“And Esther is in charge of her own lab,” Mrs. Matthews chimed in.
“Gosh, all your children are such geniuses,” Miriam said, “and I just destroy antiques for a living.”
“Nonsense,” Mr. Matthews grumbled, crossing his arms. “You have the Bloomers.”
Miriam’s jaw dropped. “You know about the Bloomers?”
Mrs. Matthews smiled mischievously. “That little dustup last week in the comments of your Green Goddess fountain was really something, wasn’t it?”
They talked about the wild things the Bloomers did and said, and Miriam couldn’t get over that these warm, loving, wonderful people with three accomplished grown children took time out of their lives to follow her Instagram drama.
Being back at Carrigan’s in its holiday glory was both easier and much harder than she’d feared. She’d expected this trip to be awful because of the memories of her dad it would bring up, but his presence was nowhere in sight. Every day that passed without his poltergeist jumping out at her from corners, she had to ask herself why she’d been gone so long.
She thought she couldn’t stand to be here, and she’d been wrong, and she’d missed everything. She’d missed that her two oldest friends were in love.
She’d missed that Cass was dying.
The more being at Carrigan’s didn’t suddenly spring flashbacks on her, the more she started to let down her guard and enjoy being back. Everywhere she turned, though, Noelle was there, an impossible-to-ignore presence, a discordant note in her reclamation symphony. They hadn’t spoken since their fight in the work shed, moving silently around each other as much as was possible. Miriam was still determined to show Noelle she’d been misjudged, but she didn’t know how to do that if they weren’t speaking. Additionally, annoyingly, impossibly, that magnetic pull of attraction remained even while Miriam wanted to shriek in frustration every time they were in the same room.
One afternoon, Miriam went to get a cup of coffee and sit in the breakfast nook, hoping to readJane Eyrequietly away from Hannah’s intense organizational zeal. Noelle burst in.
“Mrs. M, Hannah wants to know if you have—” She stopped when she saw Miriam behind the counter with the coffeepot in hand. “Oh. You’re here.”
“Coffee?” Miriam offered. Noelle growled.
“I’ll make my own.” She glanced at Miriam’s book. “Fucking asshole Rochester.”
How was that fair? What was sexier than a woman who hated Edward Rochester?
“Where the hell is Mrs. Matthews?” she asked, and Miriam shrugged. Noelle harrumphed, and left.
It felt, to Miriam, as if Noelle were always reasserting her right to this space, always silently reminding Miriam that she didn’t belong here anymore, but Noelle did. That these people were hers now. Finders, keepers.
Chapter 5
Noelle
This isn’t where the bows go,” Noelle said, snatching a bow from where Miriam had just affixed it. She had been trying to deal with this woman invading her space and her life, but the sight of her putting all of Cass’s decorations in the wrong place threatened to drown her in grief, and she didn’t have time for that right now.
“I’m sorry, are you decorating now, as well? A renaissance woman!” Miriam snapped, yanking the bow back and putting it back where she’d had it. “Why are you here? I thought you were avoiding me. Can you return to that?”
“Iamavoiding you except when you are doing something the opposite of the way Cass did, and I need to fix it. Influencer ‘artist’ can’t even decorate for Christmas,” Noelle said, putting finger quotes around “artist.”
“I’m sorry, do you have a problem with my job?” Miriam asked, wheeling on her. “Also, what the hell do you know about where bows go?”
“I have a problem with the fact that you don’t have a job, you just make money selling people weird junk and taking pictures of yourself around the world. Famous on Instagram is not a job. And I know where the bows go, because while you were throwing Carrigan’s away, I was here, holding it together,” Noelle said through clenched teeth.
Miriam cocked her head to the side. “Do you actually know what I do for a living, Noelle?”
Noelle shifted, a little uncomfortable. “No. And I don’t need to. All I know is, you travel everywhere but Carrigan’s. And now you’re here, and you can’t even put the bows where Cass did, probably because you didn’t talk to her FOR A DECADE.”
“How about I make things pretty, you grow trees, and oh yeah, I give you free labor you need? And you keep your judgments about my career and my bows to yourself?” Miriam shot back. Her hair was standing even taller than usual around her head, and it was really cute, which made Noelle even grouchier.
“It’s not free! You’re getting room and board!”
“No one else is staying in those rooms!” Miriam pointed out, loudly.
“I’M CALLING AN INTERVENTION!” Hannah shouted over them, and they both startled. Noelle hadn’t even heard her walk up. “Noelle, I sent you in here to ask Miriam what she wanted for dinner, and you’re yelling at each other where guests can hear you! Meet me in my office in ten minutes. I have plans for you both.”