Finding West (21 page)

23

KAT

For the next few days
I was a shut in, eating myself down to the last egg and last crusty slice of bread. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Josie ran out of dog food, I would have happily subsisted on the strange canned goods in my pantry, those exotic foods that I’d been intrigued enough to buy but never had the recipe to use.

So that Saturday
I bundled myself into my coat and boots, fixed my face and hair a little, and braved the town with my head held high.

Laurie was back at the general
store and greeted me with a sympathetic smile on her middle-aged face. “I heard about what happened,” she said as I grabbed a hand basket and headed straight for my usual products. She hobbled along with her cast and followed me down the narrow aisle. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

I grabbed a loaf of bread and threw it in the basket. “Hey, where are the eggs?”

The ploy didn’t work in distracting her. She simply just led me over and said, “It’s a pity I never met him.”

“It’s a pity I did,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Yeah, he was an asshole,” I said a little louder.

Laurie frowned. “
Uncle Jim told me he was a good worker. He said West was very friendly with all the customers.”

“He was
friendly with a lot of people, if you know what I mean,” I said under my breath and grabbed some milk out of the refrigerator.

“What was that?”

I just shook my head and brought my groceries up to the cash register. “What do I owe you?” I asked, reaching into my coat for my wallet. “I’d also like to pay what I owe on my tab,” I said, trying very hard not to think about the person who’d used it to begin with.

Laurie pulled out a blue binder from under the counter and flipped through until she
found my page. “Hmm.”

“
What is it?”

“Says here it’s been paid and that you have a
five hundred dollar credit.”

“
What?”

She scratched her head. “Um, I’ve never seen this happen before. Hold on.” She picked up the phone and dialed Jim’s number, I assumed. I chewed on the situation a moment while she talked on the phone. A few minutes later, she hung up and confirmed my suspicions. “Jim said West came in the day before he left Alaska and worked his full shift. Then
he paid off your tab and put down five hundred dollars in cash for store credit. He said the money was in—aha!” From the side of the binder, she found an envelope containing cash. “Looks like you’re good to go for a while.”

I fumed.
I was sure steam was coming out of my ears as I stood there with my fists at my sides. I know that’s not the usual reaction of a person who’d just found out someone had done them a kindness, but I couldn’t help it. The wound was still too raw. “No thanks. I think I’ll pay cash.”

“Sure?” she asked, putting away the envelope.

Then I was struck with an idea. “Can you put half of it in Franny’s account and the other half in Drew’s?”

“Okay.” Laurie grabbed the
pen and scribbled out my credit then flipped through pages and updated Franny’s and Drew’s pages. “You know, my Mom always told me that it’s not polite to refuse a gift,” she said as she bagged my groceries. I hefted the sack of dog food under one arm and carried the bags of groceries in the other.

“Good thing I’
m not Miss Manners then,” I said and left.

That night I looked around the house and decided that it was time to clean up. I’d spent enough time wallowing and being a slob; it was time to straighten up my house and, in turn, my life. Maybe a good old-fashioned purging was exactly what I needed to start anew.

I started to vacuum but got distracted by the clutter on the dining table.
I grabbed the stack of mail, trashing a bunch of credit card offers and bundles of coupons and setting aside the few pieces of paper that were actually of use. Then my eyes landed on a large envelope underneath all the mess. I’d ignored it since the day it was handed to me. I had not even spent one brain cell considering applying again to a fashion school, had stopped hoping for it since that day in the courtroom when a guilty sentence was handed to my dad and I’d decided to forgo college in order to be near him.

Until
West came along.

I cursed his real name under my breath as I
picked up the envelope and dumped its contents out onto the table. Out spilled pages and pages of information about the school as well as instructions on how to apply; a mountain of information on a subject I’d only dared dream about before.

I picked up a piece o
f paper with the curriculum, but even as I tried to remain impassive, I couldn’t contain the jolt of excitement that rippled over my skin. The truth was I
wanted
this, had wanted it since before high school. The idea had taken root over a decade ago, and now it was growing again, climbing, making me believe that it was possible for a small town girl, long past freshman age, to go back to school.

As I shuffled through the pages, I found a page with
a quote by Alan Alda, written in Luke’s blocky, neat handwriting:

“You have to leave the city of your comfort

and go into the wilderness of your intuition.

What you’ll discover will be wonderful.

What you’ll discover will be yourself.
”

My first instinct was to crumple that piece of paper and disregard
those words but, if I was being truly honest with myself, I knew that I was no longer the same defiant woman as before. Finding West on that snowy road had reshaped me into someone a little softer, true, but also someone braver. I’d suffered humiliation and heartbreak and was somehow still standing. Surely I could handle leaving the safety of my little home and start anew.

I knew I wouldn’t always discover wonderful things, but I hoped at least, I would truly discover myself.

___________

LOOK OUT FOR THE SEQUEL
HEADING EAST
,

DUE OUT AT THE END OF THE YEAR.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my husband and daughters
: thank you for putting up with my moods during the writing process.

Thank you to the rest of my family for their never-ending support and love.

To my beta readers: Beth, Lara, Kerry, Shannon, Gillian, and Liza. Thank you for your enthusiasm and patience.

Big ups to my editor, Mary, at Clean Leaf Editing: you are a rockstar. Thank you for inspiring me to improve with each new story.

And for the readers: Storytelling is my passion, reading is yours. Thank you for once again meeting with me in that magical place where fiction supersedes reality.

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