“Oh, no. Just from the parking lot to the store.” She hadn’t thought about how dark it would be at seven o’clock in the middle of October. Or how silent and empty she’d find the streets. Truthfully, for a week, she hadn’t thought about much of anything. After that sleepless night eight days ago, she’d somehow tamped down the memories Jane’s second email had stirred, but just barely. It was as if she’d chinked her mind with feathers, newspaper, and glue. That barrier had fallen apart this morning. She’d woken up from a nightmare and immediately suffered a panic attack. That was why she was here. She needed a distraction. A place to go.

Ran looked at her funny and steered her toward the reading nook. “Here we are!”

Three girls sat in a row on the overstuffed couch. Maggie recognized them from her first visit to the shop.

Ran presented a chair with a wave, waited until Maggie sat, then threw herself into the last available seat: a rocker. It pitched back quickly and alarmingly, then creaked forward. She planted her feet on the floor to brake the motion. “Five of us,” she said with satisfaction. “Five! Now this is a book club.” She kicked back the chair again.

“You’re going to tip over that rocker and crack your head open,” the girl with the many piercings said gloomily. She ran a hand over her shaved head, rubbed the tattoo on the side of her neck, and slumped into the corner of the couch.

“You sound like my mother.” Like a ballerina, Ran stretched out a leg and indicated with the toe of her shoe the friend who’d just spoken. “Hope.” The foot swung to the girl with the bob—“Colleen”—then toward the last one on the couch, a pretty girl hugging her legs to her chest and smiling shyly. “Julia.”

Maggie didn’t think Ran would manage the foot-pointing feat with her, but she did, executing a half split. “Marge.”

Hope laughed grimly. “You’re crazy.”

“That’s why you love me. Now say hello to Marge.”

Greetings were exchanged, then Maggie looked around the reading nook, uncomfortable with the curiosity in the other girls’ faces. “So do you all go to the same college?”

“Yeah,” Hope said. “Kesley Community College.”

“We didn’t go to the same high school, though,” Colleen said.

Julia lifted her chin up from her knees. “We’re from all over the county.”

“But you don’t go to the community college,” Ran observed.

Maggie treated it like a question and shook her head.

Ran smoothed the arms of the rocking chair. “Didn’t think so. I never see you around. You must go to Allenport then.”

“No…” She gave the book in her lap a fluttery tap. “I’m taking a year off.”

“A gap year,” Julia said reverently.

“Awesome,” Colleen breathed.