right?”
“Montana,” he agreed.
Thank you, was on her lips. Thank you for taking care of me. Thank you for everything you did for me this week.
But he’d already moved on.
Nineteen
Dinner at her parents’ house wasn’t until late afternoon, so Sarah used the time in her apartment to catch up on her life. Unpack, do a load of laundry, hand wash a few items, spot clean her suit since it would be a week or so before she could drop it at the cleaners.
She fixed herself a green smoothie with half a bag of prewashed spinach and enough berries, bananas, and orange juice to disguise the taste. She appreciated the effects of all the added greens in her diet, she just didn’t always like the flavor.
She answered a few e-mails, then repacked her bag. This time she filled it with jeans, T-shirts, and the kinds of slouchy, stretchy, comfortable clothes she knew she could overeat and relax in.
At the last minute she pulled her Utah sweatpants and sweatshirt out of the dryer and added them to the bag.
Fontana, California was only a few hours away from Los Angeles and Culver City, traveling inland away from the sea. Sarah listened to music the whole way, not bothering to keep up on the traffic reports. She missed a lot of things about the Mercedes her old firm leased for her, but on long drives like this, what she missed most was the sound system. It was easier to sing along and feel like she was in tune if she couldn’t hear herself too well over the music.
But she still sang every tune. Anything to keep from thinking about Joe.
She wondered what Thanksgiving would be like for his family. Just Joe and his brother and his dad. Did any of them cook? Did they go out somewhere? Was it a sad event, spent reminiscing about Joe’s mother, or did they do the man thing and sit around watching football all night and talking to the TV instead of each other?
She turned the radio up louder. Stop thinking.
Finally she began passing the landmarks of her childhood: the high school, the library, the grocery store. When she turned off onto her old street, she slowed the car. The houses looked the same, just maybe a little more tired. Still bikes left out front, cars with flat tires left at the curb, a few kids skateboarding on the asphalt.
Sarah pulled into her old driveway and parked next to a car she’d never seen. It was obviously her dad’s current project. She wondered if all mechanics brought their work home, or if some of them had seen enough of engines and transmissions by the end of the day that they preferred to find some other hobby.
Her mother must have heard the car, Sarah realized, because she came out of the house right away, still wearing her apron, the smells of the kitchen clinging to her hair and her clothes so that Sarah got a her first whiff of Thanksgiving just by hugging her mother close.
“Let me look at you, sweetheart.” Her mother drew back and studied Sarah’s face. She tucked a misbehaving lock of hair back behind Sarah’s ear, then hugged her again. “It’s so good to see you. We miss you.”
“Hi, Dad.” Sarah’s father was a few steps behind. She moved into his embrace, enjoying the sensation of one of his bone-cracking hugs. Even when she was a little girl, he never treated her like she was delicate.
“Come on,” her mother said. “You hungry?”
“Of course,” Sarah answered.
She followed her parents back into the warm kitchen, where Sarah found the oven and all four stove burners fully employed. Potatoes boiled, gravy bubbled, turkey roasted, rolls baked.
“Mom, it smells wonderful. Can I help?”
“No, you sit down,” her mother said. “You had a long drive. Dinner’ll be ready shortly.”
Sarah took her customary seat at the table, across from her father. Her mother always sat between them. It all felt so normal, so regular, so exactly the same as ever, Sarah found it hard to believe how much had happened since the last time she had been home for Thanksgiving, right after her promotion. She’d been bursting with the news then, anxious to share it with the two people she knew would be as thrilled about it as she was. Becoming a partner in one of Los Angeles’s most prestigious law firms just days before her twenty-ninth birthday. What a thing to celebrate.
So much could happen in the space of a year,