Miriam wandered around, picking things up and blowing the dust off as she went. “That was part of it. It’s going to take some practice getting my feet underneath me.” She hadn’t realized that her walls being so low made her much more vulnerable when she went into her art zone. “I feel like I have a sunburn I keep forgetting about until I bang it up against something. And until this tree project, nothing was clicking. I couldn’t quite drop into that mental place.” She held up a three-headed cat statue and hmmed at it. “But it’s also, you know, the farm’s been in danger, I’ve been grieving, reconnecting with Hannah…”

“Connecting with Noelle,” Cole interrupted, his look pointed.

“Sure, that too.” Miriam laughed.

“How are you adjusting, really? You’ve had a tornado of stuff happen in the past couple of months, and your life is completely different than the last time I saw you a few weeks ago. You seem like you’re breathing easier, or standing up straighter? Something’s different.” Cole set his chin on his knees, his tone turning serious.

She held her hands up in a show of ambivalence. “I’m still terrified I made the worst decision of my life and it’s going to explode in my face any minute, and I still have to pep talk myself every morning about the fact that I’m taking this big risky adventure, but at the same time, all these fears I’ve had all my life are gone. I’m not afraid of facing my past anymore, and I feel really proud of myself, you know? I faced so much and I’m here, making a new life for myself.”

“I’m proud of you, too,” Cole told her seriously. And then he winked dramatically, so that the moment didn’t get too emotional.

“So, to address the elephant in the room,” Miriam said, “my ex-fiancée, your lifelong friend? How’s Tara?” Tara, who apparently had stolen cars in the middle of the night with Cole during their shared, misspent youth. She guessed they’d both kept secrets.

“You know,” Cole said, his face thoughtful, “I think she’s doing well. She asked me to go dancing at Dudley’s last week.”

Dudley’s was the gay bar in Charleston, and not usually Tara’s scene, since it didn’t fit in with her country club image.

“Good for her!” Miriam said, meaning it. “Okay. I need to decorate a tree, and you need to help me find stuff for it.”

She blew the dust off the top of a box and opened it. “Oh, vintage National Geographics!”

“You’re the only person who has ever said that sentence.” Cole shook his head in horror.