Page 5 of The Charmed Friends of Trove Isle
She turned to look at her sister and blinked. This was why she didn’t drive and rode her bike whenever and wherever possible. But Rose was a new driver and among her mom’s many requests before leaving the country was that Liz supervise Rose when she was driving.
It was a poor decision on her parents’ behalf. Liz had gotten her own license when she was seventeen, but she’d barely driven before the accident that made her hang up her keys forever.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen. Are you about to have one of your freak-outs?” Rose asked.
Liz pulled a hand to her chest where her heart was hammering twice as fast as Rose had been speeding. One of her “freak-outs” as Rose had called it wouldn’t help things right now.
“Do you need, like, a bag to breathe in or something?” Rose looked more alarmed by the second.
This made Liz smile just a touch. Rose was a brat, but there were times—not often—when she let on that she actually cared. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hyperventilate.”
Rose gave her an unsure look. Then her gaze flicked to the road. “Oh, the driver is coming. I am going to have some major words with that woman.”
Liz touched Rose’s shoulder. “No. I’ll talk to her.” Liz was the adult after all. Technically, Rose was still a child. They had twelve years between them, but that might as well have been a universe.
Liz pushed the car door open and stepped out on wobbly legs. Her body was still shaking as she walked to the front of the car and approached the woman who’d driven them off the road.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said as she walked toward Liz. “That was totally my fault.”
“Damn straight it was your fault!” Rose called from the rolled down window.
The driver continued to ramble. “My bracelet got caught on the gear. I’m not even sure how that happened.” She shook her head, her dark hair tossing around her shoulders.
Liz was speechless for a moment. Unable to believe her eyes, she blinked several times. When she had one of her panic attacks, her vision sometimes got distorted. For a moment, she thought she was staring at Alyssa Palmer. But that couldn’t be right. Alyssa had red hair. And Alyssa was dead. Nine years ago this June.
Instead, Liz was staring at Alyssa’s older sister Melody. Melody had rich brown hair. She was taller, thinner, and she’d been Liz’s best friend from third grade until their senior year of high school. Melody might as well have been dead too. Liz hadn’t seen or heard from her since that same June. One night. One swerve. One dead.
“Melody?” Liz’s first inclination was to run over and throw her arms around her long-lost friend, but something kept her feet cemented to the road. She couldn’t even muster a welcoming smile. Her heart and her brain were at war on how to react right now, and it seemed her brain was winning. “What are you doing here?”
Melody was wearing black Capri pants and a form-fitted cotton top. It was simple, but she wore it well. In some ways, she looked exactly like she had in high school. In other ways, Liz could see the imprint of the past decade in Mel’s hazel eyes and slightly rounded posture. Her shoulders hung by her sides as if she was carrying a heavy backpack.
“I just found out about Jo,” Melody explained. “I would have come sooner, but I didn’t know.”
Liz had heard Melody was living in Charlotte, about four hours northwest of Trove Isle. Liz had tried to reach out many times that first year after Melody had moved away. All of Liz’s calls had gone to voicemail though. All her texts were unanswered. Melody didn’t even have a Facebook or Insta-gram account that Liz could find her at. Melody’s only online footprint was a website for Memory Lane Events, a Charlotte-based business that Melody appeared to co-own with another woman.
Guilt swirled around in Liz’s chest. Maybe she should have tried to reach out to Melody after Jo’s passing, but Melody’s lack of contact over the years had made it obvious she’d forgotten this town and everyone in it.
“Apparently, I inherited a store,” Melody said.
Liz had wondered who Jo would entrust her business to. “Jo left Hidden Treasures to you?”
“That’s the one. I just met with Mr. Lyme to make it official.”
A horn honked as it approached the small collision even though there was still a lane the driver could use to bypass the scene. Liz and Melody stepped further out of the way. A moment later, a deputy sheriff’s cruiser pulled up and parked behind them.
Perfect.Today had promised to be a smooth, uneventful, maybe even boring day. The kind Liz liked best. But it had derailed with Rose’s reckless driving and was ending with a bang, literally, an old friend, and an encounter with Deputy Matt Coffey.
Matt lived down the street from Liz. She’d known him her entire life. They’d kind of grown up together, although he was about five years older. He was already working as a deputy sheriff when she was a senior in high school. He’d worked her accident. Not this one. The first one that had also involved Melody. And Bri. And Alyssa.
Matt stepped out of his vehicle and headed toward them, looking at Liz first. “Everything okay?” His dark brown eyes hung on her too long, concern knitting his brows. “You were driving, Liz?”
Liz shook her head, which made her feel a little dizzy. Her ears were still ringing too. “Rose was driving.”
“Not my fault!” Rose hollered out the window again.
“It was, um, my fault,” Melody explained. “I was trying to change the radio and my bracelet caught on the gear. I’m not even sure how it happened,” she told him, just like she’d done with Liz.
Liz thought Melody seemed a bit dazed and confused too. Perhaps she’d hit her head in the accident.
