Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
I hadn’t seen that coming. Was it the truth? Yes, but I was still surprised by how sensitive saying the words out loud made me feel.
But that sensation only lasted for about a second.
Because he hadn’t seen that coming either from the slow way his eyebrows rose in sheer surprise even as his facial features simultaneously softened. And he said quietly, looking right at me in what felt like pleased shock, “Kind of missed you too.”
Chapter 24
“Ora, are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”
I finished marking off the jackets I’d been inventorying and glanced over at Clara who was on the other side of the rental counter with Jackie beside her. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and honestly, it had snuck right up on me. I’d never been big on the holiday. Until I’d moved in with my aunt and uncle, I had never actually celebrated it.
“No, it’s okay,” I insisted for the second time since she’d brought up me accompanying them to Montrose to spend the night with her dad’s sister.
Honestly, if they had decided to stay in Pagosa, I would have gone over to their house, but I didn’t want to intrude on the whole family.
I wasn’t heartbroken at all over the idea of staying in the garage apartment all nice and toasty. I had hot cocoa, marshmallows, movies, snacks, a new puzzle, and a couple books. Maybe if one day I ended up with a family of my own, I’d go all out and ask my mom for forgiveness for celebrating a holiday she had raised me to boycott, but… I’d worry about that some other day.
Jackie leaned over the counter. “Are you going with Mr. Rhodes and Am to his aunt’s house?” she asked.
They were going to his aunt’s house? I had no idea. I had just seen them both last night when we’d had dinner together, and neither one of them had mentioned anything. Rhodes had just gotten back from Colorado Springs for good a week ago, and I’d spent every night except for two of them eating dinner at their house. Those two nights I hadn’t were because Rhodes had worked late. “No, I wasn’t invited,” I told her honestly. “But I’m good. I don’t even like turkey all that much anyway.”
Jackie frowned. “They didn’t invite you? Am said he did.”
I shook my head and then glanced down to make sure the rest of the inventory form was done. It was. This was my fourth time doing it, and I was glad it was done right.
“Aurora, you want to come over to my house for Thanksgiving?” Walter, a regular customer and friend, asked from across the shop where he was going through some fly-making materials that Clara had put on sale just that morning. “We always have plenty of food, and I have this nephew who could use a good woman in his life to straighten him out.”
“Your wife hasn’t straightened you out, and it’s been forty years,” I muttered, smiling at him slyly. This whole conversation was a perfect example of part of the reason why I’d been so happy lately. I had friends again.
“Listen here, child… my Betsy had no idea what she had in store for her. I’m a life project,” Walter shot back.
We all laughed.
Honestly, it wasn’t just Thanksgiving that had snuck up on me; October and most of November had too. Since the Hike from Hell that I’d overcome, time had blown by, especially the last three weeks.
Clara, her sister-in-law, Jackie, and I had gone camping once, even though it had been freezing. Amos tagged along with me to do random things, like going grocery shopping and playing putt-putt with Jackie one time, when his dad let him off the hook from being grounded. I’d gone snowboarding once more too, and I’d only busted my ass a few times. I hadn’t moved on from the bunny hill yet, but maybe next time I would.
Every day was just… good.
“You know I have almost zero experience driving in snow,” I reminded them.
“This isn’t really snow, Ora,” Jackie argued. “There’s only about an inch out there.”
That wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. But to me, who had only seen significant snow from the windows of a tour bus, a quarter of an inch was snow. Kaden avoided going on tour during the winter, after all. We had usually gone to Florida or California the minute the weather started to get cool. Some flurries had fallen in town over the last few weeks, but most of it had been focused in the mountains, leaving them capped and beautiful. “I know, I know. Either way, I’m putting people’s lives at risk just driving home, I feel like, but if I change my mind, I’ll give you a call for your address, deal?” I asked Walter right as the door opened.