What’s the worst you could get for an illegal pepper-spraying, anyway? Community service?
I doubt Nathaniel will get litigious, but if he does, I’ll get her the best lawyer money can buy.
It nearly killed me when I had to hang up on her, but it felt more important to get someone over there to do what I couldn’tfrom all the way in Georgia.Boots on the ground are worth more than plans on paper, my grandfather used to say.
Ideally, I would have asked Liam to come over. If Liam so much as looked at a raccoon, it would scamper in the opposite direction, but he lives across town with Briar. Besides, almost everyone I know with a cell phone puts it on silent at night. From past conversations with Nathaniel, I knew that he has unscientific beliefs about 5G and is only in possession of a landline. I called it three times last night, pacing the hallway of the Hilton in Atlanta so furiously I probably permanently damaged the carpet.
When Nathaniel finally answered, I explained the situation, and he promised to “head on up there and give it a look.” I’m not the best at translating other people’s moods, but he sounded pretty excited about it.
I continued pacing for a long time after we hung up, my heart beating like a jackrabbit’s, needing the constant movement to keep from going insane. I was considering heading to the stairwell to run up and down the stairs when my phone finally buzzed.
It was a text from Nora:
Cookie is fine. At ER.
Three dots danced on the screen.
Panic flooded me, and I started mentally calculating how fast I could get to Asheville if I broke every single traffic law in existence. Which was when her next message came through:
I thought Nathaniel was a murderer, so I pepper-sprayed him in the face.
I swore several times. Then I headed back into the room to grab my bag, my guitar, and the keys to the van. Mick had fallenback asleep, so I left a sticky note and my credit card on top of his guitar case, where he couldn’t miss it.
And now, here I am.
Go in, you idiot, a voice in my head insists. I’m still considering it when the front door swings open.
It’s Nora. She looks tired and smells like coffee in addition to her usual ginger. There’s not a single trace of the red lipstick she’s worn since her sixteenth birthday. She’s beautiful, and perfect, and she’sokay. She’s going to stay okay.
Cookie vaults toward the open door, and when she sees me, she releases a high-pitched bark-whine and instantly starts pawing at my legs. I pat her head with one hand and then pull Nora to me for a hug with the other.
“God, I was so worried about you,” I murmur as I pull her closer. I bury my head in Nora’s hair, ignoring the knowledge that I shouldn’t be doing any such thing.
“Are you talking to me or Cookie?” Nora asks, her voice muffled. To my surprise, she’s holding me as tightly as I’m holding her. Her hands are even gripping the back of my shirt. I nestle in closer, needing this proof that she’s here and whole.
“Both of you.” I pull back to get another look at her.
“Oh my God, stop staring at me like that.” She covers her face with her hands, which is insufficient, because they’re much too small to hide her from me. “I slept for less than four hours last night, and I’m not wearing any makeup.”
“You’re beautiful.”
The expression on her face is proof positive that I don’t understand anything about women, because she seems slightly displeased. She told me she valued the truth, though, and that’s exactly what I’ve given her.
After a moment, she clears her throat. “You came back early.”
“Yeah. Technically, I stole Mick’s van.”
“You didwhat?” She leans out through the open door and takes in the mint-green VW bus parked in front of the house. “Does he know you have it?”
“I left a note, but he’s not much of a reader, so it’s possible he called the cops. You and I may both need a lawyer.”
Her unpainted lips curve into a smile. “I’m starting to think I’m a bad influence.”
“Only now?”
Her grin grows wider.
“I always thought you would be,” I continue, “but I’d hoped it would take longer for me to start committing felonies.”
