Page 33 of Trick or Treat with the Mountain Man
Asking me to go all the way to Saint Louis seemed like it meantsomething. The man enjoyed my company. But was that all this was? Or something more?
Next weekend.
Trina Myers was holding on to me so tight she was shaking. “Thank you so much. You’ll never know what this means for our family.”
Tyler and I had made the trip to Saint Louis and given the Myers family all of Cordelia’s mementos.
After spending the day with the whole Myers family, we were getting ready to head on out. We wanted to get on the road before the sun went down. We’d drive a few hours and then find a hotel room somewhere quieter than the city.
Tyler didn’t like big-city life. He’d done well yesterday, keeping me entertained while we took in the sights. But he was ready to get back to the woods, even if he hadn’t said it in as many words.
I was starting to be able to decipher his grunts. Abby said that the sign of really knowing a man was when you understood what his different grunts meant.
So far I’d been able to identify the grunt that meant, ‘Hot damn, that food was good.’
Which was only slightly different from the grunt that meant, ‘Hot damn, that blowjob was good.’
Then there was the long grunt which came after each bite of anything sweet that I fed him, or the quiet grunt when he saw me for the first time every day. I liked to think that was a grunt of appreciation for mystunninggood looks. Somehow, I was always stunning in his eyes.
Just as we were heading out the door, I turned back around. “Trina, do you think I could have a photo of your family?”
The woman didn’t ask why. She just padded over to a photo album sitting on her coffee table, flipped a few pages and pulled one out.
“This is from a family reunion we had one year. Everyone’s here. Our parents, our spouses, our kids. Three generations all in one spot.” She pointed to the oldest man standing in the back. “That was our dad, Wallace. We took this photo a few years before he passed away.”
They were at a theme park, and they were all wearing Mickey Mouse ears. Everyone was smiling for the camera.
“Perfect. Thank you for this!” I squeezed her hand one more time.
Ed and Tyler had quietly made arrangements with Silas. The Myers were going to move Cordelia from her current location to Saint Louis so she could be next to her husband, just like she’d wanted.
Orson had never remarried. Wallace had always told them that their grandpa’s heart belonged in Kentucky, but he’d never said more than that. Now they knew that Orson thought Cordelia haddied in the flood. But despite that, he’d stayed true to her until the day he died.
That was the kind of love thatIwanted. I gazed over at Tyler, my eyes getting misty.
He must have noticed, because he said, “We’re getting the truck on the road, folks. Ed, I’ll see you soon.”
Ed wanted to come see where his grandmother had lived, so he was planning a visit to Red Oak Mountain.
Trina and I hugged goodbye one more time, then Tyler and I got on the road.
“Can you believe that? Orson and Cordelia loved each other so much that neither of them ever went on a date with anyone else ever again. It’s just so sad, but… beautiful at the same time, isn’t it?”
Something must have been going on with me, because I started to mist up again.
Tyler grabbed my hand, while he expertly drove through the thick city traffic. I’d never been anywhere this big before, but he seemed familiar with cars weaving in and out, going twenty miles over the speed limit.
“You’re one sappy love song away from true love, Ava. You’re a total fool for love, aren’t you?”
I sighed. “You figured me out.”
He glanced at me as he drove. “Then why hasn’t any man ever put a ring on your finger?”
I thought about it. I’d dated. But nothing serious had ever come out of it before. “I’m not sure. Maybe they weren’t the right one? I might have been waiting for my soul mate.”
He grinned at me. “Are you still waiting?”
I swatted his arm and snarked, “What are you saying? Am I just something to while away the time with?”
