Chapter Seventeen
Micah
“In spite of all the ugliness, there’s so much joy to have and so little time to experience it. Don’t waste time.” —Tanya
THE CLUE TANYA LEFT FOR US ISN’T MUCH OF A CLUE at all. Snowsuits and a note about not wasting time. It doesn’t narrow down the options nearly enough.
Dani paces, occasionally staring back at the two open suitcases.
After last night, I want nothing more than to sink deep inside of her.
It’s all I could think about when I went back to my room, and all I’ve been thinking about since we left the hotel.
But I don’t want to push her too far. When I tried to get close, she backed away.
There’s some part of her that’s still hesitant to take the plunge, even though her body responds positively to me.
I only want to give her what she’s ready for.
There’s so much joy to have and so little time to experience it. My mind keeps going back to that particular sentence. But why?
Joy.
Joy.
Joy.
A memory of a map in Tanya’s house comes to mind. That’s it!
“I have an idea,” I say, causing her to stop pacing and turn to me with her hands on her hips.
“I’m all ears.”
“We need Bailey.”
When I call Bailey and tell her what my thoughts are, she hangs up and calls me back once she reaches Tanya’s house.
“Okay, so what do you need me to find?” she asks.
Tanya has a map of the United States hanging in her office upstairs. It has pins all over it and instead of reading “United States of America” above it, it reads “United States of Joy.” I always assumed that the pins represented places she’s visited.
Once Bailey has found it, I ask her to turn on her camera.
“Is there anything that stands out to you about the pins?”
She squints her eyes as she looks it over. “Ooh, yes! So all the pins are gold, but there’s one that’s blue.”
“Where’s that pin go to?” Dani chimes in.
“Mmm, looks like Colorado.” She takes the pin out of the wall. “Hold on, I think I found something.” She puts the phone down, but we hear wrestling noises and tearing before we see her face again. “What would you do without me?” She beams.
“That depends. What’d you find, Franky?”
“When I pulled the pin out, I could tell it was stuck in something underneath, so I took the map off the wall. Ripped it a little, sorry. And look what I found?” She holds up a coaster with a logo for a cabin in Ouray, Colorado.
“We’d be so lost without you, Bailey.” Dani bows down to her.
“You would,” she agrees.
Next stop: Ouray.
Tanya really knows how to pick her vacation spots.
“This is a beautiful area,” Dani says, admiring the gorgeous mountain views from the car window.
“It is.” It has nothing on Dani, but it’s beautiful all the same. Every location has been more breathtaking than the last.
“But do you think we’ll run into bears? I’ve heard bears are an issue out here.”
We get out of the car, and she looks around hurriedly as if a bear is going to run out of the woods straight for her. She is so cute.
“I think we’ll be okay.”
We go to the main cabin to check in and are greeted by a woman with honey-brown skin and blue curly hair. A goldendoodle perks its ears up from its bed and a white and brown cat looks unbothered from atop the desk.
“Welcome, welcome. How can I help you?”
We tell her our names, and she claps excitedly. “Oh, thank God. I was starting to think you guys were mythical creatures.”
“I do think I was a mermaid in a past life, but what do you mean?” Dani questions.
“Oh, I like you. The gentleman who called to book your cabin didn’t have firm dates, so they booked it for a few weeks.”
Did Victor book the cabin right before Tanya died? Jesus.
“Shit,” Dani curses under her breath. A moment later she plasters on a happy face. “Sorry to disappoint; we are real people.”
The woman waves her off. “Eh, it’s fine, I’ll meet my dragon one day.
So, welcome to Black Creek Pines, soon to be your favorite cabin in Ouray.
I’m Yara Andrews. I’m the manager.” The cat lifts its head to hiss then goes back to sleep.
“Along with my co-managers, Gingersnap Josephine.” She gestures to the cat.
“And Jellybean Theodora.” She waves down to the goldendoodle, who has now decided it’s time to greet us.
She stretches off her bed and cozies up to Dani first, then me before coming back with a toy and pushing it into Dani’s hand.
“Throw that thing at your own risk. She could play fetch for hours.”
Dani shrugs. “I’m easy.” She walks back outside with Jellybean and starts throwing the toy repeatedly.
“Just so you know, we also call Jellybean Mrs. Steal Your Girl, but it’s never happened that fast.”
“Oh, I’m not worried.” I’ve waited this long for Dani, I can definitely outlast a dog.
