A vehicle’s horn sounded then, and Raven turned to see Mountaintop’s shuttle van pull into the motel’s lot carrying Bodie, Doc, Halo, and Silas.
“You guys!” Raven shouted, laughing as they filed out one by one.
She had already said her farewells to them yesterday, so she hadn’t expected them to show up in the middle of a workday. They offered hugs and more kind words that tested her resolve not to cry. Bodie told her he’d miss her. Doc assured her he’d hit her up now that he’d be in her “neck of the woods” during his fall semester at college. And Halo urged her not to be a stranger.
When she finally turned to Silas, he stood as she first saw him, imposing and beautiful. In a certain type of movie, this would be the moment he’d ask her to stay or tell her he lo—
“It was nice getting to know you,” Silas said instead.
“Yeah, it was,” she replied with a put-on cavalierness.
He handed her a tin box he’d been holding. “I made you some blueberry muffins for your trip.”
“Oh, this is so sweet,” she said, looking inside the container to avoid searching his eyes for some flicker she’d inevitably, foolishly hold onto. “Thank you.”
With all her belongings in her vehicle, she looked over the assembled small group and said, “I don’t believe in coincidences, so I’m glad for the mistake that allowed me to spend the summer with you.”
Once in her car, Raven pulled out of her spot and gave everyone a final wave through the open window.
In another version of a certain kind of movie, this would be the moment Silas would chase after her on foot. Instead, Raven left the parking lot and merged onto the road that led her to a freeway out of Cedar Lake.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Mountaintop had a new secretary,Louisa. She’d been here for an entire week, but Silas still did a double take whenever he entered the cabin and saw her behind the reception desk.
Louisa had recently moved into town with her sister after her twenty-five-year marriage ended, and her fifteen years of office experience made her a competent and efficient hire. She got along with everyone at Mountaintop, even Halo. There was nothing to complain about.
Except for the knitting.
Louisa liked to knit whenever there was a spare moment, which meant during breaks in the kitchen or when she was on a call.
It was a charming skill—hell, Silas’s mother was a brilliant crocheter—but the soft clanking of Louisa’s needles was getting on his nerves.
Of course, he would never express this annoyance out loud to anyone. He suspected they’d look at him like he said he wanted to euthanize the sun. And he could recognize his recent irritability was more to do with his lack of sleep than anything the nice woman was doing.
On this particular morning, before any tourists had arrived, Silas was gulping his coffee, hoping it would ease the throbbing in his head. Bodie and Halo were chatting about some reality TV show while the clicking of Louisa’s needles was a steady, never-ending beat in the room.
That is, until the older woman suddenly halted her knitting and said, “I almost forgot. I found these at my desk yesterday.” She pulled out three crystals from a side pocket of her purse, presenting them for the team to see. “They looked special, so I just didn’t want to toss them.”
Silas’s heart pitched in his chest. “Raven’s,” he said and reached for the crystals.
Unfortunately, Bodie was quicker and snatched them up. “I’ll mail them to her,” he said. “She was just telling me about some new ones she’d added to her collection.”
“You talk to her?” Silas asked, his voice scratchy.
“Yeah,” Bodie said like it was a given.
It had been almost three weeks since Raven had left, and ever since Silas had been trudging through an unexpected transitional period of sadness. Simply put, he missed her. Which felt weird to say of someone he’d known for less than two months, but how else could Silas explain his evening ritual of scrolling through Raven’s social media pages? The days she posted a picture—any picture—were spun of gold.
Silas was hopeful, however, that this compulsion and the ache that tormented his stomach whenever he thought of her would wane soon. They had to.
Thankfully, his work still brought him some satisfaction during these odd times, and today was no different. His favorite classes, as always, were his more advanced ones. When Christian showed up for his afternoon private lesson, Silas was excited to talk about his future tournaments since he’d done really well at his first two weekends ago.
“I don’t know if you got my email about the upcoming competitions,” Silas said to Christian as the other man stretched his triceps. “I thought you could pick one, and we could really focus on improving a specific technique.”
Christian didn’t immediately answer, and there was a far-off look on his face.
“You good, man?” Silas asked, snapping his fingers.
