Chapter One
Nora
If your life is going to fall apart over a man, he should be hotter.
Like your husband?
The swift comeback from Nora’s subconscious made her grimace as she stood in front of her neighbor’s hospital room door, flowers clutched tightly in her hand.
Her life hadn’t fallen apart. She and Ben were just separated.
She stared at the whiteboard by the door.Alexandra Stone.
Alexandra was the most organized, pulled-together, formidable woman in Hemlock, Oregon. She and Christopher were a power couple. Though Nora had always thought Christopher was getting the better end of the deal.
Nora lived across the street from Alexandra and Christopher, and Nora worked with her on community art and writing classes for kids in foster care, but when Christopher’s affair had come out, Alexandra, who spearheaded more committees than Nora could readily list, had quit everything.
She’d started staying out late. Going to the casino two hours up the freeway and gambling. Drinking. She’d been unraveling.
And two days ago she’d gotten in a car crash on her way home from the casino, and now she was hovering between life and death.
All because she’d been betrayed by a man with the round, smooth face of a gallon milk jug. A man who was essentially a pair of sentient khakis wandering around the car lot he owned like it was a kingdom, and he its very king.
That’s not me.
Nora blew out a breath.
“For God’s sake, Nora,” she muttered as she raised her hand to knock on the door.
Which then opened before her hand could make contact.
“Nora!”
Her fist was hovering right above Daisy McNamara’s face. She lowered her hand quickly. “Hi.”
“I was just dropping off a bouquet.”
She looked behind Daisy and saw a gorgeous array of flowers that made her own look a little sad.
“Same.” She lifted her vase slightly.
Daisy was dressed all in green, from her green skirt to her green cardigan, and green, thick-rimmed glasses.
“Come in,” Daisy said. “Not that I’m ... Madison stepped out for a vape break.”
Madison was Alexandra’s adult daughter.
“Ah. Vaping. The deeply less cool way to compromise your lungs.” Nora stepped into the hospital room and looked around.
“Our cigarette era was much cooler,” Daisy said.
She and Daisy had been friends in high school but had lost touch in that way you did. She didn’t avoid Daisy in the produce aisle. Whenever she and Daisy ran into each other, they would talk for fifteen minutes, at least, and promise to do something sometime, which never happened because they were both busy, and that was fine.
She meant it when she told Daisy they should have lunch. She was sure Daisy meant it too. It had just never occurred.
It wasn’t like Daisy had stolen Nora’s boyfriend or worn the same dress to prom or spit in her iced coffee. There hadn’t been a dramaticfriendship breakup. Their friendship had been a victim of the relentless continuation of space and time that carried them away from the people they’d been in high school. They’d gone to different colleges and done life on different timelines. Daisy and her husband, Jonathan, had gotten married very quickly after school and had started having kids.
Nora was mildly embarrassed that she didn’t know the name of Daisy’s third kid. The first one was Avery. The second one was Wren.
