Chapter 55
Chapter Fifty-Five
Eva
Looking out across the countryside, I sigh defeated.
Gwen and I have driven out of town and stopped at a clearing overlooking some of the most gorgeous horse properties anyone could ever get the chance to see.
Sitting on the back of the rental car for close to an hour, we’ve proceeded to take turns drinking off the now almost empty bottle of red wine we grabbed from the local grocery store.
Relaying my tale of how everything came crashing to an end at the park a few hours ago, Gwen hasn’t said much but a few words while I relentlessly bitched about everything.
Her phone alerts a text and I watch as she reads it before putting her phone down and looking up at me. “I think we should head back home a day or two early.”
“What? Why?” I ask, not ready to admit it’s time to leave.
“Come on Eva, do you really think hanging out here is going to do anyone any good anymore?”
I don’t know if it is the wine or fire still burning inside from the way me and Noah left things, but I’m not ready to leave. Not yet. “Excuse me, but I remember your ass being the one with the great idea to come all the way across the damn country and fight for him in the first place, am I right?”
She doesn’t argue. Just continues to look straight ahead out across the countryside.
A sad look fills her eyes. Feeling sorry I lashed out at her, and knowing she was just trying to help, I am moments away from apologizing when she says, “Remember that one time when we were kids and we went out for a walk in the rain,” Gwen laughs breaking up the tension.
“It was right after you moved up north, and my parents had let us walk the dog. Remember?”
I smile and let the fire inside fade as I laugh along with her. “Yeah, that was a long time ago. God, life was so much simpler back then.”
We sit for a moment watching the sun begin to set before she speaks again. “I remember when we were out there, we had on our best clothes, had just spent hours on our hair and makeup, only to go walk Max. We thought we were so grown up.”
I laugh as the memories come flooding back of our hours getting ready hopeful to see someone special. Of us thinking we were such adults walking the dog around the streets by ourselves at eleven years old. We must have looked so silly.
“I remember I kept wanting to go back, but you said we needed to go further and then it started pouring. Like really raining, and the dog was freaking out and I was freaking out and you started crying.”
Gwen smiles. “Yeah, I kinda remember your ass as being the crying one.”
“Is there a point to this story?” I giggle as I pick up the bottle of wine again, thankful for the memory and her break in the conversation.
“We had wandered so far from home we didn’t know how to get back, remember?
” She glances over at me and I nod, urging her to continue.
“We were freaking out hoping a car would pass and maybe we’d get a ride or directions.
We thought the dog was getting cold and he was getting sick, and there was a time when we both stopped and thought it was hopeless.
But, then you saw something, something that reminded you of the way we came, and you were able to find our way home. ”
I sit with her words. I let them linger in my mind.
“Like they say, not all who wander are lost.” Gwen rises from the trunk of the car and walks off towards the sight in front of us. “You’ll find your way home, Eva. You always do.”
I sit and savor the last few sips of wine before rising and joining her. Not exactly ready to leave, I look out at the new land I have found myself in love with and wonder how I could ever return to a life on the West Coast.
In the shadow of Kentucky, what I once wanted so bad now only seems small. Irrelevant. It pales in comparison to anything I had ever hoped for before. Sure, I could still move home, still pursue the dream I once had. But it all seems empty now without Noah in it.
In the mere days I have been wrapped up in a new life in the south, oddly, it has grown to feel like home. How can I return to a past now when the only future I want is staring straight back at me?