I’d stood at the window, staring out at the pretty lights of the town glittering along the shores of the river in the distance.
‘I had to leave,’ I said, more to convince myself. ‘Didn’t I?’
‘Are you asking me or telling me?’
‘Telling. No, asking. Both.’
‘I don’t know what you want me to say.’
‘I want you to tell me I’m doing the right thing.’
She was quiet for a moment. ‘I wish I could, I really do. But the truth is, I have no idea.’
I’d squeezed my eyes shut, appreciating her honesty but not wanting to hear it all the same. ‘That makes two of us.’
‘You know how I feel about this, Mae. I’m worried that this is just a knee-jerk reaction to seeing that photo of Nick with some random.’
‘It’s not knee-jerk.’
‘Youliterallygot drunk and applied for this job that same night.’
‘You don’t know that those things are related.’
Her silence was pointed.
‘Fine,’ I’d admitted. ‘Maybeone thing slightly influenced the other.’
‘I just don’t think you should be changing your whole life because of some guy, and not even a nice one at that.’
‘He’s not the only reason I applied,’ I reminded her. ‘You know I’d been feeling burned out by the job lately. Working in the ER… the things we see. It takes a toll.’
‘I get it,’ she’d said softly. ‘Believe me, I do. But that’s when we take a vacation, somewhere tropical, with a pool bar and a hot barman serving cocktails. Somewhere like Mexico, or the Caribbean. What wedon’tdo is jack in our job, give up our apartment and move halfway across the country to one of the remotest and coldest places in the country.’
‘Pine Harbor is notthatremote.’
‘Does it have a Starbucks?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘I rest my case.’
‘No, you know what? This is just my nerves talking,’ I said firmly. ‘And that’s completely natural. It’s going to be fine. Better than fine. In fact, it’ll be just like one of those Christmas movies I love.’
She groaned.
‘Lonely woman, disillusioned with big-city life moves to picturesque small, coastal town, finds new purpose and falls in love with life again,’ I teased in my best cinematic voiceover tone. Holly hated those movies. Refused to watch them with me.
‘Have you ever noticed how all the women look the same in those movies?’ she mused.
‘No they don’t,’ I scoffed.
‘Uh, yeah, they totally do. Perfect long hair, with perfect curls that bounce around their perky shoulders. Sparkly,didn’t-indulge-in-too-many-wines-after-a-hard-shift-last-nighteyes, rosy cheeks, cute boots, stylish red or green tailored coat, and, of course, the obligatory knitted scarf of varying color, all meant to convey to the viewer just how cutesy and quirky they are.’
I sat up straighter in the lovely, tailored forest-green coat I’d purchased the day before and snorted. ‘That’s crazy. They don’talldress like that.’
‘Mae?’
‘Yeah?’
