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“I heard you can’t go anywhere without people blurting out stories.” She cringes.
I laugh. “Yeah, but I know they’re just trying to help.”
“Oh, phew. Back in the day…” She stops talking. “I’ll make amends on Monday.”
She rests her head on my shoulder and I lean my head on hers. Just as I do with Adam, I feel a bond with all the Greenes, but I can hardly remember any moments with them. It’s a weird feeling.
“Hey, what did you mean by ‘back in the day’?”
She picks up her head. “Come on, we need to get back before your favorite tacos are gone.” She ventures up the path toward the house. “We should have a fire tonight. I’m sure Adam has firewood around here somewhere.” She looks under the deck where the smoker is. “There it is.”
“Nikki,” I call.
“You know he’s got, like, all five-star reviews on this place. Well, except for this one person.”
“Nikki,” I repeat.
“The woman was a real pain. She called Adam, like, twenty times while she was staying here, and she complained about everything. Three-star reviewed the place saying it was rustic. I mean, what did she expect?”
“Nikki!” I yell and she stops talking. “Tell me what you were going to say.”
“Nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything. Just forget it.”
“Seriously, you’re going to just leave me hanging?”
Her shoulders deflate like a teenager exhausted by her parents’ demands. “I can’t. It was nothing.”
“Please? Everyone in this town knows me and who I was before the accident. What was I really like?”
“Let me at least get the fire started. I’m the best at it and if the girls upstairs find out what I’m about to tell you, they’re going to send me rolling down the mountain.” She heads under the deck to get the firewood.
“That’s scary.” I go over to help her carry all the wood we’ll need.
“I’m making it sound bad. It’s not really, it’s just I swore I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Did you hate me?” I drop the wood by the firepit while Nikki carefully stacks hers into a pyramid.
“No, God no. I loved you. Not only as my sister-in-law but as my friend. It was just that you could be…”
I put my hands on my hips and look at her while she’s working. “Nikki, spit it out.”
“Overbearing?” She sighs and looks away. “This is horrible.”
I cover my heart. “Was I a bitch?”
She laughs. “We can all be bitches. You just liked things a certain way and made sure everyone knew it. And all I meant is that before your accident, you would’ve stomped down to the radio station and more than likely told me off. Deservedly so.”
I help her position the wood, and she slides the kindling between the gaps in the wood pyramid she’s built. “I sound like a bitch.”
“You weren’t a bitch. Like, take this right now. The Lucy I knew wouldn’t have been helping me.”
“What?” My eyebrows draw down.
She nods. “You would’ve sat in the chair while I did it.”
“Man.” I grab the lighter and flick it to start the fire. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m making it sound worse than it was. It was just you. No one disliked you for it.”
