Simone folded her arms, glancing toward Nova before looking back at Jerome’s SUV parked outside like ithad a reputation. “If I get in that car, I’m sitting in the back and I’m controlling the music.”
“You don’t get to control anything in my vehicle,” Jerome said.
“I absolutely do,” she replied. “Or I will spend the entire drive critiquing your lane choices out loud.”
“That feels hostile, and you better hope D has room for you or you better pull up one of those ride share apps.”
“Well I know who I’m not riding with,” Simone tossed out there as she moved toward the door.
Auntie Rhonda turned to me then, already moving the pieces before anyone else could complicate it. “Deion, you’re driving, right?”
“I am,” I said.
“Good,” she replied, nodding once. “I’m riding with you.”
That settled faster than anything else had.
Kendra glanced at me, then at Rhonda, like she was recalibrating the arrangement in real time before stepping into it. “That works,” she said easily. Of course it did.
Simone looked back at Nova again, quieter this time, not asking out loud but asking anyway. Nova didn’t hesitate.
“I’ll ride with Jerome,” she said, reaching for her bag.
Simone held her gaze for half a second longer than necessary, like she was checking for something Nova wasn’t offering, then let out a small breath and nodded.
“All right,” she said. “I’m coming with you.”
“You say that like it’s a sacrifice,” Jerome said.
“It is,” she replied.
Marcus shook his head, already heading toward the door. “We are leaving now before this turns into a full production.”
Auntie Rhonda grabbed her bag and pointed toward the hallway. “Everybody get a move on. Now. We have breakfast waiting and I refuse to be late for something I’ve been thinking about all week. I’m telling y’all now, if they turn breakfast over into lunch before I get my first plate done up right you will see this saint sinning all up and down Amish country, and I will be doing so loudly.”
The group started shifting toward the door in that familiar, overlapping way, voices carrying over each other, keys jangling, Jerome already talking about his route like anyone had asked.
Nova moved with them, easy, unhurried, like the decision she had just made didn’t mean anything at all. I knew better.
Jerome scoffed. “I drive just fine.”
“You drive like you think the road is a suggestion,” Nova said, stepping past him.
Simone exhaled, long and dramatic, but she grabbed her bag anyway. “If I die today, I’m haunting all of you.”
“You’vebeenhaunting us,” Jerome muttered.
She pointed at him. “This is why I didn’t want to get in your car.”
Nova glanced back at Simone, a small tilt of her head that wasn’t quite a smile but close enough. Simone caught it, rolled her eyes, and followed. That decision had landed louder than anything anyone said. Nova choosing that car, choosing distance. Choosing space away me.
I didn’t react. I just noticed.
Kendra adjusted her bag and stepped toward the back seat. “I don’t mind sitting back here,” she said easily, sliding in.
I opened the driver’s door, waiting until Auntie Rhonda settled into the passenger seat before I pulled out behind Jerome’s SUV.
The drive stretched out gradually, the city thinning behind us without ceremony. Buildings gave way to longer roads, single lanes with buggies pulled by horses once we ventured off the turnpike. It was also quiet and it didn’t press on you but made you aware of yourself in it.
