“Does it matter?” she asked sharply.
“Nope,” I said truthfully. Her face appealed to me no matter what expression it held. Like a piece of fine art I could never hope to interpret, it only grew more fascinating to study.
“Is the exercise me trusting that you aren’t a serial killer, luring me out to the middle of nowhere to kill me?”
“Ah, no. I could have killed you loads of times by now. I don’t need to get sweaty to do that.” I grinned at her.
She rolled her eyes. “I feel much better. Thank you.”
We reached an outcropping of heavy granite slabs jutting out over the valley of lush green trees.
“Here we are,” I said.
“How did you know about this place?”
“I didn’t.”
“This is not encouraging,” she said.
“Roxy, Roxxo, just tru—”
“Trust you. Yes, I get it. Let’s just do this. I have to prepare for a graduation party this weekend,” she said, fussing with her fringe when the wind blew it around.
“At the Lodge?” I asked. “Do Americans have to make such a big deal about everything?”
“How else will everyone know we’re the best?” She bit back a smile. “It’s a well-paying customer. Their little princess only graduates high school once. It’s a huge party. Like a hundred people. With a DJ. It’s a whole thing.”
My eyebrows shot up. That was the first time I heard her ever say anything like that. Like Vincent wasn’t standing there watching her.
Instantly she frowned. “I shouldn’t have said that. That was … unprofessional. I’m happy to give them an experience she will never forget.”
I dropped my backpack and pulled out a bottle of water and handed it to her. Without the protection of the canopy, it was a lot warmer. At least there was no worry about rain. I checked.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said. “I know clients can be a huge pain in the ass. So did you have a big old graduation party too?”
“Not exactly. I didn’t technically go to graduation.”
“Prom?” I asked.
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Do I seem like the type to go to prom?”
I shrugged. “Yeah?”
She shook her head. “No. I didn’t go to prom. There was a whole thing with Gretchen.” She frowned at the mention of her friend. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just get going with all this.”
“That’s not a very healthy attitude,” I said.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The rushing to get back to work. Always waiting to be done and on to the next thing. There is only the journey.”
She took a drink of water and handed it back to me. “How very zen of you.”
I shrugged. “I’ve just thought about it a lot. There is no final point that I can reach and think ‘ah, now I can be happy.’ Life is just a series of ups and downs. Best to be in the moment instead of worrying about things that have already happened or, worse, haven’t even happened yet. What an exhaustive waste of energy.”
She sighed but grabbed the other end of the blanket I’d pulled out and helped me lay it flat. “Some people just aren’t wired that way.”
“Sure. If that’s the story they tell themselves.”
