Instead of looking relieved, Sierra stiffens. “What about your family?”
“What about them?”
“Would you want me to be seen by your family?” she asks. “Apart from Seth.”
That makes me pause. I hadn’t thought about how my mom would react. Before Sierra disappeared, she and my mom had been really close. My mom was her guidance counselor at school and provided a lot of maternal support that Sierra wasn’t getting from her mom. Sierra hung out with my mom almost as much as she did with me. When Sierra disappeared, my mom was devastated and blamed herself for what had happened.
It feels disloyal. But if Sierra doesn’t want to meet with my mom, then she doesn’t have to. My mom will be hurt, but she will understand. She was the reason we didn’t contact Sierra after we found out she was alive from the private investigator.
“She took great pains not to be found,” my mom said. “She made her choice not to contact us. We need to respect that. She’ll come back to us if she wants to.”
Sierra did come back, but not because she wants to be here. It is a heavy reminder that I need to focus on the goal here. Not rekindling, not reconnection. Closure and moving on. Seven years have passed. It’s time.
I clear my throat. “We can avoid seeing my family.”
Sierra’s eyes grow shiny at that. “All right. When do I start?”
Yes.Internally, I’m fist-pumping the air to the“Eye of the Tiger,” but externally, I smile serenely and say, “No time like the present.”
I show her my business proposal for the Candlelight Tour, including sample photos of what I have in mind.
“This looks like a vision board!” she exclaims, delighted. “Oh, man, this brings me back. Remember doing this in Mrs. Grove’s class? She’d be so proud to see you applying what you learned. Though it’s missing a few ATV pictures and girls in bikinis.”
“There was one girl in a bikini on my vision board, and if you remember, she looked just like you.”
“Oh, please. That’s not what I remember. She was a model!”
“A model who looked like you!”
“If you wanted me on your vision board, you should have added a real picture of me.”
“I didn’t have a picture of you in a bikini!” I lower my voice. “You used to only send me nudes.”
Sierra blushes. “Ah, I forgot I used to… You could have photoshopped a bikini onto one of those!”
I laugh. “No teenage boy is going to Photoshop a bikini onto his girlfriend’s nude photo. His hand would be too occupied to do anything other than zooming in on his computer screen.”
Sierra whacks me with the proposal. “Regardless, Mrs. Grove knew her vision boards. Has it been helpful?”
“Very. How else would my bone-headed siblings see my vision and understand it?”
“Oh, it’s adorable. We should add some quotes to it.”
“Don’t you dare. This is a professional business proposal.”
Sierra grabs my pen and writesAll our dreams can come true if—She stops and puts down the pen. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”
“Add the quote.” I like her teasing me. It feels nostalgic in the best way, like sweet, gooey s’mores around a campfire. I pick the pen up and press it against her palm.
Her fingers reflexively circle mine. Her breath catches—shemust feel the spark too. Then she snatches her hand away.
She quickly scrawls the rest of the quote across one image of a lit-up cave in her feminine, loopy handwriting.
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them,” I read, smiling. “Cute, I like it. Maybe my dream of ATVs and you in a bikini can still come to pass.”
“Ha.” Her face turns a charming shade of pink. “I think that ship has sailed, but the ATVs, why not?”
“What aboutyourdreams? I can’t remember what you had on your vision board.”
