Say Hello, Kiss Goodbye - Jacquelyn Middleton Page 0,29
a shiver racing up his wet back. “Get home safe.” He pushed the door closed, on their night and on his heart.
Seven
LEIA
Sarah tugged on her black wheelchair gloves. “Leia, are you coming or not?” She wiped her brow, her skin pink and perspiring beneath the wintery layers of her blue wooly hat and scarf and her long navy parka. “It’s almost twenty to nine! I know I start late on Thursdays, but this is pushing it—I have my presentation, remember?”
“Sorry!” Leia dropped her toothbrush in the cup beside the bathroom sink and grabbed her journal, balancing on the edge of the bathtub. She scribbled the third entry across Wednesday’s page.
January 2, I was grateful for:
1. getting the Met interview.
2. Simon’s offer to use his workroom.
3. flirting with Tarquin!
She bit her cheek. Should I call him, though? Or leave it? Stuffing her pen inside the journal’s cover, she zipped it closed and hurried into the hall. “Oh, I don’t know,” she mumbled, shaking her head as she yanked her chunky sweater’s hem over the waist of her jeans.
“Don’t know what?”
“Nothing.” Leia snatched her oversized tote and dropped her journal inside where it joined her laptop, sewing tools, a homemade lunch, and another bag of ketchup potato chips for Simon.
“Ley, why don’t you fill in your journal before bed?” Sarah wheeled forward and gripped the door handle with her right hand then quickly pulled backward on the rear left wheel’s hand rim, her momentum yanking the door open. A burst of chilly morning air surged down the hallway. “Aren’t you supposed to take your time with it?”
Says Ms. Impatient. “You could wait until I’ve got my coat on!” Leia clenched her jaw and stuffed her feet in her ankle boots, giving each zipper a sharp tug. She’s already outside. Jeez, what’s one more minute? “I fell asleep making notes for my interview last night. I had to finish this morning.” She grabbed her garment bag from the waist-high coat hooks near the door.
Out on the walkway, Sarah looked over her shoulder and grumbled under her breath. “Always running late.” A frown pinched her lips. “You were talking in your sleep again last night, by the way. Mumbling like mad.”
Yeah, probably telling you off for taking my denim skirt again without asking. Leia filled her arms with her parka and scarf and followed her sister outside. “I woke up around one. I’d missed Dad’s text saying he’d landed, so I called him.” She slammed the door, locking it. “We ended up talking until two or so. You must be happy. He thinks Jordan’s great.”
“That’s ’cause he IS!” Sarah swung onto the Bride Street sidewalk as Leia juggled her belongings. “Gimme your stuff and put your coat on.” Shaking her head, she slowed to a stop. “What time did Dad get back?”
Leia set her bags on Sarah’s lap and slipped into her coat and scarf, playing catch-up. “Six-thirty Toronto time, but they sat on the plane for two hours because of thunder snow!” She laughed. “Gotta love Canada in January.”
“God, I don’t miss Canadian winters at all.” Sarah sniffed as Leia claimed her bags. “How many times did I get stuck because some idiot didn’t clear the snow from their sidewalk?”
“Too many.” Leia rested her garment bag over her forearm and walked quickly, keeping pace with her sister who pushed the hand rims of her wheels and sped along the pavement at a fast clip. “But Christmas here without snow felt like just another day, nothing special.”
“Yeah, but you don’t always get a white Christmas back home either.”
“I know, but at least it’s not drizzling and damp. How do you deal?” Leia scowled at the threatening sky and held up her bare palm, checking for raindrops. “It’s depressing. Everything’s gray and blah.” Her eyes skipped to the street and its dead end, the high brick outer wall of Pentonville Prison.
“You get used to it. And there are so many great things here: theater, gorgeous parks, museums—and ME!” Sarah laughed, fluttering her eyelashes. “A bit of rain is a small price to pay to be with your favorite sister, right?”
Leia’s heart panged. Thanks to university, Tyler, and careers, the sisters had lived in different cities for eight years. “Yeah, of course it is. I miss hanging out with you, Saz.” She smiled. “When you’re not pinching my clothes, or helping yourself to my dessert. That chocolate stain on your favorite dress is karma, you know.”
“I have no regrets. That dessert was heavenly!” Sarah grinned up