“A long time.”

That made Tully feel better for the first time since she’d read the note from Chad. “You’re right. I loved him, but I guess he didn’t love me. Not enough anyway.”

Kate frowned. “That’s not exactly what I said.”

“Close enough. We’re way too young to get tied down by love. How could I have forgotten that?” She gave Kate a hug. “What would I do without you?”

It wasn’t until much later, after a long and sleepless night, as Tully lay in bed watching another day dawn through the window, that her own words came back to her, haunting in their intensity. Easy to leave.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

From the moment Tully took the new job, Kate found herself watching her friend’s life from a distance. Month after month passed with them living separate lives, connected only by place. By the following summer’s end, their tiny apartment, once the container of their lives, had become something of a way station. Tully spent twelve hours a day, seven days a week, working. When she wasn’t technically at work, she was chasing down leads and following stories, trying like hell to do something—anything—that would put her in front of the camera.

Without Tully, Kate’s life lost its shape, and like some overwashed sweater, no amount of positioning or folding could make it right again. Her mother told her repeatedly to snap out of her funk and start dating, have some fun, but how could she date when she had no interest in the guys who had interest in her?

Tully did not suffer from the same malaise. While she still cried about Chad when they were drinking late at night, she had no problem meeting guys and bringing them home. Kate had yet to see the same guy come out of Tully’s bedroom twice. According to Tully, that was the plan. She had, or so she said, no intention of falling in love. In retrospect, of course, Tully came to believe that she’d loved Chad desperately, so much so that no other man could measure up. But not enough, as Kate repeatedly pointed out, to call him or move to Tennessee.

To be honest, Kate was growing tired of her friend’s drunken reminiscences about the epic love she’d had for Chad.

Kate knew what love was, how it could turn you inside out and dry up your heart. An unreturned love was a bleak and terrible thing. All day long, every day, she moved like a lesser planet in Johnny’s orbit, watching him, wanting him, aching for him in lonely silence.