Chapter 29 Brynn
“Shoot, shoot, shoot,” I muttered as I attempted to yank a hairbrush through my tangles and ultimately lost the battle. And
possibly the hairbrush. Surely it was still in there somewhere, in the mess of kinks and knots.
I’d overslept—of course I’d overslept—and therefore skipped washing my hair in the shower to save time. No big deal, usually,
except it had been so late when Sebastian dropped me off the night before, and I’d been so tired, that I’d skipped brushing
it before bed. And, unfortunately, I’d skipped putting it up in the messy bun I usually slept in. I’d made it as far as pulling
out the braid, and then I’d fallen asleep with it loose and wild. Throw in the hot, humid air of a shower in which you try
not to get it wet, and the result was the lion’s mane I was currently staring at in the mirror.
Sebastian had pushed our start time back by an hour because he had some things to do, but maybe I could catch him. I unplugged
my phone from the charger and began texting.
If you haven’t left your house yet, do you have a baseball cap I could borrow? My hair is hopeless.
I stared down at the message thread, determined not to recklessly abuse my new access to him. I’d only texted him about thirteen
times since I woke up, so I was off to a good start. When no texting bubbles appeared, I threw my phone on the bed, dug the
brush out from deep inside the honeycomb that was my head of hair, and gave it one more go. I finally got it straightened
out enough for a puffy ponytail. That was going to have to do for today.
The wardrobe had already been picked out, so that came together pretty easily. Before we’d left Sebastian’s house, I’d asked
him if he had a shirt I could borrow for the next day so I didn’t have to take a chance on seeing Orly’s underwear again.
He got strangely excited when I asked, ran to his bedroom, grabbed a sweatshirt, and threw it at me. There in my bedroom at
the Inn Between, I pulled it up to my face and inhaled the scent, as I had already done many more times than I had texted
him. He probably thought he would get it back from me before I left, but there was no way I wasn’t sneaking that thing into
my suitcase.
Finally satisfied with what I saw in the mirror—and by satisfied I mean there was nothing more I could do to save myself—I
grabbed my coat and phone and bounded down the stairs, so excited to spend another day with him.
The excitement reached the end of its shelf life before I reached the end of the hallway on the second floor.
I’m going to be tied up for a while. Emergency city council meeting to vote on Township Days. (Thanks a lot.) So it’s your
own fault that you’ll have to live with hopeless hair for a while.
When I got downstairs, Orly was sitting alone at the kitchen island, eating scrambled eggs covered in Mrs. Stoddard’s homemade green chile sauce. “Is there more?” I asked him in greeting as the delicious scent overtook me.
He pointed to the oven but never stopped chewing. I opened the oven door and found a plate warming for me. Well, that was nice.
“How are you feeling?” I sat down across from him and took my first bite. Oh, heavenly green chile , where have you been the last twenty years of my life?
“Great. Jo’s quite the nurse.”
A little bit of guilt made itself known in the pit of my stomach. “I’m sorry I didn’t stick around, Orly.”
“Stop it,” he insisted between bites. “I just felt bad I wasn’t there to keep you and Sebastian from killing each other.”
His fork hovered in front of him as he added, “You didn’t kill him, did you?”
I shrugged. “He’s actually not so bad once you get to know him.”
“Wow. I did only miss the one day, right?” He laughed and resumed eating. “Did you manage to get any good stuff?”
I felt the prickles of heat spread up my neck and to my cheeks. You have no idea. I bit my bottom lip and looked at him sheepishly. “We didn’t actually film anything.”
“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
I pulled my gaze away from his and took another bite of eggs, but I could still feel him watching me. I grew more embarrassed
with each passing second. I wasn’t entirely convinced every thought about Sebastian and every memory of his lips on mine and
his arms around me wasn’t being spelled out via a scrolling marquee across my forehead.
“Okay.” The word was quiet and abrupt once it finally came, and then he returned to his eggs.
“I’ll make sure Colton knows it isn’t your fault—”
“So what’s the plan? From what I can tell you’ve stopped even communicating with Colton. He’s been nagging me for updates
nonstop. I’ve sent him the stuff I filmed on Tuesday, of course, but he really wants to know what to expect tomorrow morning.”
I set my fork down. “What have you told him?”
