Miriam’s heart exploded at Noelle putting this trust in her. She sighed. “I don’t want to leave right now, when things are finally perfect.”
“I’ll be here when you get back,” Noelle told her, pulling on her pants.
“Where are you going?” Miriam pouted.
“To go get you coffee before you become a banshee,” Noelle told her, and Miriam threw a pillow at her, before lying back against the bed in a happy sigh.
Chapter 27
Noelle
Miriam left for Charleston, and Noelle waited for her to come back, but not patiently. She was anxious, although it wasn’t rational. Noelle knew, in her head, that Miriam wasn’t running away again, and that she would always have to travel for work, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t coming back home.
Her head knew it, but her heart wanted Miriam where she could see her.
Without consciously deciding to, Noelle started going to the noon meeting regularly, having lunch with the ladies. Before long, they were showing up for brunch on Saturdays and had roped Mrs. Matthews into a weekly bridge game, and Noelle was rebuilding the wheelchair ramp to make it sturdier for them. They sat out on the back deck looking out into the back acreage, smoking long, thin cigarettes, complaining that the coffee was too weak, and giving her hell about her love life.
Two months ago, she’d thought Carrigan’s could run fine without Miriam’s interference, and now, without Miriam, it seemed absurd that everything would go on as normal. Hannah was sending out emails with spreadsheets. Mrs. Matthews was talking about produce deliveries. Collin was in and out from the cafe, bringing new recipes he wanted to collaborate on. When Noelle complained to Mrs. Matthews about the blasé attitude toward Miriam’s absence, Mrs. Matthews looked at her like she’d grown a second head.
“If we shut down Carrigan’s every time Miriam left, there wouldn’t have been a Carrigan’s for a decade.”
When she tried to talk to Mr. Matthews about it, he rolled his eyes and told her to take up a hobby, like growing trees, perhaps. She pointed out that he and Mrs. Matthews had never spent more than a week apart, and he told her that was because he was smarter than she was.
She couldn’t get comfortable in her skin, so she decided to build something. She went to the Greens with blueprints for a tree house for the twins, but Elijah shooed her off.
“It’s bigger than the first apartment I had with Jason,” he said, taking the hammer out of her hands. “No way.”
“I just wanted to do something to thank you both for being so good to me when I moved here,” Noelle explained. “You didn’t have to take me in the way you did.”
“I mean, there are slim pickings for friendship up here, honestly.” Elijah winked at her.
She laughed. “I like to think I have some redeeming qualities.”
“Sure, you’re not terrible at trivia.”
“Thanks? I guess?” She was totally mediocre at trivia.
“What brought on this sudden wave of sentimentality? Has falling in love made you full of good cheer?”
“Hey! I was always cheerful!” Noelle protested, and then laughed when Elijah raised his eyebrows at her skeptically. “I’m just trying to be more open about my appreciation for people. You’ve been a great friend. And a really good lawyer, in a situation that was a lot more complicated than you probably anticipated.”
Elijah shrugged. “You pay me for the lawyer part. And the bill you’re getting is going to be intense.”
“Would you accept Carrigan’s shares? You’re welcome to Levi’s.” Noelle waggled her eyebrows.
He shook his head vehemently. “I do not need to be any more entangled in the operatic drama up there than I already am.”
“A reasonable stance,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t need a tree house?”
“Go build something for Miriam,” he told her. “I’m kicking you out.”
This was brilliant. She started with a small renovation project to help Miriam get the Blum Again business settled in at the farm by doing a little bit of work on the carriage house. Then it escalated, as she kept adding on elements that might make Miriam smile when she came back.
“You’re in serious danger of turning into a wife guy,” Hannah laughed as Noelle pulled off her safety goggles and brushed wood chips out of her hair.
“I would be a great wife guy,” Noelle said, her heart doing a little flip at the word “wife.” She and Miriam hadn’t talked about marriage, even in a general “do you believe in engaging in heteronormative cultural practices” kind of way. She would be okay with whatever version of forever made Miriam comfortable, but Noelle had to admit that she got more of a thrill than she would have expected out of the idea of calling Miriam her wife. But it was way too early for any of that.
“I’m glad, if I’m not going to be your person anymore, that your person is Miri,” Hannah said, motioning for Noelle to put her head down before picking out a piece of wood she’d missed.