Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120230 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
“Bea takes people, Luna,” she’d told me at nineteen. “Don’t you see? She doesn’t mean to, but she’s so amazing it just kind of happens. She took all of Darcie’s friends, made them hers. I don’t want her to take you, too.”
I’d never seen it that way, had seen us all as a single huge organism of friendship. Certain people closer to others, but no one left out in the cold, no one who wasn’t especially tight with a certain other member of the eight.
“Something’s wrong with me and Nix and I can’t figure it out,” Vansi blurted out, the words cracking the mirror of memory.
“What?” She’d said nothing, nothing about this during any of our phone or online conversations.
Leaning forward, elbows on her thighs, she thrust her fingers through her hair. “He’s just . . . different. Distant.”
“You did say he was at an intensive part of his training. How did he even get this many days in a row off?” Phoenix had completed the brutal journeyman years required of a junior doctor, but he wasn’t close to done. Not when he intended to become a neurosurgeon.
Vansi threw up her hands. “I have no idea. That’s just it. Nix used to tell me everything. He was the moody, silent type to everyone else, but to me, he was an open book. I always felt special. His person.”
“You’ve asked him?”
“Yep. All I get is that he’s tired, stressed. The same nonanswer he’d give you if you asked him. But I’m his wife, the supposed love of his life.”
“Shit.”
“Sorry to dump this on you.” Vansi rubbed her hands over her thighs. “I thought this break . . . away from the stress of his work, from the expectations of both our parents, he’d loosen up, but he’s still putting on an act, even with me, and I hate it.”
“Hey.” I reached across the small glacial pool to touch her hand. “We just got here. Give it a bit more time.”
Lips pressed tight, Vansi nodded. “I know you’re right, but I still want to scream at him, then shake him.” Picking up a small pebble from in between the rocks, she threw it into the frigid water with vicious force. “I wonder if it’s this reunion,” she said, her voice hard without warning. “His behavior, it lines up with when Darcie sent out the invite. It makes me wonder—”
“What, V?” I frowned. “I know you don’t think he has a thing for Darcie.” Our friend might be beautiful, but to be quite blunt, she wasn’t Nix’s type.
“Oh, Lu.” Dark brown eyes opaque, Vansi’s expression . . . sad. “You never did see it, did you? How Bea was the flower around which everyone buzzed? Even you.” A tight smile. “If she’d still been alive, I wouldn’t be Mrs. Phoenix Chang, and I wonder if this reunion’s brought that home to him.”
The words were a punch to the mouth. “Bea would’ve never—”
“How would you know?” my best friend demanded, her hands fisting on her thighs and spots of heat on her rounded cheeks. “He might’ve been standing right next to me, might’ve been mine on paper, but all she would’ve had to do was crook a finger. You don’t know because you never had a lover for her to steal.”
She dropped her face into her hands before I could fully process her words. “Oh God, I’m so sorry.” Wet eyes looking into mine across the water in which I now spotted flecks of ice. “I didn’t mean any of that.”
“It’s okay. I’m not insulted—I’ve never wanted a permanent lover.” It was the absolute truth. “I have other dreams.” I was more frustrated by the rest of what she’d said, how she’d characterized sweet, bubbly, loyal Bea.
“Hey, you two!” Kaea yelled down from above, his hands cupped around his mouth. “We’re going to play cards and need more players!”
There was no more time for private conversation after that, even had Vansi been willing to speak. We played cards, talked about the speed with which Aaron and Grace had become engaged—after only six months together—and Darcie teased us with stories about her “loony tunes” ancestor Blake Shepherd, the prospector who’d struck it rich and decided to build a grand residence on the edge of eternity.
Lit to a glow by the spring sun, all gilded limbs and easy smiles, my friends suddenly seemed exactly that. No hidden motives, just an old sorrow shared that had bonded us with a glue unbreakable. And for a pulse in time, I was content, with no desire to stir up the past, to push Darcie until she told us why she’d done it.
5
We heard Aaron’s car long before we saw him, the crackle of the tires on the gravel of the unpaved road carrying through the trees and over the water. I had myself in position to take photos by the time his Jeep appeared around the corner, while the others stood waving.