won’t ask you could clear out that utility closet you barely use at the back of the house. It would make a great space for a darkroom for someone.”
“Would it?” I asked sardonically.
“I mean, that’s if you knew a soon-to-be homeless photographer.”
I growled. “You’re freaking asking me without asking me.”
“And if I am?”
“Then I’d have to say yes. Because it’s stupid.” I sighed, deciding to introduce myself to our imaginary group of fellow addicts. “Hi, everyone. My name is Cameron Foster, and I do stupid things.”
“Hi, Cameron,” he singsonged.
I laughed ruefully. “Wonderful.”
“Cam,” Bailey called. “I need your help loading the van.”
“Coming.” I sent her a little wave. “I gotta go.”
He grabbed my arm before I could. “Wait.”
“Yeah?"
“You remember at dinner, you told me that I was looking for something, and you didn’t know what it was.”
I nodded. I remembered a lot of things from that dinner that I wished I didn’t.
“I thought about that a long time. That maybe you were right. I was looking for something, and I didn’t even realize it. That’s coddiwomple in a nutshell, isn’t it?” He laughed a little self-consciously. “Traveling without a specific destination. Looking and searching for something that you can’t quite put your finger on.”
“And now?”
He kissed me softly on the nose and looked me in my eyes. The corner of his mouth lifted. “Found you.”
Epilogue
Three years later. . . .
Journey
Janice was such an ill-manned little monkey—literally. The capuchin was in a grabby phase, and she liked playing with my ears, my phone, my hair, my laptop… pretty much anything she could get her mitts on.
Cam had to stop volunteering us for fostering. Someone had bought the monkey illegally and dumped her on the clinic’s doorstep. The sheriff didn’t even think the individual was from this area, and I wasn’t surprised. Cameron’s Day in the Life of a Vet videos had taken off and given the clinic a lot of publicity.
The good news was that Charlotte, Cameron’s ex, was in the wildlife business. She’d used her contacts to find Janice a spot in a sanctuary equipped to handle her needs. Cam was going to have to transport her up there himself—four hours, each way—but the good news was that Janice was getting her ass bounced from Hotel Foster-Sutton as soon as next week. She gave my ear a yank and I winced. Couldn’t come soon enough.
I pulled her fingers away gently and resettled my AirPod in my ear. “I’m still here, Boz. What did you say?”
“I said, I thoroughly enjoyed your book. The Lifelong Pursuit of Coddiwomple? It was fantastic.”
It was just a pet project, really—a collection of some of my favorite pictures from my travels and little stories to go along with them. I’d enjoyed writing the stories more than I’d thought I would. I’d thought it would just be fun to relive some of those trips through text and photos. I didn’t expect that the process would make me introspective as fuck or that I’d start thinking about what I’d gotten out of each experience.
“I wasn’t sure it was your type of book,” I said, pulling my face away as Janice tried to stick her finger in my mouth. “You really liked it?”
He hummed. “Would I lie to you?”
“Yes,” I said promptly.
He didn’t disagree. “I enjoyed it so much that I already shopped it to a couple of publishers. One of them is looking for a coffee-table book, and I immediately thought of yours.”
“Boz,” I exclaimed. That little weasel. “That was just for you and me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put that out there yet.”
“That’s why I did it for you,” he said reasonably.
Little fingers tried to press a few keys on my keyboard, and I pulled Janice back. “Don’t make me put you in one of those baby slings,” I warned her.
“Now, if I can just pry you out of Nowheresville, USA for a few seconds, I have a job you might be interested in,” Boz prattled on. “It’s in Ireland, a month from now.”
I was immediately intrigued. I hadn’t been there in years. Maybe it was time for a repeat trip. I brightened. And I knew just what would make this trip superior to the last.
“Maybe Cam will want to go,” I mused. “He loves Ireland. Or, at least, that’s what I gathered from him playing ‘Galaway Girl’ so many times I was tempted to end my own life.”
Boz made a sound of derision. “Sorry, I should’ve asked if you’re allowed to go first.”
I didn’t