Page 54 of Happy Harbor
“I can drive myself.”
“Seriously, Josie, you can’t even bring yourself to ride a few blocks with me? What do you think I’m going to do? Maul you?”
“I’m not scared of you, Walker. I just like to be...”
“In control of everything?”
She smiled. “What’s so wrong with that?”
“You don’t let people help you. You try to do it all alone. You stress yourself out when you don’t need to.”
“There you go again, thinking you know so much about me.”
He laughed as he poured himself a cup of coffee. If there was ever a magnificent invention, it was the ability to program a coffee pot to come on by itself and make morning coffee. Genius idea.
“It’s because I used to be just like you.”
“I doubt that.”
“My ex-wife cheated on me after we’d only been married a year. We were still in the honeymoon phase. I’d known her since middle school. After that, I wouldn’t trust anyone. I figured if I couldn’t trust her, who could I trust?”
“So, what happened?”
“I moved to Happy Harbor.”
“And it healed you?” she asked, rolling her eyes.
“I guess you could say that. I’d never lived in a place where people reached out and offered help. Where they smile and wave when I drive down the road. I spent years being a negative person until I moved here.”
“Eh, I guess it’s okay here,” she said, one side of her mouth raising.
“Come on, let’s go see the damage,” Walker said, shaking his head.
“I’ll see you there. I’m going to walk,” Josie said, heading toward the front door.
“You’re impossible, Josie Campbell!” he called behind her. She couldn’t help but giggle.
* * *
“So, how bad is the damage?” Scotty asked as he walked Kendra to her first class.
“I have no idea. They were leaving to check on it when I was getting ready.”
“Hope it’s not too bad.”
“Me too.”
“I have a question for you,” Scotty said, stopping in front of her locker. Kendra opened it and put her extra books inside, taking only her history book since it was her first period. When she turned around, he was holding a small teddy bear with a note card attached to it.
“What is this?”
“Here. Read the card.”
Students were bustling past them, the sound like white noise in the background. She took the small brown bear and opened the card. It simply said “Will You Go To Prom With Me?”
“Scotty...”
“I know you don’t want to date me or anything like that. I get it. I’m a weirdo. But I’d really like to have a date for my last prom. I just want the memory of it and some pictures to show my kids one day.”
