One by one, they gave different reasons for bailing on me. And they were all good reasons, ranging from a proclivity to kidney stones to motion sickness.

“No, I get it.” I sighed and tried not to slump under the pressure of this new knowledge. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“You’ll find a solution,” Holly said reassuringly. “You always do.”

“Thanks,” I said, trying to smile. “You’re probably right.”

But I wasn’t at all sure that she was.

*   *   *

The weather forecast for Saturday was sunny with high temperatures in the mid-sixties, warm for early October. I made a face at my phone’s weather app. “Where’s a good thunderstorm when you need it?” I asked, but it didn’t respond. Which was lucky, because I was already feeling guilty about wishing for bad weather, especially on a weekend.

“Sorry, didn’t mean that,” I muttered to my phone, and shut it down as I left the library and headed downtown, slowing, then literally dragging my feet as I walked into Paddles & Pedals, Cody Sisk’s store. With weather out as an excuse not to go on the next bike club ride, I needed to be responsible and pick up my own spare inner tube, repair kit, and set of tire irons. Not that I expected to have a flat, of course. But who ever did?

Thanks to the magic of Internet video instructions, I knew in theory how to fix a bicycle’s flat tire, but my previous online fix-it situation regarding a small plumbing situation hadn’t ended well. At Paddles & Pedals, I was hoping to pick up the needed equipment and also get some hands-on instruction geared for people who weren’t mechanically inclined. And if I could gather additional information about Cody, Emily, or Brown, well, that would be an added bonus.

The jingling of the front door’s bells alerted the people inside, and three faces turned toward me. One was Cody and the other two were men about his own age, and so also about mine. I didn’t recognize either of them, and they had the look of downstaters. What that look was, exactly, I’d never been able to pin down. All I knew was downstaters were like that quote about art: I knew them when I saw them.

“Hey there,” Cody said. “You were in here with your aunt the other day, right? On Saturday?”

I nodded, giving him two points for a good memory, but taking away a point for making his second sentence lift up in an unnecessary question. “She still hasn’t decided on a bike.”

“Oh.” His shoulders drooped slightly. “Well, if she has any questions, I’d be glad to answer them.”