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When I hear the bathroom door open, I pounce, passing Cole in the doorway. “My turn,” I chirp. Once behind the door, I let the fake smile fall, along with my blanket.
I pull my hair into a puff of frizzy curls, knowing I’m doing that both to hurry and because the frizz is from Cole’s hands and I stupidly don’t want to let that go yet. I take a speed shower, get dressed, and shove my toiletries into my suitcase. One last glance around the bathroom and it, too, looks empty and uninhabited. I pile up the towels in front of the still-running washer and grab my bag.
In the living room, I find Cole sitting on the couch, his elbows resting on his spread knees and his eyes unfocused as he stares into the cold, black fireplace.
“I’m ready. Out by ten a.m. like Anderson said,” I announce cheerfully as I drag my suitcase to the front door.
“Here. Let me,” Cole says as he reaches for my bag.
I keep pulling it along. “No worries. I’ve got it. Been hauling this thing around myself for ages. One time, I had to roll it through the airport, bumping around this way and that, trying not to take out any kids, only to find out that it was overweight at the boarding gate. They said it was too heavy and made me check it. I mean, the weight is on the plane either way, whether it’s below in the cargo area or in the overhead bins, so I don’t know why it mattered, but rules are rules, ya know? And it would’ve fit in the overhead! It’s a small bag. I think it was heavy because I was bringing back rocks from the beach. But it’s lighter now, no rocks at all this time. Though I did take a leaf from the tree by the back porch as a keepsake. It’s pressed into one of my books. I want to save it to remember this trip—I mean, the pretty forest.”
I stop rambling, mostly because I’ve said too much about what this trip meant to me, but also because I’ve bump-bumped my suitcase to the back of my car. “Sioux-B, you ready to make that scary drive back through the woods again?” I ask her as I lift the bag into the SUV. It was nice to have Cole help with things this week, but I’m used to taking care of things myself and being self-sufficient, and it’s time to get back to that.
Which is totally fine. I’m good at it.
I slam the hatchback and turn to Cole. “Thank you. What you did for me this week means more than you’ll ever understand, and I really appreciate it,” I say with a true smile. “Thanks for not letting a teensy-weensy, unimportant thing like a bear spray attack-slash-introduction get in the way of our being friends.”
I lift up to my toes, throwing my arms over his broad shoulders for a hug. I feel his palm cup my hip and wait for the squeeze, but it doesn’t come. Not this time. He hugs me back politely, like a gentleman and nothing more. Like this morning didn’t happen.
“Wait.”
Hope springs in my heart. Is he going to say something meaningful? Or do something sweet? Maybe he changed his mind and wants to stay in this fantasy world too?
He hustles toward his truck and digs around in the back seat for something. He comes back with a little white card which he holds out to me. “Here.”
I take the card and look at it uncertainly.
Cole Harrington
555-349-8731
It’s his business card. He’s giving me his business card.
I swallow thickly and force a smile to my lips. “Thanks. Yeah, I uh... thanks, Cole.” I put the card in my back pocket and try to figure out what to do now. I’ve already said thank you and hugged him goodbye. The only thing left to do is... leave.
“Well, uh... ’bye, I guess.”
He opens my door for me, waits for me to get in, and then closes the door too. All perfectly kind, and I’m doing okay until he taps Sioux-B’s roof. “Drive safe,” he says.
I look up one more time into his blue eyes, which are emotionless and empty. His jaw is set, and his lips are pressed together. He looks... cold. Like a stranger. Nothing like the man who grinned up at me from between my legs hours ago.
Grimly, I drive away, slowly and carefully adding distance between us as I make my way through the forest and back to the main road.
“Let’s go home, Sioux-B,” I tell my car.
Hopefully, I can get to the main road before the tears start. That’d be helpful, at least. No way can I get safely down this trail otherwise.
I almost make it too.
CHAPTER13
COLE
“Drive. Safe. Fucking drive safe?”I say out loud, watching the taillights disappear into the trees. “What the fuck was that?” I’m apparently taking a play from Janey’s book and talking to myself now.
I don’t know what happened between sitting down to breakfast and Janey turning into a cleaning Tasmanian devil, but I’m sure I fucked up somewhere. She asked about me texting her, and I wanted to say yes. Fuck knows, I want to text her. I want to follow her home, see where she lives, make her come in her own bed. Hell, I want to do laundry and go to the grocery store with her.
But I shouldn’t, and I know that.
