Page 1 of Love Hollow at Last
1
Aya
Aya knew the bulldozer would arrive at dawn, but she wasn’t sure she could wake up early enough to handcuff herself to the damn thing—or whether she would be arrested.
It would have been a beautiful morning to burst out her door, run to the mountain bike, and take off in the cool summer air.Unfortunately, she had to wake Emi, who never got up early unless she had to work.
“I don’t know why you’re doing this, Aya,” complained Emi, burrowing into the small couch.“I had enough early mornings during residency to last me a lifetime.”
“So you should be good at it,” said Aya, zipping up her jacket as she poked her friend’s shoulder.
“No,” said Emi firmly.“This is my vacation.”
“Come on,” begged Aya.“Don’t you want to see me in leopard-print handcuffs?”
They were all she had been able to find at the last minute.
The lump on the couch stirred.“Yes,” said Emi.“Actually, I do.”
The sky was already turning pink as they left.The mountains surrounding the town of Love Hollow were still dark, but the stars were no longer visible, and the dog walkers were already out.
Aya fiddled with the handcuffs in her pocket.For all her bravado, she was secretly terrified of getting arrested.Since she was already low on funds, the idea of not even being able to get a low-earning job was terrifying.
Emi, apparently unbothered by those thoughts, was still yawning.“I mean, I know you liked to sit on that rock, but it’s just a rock.”
Aya was not going to share her reasons.It wasnotjust a rock, but the rock itself didn’t matter anymore.So much more was at stake.
“Let’s go,” she urged her friend.“If we miss it, they’ll start driving the bulldozer around, and we’ll have to catch it.”
Emi laughed.“I amnotchasing a bulldozer.If we’re late, this is off.”
When they arrived, Aya took out zip ties.They would be less impressive, but she just couldn’t face the thought of leopard-print handcuffs.Construction had been happening for weeks, but as obnoxious as the tents and stages might be, at least they would go away once the crowds did.The rock, the one with the perfect view of her past, where she had once been able to sit and imagine a beautiful future… If they took that away, it would be gone forever.
And again, Aya reminded herself, it wasn’t about the rock.It was about her family’s history.She pulled out a little baggie of zip ties, noting in dismay that they were pretty thin.Maybe she could pull the sleeves of her hoodie down a bit so that wouldn’t be as noticeable.
Emi made her own zip ties so loose that she was able to easily slip her hands in and out.“That’s it,” she said.“Aya, you need to wear the handcuffs.”
Aya grumbled, but she was secretly glad she was the one who would wear them.If Aya ended up trapped with a bulldozer, at least Emi’s hands would be free for a rescue.
“Can you cover them with my sleeves a little bit?”Aya asked.“That way, the pattern won’t be so obvious.”
“I would murder someone for a cup of coffee right now,” Emi said, grinning as she pointedly ignored Aya’s instructions.
It was barely dawn, and the sun rising over the mountains was a sight that never failed to touch something in Aya’s soul.She was sure there had been sunrises when she was in Boston, but she certainly never noticed any of them.
“I have coffee,” said Twyla, strolling over with a huge grin on her face.No matter what she was doing, Twyla always looked like she was dancing.She still had the permanent turnout common with former ballerinas, and her lithe frame had a knack of making even the most casual clothes look fantastic.
“Twy,” groaned Aya.“Go away!Nobody is going to take our protest seriously if you’re here with a latte.”
Twyla raised her eyes.“I’ll have you know this is a thermos full of coffee I made myself.Not some fancy schmancy latte.But I suppose I don’t have to give you any.”
Emi was pretending to be serious.“Yeah, you’d better not have any, Aya.What if you need to pee?”
“What if you do?”asked Aya, glaring as Twyla twisted off the top of her thermos and filled it up for Emi.
Emi pulled a hand out of the zip tie, waggled it around, then put it back through.“That’s why you keep these things loose, champ.”
“Seriously,” Aya begged.“Twy, you have to leave.”
