The saddle creaked under Brooks as he leaned back, taking in the last of my tale.“You good?”
“Yeah, man—”I cut myself off and reconsidered.“Honestly, I don’t know.”
I ran a hand down Stone’s neck, her soft coat under my palm and the coarse hair of her mane against my knuckles.In the silence, I wondered if I’d said too much.Brooks and I had never talked like this.He was my friend, even a good friend, but he was a “let’s sit quietly in the same group” kind of guy.He didn’t ask for much, but he didn’t give a lot either.I wasn’t equipped to differentiate if I’d pushed him out of his comfort zone.
I was about to make an excuse to ride away when he finally spoke.“What can you make right?”
“Huh?”
“Did you ever think you’d see her again?”
It was hard to process his question when I was in shock at hearing him string so many words together.“No.”
He tugged at the strap clipped under his chin tilting his head back, looking away like eye contact was a burden.“Seems like an unexpected opportunity to make something right by her.”
My hand slipped from the saddle’s cantle to my thigh as his suggestion sank in.He rode away, leaving me to the wrestle with this new idea he’d just planted, and the weeds sprouting up around it.
Chapter Ten
Alicia
Therewasnothingtoeat in my apartment, still.For the past week I’d lived off of take-out, granola bars, and the limited supplies I could get from the party store, and it’d carried me through so far.But if I didn’t get some real fruits and vegetables in the house soon I was going to contract scurvy or something.Driving twenty minutes to the nearest Meijer after a long day of meeting locals and getting signatures on my petition—as well as rejections—was something I couldn’t bring myself to do.Starting on-location jobs while not having my friends near to help recharge my battery was always the hardest part.It made for nights feeling overly drained.
I wandered the produce section of the locally owned grocery store.It could have been built anywhere between 1975 and 1990, and they hadn’t updated it since, keeping with a dark brown and forest green color pallet.Options were limited, but compared to the party store, it was a practical smorgasbord.A cucumber and some carrots rolled around in my cart, as I considered which three of the dozen apples were best.I did a voice command through my earbuds to call Sadie.It was unlikely she’d answer, but I could leave her a voicemail anyway.I was distracted by her recorded greeting as the ancient automatic front doors opened.
“Hey Mr.Akerman,” a teenage cashier greeted.
“Oh shit,” I hissed, dropping to crouch on the grimy tile floor, hidden behind the apples.
“Hey, Conner,” Remi replied, unaware of my presence.“How are you doin’?”
“Good.Slow night.Just kinda waiting for close.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
I chewed on my lower lip, unsure of what I should do next.I could stay down there for a little while, maybe Remi needed toilet paper or something and he’d walk in the other direction, then I could make a quick escape and accept my future with scurvy.I’d had great luck so far avoiding him.Zero run-ins since the stable a few days ago.It was more annoying than traumatizing to recall because of the way his pants hugged his ass.
“I’ll just stay down here, and he’ll go away,” I whispered.
Rolling my eyes, I remembered how I’d thought he couldn’t surprise me because I knew he was in the town.“Idiot.”
In the wait for the coast to clear, I lost track of where he’d gone.The store was mostly empty; the only sound was the HVAC system and The Roxette’s “It Must Have Been Love” playing through the overhead speakers.
“He’s gotta be gone—”
“’Licia?”His voice came from behind me.
With a scream, I threw the apples I’d had clutched to my chest in the air and whipped around.
One of the them landed on his shoulder more than him actually catching it, the other two thudded to the tile floor.
He took a big step back.“Woah.”
Heat rose up my neck, and I retrieved one of the apples from under the produce stand to give myself a second to hide.I would have preferred making a total fool of myself in front of one hundred people instead of just him.
“Don’t sneak up on me,” I said from under the stand on my hands and knees.But even as I said it, it felt unfair.
“I didn’t mean to.”
