Page 68 of Just Let Go

As he did, Quinn opened it and walked outside.

“You look like a marshmallow,” Carly said.

Grady stifled a laugh, but Carly was right. Quinn wore a bulky pair of white ski pants and a puffy white winter coat, the kind with fur in the hood.

She glared at her sister. “I had to borrow it from Lucy. It’s not like I have ski clothes in my closet.”

“You’re going with?” Carly frowned.

“Yes, and you should come too so I don’t have to suffer through this day by myself.”

“It’ll be fun, Aunt Quinn,” Jaden said. “Promise.”

“You’ll have fun watching me make a fool of myself,” she said. “I, however, plan to have no fun.”

“That’s a great plan, Q.” Carly folded her arms. “Why are you going? Did you lose a bet?”

Another glare from Quinn, this time directed at Grady. She almost looked cute with the scowl on her face and in her ridiculous getup.

“I have Hailey’s ski clothes inside, so you won’t even have to go home and dig yours out of the closet.” Quinn turned toward Carly.

“I don’t ski, Quinn. This is Jaden’s thing.”

“I don’t ski either, but here I am.”

Carly groaned. “I was supposed to work today, and then I traded shifts with someone else and I was really looking forward to being home by myself and catching up on laundry.”

“Gee, you two really know how to have a good time,” Grady said. “I’m going to Hazel’s to get some coffee. When I get back we’re leaving. All of us.”

Carly groaned again. “I don’t want to go skiing.”

“Come on, Mom, it’ll be fun. You haven’t seen me up there in months. Maybe I can teach you a thing or two. Show you that you didn’t waste your money on those lessons.”

Grady wandered across the street to Hazel’s. He told Betsy who he was ordering for and she knew their drinks, as if she had them saved in some mental database or something. She stuck the cups in a cardboard carrier and handed them across the counter.

“It’s nice to see you acclimating to our small-town life,” she said.

Grady laughed. “This isn’t acclimation,” he said. “This is just passing the time until I can get out of here.”

“Well, that’s too bad.”

The voice came from behind him, and while he’d only heard it afew times, he recognized it immediately. He turned and found Judge Harrison, looking a little more irritated than Grady remembered.

He gritted his teeth to keep from saying something he’d regret.

“I was hoping our way of life might rub off on you,” the judge said.

“Don’t hold your breath.” Grady picked up the drinks and nodded at Betsy, who gave him a slight smile.

“Son, maybe there’s something here for you that you haven’t even thought of yet,” the judge said as Grady turned around.

“I can tell you with absolute certainty, Judge, there is nothing here for me.” He held the man’s gaze for a moment, then slipped out the front door and into the icy Michigan air.

If the judge thought keeping him here was going to teach him some kind of lesson, he was crazy. A familiar anger flared up inside him. His dad said this happened when things didn’t go his way.

“You can’t just quit because it doesn’t come the first time,” his father had told him after one particularly frustrating run years ago. “You get so mad and you give up.”

“Because I should be able to do that in my sleep.”

---