“I mean, if our kids are anything like Blair, I’d say I’m pretty damn lucky.” He smiles softly at my mom, and suddenly I’m considering asking him to impregnate me right this second. Broken ankle and all—just prop the entire lower half of my body up with pillows, and kill two birds with one stone.
In the middle of a lady with the poofiest hair I’ve ever seen buying aU,an obnoxious beeping starts playing on Denver’s phone. I thought the only alarm he had set was in the morning for my Lexapro, but it’s midday.
Silencing his phone in the nick of time—just before my mom snaps at him—he taps my shoulder. “Hey, time to take your meds.”
“Oh, okay.” Honestly, thank God he’s keeping track, because I already forget when I last took anything. “I have to go pee, so I got it. You can stay here.”
“Knock it off.” He glares at me as I sit up. “You can go pee on your own, but for God’s sake, let me help withsomething.”
I’m not trying to be difficult. Although I’ve been slowly letting Denver in, my gut instinct is always to turn down his offers to do anything for me.
“Okay. Thank you.”
He hands me the crutches, then follows closely as I hobble my way down the hall, struggling to get accustomed to my new mode of transport. I can sense his hand hovering behind me, ready to catch me the entire time.
“I’ll go grab your drugs while you’re in the bathroom, and I’ll be right back, if you need me.” He opens the door to let me in. “Please keep it unlocked, just in case.”
“You’re naughty. My parents are right down the hall.” I waggle my eyebrows at him.
“Under any other circumstance, I wouldn’t give a shitthat they’re right there. That would even add to the thrill. But right now, you need drugs, a snack, and a nap.”
“Boring,” I tease, even though drugs and a snack sound wonderful. Not a nap, though. During my depressive episodes, I’d pray for sleep because staying forever with my dreams meant forever without pain. With him now, being awake is better.
After the most complicated pee of my life, I swing the bathroom door open to find Denver leaning against the frame. Once again, he hovers over me on the short journey back to the couch. And when I’m settled with my leg propped up, he thrusts a fistful of pills toward me.
“I grabbed your antidepressant, since you didn’t have one this morning.” He squeezes my thigh. “And your painkillers…which you should take with food. So let me grab you a snack.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, picking up the pills one by one and popping them in my mouth as I lean back on the plush pillow.
My heart billows at the sight of Denver in my parents’ kitchen. On the outside, it looks like he’s dumping a bag of tortilla chips in a bowl and grabbing guacamole from the fridge. But it’s so much more. He’s making up for lost time. Picking up where we left off. And he’s loving me the way he should’ve all those years ago.
Blair
(nineteen years old)
Cassidy, Shelby, and I interlocked our arms, shuffling strategically along the icy sidewalk with an unspoken rule that one woman down meant all of us were going down. No way would one person embarrass themselves alone in this crowd.
Finally finding an empty space to squeeze our bodies in among the throng of paradegoers, I rubbed my mitten-covered hands together, shimmying on the spot to stay warm.
“A year down in Vancouver and you can’t handle the cold anymore?” Shelby laughed, despite the fact that her own nose and cheeks were fuchsia, and Cassidy was violently shivering. You would have had to be a literal snowman to not be cold.
“We’re at a parade when it’s twenty below zero. And for what?” I shook my head at her.
Cass pulled a flask from her coat pocket and handed it to me. “Because we’re good citizens of Wells Canyon. Doing our part to be engaged with the community.”
I took a swig of the Fireball, then wiped my lips with the backside of my mitten, grimacing at the hot cinnamon flavor lingering on my tongue. It didn’t help the chill on my skin, but it churned warmth throughout my insides. A second shot did the trick, leaving me fuzzy and flushed all over.
The parade started with a herd of 4-H kids and their animals—a questionable way to start the parade, since theyleft various types of animal shit scattered across the road for the Wells Canyon High School band to try and dodge while playing instruments.
When a kid stepped directly into a cow patty, Cassidy lost it. Descending into a fit of giggles, she leaned into me, and I gave apologetic smiles to the judgmental old people around us.
“Sorry, sorry,” Cass said, taking a deep breath to compose herself. “God,Wells Canyon really puts on a shit Christmas parade.”
“Hey now, the parade might have literal shit in it. But look! Those kids in elf costumes are adorable,” I said. “Plus, I’ve never heard of another town that shuts down Main Street for a giant game of hockey afterward—have you?”
Shelby looked at me with a threatening stare, cracking her knuckles. “I’m going to fuck some kidsupin the game today.”
My mind drifted to a few parades prior, when Denver and I were about sixteen. Our families came together, and when our team won the street hockey game, he spun me around in the middle of Main Street, kissing me while snow fell around us. Like something out of a Hallmark movie.
