“Visiting Tristan and the others.” Her voice cracked. “Are you packing up?”
“Kind of. Brandon’s helping me plan my stops.”
“Oh, cool. You’re still leaving next week?”
Logan swallowed. “Yeah.”
“Okay.”
Ashley was quiet for a long moment. Wind rattled like a long sigh from the other end of the call. Around Logan, the room sank. She hadn’t said goodbye yet; she hadn’t figured out how. Because all the years she’d spent picturing her life on the road felt hazy now. The only thing she pictured was Ashley next to her, Ashley smiling again, Ashley playfully shoving her when she said something stupid. At some point, something had shifted in her.
She didn’t want to be alone. She wanted to be loved.
And she didn’t want to say goodbye.
“Ashley…” Logan said.
Ashley cleared her throat. “Do you want some company?”
40
In The Morning Hour She Calls Me
On the last day of August, Snakebite was a dream. It was bathed in gold sunlight and bright under the wide-open sky, crisp and cool as summer tilted into fall. It was different than it had been when Logan first arrived. Or she was different, which felt just as likely. The sun had calmed the day the Dark died, like the town was freed from a paranormal vise grip. The endless hills that held Snakebite in place were softer now, rolling out to the horizon like ripples on the lake. From the beginning, she’d intended to follow the tide out of Snakebite and as far away as it could take her. That much hadn’t changed.
But now, she wouldn’t be alone.
The Ford dipped as she tossed the last of her overnight bags into the truck bed. Ashley fastened a bungee cord to keep their luggage in place. Even after everything, the sun in Snakebite treated Ashley differently than it treated everyone else. She ran the back of her hand over her brow and her freckled skin glowed in the late-summer light.
“You’ve got underwear?” Tammy Barton asked, leaning against the driver’s side of the truck. “Phone charger? Gas money? GPS?”
Ashley clapped on a baseball cap. “Check, check, check, and check.”
Tammy eyed Logan and pursed her lips. She’d been trying to conceal her disdain for the last week. She wasn’t succeeding, but Logan appreciated the effort. “Do you two have any idea where you’re going?”
Logan and Ashley exchanged a smile. They had a couple of spots on the road, a couple of sights to take in, but no destination. That was the point of it. Logan had been everywhere, but she’d never felt at home. Ashley had only known one home her whole life, but it wasn’t home anymore.
They had a thousand new skies to see.
Before either of them could answer, Alejo ambled from the front porch of the Barton Ranch house with the last box of Ashley’s things nestled in his arms. Brandon followed close behind him, tapping incessantly at his phone screen. As Alejo loaded the box into the truck bed, Brandon sidled up beside Logan and turned his phone so she could see it. It was a compact map of the US, pocked with virtual red thumbtacks in almost every state.
“I added a few places in Missouri,” he said. “Weirdly, there’s lots of cool stuff there. It’s probably my favorite place we visited.”
“Also the most depressing place we visited.” Alejo snorted. “So that checks out.”
Brandon scoffed. “Obviously you don’t have to stop everywhere, but it’s a start. If you follow the ninety-five east out of Snakebite, you’ll wind up in Idaho. Nothing much to see there, but I highlighted a few spots you can check out. I’d say head north from there until you hit Coeur d’Alene, then…”