“That’s me, sweetheart.Come on in out of that cold.”
“Thank you so much for having me.”
“The pleasure is mine!Especially, when you’re carrying all of those cookies—that snickerdoodle might as well have my name on it.”
“Wecouldset these down in the kitchen and share them,orwe could hide them in your closet and eat them ourselves.”
She threw her head back and laughed.“Tempting, but I get hangovers from too much sugar these days.I wouldn’t be able to move tomorrow.”
“I guess we’ll have to share them then.”
“Not that snickerdoodle, though.”
“Nope.That one’s yours.”
She led me through the hallway lined in family photos that all looked about ten years old.As we neared the kitchen the voices grew louder.
Taking the tray from me, Ginny called over the noise, “Ladies, this is Alicia.”
I spotted Deb Creger and Mrs.Simons from the library right away, as well as Nora.But she seemed to be the only other woman our age there.Everyone else was closer to my parents’ ages.
Waving a hand, I returned the group’s greeting.“Hello!I’ve been warned that you are ruthless euchre players, but I promise to hold my own.”
“We’ll go easy on you if you tell us about Remi,” a woman with thick black eyeliner yelled.
I’d been expecting a comment, especially after he’d warned me, but I hadn’t expected it so soon in the night—or so publicly.All of the blood rushed to my face, and I struggled to keep my smile while wishing my complexion didn’t go bright red when I was embarrassed.
You cannot fail tonight, I coached myself.But a charming, lighthearted response was not coming.Instead all I could think was,He dicked me down real good last night.
I glanced back at Nora, not sure if she knew anything about me and Remi.We weren’t exactly going anywhere together.Were we public?Or was this a secret fling between me and, let’s face it, the love of my life?
“Why haven’t you ever offered that to me, Trish?”Nora joked.“I know Rem, I’ll spill to win a hand here or there.”
I didn’t know what deity I invoked to bless Nora and any of her potential offsprings, but I hoped they heard me.As far as I was concerned, she was St.Nora of Grand Ridge, patron saint of havin’ a bitch’s back.
The playing began, Nora and I were teamed up and the first to be eliminated.The whole game took half as long as any game I’d ever played before.It was brutal.I would not be telling Remi that he had been right.
We grabbed plates of snacks and sat on the sofa to watch everyone else.
“Is it always like this for you?”I asked.
She paused with a chocolate chip cookie halfway to her mouth.“Oh yeah, I’ve never made it to a second round.But while my grandma is out of town I come so I can pass on all of thenews.”
I snorted.“How is Stella?”I asked, recalling her name from last weekend.
“She’s ...a lot, but she’s great.She’ll be home sometime in April, so you’ll probably meet her.”
My stomach dropped.“It’s kinda looking like I don’t have that long.”
A line pressed between her eyebrows.“What do you mean?”
There was no reason for me to hide how poorly everything was going, and some urgency might help undecided people take action.After I’d finished telling her everything, Nora stared into space for a few seconds.I picked up snippets of conversations around us, my brain not processing any of them.
“How many more signatures do you need to get an emergency vote?”she asked.
“Maybe a hundred, which in terms of signatures isn’t a lot but ...”
“There aren’t a ton of residents,” she completed my thought.“You have the petition with you now?”
