Total pages in book: 17
Estimated words: 15404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 15404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 77(@200wpm)___ 62(@250wpm)___ 51(@300wpm)
She casts a gaze towards the house, and her face softens.
"But I met my husband," she explains. "And I saw that there was a whole lot of room for change in this place, you know? Not just for myself, but for other people. There are things that I learned before I came here, stuff that I brought to this place that I would never have had the chance to really use before. Skills that I can use to make people’s lives better..."
She gestures around.
"Like this place," she explains. "A little mindfulness retreat, somewhere people can come when they need space to clear their minds and connect with their peace again..."
She gives me a look out of the corner of her eye, and I can tell she’s checking to see if I have clocked her use of such modern words. We might not be saying it out loud specifically, but both of us know what she’s saying.
And her words make some kind of sense to me. There’s so much that I could bring to this place – so much knowledge, so much learning, so much opportunity, if I play my cards right.
What was it he was saying to me earlier about the girls not getting education around these parts? Maybe I could change that. If Riley has managed to make a life here, there’s a chance I could, too...
"You think there might be room for...for other people to help out here?" I ask hopefully. A little glimmer shimmers inside my chest, of hope, of something that actually feels like roots being thrust down into the earth below me.
She grins.
"Look, I don’t know where you came from," Riley admits. "Or how you got here, or even if you want to stay. But as long as you’re here...as long as you’re here, we could use someone to help out. What exactly is it you...did, back where you came from?”
"I taught. I was a teacher."
Her face lights up, and she clasps her hands together, shooting a look back towards the house.
"That’s amazing," she tells me, lowering her voice as she leans forward. "Ever since I had my daughter, I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to be able to provide her an education, you know – not just giving her all the skills she needs to get by, God knows her father can handle that, but..."
She pauses for a moment, considering how best to put it.
"But to show her that there’s more to her than this world might have her believe," she explains, gesturing around. "As a woman, I mean. I don’t want her to feel limited by this place. Shit, I don’t want that for anyone."
Her grin broadens.
"And best way to dodge that is with a real education, right?"
Warmth blossoms inside of me at her words. She’s right. My experience with English Literature might not exactly be what this place needs, but it’s something – it's a way to give these girls the language they need to get by, to understand this world a little better, maybe buck against their place in it a little. There’s change to be made here, and I might be the one with the tools to make it happen.
"Right," I agree. And, even though that one little word might not sound like much – to me, it contains multitudes.
CHAPTER 6
Kim
Ihesitate as I linger outside the door, not certain whether I am ready to actually knock and make my presence known yet. There’s a part of me, of course, that wants nothing more than to join him and tell him everything that’s on my mind.
But I don’t know if he is entirely ready for it.
I peer around the door to Cade’s room, where I catch sight of him sitting on the edge of his bed, stripped to the waist, fresh from a wash in the nearby river.
It’s hard not to notice the slight glisten of water on his bare chest, and remember just how good it felt beneath my fingertips, but I brush it aside swiftly.
The floorboard creaks below me, and he glances up just in time to catch me lingering there in the door. I offer him a slightly-apologetic smile.
"Hey," I murmur. "Sorry to disturb you. Do you mind...do you mind if I come in?”
For a second, I think he is going to tell me to leave. He’s been keeping things pretty monosyllabic with me since we got back from visiting his brother and Riley, as though he wants rid of me more than anything in the world. But, to my surprise, something in him seems to soften, and he cocks an eyebrow and jerks his head to indicate I can enter.
"What’s wrong?" he asks, as he rises to his feet, reaching for a shirt.
"Does something have to be wrong?" I ask him, with a slight laugh. I’m nervous, being alone with him like this, especially when he has his shirt off, and especially especially when he looks as good as he does underneath it.