“I’m serious,” I huff out. “I mean, sure, he’s a big plus, but I started considering a change before I even realized I had feelings for him.”
“How big of a plus?” Travis asks teasingly, waggling his brows at me.
Laughter bubbles out of me as I dramatically make a show of holding my hands a wide distance away from each other, waggling my brows right back at him.
“You’re full of shit,” is all he says as Charlotte giggles in her seat.
“Full of something,” I quip back.
“Alright, alright,” Charlotte cuts in, trying her best to appear serious. “We’re in public. Let’s not traumatize the poor patrons of this restaurant.”
“Buzzkill,” Travis and I both grumble at the same time before erupting in a fit of laughter.
“Okay, but on a serious note,” Charlotte says. “You’re really thinking of leaving Washington?”
“Maybe.” I shrug.
“If not because of the cowboy, then why?” There’s zero judgement in her tone, or in the way either of them is looking at me.
“I don’t know… I’ve been here my entire life, and I guess I just don’t feel like it’s meant to be my home. I know that probably doesn’t make sense, but I want more. Like, I could live in Desert Creek for the rest of my life and probably be happy. Be fine. But I don’t want to be just happy or just fine. I want to be fulfilled.”
“And you’ve felt like this for a while?” she asks.
“Maybe? I don’t know.” I blow out a breath, running my fingers over the beanie covering my head. “Not consciously, no. But I think deep down, I’ve felt like something was missing for a while, and I assumed it was what was lacking in my relationship with Henry, but I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s more.” A self-deprecating laugh creeps out at how ridiculous I sound. “I’m not making sense, but it’s not one thing I can put a finger on. It’s afeeling. A feeling I’ve felt since the moment I drove into Copper Lake.” My face screws up. “Okay, maybe not since the moment I drove into Copper Lake, since my car broke down and that was embarrassing as fuck, but definitely since at least the morning after when I sat on my aunt’s back porch and watched the sun rise above the picturesque view of the mountains in the distance and the miles and miles of open field, and Aggie came and stood beside me, looking adorable and imploring and welcoming all at once.”
They’re both quiet for a moment before Travis blurts out, “Who the fuck is Aggie?”
I snort at the confusion written all over his face. “She’s a highland cow my aunt owns. Her name is Agatha, but I call her Aggie.”
“A what?”
Rolling my eyes, I pull out my phone and find a picture of her. “A cow, you dumbass.”
“Wow.” Travis whistles, handing me the phone back. “You’re already channeling your inner cowboy, aren’t you?”
“I am not.” I laugh. “She’s so cute, though.” Flipping through some more pictures, I show them about a dozen different shots of her doing random cute shit. “She sits beside me—well, stands—every morning when I drink my coffee, and she follows me around while I do the morning chores. Oh! And she chases the chickens around the yard, pissing them off. She’s quite the character.”
Charlotte has a soft smile on her lips as Travis huffs out a laugh through his nose. “Okay, Farmer John,” he mutters.
“Quit picking on him,” Charlotte says. “I think it’s cute. And things don’t always have to make sense. Sometimes following your heart is the best you can do. It’ll all piece together, eventually.”
“What about the dispensary?” Travis asks.
“Bastian came over yesterday afternoon and we talked about it all. We’re wanting to expand anyway, and I would become more of the background man, handling all the numbers and ordering and stuff, so it would still work out.”
“Expand, as in open another store?”
“Yeah, it’s something we’ve wanted to do from the beginning, but we had to find our footing first. Bas found a location up in Seattle that’ll be available in about a month that we think would be the perfect spot to open a second store.”
“That soon?”
I nod. “If everything goes according to plan, yeah.” Bringing my water glass to my lips, I let the ice-cold liquid fill my mouth before I swallow and continue. “We want to buy out our investors before we open the second location, but it’s been something we’ve been saving for, for a while now.”
Travis arches a knowing brow at me. “You mean Henry?”
“And the other investors, yes.”
“How’s that going to go over with him?”
