Page 33 of His One True Wish

We ate in silence, both of us watching the snow fall. I knew there was an ice cube’s chance in hell this snow was going to stop today, but I wasn’t going to share. I figured if I stayed calm, we could wait it out and then hoof it into town. If we walked along the river, it would take about thirty minutes. That was about the max amount of time we could be in the cold.

“I know you want to call your mom,” I said.

“Which you probably think is stupid,” she said.

“I don’t.”

“Do you talk to your mom or your family?” she asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

My chest constricted at the question. A pang of unsaid words pulsed inside me. I hadn’t been asked about my family in a long while.

“That’s a long pause,” she said, smiling. “Sorry if I am prying.”

“Nope. It’s a fair question. And no, we don’t talk.” I clamped my mouth shut. There was an ease to conversation with Billie that made me lower my defenses, so I needed to find something else for us to do besides sit around and talk.

“Hey, how about Scrabble?” I asked.

“What?” Billie looked confused. “You want to play Scrabble?”

“Of course I want to play Scrabble?” I stood up and cleared the table. “Look, there is literally nothing for us to do here. We can’t go outside. It’s dangerously cold, and that snow isn’t stopping. I don’t have a signal. You don’t have a battery.”

“What about your computer?” she said, standing up and following me while I cleared dishes. “You said you go online.”

“I use Mason’s computer or take my laptop to town.” I nodded out the window. “I spend a lot of time at the airport, which means I can pop on over and use the computer at the Buzz On In Bakery Cafe.”

“You don’t even have a computer here,” she said, deadpanning. “How do you function?”

“I function just fine,” I said.

“And you don’t go online or check email.”

“Not that I need to explain myself, but I make it a point to decompress out here, which means I check email when I want to, which is rarely. I’m actually overdue to give your Gran an update on the place.”

Something flashed across her face, a look I couldn’t read. “It’s fine,” she whispered.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” she fired back. “I can’t believe I’m stuck here, and nobody knows but you.”

“Well, I’m guessing your mom knows you are here,” I said. “You told her where you were going, right? Didn’t you say you texted her?”

“I did,” she said. “I told her I’d call her tomorrow, which is today, right now.”

“Listen.” I looked outside. “We have, what, over three feet of snow out there? I guarantee you this storm hit Denver, too. Probably not as hard, but I am sure your mom knows that you ran into weather on your way to Smoke River.”

“She will be worried,” she whispered.

“Yes, and we will figure out how to get into town tonight so you can call her.”

“Tonight?” She looked at the ceiling.

“I’m just guessing.”

“Okay,” she said, her big brown eyes locking on mine. “You promise we’ll go into town so I can call?”

“I mean, yeah. I promise I will try.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding. “I suppose that’s enough.”

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