We were on our way to our girls’ weekend.
The men had gone north to Grand Marais, so we went south. Some bed- and-breakfast Gabby had booked.
Gabby was driving, and Jessica was in the passenger seat. I was sitting in the back of the black Escalade like the kid. Jessica was the grumpy dad and Gabby was the perky mom.
Gabby had a cheerleader thing about her. She was thirty-four, blond, and stood only five feet tall. She was a pediatrician. Of the three of us she was the only one who was in a happy relationship. Philip was totally devoted to her.
Gabby turned to Jessica from behind the wheel. “You’re sure Marcus didn’t care that you didn’t go? It’s his birthday.”
“The man hasn’t touched me in six years,” Jessica said, her tone bored. “He barely remembers I exist. I don’t think he cares where I do it.”
Gabby looked in the rearview mirror at me. “So Jessica told me what happened. Neil is such a jerk. I had no idea. Seriously, why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
I blew a breath through my nose.
These were my friends. I spent more time with them than I spent with Bri, mostly because of the couples thing. We vacationed together and worked together and lived on the same street. But I couldn’t talk to them about everything, like I did with Bri.
Gabby was a little gossipy and could be a tiny bit shallow. Jessica was moody and tended to be negative.
I loved them, but I saw them for what they were.
“It was hard to explain,” I said, shutting down the discussion. Gabby already knew everything I’d told Jessica.
Gabby gave me a mischievous smile. “So this guy you’re seeing…” This was another thing I couldn’t discuss with them.
I’d kept my relationship with Daniel as close to my chest as humanly possible. I gave them no details other than he lived far away. But I knew their interrogation was coming. We had a whole weekend.
“I’ve only seen him twice,” I said dismissively. “Yeah, but what’s he like?”
I shrugged, looking out the window. “I don’t know. He’s nice.” “What does he do?”
“Uh, he’s in property management,” I said vaguely.
“Is the sex good?” She glanced at me in the rearview, and her eyes sparkled.
Good didn’t brush the surface of how amazing the sex was. But if I told her the truth, she’d want more details.
I shrugged again. “It’s okay, I guess.”
“There’s an antibiotic-resistant strain of chlamydia going around,” Jessica said flatly.
Gabby made an ewwwww noise. “I’m using protection,” I said.
“When do we get to meet him?” Gabby asked. “It’s seriously just a hookup thing.”
It wasn’t.
Well, not entirely. I guess technically if it was just a hookup thing, we wouldn’t talk like we had last night. The time had gone by so fast, I didn’t even notice how late it had gotten, and I’d only hung up with him because Neil came home, and I saw the light flick on in the office.
I really liked talking to Daniel. It was easy, and he made me laugh.
Surprisingly enough, we had more in common than I thought.
Gabby made a left into a gas station. “I need to use the restroom. Anyone want coffee?”
Jessica got unbuckled. “I’ll go.”
My phone started to vibrate. Bri was calling. “I’ll wait in the car,” I said, answering it. “Hey.”
“I just got stood up. Again,” she said. “Do you think they’re showing up, seeing me, and then bailing? Or are they not coming at all? I can’t decide if I’d rather be so hideous I’m causing them to flee, or so boring they literally forgot we had a date.”
“You’re not boring or hideous,” I said, watching Gabby and Jessica go into the gas station. “It’s their loss.”
“Is it? Because I feel like contouring my cheekbones on my day off is sort of my loss. Do you want to meet for dinner? So my outfit isn’t a total waste?”
“I can’t,” I said. “I’m doing that weekend thing with Gabby and Jessica.” She groaned. “Crap. I forgot about that.”
“Why don’t you come down? If the place is booked, we can share my bed.”
She scoffed. “Uh, pass. There’s only so much of Gabby’s complaining and Jessica’s eye rolling I can take. It’s fine. I’ll just go see Benny or something.”
“How is he?” I asked. Her little brother was having some pretty serious health issues.
“It’s starting to affect his kidney function.”
My lips curved down. Benny was only twenty-six—younger than Daniel, and Daniel was a baby. Too young to be this sick.
Benny’s deteriorating health was hitting Bri pretty hard. It was like she felt she needed to fix it because she was the doctor in the family, which was totally unfair.
“This isn’t your fault, Bri.”
Benny had excellent care, and his condition was progressing anyway.
Sometimes medicine was like that. There was only so much you could do. “So what’s up with the guy?” she asked, changing the subject.
