Free Pet Friendly by Sue Pethick

were going to spend the night someplace around here and try again tomorrow. Now, though, I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”
    â€œWhy don’t you stay with us?” she said. “My treat.”
    Todd glanced back at the inn.
    â€œI thought you didn’t allow pets.”
    â€œNot in the hotel, but if you find him, Archie can stay with me. I live in the old cottage out back.”
    â€œI remember that cottage!” Todd said. “It was always crammed full of old junk.”
    Emma laughed. “Yeah, well, I cleaned it out. Now it’s crammed full of new junk.”

CHAPTER 8
    E mma kept stealing glances at Todd while she drove to the rest stop. It was hard to believe she’d just been thinking about him and now there he was in the flesh. Of course, it wasn’t as if he’d come there to see her, but after the way things between them had ended, she never imagined she’d see him again.
    It had been thirteen years, she thought. Thirteen long years since they’d seen each other. A lot had happened since then.
    Emma had still been living with her mother back then, moving from place to place, changing schools twice or three times a year, and spending her summers working at the inn and trying to piece together enough of what she’d gleaned in the classroom to keep from being held back the next school year. She’d eventually graduated, gone to college, and been in and out of some bad relationships, but on the outside, she really hadn’t changed all that much. Todd, on the other hand, looked like a completely different person.
    He’d been a skinny teenager with thick glasses back then, a shy boy who’d struggled to keep up with her as they roamed the backwoods, climbing trees and jumping streams. Now Todd was a head taller, the glasses were gone, and she could tell there was muscle under the old sweatshirt he was wearing. As Emma watched him from the corner of her eye, she wondered if his memories of her were as fond as the ones she had of him.
    â€œI still can’t believe you own the old inn,” he said.
    â€œYeah, there’d been some hints over the years, but I never thought Gran was serious about leaving it to me. It felt like winning the lottery.”
    â€œWhen I saw it from the trail, it was as if I’d just left. The outside looks exactly the way I remembered it.”
    â€œThere have been a few changes,” she said, “but you’re right. The building is pretty much the same as when your family was here last.”
    He cleared his throat, looking shamefaced.
    â€œI’m sorry you never heard from me. Things got pretty hairy after my dad died. He didn’t believe in life insurance and we didn’t have much in savings. I pretty much became the man of the house.”
    â€œForget about it.” She glanced at him. “It was a long time ago.”
    â€œIt wasn’t really my choice,” he added hastily. “I wanted to write, but my mother wouldn’t let me.”
    Emma smirked. If there was one thing she’d learned from her Gran, it was that you don’t blame others for your bad behavior.
    â€œWhat did she do? Lock up all the pens and paper?”
    She’d said it without thinking and it surprised her to hear how much venom there was in her voice.
    â€œNo, but she asked me not to,” he said. “What else could I do?”
    â€œOh, I don’t know. What does the man of the house usually do?”
    Todd’s face clouded. “I said I was sorry.”
    â€œI know.” Emma softened. “I guess I was just a little more upset about it than I thought. Apology accepted.”
    There followed a few minutes of uncomfortable silence. Emma felt sorry for giving Todd a hard time, but it wasn’t as if her life had been any easier back then. Had it never occurred to him that sharing their experiences might have helped them both? Still, she thought, it wasn’t her place