Page 39 of April Flowers

It wasn’t long after that Noah received a call from the moving company he’d hired to pack up everything from Avery’s bedroom back in Boston and bring it to Nantucket. He reasoned that bringing Avery’s belongings to her would add a touch of easiness to her life. Initially, he’d thought about taking Avery back to Boston so they could go through her things (and Mona’s) together, but he’d decided that sounded too difficult.

Of course, they could have done that after the wake—if Avery hadn’t skipped town.

He wondered if he would be plagued with the question of where she’d been forever.

Noah still wasn’t sure what to do with Mona’s things, so he had the same moving company pack up her belongings and take them to a storage facility on the outskirts of Boston. Maybe in a year or two, he and Avery could talk about going through them. But right now, they had to get Avery through high school. They had to focus on the present moment. It was a time of make-or-break.

“Mona,” he breathed into his hands, his coffee finished and his heart beating too quickly. “Why, why, why?”

But he couldn’t sit in quiet reflection for long.

Coming out of the grocery store across from the coffee shop, Noah spotted Lillian Earnheart. Her copper hair whipped around her, and her expression was sinister, as though she’djust given someone a piece of her mind. Noah was on his feet. It occurred to him that he hadn’t seen Lillian in what felt like years, that he hadn’t even run into her like this in quite some time. He knew that because he’d always gone out of his way to hide from Lillian. It had been easier that way.

How was it possible that he’d avoided her all these years? In Nantucket, it seemed you ran into everyone even when you were trying to resist them.

As he watched her, Noah was initially frightened that Lillian had “run away” again. He worried that Sam, Margot, and everyone else was out looking for her, cursing Lillian’s illness and their own inability to keep track of her.

But then, Margot Earnheart breezed out of the grocery store behind her mother, adjusting brown paper bags in her arms.

Noah was struck dumb.

There she was, the only girl he’d ever loved, casually walking down the street, glancing both ways, her hair flipping so that it stuck to her bright red lips. Lillian twisted around to say something else to Margot, something that was probably an insult. Margot hardly registered it. It was remarkable. Noah knew that she hadn’t seen her mother in twenty years.

Twenty years ago, after everything had happened. Twenty years ago, when the lives of all the Earnhearts had changed forever.

Yet it seemed that Margot had relearned how to be around Lillian Earnheart. She remembered how to take Lillian’s alienating comments and move on.

Noah was on his feet. He realized that Lillian and Margot were moving quickly headed for the corner. He knew they would soon dip out of sight. He couldn’t let that happen. As he tore out of the coffee shop, the bell jangled, and the barista called, “Have a great day, Noah!” But Noah was already halfway down the block. When he reached Lillian and Margot, he stopped short,realizing he looked insane. Lillian and Margot stood next to a car, and Margot searched her pockets, presumably for her keys. The paper bags of groceries were on the sidewalk at her feet.

“It’s like I always tell you. You forget everything,” Lillian said snidely.

Margot rolled her eyes and lifted her keys into the air, jangling them. “Ta-da!” she said. “Crisis averted, Mama dearest.” But as Margot crouched to pick up the grocery bags, her eyes fluttered left and up, and she spotted Noah. Margot shot back upright and stared at him. She looked like a deer in the headlights.

Noah stood and stared right back.

Lillian, though, was ready to go home. She’d already slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. “Are you coming?” she called to Margot through the window, her voice muffled.

But Margot seemed unable to move.

On the street between Noah and Margot, it seemed as though a silent yet intoxicating conversation occurred. Noah felt as though he was melting. Within her eyes, Noah thought he read something like,Oh, it’s you. Finally, it’s you.

But he couldn’t be sure.

He knew that he felt that, certainly. He felt like,Finally. I’ve been waiting for you all my life.

But it wasn’t like he could come out and say that.

So instead, he said, “Hi,” which was what you were supposed to say when you met someone.

She said, “Hi,” and touched her hair.

Noah’s heart thumped and thumped. This close up, he could fully reckon with how beautiful she’d become. She was a woman rather than the girl he’d grown up with. Her face was heart-shaped with thick eyebrows and deep, secretive eyes, and herneck was long, like a ballerina’s. There were faint wrinkles around her eyes. They seemed proof of thousands of smiles.

His only question right then was,How have I gone twenty years without you?

Lillian was calling out to Margot with confusion. “We have to go, Margot. You remember I’m playing cards later? Or do you only care about yourself and your schedule?”

A soft smile played across Margot’s lips. Was the smile meant for Noah?

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