Page 91 of Shelter from the Storm

Chapter Sixteen

“Another round,” Remi announced as one of the waitresses at Whiskey Abbey appeared at their table with a tray of lemon drop shots.

Kasi groaned. “When the hell did you order those?”

Remi grinned, unremorsefully. “On my way to the restroom. Y’all would have said no if I’d tried to order them here at the table.”

Mila rubbed her temple.

“You have a headache?” Gretchen asked her.

“No,” Mila replied. “I’m practicing. Because I will tomorrow. Tell me again why I thought ladies’ night with Remi the night before Thanksgiving was a good idea? Because I’m on dessert duty tomorrow, and I can already tell tonight is not going to end well.”

Remi waved her concerns away with a roll of her eyes. “You’ll be fine, lightweight. And please try to remember you’re twenty-eight, not eighty-eight, Grandma. You gotta live a little and make all the bad decisions when you’re young.”

“You sound like Edith,” Gretchen chimed in.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Remi replied.

“You know, it’s funny,” Nora said. “Not ha-ha funny, but a-ha funny, that all my bad decisions have been made while with Remi. Coincidence, or is there a common denominator there?”

“Common denominator,” Gretchen, Mila, and Kasi replied in unison, laughing afterward.

“All I’m hearing is that I bring joy and fun and wild adventure to your lives. Now…less bitching and more drinking.” Remi shoved a shot in front of each of them and, as they’d done all night, they clinked their glasses together in a silent toast, then tapped them once on the table before drinking.

Gretchen had winced at the first shot, the vodka burning her throat. But now, after round three—four?—she was feeling no pain.

“So are we going to dance or what?” Remi asked when “I Don’t Wanna Wait” started playing. As the only bar that offered dancing in Gracemont, Whiskey Abbey offered a wide variety of music genres. Tonight, the playlist was one intended to make the small-town locals feel like they’d been transported to some big city nightclub. The beat was thumping and addictive, and the disco ball the owner, Abbey, had hung from the ceiling in the center of the dance floor really did make Gretchen feel like she was in the middle of New York City.

She stood up, intent on following her friends to the floor, but stopped when she felt a hand on her arm. Turning, she was shocked to discover an unwanted memory from her past.

“Destiny?”

“Hi, Gretchen,” her one-time friend said.

“What are you doing here?”

Remi must have gotten to the dance floor and discovered her missing, because she returned to the table. “Hey.” She pointedly looked at Destiny, leaving Gretchen no choice but to make introductions.

“Remi, this is Destiny. She and I—” Gretchen started to say they were friends but changed her mind midstream. “We knew each other in Harrisburg. Destiny, this is Remi.”

The two women nodded, and Gretchen got the sense they were sizing each other up. She and Remi had grown closer lately, hanging out in the stables together some afternoons, feeding the horses and talking about everything under the sun.

Gretchen had shared some stuff about her relationship with Briggs, and Remi told her about her parents’ deaths in a car accident, and how she and her sisters had been raised by their grandparents until their deaths, when Remi was eighteen.

Gretchen felt a kinship with Remi, realizing they both suffered from abandonment issues. While Gretchen’s were based on people choosing to leave her, Remi’s stemmed from the people she loved dying while she was still too young to fully understand.

“I was wondering if I could talk to you,” Destiny said.

Gretchen wanted to chat with Destiny about as much as she wanted to get a pap smear, but she didn’t see a way to refuse. Destiny was being nice, and she had driven all the way from Harrisburg. She turned to Remi. “You go on and dance. I’ll be out there with you guys in a little while.”

For a second, it looked like Remi was going to refuse. Theo’s cousin had started to prove she was as overprotective of those she cared about as Theo. Gretchen was touched to be included on Remi’s list.

“See you out there,” Remi finally said, returning to Kasi, Mila, and Nora. The way all four women put their heads together then glanced back at the table, it was clear they were worried about what Destiny’s presence meant.

Gretchen resumed her seat, encouraging Destiny to join her. “Did you want to order a drink or…”

Destiny shook her head. “No, I’m planning to drive back to Harrisburg tonight. Thanksgiving and everything tomorrow.”

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