Theo At this point, my motel room was probably more my apartment than just a room I was renting. I felt at home here, sipping my coffee as I pulled out of the quiet parking lot in Kit’s old truck, armed with yet another list of supplies to pick up from the hardware store. I was seriously thinking about finding out whether Quartz Pass Hardware had a loyalty program, because if so, I was joining it. Over the last couple weeks, I’d been there so often that I was on a first- name basis with its two employees and even old Harvey, who seemed to have appointed himself as the store’s hall monitor, was starting to acc ept that I had opinions too. Look at me. I’m thriving. Oddly, this quiet little town was growing on me. As the days passed, I became more and more fond of it. I even felt a surge of actual happiness when I pulled into the lot at the store, already having found a favorite parking spot around one side of the building that always seemed to be available. After grabbing a cart, I headed inside, mentally reciting Frieda’s list. When she’d said there were a few jobs to be done, she had not been kidding. Underselling it, yes. Heavily so. But I was starting to wonder if anyone had really done any maintenance on the old place since her husband had passed. From the sounds of things, every single person in town cared about and respected her. I was pretty confident that people had been helping her ke ep the place from falling apart, but she was a proud old bat. I doubted she’d genuinely let anyone know the extent of the work required to be done. Either way, at least she had me now. Or she did, until I walked into the store and spotted Raquel. Back when I’d first arrived, I’d thought the compulsory stopping and staring thing would fade, but nope. Frieda and her list vanished from my mind as soon as I strode past the flooring displays to see her, flipping through a thick tile catalog. My st eps slowed, my cart swinging in her direction without my brain having been in volved in the decision-making process at all. Since it was a Saturday, Raquel wasn’t wearing coveralls or work boots. Instead, she had on a faded black tank top with jeans and her hair was loose for once, the dark waves falling across one shoulder. I nearly started drooling as I raked my eyes over her from behind, the curves of her hips and ass so much more pronounced dressed as she was today. Get it together, Westwood. As I approached, she glanced up, and unlike literally every other time we’d interacted, her expression softened instead of morphing into a mask of suspicion. “Let me guess, Frieda sent you?”
I shrugged. “Maybe I just like hanging out in the hardware store.” “I suppose it’s as good a place as any to bore yourself to death while hanging around and spending more money than you have on things you don’t strictly need.” “Well, it was that or the bar, and this seemed healthier.” I offered her a half-smile, then leaned in and looked down at the catalog she was still holding. “Ouch, tiles? As far as I know, that’s not a cheap way to spend a Saturday.” “It’s not, but thankfully, this is just for a kitchen backsplash.” “That’s a very adult thing to be considering.” She pumped her eyebrows at me. “I know, right? It’s horrifying. I should be counting gummy bears with my friends or something.” “Now that would be reckless, counting them in front of your friends.” “Yeah, but unfortunately, my version of reckless was buying a property instead of developing a drug problem. I’d rather count every sweet I’ve ever had in front of the greediest friends than spend another whole weekend trying to fix fence posts.” I laughed. “So sell it?” She looked up at me like I’d suggested she run a casual 5 k on Mars. “No. I love that place.” “Right. Of course. Back to the fence fixing.” To my absolute surprise, she actually laughed at that, then held the catalog out toward me. “Do you know anything about tile?” “I once stayed in a villa in Greece with excellent tile. It was blue. Does that help?” “No.” She scoffed down a laugh, her head shaking as those gray eyes fixed on mine. “Greece, huh?” “Yeah, it was a family thing.” Sort of, anyway. I’d met up with Jesse and our cousin, Jameson, years ago. Back when they’d still been crazy and I’d been in awe of them for it. “Right,” she said slowly and smiled again. “So blue is the best you’ve got for me?” “What can I say? I bring the vibe to the hardware store.” She laughed. Again. I almost fainted at the pure, simple beauty of the sound, but once again reminded myself that I was a fully grown man, in a hardware store, no less, with things to actually buy here. It was easy with her today, though. Just the two of us, actually talking. She seemed more open and nicer when there weren’t other people around, like maybe she put up a front. Given what I knew about her past, maybe that armor she seemed to wear like a second skin was actually necessary for her to survive in this town, though. I knew how hard it was just trying to get through a day when everyone thought they knew everything about you. Being talked about. Speculated about. It sucked. “Alright,” she said finally. “I’ll ke ep the blue in mind. All I wanted today was to see what was available anyway. Now that I’ve got an idea, I’ll come back when I’ve decided, so it’s onto the cabinet hardware for me. What did you come to get?”
