The only thing I could potentially reel in was the tether, but the last and only time I’d tried, it had tickled August’s abdomen. When he’d done it to me, though, he’d moved my entirebody.
Some things simply weren’tfair.
Matt said August would understand, but Matt waswrong.
I clutched my phone and typed:Turn back. Let meexplain.
My thumb hovered over the send icon. Before I could chicken out, I stamped the screen. Phone rattling in my hands, I waited for August to answer, but he sent no words back. How was I supposed to make him understand if he wouldn’t give me the time of day? I slapped my steering wheel so hard I blasted thehorn.
“Goddammit, August, I didn’t do it to spiteyou!”
At least Liam has nothing to worry about,I thoughtmorosely.
I gripped my head between both hands until my skull stopped throbbing and my eyesight cleared. My track record with boys was so pitiful—four days with Liam, one night with August. Was there something wrong with me? Before pulling back into the light morning traffic, I picked up my phone and texted my question to Sarah on the off-chance she’d gotten out of bed beforenoon.
By the time I found a parking spot, my hands were still shaking. I thought of Mom’s silver-lining theory, that if you looked long enough at one, it would outshine everything else. The silver lining of today: solicitors would stop hounding me to inform me of rising interestfees.
As I entered the bank, I took the check out of my wallet and smoothed the crinkles to make sure the ink hadn’t faded overnight, but all three zeroes were still there. I got in line behind an old woman hunched over a walker, the knobs of her curved spine pressing against her flowered blouse. She glanced over her sunken shoulder at me and smiled. I smiled but then wondered if she’d meant to smile at someoneelse.
“You’re the girl from the inn, aren’tyou?”
The trembling subsided then, replaced by surprise that made me go rigid. Andmute. . .
“You served me a lovely brunch a couple weeks ago. I called to make a reservation, but they told me the inn was closing indefinitely. Is thatright?”
“It changed”—I cleared my voice—“ownership.”
“What a shame. What a shame. And just when the food was getting good. You wouldn’t happen to know what happened to thechef?”
I cocked an eyebrow. “She’s still inBoulder.”
“Oh. How wonderful. My son and his wife run a restaurant in town. You might’ve heard about it? The SilverBowl?”
“I don’t go outmuch.”
“Next,” a bank tellercalled.
The hunched woman paid her no mind. “Anyway, she used to do the cooking, but she came down with something called algeria or agora, and it made her very fatigued. So they’re on the market for a new chef. You wouldn’t happen to know if the one from the inn would beinterested?”
“I could askher.”
“Next!” the teller called outlouder.
“Great. Let me get you my phone number.” As she dug through her bag, its contents spilled onto thefloor.
I gathered everything up for her, then hooked it on thewalker.
“Ladies, I don’t have all day,” the teller said,exasperated.
“You know what, why don’t I just tell her to call the restaurant?” Iasked.
The old woman nodded, and her wispy gray hair frolicked around her face. “Tell her to say Charlotte senther.”
The teller cleared herthroat.
“The young are always in such a hurry,” Charlotte huffed as she hobbled forward, her walker scraping thefloor.
For a second, I thought she was talking about me because the teller was well past her prime, but Charlotte didn’t know me, so she couldn’t know at what speed I lived mylife.