“Says a doomed man.” Yara goes through the process of checking us in and informing me of everything there is to know about the cabin, including the possibility of snow today, but they’re not expecting much.
She suggests we either head back to town to get groceries just in case or provide her a list so she can do it.
Dani opens the door, and Jellybean runs inside chasing her tail until she eventually flops back down on her bed.
“You actually wore her out?”
“I promised her I’d throw more later.”
“Ah, well, she does hold a grudge, so you have to keep your promise.”
“Scout’s honor,” Dani swears with the complete wrong fingers up.
Yara laughs. “Okay, well, before you go, I forgot I’m supposed to give this to you when you check in.” She slides a letter across the desk, our names on the front of the envelope.
“Thanks, Yara.”
She salutes us on the way out.
Our rental isn’t far from the main cabin, but it’s too long of a walk with all our bags, so I drive the car up, handing Dani the letter. The moment we get inside the cabin, she tears open the envelope.
Hello, my loves,
Welcome to Ouray!
I’m simply too tired to make another video. I hope you understand.
I admit, there’s no secret house, baby, or family here. There isn’t anything to find or learn about me. This place was mine and George’s dream vacation. We were both used to southern heat, and we wanted to feel snow on our tongues and drink hot chocolate by a fire.
We didn’t get a chance to come here together, but I did come alone. I wanted you to experience the peace this place brought me. Enjoy it, together, for me.
If there’s a place you dream of going, don’t wait. If there’s a place that brings you peace, go there.
Don’t wait for life to pass you by.
Love you deeply,
Tanya
“Wow. I guess this is the end of the road.” Dani sighs.
“I guess so.” I don’t want it to be. I want it to be the start of something real, but that’s up to her.
“I gotta admit, I was skeptical at first. And there were times she ripped the rug out from under us. Most times, really. But I had fun.”
“Me too.” I think the things we learned about Tanya are going to make her gala even more special. I drop Dani’s suitcase on her bed and turn to leave for the second bedroom in the cabin.
Dani grabs my arm. “Micah, wait.”
I stop. Not wanting to face her, afraid that looking her in the eye right now might push her away from where I hope she’s going.
“Are we gonna talk about it?” she continues, dropping my arm.
“Talk about what?” She’s going to have to spell it out for me.
“What happened in Chicago?”
I step toward her, noting the shiver that slides down her spine. “What happened in Chicago that you wanna talk about, Dani?”
She puts her hand on my hips. “You’re so fucking annoying.”
“And you’re so used to not saying what you really want to say.”
I take another step toward her, and she steps back like she did in Chicago. But this time, she reaches for me as she does it. When I take another step forward, her eyes start to soften. We continue this little dance until I have her backed against the window.
“Say what you want.”
“You. I want you.”
My nose flares, a deep rumble vibrating from my chest. “You want me to what?”
“I want you to fuck me.”
It’s a start. Before I can think too deeply about what she didn’t say, I crash my lips down onto hers. Her mouth immediately opens to welcome my tongue.
She moans into my mouth when I grab two fistfuls of her ass, pulling her up enough so she can wrap her legs around me.
The evidence of my need for her pokes her stomach and she slides a hand between our bodies to wrap around it.
“Ah, shit,” I hiss when she tugs from base to tip.
“Put me down so I—” She stops midsentence and her whole face changes. Her eyes become unfocused and her head lolls to the side.
“Dani?”
“Put-put me down.” The way she says it this time does not sound full of sexy promises. I set her on the bed and she puts her head between her legs.
“Talk to me, what’s wrong?” All the fire and need drain from my body, concern for her the only thing on my heart.
“Nothing, it was just a head rush.” She stands up and immediately wobbles before pushing past me and running to the bathroom just in time to empty the contents of her stomach.
Altitude sickness.
The mountains have sent my girl into a tailspin.
She’s spent the last six hours puking her guts out, while I’ve been helpless to do anything but rub her back and force-feed her toast.
The worst part is, we can’t even go to a lower altitude because we were hit by a much more severe snowstorm than Yara expected. Thank God, she brought us some essentials before it got too bad.
“You gotta drink this water, Dani.” I urge her to sit up.
“Nooo,” she whines. She mumbles something incoherent under her breath.
“What’d you say?” If she’s slurring her words, I’m even more concerned.
She groans. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘You’re okay, you’re fine, everything’s fine.’ It’s my motto.”
I nod. “When you’re feeling better, maybe you’ll tell me more about it?”
Her eyes are bloodshot from all the puking, but they still sparkle with a smile. “Maybe I will.”