I shrugged. “Not much. I talked to him last night.” “Oh yeah? Phone sex stuff?”
“No. Just talked. Nothing serious. I left him on read for like a week. I was so overwhelmed with the whole Neil squatting in my basement thing I kept forgetting to call him back.”
“Are you going down there again?” “Eventually. Maybe next weekend?”
“Okay. Well, just remember not to name his penis. Once you name it, you get attached.”
I laughed. Gabby and Jessica were coming out of the gas station. “I gotta go,” I said, still cracking up.
“All right, call me later.”
The girls got in the SUV, and Gabby turned back onto the road. We drove for thirty minutes, Gabby and Jessica talking about the new hot pool guy everyone was hiring and some Butter Braid fund-raiser Gabby’s kids
were in. I wasn’t really paying attention. I had one earphone in listening to audiobook samples Daniel had recommended.
“Ugh, gas station coffee is so gross,” Gabby said, dropping her cup into the drink holder. “I don’t even know why I bother.”
Jessica sighed loudly. “Maybe you can get something better when we get there. So where exactly are we going again?”
“Oh, my God, you guys are gonna love this place I found,” Gabby said, making a right near a cornfield. “It’s on the Root River. They have this epic bike trail. It used to be a railroad track and they paved it. We can rent bikes in town. Kayaks too.”
I pulled out my earbud and leaned over to look out the windshield. “The Root River? I thought we were going to Red Wing.”
“We were. I’d already booked a different place, but I canceled it for this one when it popped up. It’s this small town, it’s super cute. Grant County. It’s this bed-and-breakfast I’ve had my eye on. I got an email saying it was opening for the spring.”
“What town?” Jessica asked. “Wakan.”
Wait. WHAT?
My heart started to pound.
“Wakan?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady. “Are you sure?” “Uh, yeah.” Gabby laughed.
“Not Wabasha? Or Winona?”
“Is something wrong with Wakan?” Jessica asked, bored.
“No. I don’t know, never been there,” I said, my voice a touch too high. Daniel’s bed-and-breakfast wasn’t open. He closed it in the off-season,
so I didn’t have to worry about ending up there. But if I was in Wakan, chances were good I’d run into at least one person who recognized me from
that first night, and I wasn’t ready to tell Gabby and Jessica about Daniel. I wasn’t ready for these worlds to collide. Not yet. Maybe never.
I knew unequivocally that if Gabby and Jessica met Daniel, it would get back to Neil. Jessica could keep it from Marcus. They didn’t talk. But Gabby would tell Philip, and Philip would absolutely tell Neil—especially if the story was the dramatic one I was sure Gabby would give him about my “boyfriend” being a tattooed twenty-eight-year-old who lived above a garage in a town with more corn than people.
Neil would make it a joke. They all would. And I didn’t want Daniel to be a joke. I didn’t want it to be anything. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy him and not think about my friends’ opinions on it or have Neil laugh and make it an example of how far I’d fallen since him. He couldn’t have this. None of them could. Daniel was mine and I wanted him to stay only mine, because what we had was good and it was making me happy and it wouldn’t survive the scrutiny.
And that was really it—it wouldn’t survive the scrutiny.
It wouldn’t hold up under their inspection. My friends wouldn’t approve. And this hadn’t really mattered too much to me, since I’d never imagined that they’d ever be in a position to.
We drove down a winding road that I now recognized as the final leg into downtown. “Where in Wakan?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
“It’s called the Grant House,” Gabby said.
Panic ripped through me. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. No.
No no no no. This couldn’t be happening.
I looked at Gabby’s navigation. We were less than three minutes away. I started frantically texting him.
Me: I’ll be there in two minutes. Please act like you don’t know me. I’m sorry.
When the car crunched down the gravel drive, I strained my neck peering out the window to see if Daniel was outside. I didn’t see him. My text said Delivered but not Read.
My mouth was dry.
“We’re here!” Gabby sang, putting the car in park.
Jessica looked up at the house through the windshield. “Cute.” “Right?” Gabby turned off the engine and got out.
They went around to the trunk to get their bags, but I didn’t get out. I was pretending to look for something in my purse, stalling for as long as possible, praying for a text from Daniel letting me know he’d gotten my message.
“Umm…are you coming?” Gabby called a moment later. They were both standing with their luggage in front of the steps.
I poked my head out the window. “I dropped my earbud. Just go ahead.
I’ll be there in a second.” Daniel still hadn’t texted.
