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“I thought she was a water aerobics instructor?” Delia asks with a frown.
“Same difference,” Shauna says. “Anyway, we should let you get back to…” She waves at the army of construction paper turkeys rampaging across the table, which—I’ll hand it to Josie—is definitely too small for the number of the guests, especially now that the guests include Josie herself. I wish I did have a leaf to add to it.
“You think she was planning this all along?” I ask.
Surprisingly, Shauna picks up the loose thread of the conversation and answers, “I wouldn’t be surprised, but why us?”
“Maybe she and Poe have tried to con all of their clients into inviting them, and we’re the only one’s stupid enough to fall for it.”
Her lips are barely holding back laughter—the effort probably only made because she knows this is her fault. “On the plus side, she promised to read everyone’s fortune for free.”
“And you think that’s a good thing?”
Shauna has the grace to look embarrassed this time. “No, probably not. I swear…I didn’t intend to say yes, it’s just that she has this…”
“Uncanny power,” Delia says, nodding. I hold back a sigh. She’s basically Josie’s new disciple at this point. I caught her texting her a question about energy the other day.
“I need to meet this woman,” Azalea adds.
“Come to Thanksgiving dinner,” I say with a wave of my hand. “Apparently everyone in the greater Asheville area will be here.”
Except for Danny.
The thought is razor-edged.
“I actually really want to,” Azalea says, “but unfortunately my mother hasn’t met a super-hot European billionaire who wants to whisk her off to Europe.”
“If it makes you feel better, I’m pretty sure he’s just the founder of one of those MLM schemes.”
She pushes her lips out and nods. “Maybe I should get into that. Earn myself one of those Mary Kay cars.”
They leave, and I make another paper turkey while I look, for the one thousandth time, at the perfectly unsatisfactory message that Danny left on my phone.
At the same time, I remember him telling me that he needs more time to process things sometimes. Maybe it really is time that he needs.
But I hope he doesn’t take too much of it, because I can feel my walls lifting back up and my resentment growing. Because he made me want him,needhim, when I’ve tried to live my life as an independent woman—and then he left.
I hope he comes back while there’s still something to come back to.
ChapterThirty-Five
Danny
“You ready for this?” Shane asks. It’s Monday afternoon, and we’re outside of Big Mike’s apartment. The knowledge that Mira might be upstairs is pounding through me. It may have only been a few days since I last saw her, but time has a different meaning again—this time it’s stretched out, longer than it should be, as if minutes are hours and hours are days. I miss the way she smells, the way she always stretches lazily like a cat after getting out of my favorite chair. I miss the notes we leave each other at the apartment. I miss the little signs of her that she leaves wherever she goes—a bracelet discarded here, some lipstick on a napkin there. A handwritten note with no obvious meaning on the coffee table, as if she had a brilliant idea in the middle of the night and wrote it down, only to forget its meaning in the morning. I missher.
But something is still holding me back. Maybe it’s all of the unknowns.
I’ve never been good at dealing with unknowns, and right now everything in my life has taken on the curve of a question mark. All of the things that were sturdy and capable of being relied on are tilted. My old reliables have been taken away slowly but surely. Drew moved to Puerto Rico, and while he’s still available pretty much around the clock to talk to or play True Colors, it’s not the same. After that, Burke met Delia and moved out of our apartment. Then Mira moved in, and everything I thought I knew was sandblasted until it looked like something different…
I miss her. Iloveher. I still don’t know whether I can be any good for her, but I desperately want to try.
Now, I’m here in front of this apartment, preparing to put my fate in the hands of a man who bribed a small child into selling him her hamster because he figured it would make his cover story stronger. A man who genuinely believed I look like the kind of guy who’d spill important secrets while getting a lap dance.
It’s logical to be worried. I’m probably fucked.
Big Bear Games gave me an offer for True Colors on Friday. It was generous—too generous—but I had a long talk with Drew, and we unanimously decided to turn it down.
It was hard to say no to the money, money that would have allowed me to walk into that meeting with Jarrod on Thursday and quit on the spot, but I didn’t want to feel I owed any debts to Daphne or her friend across the street. We’ll find someone else to distribute it. I already have a few meetings lined up for the week after Thanksgiving, and Drew plans on coming home for Christmas with his fiancé and future grandmother-in-law, Mrs. Ruiz. They made the move because Mrs. Ruiz had a terminal diagnosis and wanted to spend what little was left of her life in Puerto Rico, but apparently there’s something to be said for living where your heart is—because she’s already survived longer than they thought possible.
