Chapter Ten: Goodbye For Now

Two more days had come and gone before the roads were clear enough for Randy and Colby to head home. It was almost like a sadness had fallen on the room after Colby had seen the snow plows out on the roads from the window the day before. Neither of them spoke much. They just kept to themselves and thought about their separate drives home.

Randy gave the room another once over to make sure he had everything before grabbing his duffel, throwing it over his shoulder and heading downstairs. He braced himself as he entered the cold, blustery air and toward his truck. He unlocked and opened the door before pitching the duffel bag into the backseat. But as he began to close the door, something poking out between the driver's seat and the center console caught his eye.

His wallet.

Randy smiled for the first time in hours. It was because he thought he lost his wallet that Colby offered for him to stay with her. If it wasn't for him 'losing' his wallet, he would have spent the past five days in a hotel all by himself. It was like meeting Colby was his fate; his destiny.

Randy pocketed the wallet and headed back up to Colby's room.

Colby sat on her bed as she looked around the room, making sure everything was in order for the winter inspection. As her eyes drifted toward the window, an overwhelming sense of hate came over her. She hated the fact that she and Randy were going their separate ways, even if it was only for a couple of days.

She hated that for the majority of the time he was there, she was whining and crying about her boyfriend problems.

She hated that this 'relationship' with Randy probably wouldn't even last past Christmas night. And that was only if he decided to show up.

What made her even begin to consider that this amazing specimen of a man would want to even toy with the possibility of having some type of friendship with a normal, everyday eighteen year old?

"Hey, Colby. I got some good news," Randy said, walking into the room.

She turned to look at him, placing a fake smile on her face. "What's that?"

"I found my wallet. I guess it must've fallen out of my pocket at some point in time."

"So, if you would've looked around for it, you would've stayed at the hotel?"

"Yeah, but I'm glad I didn't," he smiled, sitting beside her. "Where's your car at?"

"My truck is over in Q parking lot."

Randy raised his eyebrows at her. "You drive a truck?"

"Yeah, just a little Ford Ranger, but a truck nonetheless. I never was one for conventional girly cars. That is until I realized that I couldn't haul my friends around in it comfortably."

"I'm sure that doesn't handle worth shit in the snow."

"Not the best, but I've had it since I was sixteen. I'm sure I'll be fine."

'That's not a chance I'm willing to take. You're riding home with me."

"Really?" Colby inquired, cocking an eyebrow. "You going to make me?"

"If I have to," Randy said in all seriousness. "I'll throw you over my shoulder and carry you all the way down there. Do you really want that?"

"You wouldn't dare," she challenged him.

"Yeah, you're right," Randy nodded, picking up her bags. "I'm going to take your stuff down to my truck and then I'll take you to yours."

After a couple of trips up and down the stairs, Colby and Randy were ready to leave.

"So, which way is your truck?" he asked, once they got to the main road.

"Take a left."

"Okay," Randy said, but instead of taking a left, he took a right. "One thing you should know about me by now, Colby, is I always get my way."

Colby just stared at him and shook her head. "You're unbelievable."

"Yeah, I know," he smiled.

Randy pulled into a gas station to fill the truck up and soon they were on their way.

"What's your mom fixing for Christmas dinner?" Randy asked once they were out on the highway.

"Probably enough food for an army. Of course, anything will be better than those subs we've been eating."

"Yeah, no shit. I can't remember the last time I had a home cooked meal," Randy said, dreamily.

"Well, you're in for a treat. My mom is one of the best cooks in town. That might not mean much considering we only have about five hundred people, but one of the best nonetheless."

"You're kidding me right? Five hundred people?"

"You bet. We have a grocery store, a gas station and an ice cream parlor. Oh, and we do have an elementary school. One of, if not the best, in the district."

Randy smiled at how Colby's blue gray eyes lit up while she talked about her hometown. "And what is this wonderful place called?"

"Murrayville. It's about two miles south of Woodson that is another big city of about three hundred people."

"Do you guys have a Wal-Mart or anything?"

"Yeah, about ten miles north of us, in Jacksonville."

Randy just nodded but he was kind of tired of listening about the town life. "So, what'd you do in high school?"

