One afternoon, Miriam went to get a cup of coffee and sit in the breakfast nook, hoping to read Jane Eyre quietly away from Hannah’s intense organizational zeal. Noelle burst in.

“Mrs. M, Hannah wants to know if you have—” She stopped when she saw Miriam behind the counter with the coffeepot in hand. “Oh. You’re here.”

“Coffee?” Miriam offered. Noelle growled.

“I’ll make my own.” She glanced at Miriam’s book. “Fucking asshole Rochester.”

How was that fair? What was sexier than a woman who hated Edward Rochester?

“Where the hell is Mrs. Matthews?” she asked, and Miriam shrugged. Noelle harrumphed, and left.

It felt, to Miriam, as if Noelle were always reasserting her right to this space, always silently reminding Miriam that she didn’t belong here anymore, but Noelle did. That these people were hers now. Finders, keepers.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Noelle

This isn’t where the bows go,” Noelle said, snatching a bow from where Miriam had just affixed it. She had been trying to deal with this woman invading her space and her life, but the sight of her putting all of Cass’s decorations in the wrong place threatened to drown her in grief, and she didn’t have time for that right now.

“I’m sorry, are you decorating now, as well? A renaissance woman!” Miriam snapped, yanking the bow back and putting it back where she’d had it. “Why are you here? I thought you were avoiding me. Can you return to that?”

“I am avoiding you except when you are doing something the opposite of the way Cass did, and I need to fix it. Influencer ‘artist’ can’t even decorate for Christmas,” Noelle said, putting finger quotes around “artist.”

“I’m sorry, do you have a problem with my job?” Miriam asked, wheeling on her. “Also, what the hell do you know about where bows go?”

“I have a problem with the fact that you don’t have a job, you just make money selling people weird junk and taking pictures of yourself around the world. Famous on Instagram is not a job. And I know where the bows go, because while you were throwing Carrigan’s away, I was here, holding it together,” Noelle said through clenched teeth.

Miriam cocked her head to the side. “Do you actually know what I do for a living, Noelle?”

Noelle shifted, a little uncomfortable. “No. And I don’t need to. All I know is, you travel everywhere but Carrigan’s. And now you’re here, and you can’t even put the bows where Cass did, probably because you didn’t talk to her FOR A DECADE.”