Page 55 of The Last Thing You Said

I fucking chicken out.

“I called to tell you good night,” I say.

Dead silence.

“Dana?”

She clears her throat. “Good night, Ben. I love you.”

I end the call. I toss my phone aside and restack the rocks, this time more carefully, more strategically. I get up and walk along the shore to find more stones and fill the pockets of my cargo shorts. I build another tower.

The stones of this one are irregular. The tower’s off-balance, and the stack topples, knocking into the first one I made.

“Fuck,” I mumble.

So I start over, switching out one rock for another, trying again when the towers tumble, until I’ve balanced the last stone.

I let out a long breath.

“Hey.” Guthrie is behind me. I turn to face him. “You are on the right path,” he says.

“What?”

“Those look like inuksuit. One of the meanings of inuksuit is ‘You are on the right path.’ A marker. It’s a way to let others know that you’ve been here, that this is the right path.”

“Oh,” I say. “Right.”

We go back to the fire and Guthrie rattles on about this new hot spot he found on Papyrus, but I can’t stop thinking about what he said.

You are on the right path.

Nothing feels right.

30 · Lucy

Tuesday night, I get up enough courage to ask my dad about the rodeo. My mom’s still at work. I figure it will be easier to convince Dad without her around, and then he can convince her.

Hannah comes with me. “Moral support,” she says. “How can he say no when I’m standing right here?”

I’m pretty sure seeing Hannah in her miniscule tank top and skimpy, frayed cutoffs might have the opposite effect.

I raise my eyebrows. “Are you serious? Maybe you should put on some clothes first.”

She rolls her eyes. “Your dad loves me.”

I snort.

Dad’s at the kitchen table with the paper and a cup of coffee.

“Hey.” I sit down across from him. Hannah stands in the doorway.

“Hi, Luce.” He nods in Hannah’s direction. “Hannah.”

“Hey, Mr. Meadows,” Hannah says with an extra splash of twang.

There’s no point in prolonging this. “Dad,” I say, “Hannah’s invited me to go to the Stampede in Mitchell this weekend.”

He looks from me to Hannah and back to me. “That’s the rodeo?”