Page 83 of Shifting Gears

“I’m not. Even with your explanation, I still don’t understand why you don’t hate me.”

In helping Nora up, Dani pulls her close enough to share air. With only a whisper of space between them, Dani looks down at her with a tenderness Nora can’t fathom. “I could never hate you.”

“Why?” Nora asks before she can think better of it.

Dani’s hand in hers gets warmer. Dani doesn’t say the words, but Nora can almost taste them in the air—the same words Nora has been choking back for weeks, so easily evident in Dani’s eyes. Even now, when she sees Nora for who she really is.

“Come on,” Dani says instead, tugging lightly at Nora’s elbow. “Your friends want to apologize.”

* * *

The patio has cleared out by the time they get back to the River Run. Kayla and Ash are the only people left, waiting at a table inside the bar with a jug of sangria, and the moment they lock eyes, Kayla is hurrying forward to pull Nora into a tight hug.

“I am so sorry,” Kayla says. She lets Nora go quickly, aware as always of her usual aversion to affectionate displays.

“It’s okay. You didn’t know.”

“I should have kept my mouth shut. I didn’t even think to ask you, I just assumed—”

“It’s fine, Kayla,” Nora says, taking the seat beside Dani’s. Dani puts an arm immediately over the back of her chair, and Nora shifts to lean easily against her. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but why are you here?”

“We were worried about you,” Kayla says. Nora doesn’t miss the way Kayla’s eyes track the movement of Dani’s arm, narrowing curiously at the easy physicality between them.

“We’re also a little curious about your new life,” Ash says, stirring his sangria.

“That, too. But mostly we’re here because Renée is holding an emergency board meeting two days from now, and we’re pretty sure she’s going to propose a vote of no confidence,” Kayla says far too casually.

Nora sits up straight.

“They’re trying to fire you?” Dani says, her brow furrowed. “Can they do that?”

“Yes,” Nora tells Dani, then turns back to Kayla. “On what grounds?” The fuzzy warmth of the summer is falling away the longer her friends are here, and facing the reality of what she’s going to be returning to is like plunging into icy water.

“Undue absence,” Ash says, sipping his sangria and wincing. Whether it’s because of the subject matter or because the wine isn’t to his standards, Nora can’t tell. “Conflict with board members, namely herself. And financial mismanagement.”

“She’s been gunning for it all summer, but we’ve been able to hold her off until now. When you didn’t come back at the end of August, she went on the warpath,” Kayla says gravely.

“Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“We tried! You don’t answer your email anymore, and you’ve been ignoring our calls,” Ash says. “When we do manage to get hold of you, you’re barely interested in talking about work.”

Nora can’t begrudge him that assessment. She’s let four phone calls go to voicemail in the last week, assuming that they were calling to talk to her about coming home. And they were, as it turns out. For good reason.

“We figured the only way to get your attention was to turn up in person,” Kayla says, glancing around at the decor as she pours Nora a glass of sangria: the mismatched tables and chairs, the faded carpet, the wood-panelled walls. “We weren’t expecting…”

“Expecting what?” Nora asks. Kayla’s pointedly raised eyebrow is raising her hackles—she’s looking Nora up and down, too, from her sneakers and jeans to her loose hair to the oversized blue-and-red checkered flannel draped over her shoulders. It’s Dani’s—Nora stole it weeks ago to ward off the cold.

“For you to look so…local.”

It’s Kayla’s usual tone, nothing Nora isn’t used to—dry, sarcastic, and irreverent. Nora has always let it roll right off her shoulders. But here, directed at the place where Nora has become so comfortable, it has Nora feeling defensive.

“What’s that supposed to mean, exactly?” she snaps.

Kayla blinks silently. The silence that follows feels slightly frosty.

“Hey, Ash,” Dani says, her eyes darting back and forth between Nora and Kayla, “do you like to play darts?”

“Do I ever,” Ash mutters, springing out of his seat. He’s always been the least confrontational one of the three of them, more likely to interfere behind the scenes or step in as a peacemaker. As he and Dani leave the table, Dani with a quick squeeze to Nora’s shoulder, Nora is grateful. If she’s going to hash it out with Kayla, she’d rather do it without an audience.

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