AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ashley, come on. Let’s just stop and get the key from Ryan at the station. You can stay in the car and I’ll run in.”
“No.” The word leaves my mouth so fast my head spins. “He’ll think something’s up and want to come out and see me. Just please take me to my car.”
“Isn’t it snowed in?”
“Jesus, Ally, please!” I yell, almost at my breaking point. “Please. I need to get out of here.”
“Fine. But we’ll have to stop and get Jake’s truck. He has a plow on the front.”
“Whatever.” Leaning my head against the window, I let the cold glass sooth my pounding head.
When we pull up to her house, she releases a breath. “Good, he just came right home before. He should be in his garage now, so I’m just going to run in and steal his spare key.”
Nodding, I watch as she goes inside her house. Her house. Which is Jake’s house, but they’ve made it theirs now. A stabbing pain hits my chest, and I lose my breath for a second.
I’ll never have that.
Ally comes running out and opens my door to help me out. I honestly don’t think I could walk on my own right now.
She shoves me up into the cab of the truck, and rounds the front to hop in herself.
“Okay, so Jake let me drive, uh, once. But don’t worry, he showed me how to work the plow in case I ever needed to and he wasn’t around.”
“Great,” I say flatly, not really caring about what she’s saying.
With a sigh, Ally starts the monstrous pickup truck, and we make our way through the pine tree lined streets of Pine Cove. The roads are mostly cleared of the three feet of snow, but there’s still a thin layer of snow packed neatly on top for traction. It crunches beneath the tires as we drive the winding roads for what will probably be my last time.
I’m going to miss seeing these beautiful trees covered in snow. I’m going to miss a lot of things about this town.
I don’t want to think about the fact that I’ll have to come back in the fall for Ally and Jake’s wedding and see Ryan again. He’ll be standing at the alter with his brother, looking sexy in a tux, and I’ll be standing with Ally trying not to cry.
“Shit.”
“What?” I ask absentmindedly, just watching the landscape go by in a blur of white. How mistaken I was to think snow was magic.
“Nothing. I just forgot how long Dottie’s driveway is. But at least half of it was already plowed by you know who when he–”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Ally masterfully pushes the snow away as we make our way down Dottie’s driveway, and I’m impressed with how she managed to get the hang of it so quickly.
When the little blue cottage comes into view, I breathe a sigh of relief.
I can leave.
I can try and start forgetting everything that’s happened.
But when we make it all the way to the end, my moral is dimmed when I see the state of my car. It’s literally buried.
“Oh my God.”
“It’s okay. We’ll dig it out,” she assures.
Reaching out, I curl my hand around her arm. “Thanks, Ally. For everything.”
“Anything, Ash,” she says simply, but it means so much.
Hopping down out of the truck, Ally takes two shovels from the back and we start at digging out my car.
