When she walked through the door, she was a little surprised to see Andy holding her mom in the middle of the kitchen. Rose was more of a quick hugger, unless somebody was upset.
“Mom?” Rose turned as Andy dropped his arms, and Katie was relieved she wasn’t crying, at least. “What’s up?”
It seemed like she hesitated for a long moment before she took hold of Andy’s hand. “Andy’s going to move in with me.”
“Oh.” Katie wasn’t sure what to say. She really was happy for her mom, but it was still a little weird to see her mother going through the process of dating and eventually falling in love. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you, honey.” There was more her mom wanted to say—Katie was sure of it—but when Rose didn’t add anything else, Katie chalked it up to a weird vibe.
“Is Josh around?”
Her mom nodded, her lips pressed in a tight line, but it was Andy who said, “He’s in the office, I think.”
“Thanks.” She went through the house, trying to solve the puzzle of her mom’s strange silence. Rose rarely held back if she had something she wanted to say.
The office door was open, but she rapped on the doorjamb as she stuck her head in. “Hey, what are you doing?”
He was looking writing something, and she saw what looked like guilt flash across his face when he saw her. “I was going to stop by your place in a little while. I thought you’d still be in the shop.”
“I closed early. Business was slow and I had errands to run.” She moved closer to the desk and saw he was making a schedule for the Northern Star—what needed to be done and when he usually did it. “Afraid you’re going to start forgetting things in your old age?”
“Did you see Rosie?”
“Yeah, downstairs. She told me Andy’s moving in with her, which is kind of…” Whatever she was going to say drifted into oblivion as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Andy was moving in—a man to help Rose around the lodge—and he’d need to know what chores Josh did. “You’re leaving.”
“I was coming to see you,” he said again. “I planned to be there when you closed the shop, but I didn’t know you were closing early.”
He was leaving. Andy was moving in with her mother and he was going to take over for Josh so he could leave Whitford like he’d always dreamed of doing. The pain was so real—so physical—she almost doubled over.
“You’re supposed to wash my Jeep for a year.” She said it jokingly, knowing it was a dumb thing to say, but wanting to buy herself a few seconds to process what was going on here.
After the roller coaster the offer on the lodge had been, she’d thought they’d have a smooth ride for a while, but this was one doozy of a pothole.
“Come with me.”
And the pothole caved, growing into a sinkhole. “Josh, that’s crazy.”
“Why? I still want to go see things I’ve never seen and do things I’ve never done, but I want to see them and do them with you.”
The excitement in his eyes and the lure of seeing new things was enticing, but she refused to let herself get swept away by emotion. “I can’t just leave everything behind, Josh. I own a business. You own a business. What are we supposed to do? Drive around the country, washing dishes for food and gas money?”
“I have a little money. And, even if I didn’t, why not?”
“Seriously? You’ve waited your entire life for the opportunity to be a drifter?”
“I need to see what’s out there to know what I want, Katie. Let’s go together.”
“I can’t leave my mom.”
“She won’t be alone. Andy’s moving in with her and they’ll be doing their own thing, anyway.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t want to leave my mom. I don’t want to leave my barbershop. I’ve never once, in all the time you’ve known me, ever talked about leaving Whitford, have I?”
The excitement faded and she knew he’d realized she wasn’t going to go.
“I guess I thought maybe you’d want to go with me.”
“Like how I thought maybe you’d want to stay with me?”
“You, more than anybody, know how I feel. I’ve spent my whole damn life waiting for it to be my turn to go.”
“And now’s your chance, so go.”
He rubbed his hand over his mouth, like he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say.
“You never made me any promises, Josh. You’re right. I know you’ve spent your whole life waiting for this and I’m not going to hold you back.”
“You’re making me choose between you and the life I always wanted.”
“The fact you still think of me and the life you always wanted as two separate things means there isn’t really a choice.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” The desperate tone in his voice was almost her undoing, but she told herself she could cry later. That she would cry later, because the only thing that had ever hurt as much as this was the day her dad had died.