Page 14 of Crossing Paths
“Laken Albee.” Despite the familiarity of her voice, the name still came as a shock. “Norah and I are friends from way back.”
“Isn’t that the girl who picked on you in high school?” Cara whispered, her eyes sparking with mama-bear fierceness.
“No. She mostly just ignored me in high school.” The need to be completely honest made Norah amend her answer. “She picked on me injuniorhigh.” From Cara’s expression, the distinction didn’t help.
“Maybe she wants to make amends,” Henry suggested, giving a small shrug when they both looked at him doubtfully. “Most of us were nasty little beasts in junior high.”
Cara’s scowl deepened. “Did you used to be a bully?”
“No,” he said, although he frowned. “I was always a sucker for the underdog, but I did other things I’m not proud of. Plus, I didn’t discover deodorant until I was fourteen. That’s a crime against my classmates right there.”
“Hey, Norah.” Molly’s voice in the kitchen doorway pulled her attention away from Henry and Cara. “Laken Albee is here to see you. Want me to tell her to go away?” From her protective expression, she’d remembered Laken’s name just like Cara had.
It was tempting to have her sister run Laken off for her, butNorah decided to act like a grown-up. After all, Henry might be right. Maybe Laken had a change of heart and wanted to make amends for what an unpleasant little brat she’d been a decade ago. They were both adults now. They should be able to have a civil conversation. It was just that Norah didn’t really enjoy having conversations with near strangers, civil or not.
When Molly gave a nod and turned back toward the door, wearing her fiercest expression, Norah knew she’d hesitated too long. Holding back a groan, she shook her head. “I’ll talk to her.” Standing, she moved to the entrance to the living room and frowned when she saw the closed door. “Did you shut her out on the porch?”
“Of course,” Molly said. “Cops, vampires, and junior-high bullies. Never invite them inside. Life rule number seventeen.”
“That’s a good rule.” John’s face was completely serious as he gave an approving tip of his chin.
His solemnness almost made Norah laugh, but the unpleasant task of talking to Laken killed her amusement. Straightening her shoulders, she tried to channel some of the toughness she felt when she was blocking Dash’s punches or pummeling the heavy bag. Despite this, her stomach still churned as she walked to the door. Taking a deep breath, she pulled it open, revealing the grown-up version of her junior-high nemesis.
“Norah!” Laken crowed, her expression changing from irritation at being left on the porch to bright enthusiasm. “Look at you! You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Hi, Laken.” Norah eyed the woman through the screen door before forcing herself to step out onto the porch to joinher. “You’ve chang—oof.” Her comment was cut off as Laken grabbed her in a tight hug. Norah’s hands hovered over Laken’s shoulders as she debated whether to just let them be or give the woman a few back pats. Laken’s perfume wasn’t bad, but it was strong, and Norah felt her lungs tighten in warning. She hurried to step back before the scent could trigger her asthma. Laken clung to her for another awkward, endless moment before finally releasing her.
Digging her albuterol inhaler out of her pocket, Norah took a puff as she put several feet of space between them. She hadn’t started wheezing yet, but better to be safe than sorry.
“Oh, there’s the Norah I remember,” Laken cooed, as if chronic asthma could be sentimental.
“What are you doing here?” It probably wasn’t the most tactful thing Norah could have asked, but she was feeling off-balance, and her social skills weren’t the best even on her most comfortable days. It was a bit surreal to have her junior-high nemesis on her front porch, and it was throwing Norah off her game even more than usual.
“Just visiting some friends.” Laken gave a casual wave as she leaned against the porch railing. “We were talking about you, so I thought I’d look you up.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” Norah asked, her shoulders stiff with tension. She didn’t even try to lean against the railing, since she knew her awkward pose would expose just how uncomfortable she was. Besides, after her sleepless night, she was feeling rather exposed and vulnerable, and hearing that some random strangers were discussing her was not reassuring in the least.
Giving another wave—a backhanded one this time—Laken gave a chiming laugh that tensed Norah up even more. She’d heard that laugh too many times, and it had often been directed at her. “Just some friends from school. It was like a mini reunion at Dutch’s the other night. I was having drinks with Kenslee, and then Carson and Pike showed up… Anyway, someone mentioned that your family still lived here, so I thought I’d swing by to catch up.”
“How did my name come up?” Norah was even more suspicious after Laken’s rambling nonexplanation. “I highly doubt that I’m a frequent subject of conversation between you and Kenslee.”
Laken’s face scrunched in a grimace of discomfort just for a moment before her expression smoothed back into unbothered perfection. “Langston isn’t that big. We’re able to get around to everyone on a pretty regular basis. Besides…” Her gaze dropped in a way that seemed abashed on the surface, but Laken’s underlying note of slyness made Norah brace for the verbal hit. “Honey, you have to know everyone’s talking about…well, your mom.”
Norah had no response to that. Of course everyone knew about Jane’s latest—and greatest—crime, and of course all the kids who’d picked on her in school had grown into adults who gossiped gleefully about them. She had no doubt that Laken and her friends knew every painful detail—that Jane had stolen a valuable necklace, that she’d used their family home as collateral for her bail, that she’d bolted the moment she was out of jail, that Norah and her sisters were frantically trying to track her down and drag her home before they were evicted.
Her spine felt as brittle and cold as an icicle. She searched for words, knowing that every second her silence stretched, it was more and more obvious Norah actually cared what Laken and Kenslee and their whole group said about her. All she could muster was a low grunt, ahuhthat she hoped sounded more unconcerned than panicked.
“So.” Laken clapped her hands together, making Norah jump. “You have to come to Dutch’s with me tonight. Everyone’s meeting us there. It’ll be like we’re sixteen again—except our IDs will be legal this time.”
Laken gave another one of her musical laughs, and Norah shuddered again. Her reaction to the sound was so Pavlovian that she might have smiled in any other circumstances, but right then, she was so aghast at Laken’s invitation she couldn’t find the tiniest bit of humor in anything.
“Have some drinks, set the record straight about your mother, dance a little…” Laken grabbed Norah’s arm and gave it an enthusiastic shake. “We’re going to have so much fun!”
No no no no no no no no… Norah’s brain repeated the short refrain until she realized a few of those noes had escaped her lips, and Laken was staring at her, that perfectly full and made-up mouth open in a slightly startled O. “Uh…sorry.” Norah knew she had to explain what she meant. There were regular Norah levels of rudeness, and then there were just plain unacceptable levels of rudeness. “I just…um…have to work today. Tonight. Today and tonight. Big case. No time to dance and…well, talk. To everyone.” Deliberately, she pressed her lips together, attempting to keep more nonsensical words from escaping hermouth. What was it about Laken Albee that turned Norah into that awkward junior-high student again?
“Oh.” Laken’s mouth drooped at the corners in a way that would’ve convinced Norah Laken was truly sad, except that years of daily interactions with a teenage Laken had taught her better. “But we’ll miss you. Isn’t there any way you could get out of work?”
“No.” Norah gave a shrug and attempted to look disappointed to soften her bald refusal. “You caught us at a busy time.”
