And friends shared.
“I don’t think breakups are ever easy,” he said, his gaze dropping to the seat in front of us. “I wouldn’t call it messy. But we kept trying when we probably shouldn’t have. Instead of just…making the cut, we tore each other apart. In the end, it was inevitable.”
He was talking—for once—so I didn’t interrupt.
His hand flexed against his thigh. “We met in med school. Got married right after graduation. I went straight into residency, which was…brutal. She didn’t.”
I tilted my head. “What did she do?”
He nodded. “She said two doctors in the family could never work. Decided to stay home and write novels. When that didn’t work out, she went to work for my mom.”
“Does she still?—”
Noah cut off my question with a nod.
“Does that bother you?”
He paused, just for a second. “Courtney needed the job. And she and my mom are close.” He shrugged like it was no big deal, like it wasn’t messy.
Even though it felt messy to me—keeping that kind of arrangement in place, shoving his feelings aside.
Maybe he was used to that.
Honestly, the whole situation sounded like a minefield.
But he seemed…fine.
Which was weird, right? Was anyone ever really fine after a divorce?
Would I feel this way about my breakup a year from now?
We both fell silent, and I realized that Babs and Mrs. Grady, who had not stopped talking since breakfast, were suddenly very, very quiet.
Suspiciously quiet.
I tilted forward, half-expecting to find Babs grinning at us like we were her own personal project. But instead, I met Christine Grady’s stare.
A flicker of distaste passed over her face—a scowl? A glare?
She didn’t look unkind. Just…wary.
But I immediately remembered what Noah had said—that his ex-wife still worked for his mom. That they were close.
Ah.
Maybe that explained it. Or maybe I’d imagined it entirely.
I’d been told more than once that I tended to read too much into things. To see things that weren’t really there.
Not that I had much time to dwell on it.
“Oh my God! Look!”
The shout came from somewhere near the front of the bus, and every single head whipped toward the windows.
I turned instinctively, scanning the landscape. Pine trees. More pine trees. A stretch of open meadow. More pine trees…
I maybe, just maybe, saw something big moving beyond the tree line, but before I could make out any details, we’d already flown past it.
