Page 113 of The Auction
“What? You have to read it. What if he’s like…coming back?”
I snorted, having found hidden treasure in my pint container. “He’s not coming back. Why would he leave if he was just going to come back? I’ll read it eventually. I’m sure there’s stuff in there about how…” I tripped over the word. “How the divorce will go.”
“You think you’ll sell the farm?” she asked.
AP was climbing up the couch in an attempt to get to my ice cream. I plucked him off my chest and set him on the floor. “Chocolate’s no good for you.”
“Mine has some vanilla,” April told me. She dabbed some on the pint lid and set it on the floor by her feet. AP bolted for the treat.
Yahm-yahm-yahmand it was gone in seconds, but he seemed satisfied, because he curled into a ball.
“Yeah, we’ll sell,” I answered. “Losing the crop will cost us with buyers, but people will always want land out here. Maybe you’ll get some famous Hollywood people to be your neighbors.”
“But we just got to know each other,” April pouted.
“You’re going to college in a few weeks anyway,” I reminded her.
“True,” she said. “You should come with! It’s not too late for you to go to college.”
“I always kind of thought maybe I could be a nurse,” I admitted.
“Can you handle the sight of blood?”
“Nope.”
“Then, totally, you should be a nurse!”
April laughed and I managed a smile.
“You really liked him, didn’t you?” she pressed me.
“He was alright,” I sighed.
The heaviness in my heart was unlike anything I’d ever felt. Suddenly, I wanted to go back to bed.
“You should read the letter,” April told me. “Not reading it…well, it’s not going to make it go way, and it might be the only way you get to have closure.”
I stoodin front of the closed door to Herb’s study. I remembered I hadn’t cleaned up the broken lamp.
Probably should do that. But all of that felt like too much effort.
“I’m just going to go in, snatch up the letter off the carpet, and come back out.”
“Yeooww!” AP was perched on my shoulder and seemed to be in full agreement. If he missed Creed, he didn’t show any sign of it.
I’d taken to bringing him out to the barn with me so he could get used to Peasy and Peasy could get used to him. There was no point in anyone getting too close, though. Peasy would have to be sold back to the Talleys, but I figured I could take Patch with me wherever I went.
Did I still want to go to Seattle?
Seemed pretty far away at this point. At least that’s what I told myself, and not the fact that if I went that far away and Creed did come back, he would never find me.
Maybe April was right. Maybe I should think about enrolling in college around here. I did know a lot about agriculture and farming. I wasn’t sure what kind of degree I could get, but maybe I could end up working on another farm?
No clue.
I only knew that I couldn’t keep moping around thishouse for another week hoping that what had happened hadn’t happened.
Eventually, the money was going to run out. Eventually, I was going to have to make the decision not to be so damn sad.
