“Wait, did you say you went to an Al-Anon meeting?”
“Well, I’ve never dated someone sober before, and it’s for people who are in relationships with alcoholics, and I didn’t handle my last relationship well…” Miriam sighed, staring up at the motel ceiling. “I have a lot of stuff that I haven’t particularly dealt with.”
“I noticed,” Noelle said dryly.
Miriam flipped her off.
“Are you coming home soon?” Noelle asked, and Miriam nodded.Home. Soon.
She found she couldn’t sleep, so she opened a box of mail Tara had been keeping for her. In among the cell phone bills she had on autopay and the requests from her alma mater for money, she recognized Cass’s stationery.
Her heart stopped.
The handwriting was Cass’s block letters, the date stamp a few days before she’d died. The letter and Miriam must have missed each other, one winging to Carrigan’s, and one away.
She slipped open the glue, trying not to tear any part of this precious, unlooked-for last gift. Inside was a napkin, covered back and front in tiny writing.
My girl,
It won’t be long. I need you to come run this place for me. Now, don’t argue. I’ve found you the perfect girl, and you’re going to make a life here. It’s my last wish, and you owe me. You might have to convince her, but I know the two of you are going to make magic. And I need you to get Blue back here, your cousin is too stubborn to do it herself.
I love you.
That meddling old bat had been playing yenta from her deathbed, and they all fell for it. Miriam shook her head, and carefully moved the napkin so she wouldn’t drop fat tears on it and smudge the ink.
Well, who was she to argue with Cassiopeia Carrigan’s last wish?
Chapter 29
Miriam
Miriam stood in front of the doors to Carrigan’s, with a better-packed suitcase than the last time, but without Cole. She brushed her fingers over the mezuzah again, this time without fear.
Hannah opened the door, and her eyes widened. Miriam gave a little wave. Hannah winked.
“Noelle,” Hannah called, keeping her voice admirably normal, “the door’s for you.”
Noelle came bounding down the stairs, wrapped in approximately fifteen layers of cold-weather gear and pulling on her hat. “Can you tell whoever it is I need to get out to the back lot but I’ll—”
She stopped when she saw Miriam. She leaped down the last three steps and barreled Miriam almost into the door as she hugged her.
Miriam was still wrapped entirely in a cocoon of Noelle when Hannah said, “It’s fitting that you came home on Tu B’Shevat.”
“Oh, man, I did,” Miriam said, peeking her head around Noelle’s shoulder. “That’s kind of perfect.”
“What’s Tu B’Shevat?” Noelle asked, letting her go.
“It’s the Jewish holiday that marks the new harvest year,” Miriam explained. “It’s New Year’s, for trees.”
“Why have we not been celebrating this all along?” Noelle asked with delight. “Carrigan’s All Year needs a big-ass Tu B’Shevat party. Someone write that down! Hannah, where’s your clipboard?!”
The commotion brought Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, and then everyone was trying to get a hug and talk. The contrast between now and her old homecomings, slipping in and out of the house in Charleston like a sea breeze, unnoticed, was stark. She’d thought she loved being answerable to no one, but this made her want to weep with love.
All her childhood, she’d known she was an unwanted invader in her house. Now, she had been made to feel like an essential piece of the whole. She’d never wanted this because she never could have imagined it, but now that she had it, it was everything.
Noelle caught her eye, and they stared at each other, the air crackling between them, while Miriam tried not to look too much like she was desperate for Noelle to be kissing her. Suddenly, she found herself being thrown over Noelle’s shoulder in one lift. She hadn’t even seen Noellemove.
“What are you doing?!” Miriam asked, hanging upside down.