Page 10 of The Lucky Heart (Jamison Valley 3)
I ignored my heavy heart and pulled out my phone to call Mom. “Are you busy? I was going to pick up my keys to the rental and check it out. Want to join me?”
“I’d love to,” she said.
“Okay. Be there soon.”
An hour later, we had done a full walk-through of my rental house. The movers had packed up my Seattle apartment and the truck was en route to Prescott. They had a stop in Spokane along the way, but by the beginning of next week, I’d be permanently home.
“Have you called the Drummonds?” Mom asked when we got back into the car.
“Not yet.” I’d been stalling on making dinner plans with them. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see Jack and Annie. I just wanted to avoid the Drummond farm for a few more days. The memories from places in town had been hard to cope with. Visiting Wes’s house, a place where I’d spent countless hours with him, would be agonizing.
“Remember that time when I caught Wes trying to climb into your bedroom window? It wasn’t too long after you two started dating. You were what, a freshman?”
I smiled. “Yeah. He tried to pretend he was looking for Jess’s room but Jess
had been out on a date.”
“He was always a schemer, that Wes. I used to worry that he’d get you into trouble, but he was always so careful with you.” She patted my shoulder. “I miss him. I bet you do too.”
Did I miss Wes? Yes. I hadn’t known the adult Wes, but at one point, the teenaged Wes had been my whole world. That was the Wes I missed, the one from early on. The Wes from before the lies and the drugs. The Wes that I never would have betrayed.
Mom sighed. “Such a sad ending.”
“Yeah.” On that, I wholeheartedly agreed with her.
I hadn’t really come to terms with Wes’s death. Instead, I had simply blocked it out. Blocking things out was easy in Seattle. Here, not so much. Would it help me come to terms with Wes’s death if I talked about him? If I spent time remembering the good times we’d once had together instead of dwelling on the mistakes?
Maybe it was time to come clean and finally admit what I had done.
“Mom, can I tell you something?” I trusted her to listen and keep my secrets safe.
But she didn’t answer.
“Mom?” Her eyes were fixed on something outside. “Mom?”
Still no response.
“Mom.” I reached out and shook her shoulder. “Mom!”
She couldn’t hear a word I said or feel my touch. I pulled the car into a parking lot and jogged around the hood to open her door. With both my hands on her shoulders and my face in hers, I shouted, “Noelle!”
Recognition finally dawned and she snapped back to reality. Her blank expression was replaced with confusion as she started looking around.
“Did you need to go into the flower shop?” she asked.
I turned and saw that I had parked in front of Prescott Floral. “Yeah,” I lied, my hands falling from her shoulders. “I was thinking we could get some nice flowers for Gigi.”
“Good idea. Let’s see if they have something cheerful.” She smiled and stepped out of the car.
I took a few deep breaths as we walked inside to calm my racing heart. It was the first time she’d gotten spacey since I had moved home. I’d forgotten how scary it was and how hard it was to shake her out of it, but at least I’d been with her and she hadn’t gotten hurt.
By the time we were done picking out a dozen pink roses, the adrenaline spike was gone.
“Are you doing okay?” I asked Mom as the clerk rang up our flowers.
She nodded. “I’m great. I can’t wait to see Rowen’s face when she sees these roses. She loves pink. And it’s been such a nice week with you at home.”
I smiled. “Good.”
