Page 13 of Where I Should’ve Been

“I literally just got in,” I laugh, hugging her back.

“Well, it’s good to see you,” she says with a smile.

“Hey, Breeze. Happy to see you in our neck of the woods.” Clay grins and slings an arm around my shoulders to give me a friendly side hug before Autumn demands his attention over at the dollhouse once again.

Norah joins Josie and me on the couch in a kind of girl-gab-pow-wow while the guys field the toddler. When there’s a lull in our conversation, Josie pulls a folded copy of a New York newspaper from her purse and hands it to her sister.

“I have something you need to see, Nore.”

“What is it?” Norah asks, but Josie just taps the front-page article with her index finger.

“Read it.”

I lean in slightly as Norah does just that, taking it in for myself and gritting my teeth at the headline. Ellis & Conrad Appeal Denied: Thirty-Year Sentences Stand.

Mug shots of Norah and Josie’s mother Eleanor Ellis and Norah’s ex-fiancé Thomas Michael Conrad waste ink and paper right below it.

It’s good news, but anytime these sweet women have to confront their past, my loins practically gird. The article is clinical, but the reality isn’t. Eleanor’s and Thomas’s crimes were ugly and tangled in the most disgusting things you can think of. Honestly, whenever I think about what the two of them did, it still makes my stomach twist, and I don’t have the confusing pleasure of sharing DNA with one of them. I can’t imagine how hard it is for Norah and Josie.

Norah’s face stays composed, but her voice is clipped. “I already heard. Carlton keeps me updated.”

Josie’s eyebrows jump upward, toward her own curly hairline. “I’m always shocked you keep in touch with our stepfather, even knowing you do.”

“Hey, he was always good to me.” Norah shrugs. “I keep in touch with Alexis too, and she hand-delivered the note that nuked my life in the first place.”

Oh, Alexis. The sweet, young girl who exposed Thomas and Eleanor’s whole sordid façade, even when the risk was so high she could’ve lost everything. She may have delivered the bomb, but she didn’t build it. They did. She was a victim, just like all the rest.

“How is she doing?” Josie asks.

“Good, actually,” Norah updates.

“I’m sure it’s easier for her to breathe with those two assholes behind bars.”

Norah snorts. “From your lips to God’s ears.”

Josie opens her mouth to say something else, but Autumn toddles back with her doll and plops it in my lap. “Dolly say hi, Bee!”

Bennett and Clay are no longer on toddler duty, having disappeared down the hall to tinker with something unknown.

I paste on a smile, grateful for the distraction, and kiss Autumn’s forehead. “Hi, Dolly. Nice to meet you.”

Her curls bounce as she nods and giggles. “Meets you! Dolly meets Bee!”

“Dolly is so pretty,” I say, but before Autumn can answer, Clay and Ben’s return formally announces itself with a remark from Clay.

“Not as pretty as me!” He picks up the princess crown and a little purse from the top of the dollhouse and dons them while we all look on.

“CayCay so pwetty!” Autumn exclaims as she runs back over toward Clay. “Smiles, CayCay!”

Clay flashes a full-toothed grin, and Autumn claps her hands.

“So pwetty!”

The princess crown ends up on Autumn’s little head but not before it makes the rounds on Bennett, Norah, and Josie first. Norah and Bennett take Princess Autumn into the kitchen to get her a snack, and Josie sits down beside me and places her hand gently on my knee.

“All in all, are you doing okay?” she whispers.

“As good as I can be.” I shrug. “I mean, being here with you guys is a nice distraction.”