Page 147

“I bet she’d back me up. If she doesn’t, then she sucks.”
“She doesn’t suck.” My eye caught on the window, where the very person I was talking about was walking up. “She’s actually coming over right now.”
“Good. You should hang out with her. I need to go into work anyway.”
I told her goodbye and opened the front door.
“Hey,” I said to Lily. “How are you?”
“With me? Everything is fine. But I haven’t seen you on your walks for a while.”
“You notice my walks?”
She put a hand on her hip. “You’re the one who taught me how fun observing people in the neighborhood is.”
“I didn’t know you’d use it against me so fast.”
“I’m not using anything against you. I’m merely curious.”
“Everything is fine now,” I said.
“But it wasn’t fine before?”
“There’s been a lot. You could come in and catch up.”
“I was gonna walk to the coffee shop since it finally warmed up. We could include Riley in this catch-up.”
I looked at the weather outside. The birds were chirping and more flowers were starting to bloom. I’d missed so much while being inside.
“I want to, but I might need to take it slow. A part of what happened was me getting sick.”
“You got sick?” Lily’s eyes grew wide. “We can drive if you want to.”
“No, it’s such a nice day. I’ll be fine as long as we’re patient.”
“I can do that. And if it’s too much, I’ll come back and get my car.”
The warm smellof coffee hit my nose, and I was relieved to see Riley standing behind the counter. We must have come at a good time because, for once, there wasn’t a line to the door.
“Hey, you two,” Riley said when she saw us. “I was beginning to wonder when I’d see the both of you again.”
“I’m taking a break from writing so I don’t burn out,” Lily said. “But I finally got Amy out of the house, so this is a special occasion.”
“And it’s not too busy, so I can finally hear what’s going on with you and Levi.”
“You can also hear about my last life event.”
“You hadanother?”Riley asked.
“Does going to the ER count as a life event?”
Both women’s eyes grew wide.
“What?” Lily asked first. “When the hell were you in the ER?”
“Are you okay?” Riley added. “Do you need anything?”
“No, I’m okay now. I was only there for a few hours two days ago for a migraine. I’ll just probably need decaf today. Too much caffeine might bring it back.”