Page 94 of Jace 4Ever
“Is he really serious about us not coming back?”
“Yes, but if we’re back in time, we’ll pop in for a few minutes. We’re not that far from here at the hotel.”
My phone pinged and I pulled it out to see who was bothering me.
Maddox:How is your father?
Nelson:Alive and well. He’ll be out in a few days. Thankfully, the chemo has been over for a while and he was in radiation therapy. No worries about abnormal infections.
Maddox:That is excellent news. I’ll pass the news on to the Gaggle. They were worried.
It hit me all at once that it was no longer me against the world. Once I met Marcus, and started dating Jace, I had gained their whole circle of friends as my own. I had earned their respect and friendship on my own when we went after Uriah and the kids.
Nelson:Please. Let them know. I’m sorry I didn’t text.
Maddox:I wasn’t expecting a call. {{eyebrow waggle}}
Maddox:Did you like the hotel?
Nelson:Did you break my credit card booking that?
Maddox:Nah. It’s a gift. My treat. We rented the whole floor once for our tour. I remember it being amazing. Thought it would help if things went south badly. And I’m really glad they didn’t.
Nelson:Thanks for helping Jace.
Maddox:No biggie. He wanted to help, and I just had to guide him. Text when you’re home. Aaron and I would love to be seen in the town with you. Up our street cred.
Nelson: You’re too white and alt rock for street credit, you jackass.
Maddox:Whatevs.
I laughed. He was a damn riot and I was glad he was a friend. Jace was peering at me over the roof of the car, a half smirk on his face.
“Who was that?”
“Maddox, just checking in.”
He paled. “Oh my God, I forgot to text him last night!”
“It’s fine.” I waved him off. “He knows the score now.”
“That was rude of me…”
“Neither of us was thinking straight. Just get in the car and let’s go waterfall spotting.”
“Is that like train spotting?”
“A bit, except the falls don’t move, just the water.”
He laughed and climbed into the car. Freya followed the main road out of town toward Hvolsvollur, where I grew up. I planned to stop at home on the way back, so I had told her to just head straight to the first large falls, Sejalandfoss. It was the most famous of the falls on Iceland and the one everyone went to.
Just as I thought, the place was crowded. Thankfully, Jace didn’t seem to care at all.
“When I was a kid, Iceland wasn’t a hot tourist spot,” I said, as we started walking toward the waterfall. “It was barely a blip on the map, really. Everyone thought it was just ice and glaciers and cold. My mom would bring us here a few times a year. Spring, summer, fall. It was the most amazing in the winter, though, when the whole area would freeze up and become covered in snow.”
Jace took my hand and I could tell he was listening.
“We only get just four hours of true daylight in the winter. The sun comes up at almost eleven and it’s going down again by three. But the way the sun sat in the sky, the clouds could look like they were on fire sometimes. The waterfall never stops flowing. Even in the deepest freeze, because the glacier is always moving, creating friction and melt, and that melt needs to flow away.
