Page 114 of Fire and Icing

“Sounds good.”

“Goodnight, Emberleigh.” He stands at the threshold to the basement, a sweet expression on his face.

“Goodnight, Dustin.” I turn and nearly bolt through the kitchen.

Okay, I walk, but inside I’m bolting. I climb the stairs and at the top, I shut the door to my bedroom. I strip my clothes and throw them in the hamper. Then I pull my pajamas on. My phone is out of my purse and in my hand in an instant. I fall back onto my bed.

Syd’s voice feels like a warm blanket after a day in the snow. “Hey! Congratulations!”

“For? Oh! Yeah. Right. The contest! Thanks! Thanks so much! We won!”

“I know! I’ve been calling you to say congrats. It kept going to voicemail.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry. I think my phone is still on silent. I should have called you. I fell asleep in Dustin’s truck on the drive home.”

“I bet. What a day! You must be wiped.”

“I’m pretty tired.”

“I’ll let you go, then.”

“No. No. I need you … to talk. Can you?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

I stand up and start pacing. “Syd, Dustin’s right here in this house. I’m coming unglued. And all I can think about is how he held me when we danced at the town festival. Today he said so much. He said he’s not going anywhere. And you saw him, he sang that song right to me. He’s hinting at wanting more. I think he’s hinting, anyway. I don’t know what to do!”

“What do you want?” Her voice is calm, steady. She knows me well enough to know any false move will send me running in the wrong direction.

“I don’t know. I think I want what I can’t have.”

“No, girl. You’re so afraid you can’t have what you want, you won’t even let yourself own your own dreams.”

A man’s cough comes through the phone.

“Did you hear that?” I ask.

“Hear what?” Syd answers.

“A man coughing.”

“No. I mean, maybe. Could have been my neighbor. He’s so loud.”

“Your … neighbor? Syd, you live over the bakery. Since when do you have a neighbor?”

“Right, well. Must have been static. Anyway, back to you and Dustin.”

“There’s not an actual me and Dustin, officially.”

“Okay. But hear me out,” she says. “If you didn’t end up with a truckload of fear as your parting gift when Drew left, what would you want with Dustin?”

Syd doesn’t say anything else. I stare out my bedroom window into the dark night sky. She’s right, of course. I’ve been steeped in fear. Too afraid to hope. Too afraid to let myself take a risk.

“Everything,” I admit in a near-whisper. “I’d want everything.”

Syd squeals so loudly, I’m afraid Dustin will hear her from all the way down in the basement. “I knew it! Then go get it, girl. Allow yourself a second chance. Let him shoot his shot. We don’t get to choose who we fall for. It comes out of left field, and it’s the person we least expect and maybe even the one who will cause the most waves in our life. But when it comes, it comes. And you don’t want to miss the ride.”

“You’re making way too much sense for a single woman.”

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