Frankie stood. “I’ll start a list of my contacts in the industry. We’ll need to build you a website, get you on—”

“Just none of that yet. I am planning some time off after these sketches are published and I’m not sure how long that will be.”

Or where I’m going for that matter.

“Take your time. That’s the point of freelance, right? No pressure? I’ll see you tomorrow.” He winked.

“Thanks for the coffee.”

After Frankie left, I was now basically unemployed and already feeling invigorated by it. I pulled out the sketches I’d finished featuring Troy—or rather number nineteen, because when I sketched this, it wasn’t him on the ice—and considered my changes.

I looked up recent stories on Troy Hartman and indeed, he was injured—and it wasn’t good. He needed weeks of recovery, followed by a month of physical therapy before he’d see the ice again.

In minors.

My heart broke for him and I sincerely hoped he’d come back strong and ready for the big leagues again.

With that, I flipped over my pencil and started to edit the drawing I thought would never see the light of day.

I was nearly done when my phone rang, startling the lights out of me. Looking at the caller ID, I was hesitant to answer when I saw it was out of country.

“Hello?”

“Hi is this Harper Maxwell?”

“Yes.”

“This is Rosemarie from Far Away Retreats, you put in a request for open retreats in the coming weeks?”

“Oh yes, hi. I saw that everything is booked until end of the year, and I asked to be waitlisted for anything that opens.”

“Well, you’re in luck, we had a last minute cancellation for our Soul-Finder retreat.”

“Oh,” I didn’t have a chance to pull up the details on that one, I’d put in for so many of them desperate for a getaway.

“I think this one checks all your boxes, what do you think? I can arrange for a flight this Saturday.”

Two days.

“Oh that’s amazing. Um, it’s last minute but, it’s not like I’m doing anything else. So yes. Count me in.”

“Super. It’s a minimum of eight days, and you can extend your stay if you’d like, and we offer half price for extensions.”

My stomach bubbled. “That sounds perfect. Please send me the details.”

“Sending it right now. Once your deposit clears, we’ll send your itinerary.”

“Thank you so much, I really need this.”

“We look forward to having you.”

27. August

27

One week earlier - (Three days post Harper in his office)

My hands shook over the keyboard of my laptop at Finnigan’s. I ran them over my face again and took a swig of my third glass of ice water.

Fucking numbers were blurry.

Finn approached me. “It’s officially noon, you want a real drink?”