Noelle nodded in faux seriousness. “Oh yeah, we need to schedule your rage meltdown in your bullet journal at least three months in advance, so we can plan events around it.”

“Stop mocking my preparedness! I am keeping this place afloat with only the power of my scheduling!” Hannah protested. “But speaking of, um, preparing for my rage, and also, everything else?”

Noelle’s stomach dropped. She knew that hesitation. Hannah was about to say something about Levi, and she knew Noelle wasn’t going to like it, which is why she was hemming around it. She raised her eyebrows at Hannah.

“I asked Cole if he could take a message to Blue for me, since he’s on that half of the globe. I asked him to come home.”

Noelle groaned, because she hated it, but she knew it was necessary.

“I had to,” Hannah supplied. “We need to know about his shares. And I can’t bar him from his home forever. His parents miss him, and I hate making them sad.”

“I know. Ugh. I’m proud of you,” Noelle said, grudgingly.

“I’m going to go now and leave you to…whatever you’re doing. Trying to woo your girlfriend who already lives with you into loving you more, or something,” Hannah said, kissing Noelle’s cheek and ruffling her hair.

“I apologized but I don’t feel like I did enough,” Noelle said, pulling at her hands with her hair. “She made me a painting!”

“I don’t think Miriam is keeping score of who’s better at saying I’m sorry.”

Noelle harrumphed. Hannah rolled her eyes but left her alone with her woodworking. She was going to build a space so perfect for Miriam that Miriam would always want to run toward home, instead of feeling driven away.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Miriam

Tara opened the door to their—her—Single House and rolled her eyes, hard.

“Do you not have a functioning telephone, Miriam Blum?” she asked, a hand on her hip. “This is the kind of visit about which you forewarn a girl, so she can at least get a blowout.”

Tara’s hair was eerily perfect, as always.

“I came to get my stuff?” Miriam said, apologetically. This house was very beautiful, she noticed, now that she wasn’t trying to live in it. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be home if I warned you, or if you would clear out, and I was hoping to talk to you.”

“That’s the kind of sneaky move I would pull. Shady but smart. I’ll allow it. Your clothes and whatnot are all ready to go, but I haven’t touched your art stuff because I didn’t want to break anything and face an army of angry Bloomers.” She gestured toward the garage at the back of the house.

As Miriam passed through, she noticed a very familiar shadow box over the mantelpiece.