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)
They’d gone without me, claiming the tickets were nonrefundable, with Kaden insisting it would break his mom’s heart if he wasn’t there for the holidays. Needless to say, Yuki, being the friend that she was, had sent her bodyguard to pick me up five minutes after they left for the airport and had nursed me back to health over the week at her house.
I should have known then I was never going to be important enough.
They really did deserve that pie of shit.
Anyway.
As cool as the town had been, it had been the company that had made the trip so great.
It had been a long time since I’d laughed so much. Probably since the month I’d spent with Yuki, and we’d been drunk a fourth of the time. A rare thing for both of us.
“Me too,” Clara agreed. She’d filled the trip with stories about some of the regulars I was getting to know at the store. One of my favorites being a man named Walter who had apparently found a bag of what he thought were herbs but was really marijuana and had brewed it like tea for months before someone told him it wasn’t what he’d thought it was. When she wasn’t filling me with gossip, she and Jackie tried to give me all the reasons why I should stay in Pagosa instead of leaving, which had surprised me because I really hadn’t been sure the teenager liked me all that much in the first place. They’d made some interesting points, mostly: you’re home.
Which I was. Home, that is.
“I saw you smiling too, Jackie,” Clara went on.
I had spotted her smiling a lot too.
Jackie’s phone beeped then, and the girl grabbed it, reading whatever was on the screen before saying, “Ugh. I thought it was Grandpa. I texted him when we were in Durango, and he still hasn’t texted me back.”
Clara went silent, and I caught her glancing at Jackie, her expression thoughtful. Suddenly, she asked, “Do you mind if we make a quick stop before I drop you off, Aurora?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, sounding worried as she turned the wheel to the right. “It’s not like my dad to not text back, and he won’t answer the home phone. My brother is supposed to be there . . .”
“Whatever you need to do. I wouldn’t mind seeing him either if he’s in the mood and it’s okay for me to go in,” I piped up.
Clara nodded distractedly, putting her blinker on as she drove closer into town. I knew from memory that they lived around one of the lakes. I hadn’t been there in forever, but I knew it was closer to everything than where Mr. Rhodes lived. “He’s been wanting to see you too. We’ll be real quick. We still have to go grocery shopping.”
A few minutes later, she pulled up outside of a small one-story home with two cars parked in front of it. A white minivan . . . and a restored Bronco. What were the chances of two pristine Brittany blue Broncos in this area with the same license plate? I wondered as Clara pulled up alongside the van.
“What’s Mr. Rhodes doing here?” Jackie confirmed what I’d processed. “Where is Uncle Carlos’s car?”
“I don’t know . . .” Clara trailed off with a frown.
I undid my seat belt just as my phone beeped with a message.
It was my aunt.
Aunt Carolina: Are there coyotes in the area?
I hesitated for a second. That didn’t sound like the kind of question I should answer. I didn’t need her worrying about coyotes too.
Slipping out of the car, I followed after Jackie and Clara as they headed to the front door. The house was small and older than most in town. The floor was tiled with foot-sized pieces that were either dark brown or green, and the furniture was mostly all antiques. It was just about exactly how I’d remembered it. I used to spend the night here every other weekend. I had a lot of good memories in this house.
“Dad!” Clara yelled. “Where are you?”
“In the living room!” a deep voice hollered back.
“You got pants on?”
I grinned.
“Guess!”
That made me laugh.
Clara turned sharply to the left into a small living room. The first thing I noticed was a flat screen propped on an entertainment table, thirty-something inches wide. The second thing I noticed was the man sitting on a big, comfortable recliner facing the TV. His hair was a mix of gray and white and braided down one shoulder, and on a love seat beside him was my landlord, arms crossed. A football game played on the television.
Clara and Jackie hurried over, kissing both his cheeks. “We brought Aurora, Daddy.”
The man’s dark eyes moved, then landed on me, and in the time it took me to blink, they had gone wide.