Page 144 of Any Second Now
“He better pull it together in the next few weeks though…” Atticus trails off when we hear footsteps through the open door.
“Hey.” Harley appears, nodding at me politely. “How can we help?”
I point to a few boxes stacked on the kitchen floor and the three of them get to work. I definitely could’ve done all this on my own, but it’s nice to have the help. This group of guys acts like a family, and between them, Atticus, and living next door to Lucy? Nothing could be better.
Well, that’s not exactly right. If January were here with us, it would be perfect.
When I left Connecticut in June to drive across country, I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew I wanted to be someone other than myself for a change. I wanted to do some things that the old Raleigh would never do.
Okay, so maybe driving an RV and learning to do cross-stitch isn’t exactly the most adventurous thing anyone has ever done. But it helped me break the routine of my life so I could truly find myself.
I open a smaller box on the counter next to the one with dishes—this one came from Pink Palace via Atticus’s apartment—and pull out the large completed cross-stitch that’s right on top. Atticus steps behind me and slides an arm around my waist before peeking down at what I’m holding.
“I wish I hadn’t screwed up the parts I stitched.” There’s a smile in his voice.
We’ve been working on this one together over the past few weeks. I won’t sell it or post it online.
It’s our cross-stitch.
It’s us.
“It’s perfect.” I look around. There’s an existing nail on the wall above the kitchen entrance. There’s a lot of leftover hooks in this place—the last tenants didn’t leave it in the best condition. “Can you hang it?” I nod to the empty space, way higher than I can reach.
Atticus takes the hoop from my hand and easily hooks it ontothe nail. He steps back, and it’s a little crooked, so he gently nudges it until it’s exactly right.
The quote is way too long, which is why I picked a jumbo hoop for the project.
Atticus reaches for my hand and I meet his eyes with a smile before looking at the hoop.
It says:Home is: chickens, hockey, the Pink Palace, zombie movies. And us.
Epilogue
ATTICUS
1 year later
So much has happened over the past year, but all I’m focusing on is Raleigh Hayes.
“I can’t believe how dark it is out here,” Raleigh whispers, as if she will disturb the carpet of stars above us with a voice too loud.
I reach my hand over and grab hers.
We’re lying on our backs in Arches National Park in Utah on a soft fleece blanket, staring up at the gorgeous carpet of stars above us. There’s a remarkable quiet stillness in the national park at night. Sure, there are other people around stargazing, but we can’t see or hear them.
I managed to snag a campground reservation at the Devil’s Garden. It’s the only campsite in the entire park and a tough slot to get. Six months ago, I had to wait at my freaking computer for the clock to turn midnight Utah time for reservations to open for this night.
The look on Raleigh’s face when she woke up that morning was worth it.
We’ve been sleeping in the Pink Palace for the past three weeks as we’ve traveled around some of the western states. Well, it’s more like the Pink and Purple Palace these days as we had that same artist who painted the chicken and mountain mural come back and paint a hockey inspired mural on the other side, including lots of Blizzard purple and yellow coloring.
Also, I had the Pink Palace basically gutted. If we were really going to drive around for a month—and we’ve spent time in Yosemite, Yellowstone, some gorgeous drives in California, and now we’re working our way up through Utah—we needed some upgrades. Like, a lot of upgrades.
I’d have preferred to buy a bigger RV, but Raleigh insisted on keeping it.
Now there’s real wood floors, a mini sectional sofa, a table that secures against the wall when we’re not using it, incredible lighting, and the tiniest luxury kitchen we could fit in. Also, the bedroom is basically all bed, but it’s raised a few steps so we could have custom storage built underneath. The bathroom is still my least favorite part as I can barely fit my body inside of it, but I’m surviving.
The RV is now basically a luxury studio apartment.
