She had been obsessed with this external list of things that she needed to do. But she realized now that there were some decisions she needed to make inside. To give the thing she was doing meaning.
Tomorrow would be about discomfort. Something about that made her feel a little worried.
But her whole reality was more than a little unsettling right now. And she was worried she was going to have to be a different kind of brave, the kind that would require her to jump in the icy water.
But first things first. The icy water. Because she was in the discomfort whether she wanted to be or not.
And then she would figure out what to do about herself.
Chapter Eleven
Rue was dead set on doing her polar plunge today. It was damned-ass cold today. The snow might still be in the mountains but in the morning Justice’s breath was visible in the air and there was a bite to it that was impossible to ignore.
He was unimpressed. He also wasn’t letting her jump into freezing water by herself. Because it was stupid.
Now he kind of understood how she felt most of the time, and he was a little bit chagrined.
It was annoying when someone you cared so much about seemed bound and determined to do a bunch of weird shit.
So when she came out of her room around noon, layered up and determined, he intercepted her.
“I’m going to drive, in every way. Let’s go down to the watering hole.”
“Okay,” she said.
“How was the party last night?”
Her head whipped around quickly. “Which party?”
“Your girls’ night.”
She looked oddly guilty, and he didn’t know how to interpret that. “Oh, it was... good. Probably a good thing to get a little bit of a soft intro back into seeing people.”
“So you just ate cheese and didn’t talk about Asher?”
“Oh. We talked about Asher.”
“Yeah?”
Her lips twisted. “Yeah. So you’re coming with me?”
“Yeah, we’ll drive my truck and keep it warm and running at the edge of the watering hole so that when you’re freezing little ass gets out of the water you can scurry to safety.”
“I really do appreciate it.” She paused for a moment, then tried to look like she’d just had an idea. Subterfuge wasn’t Rue’s strong point, and he knew for a fact that she’d thought about what she was going to say long before this moment. “You should do it with me.”
Little ferret.
“Hard pass. So what did you talk about Asher?”
“Just... about him?”
He snorted. “Come on, Rue. I know there was more than that.”
“We just... talked about how he was... how we... I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s embarrassing.” Her face turned honest-to-God pink and he found himself morbidly curious because Rue never...didn’ttell him things.
