I was happy, ecstatic even, for my two best friends. It was just that… seeing them in love and happy, having more than their work to look forward to, made me realize that there was more to life. And maybe I was missing out on it.
Not that I wanted to rush love. God, no. I’d been that boy-crazy, in-love-with-love girl in high school. A cheerleader who dated the famous running back all through high school until he left for college and we broke up my senior year, holding the pieces of my broken heart.
Or that’s what I thought it had been, but as a grown woman, I knew now it was more like the cracked bits of my ego.
I stretched in the chair and turned just in time to watch my beautiful redheaded bestie walk in through the front doors of Pine and Grind. It still left me stumped as to what the hell she was still doing in our little mountain town. Rosie Atwood was beautiful. Tall and willowy, her slender, lithe body a high-end fashion designer’s wet dream. She’d traveled the world modeling, fashion week after fashion week, until Tabby and I returned. Not three months after I graduated and got my dream job at the hospital, she was back, too.
There was no ignoring the way the people in town looked at her. It was impossible not to look at her. She was beautiful, like walking, breathing art. If that wasn’t enough of a draw, she was genuinely one of the best, most kind-hearted people I’d ever met in my life. And that was saying something.
“Hey!” She smiled brightly, bending to hug me before she sat down. “Uh oh, what’s that look about?” she asked. Did I mention she was also annoyingly intuitive and observant?
“What look?”
“You know what look? Like you’re guilty of something.” She stared at me for a moment. “Did you already have a cookie or something? You look like you got caught red-handed.”
“No,” I laughed. Rosie was hilarious and had quite an imagination.
“Let me guess, then.” She sipped her coffee. “You are ditching me for New Year’s.” I blinked and then laughed.
“Wait, how did… what?”
“Let me guess? Work?”
“Work?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged with a smirk. “Last year, you had to work, remember? I figured that guilty look on your face is you letting me know that as much as you would love to hang with me at the Black and Gold Ball at the brewery, you have to work.”
“I…” It would have been so easy to lie. To tell her I had to pitch in at a sister hospital for a week, but I couldn’t do that to her. Not only was it dishonest, it was crazy unsafe.
“Actually, no.”
“No?” Her eyes widened, and her head tilted.
“I have the week off from the twenty-eighth through the fourth.”
“Really? You took time off?” I opened and shut my mouth and nodded.
“I rented a cute little cabin. In Sugar Loaf.” She blinked her bright green eyes, obviously confused.
“Sugar loaf’s like an hour away. Why would you…” Her words drifted into nothing as I tried to get mine together.
“I need a break, Rosie,” I finally said, breaking the momentary silence. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t react. It was one of the many things that made it so easy to talk to her. “I know we talked about doing things a little different and out of our comfort zone for the holidays but––“
“You need a break,” she repeated gently, and I nodded.
“Work’s been… a lot this year. And I think the challenge you tossed us got me thinking and… I know it’s not what you wanted, but I need this.”
“Then you should go,” she said, her hand covering mine.
“I’m sorry.” The guilt of leaving her on her own for New Year’s still prickled at the back of my neck. “I did think about getting on that dating app you mentioned.”
“You did?” Her eyes widened.
“I did, and maybe when I get back, I will.”
“Hmm…” Her eyes twinkled slightly before she pulled her hand back and sipped her coffee again. “Maybe… We’ll see what this trip brings.”
“What do you mean?”
