh asked.

  “You wanted to meet my parents,” he clarified. “Because we didn’t see them when we did the first round of the party.”

  “Oh, right, of course. You said you weren’t sure where they were, though.”

  “I did say that,” Lincoln said slowly. He looked around, desperately hoping for a reason to get out of this situation. “But now, I can see that they’re in the dining room! Come on.”

  They both got up and Lincoln led the way over. Adrienne and Brandon were both standing next to the Christmas tree, talking to Jared and Henry.

  Adrienne was speaking. “I’m just saying honey you’re in your last year of university. You need to start thinking of what you’re going to do after you graduate. I’m sure your friends have. Say, Henry, what are your plans for after you graduate?”

  Henry choked on his drink.

  “Me? Oh, I’m uh…” he looked at Jared then back at Adrienne. “Well to be completely honest with you, ma’am, I’ve been working through university and saving money, so my plan is to travel for a year before I get a full-time job.”

  “Oh, isn’t that nice!” Adrienne said. She caught sight of Lincoln and Ryleigh hovering in the background. “Lincoln! I haven’t seen you yet. How are you?”

  Lincoln walked up and hugged each of his parents. Ryleigh heard both Henry and Jared sigh in relief as soon as Adrienne’s attention was diverted.

  “Hi mom, dad, I’m pretty good,” Lincoln said. He backed up again, so he was standing next to Ryleigh. “I don’t know if you remember her, but this is Ryleigh Philips. We used to go to school together.”

  “Of course, I remember,” Adrienne said. “How are you dear?”

  “I’m good, thanks,” Ryleigh said.

  “You know, we actually just ran into your parents a few weeks ago,” Brandon said. “They mentioned you’re at McMaster?”

  “Yes,” Ryleigh said. “I’m studying kinesiology.”

  “That’s wonderful!” Adrienne said. “And you’re still so close to home. You know Jared— where did Jared go?”

  Lincoln looked around and laughed a bit. Jared and Henry had both mysteriously disappeared in the last couple of minutes.

  “He probably went to get a drink or to talk to someone,” Lincoln said. “It is a party.”

  Adrienne sighed. “He’s been very distant lately, have you noticed? I— well, we can talk about that later. How are you two liking the party?”

  “It’s great,” Ryleigh said. She was lying slightly, all she had done since arriving was sit with Lincoln and somehow even that hadn’t ended well, but she certainly wasn’t going to say that. “Thank you so much for letting me come.”

  “Oh, you don’t need to thank us! The more the merrier,” Adrienne said.

  “I have to admit, I don’t remember Lincoln mentioning you much since high school ended,” Brandon said. “When did you two reconnect?”

  “Oh, just last week,” Ryleigh said. “We met when Lincoln and Parker brought the twins to meet Santa. I work there.”

  “What a lovely coincidence!”

  “Ellie didn’t mention it to you?” Lincoln asked. “She’s the one who insisted Ryleigh come to the party, I assumed she would have told you.”

  “No, she didn’t say anything to me,” Adrienne said. She looked at Brandon, who also shook his head.

  “It probably slipped her mind since she’s been studying for exams,” Brandon said. “She drove back to write her last one yesterday.”

  “Oh, there’s Laura Mitchell, dear,” Adrienne said. “We need to talk to her about the New Year’s party. Would you two excuse us?”

  “Go ahead,” Lincoln said. Adrienne and Brandon walked off.

  “The New Year’s party?” Ryleigh asked in a posh voice.

  “Yeah, my parents are those people,” Lincoln said. “Their whole group hosts parties for every holiday and it’s a whole thing.”

  “No, that’s cute! My parents never have parties. Like I can’t remember attending a single party when I was growing up, other than kid birthday parties.”

  “There’s no way that’s true.”

  “It is! Why would I lie about that?”

  Lincoln shook his head. “You’re telling me your parents didn’t drag you to parties for Christmas, New Year’s, Valentine’s day because apparently, that’s a holiday that needs a party, St.Patrick’s day—”

  “You parents host a St.Patrick’s day party?”

  “They don’t host it, my aunt and uncle do, but we always attended. The kids would play video games in the basement while the adults drank beer upstairs.”

  “You and I have lived very different lives.”

  Lincoln laughed. “What are your traditions for the holidays, then?”

  “We don’t really have traditions, besides for Christmas. Our whole family goes to our grandparents’ the night of Christmas Eve, so we can all wake up on Christmas Day together. It’s cute but it’s gotten less fun as I’ve gotten older. Less of a fan of sharing a bed with my cousin or sleeping on the floor as an adult.”

