Page 25 of Dare to Fall
“Start with Tucker,” she suggests.
“You knew Tucker was here?”
“Winnie might have mentioned you two spent the night together, after your kayak capsized.”
“Winnie, huh?” I shake my head, amused despite the shitty outcome of it all. “I asked Tucker to go with me, and he said no.”
“Go with you where?”
“California.” I immediately bite down on my bottom lip, waiting for the weight of what I just said to sink in.
“You have a job?” she asks, some of her earlier chipperness returning.
“Yeah, but if this is a bad time, I can wait. I might have another one lined up next summer.”
“I’m fine, Gabby. The last thing you need to worry about is me.”
“No offense or anything, butwhyare you fine?”
“You’re deflecting.”
“You’d know that better than anyone,” I mumble.
“Yes, I would.” She offers me a kind smile. “Now, spill it.”
I tell her everything. The words pour out of me like water bursting out of a dam. I bounce back and forth between prom night and present day, but Erin seems to follow without any trouble. She waits patiently as I get it all out, to include the incident with the fox and my phone. She doesn’t even bat an eye.
“Maybe I’m not going to California after all,” I say, mostly to myself.
“Surely you have another way to access your email.”
“Sure,” I say on a shrug. “If I wasn’t a freak about deleting emails once I read them. I kept everything important in my notes app.”
“Gabby!”
“Until recently, that system has worked very well for me.”
“Maybe there’s a reason for that,” Erin suggests. “A reason called fate, perhaps?”
“You think I should stay?”
“I think you should do what makes you happy. I’ve always thought that.”
Tucker makes me happy.
“If traveling the world makes you happy, then do that,” Erin says. “But have you ever considered that maybe you’ve been running just a little bit?”
Her words hit me square in the chest, because she’s hit on something I’ve refused to acknowledge. And now that she’s cracked open the box I’ve stuffed the truth into, I can’t ignore it any longer.
“I’ve never felt like I belonged anywhere,” I admit. “Even in my own family, I was the outcast. The black sheep. The one who’s easy to forget.”
“I’m your family,” Erin says, grabbing for my hand and squeezing. “So are Stormi and Alanna.”
“The jury’s still out on Alanna,” I tease.
“Devin will feel like family soon enough, if you get to know her better,” she says of her book club bestie I only know because of the pre-wedding festivities. “I can’t tell you whether to stay or go,” she adds. “But what I can tell you is thatifyou stay, you’ll have family.Realtake-a-bullet-for-you family. You belong with us, no matter where in the world you roam.”
“Wait are youallstaying in Cinnamon Creek?”