“Cabinet hardware also,” I said. “Some other stuff too, but as it happens, that’s on my list too. According to Frieda, people have a real affinity for breaking that kind of thing.” Raquel winced. “Yeah, I can imagine. Not all tourists or even the contractors who stay there are always respectful of her property. You should see the clean-ups we’ve had to help out with after parties at the motel. It gets gross sometimes.” We wandered slowly through the aisles together from there, or rather, she wandered and k ept absentmindedly handing me things, which I added to my cart. There were tile samples and paint swatches, cabinet hardware, and drawer pulls. I k ept up with her relatively easily, not at all as particular about what I was after as she seemed to be. Frieda had told me to focus on cheap and durable. She was a pragmatist, which helped right about now. Raquel, on the other hand, stopped when we reached rolls of wallpaper, seeming genuinely torn as she glanced between two of them. Finally, she looked at me. “Do you have any thoughts or are you just going to go with blue again?” “No, the only blue one I can see looks like it’d be chosen by a recently divorced accountant.” It was sky blue with faint little yellow flowers on it. “That’s what you choose when you’re determined to be single for the rest of your life and you really don’t like risk.” “It could work for a nursery too,” Raquel muttered. I arched an eyebrow at her. “Are you decorating a nursery?” “No.” “Then no.” I walked around the cart and looked closely between the two she was considering. “I like this one. It’s neutral and says modern desert chic to me.” “Okay? What does the other one say?” “That you’re too lazy to look out the window so you put cactuses on the walls.” “It’s cacti.” She laughed, her head shaking as she reached for the neutral one. “It’s only one smattering of cacti in the corner. It’s not like they’re printed all over.” “It’s an energy.” I shrugged. “You might as well choose one with a saloon sign and tumbleweeds on it. Maybe a cowboy walking to a duel.” “You’re insane.” “Probably, but you’re the one who asked for my opinions.” She let out a sigh that hinted she might regret asking me anything at all. “That’s true. Remind me not to do that again.” “It’s payback for pool. You could’ve told me you were basically a professional player.” “If I was, I would’ve disclosed it, but I’m not.” She smirked at me. “I’m just better than you.” “Oof.” When she laughed again, I decided that it would be my personal mission from now until I left this town to ke ep making her do it. Fuck, I love that sound. Eventually, we ended up at the register and paid. An employee wheeled her flat cart out while I meandered beside her, a little disappointed that this outing was over already. The
afternoon heat was like a wall as we walked outside, but I forgot all about it when she turned to look at me as we reached her truck. Fuck, those eyes, man. Seriously. “Do you want to see what I’m working on?” My eyebrows shot up. “You mean, your house?” “Yeah.” “I’d love to.” She smiled. “Alright then. Follow me.” With my heart hammering in my throat, I nodded and headed to Kit’s truck, loading up Frieda’s supplies before I followed Raquel out of town. I hadn’t been in this direction before, but as we drove toward the pass the town had been named for, I realized there was a certain kind of beauty to this place. The same was true about Raquel’s property. It wasn’t lush or manicured, but it was gorgeous, open desert stretching as far as the eye could see, the entire lands cape painted in gold, rust, and faded green. Even the sky seemed bigger and bluer out here, mountains rising in the distance beyond Quartz Pass. Everything was a little hazy in the heat, a little softer around the edges. Sort of like Raquel herself now that I have her alone. We rolled past the old barn she’d mentioned, the roof slightly crooked and the paint weathered, but the structure seemed solid. Around the next bend in the windy farm road, a small house came into view with a chrome trailer parked beside it. I pulled up next to Raquel, ignoring the fresh siding on one side of the house and focusing on the trailer instead. “Oh my God. Is that an Airstream?” She glanced over at it and smiled she epishly. “Yeah. I’ve been living in it while I’m renovating.” Feeling like I’d discovered buried treasure, I walked around it, the bright metal gleaming in the sun and the body beautifully maintained despite its age. “Okay, this is objectively cool.” She snorted. “I bought it years ago with all these big plans for traveling, but that never happened, so I’ve been living in it for the last six months instead.” I glanced at her. “It’s still cool, but I’m surprised you never took it on the road. What happened to the travel plans?” “Life.” She shrugged, but then her eyes drifted to the desert and she inhaled a breath so de ep, her chest rose with it. “I like it here in Quartz Pass. I know it’s a small town and that there’s a lot more out there, but after everything with Hunter, leaving felt too much like letting them take something else from me.” “Yeah,” I said after beat. “You said they live in Tucson now, right?” “Y ep, but their families are still here. Hunter hated that I didn’t want to leave this town and he probably loves that I’m stuck here now, with everyone knowing what they did, but I don’t see it that way.”