"I was in band all four years; marching and symphonic band, so I did have to wear those goofy looking uniforms with the feathers sticking out of the hat," she laughed to herself as she stared out of the window at the tremendous amounts of snow. "And my freshman year, I was on the softball team…"

"I'm guessing that would be where your great aim came into play when you hit me in the face with that snowball," Randy interrupted.

"I guess so. I had played since I was around eight or so and used to be really good. But when I got into high school, the coaches sucked. They made it so it wasn't fun for me anymore. Not to mention the JV coach looked like a brown leather handbag."

Randy looked at her, not sure what she meant by that.

"She tanned too much," Colby clarified. "Seriously, she was like as dark as Gabrielle Union and she would wear this insanely bright silver eyeshadow and lipstick…not that you want to hear about that. Long story short, she was overly fried and dyed," she finished looking from the road ahead of them to Randy's face.

He was shaking his head and chuckling slightly. "You weren't one of those obnoxious gossip queens were you?"

"Oh, hell no! Me and my friends just knew how to have a good time at other peoples' expense," she laughed along with him. "Don't tell me you've never done that."

"Me? Make fun of someone? Never," Randy said, giving her his world famous smirk.

It was a little over an hour before they reached the town of Jacksonville and it was there that Colby showed Randy where she worked when she was home, at the clothing store Goody's. From there, she directed him across town and to the highway which they followed to get to her hometown of Murrayville.

He pulled onto the first street of the small town and pulled into the driveway in which Colby directed him toward. He pulled up to the modest one story house. They both got out of the truck and Randy helped bring her luggage up to the front door. As Colby put the key in the lock and turned the doorknob, Randy heard two deep barks sound from inside the house.

Colby noticed the hesitant expression on Randy's face and smiled. "It's okay, they'll probably just lick you to death nothing more." She opened the door and was immediately mauled by two dogs, but the attention wasn't on her for long once the two canines noticed a new and unusual presence. "Mimi! Betsie! Get down!" Colby yelled pulling the dogs off of Randy who had since been backed into the corner in hopes of shielding himself from the oncoming attack.

She disappeared into the next room with the dogs, allowing Randy to catch his breath. A few seconds later, she came back with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, they're outside now."

"I thought you said they'd lick me to death, not maul me."

"I said probably."

"What kind of dogs are those? I've never seen them before."

"And you'll probably never see anymore like them. We adopted them from the animal shelter in Springfield. Betsie, the big black and white one, was found with the rest of the litter in a bucket in the middle of a field. We think she's part pit bull and cattle dog. Mimi, however, was supposed to be an itty bitty dog, you know, like the ones people carry in their purses and whatnot. Well, obviously that's not the case. She can clear a six foot fence if she wanted to with those legs. We have no clue what the hell she is. And she's ornery as hell, so needless to say she's my dog."

Randy nodded and brushed the dog hair off his hoodie, still recovering from the attack. "Is your family home?"

"I guess not, but don't worry. You'll meet them soon enough."

Randy nodded once again, letting out a long sigh. "I hate to do this, but I should probably head home and make sure John has completely trashed my house."

Colby walked past him and opened the door back up. "All you need to do to get to the interstate is go out onto the road that we turned off of and follow it all the way through town and in about three or four miles you'll run into the interstate."

As Randy turned to walk out the door, he paused and looked back at Colby. "Shouldn't I have your phone number? Just in case something should come up?"

"Sure," Colby replied motioning for him to hand over his phone. She added her number to his phone book and handed it back to him. "Have a safe drive home."

"I will," Randy said before pulling the gray eyed beauty in for a hug. "I'll see you Christmas Eve."

And with that he walked out the door. Colby closed it behind him and walked to the bay window, watching as he climbed into his truck. She felt tears sting the back of her eyes. She had gotten so used to Randy's presence over the last six days, it was almost too much for her to bear. But she had to look on the brighter side. It was only goodbye for now.

Thanks to giftiebee, babyxbxgurl, techwiz, pinkshadow89, Enigmatic Lotus Leaf, jada951 and Recco101 for the reviews for chapter nine.

I know not a lot happened in this chapter but I think I needed to give a little bit more out on Colby's background and I thought that this was a good opportunity to do this.

I can't really promise when I'm going to be able to get another update out. I'm going to start a new job over here tomorrow and on top of that I'm sick and have been since Sunday. But until then, please review and I'll try to update as soon as I can.