off again for parts unknown.”
“I’m right here,” I softly point out, feeling a bit guilty I didn’t take the time to call her back. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back, but yesterday was a busy day. Time kinda got away from me.”
“Hmm.” She pins me with a glare before finally looking around the kitchen. “Tell me you have coffee. We’re gonna need some.”
Fortified with two steaming mugs, we sit down at the kitchen table.
“So,” she starts, not wasting any time. “Anything you want to tell me?”
“Oh, Kathleen, it’s complicated.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that the other night, but I don’t get what that has to do with me.” She actually sounds hurt.
“I thought you’d be upset. Nicky was your friend too.”
“You’re not giving me much credit; I’ve always known how you felt about him, Taz. I know you. I discovered recently Nicky knew too, and more than that, she believed Rafe returned your feelings. I’ve spent most of the past ten years pissed at him more than anything.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s the reason Nicky was unhappy and you ran away to another continent.”
“First of all, you can’t blame that on him. He was doing the right thing by Nicky, or have you forgotten she was pregnant at the time? As for me leaving; what else would you’ve had me do? Stay here? Be miserably reminded every day of all the ways I’d been a disappointment to my family? No, thank you.”
“You were never a disappointment to me.” She grabs my hand over the table and gives it a squeeze. “Or to your sister, for that matter. She blamed herself all these years, you know? She carries responsibility in this whole fucked-up scenario as well. Why do you think she made me promise to get you back to Eminence by whatever means possible? She knew she was running out of time to set things straight.”
I take back my hand and silently process this information, blinking with the burn of tears as I wish my sister were here sitting at the kitchen table, having this heart-to-heart with me. “We’ve made such a mess,” I finally lament, shaking my head.
“No one is perfect, Taz,” she’s quick to respond. “Not you, not Rafe, and as some of us now know, neither was Nicky.”
When Kathleen gets up to leave twenty minutes later, my life is still a mess but my heart feels a lot lighter.
By the door she pulls me into a bone-crunching hug.
“No matter what happens, I will always—always—have your back. Always.”
“Where are we going?”
I turn my eyes on Rafe who just turned west instead of south to Winona.
“Mountain View,” he says shooting me a quick glance. “We’ve got some shopping to do.”
“You hate shopping.”
“Not this kind of shopping.” This time when he glances over he wears a grin.
“Which is?” I prompt him, still confused at this turn of events.
I was expecting a very early dinner at Flossie’s Apple Barrel—since for some reason Rafe hustled me out of the house at three—and whatever movies they were running at the drive-in this weekend. Heck, I even packed drinks and snacks in a cooler, and packed a blanket so we could watch from the back of his truck.
Apparently somewhere along the line shopping was added to the trip. Something he failed to tell me about.
“Bed shopping,” he announces.
“You know,” I start prickly, “it would help if you’d elaborate on what is going through your head, because as useful as it would be, I am not a mind reader.”
He chuckles at my snippy tone as he reaches for my hand and slides his fingers between mine. “I’m buying you a bed.”
“I have a bed,” I point out.
“It’s a queen and the mattress is lumpy.”
“It’s big enough for me and it’s comfy.”
“For you, but since I plan on spending time in it we need one bigger.”
“Rafe,” I get his attention to try and talk some sense into him. “You already have a big bed.”
“Taz,” he mimics me. “We’re getting rid of your bed, and my bed, and buying a bed for us.”
I remind him of our conversation last night. “I thought you said we’d wait until the time is right?”
“To knock walls down, yes. Right now the time is perfect to pick out a bed we both like, without the kids running interference.”
“You’re charging ahead,” I caution him, but he has an answer for that too.
“I’m planning ahead. Big difference.”
I give up. He’s wearing a smug grin; everything I say seems to bounce off. So I mumble the only thing one