“I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember, Josh,” she said. “But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life watching you turn bitter and hateful because you never got out of Whitford, so I’m taking away the choice and saying goodbye.”
There wasn’t anything else left to say, so she turned to leave, but his voice stopped her. “Katie, please. I need you.”
“You and I will always be friends. I’m here. Call me, email me, whatever. But you need to go find the thing that’s going to make you happy. I’m just sorry it wasn’t me.”
This time she didn’t look back. She went out the front door so her mother couldn’t catch her and got into her Jeep. Without a single glance in the rearview mirror, she drove down the driveway and away from Josh, and she made it almost halfway to town before the tears started falling.
*
Two duffel bags, Josh thought, looking around his bedroom for the last time. Not the last time ever, of course, because Rosie wasn’t going to put up with him not visiting. But it would be a while before he saw it again.
Everything he needed to go out and find himself fit in two duffel bags, which didn’t seem like it should be enough. But he’d tossed his boots on the floor in the backseat of his truck, along with his small toolbox, and his clothes and toiletries fit in the two bags. And the snow globe Katie had given him for Christmas. It had hurt like hell to look at their happy, smiling faces in the picture, but he couldn’t leave it behind.
He hadn’t seen her in the week since he told her he was leaving. He’d talked to her on the phone a couple of times, but he could hear the strain in her voice. Seeing her face-to-face would be too hard on both of them.
So he’d concentrated on the process of handing over the lodge to Andy and figuring out what he needed to take with him. The rest would all be here waiting for his visits, like the others’ bedrooms did. He did a sweep of the bathroom to make sure he hadn’t missed anything vital, then cursed himself for a moron when he saw his cell phone charger still plugged in next to his bed. He coiled that up and stuck it in the side zipper of one of the duffels and then he was done.
After carrying them downstairs, he set the bags by the front door and went in search of Rose and Andy. She was nowhere to be seen, but he found Andy in the kitchen, sneaking a cookie from the jar.
“Ready to go?” Andy asked, offering him a chocolate chip cookie.
Josh took it, even though there was a box on the passenger seat of his truck stuffed with enough baked goods to last him to the Mississippi or farther. “I guess so. Where’s Rosie?”
“When I left her, she was sitting on the bed, looking at your baby pictures.”
“Oh, Jesus.” Josh shoved the entire cookie in his mouth and chewed. This sucked.
“I’m sure she heard you come down the stairs, so I expect she’ll be down when she gets herself together.”
Josh swallowed hard to get the mass of cookie down. “How about you? You got any questions for me before you go?”
“I think we’ve covered everything. And I’m pretty sure there’s nothing about this place Rose doesn’t know.”
“Got that right. She even knows the stuff you don’t want her to. But, anyway, the division of labor’s always come pretty easy to us. If it makes you sweat, it’s my job. If it makes the guests feel at home, it’s her job.”
Andy laughed. “Sounds about right. You know where you’re headed?”
“I’m going to have a steak in Kansas City.” He shrugged when Andy’s eyebrow shot up. “Years ago, when Mitch first started traveling for work, he told me about the steaks there. Said there weren’t steaks like that anywhere else in the world and, dumb as it sounds, of all the things they’ve seen and done, I was most jealous of that steak.”
Andy grinned. “Then, by God, you should go get you a steak.”
“And on my way to Kansas City, I’m going to think about what I’d like to do for work and where I want to do it. Maybe someplace that won’t give me frostbite.”
“You make sure you call Rose on a regular basis. I’m the one that gets to hear about it if you don’t. Maybe text her some pictures along the way.”
“I will. And, trust me, I’m going to miss her as much as she’s going to miss me. We’ve been a team for a long time.”
“Stop it or you’ll make me cry,” Rose said as she walked into the kitchen. “I’m not going to cry, dammit.”
Oh, she was definitely going to cry. The only question was whether she’d be able to hold off until he was gone. And, since he knew that was what she wanted, he needed to do this clean and fast, like ripping off a bandage. “You going to walk me out to my truck?”
“Of course.”
She managed to keep a smile on her face, but the closer he got to the front door, the more his emotions weighed on him, until he felt as if he was wading through semidry cement. He picked up his bags and went out the front door, then stopped on the porch and took a deep breath.