Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
And right at that moment, he was being the same pain in the ass I knew and loved because his heart was in the right place.
There was no hiding that I was sad they were leaving—not from his nose and not from eyes that had known me for most of our lives. I wouldn’t cry about it, I didn’t think. This wasn’t our first goodbye—not even our twentieth—and it wasn’t going to be our last either. It didn’t mean it wasn’t hard though. Every time was.
This time might just suck a little bit more because we’d lost two days spending time with each other while he’d been sick, and… for whatever reason, this goodbye felt different. A little more permanent. A little more scary, for me at least.
Duncan and I couldn’t exactly load into my truck and drive over if we suddenly wanted to.
I huffed at him. “If I was, it’s because you look like something that climbed out of a well.”
He huffed back as we got to my car, but he didn’t deny his appearance.
Maybe someone would try and exorcise him at the airport. “That’ll teach you never to ignore me again.” I nudged him with my elbow.
Matti snickered as I opened the truck bed and he grunted, lifting Sienna’s bag, then his, into it. I’d offered to carry it. He elbowed me back before slamming the tailgate shut and raising his eyebrows at me. I raised my eyebrows right back at him, earning me a smile and a hand on each shoulder.
“Sorry we didn’t get to spend more time together,” my oldest friend apologized.
“It’s okay.” I set my hand on one of his. “Thank you for coming with us. For helping me find this place. For everything.” That was the simplest way of putting it, wasn’t it?
“You going to be okay?”
“I think so,” I told him honestly, hearing the front door close. Sienna had gone into the nursery to tell Duncan goodbye one last time since he couldn’t come with us. Leaving the ranch wasn’t worth the risk, and he had a comfortable place to stay at the nursery. Matti had said bye earlier. “The donut is happy so far, and I hope I will be too.”
His perma-smile drooped. “When I first got here, everyone gave me a lot of breathing room the first few months, Nina, to give me time to get my bearings. Don’t take people giving you space too personally, all right? They didn’t say anything, but I remember them discouraging residents from getting too close to new people until their three months are up.”
I nodded at him, not surprised at all that Sienna had relayed to him that other than some of the parents here and the few people Henri had introduced me to, no one had come by to say hello.
Even though Sienna still hadn’t been feeling like herself the day before, we had gone to visit the two closest towns to the ranch after dropping Duncan off at the nursery. We’d spent the whole morning and most of the afternoon checking out the bigger town almost an hour away, buying groceries at the big box stores they had, and then stopped at the much smaller stores half an hour from the ranch, just seeing what they had so I could plan for future trips.
When we got back, I’d helped Maggie in the nursery again while Sienna checked on Matti and took a nap. After dinner, we’d spent time in my room, sprawled on the bed, watching television and talking while Dunky napped after another exciting day with his new friends. It had been a good last day with one of my favorite people.
Now I had to say bye to them for the time being.
The expression on Matti’s face got even more serious. “I’d planned to go with you and see if we could find some of the people I knew when I lived here, but none of them came to say hi either.” He scowled. “Glad I didn’t waste my damn time keeping in touch with any of them.”
I smiled up at his protectiveness, and he kept right on scowling.
“If anyone is mean to you—”
I took a step forward and wrapped my arms around the middle of him, pressing my cheek to his shoulder for maybe the fifty-thousandth time in my life. “I’ll write down their names and you can bring some of those hot dogs to share with them.”
His laugh was weaker than normal, but it was still all Matti. He hugged me back. “If you aren’t happy, say the word and we’ll figure out another option, yeah?”
I nodded against him.
Matti pulled back. “I’m being serious.”
For once in his life, he was. “I know you are.”
“We were talking already, and we’re going to check our work schedules and see when we can come back.”