As Lana drove past the Tourist Trap, a slender brunette at the counter proved Lana’s theory.
Zoey probably didn’t realize she’d taken Lana’s seat, the one easiest to talk to Graham from. And Graham, so completely in love with Lana’s best friend, would never notice Lana was even gone.
A hundred thousand dollars in therapy allowed her to drive past and truly be happy for them both. Not to stop, giving the couple the space they needed.
Maybe a hundred thousand dollars more would help her figure out how not to feel so damn lonely as she drove back to one more hotel room.
* * *
It had been another slow night. Not dead but close enough that Rick’s bank account wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. One of these days, no one was going to show up for an entire shift. At which point Rick was going to have to seriously reconsider what he was doing.
Coming inside, he dropped down his wallet on the end table next to the sofa Diego was currently sprawled across.
“I’m thinking about selling out,” he told Diego. “At least the tourists actually show up places.”
A grunt was all he received from the younger man. Diego must have just gotten home himself because he pulled off his blue shirt of shame—the same blue shirt all the resort employees wore—wadded it up, and lobbed it at the television.
“I already did sell out,” Diego said.
“Bad day at work?”
“Is it ever a good day up there?”
“Tell me how you really feel.” Rick shrugged. “It pays well. You can get your own place.”
“Yeah, but who’d keep your grumpy ass company?” Diego dropped down to the couch.
“Did you see Quinn today?” Rick asked, because like it or not, he was interested in Diego’s life. The kid would just have to deal with it.
An instant flush of color filled Diego’s face, despite the glare he aimed at his lap.
“You should ask her out.”
“You should mind your own business.”
Maybe, but since Rick was the closest to family Diego had, he could get away with it. “She’s a nice girl, Diego. It’s okay to have something nice in your life. Take a girl out, spend some of that money you’re such a scrooge about.”
“Take your own advice,” Diego told him, but Rick could see Diego fiddling with his phone. “I’ll go out if you do.”
Liquid dark eyes and the best smile he’d ever seen decided to pop into his head. She’d given him enough signs of encouragement that Rick wasn’t completely convinced he would get shot down. But finding the courage to ask out the woman of his dreams hadn’t exactly been on his to-do list tonight. He’d planned on disappointing his cat and maybe hanging out with Darla for a while. Just because he didn’t spend his nights heartsick over his ex anymore didn’t mean Rick was ready to move on to being heartsick over someone else. Lana wasn’t exactly a permanent fixture in Moose Springs, and Rick had experienced his fill of being left behind.
Except, well…the kid really needed to do something healthier than sitting in the physical remnants of Rick’s failed happily ever after, glaring at a blue shirt of shame like it was a copperhead.
“I’ll call someone if you call Quinn,” Rick conceded. “But it’s not my fault if I get told no.”
“Way to think positive.” Diego snorted, but Rick could see the younger man thumbing his phone nervously.
Rejection preferred solitude, but having a hedgehog never hurt. They rarely told a secret. Gathering up Darla to keep him company, Rick dressed her in her ugliest Christmas sweater and matching mittens, then put her inside a heated hedgie sock. Rick went to the porch, tucking Darla inside his Carhartt and zipping it up, breath misting in the air in front of his face. It was dangerous to let a domesticated hedgehog get too cold. They could start to hibernate and grow very sick, even die. But Darla loved being outside with him, so a couple of minutes in her warmer would be okay.
Unlike some of the people in his town, Rick had never minded the long, dark Alaskan winters. With the dark came the stars. He’d spent a lot of nights for a lot of years sitting beneath this sky, and it was an old friend.
Some nights, it felt like his best friend.
The kid wasn’t wrong. It had been a really long time since he’d taken a woman out. Even longer since he’d called a woman for that purpose.
“What do you think, Darla? Do people even call anymore? Or is it only texting?”
Darla snorted her cute little snout, wiggling in the warmth inside his jacket.
Fiddling with the phone in his hand, Rick knew he wasn’t any better than Diego.
“Screw it,” Rick finally said, typing a message into his phone to Lana and pressing the Send button. She’d given him her number that summer, not that he’d ever called it. There. He’d texted. Except reception always kind of sucked, and the stupid little bar never finished sending the message. It had tricked him before. Did she get it? Did she not get it? What if it got stuck in the ether and kept sending his message over and over again like he was a weirdo?
Rick had never regretted a “hey” more.
A little text bubble popped up, briefly restoring his faith in technology and the blood flow to his twisting stomach.
“Call me?” he read aloud.
Rick supposed the invitation was better than a few other responses he could have gotten. Yet somehow the idea of calling Lana was far worse than accidentally repeat texting her.
With a sigh, Rick sat on the cold wooden slats of his porch swing, unzipping his jacket a bit so Darla could look out.
The door slammed shut behind him. Diego stomped down the steps, hands shoved in his pockets.
“Where are you going?” he called. Diego ignored him by opening his car door. “Did Quinn say yes?”
Diego answered that with a finger.
“Think that means yes?” Rick asked the hedgehog in his jacket. “You lost your mitten, Darla.”
Darla wiggled her little snout, letting Rick tug the protective mitten over her tiny foot before snugging the heated sock around her.
“I think she said yes.” Rick rolled Darla over into the crook of his arm. He’d never had children, but he’d wanted them. A surly twenty-year-old, a grumpy cat, and a hedgehog named after a Buffy the Vampire Slayer vampire weren’t exactly the family he’d planned on, but Rick had learned a long time ago to be grateful for what he had. It could all change in a moment.
He and Diego had that in common.
Since his hedgehog was more important than even this evening’s starscape, Rick went back inside and tucked Darla into her heated cage, warming sock and all.