Page 108 of When the Smoke Clears

Izzy and I both turn her way.

“Something that symbolizes the new you.” Her lips turn up gently. “Sure, you can create new memories, but the memory of what happened isn’t going away. So give it a physical symbol, something that shows the beauty of what’s left when the smoke clears.”

“Jesus, you’re so hot when you’re deep,” Izzy says, right before the three of us burst into laughter.

“You may be onto something,” I say, after I’ve composed myself.

“Ok, well, all that deep thinking made me hungry, so let’s get this show on the road and get something to eat.” Leah bounces her eyebrows at us.

Her attempt to diffuse our attention from the depth she hides doesn’t go unnoticed. “Yes ma’am.” I salute her. “We should be able to knock it out fairly quickly.”

The three of us make our way back to the front of the house.

“You’re going to let us do all the lifting, right?” Izzy says as I unlock the front door.

“Yep.” My response is too quick, and Leah snorts.

As predicted, it takes us little time to box up the items that are going to be leaving. We move the awful chair from the loft into the living room for easier pickup, along with a few boxes of decor. The majority of the kitchen items are going to stay on for the bed and breakfast, but I box up a few pieces that I want to keep personally.

My phone rings just before we get into the keepsake items. I answer without checking the caller ID.

“This is Maci.”

“Hello, my sweet niece. What are you doing?” Randi’s happy voice greets me unexpectedly.

“Hi! Actually, Leah, Izzy and I are at Nana’s, organizing some things for pickup.”

“Oh. Yeah, we don’t have long now, and that should all be done,” she says as an afterthought.

“I wasn’t going to get into Nana’s room without you and Liv. The last thing I planned to do today was move some of the personal items out of the guest rooms. Maybe into the garage for now? We need to go through them, but I don’t know when we’ll be ready, and I don’t want them to be messed with by anyone coming through here.”

Izzy and Leah stand in the foyer, waiting for direction from me.

“Oh, honey, don’t worry about that today,” Randi says. “We can do that with you, too. Even if we aren’t ready to go through them in detail, no one is going to be in there for weeks. You don’t have to do it all.”

I exhale a heavy breath. “You’re right. We should do it together.”

“Yes. Now for the reason for my call. This whole time I assumed you were probably going to be with Sutton’s family for Thanksgiving. You are, right? Because all of a sudden, I thought maybe you were going to be alone or something and then worried I should’ve invited you to spend the day with me and Liv.” She spills all the words out as quickly as she can, not giving me a chance to respond until she’s taken a huge breath.

“Yes, I’m going to be with Sutton. In fact, you and Liv are welcome to stop by. Andi has planned to feed the entire city of Bull Creek, so there will be way more than we can eat. Plus, Izzy and Leah are coming by at some point, and my dad might even come by.”

“Your—” Randi’s surprise is loud, even though her voice isn’t. “You’re calling him ‘Dad’?”

My cheeks heat and I’m glad that she can’t see me, even though Leah and Izzy’s eyes are still glued to me. “No, I’m notcallinghim ‘Dad,’ I was just referencing him that way. He is my dad. But no, I’m not ready for that just yet.”

Her relieved breath comes through the line. Then she says, “Ok, well, we’ll try to stop by. Are you sure it won’t be awkward? I haven’t seen James in over twenty years.”

“You mean more awkward than your dad showing up on your late grandmother’s porch unannounced and unexpected, to let you know that he is your father and has ties to criminal activity—however loose they may be—and that your mom stole you away in the night?” My own words come out in one long breath.

“Jeez, trauma dump,” Leah mutters. Izzy elbows her despite her own grin.

“Well, when you put it that way.” Randi lets out a nervous laugh. “Ok. We’ll come by.”

“Perfect. I love you. I’ll see you soon.”

“Love you, too, sweetheart.”

Randi hangs up and I turn to my friends. “I guess we’re done for the day. Thanks for helping. And for letting me trauma dump.” I grin widely at Leah, who waves a hand at me in a faux exaggerated dismissive gesture.

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