Read Online I Hope You Find Me by Trish Marie Dawson - Free Book Online Page B

felt the opposite actually. I
trusted him as if I’d known him half my life, but for some reason
it seemed too early to share my story. I felt, even though he had
shared a great deal of his, that my story should stay private. I
wasn’t ready to talk about my children…or their father. We had been
divorced for two years but were still close. We tried hard to make
life normal for our children and I was sad to have lost him, but
devastated with my daughter and son. It seemed the right thing to
do, to move on and find others and survive, but I knew in my heart,
that part of me would never recover. I would never be able to smile
or laugh without their faces flooding my memory. I didn’t think I’d
ever understand why I didn’t die with them, like I should have.
    As I sat at the window, eating my crunchy
green apple, I wondered again about where to go. It would be
unsafe, in more ways than one to stay in the city. I considered
traveling north, to L.A. but the stilled traffic up there had to be
bad. The illness took people quickly, but it didn’t stop them from
jumping in their cars and driving off only to die behind the wheel
a few hours later. Going north would be a bad idea.
    That left two choices, go east into the
mountains and the rest of the country, or travel the short distance
south to the Mexican border.
    “Connor, do you speak Spanish by any chance?”
It was random and caught him off guard.
    “Uh,” he choked down a mouthful of apple.
“Not really.” He shook his head, “Why? You planning a trip down
south?”
    “It was a thought. But I don’t speak Spanish
either.” I sighed heavily.
    He bit his apple, and I watched as his jaw
muscles flexed effortlessly and when he ran his tongue innocently
over his lower lip, I blushed and looked away from him. What was it about this guy?
    “East it is then,” I said aloud to no one in
particular.
    “East? Is that where you want to go?” He
looked at me, still chewing. I tried not to watch his jaw.
    “Why not? I think it would take a really long
time to get to L.A. especially if we’d have to walk some of it.” I
continued, “And going south across the border would be a mess too.
Even if we did find people there, we might not be able to
communicate and that could be dangerous.” I considered for a
moment.
    “There’s a resort-type lodge up in the Laguna
Mountains, called the Big Laguna Hideaway. Have you heard of it?” I
asked, forgetting for a moment that Connor wasn’t from
California.
    He shook his head no, so I went on to
explain. “Ok, so it’s a lodge more than a resort. I’ve never
actually been there but when it was built the owners made a point
of advertising its eco-friendly design all over the County.”
    “Still not following you.” He said. He licked
his lower lip again and I looked away. Jesus, Riley…knock it
off!
    A pleasant sort of anxiousness came over me
as I remembered pictures I had seen of the place tucked away in the
mountains. “It’s an eco-friendly mountain resort. It runs
completely on solar power.” I looked at him, and watched as what I
said registered.
    “Completely solar operated?” He asked with a
hint of excitement in his voice.
    “Yes, and it would have its own water supply
too, probably welled.” I shifted around so I was facing him.
“There’s one problem, well, not a problem but it could potentially
be.”
    “What’s that?” He got up and walked to my
side of the room, fruit still in hand. Zoey stretched from her
napping place on top of the sofa when he sat down.
    “Well, it gets cold enough up there for snow.
Every year portions of the highway are closed down due to ice and
snow conditions.” I watched him ponder over what I had said.
    “The cold doesn’t bother me. I guess our
biggest problem would be having enough food.” He settled deeply
into the cushions and continued eating. He was chewing the apple
down to the core, and for some reason I found it extremely sexy.
“We have plenty here to