Page 97 of Teach Me How

Bo narrows his eyes at me. “I’m sure you have.” He clears his throat, sitting up a little taller when mom returns with the bandages. “You work with Skyler?”

His gaze flicks over to mine. I’ll have some explaining to do when Terry’s gone.

A lot of explaining.

“Yep.” She smiles at me. “For a few years now. We had a meeting in Lincoln, so we thought we’d buzz out quick.”

So she could meet the family.

And see Silver Bend.

It was never explicitly stated that way, but she and I both know this is not just a casual visit.

We’ve only been on one date. It’s insanely early to introduce her to the family. But I think neither of us wants to waste our time if we can’t agree on the outcome. I’ve already done that. Unintentionally, yes. Reese and I never officially dated, so it’s probably not fair to use that relationship as a case study. But if I did, I would say that kind of pain is best avoided. Like putting your hand on a hot stove.

Bo lets mom pin his hand to the table so she can work on cleaning out his cut. She sighs at the wound. “Shouldn’t need stitches.”

I grin. “What’d you do this time?”

He glowers at me, but there’s laughter in his eyes. “Your concern is going to bring me to tears.”

I wait, sitting back.

He shrugs. “Smashed it.”

Mom braces his wrist. “Hold still, kiddo.”

She’s teeny tiny compared to him, but he obeys without comment. He turns his gaze to the two of us. I can almost see the gears turning in his head. “What do you think? Of Silver Bend?”

Terry lights up. “It’s charming.”

“It is?” Bo asks.

Mom whacks him. “Best place on earth.”

“I grew up in Chicago.” Terry says. “And right now, I live in San Francisco. It’s pretty claustrophobic. I can’t get over how much open space there is out here.”

The three of us Silver Bend natives exchange looks. The big open skies are something we take for granted. Unless there’s a particularly beautiful sunset or thunderstorm. It’s one of those things that justis. Most of the time, we categorize the open horizon as featureless. Boring.

We fit that no-frills, no confines landscape. But does she?

I don’t want to be here half the time. How can I ask someone else to move here?

I try to picture a life with her here in Silver Bend and I come up blank.

I’m remembering the Harvest Festival instead. Remembering kissing Reese, how I spoke my thoughts aloud.

It’s not always like this.

Even then, I was already aware that we were setting a standard that was going to be too hard to beat.

I knew it would be hard to compare. I had resigned myself to that. Decided to just aim for companionship. A partner. If I thought knowing all this ahead of time would help ease the pain of it, I was dead wrong.

It hurts like hell.

65.

Reese