“If you make me coffee, I may just forgive you by Christmas, and as that’s still a good few months away, you have some work to do.”
Branna found herself smiling as Annabelle Smith appeared in her doorway. Unlike yesterday, she was dressed casually today as a concession to the heat; she wore a floaty pale pink tank top and white shorts that showed off the endless length of her long legs, teamed with white sandals and her toes painted to match her top. She could have stepped out of any fashion magazine. Over her shoulder was slung a buttery colored bag.
“You still got that color thing happening, I see, Smith,” Branna climbed off the sofa.
“Always will have, and don’t change the subject.” Annabelle walked into the house carrying a brown bag from which delicious smells were coming.
“Coffee, now!”
“I’ve got a head injury,” Branna complained as she walked to the kitchen. “Be gentle.”
“You play another trick like that, and it’ll be more than a head injury you end up with.”
Branna struggled one-handed to put the coffee on, then took a deep breath before facing her old friend.
“I’m sorry, Belle, really sorry. It was never my intention to hurt anyone. I just needed to get out of there. You know how I am in those kinds of places and the reasons why.”
“You’re not fifteen anymore.”
“I know it,” Branna sighed. “But I’m no better for the years that have passed. In fact, I’m probably worse.”
“Worse how?”
Belle started getting cups and rinsing them out, as they hadn’t been used in some time. She then foraged through the supplies Branna had brought with her.
Branna leaned on a cabinet and watched while she tried to think about what to say. She wasn’t big on confidence sharing; she wasn’t big on friends either, for that matter. In fact, Georgie and this woman were probably the only true friends she’d had since her mother’s death, and Belle knew pretty much everything there was to know about her. Over the three years they had been friends, Branna had unloaded her fears, her angers, and everything else that was personal to her onto her shoulders, and Belle had simply listened and not judged, then offered the one thing Branna had needed, friendship.
“Come on, Bran, spill. You know I’ll get it all out of you anyway.”
She laughed, and it felt good. Branna could feel the comfort of what they’d once had again, the teasing and companionship that had always been there for them.
“Going to Washington was what I wanted when I left here. WSU offered me anonymity, a place to be a face but nothing more. I worked hard and passed with flying colors, but I never formed any connections like I did here with you, Georgie, and Dan, and over time it was just easier to be that way. I guess when I walked out of the clinic, I did so without thinking about you or Dr. McBride, because that was what I’ve always done. I’m not good about thinking of anyone else but me,” Branna said honestly.
Belle added the milk. “It bothered me that you were going to WSU two years younger than everyone else and with all those issues you always had.”
“Two years was a lot at that age,” Branna conceded. She’d skipped grades because of her intelligence, which had done more to hinder her than help.
“And there was me thinking that you’d be partying in Washington, making friends, and doing the wild thing,” Belle said.
Branna took the cup she was handed and followed Belle back to the living room. She took Dan’s chair, so Branna took Georgie’s, which was now hers. Belle put the bag of delicious smells on the small table between them.
“Did you get these from Buster? Because he picked me up this morning and gave me a muffin that tasted like ambrosia.”
“No other place like it. That man can bake.”
Branna bit into the muffin and made a small appreciative noise. “So, why has Howling’s most adored son turned into the ice man, Belle?”
“Ha, ask me about the national deficit; it’d be easier than trying to understand Jake McBride.”
“Yes, I noticed how surly he’s become.”
“You two should get on fine now. He avoids people too.” Belle swallowed a mouthful of coffee and sighed. “Jake trained as a doctor, then went into the US Medical Corps, and I know he was in Iraq because I work with his mother and she was scared the entire time he was there. Then, one day a year ago, he came home and started fixing everyone’s cars, and he’s still doing it, much to Dr. McBride’s confusion.”
“Okay, so that explains the flashlight thing he did with my eyes and the lecture I got this morning about head injuries, but not why a trained doctor is now a mechanic.”
Belle thought about that for a few seconds as she took another bite, and Branna realized that she was happy to be sitting here with her old, maybe still, friend. She was not on edge with Belle; sharing confidences and gossiping wasn’t making her itch like it normally did with anyone else.
“I don’t actually know the details, because Jake keeps his problems pretty close to his chest, and while we’re friends, Buster and that Texan Tomcat are the only ones he talks to. His mom won’t talk about it either, just gets all choked up if you try to. So, I just let it go, but I have to say, it eats the hell out of me not knowing what makes that man tick,” Belle said.
