Read Online Snow Jam by Rachel Hanna - Free Book Online
Authors: Rachel Hanna
Tags: Romance
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to save my life.
Once there, I'd become a specialist, working with new and expanding businesses.
Go figure.
But self-awareness isn't the same thing as healing. Knowing how long it's been since something terrible happened isn't a cure for it having happened. Time doesn't heal everything. I was afraid to get close to anyone who might recognize me, especially when I was so close to the place where I'd interview for the job where I might make even more of a difference. Small town, new opportunities, better title, more chance to help.
I couldn't get discovered or distracted. Whatever favor Sunny thought she was doing me, I couldn't take her up on it. My father's influence had spread way beyond our own hometown.
It had spread deep into me.
I was sweating and hot under my coat, icy and chapped out of it by the time I reached the main road, but the sun was well up now and already there were large patches of asphalt steaming through the white. There was traffic, but it wasn't insane, and no one stopped me or yelled at me for being on the interstate. On the other side I saw a couple doing the same thing – walking back to a stranded car. If I got stopped for being on foot, maybe they'd give me a ride.
I didn't get stopped, though. The rental was still where I'd left it, off the road but not in a snowbank. If it had been, I'd have called anyone but Rick for help.
Frost etched the front windshield, but it was loosening its grip. The back glass was already thawing. I let the motor run, scraped the windows, checked and rechecked my messenger bag, and decided it was late enough to text Sunny.
On way to Hanlin , I wrote without any explanation of the night before. Wish me luck?
Wondered where you were! Too early to text. Just in case.
Smiley face. Inappropriate use of emoticons.
I signaled, checked for traffic, pulled onto the interstate. Within ten miles I'd left the snow behind and was driving through the kind of chilly spring day in March I'd expected in the first place.
* * *
I got to Hanlin in plenty of time and stopped at a restaurant for food and better coffee than what I'd made at the cabin. No message from Rick, so either he was still sleeping or so done with me he didn't even care if I'd made my destination.
Must mean I wasn't his responsibility anymore.
After breakfast I studied the maps I'd printed before leaving home and made my way to the hotel. It wasn't hard. Hanlin, population 100,000, wasn't huge. That's one of the reasons it was looking to grow. It was also laid out on a grid, making finding your way easy. My confidence was returning by the time I hit the hotel. Time enough for a nap, a shower, and a review of the presentation.
I chose review, shower, review, worry, review. And then I left for my interview.
"Mya Powers? I'm Jared Flenderson."
"Nice to finally meet you."
We fumbled a handshake, Jared trying to shake the tips of my fingers the way some men do to us delicate flowers, me trying to shake hands like I meant it.
The conference room was stuffy. Coffee, tea, water and sodas stood on a sidebar. There were the inevitable pastries. A white board, A/V for my Power Point. Three men in business suits and Jared, who was the communications liaison between city and county in Hanlin. Fracking had come to Georgia, heading into the Northwest, and Hanlin was poised not to be drilled but to receive overflow oil company workers and support services from some of the shale sites more than one hundred miles north. Having seen what happened to North Dakota when the energy boom hit there, the economic development authorities were determined to stay ahead of the curve.
For the next ninety minutes I talked to Jared and the three suited men, to a suited woman who came and went, the executive assistant-slash-office manager for the authority. My presentation showed how I'd encourage local businesses to expand and entrepreneurs to start up because fracking was business and business was good but fracking wasn't.
Once there, I'd become a specialist, working with new and expanding businesses.
Go figure.
But self-awareness isn't the same thing as healing. Knowing how long it's been since something terrible happened isn't a cure for it having happened. Time doesn't heal everything. I was afraid to get close to anyone who might recognize me, especially when I was so close to the place where I'd interview for the job where I might make even more of a difference. Small town, new opportunities, better title, more chance to help.
I couldn't get discovered or distracted. Whatever favor Sunny thought she was doing me, I couldn't take her up on it. My father's influence had spread way beyond our own hometown.
It had spread deep into me.
I was sweating and hot under my coat, icy and chapped out of it by the time I reached the main road, but the sun was well up now and already there were large patches of asphalt steaming through the white. There was traffic, but it wasn't insane, and no one stopped me or yelled at me for being on the interstate. On the other side I saw a couple doing the same thing – walking back to a stranded car. If I got stopped for being on foot, maybe they'd give me a ride.
I didn't get stopped, though. The rental was still where I'd left it, off the road but not in a snowbank. If it had been, I'd have called anyone but Rick for help.
Frost etched the front windshield, but it was loosening its grip. The back glass was already thawing. I let the motor run, scraped the windows, checked and rechecked my messenger bag, and decided it was late enough to text Sunny.
On way to Hanlin , I wrote without any explanation of the night before. Wish me luck?
Wondered where you were! Too early to text. Just in case.
Smiley face. Inappropriate use of emoticons.
I signaled, checked for traffic, pulled onto the interstate. Within ten miles I'd left the snow behind and was driving through the kind of chilly spring day in March I'd expected in the first place.
* * *
I got to Hanlin in plenty of time and stopped at a restaurant for food and better coffee than what I'd made at the cabin. No message from Rick, so either he was still sleeping or so done with me he didn't even care if I'd made my destination.
Must mean I wasn't his responsibility anymore.
After breakfast I studied the maps I'd printed before leaving home and made my way to the hotel. It wasn't hard. Hanlin, population 100,000, wasn't huge. That's one of the reasons it was looking to grow. It was also laid out on a grid, making finding your way easy. My confidence was returning by the time I hit the hotel. Time enough for a nap, a shower, and a review of the presentation.
I chose review, shower, review, worry, review. And then I left for my interview.
"Mya Powers? I'm Jared Flenderson."
"Nice to finally meet you."
We fumbled a handshake, Jared trying to shake the tips of my fingers the way some men do to us delicate flowers, me trying to shake hands like I meant it.
The conference room was stuffy. Coffee, tea, water and sodas stood on a sidebar. There were the inevitable pastries. A white board, A/V for my Power Point. Three men in business suits and Jared, who was the communications liaison between city and county in Hanlin. Fracking had come to Georgia, heading into the Northwest, and Hanlin was poised not to be drilled but to receive overflow oil company workers and support services from some of the shale sites more than one hundred miles north. Having seen what happened to North Dakota when the energy boom hit there, the economic development authorities were determined to stay ahead of the curve.
For the next ninety minutes I talked to Jared and the three suited men, to a suited woman who came and went, the executive assistant-slash-office manager for the authority. My presentation showed how I'd encourage local businesses to expand and entrepreneurs to start up because fracking was business and business was good but fracking wasn't.
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