Page 29

“What’s wrong?” Fia asked.

“I’m going to leave. I’m going to...start a new life somewhere else, and the people in my hometown barely know who I am.”

“It isn’t like they socialize with us.”

“Easy for you to say, Fia. People remember your name.”

They walked down the street and put their groceries in the car.

“Let’s have some lunch,” said Fia.

“I ate at Becky’s yesterday.”

“Yeah, and when you’re in Boston, you’ll have options. Look forward to that. Today, we have Becky’s.”

She made a big show of rolling her eyes and stamping her foot as they walked into Becky’s, and then felt immediately embarrassed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make a scene.”

Both Quinn and Fia looked at her like she’d grown another head.

“A scene?” Fia asked. “That wasn’t a scene.Thisis a scene. ‘What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east.’” She held her hand out.

“You know what I mean,” Rory said.

“Rory, that was the most least dramatic thing.”

“How can it be themost least dramatic?”

“You know what I mean. You think that you’re being pushy, or silly, but really, you’re barely showing anything. You are the most—”

“You’readorable,” said Quinn quickly.

“Thank you, Quinn,” said Rory, feeling annoyed. “But I don’t need you to lie.”

“I’m not lying. You are adorable. But, it takes somebody perceptive to sense a shift in your moods. It isn’t like any of the dining patrons knew that you were being overdramatic about anything. Because you aren’t overdramatic.”

She scowled. “Well, I’m trying to inject my life with...”Dramawas maybe the wrong word.

Drama reminded her of having beer poured on her. Or of her diary being passed around...

There was no need to start thinking of The Diary Incident.

So she didn’t.

Her sisters were wonderful. She loved them so much. But being insulated by them wasn’t helping her break out and she just...needed something.

“I’m trying for a little mild reinvention. So maybe when I come back and visit from Boston, you’ll get a respectable foot stomp out of me.”

They were seated at a table near the window, and that was when she noticed that across the room were Lydia, her mother and Gideon.

And suddenly, the manager of Becky’s was over in that spot and held up a big metal pan, which she then banged on with a wooden spoon. “Now, everybody look over here.”

She could see Gideon tense, could see him get stone-faced.

You couldn’t go making loud noises around a veteran. Even Rory knew that, and she didn’t know any veterans except for...Gideon, she supposed, and she didn’t know much about his situation, but she knew enough not to go banging pots next to his head.

He was clearly unhappy.

But everyone in the restaurant looked at him.