It was the only apology Tully knew how to make for what she’d done. If Kate accepted it, she knew that the episode would have to be forgotten—the betrayal and the slap would have to dissolve into nothing so they could step back onto the track that had connected their lives. No regrets, no grudges. They’d be TullyandKate again, or as close to that as grown women could be.

“The story was good,” she said evenly.

Tully’s eyes pleaded for forgiveness and understanding, but what she said was, “I’m getting the news nook for next week. It’s a replacement gig, but it’s a start.”

Kate thought, So that’s what you sold me out for, but knew she couldn’t say it. Instead, she said, “Congratulations.”

Tully held out the cup of tea. “Take it, Katie. Please.”

Kate looked at her friend for a long time. She wanted the gift of words—I’m sorry—but knew they’d never come. Tully simply wasn’t wired that way. Kate had never known exactly how it had happened, Tully’s inability to apologize, but she suspected that it had something to do with Cloud. There was some bit of her best friend that had been damaged beyond repair as a child, and this, somehow, was the scar. Finally, she reached for the cup, saying, “Thanks.”

Tully grinned and sat down beside her. Before she’d even scooted up to the table, she was talking.

Soon, Tully had Kate laughing. That was the thing about best friends. Like sisters and mothers, they could piss you off and make you cry and break your heart, but in the end, when the chips were down, they were there, making you laugh even in your darkest hours.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO

As bad as that year was, Kate knew every moment that it could have been so much worse. The man she brought home from Germany bore only the merest resemblance to her husband in those first few months. His brain was slow in healing, and sometimes he lost patience with himself when a word outran him or an idea couldn’t be latched on to. She spent endless hours with him in rehab, both working with him and his physical therapist and waiting in the lobby with Marah.

From the second they got home, Marah seemed to sense that something was wrong with Daddy, and no amount of cuddling could comfort her. More often than not, she woke screaming in the middle of the night and wouldn’t fall silent until Kate brought her into bed with them (a practice which made Mom roll her eyes, light a smoke, and say, “You’ll be sorry.”)

When the holidays came around, Kate decorated extensively, hoping the sight of their treasured collectibles would somehow knit them all together again and make them the family they’d been before.