A road trip.
With her mother.
To track down her possibly-losing-her-mind, possibly-rock-fanatic runaway grandmother.
Across the country. In the summer heat. In a station wagon.
Or she could be at the lake with Kelley and the girls, drinking ice-cold Coca-Cola, talking about boys they didn’t really like, and making memories to last her through the fall and winter at Yale until break.
This was not how she’d seen her last summer going, and she felt guilty for being disappointed. She should care about her grandmother; she should want to help her mother. And yet, she was just barely eighteen and had a whole fun summer planned with her friends. Then again… This was a chance to possibly go to a music festival she’d never dared to think her parents would let her attend.
Nora glanced at the photo of herself with her grandmother in front of Tower Bridge in London, recalling the excitement, the pure joy of that moment. “When do we leave?”
Chapter Four
Eleanor hadn’t expected buying a plane ticket to be so easy.
She simply walked up to the Pan American airline counter and paid in cash—an entire wad of bills she’d kept tucked in a handkerchief drawer in the back of her closet. The woman behind the counter barely paid her any attention. Within minutes, Eleanor was holding a ticket to California. No complications.
Almost too simple for something so…monumental.
She boarded the plane with her guitar, hoisting it carefully into the overhead rack with the help of a flight attendant and whispering a silent prayer that, even though it was in its hard case, it wouldn’t get crushed mid-flight. Then she slid into her window seat, where she was soon joined by a young man in a narrow tie and a college-aged girl wearing bell-bottoms and wire-rimmed glasses. The girl reminded Eleanor of Nora—not so much in looks but because she radiated the same quiet, restless ambition.
For a fleeting breath, guilt threatened to bubble up inside Eleanor. She pictured her daughter arriving at the house, trying to make sense of where she’d gone. But the feeling passed. Eleanor had spent themajority of her adult life doing for others, making sure Leanne felt secure and loved. Now it was time to do something for herself.
She unwrapped a peppermint and popped it into her mouth, the cool sting spreading across her tongue. She offered the tin to her seatmates. The businessman accepted one with a nod of thanks. The girl declined, flipping a page in her book, lost in whatever world was printed in her lap.
The plane taxied down the runway at about four thousand miles per hour. Eleanor gripped the armrests as if that might stop the impending crash. She hadn’t remembered until right now—this was her first time flying.
The thought startled her. The process had felt so smooth, so shockingly easy, that she hadn’t even stopped to realize she was doing something she’d never done before.
The engine’s roar built to a howl, rumbling the blue-cushioned seat beneath her. Then they lurched forward, tilting up into the sky.
She was airborne.
For the first time in decades, she felt the sharp ache of possibility crack open inside her.
Was she flying back in time—to a version of herself she’d never gotten to fully become? Or forward into a future that still had room for change?
Maybe both.
The young man beside her must have noticed her white-knuckled grip on the armrest. He reached over and gently patted her hand.
“You okay, ma’am?”
She turned to him, blinking. Then she smiled. A real one. Wide and a little wild.
“Never better,” Eleanor replied.
“Where are you headed?” the young man asked, his voice easy, casual.
Eleanor shifted in her chair, her lips twitching. “Newport PopFestival.”
Saying it aloud for the first time was freeing and a little rebellious, and his reaction was worth the admission.
His eyebrows lifted, a grin hitching the corner of his mouth. “Are you meeting someone there?”
Eleanor tutted, giving him a sidelong glance. Did he really believe the only way it was possible for her to attend the festival was with someone else? Likely, he thought someone younger. “You sure do ask a lot of questions.”
