Yeah, I wasn’t touching that because tonight I needed Mom.
I really needed Aubrey Tanner to disappear a second time.
Chapter Nine
Hanna
Marni and Stella thrived on drama. That was the only explanation for dragging me back to the coffee shop this long after closing. I had to get up around four, but they didn’t seem to give a crap about that. Or me.
I didn’t want to see them. I didn’t want to open the door. My inclination was to ignore the panicked text I’d received and curl up in bed, wrapped in a blanket to shut out reality as long as possible.
For all their tough talk, one sign of trouble and they both caved. They’d made an elaborate list of seemingly unnecessary rules years ago, outlining how we should stay away from each other and how we should act if that couldn’t be avoided. The edict? Act like pleasant acquaintances and nothing more. In a town of about ten thousand people that should have been easy, and it mostly had been, but those carefree times ended in that courtroom.
Aubrey’s parting shot from earlier still haunted me.I’ll see you soon, Hanna.
I could hear her voice. Deep and sure with an edge ofgotcha. Adult. Focused. Accusatory. The sound echoed in my head. Buzzed through me at the worst times all day. No amount of business paperwork or cleaning wiped out her mocking.
Customers chatted and gossiped about her. Jeremy theorized. I’d tried to stay blank... and failed miserably.
Aubrey was coming for me, probably for all of us, which was the only reason I waited at the coffee bar after eight with the shop door unlocked and the inside lights set to low. The bell at the entrance would chime when Stella and Marni walked in. Until then I could worry and fight the urge todo somethingeven though I had no idea what thatsomethingwould be.
Marni blew in first. Every time I saw her a vision of her standing in the Tanner house raced through my mind. Fifteen years later and I could still see the blood on her hands.
Tonight, she wore a raincoat buttoned up to her neck. It likely had been new a decade ago. The dull gray color matched her haggard appearance. Not unusual for her. She taught third grade now, and that age was no joke. She waged a daily battle in a classroom filled with kids teetering on the edge between independence and irritability. Marni likely started each day refreshed and put together, then slid rapidly downhill from there.
I wouldn’t go back and do Jeremy’s exhausting early school years over if someone paid me. Of course, I didn’t want to relive the angsty high school years either. Being a really young single mother had sucked. Nothing I did ever felt like enough. Nearing forty and being long out of the diaper-and-parent-meetings stage did not suck one bit.
“Hi.” That’s it. Marni said the word, then slid onto the counter stool next to mine.
She didn’t make eye contact while she snuck a few peeks around the shop. This was one of the few times she’d ventured inside. The other occasions had been in groups where she clearly hadn’t been the one to pick the hangout spot and fidgeted until her party was ready to leave.
She had to be curious about my life. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t. I’d often wondered how Stella and Marni moved on after the inconceivable happened.
We agree none of us should be here, so we aren’t. That’s the deal. Agreed?
Stella’s words. I could hear her and my meek acquiescence from long ago like it just happened. I was older now and I’d like to think stronger, possibly wiser, but was I?
“Is Stella coming?” Marni asked.
How the hell should I know? This wasn’t my show. They called for the meeting, not me. “Sure. I guess.”
Marni finally faced me. “I’m not convinced this is a good idea. Meeting, I mean.”
Of course it wasn’t.
“Agreed.” This was a weird game. I only played along because a fresh cup of coffee surged through me, and I needed to burn that off if I had any hope of sleeping tonight. “It was inevitable we’d get thrown together, though rushing to see each other the same day Aubrey popped up isn’t exactly subtle.”
Marni slumped against the counter. “What are you talking about?”
I replayed my side of the conversation in my head. No, all the words made sense. Marni’s odd expression didn’t.
I tried again, aiming for straightforward because I was too tired to come up with clever comebacks. “We were in the same courtroom, right? Aubrey did a bigta-da. We all froze. It ended and we scattered.”
“Yeah, I know. I mean the meeting.” She put her bag on the counter and undid the buttons on her raincoat. “Tonight.”
Good Lord, this was annoying. “What’s happening right now? Why don’t you just say whatever has you confused?”
A noise at the door interrupted the stilted conversation. Stella slipped inside the café and quickly closed the door behind her, cutting off the warning chime mid-ding. She threw the lock while acting covert and suspect and trapping us all in a space that tightened by the second.
