Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
“You didn’t fall off a mountain, did you?” she asked.
I shook my head, rolling my eyes. “If I had, would I be calling you?”
“Probably not,” she huffed.
Gwynne was most likely the only person in the world—besides those who only knew me online and had never met me in person—who would miss me if any of the worst-case scenarios running through her head had actually happened. I was used to how her mind worked since we’d been best friends for the past five years, so I wasn’t surprised that she was worried about me driving off a mountain road.
We had met when I’d been sent to a new foster home shortly after my sixteenth birthday. Most of the other kids ignored me, but Gwynne had come straight up to me and announced that we would be great friends. And she’d been right.
“I did manage to get completely lost, though,” I admitted with a rueful laugh.
“For real?” she gasped. “Did your GPS glitch or something?”
“No, but it started snowing about an hour ago, and it kind of threw me off.”
“Ugh, snow. Brrr. Thank goodness you got your heater core replaced before you left for this trip.”
The costly repair had been one I’d been putting off since my travels had mainly been to warmer parts of the country until now. It was a very good thing that I’d taken care of it before I hit the road this time around, or else I would’ve been freezing my butt off. “You have no idea how cold it really is.”
“Hey, I’ve seen snow,” she protested. “Like once, when I was twelve.”
I snorted. “A few flakes during the only time in a decade that it got cold enough in South Florida for it to snow is nothing like the bone-chilling freeze that I’m in right now. Trust me, all those dreams we had about how much fun it would be to go sledding and have a snowball fight totally missed the fact that we would also be miserable because our fingers and toes would feel like they’re about to fall off.”
“Dang, girl. Tell me how you really feel about the cold.” She giggled before her voice turned serious. “But really, if you’re not enjoying this trip as much as you thought you would, maybe you should cut it short?”
My nose wrinkled at the suggestion. “I don’t know. I was looking forward to posting some amazing photos with snowy mountains in the background and a steaming mug of hot chocolate in my hand.”
“I get it.”
“Plus, I haven’t had the chance to take more than a couple of pics with the super cute hat you got me,” I teased, reaching up to tweak the pom at the top of the personalized beanie she’d given me as an early Christmas present. It was red, cream, and dark gray, with a leather patch that had my social media handle on the front.
She heaved a dramatic sigh. “Then I guess there’s no other choice…you must risk frostbite so that my fantastic find can be properly shown off to millions.”
“Million, singular,” I reminded her since I’d just passed that milestone last month. It was a huge accomplishment that bumped up what I was getting on sponsored posts to a nice amount. I still had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that I was being paid thousands to post about stuff that I enjoyed…and I even got those items for free. But I’d learned the hard way at a very young age how quickly things could change for the worse, so I knew those offers could dry up any day. So even though I had more money coming in than I needed to live, I hadn’t changed my thrifty lifestyle except to make my van more comfortable and safer.
“Yeah, but your videos go viral all the time, so they get seen by lots of people who don’t follow you,” she pointed out.
My cheeks filled with heat. Although there was no denying how successful I was, I still wasn’t great about receiving compliments—even from my best friend. But I supposed that was understandable since I hadn’t gotten many of them growing up.
“True,” I conceded. “I guess I should go find someone to help me figure out the safest route for this leg of the trip instead of blindly following my map app. I’ve stopped in a cute little town, but not many people are out and about.”
“Probably because it’s snowing.”
“Yeah.” I sighed, zipping up my coat. “The hardware store I parked in front of seems to be open, though. I guess I could try there first.”
“Sounds like a great plan to me,” she agreed. “After all the work you did on your van, hardware stores should be your comfort zone.”
“Yup, and the name of this one is beyond cute—Frost and Found. I’ll have to ask if it’s okay to take a couple of pics of the storefront for a collage post of my travels.”