Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,3

Mr. Right. Still, just the thought of spending another day with her like the one they had in Santa Fe was enough to help him stave off thoughts of what he knew would happen eventually.

“Actually,” she said, sounding very mysterious, “you’re really going to think this one is crazy.”

“Try me.”

“Well, there’s this castle in Colorado.”

“Oy,” he let out a surprised sound, “okay?”

“But it’s not really that far away. It’s only like five hours, like Santa Fe really.”

“Uh-huh,” he said.

“And I can drive part of this one,” she said quickly. “I promise you won’t have to drive the whole thing.”

“And this is a castle?” he asked, not knowing there could be such a thing that close.

“Well, kind of. It’s this guy, and he uses the stone on his land to build this structure...”

“A castle?”

“Yes and no. It is, but it’s not really full walls or anything. But it’s got turrets and a fire-breathing dragon. Actually, you can look it up. It’s called Bishop Castle. I think the guy’s name is Bishop, and he’s built the whole thing by hand. Apparently you can climb through it and see the rooms. They’ve even had weddings in the grand hall, so it’s not some little, dinky thing.”

“Hmm.” Greg retrieved his laptop from the desk, got it settled, and typed it in. When it came up, he absorbed what he saw. “Wow. That’s crazy.”

“I know. Weird, huh? Yeah, you probably don’t….”

“Well,” he said, scratching at the stubble on his jaw as he scrolled through mostly words on the site, “I’m working tomorrow and Saturday, but I could probably swing it on Monday or Tuesday.”

That stopped her. “Are you serious?”

“Hey, I braved the Meow Wolf thing, a castle in the middle of nowhere can’t be any crazier than that.”

Greg was still thinking about the castle in the middle of nowhere Colorado when he got to work on Friday. He’d also been thinking about the possibility of applying for the radiology tech position. Maybe it shouldn’t have been such a monumental decision. After all, it was what he had applied to do to start with, but now that he was here, living the idea of working and going to school, the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears it might take to actually do it was a very different story.

“Wow,” he said when he got to the radiology lab with a patient from the ER only to find three others ahead of his. “What, is there a full moon or something?”

Barry snorted. “I’m just hoping we don’t get slammed tomorrow, and this next week’s going to be a bear. Ray’s last day is Monday. God help us all.”

Leaning on the door frame because he couldn’t even get himself and the patient into the little anterior room outside of radiology, Greg crossed his arms. “They got anybody lined up?”

“Viv says they’re trying to recruit, but sounds like it’s pretty slim pickin’s.”

A slow nod, and Greg moved aside for one of the other transports to go past with a woman in a wheelchair. Carefully, Greg followed Barry all the way into the room and found they were still fourth in line.

“Okay, this is going to get way old,” Barry said, and Greg knew his coworker’s penchant for always being on the move. Barry pulled out his phone and shook his head. “ER again.” Still shaking his head, he looked up to the IN-USE light above the radiology room. “This is going to be a long day.”

Without much confidence in his quasi-decision, Greg went in the opposite direction of the cafeteria for lunch. He could always pick up some crackers or something from the gift shop later. In the HR department, he went up to the reception desk and asked to speak with someone in hiring. The woman nodded and made a call as Greg looked at his watch. He only had 26 of his 30 minutes left.

“Mr. Everett?” a woman said as she came out of her office to the side.

Straightening, he shook her hand. “Yes.”

“Please, come in.”

All week Taylor had been putting off going to see Lily, but when Lily texted on Friday to see what Taylor was up to, Taylor jumped at the chance to get out of the house. Once at Lily’s, they had tea and then went upstairs to talk and paint. It took nearly an hour before Lily brought up anything close to earth-shaking.

“You know, I hope you don’t mind,” Lily said as she stood at her easel. She was working on a day-scape that