“That you know what you’re doing. That he just needs to trust you.”
“Thanks, Orly.”
He leaned over toward me with his elbows on the counter. “You do know what you’re doing, don’t you?”
I raised my eyes to focus on him. “What do you mean?”
He leaned back and grabbed his napkin from his lap, then wiped off his hands and set the napkin down beside his plate. “Are
you going to be okay leaving?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I lifted my plate and stood from the stool, my appetite suddenly gone. I walked over to the sink and
fed the rest of my breakfast down the garbage disposal—a travesty I was certain to regret later.
“It’s nothing. Maybe it’s none of my business, so feel free to tell me to butt out, but it just seems to me like something
changed this week. I know I haven’t been around you much, but it doesn’t take more than two seconds to see that being here’s
been good for you. And that’s great. But what’s gonna happen...” He sighed and then it morphed into a forced laugh. “Don’t
mind me. Like I told the boss, I’m sure you know what you’re doing. Forget I said anything.”
I watched the water run down my plate and let the water and the disposal continue running for the length of two deep breaths
in and out, then turned everything off, set my plate and fork in the sink, and turned around.
“Thanks, Orly.” I hurried around the counter and threw my arms around his shoulders and rested my cheek against the back of his head. “I don’t know if I know what I’m doing or not. But it’s really nice that you believe in me.”
“Are you kidding me?” He patted my arm under his chin. “Whatever the plan, you’re going to come out on top, kid. I’ve never
doubted that for a minute.”
***
“Jo said we can use her car,” Orly said a few minutes later as I washed our breakfast dishes, only half seriously considering
licking the green chile off his plate.
I set down the dish towel and turned around. “Oh.” I glanced at my Apple Watch. No texts for me.
“Key’s on the hook by the door.” Orly held up his phone and continued reading. “She said the city council meeting is at Cassidy’s.
If we want to swing by, she said Cole will make us breakfast.” He looked up from his phone and met my eyes. “But I guess since
we’ve already had breakfast—”
“I could eat.”
I hurried over to the couch and grabbed my coat and Orly’s. We were definitely going to Cassidy’s. It was my last full day
with Sebastian, and there was no way I was going to let anything get in the way of that. Not even a city council meeting that
was, in fact, entirely my fault.
Ten minutes later, after Orly finally admitted he didn’t know how to drive a stick shift and we pulled over and switched seats—mercifully
ending the Gear Grind of Horrors carnival ride—we parked at Cassidy’s. There were a lot of cars there, and that made me a
little nervous. The entire town was clearly invested in the whole Township Days debate, and I really hoped I hadn’t made things
worse.
“Are you going to wait for me?” Orly called out as I hurried across the gravel parking lot to the door.
I looked back over my shoulder. Wasn’t planning on it. “Oh... sorry. Do you need help with...” He was grabbing his camera out of the back seat. “Honestly, I’m not sure there’s
much point in filming any of this.” Orly didn’t know about my “I hate my job” epiphany, of course, but he was certainly insightful
enough to realize I hadn’t been rushing toward Cassidy’s because I just couldn’t wait to get to work.
He shut the car door, finished attaching the camera lens, and smiled as he began walking toward me. “Just think of me as the
guy on the ground at Tiananmen Square and the Berlin Wall who now films your vacation home movies.”
“Seriously, Orly.” I stepped in front of him as he approached. “Thank you for being here this week. I know it’s the job, but
I can’t think of anyone else I would have rather had as my traveling buddy.” I hooked my arm in his and we resumed walking.
“I’ve loved every minute. You know... except for the flight. And feeling like I was going to die yesterday. Wasn’t crazy
about you and Sebastian fighting.”
I smiled. “But other than that...”
“Jenni’s always wanted to travel, and I’m plain ashamed of myself that I’ve gotten to go to all these amazing places and never
taken her to a higher elevation than Las Vegas.” He looked around him at the pine forest and the mountainy, snow-covered backdrop.
“Look at this place. I need to show her places like this before we get too old to enjoy it.”
We turned and headed up the steps, and as we got closer to the screen door I heard “Annie’s Song” wafting through the air.
“You might want to hurry up and push the Record button.” He looked at me questioningly and I laughed as I held the door open
for him. “I bet Brokaw isn’t half the singer Sebastian Sudworth is.”