“I watch the tiny house shows all the time. I used to dream about doing it, but I like living in the city and being close to everything. They’re so cute, though.”
Without thinking, I grab Tab’s hand and squeeze. She peers down and then back up, staring ahead with a smile on her face. She doesn’t make a move to remove my hand from hers. Win.
We meet a middle-aged couple in the office, its rustic interior matching its exterior. The same raw beams are the walls, but these were worked and stained, leaving a smooth, polished finish.
Tab picks out our tiny house for the night out of the two remaining, then we check out the little store, grabbing someovernight necessities like toothpaste and toothbrushes, a couple of snacks.
After bidding the couple a goodnight, we head back out to the truck, and I follow the map they gave us with our rental circled. The truck’s tires kick stones out of the way as we make our way down the winding road.
“There she is!”
“She?” I question.
“Anything you can describe as pretty is a girl,” Tab tells me. “Therefore,sheis pretty.”
Spotlighted in the truck’s headlights is an adorable tiny house with dark-blue shiplap and white trim.
Tab grabs our bags before I can jump from the truck. I have to hurry to catch up with her. She’s already scaling the small set of stairs that lead to a deck with only enough room for one chair. I peer around, spotting a few fires going at the other tiny house camps. We won’t be able to do that tonight, but it reminds me of camping with my buddies back home. Driving down some back road. Following it until it ends abruptly and breaking out the tent right there. It’s amazing all the things you can hear out there in the middle of nowhere without the pollution from people or things.
I hold the keycard up to the reader, and it beeps. Tab opens the door and makes a tiny sound of excitement. A single lamp in the corner lights the country-chic living room as we walk in and shut the door behind us.
Farther in, we hit the kitchen on the left side with a short bar on the right, two stools pulled up to it. A bit farther, there’s the door to the bedroom, and to the right, the bathroom.
“It’s adorable,” Tab proclaims. She sets our bag down in the sink since it’s just a pedestal with no countertop space on either side. When she turns toward me, she’s still smiling. “So, superstar…”
“So, gorgeous…”
She rolls her eyes. “One, I didn’t know you could sing like that.”
“Are you kidding me? I didn’t know you could sing.”
“Please,” she starts. “They loved you. You probably could have held a concert up there for them, and they would’ve been fine not hearing anyone else for the rest of the night.”
“Believe it or not, I was in musical theater in school.”
Tab’s eyes widen. “Really?”
I laugh. “No, but I kind of always wanted to be. I wish I had, actually.”
“Not me.”
“No?”
“Nope, then some theater geek would have stolen you from me, I know it.”
“Why do I feel like there’s an insult in there?”
She grins. “Because you, Levi Soucy, are a popular geek. As in, if you weren’t playing football, I’m pretty sure you would’ve been cracking jokes about yourself at the outcast table.”
“I am…surprisingly okay with that.”
“Spoken like someone who was always popular.”
“Are you telling me you were a social pariah or something?”
“Not exactly, but I wasn’t a football star.”
I grin at her. “Good. Someone would have scooped you up a long time ago, right out from underneath me.”
