Page 35 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
The weight of it pressed down.
A thousand tons of pain.
I inhaled against it, struggling to draw in air.
To shake myself out of it.
To remember my purpose.
As soon as I figured out the car situation, we’d pack up and we’d be on our way, and everything would be just fine.
We’d go back to normal.
I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or weep at the thought.
Normal.
Because there was nothingnormalabout this.
SIX
THEO
Otto
Everyone survive the snowpocalypse last night?
River
Dramatic much?
Otto
Good to know you’re alive, brother. And the snowbank is up the second-story deck of my house. I would hardly call that dramatic. It would not be chill if my girl went into labor.
Yawning,I dragged my ass downstairs as I thumbed through the slew of messages waiting for me from my crew.
I never got a full night’s sleep. Rest only found in fleeting bursts where I always jerked awake, drenched in sweat and heart bleeding.
But it’d been worse last night.
Every minute wrought with thoughts of the woman staying across the property.
Unsure how it felt like I’d come upon her for a reason.
Like I’d been destined to be there.
Realized as the sun had been breaking that it all had to be due to that trauma effect. The worry I’d felt when I’d come upon the accident somehow convincing me that her burden had become mine.
I was finally fucking seeing clearly.
I’d help get her car arranged and send her on her merry way and, just like she said, I’d never have to think about her again.
I kept thumbing through the messages as I hit the bottom landing of my place, bare feet hitting the worn wood as I headed for the kitchen so I could brew a pot of coffee.
There was no stopping the grin that took to my mouth at the antics my family had already gotten up to.
Cash
