Page 127 of Any Second Now
We’ve not shared one single text message since breaking up.
And that’s the way it should be, no matter how tempted I’ve been.
I’ve gotta be gone before he gets back in a few days so I can avoid any confrontation.
I put the RV up for sale three days ago and have had several potential buyers come see it.
One couple loved it, but I heard them talking about painting over the mural.
Painting over that mountain, beautiful sunset reflected in the lake, and Megghen, like it was never there to begin with.
Saying goodbye to my chicken will be another story. But luckily, there’s a great plan for her and her giant coop that doesn’t involve dropping her at a farm where they’ll probably make her dinner.
I follow Lucy back to the couch.
“I canna go back to our wee television when we return to Scotland,” Oliver says. “Lucas will never forgive us.”
I mean—that accent—it takes a lot of concentration for me to follow along, but it’s delicious. Instead, I let my mind wander while I stare blankly at the muted pre-game coverage.
The Blizzard won their first game of the charity tournament yesterday. I was at Lucy’s apartment and we watched it from her couch with Waffles stretched out on our laps. I tried not to watch, actually, and spent a lot of time scrolling on my phone so I didn’t accidentally meet Atticus’s eyes through the television screen. At one point Lucy grabbed my phone and threw it across the couch. At least you can hardly tell who each player is under their uniforms and helmets, and especially on Lucy’s tiny flat screen.
But Kellen’s television makes the players practicallylife-sized.
“How did you guys get together?” Lucy asks her friends with a sideways glance at me. “Reese, I’ve only heard the story from your sister. I heard it’s a good one.”
I make a face at Lucy. Last night she was trying to convince me to talk to Atticus again. She even asked if there was any way he and I would consider trying to work it out. I told her no. For so many reasons, no.
I guess she’s trying again, but at least it gives me an excuse not to look at the screen, where any second now the players will come out onto the ice.
“Well, I was in Scotland with my daughter for an elite soccer camp back when she was still in high school.” Reese’s cheeks turn rosy as she talks.
“And I’d just left Winchester FC due to an injury. I was a coach for the camp that Chelsea was attending. She was so good at football.Isso good.” Oliver’s voice lilts up and down in his soothing Scottish cadence.
“Soccer,” Reese says to me. “We were, uh, kind of pushed together.” Reese smiles, and Oliver reaches over and grabs her hand.
“Reese left Scotland, but then I chased after her. It was complicated, aye. We both had to compromise. But we’ve made it work.”
“There was no other option, really.” Reese squeezes Oliver’s hand.
“The obstacles didna matter, as long as we ended up together.” Oliver leans over to kiss Reese.
Oh, for the love. I roll my eyes while their lips are locked and glance at Lucy for solidarity, but she’s got actual fucking tears in her eyes.
I have to get out of this town.
“It seemed impossible,” Reese says when they break apart.
Was this rehearsed? Are they reading from a script? Because it’s ridiculously sappy and dramatic.
“Yeah, it often does,” Lucy sips her wine and leans her headback on the couch. “I mean, Raleigh, did you ever think I’d end up here? Staying in Colorado?”
“No. Your dream was England.” I don’t mean it to come out so cross.
Lucy looks at me, and her face betrays a flash of hurt.
“Sometimes dreams change,” she says in a steady voice. “And sometimes we need to figure out why we feel like we must do something. Why the rules are there—if they’re even really there, or if we’ve made them up and trapped ourselves voluntarily.”
Ouch.
