Page 154 of Paint the Town, Dove
“EEEEE!!!” Zayla squealed. “Bulldoze me!”
We laughed, and I squeezed her hand. “Idiot.”
Polly continued, “But a part of me is so scared that we’re not going to have time to see it through, like. I run around the city forbusiness every day, Dean’s in a freaking band for Christ’s sakes! You… You can’t get any more hectic than that.”
“You could always go with him,” Zayla tipped the rest of her drink down. “Be a rock star gf. AH!” She yelped. “Pull a Scarlett.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not a rock star gf.”
“You’re literally just a rock star gf.”
“What the hell is a rock star gf?” Polly asked.
“GIRL-FRIEND,” Zayla and I said in unison, cracking up. I shook my head, returning my attention to Polly. “Do you like him?”
She nodded. “I think I really do.”
“Then,” I leaned back, “you’ll find a way to make it work.”
She chuckled softly. “And what about you and Ryden? Will you find a way to make it work?”
“Okay, that’s different.” I glanced over to the hill by our entryway, the guys trotting up with snowboards and empty beer casings.
Their laughter carried presents and wishes and happiness.
I could hear Ryden’s from a mile away.
I smiled. I couldn’t help it.
I always smiled when he laughed.
“If you like someone, you make it work,” she threw it back at me. “And what you two have iswaymore than a little crush.”
We caught eyes over the firelight before he disappeared into the chalet.
“Yeah,” I whispered, “that’s why it’s different.”
And so muchharder.
***
“PRESENT TIME LADIES AND GENTS!!”
Zayla pounced over to the group holding eggnog (spiked) and warm apple cider.
Me and Ryden were the only ones not spending actual Christmas with our families because, well…
Ours didn’t exist anymore.
So a few days before the band and the girls regrouped back in New York for the true holidays, we always allocated time to visit the chalet Ryden bought after going Platinum.
It always felt like home to me.
Or maybe that’s anywhere he is.
I swallowed down a heap of apple cider, searching for Ryden. When I found his silhouette sitting by the fire outside, guitar in hand, I knew it was him against the world. It burned a hole through me, the knowledge that I was the one responsible for his absence.
Times like these I understood the itch for something stronger, but I’d already had one drink earlier. Nothing could possess me to have two.
