AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I thought we were excluding husbands and boyfriends,” Kate said. “Michael’s a brother.”
“Whatever. I’m purposefully excluding my brother because I’m mad at him. He’s keeping secrets, and I hate secrets. Unless I’m the one keeping them, I mean.”
I choked on my wine again.
“Well, obviously he’s a terrible person. Driving us here and taking us home is clearly a ruse,” Kate noted mildly. “Anyway, you can’t keep a secret to save your life.”
Suzie grinned. “I can keep my mouth shut when it’s important. It’s just that most things aren’t actually important. Right, Nora?”
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said. “You never keep any of my secrets.”
Suzie stuck her tongue out in response.
But Michael sitting a hundred feet from me was too tempting to resist. He was looking all kinds of hot tonight and even though I’d been with him just a few hours ago, those few hours felt like forever. When Suzie and Kate were on their second drinks (I stuck with one, since I was driving) I made an excuse about the ladies’ room.
I was halfway to the bar when I realized Michael wasn’t the only familiar face.
Grant was at the other end of the counter.
Oh hell.
I spun around and ducked behind a waitress carrying a tray of dirty dishes. What was he even doing here? Dreamer’s Cafe was mine. All of Hart’s Ridge was mine, in fact. Grant should be forty minutes away at his office in Asheville.
“Excuse me.” The waitress dodged around me, leaving me exposed.
With no other options, I ducked into the ladies’ room.
My stomach knotted and my palms were clammy. It was the same feeling I’d had as a teenager, sneaking home an hour past curfew. Which was ridiculous. I was an adult. And I wasn’t sneaking! I had every right to be here tonight. Brandon was sleeping comfortably when I had left him. The vet had said he would be perfectly fine. I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
But, oh, god, I couldn’t handle Grant right now. I couldn’t handle the recriminations and…and…and feeling like absoluteshitabout myself. Not when I still hadn’t told Suzie about Michael. That made me feel bad enough already. I couldn’t take more.
Think, Nora, think.
Okay. I had two choices.
Option A: Stay in the bathroom forever. This option obviously had its downside, which was that I couldn’t literally stay in here forever. Eventually, Suzie or Kate would come looking for me. One would hope, anyway.
Option B: Tell Suzie the truth and deal with Grant telling me I was a bad dog mom. Downside: Suzie’s head might explode. Also? I didn’t particularly want to have this discussion with Grant right now. I didn’t want to haveanydiscussion with him. What the hell was he even doing here, anyway? Dreamer’s was famous enough now that lots of people came down from Asheville to eat here, but wasn’t he supposed to be at work?
I decided to go with Option C: Escape out the bathroom window.
There was an old-fashioned, tall radiator directly underneath the window. It was warm to the touch, but not hot, so I hiked myself up onto it and pushed open the window. Below was a well-lit parking lot.
Okay. I could do this. It wasn’t my first window escape, after all.
I swung my legs out onto the ledge, which wasn’t all that easy with my tight dress, and closed the window behind me. I looked down.
The air left my lungs.
Shit.
It was alongway down. Like ten feet down. And I was in heels.
Maybe I couldn’t do this after all.
I turned back to the window and pushed. It didn’t budge. I felt around the edges, looking for a knob, a latch, anything. Nothing. The window didn’t open from the outside.
Shit, damn, and hell.
