Page 66 of That First Flight
My stomach bottoms out. Did I ruin everything for her when I left?
“Your silence is very loud, Macey dear. Trust me, it’s beenverygood.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Yeah?”
“We’ve been so busy in the best way possible. The man who is clearly more than just your friend… made a blog post and our Bar and Grill was featured in it.”
“What?” I gasp.
I realized now that since I’ve been here, I haven’t stalkedNotes from Oliver Fordonce. Maybe it’s because I’m now living with the blogger extraordinaire? I’m not sure.
“Yup!” she says as I scurry to my broken laptop and flip it open to see what she means. “He said we have the best double bacon cheeseburger in the entire town, that our service is the best he’s had in his travels and that it’s a must visit restaurant when you swing by town for your skiing adventures.”
“He said that?” I click through the windows on my screen to open up his blog. There it is. His entire blog post about Roxbury, New York. Complete with a featured image of the backyard of Flora and Samuels property.
The caption under the image reads ‘Image taken by the coolest local girl, Kenzie.’
My daughter took that picture.
And he featured it on his blog as the header image.
“He sure did,” Flora says, cutting through my thoughts. “I saw the perfect post snow sunset photo Mackenzie took with his camera too. She captured the cotton candy skies so perfectly. I’m going to have it printed and framed into a canvas for our living room.”
“It’s beautiful,” I reply in a breathy whisper while my eyes remain locked on the image.
“Enough about work,” she says. “How’s my girl doing?”
For the next ten minutes I fill her in on how Mackenzie is loving her new school and her new friends. She’s made so many since coming here and her grades are better than they have ever been.
She’s a true testament of being able to thrive in the right environment.
She was right about what she told Oliver before we even left the mountains.
“We’re going to thrive so hard there.”
And she is.
“And how about you, sweets?”
“Well…” I pause, my face lighting up with the cheesiest smile despite the fact that she can’t see me through the phone. “I got a job.”
“Oh, dear,” Flora screams. “That’s wonderful! Tell me it’s a cook position.”
“I’m sorry, I wish I could.” I giggle. “It’s a sous-chef position in one of the city's top-rated restaurants!”
Silence rings through the phone for a few seconds. Just as I’m about to ask if she’s still there, I hear sniffles on the other end.
“You did it, baby girl,” Flora finally says through a shallow whisper. “I’ve never been more proud in my entire life.”
Tears sting my eyes. Flora isn’t my mom, or my grandma, but she’s taken me under her wing and loves me as if I was her own. That causes every emotion I’ve always wanted to feel bubble to the surface.
I catch my tear before it lands on the laptop still sitting on my lap.
“I love you, Flora.”
“Oh, sweets. I love you so much. You have no idea how happy this makes me to hear. You chasing your dreams is everything I’ve always wanted from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
I swallow. “I did it.”