But for a moment, Maggie let herself sit in the warmth of the conversation she'd just had. Old friends, long history, the promise of a summer reunion. Life kept moving forward, bringing new joys and new challenges, but some connections remained constant.
The Lunch Bunch. So many years of friendship, still going strong. She smiled and went to see about her new grandbabies.
CHAPTER 17
The New Jersey Turnpike stretched ahead like a gray ribbon of purgatory, and Lauren Phillips was convinced she was going to lose her mind.
Thirty-six hours. That's how long she had been trapped in the Garrison Getaway with her grandmother behind the wheel and her sister in the seat behind her, and if she heard one more opinion about her snack choices, she was going to open the door and roll out onto the highway.
“You're eating those again?” Sarah leaned forward between the front seats, eyeing the bag of cheese puffs in Lauren's lap. “Do you know what's in those things?”
“Deliciousness. That's what's in them.”
“Chemicals. Artificial colors. Enough sodium to preserve a small mammal.”
“And yet, somehow, I'm still alive.” Lauren popped another puff into her mouth with deliberate defiance. “It's a miracle of modern science.”
From the driver's seat, Grandma Sarah's voice cut through their bickering like a knife through butter. “Both of you, hush.I'm trying to concentrate. This truck driver thinks he owns the road.”
Lauren watched as her eighty-year-old grandmother accelerated the RV to pass an eighteen-wheeler, the vehicle swaying slightly as they pulled alongside the massive truck. The driver honked. Grandma Sarah honked back, longer and louder.
“Grandma,” Sarah said from the back, her voice tight, “maybe we shouldn't antagonize the man driving a vehicle that could crush us like a soda can.”
“He started it. Did you see the way he looked at me when we passed him the first time? Like I don't know how to drive.”
“You were going fifty in the left lane,” Lauren pointed out.
“I was being cautious. There was a suspicious puddle.”
“It was a shadow.”
“It looked wet.”
Lauren exchanged a glance with her sister in the rearview mirror. For a brief moment, their mutual exasperation united them. Then Sarah reached forward and plucked a cheese puff from Lauren's bag.
“Hey!”
“Consider it a toll for having to smell those things for the last hundred miles.”
“You have your own snacks. I saw the kale chips.”
Sarah made a face. “Trevor packed those. He thinks road trips are an opportunity for healthy eating.”
“Trevor thinks everything is an opportunity for healthy eating. Remember Christmas? He brought a vegetable tray to Mom's cookie exchange.”
“It was well-received.”
“By whom? The reindeer?”
Grandma Sarah swerved around a minivan that had committed the unforgivable sin of merging too slowly. “Girls, I swear, you two have been at each other's throats since we leftFlorida. What happened to my sweet granddaughters who used to braid each other's hair?”
“Lauren cut my braid off when I was eight,” Sarah said.
“You told Mom I was the one who broke her favorite vase.”
“You were the one who broke it!”
“But you didn't have to tell her. That's what sisters are for. Covering for each other.”
