Page 25 of Noah's Reckoning
“Eleven,” I grumbled, counting the remaining points in my hand. I glanced at her then. “Oh no, stop doing that.”
“Stop doing what?” she asked, pretending to be innocent.
“You’re counting a running total in your head, not just today’s real total.”
“You can’t know that,” she insisted.
I raised my eyebrow at her.
“Fine,” she huffed. “But that’s not how rummy is played.”
“Twenty-nine to nothing. Now deal.”
“It’s one-seventy-one, but whatever,” she grumbled.
“So your parents have been married that long?” I said as a way to change the subject. There was nothing either sexy or competitive related to families. It was a safe topic for us.
“Yep. Still as in love with each other as they day they got married. It’s really sweet… and maybe a little intimidating.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean, they set the bar pretty high for me. I know what a successful marriage, relationship, love affair looks like. Up close. There would be no way I could settle for anything less and the idea of finding that…scares me a little. Like it’s super rare and the odds of it happening within the same family feel like they would be pretty low.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I told her. “The only reason you haven’t found someone, Olivia, is because you’re not looking. Once you start, I imagine you’ll find that person pretty quickly.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Your parents,” she said. “What are they like?”
“Strong. Resilient. Tough. You have to be to make a life up here. I always thought they were a team. A solid unit. One my sister and I could always count on. They weren’t emotional or anything like that, but they relied on each other. I didn’t realize how much until my mom passed.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out to grab my hand. “I didn’t know.”
“Almost ten years now. Cancer. My dad still walks around like a man who is missing his right arm and not even sure of how he lost it.”
“And your sister? Where is she?”
“Anchorage. Married to a fisherman so he’s around only part of the year, but they seem to make it work. I have two nephews I get to spoil so it’s all good.”
“I was an only child. My parents were straight-up hippies and while they wanted the experience of parenting, they didn’t want to burden the world’s resources with another human being. At least that’s what they told me when I asked them for a sister.”
I laughed. “They sound pretty radical.”
“Green Peace all the way. When I told my dad I was leaving the EPA to go work for an energy company, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. I explained I wanted to try to change the culture from within. I think he thought I was going to start sabotaging oil wells because he started talking a lot about explosives and ways to use them.”
“You keep your father away from my wells,” I grumbled.
Then I looked down and realized she was still holding on to my hand. Or I was holding on to hers.
I pulled my hand back and I knew she’d realized then what we had been doing. Sitting here, talking, holding hands.
“Another game?” she asked her face turning red.”
“Nah. I’ll go check the rest of the traps,” I said quickly, needing another reason to get out of the cabin.
“Can I go with you? I’m going a little stir crazy stuck inside.”
