I hadn’t been back to Miller’s Bluff since before Sophie died.
It had been early 2020, when everything was just shut down and it felt like the world was standing still. We’d been bored and stircrazy, so we’d hopped in the car and driven out to my old house…had dinner with Aunt Peg and Uncle Adam, planned to crash in the cottage for the evening.
That night, we drove out to the spot where me and my twin brother Emmett tried weed for the first time and looked up at the stars. Emmett had cried that night—said he missed our parents.
I’d told Sophie all of that as we lay down on a blanket and stared up into space.
And now I was going that direction again…this time with Willa.
She held my hand as we drove up the hill, past the springs and waterfalls that ultimately fed Holt Creek. The bluff had been named for the mill that had been here once—a waterfall crashed down from it, into a pool where it was nice to swim in the summers. Willa was just starting to show, her belly slightly swollen under her long blue dress.
I’d told her what this place meant to me.
“You good?” she asked. “We can turn around.”
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said. “Just…do you mind if I talk about her?”
“Not at all,” she said. “I wish I could know her.”
I let out a long breath.
“This is…this is a spot where a lot of stuff has happened,” I said. “Sophie—I never liked to talk about my family, and she insisted on reconnecting with them. I’d run as far as I could from Holt Creek when I went to college—not because they were ever unkind, just because I’d come here first when everything was so raw—and this was one of our first visits back.”
I paused, took a long turn around the hill.
“Aunt Peg loved her,” I said. “Guess she gets along with everyone, though. But…it felt good. And it felt hollow too, because I never got to introduce her tomymom.”
Another pause. Willa was still listening.
“Sophie never actually met my brother Emmett. He ran even further than I did.” I glanced at her. “I hope you’ll get to meet him.”
Willa’s mouth twisted in a smile. “I’d be pretty offended if he didn’t at least make the effort, given I’m gonna have his niece in about…oh, six months?”
“Damn straight.”
I laughed, and it felt easy. I hadn’t laughed like that much at all before Willa showed up.
The truck crested the hill and the bluff opened up in front of us—the limestone shelf jutting out over the dark valley, the waterfall a white thread in the moonlight below, and above it all the Hill Country sky reminding us just how small we were. I backed into a spot in the little lot at the end of the road—there were trails around here, swimming holes, the works—and we just looked up.
“It’s so beautiful,” she breathed.
I wasn’t looking at the sky; I was looking at her. “Don’t I know it.”
I got out of the truck and rounded the hood, opening her door for her. She slid out into my arms and we moved to the back of the truck, where I’d stashed a rolled-up blanket just for this purpose.
I climbed into the bed first, unrolled the blanket, then reached out my hand.
“Come on up,” I offered.
She took my hand and joined me.
We lay down together, her tucked against my side, the sky enormous above us.
"Tell me more about Sophie," she said. "Something you haven't told me yet."
I thought about it.
"She used to talk to strangers," I said. "In line at the grocery store, at gas stations, anywhere. Full conversations. I used to get so impatient and she'd just—" I shook my head. "She'd get back in the car knowing this stranger's entire life story. Their kids' names. What they were worried about." I paused. "She said everyone was carrying something and the least you could do was let them set it down for a minute."
