She wouldn’t! Of course, she had to be joking. How would she even find my mom’s number?
But as it turned out, the threat got her point across.
“You’re sure…?”
She pointed sharply. “Young lady, you get on that train!” Hoo boy. That got me moving. Babs could be scary when she wanted to be.
“I’m going. I’m going…” I was kind of skipping backward. “And Babs?”
She tilted her head.
“Thanks,” I said.
The engine let out a chugging groan, wheels grinding forward with a shudder that vibrated through the platform as it began to pull away.
And suddenly, I was running along the platform—heart racing, wind catching my skirt—like a heroine in an old thirties’ movie.
Catching up to the caboose, I reached for the rail—and missed by an inch as the train just barely began to outpace me.
My heart leapt into my throat.
After all that, I couldn’t miss it now.
I pushed my legs harder, practically sprinting alongside the last car, and reached out for one more try when?—
A hand caught mine. Firm. Familiar. “I’ve got you.”
Noah.
He was already there, one foot braced on the step, the other reaching for me. Without hesitation, he pulled me up, his other hand steady at my waist. For a breathless second, we were toe to toe, thigh to thigh… chest to chest.
The train rumbled beneath us as the small western town unfolded behind us.
My hair, which had escaped my ponytail, blew around my face. Noah’s eyes caught on it briefly, something like wonder in his gaze.
My heart was racing, from sprinting, but also…because…
“That was…” Exciting. Intoxicating. “Incredibly romantic.”
Was this my life now?
“I try,” he said, not letting go.
And just like that, I’d made it.
A conductor moved up behind us, shaking his head in obvious disapproval.
“We really don’t condone that sort of thing,” he admonished. He held out his hand. “Do you at least have a ticket, miss?”
Breathless, not about to let him dampen this moment, I handed it over. Babs’s ticket. Of which I felt more than a little guilty about taking.
Even if she hadn’t given me a choice.
There wasn’t a door, just a chain across the entrance to the train car. I started to hitch my skirt, ready to climb over, but the conductor sighed, unlatched it properly, and waved us like a weary parent.
And yet, I had zero regrets.
A breeze curled through the car, lifting my hair, and for a flicker of a second, I had that same feeling I’d had just before falling into the lake yesterday: buoyant, breathless.
