“They’ll figure it out. They’ll want to be here.”
Liv picked up the phone to call Dottie, saying she was anxious to get the plans in the works since Thanksgiving wasn’t that far off.
“You ready to leave?” Renie asked him.
“Whenever you are. No rush.”
“Why don’t we challenge the boys to a game of foosball, and let them win. Maybe they won’t be…”
“As mad at me?”
Renie laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
“It’s sweet how they’re so protective of you.”
“I’ve been wretched to be around these last eight months, Billy. T
She’d been wretched? Hearing so made him happy. If she was miserable, it had to have been because she missed him as much as he missed her. If it hadn’t been for Willow keeping him distracted, he would’ve been wretched too. In fact, he probably had been. He hadn’t seen many people while they were apart, so there wasn’t anybody to call him out on it.
“Not sure how I’ll be able to stand being away from you again.”
“I can’t come to Monument, Billy. I’ve committed to working at The Goat for the season, and we’re getting busy already.” It was an excuse. She could take time off if she needed to, but it would cause a hardship for the rest of the staff, so she wasn’t being completely dishonest about it.
Billy knew it, too. But, he didn’t say anything and Renie was glad he didn’t.
“What should we do tomorrow?” he asked.
“I have to work tomorrow night, but during the day we can do whatever you’d like to do.”
“Hmm,” he said, pulling her closer. “I can come up with a couple ideas to keep us busy.”
“I’d like to ride Pooh again. I missed her so much.”
“How come you didn’t—”
“I couldn’t.”
“What?”
“As long as she was with you I knew I’d have to talk to you again someday.”
“I felt the same way.”
“Why did you bring her here?”
It had been a really hard decision, he told her. He had hoped things would work out as they had, although he never dreamed they would work out this well.
“If you refused to talk to me, maybe I would’ve trailered her back to Monument.”
Two days later Billy told her he was thinking about going home. They agreed to talk on Facetime, and Billy showed her how to use it on her phone.
“As long as we both have a cell signal, we can see each other whenever we want,” he told her. “Maybe you could talk to Willow on it, too.”
“We’ll see.”
Renie was shutting down again, he could sense it. The last few days had been heavenly. They’d spent every moment together. He’d even gone and hung out at The Goat while she worked. Until the last couple of minutes, it seemed like old times.
“Not today,” he said.