Long Past Summer by Noué Kirwan

Author:Noué Kirwan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2022-06-16T00:11:34+00:00

* * *

Later, they stepped out into the hall.

“Thank you for coming,” Cameron croaked, his voice rubbed raw.

Mikaela frowned. Cameron said it like it was some gesture of largesse on her part. She didn’t understand where that was coming from.

“I’m just so sorry I didn’t come sooner,” she countered.

“It’s alright,” he said, shaking his head as if it was nothing.

But even now Mikaela was still shaken by the level of anguish she’d witnessed. Cameron’s tears sluiced from a reserve of grief he’d clearly been keeping at bay for days, possibly she suspected, even years.

“Tommy just told me what happened.” She hugged his arm, staying close, holding him up until they could make their way to a bench down the hall, near the elevators.

He just nodded without replying.

As they sat, Cameron put an arm around her shoulders, leaning his head against hers, his other hand crossed over her thigh. They sat in silence intertwined for long minutes as he breathed and his heart beat against her arm until she thought he’d fallen asleep.

“I had wondered if you would come at all.” His voice cut through the silence that only the occasional staff member walking by infringed upon.

“Why wouldn’t I?” She continued to rub the hand that was draped across her lap, pushing her fingers between his.

He eased away slightly, straightening so he could look down at her. “Because you stopped calling, writing. You’ve been home for a week and I haven’t heard from you.”

“It hasn’t been a week. Just a few days. I—I just wanted a couple days to myself first.”

“I get that. Doesn’t mean you couldn’t call though?” Cameron’s hand fell out of hers as did his arm from her shoulders, retreating to his side. “I thought at least you might stop by when Julie told you.”

Mikaela twisted in her seat. “Julie knows?”

“Julie’s been here every day since Mama was admitted. She didn’t tell you?”

“I haven’t seen her since I’ve been back either.”

“It was one of her mother’s friends that found Mama on the floor at the flower shop. Called the ambulance for her.”

“We never saw each other, I’m sorry.” She reached into his lap and squeezed his hand. “I promise if we had, I would have come sooner.”

Mikaela hadn’t considered what it meant that Julie wasn’t waiting for her to get home. Their relationship had begun to change anyway. All the previous summer’s covert splitting of their normally unadulterated girl-time with Cameron had strained things. Then when they hadn’t even spent Christmas together it didn’t help. In truth, though they spoke, they’d barely seen each other at all since Mikaela left for college. But that didn’t seem strange. Julie was busy at college herself; they were just moving in different directions. So Mikaela had hardly noticed when one day back home flowed into four still incommunicado. Even when Julie missed the big end-of-year high school blowout that even Mikaela attended, she still didn’t wonder what was really going on...

Cameron took her hand in his and brought it to his mouth, sighing.

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