Page 10 of Coulda

“What are you doing here? Go study!” Jack ordered his daughter.

"On my way!"

Escaping to her car, Amber ripped the package open and found three items inside. Opening the sealed envelope carefully, she read Rio’s precise block letters:

Little girl,

The worst thing a Daddy can do is stand in the way of someone’s potential. You have so many gifts to share with the world that I’m confident you are going to be an amazing nurse. Know that wherever we are in the world, I’m sending you support and encouragement. Rock your life, Amber.

Rio

Amber read that message three times, trying to understand that he was gone. Did he leave because of some altruistic desire to help her?How screwed up is that!

Her eyes lingered on the words Little girl and Daddy. There was no mistaking his meaning. Amber shook her head in disbelief. She’d planned to talk to him after she graduated. There were just a few more weeks.

Numb, she folded the letter and tucked it back into the envelope. Picking up the heavy, paper-wrapped bundle, Amber unfolded it and swallowed hard. He had found it. The book Beau had found that they’d all pored over. Rio knew all her deepest thoughts.

A dreadful thought crossed her mind. Had he left because she’d disgusted him? She tore the letter back out from the envelope to reread it. As much as she tried to sense something negative from his words, Amber knew Rio hadn’t judged her harshly.

She smoothed the wrinkles from the note and returned it once again to the envelope. That discussion with Maisie and her friends about Rio being a Daddy reverberated in her memories. He didn’t say it, but Amber suspected he’d left because he was too old for her. That must mean he had feelings for her, right?

The final item was light and squishy to the touch. Amber tried to open it without tearing the paper. When green plush poked through the paper, she abandoned her attempt to be careful and ripped the remaining paper open. Discovering a stuffie shaped like all the lime wedges she’d watched Rio slice throughout the years, Amber squeezed it to her heart and allowed the tears welling in her eyes to tumble down her cheeks.

“Damn you, Rio. You didn’t have to leave,” she stormed aloud into the car. But inside, she knew dividing her attention between her studies and a long-distance relationship would have been super challenging.

Shaking away those thoughts, she texted Harper.

He’s gone.

Who?

Rio. He left the book and a note.

He’ll be back?

I don’t think so.

Can you drive here? I need to hug you.

On my way. Can you text everyone?

I’ve got you.

Tucking the stuffie in her large backpack, Amber turned on the car and forced herself to focus on navigating to her friend’s house.

CHAPTER4

Prior to the fifth reunion

“I can’t believe none of us can make it to the five-year reunion,” Amber bemoaned on the video call with the four people she missed every day. There was one more, but he’d disappeared without leaving a trace.

“It’s a long way from your latest hospital job,” Beau observed. “How did you end up working in Alaska?”

“When they told me there are more men than women here, I jumped at a chance to work here,” Amber joked. “They just didn’t tell me a bunch of those guys live out in the bush. It’s beautiful here. I just have two months more of my contract.”

“I didn’t like those people in high school. I can’t figure out why I’d want to leave an exciting experiment to go see who married who,” Maisie commented.

“They weren’t all bad. Harper’s still there,” Beau pointed out.

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