Total pages in book: 23
Estimated words: 21886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 21886 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 109(@200wpm)___ 88(@250wpm)___ 73(@300wpm)
He looks like a man who’s hardened over the years. There are no more easy smiles when he sees me. In fact, there’s no smile at all.
Those dark brown eyes are just as intense as I remembered them. He’s staring at me, but his face is giving nothing. I can’t tell if he’s happy to see me or if he wants to throw me off the mountain.
“Hello, Colin,” I say with a nervous smile. “I’m home.”
Charlie drops at my feet and lies on his back, wagging his tail in the dirt, completely oblivious and unconcerned by the tension in the air.
Colin takes a few deep breaths as he stares at me. He’s larger than I remembered. He’s grown up a lot. The adorable boy I fell in love with is now a handsome man with a big thick muscular body. He’s built like a tank.
I remember his cheeks always being stubbly but now he’s got a long brown beard and long brown hair. I like it. It suits him well.
“I heard you were returning,” he says in a voice that’s much deeper than I remembered. “How was London?”
“It was… different. Fun. An adventure. But I’m glad to be home.”
He looks so uncomfortable as he looks at me. It makes me think that maybe I shouldn’t have come. Maybe it would have been better to run into each other in the cereal aisle of the grocery store. We would have been surrounded by people, we could have faked a couple of smiles, chatted about cereal for a few minutes, and then moved on. I wonder if he would have preferred that. I wonder if he’s just hoping I’ll leave.
It’s weird knowing someone for so long, and then all of a sudden, you don’t know them at all. I can still remember how warm and comforting those big arms felt wrapped around me and now they look like foreign objects. How can something that was once so safe and inviting look so cold and distant? How can all that magic just disappear?
For some reason, I want to cry. My eyes are burning with tears, but I refuse to let them out.
“Charlie is all grown up,” I say as I kneel back down and rub his belly. I’m glad Charlie is here. It’s something easy to talk about. Some familiar neutral ground. “He looks so happy.”
“He’s the best Search and Rescue dog on the West Coast,” Colin says proudly. “He’s tracked down and found thirty-one missing people.”
“Really?” I say, staring at the sprawled-out dog in awe. “You’re a good boy, Charlie.”
His tail really starts going when I scratch his chest.
“You trained him well,” I say as I force out a smile to Colin. He doesn’t smile back. “My dad told me you work in Search and Rescue too? He read an article about you in the paper. Said you found a missing kid?”
“Last summer, yeah.”
I wait for him to expand on the story, but he gives me nothing. He just stands there on his porch in his faded jeans and an old Nirvana t-shirt, coldly watching and waiting for me to leave.
“The house looks amazing,” I say as I look around at it. He just looks at me. “I remember you talking about it all the time, but I pictured it so differently in my head.”
“Things always end up different than how we picture them,” he says as he stares me down.
I don’t think we’re talking about the house anymore.
“Okay,” I say as the sad realization sets in. There will be no warm reunion. No friendly banter. No smiles. No reminiscing. No friendship.
This is what it feels like to be outside of his bubble.
I’m a stranger to Colin Hill now and Colin Hill never liked strangers.
I stand up as the tears threaten to flood out. “Well. It’s good to see you, Colin. I’m glad you’re doing well.”
Charlie looks up at me with his long pink tongue hanging out the side of his snout.
“I just wanted to say hi now that I’m back.”
Colin nods with a scowl and I head back to the car with my head down.
It can’t be like this… Can it?
We once had something so special together. I refuse to believe it’s all gone. There must be a spark still hidden somewhere behind those cold dark walls.
I take a deep breath and turn around.
There’s zero emotion on his face. He’s giving me nothing. If he wants to make a career change, he could always try professional poker. He’s definitely got the face for it.
But I know this man, and even though he looks like a grumpy curmudgeon right now, I know he’s got a big heart under that massive chest. A big heart that’s probably still hurting.
“I’m going to be at Cliffside Tavern tonight,” I tell him. “I’d love to see you there if you want to have a drink and catch up.”