Page 90 of Will Bark for Pizza
I need my leash so I don’t chase the mini squirrels.
Right, Mom?
Get my leash!
Walks are my favorite.
Let’s go on a walk!
Walk! Walk! Walk!
TWENTY-SEVEN
KIRA
The trailsin Bluebell Springs alone were nearly enough to convince me to move home. I’d forgotten the peace and serenity they offered, especially the lesser-known trails near the farm. The crisp mountain air recharged me from the inside out. It didn’t matter that the sun was hidden behind a bed of clouds. For the first time in a long time, my overactive nervous system finally calmed.
I felt at peace.
Grandma Connie’s words repeated in my head.Don’t put your life on hold.She meant Mom wouldn’t want me to stick a bookmark in the pages of my own book to saveherbookstore. It was always her dream, and though she would have happily shared it with me, I never wanted it.
Until now.
Until it was days away from being erased from existence.
Except, there was nothing I could do to save it. Theday after tomorrow, the going-out-of-business sale would start and that would be the end.
I needed a miracle.
I needed Mom to tell me what to do.
But she hadn’t revisited my dreams since the night that drove me to return home.
Husker’s zigzag pattern lessened as the hard-packed trail narrowed, turning rockier. He pulled me up the slight incline as my breathing became more labored.
I was out of shape, and the higher elevation wasn’t helping.
The cramps in my side were just another byproduct of hiding in my apartment this past year, struggling with the most severe case of writer’s block, mixed with a heap of guilt that I was stupid enough to fall for every lie Travis ever concocted. If ever I put my life on hold, it was for that asshole.
Been there, done that. Got the T-shirt. Needed to burn said T-shirt.
Spotting a familiar wooden bench Grandpa made decades ago, I headed for it just off the trail. I poured Husker a small bowl of water he probably wouldn’t drink on account of all the distractions around us, and sat to catch my breath and take in the view. I took the mountains for granted most of my life, until I moved away to a place that had little more than rolling hills. I loved the layers. The tree-covered mountains up close, the rockier, snow-dusted ones behind them.
If I moved home, I wouldn’t have to drive to find a decent nature trail.
But I’d movehome a failure.
What would I even do once the book royalties dried up?
I pulled my phone from my pocket, curious how the release ofForever Forbiddenwas doing. How much additional time this nice bump in sales might buy me.
Before I could navigate to my web browser, though, a voicemail notification popped up. Lila had tried to call, probably during family dinner. Grandma Connie had a strict no cell phone policy during the larger meals—which would now be all of them, considering Beckettandhis grandma were staying at the farm.
I still didn’t know what to make of Pauline Duncan. No one would argue she was a generous woman, considering the surprisingly thoughtful gifts she brought along. I thought Opal was going to faint from excitement at the coffee table book of Italy’s history. But there was something about the woman that warned you not to cross her, as though she made a powerful ally, but a very bad enemy.
She told everyone over dinner she was here to check on her grandson and see how he was settling in somewhere new. Yet it felt like a half truth.
Or maybe I felt an enormous amount of guilt forkissingBeckett, and worried she somehow knew about it. Was she here to warn me not to hurt him? I suspected she had a pretty high standard on the type of woman who was good enough for her grandson, and I didn’t make the cut.
