Page 77 of Try Easy

Wet Roses

Lou

Lou and Pennybarely spoke on the flight home to Seattle. Penny stared ahead at the seat in front of her. She was no longer crying, but she looked like she had just survived a war. Her hair hung limply around her face, and her eyes were red and swollen.

Lou had never seen Penny look so devastated before. Penny was always well-dressed and effortlessly stylish. She had a natural grace from her dance background that Lou had always admired and secretly envied. Now she looked like a crumpled version of her former self.

Reaching over the seat, Lou linked her fingers with Penny’s. She couldn’t offer much comfort other than her touch. Lou was equally as miserable as her friend. She couldn’t get Keoni’s face when she’d told him she wasn’t coming out of her mind. He’d looked so lost, so hopeless and guilty.

She had changed her mind the moment he’d walked out the door. She’d gone after him, but it had been too late. He had already peeled out of the driveway. Lou watched his VW Bug disappear down the road, stirring up a cloud of dust in its wake.

She had gone back inside and shoved her clothes into the suitcase without folding them. Henry had taken them to the airport on his way to the Keaukalanis’, promising to call them with any news on Bones.

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Penny said, her voice cracking.

They were the first words either of them had uttered in more than two hours. Lou squeezed Penny’s fingers and said, “Stay strong.”

“I can’t believe it,” Penny repeated, staring at the seat back in front of her with glazed eyes.

Lou turned away and stared out the window at the dark sky for the duration of the flight.

When the plane touched down, they disembarked like dead men walking. The weather was terrible. It was rainy, cold, and windy. A thick fog obscured the view of Mt. Rainier in the distance. Lou couldn’t help comparing it to the warm, fragrant air that had greeted them in Hawaii.

They trudged through the airport and collected their luggage, bundling up in their coats and jackets before they went outside to catch a taxi.

“Do you think Henry called yet?” Penny asked, her eyes brightening with hope.

“Maybe,” Lou said.

Penny and Lou both knew that if Bones didn’t turn up by tonight, the chances of him surviving were slim.

Lou pulled her hood over her head as they walked out of the airport into the cold night. The Seattle–Tacoma Airport wasn’t nearly as busy as the Honolulu terminal. Only a few cars were idling at the curb. A few people stood in the rain waiting for their rides. Lou spotted a familiar Ford Fairlane at the curb.

Lou’s mouth dropped open as the driver door swung open and a man in a black overcoat and hat climbed out.

“Paul,” Lou said in a hushed voice.

Penny followed Lou’s eyes to the curb where Paul stood, searching the faces of the passengers.

“What’s he doing here?”

“I don’t know. I guess he wanted to surprise me.” Lou grabbed Penny’s arm as she was about to wave in Paul’s direction. “Give me a minute will you?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Nothing,” Lou hissed. “Just tell him I’ve gone to the bathroom.”

Lou left her bag on the sidewalk and went back inside the warm airport. She threw off her hood, splattering rain all around her, and strode straight to the restroom.

“Deep breaths,” she whispered to herself, ignoring the stare of an older woman at the next sink. Lou confronted her reflection with a reproachable glare. “Pull yourself together,” she told herself.

The woman at the sink next to Lou gave her a funny look and hurried out of the restroom without drying her hands.

Lou sighed and pulled her emergency makeup kit from her bag. She looked terrible. Her hair was a mess, and there were dark circles under her eyes. When she looked into her own eyes, she saw someone she didn’t recognize. Someone who’d cheated on her boyfriend, and didn’t regret it. The only thing she regretted was leaving Keoni.

She looked away from her reflection, choking back a sob. She yanked a brush through her tangled hair, smelling the coconut shampoo from Keoni’s shower. She touched powder over her nose and forehead, then dabbed on some lipstick, all without meeting her own eyes in the mirror.

Goddammit! What was Paul doing here? She hadn’t asked him to pick her up. Closing her eyes, Lou bent her head over the sink and tried to work through a plan. She needed a plan, she thought, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand. Lou always had a plan. The moment she’d deviated from it, all hell had broken loose.

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