“I do not actually fantasize about caves,” she insisted.
“Good,” I said. “They are dangerous.”
She whirled toward me. “That is not the point.”
“What is the point, then?”
She opened her mouth, closed it again, and slumped back into her seat. “I should have stayed in Alaska.”
“That seems extreme.”
“Everything about my life feels extreme this morning.”
I considered that. “You seem rattled.”
She scoffed. “You think?”
“You are also acting like you would prefer to toss me over a cliff.”
She pointed at me. “Do not tempt me. Even though we’re in the middle of Wisconsin, I know a few cliffs.”
I let a small pause settle between us. “Are you always this intense?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Unfortunately.”
Her honesty surprised me. And so did the faint tremor under it. There was something raw and bruised in her tone, and it wasn’t from me but from the situation she’d been shoved into.
I kept my tone level. “Do you want to tell me why you are actually upset?”
She hesitated again, and for a second I thought she wasn’t going to answer. Then she sighed, the sound heavy in her chest.
“I did not know my family thought I needed help,” she said quietly. “I thought I was doing fine.”
Ah.
That explained more than anything else.
It wasn’t me she was angry at, not directly anyway. I was simply the embodiment of a decision she had not been a part of.
“I understand,” I said softly.
“Do you?”
“I know what it feels like when people assume you need something you did not ask for.”
She looked at me then. Really looked at me. Her eyes were warmer than before, not softened but searching, trying to discern whether I meant it or whether I was being polite.
I meant it.
Her shoulders eased a fraction. “Well,” she said with a small exhale, “thanks. For… hearing me.”
“You were not subtle,” I replied.
Her mouth twitched. “I’m trying to be subtle. It’s just not going well.”
She was still upset and a bit prickly, but the edge of defensiveness had softened.
A few minutes later, we reached the first stretch of Buttercup Lake, the road curving alongside the partially frozen lake shoreline. The town appeared in the distance, sunlight glinting off the storefront windows. Colorful signs hung from old wooden posts. Snow-covered rooftops slanted toward the lake. Smokecurled from chimneys. A dog trotted down the walkway in a sweater two sizes too small.
