Page 99 of Love Me Gently

We were both sticking to water. Robbie because he and Ashley had met us here and he had to drive, me in case something happened.

“It’s weird, isn’t it? And yet, not.”

Heather was as vibrant as she’d always been. Engaged once, she’d ended it when the guy she was with kept pushing back the wedding and then started bringing up moving to Raleigh to be closer to his family. She took that to mean he didn’t want to live the quiet life in Deer Creek, and since Heather never intended to leave, her man did. She stood on the other side of the bar from Trina, over her surprise and acting like she’d seen Trina every single day of her life for the last twelve years.

Being back together with all the people I’d grown up with that hadn’t left our town for bigger cities or different states was oddly comforting, despite all the changes and growing we’d done along the way.

Heather stepped away to pour drinks for a few men at the end of the bar, and Ashley turned to face the rest of us. “So, I have another confession.”

“I’m still not over the first one,” I told her.

“Well, then you’ll have to get over two of them.”

“What is it?” Trina asked.

Ashley worried her bottom lip. “You know I teach with your sister. I mean, notwithher because she does AP Calculus, not English, but the school is small.”

“Spit it out, Ash.”

“I kinda forgot to mention that the high school teachers usually come here, the women at least, for a quick drink on Fridays.”

It wasn’t that I hadn’t known that. There were lots of nights when I didn’t have the girls that I went and hung out at Robbie’s while she came here. But…I closed my eyes and shook my head. “You’re kidding me.”

“Kari is coming?” Trina squeaked. She glanced at me, face already paling, and then back to Ashley. “Why would you do this to me?”

For the first time, Trina looked truly panicked. Not fearful, not worried, but panicked like her worst nightmare was coming true.

I couldn’t blame her, fully. She and her sister had never really gotten along, but that was because they were different. Too far separated in ages to be friends or enemies, Kari was always soft spoken and an ardent rule follower. She never understood Trina, much like the rest of us, really, but it wasn’t that Kari didn’t understand her sister, it sometimes felt like she thought Trina’s excitement over life and more laid-back personality waswrongsomehow.

“Yeah.” Ashley cringed. “And it’s not that she’s coming here, it’s that she just walked in.”

“What?” Trina’s head whipped toward the front door. How I missed it, when I’d been trying to clock everyone who entered was beyond me, but there she was.

Kari Knapp was near the front door, wearing a knee-length puffy coat and the saddest, most worried expression I’d ever seen on her.

She glanced at a table to the right, and then back to us. One step turned to two, then another, and Trina was sliding off her stool. She stayed close, one hand on the stool’s back like she needed the support as her sister made a much slower, almost painful walk to her little sister.

“Mom and Dad said you went to see them,” she said, and while her voice had always been soft, it was difficult to hear over the sounds of the bar and conversations around us. “They said you didn’t want to see me.”

“I wasn’t sure I was ready to see anyone yet.” Trina attempted a smile, but it wobbled before it fell completely.

“I wasn’t always nice to you,” Kari said and glanced around. All of us were watching, and if she read it right that we’d jump in at the first hostile word spoken, she was right. “But Mom told me some things, about what you told them, and I’m really sorry. About, well… everything. You don’t deserve that.”

“Thank you,” Trina said, her voice now shaking.

The woman had to have cried enough tears over the last few weeks to create a new lake.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Kari said. “And that you’re safe. When you’re ready, I’d like for you to meet your nieces. Missy looks just like you, and she’d love you.”

“I’d love that.” Trina lifted her arm and then went to her sister. Kari hesitated for a second, but then returned the move and soon, the sisters were hugging.

It was short, and awkward, and then Kari was pulling back, wiping a tear beneath her eye. “We’ll talk soon?”

“Yes. Definitely.”

“Good.” She glanced at all of us again. “See you all soon.” She squeezed Ashley’s shoulder as she walked by, and Trina slumped back onto her barstool. Even her slump was graceful.

“That was short and not as painful as I expected it to be.”

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