“It saves a lot of money that can be put back into repairs. I’m going to need paint, fabric, wood for shelving, and maybe a new sofa—the one in there looks worn. If I can find one on sale, an electric fireplace would be nice.”
“Need help?”
“Probably. I was thinking of asking Holt for an extra pair of hands with the broken dinette, but I know he’s been swamped with getting Mount Restoration up and running.”
My thumbs tap on the wheel, waiting for her to ask the obvious. After a minute, I give up. “You know I can help you, right?”
“Not sure if we’d survive a group project together.”
I shake my head. “We helped renovate the Rocosa Library together. How is this different?”
“There were different levels in the library. In an RV, we will be on top of each other.”
“That doesn’t bother me.” I smile knowingly. “Unless it’s you that has the problem.”
“I don’t. Fine. You can help,” she grounds out like I twisted her arm. “But don’t come crying to me when we are screaming after an hour.”
“Oh, I won’t. If I can survive the coaster calamity, I can survive anything.”
To my delight, she leans her head back and roars with laughter.
“What a blast from the past. I forgot about that. I was such a pain, wasn’t I? Stealing all of Cliffys’s coasters until you thought the bar was haunted.” She barely gets the sentence out, wheezing through her laughter. “One of my most epic pranks.”
I shake my head, chuckling along with her. For three weeks, I thought I was in the Twilight Zone because all the coasters randomly disappeared right before each shift started. Not just one or two, or even a dozen, but boxes of them. In those weeks, she somehow snuck out almost a thousand coasters. How she did it, I still don’t know.
“I gave them back. Crisis averted.”
“Right... Only things destroyed were my pride and sanity.”
She pats my arm and my bicep flexes at her touch. “It builds character.”
“I should send you my therapy bill.”
“Oof.There’s not enough money in the world to cover that. I’d be in debt forever.”
“Man, Reese. Always keeping me humble.”
A text message from Dede chimes on my phone but I ignore it. One added benefit of being on vacation—no Dede.
“Aren’t you going to get that? Wait. It’s Friday. Why aren’t you at the bar?”
“Uncle Ted showed up out of the blue yesterday. Told me I could take the weekend off. I actually have a duffle and gear packed in the back. I haven’t camped at Flat Tops Wilderness in forever.”
And this vacation couldn’t have come at a better time.
Life had taken an unexpected turn a year and a half ago. Chantelle, one of Des’s biker friends, asked me if I’d consider narrating one of her audiobooks. As flattered as I was, I naturally turned down the offer until she slid the paycheck across the bar counter. For a side gig, it wasn’t bad at all. She even purchased a few items and helped me set up a home recording studio in my bedroom closet. Like Chantelle writes under the pen name Evie Chandler, I record under my middle name, Austin Davis.
And it was a secret I had planned to keep until Nicole, a talent agent, reached out and begged to represent me.
I did one romance book. For fun. With a talent I didn’t even know I had. How could I turn that into a career? But according to Nicole, I could. And she was right. My calendar quickly filled up with audiobooks, voiceovers, and commercial deadlines—to the point I had to start declining opportunities. Then her most recent call knocked the wind out of me. An animation studio wants me to audition for one of the side characters in a new anime series on Netflix. The catch? I have to move to Los Angeles.
I’ve lived on this mountain my whole life. Could I leave Rocosa and everyone I know behind?
But if that’s what God is calling me to do?
This camping trip is not just a breather from the bar, but a soul-searching weekend to help me resolve one of the biggest decisions of my life. A weekend to lie out under the stars and pray for God’s guidance at this crossroads in my career.
“Camping?” Reese asks, taking a sip from her mug. “I thought it’s usually an all men on deck situation during a holiday weekend?”
