“Yep. My Mom and Dad still have the house I grew up in. My sister lives outside of Philly with her husband.”
“How come you left?”
“I went to college in Seattle. Loved it. Decided to stay.”
“Lonely there without your folks?”
I shrug, evading his question. “I fell in love with the ocean in Seattle. The mountains. It’s so beautiful, it still takes my breath away. Besides, I have great friends, a great boyfr—I mean, um, a—a great job. A great life.”
“Huh. Sounds perfect.”
Except…it’s not, I want to say. It’s not at all.
I glance at him, wrinkling my nose. “Can I change my mind and bum a smoke?”
He shrugs, then takes the pack from his pocket and hands it to me. I tap the bottom and pull a cigarette from the cellophane-covered foil, nodding in thanks when he lights it. I don’t actually inhale. My days of polluting my lungs ended in college. But sometimes—just once in a while—I miss the taste of nicotine and tobacco. I hold the smoke in my mouth, then let it go. My fingers roll the delicate stick back and forth before I ash on the sidewalk.
“Not a smoker, huh?”
“I was,” I say. “Long time ago.”
“Miss it?”
“Yeah. Sometimes,” I admit.
Headlights brighten the darkness of the parking lot as a yellow car approaches us. It stops at the curb and I drop the cigarette to the ground, stomping it out.
“Heya, Jack!” calls Toby.
“Heya, Tobe,” says Jack.
“This here’s…” Toby pauses, looking at me. “Huh. Don’t know your name. Didn’t ask. Sorry ‘bout that.”
“It’s fine. I’m Amanda,” I say, offering my hand to Jack, and marveling a little bit at these small-town manners.
“Pleased to meetcha, Amanda.” He looks at my bare feet, then grins knowingly at Toby before turning back to me. “How ‘bout you get in the car, huh? Warm in there.”
“Shouldn’t I help with the bags?”
He chuckles, but the sound isn’t unkind. It reminds me of my grandpa’s laugh. Rich and deep, like he’s laughing at a joke to which only he knows the punchline. “Let me and Tobe take care of it, eh? You just warm up some, little lady.”
“Thank you, Toby,” I say, smiling at him, grateful for his kindness.
I slip into the backseat of the car as Toby and Jack load my gear into the trunk.
I check my phone for messages and sigh when I see there’s nothing new. Before Leigh would leave my apartment last night, she made me respond to Single in Sitka’s ad. I wrote a short and sweet email, indicating I’d be in Sitka for a few days and wouldn’t mind getting together. I look out the window and wonder if I’ll actually get a chance to meet the man who inadvertently started this entire chain of events.
Lost in thought, a rap on the window makes me jump, and I roll down the window with a crank handle.
Toby’s smiling face is waiting for me on the other side of the glass. “You’re all set and Jack’s a good man. He’ll take you wherever you need to go and make sure you get there safely. Good luck, Amanda-from-Seattle.”
I grin back. “Thanks, Toby-from-the-airport.”
“You know what I think?” he asks.
“Nope. Tell me.”
“I don’t think everything was so great in Seattle. I think you’re looking for something, missy. And I just want to say…I hope you find it here. I think you will.”