She’d been sucked out of her lonely life path by Hannah—without her she might still be refusing to form emotional attachments, like Miriam. Speaking of Miriam’s questionable emotional attachments…

“What’s your whole deal?” Noelle asked Tara, feeling prickly about how she wasn’t doing anything Noelle could see to soothe Miriam’s pain. It was petty, but Noelle wanted to see if she could get Tara’s ice queen facade to break. “You kind of live off antebellum power and money, right? What’s that like?”

Cole choked on his soda. Hannah put her hands over her mouth.

“It’s shitty, is how it is,” Tara said, meeting Noelle’s eyes. “I went into criminal defense law with an idea about overhauling the whole broken criminal justice system, and I can’t tell if I’m helping at all. I keep ties to my family because I worry that giving up access and leverage won’t help anyone, and it’s better to try to fix it from inside, which might be an excuse. I haven’t figured out what’s right, yet. I don’t spend my weekends assuaging my white guilt by doxxing white nationalists, like some people”—Tara looked pointedly at Cole, who was staring very intently at his plate—“but I try to take cues from the Black leaders in Charleston on how the hell to make it better instead of worse.”

Damn, that was a good answer.

Noelle speared a slice of turkey a little too hard. It almost made her like Tara, which bugged her. She should have gone to Elijah and Jason’s Friendsgiving and avoided this entire scene. She had to stop prejudging people and putting her foot in her mouth. At least now she’d gotten to see a glimpse of what Miriam might see in Tara, which made her less confused about how they’d ended up together. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed the worst.”

“No, it’s fine,” Tara said primly, setting her silverware down on her plate with practiced manners. “I know who my family is. I would have made that assumption, too.”

“What do you do, Cole?” Mrs. Matthews asked, obviously trying to turn the conversation. Cole stuffed a whole roll in his mouth, and then pointed at it to indicate that he couldn’t answer with his mouth full.

Hannah started talking about a new show she and Miriam were watching. They made it to pie without anyone digging further into their family trauma.

The next day was Black Friday, and they were busy with customers for twelve hours. Noelle saw Miriam hauling trees, with no sign of Tara, who they’d stuck at the cash register. She had no idea if Miriam had told Tara what was going on, or what her decision might be about staying.

They got to closing time with no indication of either.

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Miriam