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“Done.” Thatcher grinned, squeezing Trinity’s neck in a hug so tight she grunted, pushing at his chest. “Celebrating is exactly what we need.”
I’d take it. Nothing ever stayed good for long, not in this cursed town.
Astrid had been quiet, just smiling at Trinity. On our way out, I caught her hand, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
Yeah, I’d hold onto the good with both hands as long as possible.
“These parts aren’t going to stock themselves,” Rhys grunted as he hefted a large box up the ladder.
“Sorry,” I muttered, snapping myself out of my thoughts.
But seriously, how was he even concentrating right now? We were graduating this weekend. That was two days away.
Two.
Granted, we had all kind of agreed to stay in Denver, but it still felt like a huge milestone.
“Has your mom tried to talk to you at all?” I asked, shamelessly saving the heavier boxes for him, and focusing on the smaller boxes for the lower shelves.
I didn’t feel a bit guilty about that since he worked out regularly and the only thing I consistently worked out was my mouth and my pen.
Smirking, I grabbed several hand sized boxes.
“Is that hilarious?”
“Hm?” I glanced up as he came back down the stairs.
“Is talking to my mom funny? You’re making this weird face.” He gestured to my still in place smirk.
“Oh.” I scrub a hand over my face getting rid of the offending smile. “Sorry, my brain had already moved onto other things. But back to your mom. Has she tried to talk to you?”
We resumed pulling boxes off the damned squeaky cart.
“No. But I’m not surprised. She’s been pretty self-absorbed for the last few years. I think she’s still in denial with what’s going on with Dad.” He shook his head.
“Yeah, I get that.” I didn’t really, but I could empathize with what that might feel like. “Does she know you’re going to move out soon?”
“Nope, and that’s probably not going to change unless I walk up to her, force her to look me in the eye, and hand her my keys. At least I’m not in a situation like Astrid was. My car title was already in my name, and I easily started a phone plan for myself. My dad's financial advisor started building credit for me at sixteen.”
I stopped for a minute.
Most of the time it was easy to forget the way our childhoods have been different. I mean, he did drip money from the clothes he wore to the car he drove, even the sports he played. But all that faded into the background of who he was.
Rhys Bennett was a down to earth, quiet guy, who didn’t rub wealth in anyone’s face.
I dropped my chin, laughing under my breath.
“Are you going to fill me in on what’s so funny?” He didn’t even look at me this time.
“Nope. I’m not. It’s just my brain fritzing being so close to graduation. Random things keep popping in, pushing out everything else.” I twirled a finger next to my temple.
“It’s crazy, right? We’re almost done with Silver Ranch. Forever.”
“Forever. Definitely, forever.” Not that I hadn’t amassed a great amount of good memories over senior year, especially since Astrid knocked my speech notes out of my hand on the first day.
But there was more bad there than good. And I was too anxious and excited to build only good memories somewhere else.
I wasn’t naive in thinking nothing bad would never happen to me again. Life was like that, with constant ups and downs. The downs made you more grateful for the ups. The ups motivated you to get through the downs.
