As punishment for my acts, I had to take 10 hours of anger management classes and do 50 hours of community service. I didn't have to do both at once, so I chose to take the anger management over the summer, twice a week.

Now that they were over with, I had my community service hours to complete.

I wanted to help out at the Brighton nursing home. I started last week, and I've completed about 10 hours so far. I should be done in no time, but I've been thinking about making weekly visits to some of the residents. Many of their family members didn't often visit, while others simply got dropped off so they would be someone else's problem.

The residents got a little rowdy sometimes. I saw a fight break out in the cafeteria over the last pudding cup with one resident threatening to run over the over with his wheelchair while the next one furiously waved his cane, saying, "I dare you!" A dementia resident had made a run for it with a team of nurses sprinting behind her. And then there was this scandalous love triangle, but we didn't have to get into that.

Overall, it was never a dull day here.

The nurses and the residents were used to seeing my face. Which was progress, in my opinion, considering they had kept eyeing suspiciously for the first few days before warming up to me. The rumors about my reputation had gotten around, but fortunately, most of them were willing to overlook that dumb mistake and give me the benefit of the doubt.

I strolled past the front desk with my volunteer ID badge and greeted almost every employee I saw walking down the halls. I had learned their names relatively quickly.

I made my rounds, chatting up the residents, asking if they needed anything, then I saved my favorite person for last.

The room at the end of the hall to the left was Mr. Corbin's room. I knocked when I saw his door slightly pushed up.

"I'm busy, Dolores!" he grumbled.

I peeked my head in. "So Dolores has been stopping by?" I lifted a brow.

He twisted in his wheelchair, a slow grin appeared. "My boy!" He waved me in. "It's good to see you."

I walked over, taking a seat across from him at his table. "How's it going, Johnny?"

I saw that he was playing Sudoku on his tablet.

He braced his hands on the wheelchair's bars. "Eh, no one did anything exciting today. So I had to retire to my room to find other means of entertainment." He sounded kind of bitter about it, and it made me laugh.

I haven't met Johnny's family yet. He said they lived in town, and his grandchild visited him twice a week since he was sent here over the summer after he had a stroke. Compared to a lot of the other residents, Johnny's room was completely decked out. Not only did he have the space all to himself, but he had a flat-screen TV on an entertainment stand with a blue ray player and Nintendo switch because he loved to play video games, especially Mario World. Then he had a couch, a dining table that he used as a desk sometimes, and a bookshelf with a decent collection. So whoever his family was, I liked to think they had a lot of money or good connections.

"On the bright side, the workers must have had an easy-going day, and that's a plus for them," I told him.

"I guess." Johnny managed to shrug. He closed his tablet, resting it on his lap before wheeling off to place it on one of the shelves. "We still on for a movie?" He spun to face me.

I remembered I promised to watch an old Marilyn Monroe film with him during my next visit. "Of course."

His face brightened. "My grandbaby bought me snacks. But I'm supposed to keep it a secret," he whispered.

Johnny specifically mentioned that he had a granddaughter. The way he talked about her made her seem like she was 10 and 30 years old all at once. I didn't know her, but I liked her from everything he's told me. He's joked about us getting along and said he would set us up if she were into the whole dating thing. Of course, I've turned him down multiple times, politely explaining that I had another girl I was interested in, but I didn't think we could have a relationship.

Johnny was easy to talk to and almost came off as the father figure I've never had. I've told him about what happened before the summer when he asked why a guy like me got stuck doing community service. He didn't hold in his opinions. He gave it straight, saying that I should have been more thoughtful about it and that he understood. By the way, he spoke, I could see him doing the same thing if he were my age.

Johnny reached for a big book that looked like a dictionary. "Can you keep a secret?"

I immediately nodded, wanting to know where he was going with this.

He opened the dictionary, only, it wasn't an actual book but a fake to hold his secret stash of granola bars and chocolate.

I chuckled as he took out two, throwing one to me before neatly putting it back into place.

"Thank you," I told him, ripping off the wrapper to take a bite. "What's this film called?"

