Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91490 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“It will be worth the wait,” Worth says. “We’re proud of you.”
“I’m not proud of you,” Jack says. “I think you need to get your ass back to the city and stop fucking around.”
“Well, this has been fun,” I say. “But I have my ass to save right here in Colorado. Speak to you soon, guys. Send my love to Sophia, Worth.”
I hang up the call, but I can’t wipe the grin from my face. No, I can’t go to Worth’s tonight and ask my friends about the right move after a night like the one Rosey and I shared. Still, it’s good to know they’re on the end of the phone if I need them. It’s good to know they’re there.
I’ll have to figure the Rosey stuff out on my own. Or maybe—and this is a big maybe—I’ll get to do it with Rosey.
NINETEEN
Rosey
I stay on the bus until the stop in town after my shift. The first place I’m going to check for Athena is the vet’s office to see if she’s been handed in. Then I’ll go check at home, do laundry, and figure out what to do about the ceiling in the cabin. Byron said he’d call Mike and Beth, but he’s got bigger things to worry about. The truth is, I want to make sure I have a place to stay tonight without having to rely on Byron. He shouldn’t feel any obligation to put a roof over my head, despite the way things have… shifted since last night. I want to be able to stand on my own two feet. I don’t want to have other people solve my problems. I want to figure this out for myself.
As I arrive at the vet, Donna is just putting up the Closed sign. She opens the door for me anyway.
“Hey, how was the storm for you?” she asks.
“Okay. A leaky roof. You?”
“A few things in the yard got tossed around. I’ve seen worse.”
“Athena—you know, the cat that adopted me—disappeared. She was with me during the storm but fled right after. I wondered if someone had brought her in.”
“Oh no. I’m sorry. No, no one brought her in. Honestly, we haven’t had any animals brought in at all. I thought there might be some injuries.” She shrugs. “Fred had some callouts to the ranches farther out of town. That’s it.” She closes the door behind her and locks up. “I’ll let you know if anyone brings her in tomorrow, though.”
“Thanks. You off work now?” I ask.
Her eyes grow wide and she smiles conspiratorially. “I am. I’m headed over to Valley Park.” She says it like I should know what that means. “Apparently a huge RV parked up there, just showed up out of nowhere. Marge says it’s so big and fancy, it must have cost more than a million dollars. I want to see it for myself.”
“Tourists?” I ask.
She leans forward. “No one knows. No one has seen anyone come or go from there. Marge says it’s the government, but I don’t see why it can’t be someone just wanting to spend some time in this beautiful town of ours.”
Her phone rings and she answers. We start to walk toward the market.
“Are you serious?” she says. “There are two? I’m definitely coming. I might just knock on the door and see who the hell is in there. Okay, I’ll see you in ten minutes.” She hangs up. “Did you hear that?” she asks. Before I can answer, she adds, “There’s two of ’em now. Two million-dollar RVs. Another one pulled up right next to the first.”
“That’s weird,” I say. “Could be tourists passing through on some kind of cross-country trip.”
“Right. But maybe not,” she says conspiratorially. “You wanna come see?”
A warm feeling nuzzles inside me at the thought of going with her. She likes me. And from what little I know of her, I like Donna, too. “I can’t,” I say. “I have to fix up the cabin. But thanks for asking. You’ll have to let me know what you find. Be careful.”
“Oh, I’m going with Marge. She’s used to hunting wild boar. I’ll be completely safe with her.”
Wild boar? Is that… a thing around here? I make a mental note to ask Byron when I see him.
“You don’t know where I might buy a dehumidifier, do you?” I ask.
“Go see Betty in the hardware store.” She nods her head to the left. “She’ll fix you up.”
Ron the taxi driver helps me bring the dehumidifier up the steps. Before I go inside, I check around the outside of the cabin for Athena.
“Athena!” I call. Maybe I’ll set out some food for her on the porch and see if that entices her back. “Athena!”
I wrestle the dehumidifier into my bedroom, which thankfully still has an intact ceiling, then check the pot I left under the leak. I emptied the overflowing pot this morning, before I went to the Colorado Club. There’s been no rain since, but I expected residual water to drip through the morning.