Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68524 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
But what was I supposed to do with this information?
16
Miller
The kiss caught me totally off guard.
One minute I was shopping for baby clothes, and the next I was locked in a passionate embrace with Collie. It was startling and amazing, and I was so rattled that I didn’t know what to do next. But then the cat decided to make her escape, and we were plunged right back into reality.
After we finished up at the kids’ store, we made one more stop and picked out a gift basket for Jeannie, full of fancy soaps, body wash, and lotions. Then we returned to the van. By this point, Collie was exhausted. He murmured, “I just need to rest for a minute,” as he curled up with the cat in the beanbag. A minute later, he was sound asleep.
I got comfortable in the passenger seat, and while I was pulling up a book on my phone, a message from Daria popped up. She’d been the first person I’d contacted when I’d been looking for someone to watch the cat, but she’d had plans to go out of town.
Her text said: Hi from Napa. I hope you found someone to cat sit. You never told me where you were going, by the way.
I replied: We’re in Idaho. The cat ended up coming along.
She wrote: What’s in Idaho, and how long will you be gone? After I sent her a quick summary of the situation with Jeannie and her husband, another message popped up: Can you call me? Lots to discuss.
I climbed out of the van, shutting the door carefully to avoid waking Collie. When I called Daria, she answered with, “What the hell are you doing, Miller?”
“I couldn’t let Collie go on his own. He hasn’t been cleared to drive yet.”
“No, I get that part. Why didn’t you talk him out of moving away?”
“His best friend needs him.”
“But so do you!”
“I know,” I said, “but what was I going to do, ask him to pick me over his oldest friend, her newborn baby, and her kids?”
“When you put it that way, I guess you couldn’t really try to change his mind. But you can’t just let him leave without telling him you’re in love with him, Miller.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“But I…” I couldn’t even pretend to deny it. After a pause, I asked, “How did you know?” I’d never acknowledged how I felt about Collie, not even to myself. It was too big, too overwhelming. But Daria had seen it, somehow.
“It’s so obvious. He’s all you talk about, and the absolute center of your universe.”
“I kissed him,” I said softly. “Just a few minutes ago.”
“That wasn’t the first time, was it?”
“It was. It started out as goofing around under some fake mistletoe, but it turned into so much more.”
“So, what are you going to do, move to Idaho? Because it’s pretty damn obvious you can’t live without him.”
“There’s no way I can move to a tiny hick town, someplace even smaller than where I grew up. I don’t want to live someplace like that, and neither does he. Collie spent his entire adult life dreaming about getting out of there. This would be a huge setback.”
“Well, then he has to come back to San Francisco with you.”
“I know. But first, we need to help Jeannie get through the next couple of weeks. Then I’ll talk to her. She doesn’t want Collie to give up on his dreams any more than I do, so maybe the two of us can think of a way to convince him.”
“Okay, good. Do you need me to cover for you at work while you’re off in the land of potatoes?”
“I don’t get it.”
“It’s what Idaho is known for.”
“That’s news to me. And thanks for offering, but I don’t need you to cover for me. I’m going to be working while I’m here, since I already took time off while Collie was in the hospital. Hopefully no one will mind if I do the next couple of Friday meetings as Zoom calls.”
“That’ll probably be fine, but you shouldn’t stay away too long. The animation department is wrapping up their current game, so the one you’ve been working on is moving closer to production. That means they’ll need all hands on deck pretty soon.”
“I know. I figure two weeks is the longest I can stay here.”
We chatted for a few more minutes, and after the call ended, I climbed back into the van. That ended up waking Collie, who sat up and mumbled, “What time is it?”
“A little after two.”
“We should get going.”
We left Boise and headed northwest. After a while, rolling foothills gave way to open farmland. When we’d traveled about forty miles, Collie told me to turn off the highway onto a two-lane country road.
We passed two tiny towns, one every ten miles or so, before a sign appeared welcoming us to Hickson, population eighteen hundred forty-six. “I almost vandalized that sign when I left,” Collie muttered. “I wanted to take a Sharpie to it and change the number to eighteen forty-five. I guess it’s good that I didn’t.”