Page 6 of The Charmed Friends of Trove Isle
“Your bracelet?” Matt glanced down at her wrist, but Melody didn’t show them the piece of jewelry that Liz assumed she was wearing under her sleeve.
Instead, Melody nibbled at her lower lip and looked at Liz. “I’m very sorry. I hope you’re okay.”
Physically, Liz was fine. Emotionally, that was a different story. How often did you see the ghost of your long-lost friend and that ghost’s sister who was once your very best friend? “Rose and I aren’t hurt.”
“Good.” Melody looked as unsure about what to do right now as Liz felt. There hadn’t been this horrible fight between them. Melody had just left, cutting off all contact, as if her friends and family meant nothing. Maybe it would have been better if there had been a nasty blow-out. There’d been nothing though. Not even a goodbye.
Matt seemed to suddenly recognize Melody. “Mel? Is that you?”
Melody half grimaced, half smiled as she turned her attention back to him. “Guilty.”
“When did you get back in town?”
“This afternoon.” She glanced at Liz who quickly looked away. “I was hoping to make a quiet entrance.”
Liz suspected Mel had wanted a quiet exit as well. There really was no hope in entering or exiting Trove Isle without someone noticing though. There was only one way into the small isle town and one way out—the bridge.
Matt looked around as if to make that very point. “No such luck. There are people around here who act like it’s their job to know all the goings-on in Trove Isle. The welcome wagon should arrive at your place within the hour. You staying with your dad?”
“I tried to get a room at the Seagull Inn, but it was booked. So, I guess I’ll be at my father’s. Just for two weeks. I have to get back to Charlotte as soon as possible.” Melody looked at Liz with something akin to apology in her eyes. Was she sorry for slamming into their car? Or sorry because she’d had no intention of even saying hello to Liz while she was here? Probably both. “I’ll fix your car.”
“It belongs to my parents.” Liz shrugged as if the tiny bang up were no big deal. Her mom would probably flip out over the damage, but it served her right for leaving Liz here to watch over her sister.
Liz could feel Matt inspecting her, undoubtedly deciphering if she really was okay. “Want me to drive you home? I can come back and get the car for you.”
Liz shook her head, making it spin again. “It’ll still drive. It’s just the paint.” She knew that wasn’t why he was asking though. Everyone in town was aware that she hadn’t been comfortable in cars since the accident. Driving with her sister right after a fender bender might send her into a full-fledged panic attack—something else that most people knew about her. Liz was always one heartbeat and one breath away from letting her anxiety win. She’d always had anxiety, ever since she was a kid, but it had gotten so much worse since the accident. “It’s just down the road. We’ll be fine.”
Matt nodded, uncertainty playing on his expression. Then he looked at Melody. “Welcome home, Mel.”
“Oh, I’m not home,” Melody said a little too quickly. “Just visiting.”
“Right. Well, it’s good to see you. I’ll let you ladies work out the details of this little scrape-up.” Matt looked at Liz again. Liz wanted to reiterate that she was fine, but she wasn’t sure that was the truth. Instead, she offered a wobbly smile and waved, still keeping her eyes a notch above, below, beside, anywhere except his warm brown eyes which seemed to see right through her. They always had.
Matt was a good friend and possibly, in another life, he and Liz would have been more than that. She couldn’t see dating a guy who reminded her of one of the worst days of her life though. It wasn’t his fault; he was actually her hero that day.
Liz watched him walk to his cruiser. Then she looked at Melody. They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment.
“So, you still work at The Bitery with your mom?” Melody finally asked.
“Yep,” Liz said of the bakery, which specialized in bite-sized treats. Thus, why it was called The Bitery. Liz had been working there since she was sixteen. Back then it was a part-time afterschool job. She’d never intended for it to become her career. “But it’s just me and sometimes Rose at the moment. My parents are out of the country.” Which Melody didn’t need or deserve to know. She and Liz weren’t even friends anymore. They were barely acquaintances.
“Great. I’ll stop in sometime this week and we can work out the details of fixing your car,” Melody offered.
Liz felt conflicted. She didn’t want to see Melody again. Part of her thought her old friend should get in her car and drive right back over that bridge. Another part of her was glad that she and Melody had run into each other. Liz had missed her friend—even if she wasn’t sure the friend she’d known in high school still existed. That friend would’ve left, yeah. Running away from hard things was classic Melody Palmer. She was the girl who made herself sick during an Algebra test in ninth grade because she didn’t know the answers. She’d also run away the night before her mom’s funeral because she didn’t want to say goodbye. But she came back just in time. The friend Liz knew and loved always came back—no matter what. She didn’t stay gone for nine years.
“Don’t worry about the scratch. One of the bakery’s customers works on cars. He’s traded his services for our coffee in the past.”
“Hey, that’s not a bad arrangement,” Melody said with a shaky smile.
They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Liz lowered her gaze and it caught on something shiny on Melody’s wrist. For a moment, she thought it was the charm bracelet.Theircharm bracelet. But it couldn’t be. Another thing about anxiety was that it played tricks on the mind. Not exactly hallucinations, but when she was anxious, Liz thought she saw things that weren’t there. People. Objects. Oncoming cars when she sat in the passenger seat.
“Okay, well I’ll see you around,” she said, still flustered from the wreck, Melody’s return, and Matt Coffey. She didn’t wait for Melody to say goodbye. Instead, she turned and walked back to her car where Rose was leaning out the window, watching her. Once Liz was seated in the passenger seat, she blew out an extended breath. “Let’s go.”
Rose was quiet for a moment, as if weighing what to do.
“Please,” Liz added, actually hoping her sister would learn from today. Accidents happened, even in a short ten-minute drive.
Without a word, Rose pulled on her seatbelt, put the car in motion, and drove the exact speed limit for the entire way home, which was progress. But she didn’t slow down as she whipped their mom’s sporty red car into the driveway of Liz’s tiny home.
