Honestly, I don’t know why I’d told Jade. Just… she’d seemed so vulnerable, so nervous about admitting she didn’t feel up to the event, and I felt like my heart reached out for her. She trusted me enough to tell me she wasn’t planning to stay here, so I guess it just felt right.
But, most importantly, I’d moved one step forwards. Daniela and Jade were talking. We’d all made multiple trips to haul in Daniela’s big food spread and Cat’s massive trove of dessert, and even though Daniela had been nervous and guarded at first when she saw Jade here, she was starting to relax a little by the time we got inside and Daniela and I got drinks. Jade leaned back against the wall next to the bar while Daniela took her bubbly magenta drink with berries on top and sipped it, giving her a more genuine smile than she had in the parking lot.
“So, how’s the thawing been?” she said, and Jade snorted, shaking her head.
“Fun as it is every year. I’m just glad I can survive without wearing five layers.”
“The thawing?” I said, and Jade nodded.
“Spring is a big deal in the mountains. The peaks have snow for a long time, and it melts slowly, so streams are all running high… and the freeze-thaw cycle does a lot of damage to trees, roads, infrastructure.”
“Oh, wow.”
Daniela elbowed me playfully. “Not the big city anymore.”
“But you’re liking it here?” Jade said, and I shrugged.
“It’s beautiful. But I’m not a good judge! I only just got here. I like the flowers, though,” I said, and that got a laugh from both of them.
“We went on a hike yesterday,” Daniela said, and Jade got a gleam in her eyes.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “She sent me a picture of every blue flower in Vermont.”
I laughed, my face warm, and I hid a little in my drink. “I wasn’t that bad!”
“She was that bad,” Daniela said. “Have you had any time for hiking lately, Jade?”
“Ah… not a lot. Working overtime and trying to stay on top of orders.”
“Oh, candle business is booming.”
I sipped my drink, standing to the side a little disengaged as the two of them settled into a rhythm talking. I guess… I’d done what I wanted here, getting the two of them talking a bit, but it left me unmoored now, a bit of an outsider in the conversation, nothing to occupy my thoughts and keep me away from the spiral I’d been in this morning. I sipped my drink and, when I felt the memories of the text messages pressing in like a hot brand against my mind, I flashed a smile.
“I’m just going to grab some snacks real quick,” I said, and I ducked away to the back, where I stood suddenly paralyzed at the dessert table. I didn’t know how it hit me so suddenly, but it went from zero to a hundred, and I locked up, clutching my drink and struggling to breathe.
He was going to track down my address, wasn’t he? He clearly felt entitled to know where I’d gone. I didn’t know how, but he’d be able to find me. Was I putting Daniela in the line of fire? What would he even do?
“Hey, blue-eyes,” a voice said from next to me, and I jumped, sloshing my drink over the sides of the glass, as the lock on my mind broke. “Oh—god—sorry.” Abby’s voice. She was next to me, grabbing a couple napkins off the table, and she helped dab up the spilled drink. “You okay?” she laughed.
“Jesus, I’m so sorry,” I laughed, the sound nervous and high-pitched. “I zoned out so hard. Hey, Abby.”
“No problem. Sorry for spooking you,” she said, wiping the spilled drink off my hand and tossing the napkins in the trash, handing me a clean one. I took it and finished drying my hand, my heartrate coming back down to normal.
“Well… be glad I was holding my drink in both hands,” I said. “I’ve been known to slap people when I’m scared.”
She grinned. “I heard about that. That big cut on Jade’s cheek?”
“I feel so bad.”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” she said, dropping her voice. “She’s been a bit of a jerk lately.”
My stomach twisted up in a tight knot, and I clutched the drink close to myself. “I don’t think she’s a jerk at all.”
She softened into an apologetic smile. “I don’t mean to shoot her down if you’re friends with her and all that. There’s just been a lot of stuff lately.”
“I heard about it, I just… don’t think Jade’s done anything wrong. She’s not mad or anything, she’s just closed off, feeling solitary.” I didn’t know why I was running my mouth. Why was my filter always the first thing to go when I got stressed?
She frowned. “Well, she told off Charlie and insulted her relationship, for one.”
