The Road That Leads to Us (Us 1)

Laughter bellowed out of me. “Oh, Willow.” I wound my arm around her neck and pulled her close, kissing the top of her head.

I set the box down on a side table before we joined everyone in the backyard.

Willow laughed at the sight that met us.

It was a full on party.

Food. Cake. Balloons. You name it, and it was there.

“I think my dad missed me,” Willow whispered under her breath.

“Maybe just a bit,” I joked.

“He has lost his mind for real this time.” She shook her head and started down the steps to the brick paver patio. “Dad!” She yelled over to where he stood by the pool talking to my dad. “What’s with all of this?” She motioned to all of the tables set up—heck there were even carnival type games which the younger kids were playing.

He shrugged and shoved a bite of cake into his mouth. “Imisschedtu.” He said around a mouthful of food. It sounded more like Pikachu than I missed you—to me at least.

Willow shook her head and smiled up at me. “Well, I guess it’s only fitting that our

epic road trip ends with a party.”

“There’s no other way to end a road trip.”

She grinned up at me and wiggled her brows deviously, nodding towards the pool. “Mermaids?”

“How about you be a mermaid and I’ll be a merman?” I joked.

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t ruin the moment.”

She reached down, entwining our fingers. She looked at our joined hands, a small smile dancing across her lips before she looked up at me. Her blue eyes shimmered with love and mischief.

We ran forward together, both laughing, and plunged into the water.

It seemed oddly fitting, like we were cleansing ourselves and becoming anew.

I knew we still had a lot to figure out, but I also knew we had all the time in the world to do it.

Willow

The party had long since ended and everyone had left, including Dean.

Before he left he gave me a brief kiss and told me that I should do it.

It being tell my parents I wasn’t going back to school.

I was still no closer to having an idea of what I wanted to do. Dean’s blogging idea was okay, but I wasn’t sure if it was really for me.

My heart beat unsteadily as I went in search of my dad.

I wasn’t surprised when I found him in his hedgehog/knitting room cooing at the baby hedgehogs.

He looked up at the sound of the door squeaking open.

“Hey, Princess.” He smiled at me. “I knitted you a whole bunch of stuff while you were gone. You should be stocked up for the winter.” He pointed to a bag overflowing with items.

“Jeez, you went all out,” I commented. “I went to college and got nothing.”

He straightened and crossed his arms over his chest. “Watching you leave for college wasn’t easy for me, but watching you leave with Dean was a thousand times worse because it was the first time I knew I could lose you.”