"How to marry a millionaire. It's a chick flick. My wife used to make me watch it with her all the time. Now, I watch it when I miss her. I hear her commentary in my head, and I feel how happy her laughter made me." Johnny stared off into space, staying quiet for more than a few seconds. He was lost in a memory. He did that sometimes, and I hesitated to pull him out. If it was something happy, I didn't want to be the one to unintentionally remind him that it was gone by bringing him back to the present. "Oh, sorry!" Johnny shook himself out of it. "Don't mind me. Old people tend to walk down memory lane." He grabbed the remote off the couch, turned on the TV, and played the movie.

From what I could get, the movie was about three best friends who were all planning to marry rich men, but it wasn't working out the way they expected.

Johnny has seen this movie so many times that he could quote it. "Right here, my wife would yell 'you idiot!'" We broke out into laughter.

A knock at the door forced us to focus on the visitor. My laughter died down when I saw who stood on the other side.

Her eyes grew double the size, and my jaw dropped.

My girl stood in the doorway, dressed in white jeans shorts, a blue and white striped off-the-shoulder blouse with black chucks. Her lustrous curls were pinned back with gold butterfly clips.

Even with shock coloring her face, she was still beautiful. The reminder that Johnny watching us made me pull my gaze from hers.

Johnny looked between the two of us. "You two know each other?"

I said "no," at the same time that Summer said, "yes," which earned me a scowl. I couldn't believe this.

"We go to school together," I told Johnny when he had hit me with a questioning look.

"What are you doing here?" Summer asked, slowly walking towards us. "Hey, grandpa." She bent over to hug him.

"Hey, kiddo!" He kissed her cheek. "I'm glad you're here. It's movie night."

Summer looked out the window at the brightly shining sun, then back down to him. "If you say it's movie night, then it's movie night." She smiled. "How to be a millionaire again?"

"In my defense, Cam hasn't seen it."

Summer gave me a look, "I didn't think this would be your cup of tea."

"I'm full of surprises." The expression on her face was one that said she agreed.

She took a seat on the couch by her grandfather. "You didn't answer my question from earlier."

I stared at her, wanting to make a different excuse than the one I had. She didn't need any more reminders of how I was paying for my mistakes.

"Johnny and I are biffles. Like Jimmy Fallon and Justin Bieber," I told her.

Johnny gave me a thumbs up without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Is that true grand. You're besties with the guy who ditched your granddaughter."

"That was you!" Johnny pointed accusingly.

I opened my mouth to respond with a quick defense, but I had nothing.

"It's okay. I understand." He winked.

"Grandpa!" Summer pursed her lips, wanting to say more.

"What? I like him. He's a good kid. I've tried to set you guys up, you know. But he keeps talking about some other girl at school."

Don't look at Summer. Don't look at her. I failed when Summer scooted towards me.

Johnny was watching our body language and listening to our every word.

"Is that true, Cam? You got a crush on a pretty girl at school?" Summer batted her eyes at me.

I balked. "Who said she was pretty?"

"Oh, I don't know." She smiled, taking my breath away with it.

This was twice in the last 24 hours that I've had Summer up in my space. I couldn't stop thinking how close we were at the party, how I could have kissed her.

Johnny realized that he was witnessing the uncertainty between the two of us. Then I saw a suspicious glint in his eyes.

Then he started to list why Summer would be a great girlfriend. Then he went on to name all of my shining qualities. If Summer and I were strangers, this would be weird, but we knew more about each other than we were letting on.

"Summer, maybe you could figure out this girl he's always talking about."

My brows shot up.

Johnny continued, "He said that she is gorgeous, and he loves her natural hair, especially when she wears her curls out. Just the way you have yours." He pointed to her head.

Summer fingered her curls.

"He also said that she loved...."

"You know, I should probably go," I interrupted him. "It's late and all." I jumped to my feet. "See you later, Johnny. Summer."

I didn't turn to look at her even though I knew my eyes would have appreciated that.

Like I said before, running away was my thing.