“What have you been up to?” he asks when I pull back.
“I did a lot of journaling.”
“You should think about writing a book,” he says. Just like I thought earlier.
I turn the thought over in my mind like a kaleidoscope, imagining all the variations of color and pattern a dream like thatcould hold. Could I do it? Would anyone actually want to hear what I have to say?
“For all you know, I could be a terrible writer,” I tell him, turning and heading back inside because this moment suddenly got too real.
He follows me into the cabin. “I can’t tell you how many terrible songs I’ve written, but something good always comes from the bad.”
“I’ll remember that.” I draw in a steadying breath, needing to get back on solid footing before I lose my balance completely and never want to find it again.
“You said you got service here, right?” I ask.
He nods. “Rick has one of those GalaxyLink satellite things installed. Guests get to choose whether to activate it or not.” He grins. “One guess what Kristen picked.”
“I’d love to FaceTime Avah and my brother. Do you think I could borrow your phone?”
“Of course. Let me grab it from the bedroom.”
I command my hormones to settle the fuck down while he disappears down the hall. They patently ignore me, which is why my fingers are trembling when he comes back and hands me the phone.
“I’ll take a little walk,” he says. “Give you some privacy for the call. These walls are pretty thin.”
“Thanks. I won’t be long.”
“Take all the time you need.”
I wait until the screen door closes behind him, then FaceTime call Jeremy. He picks up on the first ring, and of course, Avah is right there next to him.
“What’s wrong?” she demands before I can say hello. “Oh, wait, it’s you.”
“Hi.” I wave. “I borrowed Jensen’s phone.”
“Tell us everything. How are you? Are you and Kristen besties now? No, you can’t be besties. We’re your besties.”
Jeremy grins into the camera. “How are you, sis?”
“I’m good.” My smile feels just a little wobbly. “She wasn’t here when we got to the cabin. She left a day ago.”
Silence.
“What do you mean she left?” Avah asks.
“Turns out there’s an ATV trail that goes right to the cabin. A wider path the forest service put in for fire access. Most people use it. She didn’t hike in, even though her social media made it look like she did. And she left a few hours before we arrived. According to her story, she’s now at some yoga retreat center in Tahoe.”
“What a fake-ass bitch,” Avah murmurs.
I bristle, mostly over what it says about me that I believed a stranger’s social media persona was the whole truth. “She’s an author, not an endurance athlete.”
“She’s a big fat liar.”
“I mean…yeah.” I can’t argue with that one. “She is.”
“Do you need the plane?” Jeremy asks, already in fix-it mode.
“It’s weird that you throw out a private jet like you’re offering me a stick of gum.”
