Page 111 of Hang the Moon
Annie’s moving to Seattle wouldn’t necessarily prevent everything Darcy had described from playing out. It just meant she would have turned her life upside down, moved across thecountry, fallen a little deeper for Brendon. If she took that risk and Brendon moved on, just like everyone she’d ever dated had, the resulting disappointment wouldn’t just sting, it would crush her. If she were in Seattle, she’d have a front-row seat to the show when Brendon moved on and would get to watch it play out in painful detail. Her life would become entangled with his, Darcy forever tethering them together.
Annie curled her arms around herself tighter, hugging herself, trying and failing to hold it together. “Idon’tknow.” Her shoulders rose and fell in a halfhearted shrug. “That’s why I need some time. To figure out where my head is at. You know how I am.” She laughed sharply. “I leap before I look. I speak before I think. I—”
“And you’d jump in front of a bus for the people you care about,” Darcy said. “Between you and me, I think you should be less concerned with where your head’s at and more focused on your heart.” As soon as she’d said it, she held up her hands. “I know. Who am I and what have I done with Darcy?”
Annie laughed. “Took the words right out of my mouth.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Darcy rolled her eyes. “Letmebe your voice of reason, okay? IfI’mtelling you I think taking a chance is a good idea, perhaps you should listen.”
The security line had grown.
“I have to go,” she murmured.
Darcy’s lips flattened and she nodded. “Please think about what I said.”
How could she not? She had a feeling it would be the only thing she thought about. What Darcy had said. What Brendon had said. What she felt. What it meant.
The first thing she was going to do once she got through TSA was pop two ibuprofens; her head was beginning to throb dully. Recycled air and barometric pressure changes wouldn’t help.
“I will,” she promised. “I’ll think about it.”
Without warning, Darcy threw herself at Annie, wrapping her up in a hug so tight she was nearly sure something in her chest cracked. It was hard to tell when she ached enough as it was.
“Text me when you land, okay?”
She nodded. If she opened her mouth, she’d start to cry, for real this time, and once she started, once the floodgates were open, there’d be no closing them. She’d be a sniveling, splotchy-faced mess for the rest of the night.
Darcy sniffed and shoved Annie away, blinking hard and fast before schooling her features into a stoic mask. “I’m going to text you every day you’re gone. And call you, too. All hours. Elle will, too. You’re going to be so sick of us that you’ll have no choice but to fly back and make us stop in person.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye when she laughed. “Darcy.”
“I mean it.” Darcy’s eyes darted toward the long stretch of hall that led to security. “Now get out of here.”
Annie waved weakly and turned, heading toward the terminal. When it was time to veer left, she turned around again, but Darcy was already gone.
No final wave, no smile, no stretching it out. Darcy had always been the worst at goodbyes, but maybe it was better this way. A clean break.
Trudging through the terminal, she joined the line for security. It took twenty minutes to move through the winding queueto the body scanners becausesome peoplethought they were the exception to the rules, leaving keys in their pockets, full bottles of water in their purses, thinking they didn’t need to remove their shoes.
Even then, she still made it to her gate with time to spare before boarding began. Taking a seat near the window overlooking the tarmac, she watched blandly as children chased each other down the airside and men in suits hurried toward their gates with phones pressed to their ears. A sullen-looking teen with her earphones on followed a few steps behind her family, feet dragging, a travel pillow dangling from her fingers.
She was a pro at people watching, looking in from the outside.
When they called her boarding class, she stood and joined the line, going through the motions on autopilot. She stepped off the jet bridge and onto the plane and searched for her seat, 23A, the aisle.
Both seats beside her remained empty until eventually an older woman with kind eyes pointed at the window seat. The rest of the plane filled up and still no one had taken the middle seat, not even when the flight attendants began to stroll down the aisle, checking to make sure everyone had stored their bags properly.
Her pulse started to pound.
She could picture it. Brendon rushing onto the plane, saying something as dorky as it was charming.Is this seat taken?He’d make a speech and the flight attendants would try to interrupt but someone, maybe the sweet-looking old lady in the window seat, would hush them.Let the boy talk.Brendon would begAnnie to stay and then he’d kiss her to the applause of everyone around them. Even the pilot would clap as Brendon dragged her off the plane.
“Cabin crew, prepare for takeoff.”
She glared at the headrest in front of her, her face reflected in the screen attached to the seat back, and scolded herself for being silly. She wasn’t one for splashy gestures and she’d told Brendon she needed space. She’d meant it. The fact that he was respecting her wishes should have made her happy, but instead, she just felt hollow. Disappointed even though she had no right to be.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sunday, June 13
