While exploring his parents’ home, the guys had discovered Noah’s dad’s collection of bourbon. To me, bourbon was up there with most types of hard alcohol—things I’d rather not drink. The guys? Well, it was like Christmas morning for kids. They’d been rather enthusiastic when they’d seen bourbon bottles with little horse stoppers and ones that were named after someone in the military—a general? Colonel? Whatever it was, they’d descended on it like folks in the desert at a watering hole and, as a result, had polished off more than a bottle or two. Thankfully, the Highland Falls crew had either crashed at Noah’s parents’ place or had a designated driver to head backdown in the evening, so everyone was able to raise a glass without worry.
Before Mary and Fred retired to their own home for the evening, Mary left pizza for the remaining folks celebrating, likely hoping the crust would help soak up the liquor.
While my downfall hadn’t been bourbon, I had fallen victim to Ivy’s newfound love of peach sangria. She’d given Mary the recipe, and the woman had whipped up a batch for Ivy, Kate, and me to have with our pizza since none of us were leaving that night. It was delish and went down far too easy. Mental note, I was absolutely giving this beverage to Collette in my new book. I just knew she’d be a fan.
At any rate, Ivy, Kate, and I had all disappeared upstairs with Addie at her bedtime. It had been a long day, and I’d been falling asleep while sitting up. Noah, Jake, and Drew had been still going strong. Turned out the speaker someone had brought out earlier was Drew’s, and they were taking turns picking favorite artists and then listening to an album while they debated the best song from each.
We’d woken to a fabulous breakfast spread prepared by Mary. Everyone else had hit the road before us as we’d gone over some final to-dos with Mary regarding the estate and plans to wrap it up. While Noah’s parents had left each staff member a year’s salary, Mary was still a paid employee while she functioned in Noah’s absence for all the final estate items. Barry had drawn up some agreement that allowed that to happen—she was essentially Noah’s go-between so he could escape the toxicity that was his childhood home until the estate was closed.
We’d left her and Fred a couple of hours ago with hugs and promises to see each other soon. Her goodbye to Noah was teary, and once again, I thanked the higher power that put her in his life.
I looked out the car windows, and while we were on a divided highway, the traffic was light and there was nothing around as far as I could see. “Where are we?” I asked, mentally shaking off Julian and Collette’s misunderstanding on the pages of my novel.
“Just north of Bloomington-Normal. We’ve got just over an hour left,” Noah said, keeping his eyes on the road.
I rubbed a hand over my face, still struggling with feeling like I’d fallen down on the job. What kind of company was I? I’d disappeared into my book rather than remembering that the man had buried his parents yesterday. And yes, they had a horrible relationship, but I absolutely believed the past week had left its mark.
Better to address it than leave it as an unsaid, right? That’s why my characters were struggling in my book, and we didn’t need to suffer the same fate.
Communicate, Jules.
I sucked it up and voiced my feelings. “I’m sorry. I have been a terrible road-trip companion. Do you want me to drive? To run the tunes?”
Noah shot me a smile that made me think all was right with the world and I was, as per usual, overreacting. Comes with the territory of living in your head.
“Tunes?” he said, the word laced with amusement.
“Um, that’s a word people use, right?”
His grin grew. “Yes, it is a word people use. It just sounded adorable coming from you.”
“Phew.” I sat back in my seat, wondering when we’d see signs of the city. “Sometimes when I’m writing, I type something I think is a word and the program underlines it that it’s misspelled. Then I go online to try to figure it out, and turns out, I’ve had it wrong my whole life. It can really mess with your head.”
Noah chuckled. “Yep, adorable.” He paused, turning the music down so that we could comfortably talk over it. “And I enjoy driving—it’s almost meditative, so don’t give it another thought. If anything, I’m glad you got some writing done.” He glanced my way. “Do you need to stop? Food? Coffee? Restroom?”
“I won’t say no to coffee.” Frankly, I was a fan of more caffeine at any time. “And if it’s okay, let’s go in to get it. Stretching my legs for a minute would be great.”
Noah glanced at the GPS before answering. “We’re about ten minutes from the north side of Normal. I think there’s a Starbucks over there. That work?”
I nodded, wondering again if I was doing enough. I couldn’t imagine losing my parents, much less both, but how did you balance that with having gone essentially no-contact with them for most of the past eight years?
“So.” Noah caught my attention and took me to a completely different topic. “Did I see your aunt Lou acting out her experience on stage from Sunday night? We never really talked about that what with everything that happened.”
I groaned, slinking down in my seat. “Oh my God, let’s never speak about it again. I’m working to try to get the image out of my mind.”
“It might take hypnosis.”
“You think you’re funny, but I’d consider it.”
Flashes of Lou gyrating on some man while he held her up and Verdell laughed were at the forefront of my brain. Jesus. I mean, objectively I could look at it and think mental high five to Lou for being as free as she was, hopping up on that stage and having fun with it, age be damned. And I would agree with that sentimentif I hadn’t had to see it.That was the tricky part—the vision was burned into my retinas.
Looking at Noah, I saw he was absolutely holding back some laughter. “Imagine Mary on that stage,” I said, deciding he might need a taste of his own medicine.
“Eww,” he replied as he gave me a horrified look.
“Exactly. Be grateful Mary and Fred live up here, because if they were in Highland Falls, I’m sure Lou would have the two of them over for cards and then sweep them into her crew.”
“God no. We’d never have any peace.” He glanced my way. “Maggie said she has video of the night—other than Lou—if you wanted to catch up on what you missed.”
