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My ex-husband’s responding smile is tight and forced. “Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s going to happen. We just need to get back on the road.” Davis’s body is a rock wall in the chair beside me. “As soon as possible.”
14
DAVIS
After the four of us have finished eating our tense breakfast, all squished around the small dining room table, Jimmy and I move into the living room. The girls have disappeared into the kitchen, and it sounds like they’re doing dishes, cleaning up, and getting to know one another.
I offered to help with cleanup but Rainbow quickly shooed me away, telling me she wanted more ‘girl time’ to get to know Alana.
Silently, I’m thankful for that because right now, my brain is a mess. My ex-wife just confessed that she still has sex dreams about me. She told me she hasn’t been with another man in the four years since our marriage ended.
What the hell am I supposed to do with that information?!
Now, all I can think of is getting her alone and reclaiming her perfect body for myself, reminding her of exactly how I made her mine to begin with, proving to her that no other man can ever make her scream with pleasure the way I always did.
What kind of territorial idiot am I? The woman walked away from me. Clearly, she doesn’t want to be mine.
Being stuck in that cabin with her overnight really fucked up my brain. I’ve got to get my head screwed on straight. Quick.
I force myself to put my ex-wife out of my mind and focus on the phone call Jimmy’s making. He puts the call on speaker phone when the sheriff answers.
Jimmy explains the circumstances—Alana and me being trapped here when we should be at my brother’s wedding. The sheriff informs Jimmy that dozens of out-of-towners are stranded here in Starlight Falls. Something to do with that chakra revival festival Ziggy was talking about.
I stand nearby, arms folded as the men talk like old friends, no real sense of urgency in their conversation.
“I know, Jimmy. I wish I had better news for you today,” the sheriff is saying. “It looks like we won’t be able to clear the road for another few days. At best.”
Is he for real?
Losing my patience, I snap. “That’s ridiculous,” I bark out, interrupting the conversation, unable to contain my frustration. “A main roadway being blocked like this? Trapping an entire town? Cutting them off from the rest of the state? That’s a major safety risk, Sheriff, and it’s unacceptable.”
The phone falls silent.
The man clears his throat. “Chief Deputy Sheriff Westbrook, am I right? I empathize with your circumstances, and I apologize for the inconvenience. You’re right about the safety liabilities, but my hands are tied. Starlight Falls is a small town with an even smaller budget, and we don’t own the right equipment to handle this sort of disaster. We normally rent equipment from the neighboring towns to make up for our resource problems. But with the road being blocked, that creates another logistics nightmare.”
I grind my teeth and Jimmy takes back over the conversation, asking questions and offering his thoughts.I fume quietly, pacing the room as I listen on.
I’m being an asshole. I need to calm myself the heck down. Maybe even to empathize with the officials tasked with handling this shitshow.
Small town inefficiencies are a problem faced by most of these tiny communities across the state. I have statistics and data up the wazoo about these types of budget issues.
But I also know whatIwould do to avoid situations like this one. I’ve got a whole notebook full of ideas for fixing small town problems. It’s a list I started brainstorming more than four years ago.
It blows my mind how the mayors running all these communities can’t ever manage to come up with effective solutions. It’s like they don’t even give a shit.
The call ends, and Jimmy looks at me with an apologetic expression on his weathered face. “Sorry you didn’t get the news you were hoping for.” He claps me on the shoulder.
I exhale heavily. “Thanks for trying, Jimmy.” I glance off toward the kitchen. “I’ve got to go find Alana and break the bad news to her.”
He gives me a nod and I wander down the hallway in search of my current-fake-wife-slash-used-to-be-real-wife. Just thinking about the title gives me a headache. I don’t know if I have it in me to keep up this charade for one day longer.
Especially after hearing her say she still dreams about me. I replay her confession and I bitterly hate the thread of hope trying to knit itself into my chest.
Task at hand, Davis. Task at hand.
I snip the thread with imaginary scissors and bring myself back to the moment. I’ve got to tell her that we’ll be stuck in this town for a few more days. Which is a few days too late. The big wedding is the day after tomorrow, and my younger brother is going to be so pissed at me for missing everything.
In the kitchen, I find Rainbow brewing tea out of a mix of strange-looking leaves and roots sitting on the counter. “Hello, there,” she greets me pleasantly, “would you like some of my kundalini balancing elixir?”