  “I’m sorry, sleeping on the floor?”

  “Yeah, there’s three of us girls and a double bed. We all fit in it when we were kids but obviously not so much anymore, so usually one of us just sleeps on the floor with a pillow and sleeping bag.”

  “Couldn’t you use an air mattress?”

  “They have an air mattress, but my brothers are always on it.”

  “Okay walk me through this please.”

  Ryleigh laughed. “Alright. We spend the holidays with my mom’s parents. My mom has five siblings and—”

  “Wait, five siblings?”

  “Why are you so shocked by that, you have three siblings.”

  “And I thought that was a lot!”

  “Well, she is the youngest of six. Which means that including my grandparents, there are seven couples. Then on top of that, they all have kids. In total, there are eighteen of us, but a couple of my cousins have kids now, and it became too confusing, so they stopped coming. Are you with me so far?”

  “I think so?”

  “Great. So originally when all my cousins came, there were five girls and thirteen boys. The five of us girls would share one room. We would fit as many of us as possible on the bed and then usually one or two would sleep on the couches in the family room. The boys got a room with a set of bunk beds, so they could usually fit four of them total on that. They also then got the air mattress, which my brothers and maybe one cousin would fit on as well. So that was about half the boys. And then downstairs, there was a pull-out couch which could fit another three of them, so that’s… ten. The last three would sleep wherever they could find, most usually in sleeping bags in the family room. They wanted to see if they could catch Santa dropping off presents.”

  “That is chaotic.”

  “Oh, trust me, I know. Then there were the adults, who obviously didn’t want to be sleeping on the floor. My grandparents had two queen beds in the house so usually all the adults would sleep in those, in whichever way they decided to split it up.”

  “And you do this every year?”

  “To this day. But like I said, now… five of the cousins don’t come so it’s a lot easier to split up the rooms. Less people on the floor of the family room, waiting for Santa and all that.”

  “Wow. That’s a lot.”

  “Yeah. So, what are some of your Christmas traditions?”

  “Wait, you didn’t even tell me about your traditions! You just told me the sleeping arrangements.”

  “Oh right. Well, usually the cousins who slept in the living room would be the first to wake up. When we were kids, they would start screaming about presents and wake the whole house up. Nowadays, we usually sleep in a bit later. The rule is we’re allowed to go downstairs and look at everything, how many presents we got and all that, but we can’t actually open the presents until everyone is awake and has had coffee.”

  “That is a good
rule. I wish that was the rule in our house.”

  “How does Christmas morning tend to go for you?”

  “Well Ellie usually wakes up first then she wakes up me and Jared. Parker too, when he’s here, but ever since the twins were born, they’ve been coming later in the day on Christmas instead of sleeping here. Depending on the year, my parents may or may not be awake by that point. We usually open our stockings whether or not they’re awake, but we wait for them before opening presents. If they are awake though, Ellie insists we start opening presents right away, even if the rest of us are half-asleep.”

  Ryleigh nodded sympathetically. “I see. Maybe you should start asking for a cup of coffee as one of your Christmas presents.”

  “You’re a genius.”

  “I do try.”

  “Does your family open all the presents first thing in the morning, or do you open them over the course of the day?” Lincoln asked.

  “We usually open about half of them in the morning, and then the rest after dinner. What about you?”

  “Again, at Ellie’s demand, we open them throughout the day because that apparently makes it feel more special. I’m not entirely sure why she thinks that is but I have no strong feelings on the matter, so I just go with it.”

  “Ellie seems like she has strong opinions.”

  “Yeah, that’s because she does. You get used to it, though. Oh, do you want a refill on your drink?”

  “Sure.”

  They went to the kitchen. The only people in there were Jared and Henry. They were standing close together and Henry was whispering something in Jared’s ear but the second Lincoln and Ryleigh walked in, they jumped as far apart as possible.

  “Hey,” Lincoln said awkwardly. “We’re just getting drinks.”

  “Us too,” Jared said quickly. His voice cracked and he cleared his throat.

  “Right…” Lincoln said. He walked slowly to the counter that Henry was leaning on and grabbed two cans of pop. “You good with this, Ryleigh?”

  “Sure,” Ryleigh said. She wasn’t sure of exactly what was going on but all three boys looked really uncomfortable, so she thought it was best that they get out of there quickly. She would have said yes to any drink.