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“I guess either, really. I don’t have a lot of money, but I do have a job lined up when I get to Arizona, so as long as the payments weren’t too high, I could probably swing something...”
“There’s no need for you to worry about anything like that right now,” Hazel said quickly, looking over at me. “I saw that there’s not really any way to get too far out of town right now with all the flooding—so maybe you should wait a little longer?”
I smiled, seeing her giving me a hopeful look. “I guess we could just not worry about it today. I haven’t told Leia that I’m leaving soon anyway. She’s adamant that I wait until everything is good and clear. She’s also offered to just fly me out to Arizona.”
“That might be easier,” Hazel agreed, shrugging her shoulders. “But I still don’t think you should leave yet.”
“I’ll have to go at some point,” I said quietly as we pulled into the town. It was empty, and none of the businesses had power. The businesses all had signs hanging in the windows and there was literally hardlyanyother vehicles. It felt like a ghost town.
“We’ll have to drive to Harper,” Hazel sighed. “I know that they have power. It won’t be flooded back east, anyway. We should be fine to drive that way.”
“How far of a drive is it?”
“Only about fifteen minutes.” Hazel turned east at the stop sign and hit the gas. “I just can’t believe how wiped out our little town is from all of this. It’s just crazy. It’s the longest I’ve ever seen the town go without power...” her voice trailed off as we zoomed out of the tiny town.
I gazed out the window, my eyes scanning the lush green pastures, most of which had some amount of flooding. It was honestly a pretty area, and for a brief moment, my mind wondered what it would be like if...
If I just stayed.
That can’t happen. Wade doesn’t want me to stay.
“Back to what we were talking about, though,” Hazel said, grabbing my attention. “Why do you have to go to Arizona?”
“Uh...” my voice trailed off, feeling like she had just read my mind. “My sister lives in Arizona, and like, I said, I do have a job lined up. My sister opened a café on the outskirts of the town, and she has a job for me there, working as the manager.”
“That’s great, but is that what you want to do with your life?”
I hesitated. “I don’t really know what you mean? I just want to build a life for myself outside the reservation really. I’ll take that however it looks.”
“So then why not stay?”
“I can’t stay.”
“Why?”
“Because Wade wouldn’t want me to,” I blurted out, clamping my hand over my mouth as soon as the words left my mouth. Embarrassment rushed to my cheeks as Hazel looked over at me.
“I think he’s coming around,” she said quietly. “He did get his heart broken pretty bad in college, but he hasn’t really dated ever since then. He hasn’t even brought someone back to the house in years. We pretty much just assumed that he might never actually be with anyone, forever living on the empty wing of the house.”
“That’s depressing,” I snorted, shaking my head. “He clearly wants a family, you know. He mentioned it on our ride.”
“You two would makeadorablebabies.”
“I don’t want kids,” I said quickly, putting that fire out before it ever even started. “I don’t want to end up like my parents. It’s just a thing of mine.”
“The right person can change everything, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess, but not for me.”
Not that Wade is the right person—he’s not...
Well, I don’t think so.
I don’t know.
My head felt like it was spinning, and I was thankful for the silence as we finally pulled into the grocery store in Harper. The town was busier than August, and I was thankful to see faces other than the Littletons and their employees. They were great people, but...
But I needed to be remindedwhyI needed to leave this place.
