“Will I be at the hotel?” I asked her.
“You’re staying with me,” she answered.
“Until you have your money back that Ashford owes you?” I asked.
She hummed in the affirmative.
I lay my head against the cold window and watched as we left behind the highway onto roads lined with more and more trees, passing small service stops until we were surrounded by thick forest on a winding road.
A large green-and-blue sign welcomed us to Wolfsong National Forest and reminded visitors that camping and campfires were not permitted during certain months of the year.
The cabin resort was much larger than I had anticipated. At first, I thought we were travelling through a small town, passing restaurants, small shops, and town halls until we drove further, and each road we passed became gravel and led to groups of maybe half a dozen or more luxury wooden cabins. There had to be at least a hundred cabins or more.
The driver turned down a gravel road that ended in a circular car park surrounded by cabins, each with its own porch deck and facing one another in the circular formation. A mini-community within a larger organism.
The doors opened automatically, and Cole was the first to get out of the car, holding her hand out to help me out.
Part of me wanted to ignore the offer; a greater part of me wanted to feel my hand in hers.
It could be the last time we touched.
Something inside me was repulsed by that thought, like it couldn’t be true, but it was.
At some point in the coming few days, I would be handed back to Ashford, and I’d never see Cole again. I might have the opportunity to glance at Darren if he and Ashford were playing at the same poker games, but it would be a passing glance, noteven any small talk. Eventually, he would forget about me, make new friends, and find a partner, probably at Nina’s party.
I took Cole’s hand.
She squeezed mine, brief but real, before she released me once both my feet were on the gravel.
“You’re in cabin forty-four. The key should be waiting on the hook next to the door,” Chloe informed Cole from within the car. Neither she nor James exited with us.
The driver retrieved Cole’s suitcase and my rucksack from the trunk and brought them to Cole.
“Thank you,” Cole said, accepting the handle of her suitcase and swinging my near-empty rucksack over her shoulder.
I followed Cole up a slabbed path as the car drove away.
Another car neared the small car park as we reached the decked porch. Darren jumped out, stretching his long arms above his head and cracking his back.
“I’m not built for long car journeys,” he said loudly, and turned, looking around, waving when he saw us.
Cole lifted her hand, which held the key to the cabin, and waved back, very much unenthusiastically. I waved too.
“I’m number forty-six. What number are you?” he called.
“Forty-four,” I answered.
“No! I want us to be neighbours,” he replied, turning to Alpha Sara as she and her husband exited the vehicle while their driver retrieved their bags. “What number are you?” he asked Alpha Sara.
“Forty-five,” she answered.
“Swap with me?” he asked.
Branden laughed.
“We’ve got the executive cabin, son. You’ll have better luck exchanging cabins with Ikenna, Morgan, Harold, or one of the other directors,” he told him, listing off names of people I hadn’tmet in my time within Sandstorm. It was a reminder that I wasn’t part of them; I was only temporary.
“Right,” Darren said, turning as another car pulled up and a man in a dark grey suit carrying a laptop bag under his arm stepped out.
