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thirty-one
Callie
I’ve done this drive a time or two, so it’s nothing for me. I stop at all my favorite spots to collect candies for Aviva and Nico and some for myself. I got some awesome bread from this Amish place, and Evan stopped by a winery to get wine for Aviva and Angie. I’m excited to go home and spend time with Vance, but also, my old coach, Amelia, is going to come train with me. Since she is so kind, I made sure Evan got her a bottle of wine too. I may get her something for all her kids too. She’s apparently raising the next starting line for the IceCats.
“I think they have Bigfoot-shaped pastries at the Bigfoot spot where Aviva wants us to stop for a picture, so we’ll get her some of those.”
Evan laughs as he takes pictures of the goodies we got at the Amish place. “We’ll have to get Owen some too. I told him we were doing this, and he laughed way too hard.”
“Because it’s downright foolish. You know she told me the other day that Bigfoot is actually an alien.”
Evan shrugs. “Hey, I believe it.”
I snort. “You’re a dork too!”
“Whatever, man. I should have gotten more of this bread. Owen just said he wants the loaf.”
“He can have half. That’s Aviva’s favorite.”
“That’s what I told him,” he says, moving everything to the back. “You good?”
“Yup. I figure you can drive the other half.”
“Are we driving through or getting a hotel?”
I shrug. “What do you want to do?” He winks at me, and I laugh from the depths of my soul at the look on his face. God, I love his dimples! “I don’t even know why I asked.”
“What? I am just a man who likes to share a bed with my lady.”
I snort. “I am not a lady when we are in bed.”
He points at me, grinning. “You got that right. So I’ll book a room in Bigfoot’s hut? I’ll make you howl like he does.” I don’t know how I even understand him, he’s laughing so hard. I roll my eyes. Though, it’s all for show.
He makes me all gooey inside.
Once his laughter subsides, he asks, “So, hotel?”
“Sure. Remind me to text Aviva, or do it for me.”
I see him visibly pause. “Like, you want me to touch your phone?”
“Yeah,” I say, throwing it in his lap. “The code is 3425.”
I see him out of the corner of my eye as he does as I ask. He places my phone in the cupholder and then picks his up. “I’m gonna find a hotel.”
“Okay,” I say. Then I can’t help it, I have to ask, “Why are you being weird?”
He gives me a puzzled look. “Huh?”
“You acted as if you didn’t want to use my phone.”
“I thought girls didn’t like it when guys touched their phones.”
“Girls with something to hide, maybe. But what do I have to hide?”
I see his lip quirk a bit, and he nods. “I know you don’t. It just caught me off guard.”
I reach over, taking his hand in mine and bringing it to my lips. He laces his fingers with mine, and I lay our hands in my lap as I drive. I can feel him watching me, but I don’t say anything or look over at him. He needs to process, and I’m okay with that. When he looks away, I smile to myself as I drive.
“I got a room in Marion,” he says, adjusting himself. He doesn’t fit well in my Jeep. He’s rather large, but he’s making do and seems to be in a great mood. We’ve joked, we’ve sung to my playlist, and we’ve talked about everything. We’ve done us, and I can’t get enough of us. “My mom wouldn’t stay there since they don’t have a Marriott. She’s a bit of a hotel snob.”
“No way. I would never guess that,” I tease, and he laughs.
“I’ll probably fly back when it’s time for you to drive home so we can do this again.”
I send him a wide grin. “Aw, are you having fun?”
“Yeah,” he says, squeezing my hand. “A bit. But that’ll change if I don’t see Bigfoot.”
I love the sound of his laugh.
We make it to the Bigfoot town, as my sister calls it, and the first thing we do is send her a photo with one of the many Bigfoot statues. Within seconds, we make it a goal to get a photo with every statue in town. It’s absolutely ridiculous, but she eats it up. If I’m honest, so do I. After getting dinner, we head to the bakery for all things Bigfoot. The laughing we do is probably my favorite thing about the whole trip. We take goofy pictures with all the pastries and even eat some before packing everything up to head to the hotel to check in.
The town is quiet as we walk to where we parked the car. Lights hang over the street, and Christmas music is playing. It’s basically the setting for a Hallmark movie. I’m waiting for some uptight boss lady to come in from New York and meet that pain-in-the-ass boyfriend she left behind. Until I do, though, I cuddle with Evan as we walk. It’s freezing, but it’s tolerable when you’re engulfed in the arms of a super-hot stud. He kisses me on top of my head, and I cuddle into his chest as we walk.
We reach the Jeep just as I see a frozen pond that some kids are coming off. “Look, Evan!” He looks to where I’m pointing, and he actually smiles. “I’ve never seen a frozen pond! Have you?”
He nods, very reserved. “Yeah, I grew up skating on them when we would go to Boston for Christmas.”
“We should go skate!”
He doesn’t seem to think so. He looks between me and the pond and then shrugs. “We don’t have any skates.”
“We don’t need them,” I say, setting the bag in the back before jogging toward the front of the Jeep. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
I wait for a second as he continues to stare past me at the pond. When he looks back at me, he says, “I don’t think I can.”
I take a deep breath. “You can,” I remind him. “No sticks, no pads, no rink, no pressure, no plays, no fans. Just us two having fun.”
He swallows hard before he meets my gaze. He doesn’t say anything, so I walk toward him, taking his hand in mine.
“Just us.”
Evan clasps our fingers together, looking out at the frozen water. “I don’t know.”
