And it was. Her eyes darted to the surrounding mountains. The jagged gray rocks rose up around them like temples. The aspen, alder, and cottonwood trees exploded everywhere with early fall color. Goosebumps broke out across her arms. God, it was beautiful here, and so utterly different from New York. She had a moment of panic. Could she really come back here for three months? She pressed her hands against her bustier. She could have sworn she heard Yes, you can in a throaty voice in her head. Well, that was weird.
“Are we going to stand here all day, admiring the view?” Grandpa Hale called. “I’m starving.”
As her parents headed for the house, Meredith went to pop the trunk. Jill tugged her arm away from it. “You’re going to be staying with me, Mere. We’ll go to my place after dinner.”
Stay with Jill? She loved her sister, but… “I don’t know…”
Jill shook her head, her chandelier earrings brushing her shoulders. “Don’t say no, Mere. You don’t want to stay here at mom and dad’s house alone, do you?”
“Let’s—”
“Grandpa offered too, but we flipped for it.”
“Girl cheated.” He tapped his cane on the sidewalk. “You don’t have to abide by the coin toss, Meredith.”
She hadn’t banked on her family having everything figured out before her arrival. “I…”
Her sister pulled her toward the house. “It’ll be fun.”
Fun? What had she gotten herself into?
Chapter 4
Jill’s apartment resembled a shrine to all things funky and strange. Bold colors dominated the space, which reminded her of a Dali painting on crack. Meredith wondered if something had happened in the womb. She sure as hell preferred things a bit more…muted.
“You know, you pretty much made everyone’s year, coming back like this.” Jill said as she hefted one of Meredith’s many suitcases inside. She propped it against a red monkey statue, which, thankfully, did not have real hair like the African mask on the wall.
Meredith brushed some brownie crumbs off an ancient shaggy green loveseat.
“Don’t sit on that. The leg is broken. You’d be better off on the couch.”
“Okay, but why do you still have it if it’s broken?” She pushed aside colorful pillows in red, yellow, and blue and sat on the orange monstrosity.
“I like it. Just because stuff is old, doesn’t mean it’s not useful.”
“Grandpa would agree.”
Jill set two microbrews on the well-worn, purple coffee table. “So tell me the truth. I heard your bullshit answer to Grandpa. How are you really handling all this stuff with Rick-the-Dick? Hey, we should call him ‘Tricky Dickie’ now.”
“Please. No Nixon references.” Meredith grabbed the beer. “I’m taking action, getting on with my life. I’m fed up with his games, and I told him to leave me out of it or else.”
Jill rested the beer against her chest. “Good. That’ll make his balls shrivel.”
“Exactly.” Meredith took a drink. The fragrant beverage hit her tongue and had her coughing up a lung. “Yuck! What the hell is this stuff?”
“Pumpkin beer. Jemma and I love it.” Jill settled back on a rickety purple chair covered in bright lime green scarves.
“Gross. I only like pumpkin pie. Who’d put pumpkin in beer?”
“Someone who got drunk in a pumpkin patch and had an epiphany. Have you become a wine snob in New York?”
A wave of silliness hit her, and she threw a pillow at Jill. “So? You going to disown me, pumpkin girl?”
“No way. I’m too happy you’re back, even if it’s just for now. Mom’s over the moon about becoming a snowbird. You know how much she loves Sedona, and their trip will do them both a world of good. She’s got him signed up for all sorts of things—yoga, juice cleanses, you name it. He’s complaining, but deep down, I think he’s scared too.”
Meredith kicked her shoes off. “I could tell. It scares me. They looked…old.” Her ribcage tightened, pressing in on her like the pillows on the couch were suffocating her.
“Grandpa’s a spry old man. Tough as steel, that one. You better watch out. He’s got plans for you.”
“I know.”
Like him, she’d gone to New York to learn about the newspaper business. He’d intended to come back. She hadn’t. Yet, here she was—for a time, anyway.
“Do you have anything stronger?”
“Nope, only beer. So, you mentioned working on an article for Karen, but you were pretty vague. What’s up?”
“It’s an idea I had in the bookstore when I bought all the Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb books that have been released since my divorce.”