Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
I nodded.
“You’re welcome over at the house any time you want,” he said, his eyes careful. “Might save you some hassle to do your laundry there from now on.”
From now on? That got me to smile. “Thanks.”
“Colorado Springs is only a few hours away. You need help, call Am or Johnny.”
“If you or Am need anything, tell me. I mean it. Anything. I owe you big-time after today.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” His hand moved back up to my hip. “I’ll only be away for a little while.”
“I’m not planning on going anywhere. I’ll be here,” I told him, setting my hand down on his forearm. “Whatever you, Johnny, or Am need, I’ve got you three.” I owed him for today and yesterday—for so much, really, regardless of what he thought. I wouldn’t forget, not any of it.
He looked right into my eyes as he said it. “I know, Aurora.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The next three weeks went by in basically a blur.
With the changing colors of the leaves, something inside of me changed right along with them. Maybe it was the sheer fear I’d experienced on the Hike from Hell that had been the catalyst, or maybe it was just something in the cool air, but I felt some part of myself growing. Settling too. This place that I had come back to, where I had spent some of my best times and the single worst moment of my life, embedded itself into my skin even deeper with each passing day.
I wanted to live. It wasn’t like that was a new thought, but there was a difference between living and living, and I wanted the latter. I wanted the latter more than anything. An entire life could change in a single moment, with one action, and in a way, I had forgotten that.
Maybe every day wouldn’t be perfect and it was naïve to expect that, but every day could be good.
This place was where I wanted to be, and I found myself embracing everything even closer than before. I absorbed even more of my relationship with Clara and my friendship with customers who sure started to feel more like friends. I appreciated my teenage friends even more too.
In fact, the only thing I hadn’t embraced had been Rhodes.
It had been two weeks by that point since he’d left, and he hadn’t managed to come visit yet. Supposedly, he’d been on his way to visit for the day when he’d gotten called back to Colorado Springs—a four-hour drive away—with an emergency. I still saw Amos just about every day between getting dropped off by the school bus and picked up by his uncle. He told me all about his dad calling him every day and had even—not so subtly—mentioned how Rhodes asked about me too.
But Rhodes didn’t call me or text me, and I knew he had my number.
I thought that everything that had happened with us before had been some kind of turning point, I was sure it was, but . . . maybe he was extra busy. And I tried not to wallow in worrying about things I couldn’t control. And how someone felt about you was one of those.
I was just trying to keep on living my life and settling in even more in the meantime, and that was exactly why that morning, three weeks after the Hike from Hell, I found myself getting a dubious look from Amos as I clutched my helmet, trying to give him a reassuring smile.
“Are you sure?” he asked, putting on the wrist guards that I was certain Rhodes had insisted he wear when he’d given him permission to go to the ski resort with me. I had mentioned to him two days before that I wanted to go. I had never been snowboarding. I knew for sure I’d gone skiing with my mom back when I’d been younger, but that was it. It hadn’t snowed in town yet, but a couple of nights had dropped enough snow this high in the mountains to open some parts of the resort.
I focused back on the teenager in front of me in a matching green jacket and helmet he’d explained that his mom and other dad had bought him last season. “Yes, I’m sure. Go with your friends. I’m sure I can figure it out.”
He didn’t believe me, and he wasn’t even trying to pretend otherwise. “Do you remember what I told you? About using your toes and heels?”
I nodded.
“Keeping your knees bent?”
I nodded again, but his features stayed reluctant. “I promise. It’s fine. Go. See? Your friends are waving at you.”
“I can go down with you once to make sure. Getting off the lift is kind of tricky—”
This was exactly why I loved this kid. He could be so quiet, stubborn, and surly—just like his dad—but he had a heart of gold too. “I just saw a little four- or five-year-old do it. It can’t be that hard.”