Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186555 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 933(@200wpm)___ 746(@250wpm)___ 622(@300wpm)
Well, I wasn’t going to be any kind of expert at anything any time soon, but I was learning.
I should call my uncle and dazzle him with everything I’d learned. Hopefully tomorrow someone would come in and ask something about fishing so I could answer them correctly. How great would that be?
Chapter 7
It was during one of our rare slow moments at the store the next day that Clara finally saddled up next to me and said, “So….”
I tipped my chin up at her. “So?”
“How do you like Pagosa so far?” was what she decided to ask.
“It’s good,” I answered, carefully.
“You gotten around? Seen some of the sights again?”
“I’ve driven around a little.”
“You been to Mesa Verde?”
“Not since that field trip half a century ago.”
She rattled off the names of a couple more tourist activities that we had pamphlets for in the corner of the shop. “Been to the casino?”
“Not yet.”
She frowned and leaned a hip against the counter. “What have you been up to on your days off then?”
“Not going anywhere fun, apparently. I’ve done a little hiking”—not enough—“but that’s about it.”
Her face went a little pale at my mention of the h-word, and I knew her mind had gone to the same place mine had. My mom. Once we’d reconnected online, we had never actually brought up… what happened. It was the elephant in the room in most conversations that could be turned around and tied into her disappearance. It always had been. When I’d lived with my aunt and uncle, they had purposely avoided any movie or show about missing persons. When that movie about the man who had gotten his arm stuck had come out, they had changed the channel so fast, it had taken me a couple days to figure out what they’d been doing.
I appreciated it, of course. Especially for probably the first decade afterward. And every time I’d had a bad day in the time after that.
But I didn’t want the people I cared for having to walk on eggshells because of me. I was doing better dealing with it all, for the most part. I could talk about it without the world falling out beneath my feet at least. My therapist had helped me get there.
But she seemed to realize she’d reacted because her expression lasted about a second before she said, “I’m not much of a hiker or a camper anymore, but Jackie is when she’s in the mood. You need to get out while the weather is good and see some things.”
“I just started hiking again, and I haven’t gone camping in twenty years.”
Her expression changed once more, and I knew she was thinking about my mom again, but just as quickly, she recovered. “We should do something. What are you doing on Monday? I haven’t been to Ouray in a while.”
Ouray, Ouray, Ouray… It was a town not too far, I was pretty sure. “Nothing,” I admitted.
“It’s a date then. As long as I don’t have to cancel on you. Want me to pick you up or meet here?”
“Meet here?” I couldn’t see Mr. Rhodes being happy with me having her come over to his property, and I wasn’t willing to piss him off, even if I wasn’t going to be around too much longer.
She opened her mouth to tell me something before she leaned forward and whistled.
I turned around to see through the big windows I’d peeked through weeks ago, too.
“You see that?” she asked as she made her way around the counter and headed toward the front.
I followed her. There was a truck out there, a truck that looked awfully familiar… And beside it was a man on a cell phone, and there was another man standing beside him in the same uniform.
Clara whistled at my side again. “I’ve always been a sucker for a man in uniform. Did you know my husband was a police officer?”
Sometimes… sometimes I forgot I wasn’t the only person to have lost someone they really loved. “No, I didn’t know that,” I said.
A wistful expression came over her face, and it made my heart hurt only imagining what she could be thinking of. Hoping it wasn’t the what-ifs. The alternate realities. Those were the worst.
“Police officers are cute, but I’ve always had a thing for firefighters,” I told her after a second.
Her mouth formed a little smile. “With their little pants and hats?”
I looked at her. “I like their suspenders. I’d give them a snap or two.”
Her laugh made me smile, but only for a second because the man on the other side of the glass had turned, and I finally got my confirmation that Mr. Rhodes’s butt was fantastic in his work pants. “Did you meet him the other day when he was here?” Clara asked.
“Which one?” I knew exactly who she was referring to even as I eyeballed the other man in the same kind of uniform. He was about the same height as my landlord but leaner. I couldn’t see his face though. I could see his butt though, and it was a good one.