Home. Job. Him not being mine.
Maybe three or four days.
I can wait three or four days to contemplate having to get back to the real world.
Especially if he keeps kissing me back like this in the meantime.
27
THAT MOMENT WHEN YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR HAS BEEN THERE ALL ALONG
Oliver
Of everythingI expected when I planned my road trip to find where I wanted to settle, not wanting it to end wasn’t a possibility that crossed my mind.
But I don’t know if another week will be enough.
We’ll run out of cash to give away, but I can get more.
I’d want to upgrade my car to something electric, or at least hybrid.
We might plan to stay in the same place for two nights instead of being in this much of a rush to see as much as I can of the country.
I keep falling asleep in the car regularly when Daphne’s been driving for the two- or three-hour stretches between our giveaway sprees the past couple days, which isn’t surprising.
Now that I’m getting more than four or five hours of sleep a night, my body’s craving sleep in a way I’ve never felt before.
Making up for what I missed.
From the small bit of research I’ve done, I expect it’ll take me a year or more to fully be normal again.
But tonight, I’m in my happy place. It’s a happy place I didn’t even know existed, yet here we are.
Daphne’s telling me stories about her adopted hometown and her adopted family as we sit by the fire, sipping the rich, decadent Chateau Cheval Blanc out of red Solo cups and roasting marshmallows after eating our fire-roasted hot dogs and corn on the cob.
Crickets are chirping.
A light breeze fans our campfire.
Stars sparkle overhead with only a half-moon interrupting their glow.
It’s a near-perfect night.
“—so Simon’s kids got skunked out when he was supposed to be taking Bea out for tea, and it reminded me of the time I was out supervising a job and a whole family of raccoons got into my lunch.”
“What do you do?” I ask her. “Your job. What do you do?”
“Whatever they need me to do.”
“Who, though?”
There’s the barest hesitation before she peers at me in the firelight. “My nonprofit is calledBeeslieve. We do some animal habitat restoration, like in places where there are abandoned buildings or where we could restore wrecked habitats for bees and butterflies, and we also do some work with the state department of transportation, making the roadways safer for animals and cars alike with natural boundaries to direct wildlife to better crossings.”
“I feel like I’ve heard of this.”
“You’re our major donor. Through Miles2Go.” She looks down at her marshmallow. “That’s what I want money for. To make sure that even when your father revokes our funding, we can keep going the way we have been.”
I rub at my chest.
