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I pushed up on my turn signal to use the exit ramp to head to the rest stop.
“I have a meeting with the head of the state audit office forty-five minutes before our meeting. It’s unrelated to the festival, but that’s why I wanted to get there so early.”
I knew that this truth would have to come out eventually, but I braced myself for Blaire to realize I had misled her.
“Is the meeting really unrelated to the festival?” Blaire looked at me speculatively as she opened the door to get out of the car at the rest stop.
“Yes, it is. I have an opportunity to take a job with the state office after the first of the year, and I just have a few questions about the contract. Since we were going to be there anyway, they suggested we just meet in person.” I answered her question over the hood of the car, stretching after spending so much time tensed at the steering wheel and heading toward the door of the rest stop.
Blaire stopped midway through putting on her winter coat.
“You’re leaving Winterberry Glen? To work for the state audit office?”
“It’s looking likely,” I responded as I stepped up to her and pulled her coat the rest of the way onto her shoulders. It really was cold out with the impending snow. I couldn’t stop myself from trying to take care of her. She looked so surprised at the news. I felt like I should crack open my doors a bit for her—explain why this is the next step for me.
“I know you love Holly Ridge and always wanted to go back there, but I never intended to stay in Winterberry Glen for this long. It’s...time to move on.”
I shrugged, and realizing I was still holding the front of Blaire’s coat, I let go and started walking toward the rest stop door.
Blaire fell in step beside me but was silent as we approached the building. I opened the door to let her in before me. “Meet you back here in a few minutes?”
Blaire nodded and headed off to the women’s room while I headed toward the men’s room. Had I imagined a bit of disappointment behind Blaire’s surprise that I would leave my hometown? I must have. If she was successful in pulling off the festival, that meant I’d be out of her hair if I stayed, and we’d have no reason to stay in touch. Since the success of the festival and continued existence of her town was her end goal, she had to be hoping to be rid of me.
I didn’t see Blaire when I exited the men’s room, so I headed to the convenience store and grabbed a bottle of water for me and a Diet Coke for Blaire. At the last second, I grabbed the trail mix I noticed Blaire eating at several of our meetings. As I headed back toward the parking lot, I saw Blaire standing outside in her coat and what I had to admit was an adorable pom beanie, staring up at the sky, which had started to emit light flurries of snowflakes.
“Trying to catch a snowflake on your tongue?”
Blaire started, obviously not hearing me approach her from behind. I noticed a few snowflakes caught on her eyelashes and in the hair framing her face, and I found myself wanting to brush them away, just as an excuse to touch her again.
“No,” she smiled indulgently at me. “Just looking at the clouds, trying to figure out if these are just flurries or the start of that storm that’s headed our way.”
“All the weather reports say the storm is starting overnight tonight, so we should be back home before anything gets too bad.”
“Whatever you say, Thomas. Shall we get back on the road, so you can make your meeting?” Blaire responded, the smug look on her face not matching her response, turning to head back toward the car.
I guess Blaire had processed my news about the job and wasn’t impressed with my intentions of taking it, but was deciding to let the issue drop. I tried to keep my emotions tamped down, knowing we still had lots of one-on-one time left today. Why did I care what she thought about my future plans, anyway? Why did I want her to be more openly disappointed that I was leaving, or at least offer her opinion on the whole thing? It’s not like she’s ever kept her opinion to herself before this.
I started the car and turned on the radio for the first time on the trip. I focused on getting us out of the parking lot and merged back onto the highway. After a little while, I heard Blaire snicker from the passenger seat.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“Blaire. What?”
“I was right that you’re a ten-and-two driver, but I thought the radio would stay off the entire time. But now, I’m realizing it’s tuned to NPR, which is basically the station equivalent of silence, so I guess I wasn’t too far off.”
“Let me guess,” I responded, feeling my mood lift now that we were returning to our familiar sparring instead of her brooding silence. “If you were driving, we would still be in the middle of an epic holiday music playlist you had curated just for this trip?”
“It’s after Thanksgiving! It’s socially acceptable for me to listen to my holiday music playlists around other people now!” Blaire responded, seeming to revel in our back and forth as much as I was.
I shook my head.
“Seasonal music hasn’t really been my thing for a long time. I have an investing podcast, or a new episode of my favorite true crime podcast lined up, if you’d like to listen to that instead.”
“Cole Thomas, a true crime podcast fan? That does surprise me,” Blaire teased.
“I like to try to figure things out, especially if there’s a money trail to follow.”
