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“We went out for dinner,” I said. “We came home.”
“Right. But this morning when I came to wake you up, you weren’t in your room. So, you really could have only been in one other place.”
I squeezed my eyes closed so I didn’t have to look at him. “Yeah. I was with Izzy.”
“Usually I’d congratulate you, and ask for the details but … she’s my cousin.”
Opening my eyes again, I said, “Am I about to get another lecture?”
“No,” he laughed. “No lectures. I was wrong to think you’d hurt her. I mean, I knew you’d never purposely do that, but I was worried that maybe she would fall for you more than you fell for her.”
“Well that didn’t happen. Look at me, I’m a wreck.”
“Yeah you are. It’s embarrassing, really.”
“Well what about you?” I said. “You didn’t look so happy to say goodbye to Willow last night.”
His cheeks coloured a little. “Oh come on, man, don’t go there!”
“I’m gonna! You really like her, huh?”
“Yeah. She’s awesome. I didn’t expect to like her so much, but she’s a cool chick.”
It was like witnessing history. Hunter finding a girl he liked enough to blush over.
After silently telling each other we’d support each other – an important part of the Bro Code – Hunter said, “I’ll go get us some coffee.”
Because I couldn’t carry anything on my crutches, we had to pile all of our bags onto a trolley, and while Hunter went to grab our drinks, I sat down beside our luggage and tried to get a hold on my myself. Setting my crutches to one side, I reached for my backpack. I’d slung a bottle of water in there the night before. As I rummaged around inside, my hand brushed against a piece of paper that wasn’t in there when I checked my hand luggage earlier. My fingers tightened around it, and I pulled it out of the bag.
In my hand were two photographs, paperclipped together, with a note scrawled onto a piece of pale yellow note paper. It read, “I couldn’t hide myself in your backpack, so these will have to do. Love always, Izzy xx.”
I smiled as I pulled the note away from the photos so I could see the image in front of me. It was a close up shot of Isabelle and me wearing our Winter Wonderland hats. We were laughing, and Izzy’s brown eyes were filled with glee at making me put a reindeer hat on my head. I rested the first picture on my lap to look at the second, and a weird, shuddering sigh left my body as I focused on the perfection. It was the photo that had fallen out of Isabelle’s portfolio the first time she’d shown it to me. The photo of her sitting on a tree stump, that had taken my breath away.
She must have dragged herself out of bed while I was having breakfast to slip them into my backpack.
I was lucky. My vacation had been fun, exciting, dangerous and depressing at times, too. I didn’t know whether I’d ever play soccer again. That was a question mark I’d have hanging over my head for a long time. But I would see Isabelle again.
Yeah. I was lucky.
THE END
