Rugged Guard - Jason Collins Page 0,32

everything between us was temporary. I was just another part of his job, wasn’t I? And when the job was over, we were going to be over, too.

“Hey, aren’t you going to draw a few cards for yourself?” Derek said as he nodded down at the stack of cards between us. “It’s kind of hard to play Blackjack without dealer participation.”

After he spoke, I hastily drew two cards.

A ten of hearts and an ace.

“Blackjack.” My voice was deadpan as I pointed down to the cards. “Anyway, I’m pretty tired. I’m going to head to bed—”

“Do you want me to come tuck you in?” Derek’s tone was suggestive.

I shook my head in response. “No. I’ll… see you tomorrow, Derek.”

“All right. See you tomorrow, Parker. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” I murmured, my feet already heading away from the table, the sting of fresh tears prickling right behind my eyes.

10

Derek

Parker had been acting strange all day.

I’d first noticed it in the morning when I’d tried to strike up a conversation over a bowl of oatmeal. Instead of being his usual, approachable self, it seemed like he was answering every question with a barely-there response, his voice low and his eyes avoidant.

And by the time noon rolled around, it was clear to me that Parker wasn’t interested in having a full-blown conversation with me, for reasons still unknown. I knew I should’ve left it alone, that I should’ve just minded my own business and stayed focused on checking the perimeter and going over the cameras, yet again, but I just couldn’t pretend like I wasn’t bothered by the idea of Parker going cold on me.

Had I done something wrong?

Had I said something wrong?

The last thing we’d done together was play a round of Blackjack after dinner, and then he was out of the room.

I was watching him now as he worked the front desk, dipping in and out of sight as he reached for documents underneath the table. And when he disappeared for the third time in a row, I decided to approach him, wondering if I would be able to get him to talk to me by offering to help with whatever he seemed to be struggling with.

“Hey. Parker?” I spoke in a tentative tone when I was close enough for him to hear. “Do you need help with anything?”

“No. I’m fine.” Parker shook his head. “I was just… I think I got the dates mixed up for something.”

“Dates mixed up for what?”

“Another horseback riding tour,” he answered, his voice sounding flustered. “I have no idea what’s going on with those anyway. No one was booking them, and now, suddenly everyone wants one.”

“Are you going to be able to accommodate the tour?”

“Oh. No. It’s not like that,” he clarified. “I thought they wanted to go today, but they actually wanted to go tomorrow. Which is fine. The only thing that needs to happen now is that I need to fix the paperwork for the calendar, so it doesn’t show we went on rides back to back—”

“What if you went on another ride instead?” I suggested. “Wouldn’t that make the paperwork easier?”

“But there aren’t any rides scheduled for today.”

“Sure, but… you and I could still go on one, couldn’t we?” I asked. “You’ve already blocked out the time for it, right?”

“Yeah. I guess we could.” Parker frowned at the suggestion. “But is that something you really want to do? You didn’t seem too ecstatic about the horses yesterday—”

“I think it’d be good, for the both of us. Plus, I was getting used to the horses, remember? I even liked it, near the end.”

“Fine.” Parker blew out a heavy breath. “You’re right. It would be a lot easier to just go on the horseback ride than try to reconfigure the right documents. And the horses would probably appreciate an extra ride, too. And the extra treats.”

“Then, let’s go.” I offered Parker a smile.

And he returned the expression, even though it was somewhat faded on his features.

I like it here.

I stared over at the snowy mountains as Parker and I made our way down the same trail as before. Park City was a beautiful place, and the longer I stayed, the more its beauty seemed to be revealed to me, at every turn. It was often so quiet here too, the complete opposite of my time spent in big cities, places where I felt like I never had enough silence to even think properly through my own thoughts.

A place like this could really grow on me.

I looked over at