Page 33 of Anywhere with You

I made bacon and eggs for breakfast, my specialty. Cara ate two helpings and told me that I was beautiful.

She insisted on helping clean up, even though I cooked. I let her dry the dishes as I finished washing them, then put a dollop of bubbles on her nose, which somehow evolved into foreplay.

Cara had just said, “We should walk to the springs before it gets too hot,” when my phone rang.

“Now, I don’t want you to worry. Everything is fine,” Mom said, which is probably the least comforting thing anyone had ever said to me.

“What is going on?” I asked, moving away from Cara, who looked concerned at the sound of my voice.

Suddenly, every sound and movement in the house was too distracting. I went outside.

Mom went on with her forced-calm voice, “Badger had a little seizure. He—”

“A little seizure! What is a little seizure?” I closed the door and sat on the nearest rock.

“It’s okay, Honey. We’re at the vet now, and they’re doing a full workup. I wasn’t even sure if I should tell you until we had the results because it just happened once, and Badger is doing just fine now.”

Her voice didn’t waver from its calmness, and that somehow made me angrier. “Obviously, he is not fine. What did they say? What could’ve happened? Did he get hurt? Did he hit his head?”

“No. He was with me in the garden all morning. I checked him for ticks, for bites, anything I could think of. Some dogs just have seizures, so there may not be a cause, but if there is, Dr. Bob will find it.”

I stood there, berating myself for trusting my beloved Badger to the care of someone named Dr. Bob, and more than that, for leaving. What if Badger was really sick? What if he needed me, and I wasn’t there? God, what if he died?

I took a breath and held it. I wanted to scream at Mom, but I’d spent my teen years doing that, and I’d promised us both that I was done behaving like a child.

And even while my heart was racing and my stomach turning, I knew that she wouldn’t let Badger come to harm any more than she would me, if she had the power to stop it.

“Honey?” Mom asked. “Do you want to stay on the phone, or do you want me to call you when there’s news?”

I didn’t know. What I wanted was to be there, to be the one demanding answers from the vet, to be holding Badger. I imagined him there, shaking with a seizure, not knowing what was happening.

“Honey? I…oh wait, here he is now.” Mom spoke to the vet, and then I heard the noise increase as she switched to speakerphone.

“Go ahead,” she told him.

“Hello, Ms. Singh. Badger is doing well now. His toxicology labs came back with one alarming sign, which is good, actually. It means there’s no serious injury. Badger just needs to stay away from onions.”

“Onions?” I asked, while Mom gasped.

“Onions! Oh my Lord, he was digging in last year’s onion bed. I didn’t even realize. Oh, Honey, I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

Dr. Bob went on, “It’s nothing you could’ve known to look out for.

Not a lot of dogs will ingest onions on purpose.

Certainly not raw. And most will have only a slight stomach upset, if anything.

Badger just seems to be particularly sensitive to the chemicals in onions, and particularly attracted to them.

It’s unfortunate, but it’s the way it goes sometimes. ”

“But he’ll be okay?” Mom asked, sounding teary.

“He’s just fine. You can take him home now. Just make sure he gets plenty of water, and keep him inside as much as you can.”

There was another shift in the sound levels as Mom turned off speakerphone.

“Honey,” she said.

“It’s okay, Mom. You heard him. There is no way you could’ve known that Badger has a self-destructive love of onions.”

I was half laughing, half crying.

Mom must have held the phone close to Badger. I could hear his happy panting breaths.

“I love you, you little jerk,” I told him.

When I went back inside, Cara was waiting, still and wide-eyed.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak you out,” I said. “My dog had a seizure.”

Cara put both hands over her mouth. “Badger? Is he okay?”

I smiled and let out a breath that I felt all throughout my body. “Yeah. He’s fine.”

* * *

We got a later start back to the hot springs than we’d planned, but we hurried into our still damp swimsuits and left the house by nine a.m. Cara had even found a portable patio umbrella stand and bright pink umbrella, so we could have some shade.

It had a strap, so I slung it over my shoulder for the walk down the trail.

Halfway there, I took her hand.

“You can go, if you need to,” she said after a while.

“Go where?”

“Home. If you want to take Lane’s boss’s offer and fly home on that rickety airline or whatever.” She shrugged. “I’d understand.”

“Very tempting,” I said with a laugh. “But no. All I want is more days here with you.”

I tried to feel as sincere as I sounded. I did want to get home to see Badger. I ached to see his ugly little face for myself and know he was okay.

But there was also a lot that I had to do when I got home, and if I could just have a few more days, a few more days of not opening the letter on my desk, a few more days of ignoring my problems before I became a divorcee and a failed business owner. And probably homeless.

But for the first time, the thought didn’t entirely overwhelm me. Cara had been right about how different the world seemed, how much bigger, after this trip. Or I guess, this half of a trip.

If I had to, I could find another path for myself. There were plenty of them in the world, just waiting.

For a moment, I let myself imagine them. I could go back to school and study something new. I could sell whatever I had left and travel until my money was gone. I could look for jobs overseas.

It was easy, even in a place as huge as Houston, to let the world shrink down to the places you’d already been, the people you’d already met. But there was more out there. So much more.

Our trail ended at the quiet clearing, the only sound the wind, the surface of the water emitting its familiar mineral scent.

“God, it’s lovely here,” Cara said, and all my muscles began to relax. Sometimes you needed someone to remind you, someone like Mary Oliver to say Stop and see .

Cara immediately wiggled out of her shorts and T-shirt and sandals and put her feet in the water. I watched her, enjoying every expression, every soft, happy sound.

She slid down fully into the water.

“Did you see the projector in the living room?” I asked. “We should watch a movie later. I bet there’s popcorn in the pantry.”

“Mmm,” Cara said, sinking down to her chin.

“It’s hard to have a conversation with you when you’re this relaxed,” I mock complained.

“Mmm, partly your fault,” she muttered, eyes closed.

I grinned and went to set up the umbrella.

We spent an hour floating, soaking, moving in and out of the umbrella’s shade. I didn’t want to rush her or to assume, but when she finally reached out to pull me to her, I was giddy. I bit her earlobe, her neck, her shoulder, licking the hot water off her skin.

Cara reciprocated. Soon, we were both hungry and panting, hands and mouths desperate.

“Wait,” I gasped, tugging at the clasp on the back of my swimsuit.

“I can’t. I have no patience when it comes to you,” Cara said.

She pushed me onto the lip of the pool, shoving aside clothes and licking my breasts, my nipples, and when she lowered her head between my legs, I was gone in an instant, not holding back the near scream that emerged as my body shook under the hot desert sun.