“Iris,” Mom echoes with relief. “She’s the one.”
Chapter Thirty-One
IRIS
“Thanks for the... whatever this is.”Ramon and Sally fill my phone screen as he holds up my housewarming gift. He wears a confused frown.
I stifle a giggle. “It’s a cheese board in the shape of Oklahoma.”
He takes in the roughly hatchet-shaped wooden board I found on Uncommon Goods. “Ohhh.”
I laugh outright. The oddball gift is my way of teasing him. Love has turned him into such a sucker. “It’s very cheesy,” I say, laughing at my own joke.
“Right,” he says flatly.
Beside Ramon, Sally snickers, but she leans into him and plants a kiss on his cheek. In spite of himself, he smiles. Huge. Love may have turned him into a sucker, but it definitely agrees with him.
My two best friends look so happy.
Seeing them like this makes up for the fact that I miss them like crazy.
Which reminds me. “Sally, you still haven’t sent me the dates of your fall break. Are you off the Thursday and Friday or the Friday and Monday? Laird needs them to book the tickets for your visit.”
Sally’s school has a four-day break coming up, and she and Ramon have promised to come stay with me. I can’t wait. In fact, aside from the show, it’s the one thing that I’m looking forward to.
And then I’ll go to Edmond and visit Sally and Ray for Thanksgiving. We’ll see about Christmas. I don’t think I should third-wheel their first Christmas together. Maybe Mica and I can find a trail adventure and disappear into the woods for a while.
I can’t pick up on the AT where Sally and I left off. For one thing, she’d kill me for doing it without her. We’ve already got our route planned for the summer. For another, December is the wrong time to be SOBO—Southbound—so far north.
I’m lost in my trail musings so it takes me a second to realize that Sally hasn’t offered up the dates of their visit. In fact, she and Ramon are eyeing each other with speaking glances.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
They both cut their eyes to the camera, looking guilty.
“Youarestill coming, right?” Even I hear the metal in my voice. They’d better not stand me up. I’m going to be seriously pissed if they bail on me.
Not to mention depressed. It’s pathetic how badly I need them right now.
“W-Well,” Sally stammers. “We just didn’t know if you really had enough room for us.”
I shoot her a look like she’s crazy. “It’s a three bedroom house. Laird’s in the attached apartment in the back. There’s plenty of room.”
Sally opens and closes her mouth. Ramon shifts uncomfortably.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing—” they both say in unison before glancing at each other in horror.
“Let’s all remember that I’m the actor here,” I snap. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
Sally shakes her head. “Nothing’s wrong, Iris.” She says it with so much conviction, I actually believe her.
“You’re still coming, right?”
They both nod vigorously. “We’re stillplanningon it,” Ramon says.
Planningon it? Why would he stressplanning?
