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filled the mug, Dr. West’s voice came to mind. “Go easy on the caffeine,” she’d said.
    My shoulders slumped and I whimpered.
    “Everything OK in there?” Nathan called.
    “Yeah.”
    Damn it.
    I put Warren’s cup back and got my regular mug. I fought back bitterness as I poured it half-empty. I shut off the coffee maker and went back to the living room. “You ready to go?” I asked, taking a tiny sip of my drink.
    Nathan looked over his shoulder. “Can we wait till a commercial?”
    I giggled. “Sure.” Stepping over his legs, I plopped down beside him. I eyed the bowl he was holding. “Where did you find Lucky Charms cereal?”
    He offered me a rainbow marshmallow. “Brought it from home. I thought you’d have milk. I’m not sure why.”
    “Sorry,” I said, taking the rainbow from his fingers.
    He pointed at the screen. “You just missed the new Snoopy and Woodstock balloon.”
    I turned toward him. “It’s like I’ve never met you before.”
    Laughing again, he funneled a handful of cereal into his mouth.  
    When the program went to a commercial break, Nathan picked up the remote and shut the television off. “Come on. Let’s hurry and get to your dad’s. I don’t want to miss Joan Jett.”
    Before we left the house, I picked up the suitcase I’d packed and left in the foyer the night before.
    He cocked an eyebrow as he eyed it in my hand and opened the front door. “You running away?” he asked, taking it from my hands.
    We walked outside together, and I turned to lock the front door. “I’m crashing at Dad’s tonight. You can pick me up there in the morning.”
    “Really? How come?” he asked.
    I grimaced. “I’m kinda becoming a wuss at being alone. Nightmares and such.”
    A snowflake landed on my cheek. He brushed it away. “You don’t have to be alone.”
    The nerve endings on my cheek tingled from his fingertip. “I know. Thanks.”
    He gestured toward the truck. “Ready?”
    “Yeah.” I paused before walking down the front steps and saluted the ripples in the sky. “Hold down the fort while I’m gone, boys.”
    Nathan looked around. “What the hell?”
    I looked to the sky. “I’m talking to my guardian angels.”
    He laughed. “Are you cracking up on me?”
    I pointed. “There’s an angel right there, or maybe more than one. I’m not sure. They’ve been following me around since we got back from Texas.”
    He looked in the direction of my finger. “I don’t see anything.”
    Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. “Mortal.”
    He sighed and offered me his arm as we headed out into the flurries. “You weird me out sometimes.”
    I gripped his sleeve as we carefully went down the stairs. “I know. I don’t want things to get too boring.”
    My foot slipped on a patch of slush.
    Nathan’s bicep crushed my arm against his chest, while his other arm shot behind my back as my feet flew forward. Wide-eyed and panting, we both stared at each other a moment as I regained my footing.  
    He burst out laughing. “Boring? No one can ever accuse you of being boring!”
    * * *
    We took Nathan’s pickup to my dad’s house on the outskirts of downtown Asheville. The roads were wet and empty as we wound up the mountainside. It was that time of year when Mother Nature was stuck in limbo between the decay of fall and a glistening winter. The oaks and maples were bare, jutting out from the mountains like a dark skeleton of the forest. The thick branches of the hemlocks sagged with the weight of the almost-snow dropping from the gray sky in clumps. Soon, North Carolina would be a winter wonderland, but that day it was just soggy and cold.
    Dad’s stone chimney was pumping out smoke when we pulled in the driveway.  
    Nathan grabbed my arm when I reached for my door handle. “Get out over here on my side so we can avoid any holiday catastrophes, please.”
    I laughed and scooted across the bench seat toward him. He held me steady with both hands as I slid down from the cab.