Page 56 of Abdominal Snowman

Snow Way

The market was even busier the next morning, Soren parting the large crowd like the sea with his massive form. Sage trailed behind him, running her fingers over soft fabrics and shiny glass bottles.

They stopped at Jane’s booth to drop off the box of mysterious figurines that Soren wouldn’t show her. But even as curious as she was, her eyes glazed over as they began talking about the latest shipment Jane received of exotic wood, Soren’s eyes glimmering at the thought of getting his hands on it.

Left to her own devices, she walked off and began perusing new booths that had popped up since yesterday. Fingering a woolen blanket, Sage watched as an older couple sidled up next to her, their banter drawing her attention. When she glanced over, she could practically see their love glowing in the faint lights.

The man scolded the woman and shooed her from the knitter’s booth, claiming that they already had too many blankets at home. She waved him off with a playful grumble, meandering to the next stall full of vintage clothing.

He noticed Sage then, a small smile playing on his weathered lips.

“If I didn’t rein her in, we’d live in a house made of wool,” he whispered, gaze set fondly on the woman haggling with the vendor next to them.

“I have to disagree with you.” Sage leaned over and told him, “You can never have too many blankets, in my opinion. Reading blankets, bed blankets, rainy day blankets, sunny day blankets. I could go on and on.”

He chuckled at her, but his gaze was all for his wife, and silence settled.

“You an out-of-towner?” he asked as if he already knew the answer.

Sage nodded. “Yeah. And it’s so good to see the sunshine, yeah? I was almost getting tired of that blizzard,” Sage admitted, depending on her favorite small talk topic, the weather.

The old man laughed. “Well, I can definitely tell you’re not from around here. We’ve had basically a whole week of sunshine. Plenty for me. The kids are ready for the next snow too,” the old man explained.

Sage cocked her head to the side. “At the cabin I was staying in, it’s been snowing nonstop. This is some of the first sunshine I’ve seen in days.”

Mountains must have some funky wea—

“I don’t know what mountain you were staying on, miss, but that blizzard, as you keep callin’ it, was nothing more than a little storm. Hardly lasted two days.”

Her stomach churned in a funny way, but she tried to laugh it off.

“Well, maybe I’m just loving it so much it followed me to my dreams,” she teased.

But in her mind, she was rationalizing. Or trying to. But her stomach was winding tighter and tighter.

She searched the crowd for Soren, but had no luck. Wherever he’d disappeared to, it was out of sight.

“Oh, Carl, look at this,” a woman’s voice called out, and the old man she’d been speaking to rolled his eyes.

“I bet you a cup of hot chocolate it’s something wool. Time to put the wallet to use. Have a good stay, miss.”

The man went over to his wife and laughed at the shirt she’d picked out. The woman smacked his chest as they teased each other, and their adoration for each other shone brightly in their expressions.

It made her chest ache, and the pit in her stomach twisted again.

Her mind fell to their conversation about the storm, and she was pulling her phone out before she could stop herself. Finding the contact she wanted to talk to was easy, she’d done it hundreds of times.

This was almost a time she wished she didn’t have to.

“Hey, East Coast,” Gabi greeted her. “West Coast here. How big is the dick of the guy in the cabin? You find out yet?”

Sage shook her head at Gabi’s greeting and moved away from the crowd. Outside was much quieter, and even though she stood out like a sore thumb against the building, at least she could hear.

“I need you to do me a favor,” Sage said.

She heard shuffling over the line, and Gabi suddenly sounded a lot closer. “Sage? What’s wrong?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it yet. Do you have your laptop handy?”