A crooked smile lifts one side of her mouth. “Okay, then. I’ll see you in the morning, Judah.”
She spins on her heel and heads for her bedroom across the hall. Right before she closes her door, I yell, “Jack!”
Her laugh floats through the door, and I smile into the darkness falling over the room.
I’m on my third cup of coffee when Stevie and I climb in her truck to head to her parents house. Switching between day and night shifts is always brutal, and even after all these years, I’ve never quite managed to find a schedule that works for me to avoid the hangover-like feeling I get on the first day in between.
“Would it be easier if I just gave that to you in an IV or…?” Stevie asks, smirking at where I’m slumped against the passenger window,
“I didn’t go back to sleep until four.”
We both stare at the clock on her dash. It reads 8:07.
“You know, when you said you had nothing better to do, sleep was an option,” she deadpans.
“I need to get up so I can get on a normal schedule.”
The truck begins to back up before she turns the wheel and guides us down the mountain. “If you say so.”
“So tell me about your family,” I say after taking another sip of my coffee.
She glances at me before returning her attention to the road. “What do you want to know?”
“Social security numbers, dates of birth, you know, just the basics.”
A husky laugh rumbles out of her, and I swear I can feel it in my chest. It’s a good laugh.
“Seriously,” she says.
I lift my head from the window, the coffee finally starting to wake me up, and let my eyes travel across her. The early morning sun highlights the freckles on her cheeks and catches on the length of her dark lashes. She’s got her hair tied back in another braid today, and it hangs down her back. She’s wearing loose linen pants and a mustard yellow sweater. No makeup, but it somehow emphasizes her natural beauty. She looks as much a part of this landscape as the trees and the mountains.
“What are they like?” I ask. “Are you close?”
She tucks her bottom lip between her teeth before saying, “Very close. I’m an only child. It took my parents a long time to get pregnant with me, and they had a few miscarriages after. So it’s just me and my parents. And now my grandma.”
“She lives with them?”
“Mmhmm. She has Alzheimer’s. Still in the early stages, but she lived a few hours away. It was easier for her to move in with my parents.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell her and she shrugs half-heartedly as if to sayit is what it is. “What are your parents like?”
This makes her smile, just a small uptick of her lips as she turns onto the main road. “My dad is kind of a goofball. He’s outgoing and funny and has unmedicated ADHD, so he starts a million projects on the farm and only half-finishes them. It drives my mom crazy. She’s organized and scheduled, but she has fun, too. She keeps us all on track.” She glances at me. “Is that what you wanted to know?”
“Mmhmm. And how do you fit into the mix?”
She tips her head back and forth like she’s thinking. “I guess I’m a mix of both. Adventurous like my dad, but more thoughtful about it like my mom. I used to follow my dad around the farm a lot, helping him with projects, but I’d also wander off a lot on my own. I liked exploring. And alone time.”
“I was like that too. My brother Evan was the outgoing one of the two of us. He was friends with everyone. Played a bunch of sports. Prom king. You know the type.”
Her chin dips in a nod.
“Down to earth though,” I say. “Never quite realized he was popular and beloved.”
She smiles. “That’s how Wren is. One of her other rental cabins caught on fire a few years ago and the whole town rallied to help her fix it. I think she was shocked everyone would do it, but I don’t think anyone even batted an eye.”
“Sounds nice,” I hum.
Her eyes flick to mine. “What?”
