Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 103(@200wpm)___ 82(@250wpm)___ 69(@300wpm)
Hunter looks my way, a smug grin on his face. “And taking care of those who I love too.”
“A simpler life, but still a modern life, huh?” On the swing, I sit back and enjoy the view that’s in front of me. The evergreens that give the town its name tower into the sky, a gentle breeze making their limbs sway with the flow of the air. Sunlight gently casts over everything without the interruption of some massive concrete building, vibrant green grass and moss-covered rocks below all of them, and flowers of red, orange, purple, a literal rainbow of botany, as my eyes scan the scenery.
What surprises me the most is how silent it all is. Outside the occasional sweet sound of birdsong, there’s no ambient noise. In the city, you can’t get away from the rumbling of a car’s engine in the distance, the roaring of some generator, people shouting and laughing. Silence in the city is a goddamn myth. Here? It’s simply the natural state of things. I can even hear the two of us breathing.
“So that’s what I’m all about,” Hunter says, leaning back in the swing, his hands behind his head. “If it ain’t too much to ask, what about you? What do you do, Savvy?”
My shoulders sink. “Nothing as romantic as what you do. I’m just a waitress at a chain restaurant. I run around all day making sure people have coffee and hoping that they actually leave a tip.”
“Rough. Can see how that all builds up to you being in a busted-ass car on the highway out of town at one in the morning.”
Oh yeah, my car. Well, my dad’s car. It should have been something I was concerned about, but I was in no rush to go fix that problem. It would lead to me spending less time with Hunter, and I haven’t felt this kind of serenity in ages.
If I’d ever felt it before at all.
“That can’t be what you’re after in life though,” Hunter says. “I don’t mean any offense, but I never heard of anyone saying being a waitress at Denny’s is their dream in life.”
“Well, yeah, no. That’s not what I wanted to be as a little girl.”
“Then what did little Savvy want to be?”
I laugh. “I don’t think I recall anything serious. Unless you want me to tell you I wanted to be an astronaut.”
“Nothing wrong with wanting to be an astronaut. That seems cool as hell.”
“Yeah, but there’s two realistic paths to actually being one. The military, which I’m definitely not cut out for. Or astronomy, which made my brain melt out of my ears when I tried to take it in high school.”
“Oof. There had to have been something else.”
“Actress. But I don’t think I’m pretty enough for Hollywood.”
He interrupts me from saying anything else. “The hell you aren’t. You’re more than pretty enough for Hollywood.”
I giggle. “How did I know you’d say that?”
“You knew I’d say it because you saw that I have eyes.”
“Hunter, you’re the sweetest man I’ve ever met. But even if I accept your declaration of my hotness, I kind of wrote it off when I realized that it’s a bit of a crapshoot of luck and people you know. And probably sexual favors with a lot of creepy old men. Took a lot of glamour out of the whole dream.”
“Okay, if we can’t rely on little-girl Savvy’s dreams, what about adult Savvy’s dreams?”
I cross my arms, my eyes drifting away from him. “I haven’t really had time to think about what I realistically want out of life, to be completely honest.”
“Not even something like, I don’t know, a business degree? Go be a girl boss or whatever it is people say women should be nowadays?”
“Nah, not that,” I reply. “I’ve been working at least part time since I was fifteen years old. My father always needed the extra money, and I wanted to make him happy, so I gave it my all. The number of hours I put in to some of those jobs was likely illegal, given my age. And really? Probably still illegal even after I turned eighteen.”
“Jeeze,” he says, throwing a comforting arm over my shoulder. “A father shouldn’t expect that of his daughter.”
“Times are tough sometimes. And they’re changing too. He says I couldn’t expect him to pay all the bills alone.”
“Yeah, times are changing. I get that. But I always took sharing the bills as something more for a partnership with your spouse. Last thing I’d ever want to do would be to ask my own child to support me. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”
“Well, that’s how it was with my father. A selfish sad sack of a man who happily let me work my high school years away, and left me exasperated and exhausted as an adult.”