“Small towns do seem to be fun like that, but I think I get what you’re saying. You won’t let the fact that everyone knows or that they still have to come back to see their families run you out of town.” “Exactly.” A tiny furrow appeared between her eyebrows as she glanced back up at me. “It kind of feels like leaving would make them think they won. At least, that’s what it felt like at first.” “What about now?” “Now I just don’t want to go anywhere.” She motioned at the house. “This place is mine. I can do whatever I want to it. I don’t need anyone’s approval or permission, and honestly, I’m having a fucking blast with it.” I hooked my fingers into my pockets. “Well, let’s go see it, then. You did invite me here to show off what you’ve been doing, so we might as well get to it.” She flashed me a surprisingly wicked smile. “I never said I wanted to show it off, but you’re not wrong. I am proud of what I’ve accomplished so far.” “Show me.” I whistled as we walked in, genuinely surprised that she’d done all this herself. While it was clear that there was a lot left to be done, with paint cans standing in random places on the floor, rollers resting in trays, and the floors covered in sheeting, I could also see spots where she’d already fixed the roof and the flooring, some new cabinetry in the kitchen, and new fittings in the bathrooms. “This is incredible,” I said once we’d made it through the house and back to the porch overlooking the Airstream. “You’re right to be proud.” “And you’ve earned yourself a beer for being so nice about it,” she joked, then disappeared into the trailer and came back a minute later with two beers already un capped. “Welcome to my humble abode, I guess. All I’ve got right now are camping chairs, but it’s got a pretty good view of the sunset.” I turned toward the mountains, and although I’d been here a while now, I still wasn’t quite used to how the sunsets here, while real, looked so damn fake. Raquel and I sat down in mismatched camping chairs, drinking our beer while the desert turned shades of orange and gold that didn’t seem physically possible. As the sun started dipping below the mountains, I stretched my legs out in front of me and looked toward the pass in the distance. “You know, if you showed this property to wealthy people in any city, they’d label it as a wellness retreat and charge nine thousand dollars a weekend.” She snorted into her beer. “They’d die out here. The first scorpion would send them running for the hills.” “You’re not wrong, but you could make good money before that news hit the press.”
“I’ll ke ep that in mind,” she said, tucking one leg underneath herself. “So, what about you? Don’t you have family somewhere wondering what happened to you?” I took a slow sip of beer to buy myself a second, but not because I didn’t want to tell her. I just didn’t want to become somebody else in her eyes quite yet, and when people heard Westwood, things inevitably changed. It was strange, but most conversations I’d had back home felt structured, everybody already knowing who I was before I even opened my mouth. People expected things from me based purely on my name, but out here, I got to just exist without any assumptions in volved. I didn’t want to ruin that here, especially not with her, but at the same time, I didn’t want to lie to her. “Yeah, I do,” I said finally. “They’re not wondering, though. They know where I am and about the bike. My brother thinks I took it apart myself just as an excuse to stay on the road.” She chuckled. “You have a brother?” “I have five.” “Wow.” Her eyes widened as she turned to face me. “There are six of you?” “Seven. I also have a sister.” “Oh, yeah. I remember you saying you had a little sister too,” she murmured, her head shaking. “I can’t imagine having that many siblings.” “I try not to imagine it either,” I joked. “Don’t get me wrong, I love them to tiny little bits and pieces, but it can be overwhelming at times.” “Just having Avery can be overwhelming at times,” she said. “It must be so much worse when there are so many of you.” “Yeah, I spend most of my life being bossed around or fussed over. It just d epends on the day. I do miss them, though. As annoying as they might be.” She smiled. “To be fair, I spend most of my life being bossed around or fussed over too. I think that’s just a sibling thing. Are you all close?” I shrugged. “As close as we can be. We talk often, if that’s what you mean, but they’re all busy. Work. Kids. Life.” “God, you must have so many nieces and n ephews if all your siblings have kids.” “I do.” I chuckled as I thought about them all. “They’re the best, though. But hey, enough about me. I’ve heard people talking about this hiking trail through the canyon. Is it all it’s hyped up to be?” “We’ve barely started talking about you, but okay. I’ll bite. The canyon trail is great. I can take you sometime, if you’d like. It’s an awesome view of the sunrise.” “You’re on. Tomorrow?” “Aren’t you eager? But okay. I never say no to that trail. Miley will probably want to come too, if that’s okay. She loves the canyon.”
“The more, the merrier.” I drained the last sip of my beer and reluctantly stood up. “I should head back before Frieda r eports me missing. Thanks for the beer.” “You’re welcome.” She set her bottle down and walked me to the truck, gray eyes glimmering with the copper of the sunset. “We’ll meet you at the trailhead at five-forty-ish? That should give us enough time before sunrise.” “I’ll meet you there,” I promised, glancing back at her house. “If you ever need help with the renovations, I’m going to be around for a while. My offer still stands.” She laughed, but at least she didn’t accuse me being sexist this time. “Don’t you have a life somewhere out there to get back to, or are you going to move with the wind on your motorcycle forever?” I opened my mouth to tell her I did have to get back to my actual life at some point, but instead, I just smiled and climbed in the truck. “Well, the wind isn’t moving me anywhere on that motorcycle anytime soon, so just say the word if you need any help.” I knew that hadn’t been an answer, but as I drove into the fading desert light with guilt about how tight-lipped I’d been about my family gnawing at my gut, I realized I didn’t know how to respond to that question honestly anymore. I did have a life to get back to, sure, but I genuinely didn’t know if I was ever actually going back.