Page 74 of Wild Child
"Do you miss it?"
He shrugged. "The humidity? Definitely not. The east coast? It's not so bad. I have a few friends there."
"Any potential girlfriends?"
The quick question startled me as much as it seemed to startle him, especially considering our conversation about this topic yesterday. Before I could berate myself for askingagain, he saved my pride and laughed it off.
"There are women I work with, but none that I spend a lot of time with outside of the job. Are you jealous?"
"Yes."
He paused, then grinned in a loopy way. "Really?"
I tried to keep it light and shrug it off, but my tone gave me away. "I've missed spending time with you."
"Oh.” Shock riddled his tone. “I'm . . . glad to hear that."
To salvage my pride, I kept walking. We neared the edge of this meadow and would only need to push through what appeared to be a band of trees before the next one opened up. Brush cluttered the floor at the base of a quaking aspen field. I pushed one large bush aside with my knee.
"Will you come visit me?" he asked.
"Can I?"
"Of course. Would you actually come?"
"Yes. As soon as I could."
"Really?"
The lilt in his tone indicated a deeper surprise than I expected. I glanced at him from over my shoulder.
"Really," I said.
"You just . . . I wasn't sure you'd want to come. Have you left Pineville since I did?"
My brow furrowed. "Not yet. Not beyond Jackson City."
"Do you want to?"
"So much."
A startled expression crossed his face, leading back to the goofy smile that I'd missed more than anything.
"Then let's do it. Come and see me. I'll let you know my schedule. Probably have a long weekend coming up, or something. Or you can just come and stay for as long as you want and we'll hang out after work. Things won't be quite as intense right after leave and we get put back together from deployment."
I smiled. "Agreed."
We turned our attention back to the copse of trees. The thick brambles forced us to wade through grasses high and thick, the thorns scraping our arms while the leaves trailed gently on my skin. My mind spun over the shock in Devin's voice. Did he think I'd be one of those people that lived and breathed Pineville and never left?
And . . . hadn't I been?
There was nothing wrong with staying in my hometown, except that it didn't feel fun anymore. I wanted to see more of the world just as much as I wanted to anchor in the mountains when I returned.
So why hadn't I traveled?
No answer surfaced through the vague haze that had become my mind.
For the next ten minutes, we slowly worked our way through the young grove. Sunlight angled through the tree branches overhead and fell on my shoulders. I couldn't wait to get into a hot shower and scrub the grease out of my hair. Devin had fallen quiet at my back, only the gentle swish of his pants as he walked and the low, quiet thud of his boots.
