Page 4 of Rekindling Little River
Plastering a friendly smile on their face, River perused their food options as Dave began to chat with them. They’d have a nice friendly dinner, keep conversation light, and then go their separate ways. Easy.
Dave
This was not going to be easy. Sure, River had let him sit with them, they were even keeping a steady conversation. But every time Dave tried to steer the conversation to anything deeper than small talk, they neatly and efficiently directed it back to more simple topics. Dave had learned absolutely nothing new about them.
“Mmmmm, this reminds me of home,” he said as he took another bite of his brisket. Maybe if he shared some history with them, River would take his lead and share about themself. He just needed them to take the bait.
Dave almost did a happy dance when River asked, “Where’s home?”
“I grew up in Texas. Just northwest of Houston.”
Their dark brows raised for just a moment, as they swallowed. “I recognized that you had an accent, but it doesn’t sound anything like a southern accent.”
“I grew up in Texas, but I started traveling at a young age. Spent a lot of time with a lot of people from lots of different places. Spending all that time with others kind of colored the way I speak. If you were to meet my mom though, she’d probably sound exactly like you’d expect from someone from the south.”
He could see the questions in their eyes, but they kept silent. So, he asked a question of his own. “Where’d you grow up? I know it wasn’t in New York.”
“How do you know that?”
Why did it not surprise him that they answered a question with a question?
“Your complete lack of an accent. Not just the lack of a New Yorker’s accent, butanyaccent.” It was something he’d always wondered about them. How was there no clue to their origins when they spoke? There was no accent to indicate where they’d been born or educated. There was nothing to hint at where they’d lived before moving to New York. He’d spent almost his entire life traveling and picking up inflections, but even then, a slight trace of his southern roots was evident in his voice if people knew what to listen for. When River spoke, there was just… nothing. “So, where’d you grow up?”
“Everywhere.” They took another bite of their dinner and Dave suspected that would be all the answer he’d get. He even opened his mouth to ask another question before River continued, “I was born in Oklahoma though.”
Dave had hoped that the conversation would develop from there, but he came away disappointed. Despite talking all through dinner and as he walked them to their room, the only new thing he learned about River that evening was that they’d been born in Oklahoma. However, he’d learned that and he still had most of a week to achieve his goals. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but hopefully a solid relationship could be built in a week.
CHAPTER 3
River
The groan that escaped River’s throat could have woken a sleeping polar bear in the Arctic. How was it that, even without an alarm set, or any obligations, they couldn’t sleep more than a few hours at a time? They’d heard of bodies adjusting to routines, automatically setting themselves to wake up at a certain time, to not be able to stay awake after a certain time, needing a nap, food or whatever. But how in hell could a body adjust itself tonoroutine?
Working as a paramedic meant long, forty-eight-hour shifts. It meant sleeping a few hours between calls if you were lucky and being up and going for two days straight if you weren’t. There were no set sleep times, no wake times, and no guaranteed days off. As a result, River was often awake for days and when theydidsleep, it was rarely more than four hours at a time. It would figure that wouldn’t change for their first everrealvacation.
Heaving a sigh, River dragged their aching body out of bed, scowled at the moon high in the sky and grabbed a thick robe from the bathroom door. They’d seen a library on the map in thebrochure. If they couldn’t sleep, then at least they could find a book and spend their time doing something else they missed.
Not bothering with shoes, carrying only their room key in their robe pocket and the brochure in their hands, they set off to hopefully immerse themself in a fictional world. As they slipped quietly down the hall, making sure not to wake other guests lucky enough to be sleeping, they contemplated returning to their room for their moccasins. They’d sorely misjudged how cold the floors would be at night.
Looking behind them, they decided they’d come too far to turn back now. Tugging their robe tighter across their body to counter some of the chill caused by bare feet, they continued on, hoping there was a decent romance section in the library. If not, they did have their e-reader in their room, but nothing was more relaxing to River than the feel and smell of a physical book while taking a trip to a fictional world.
An eerie silence had settled over the Ranch’s main building, making it seem as though River were the only person in the world. Though they knew it to be untrue as they passed the front desk and the person manning the desk, phone in hand, probably doom scrolling to pass the time. It made sense that people would be up and keeping this seemingly well-manned place running, there just wasn’t a hint of their activities cutting the complete silence.
As if summoned by their thoughts, a clunking noise followed by a strange, uneven-type sound ricocheted off the walls shattering the quiet ambience. Before River had even managed to fully register what the sound was, a hunched form cast in shadows by the low lighting appeared before them. Before they could scream, the form straightened to stand tall, a rescued soda bottle in one hand, their other poised to un-twist the cap.
“I’d wait a minute if I were you,” they found themselves saying before really thinking about it. “As hard as it hit the floorand with all that rolling, it’s likely to fizz everywhere if you open it now.”
The shadow stilled completely, obviously caught off guard as they slowly turned their head in River’s direction. Ice-blue eyes captured River’s breath as Dave took a step toward them. “You’re probably right,” he acknowledged. “I honestly don’t need it anyway.”
“Need and want are two separate things that rarely align.” River’s shoulders lifted and fell as they spoke. “But what’s the point of doing what’s needed if you can’t occasionally have what you want?”
Dave stopped in front of them, inclining his head. “Fair point. Where are you headed so late… or is it early?”
River held up the map they were following. “I couldn’t sleep anymore, so I was going to see what books the library had.”
“Lucky duck.” River gave Dave a curious look at his declaration and he immediately explained. “I’d had the same idea but… the library is in the Littles’ Wing. Being registered as a Big in my paperwork means I won’t be able to access that wing unless I’m accompanying a Little.”
River took a closer look at the map, seeing that Dave was indeed correct. The library was in a section of the map labeled theLittles’ Wing.
