Midnight Run (13 page)

Nora tugged on the bottom of her skirt and
crossed and uncrossed her legs. She’d dressed carefully that
morning, wearing a navy blue dress she’d bought in town the day
before. Over it, she’d layered one of her mom’s crocheted cardigans
that she’d found in her parents’ closet, wanting something that
could make her feel closer to her. She’d resisted the urge to slick
her hair back into a pony tail, instead letting the waves hang
loose around her face.
Mom always said it was important to look
nice
, Nora thought, a lump filling her throat as her eyes
focused on the casket.

She didn’t remember anything the minister
said during the funeral, and before she knew it, they were all
walking across the street to the small, fenced-in graveyard. Carl
was one of the pall bearers, as was her father, so Nora had to make
the walk alone. Even though the morning had been clear, it was
still bitterly cold, and Nora’s feet crunched over the frozen
ground as she made her way to the gravesite. A couple of times, she
glanced behind her, searching the guests for Kingston, but it
seemed like everyone in town was there, and she didn’t see him over
the crowd.

The freshly-dug grave gaped like an open
wound, and Nora stood with her toes almost on the edge of the hole.
As the coffin was slowly lowered down into the earth with a
mechanical whir, Nora felt the dam crack that had been holding back
her tears, but she struggled to maintain her composure. Leaning
forward, she dropped a perfect orange marigold blossom into the
grave, but her throat caught around the words she’d wanted to say,
so she just stood there in silence while the other guests dropped
their flowers into the earth. A few people were weeping, but Nora
forced her tears to wait.
Just keep it together a little bit
longer
, she begged herself.

Kingston approached the grave with a flower,
and Nora stood up a little straighter. After he dropped the
offering, he turned toward her. Nora opened her mouth, not sure
what she was going to say, but he just gave her a tight nod before
he turned and walked away. Her heart deflated, and her eyes
followed him.
What was all that about?
She wanted to hurry
after him, to tell him how much it meant that he was there, but
before she could work up the nerve, Carl wrapped his arms around
her in a tight hug.

“You doing okay, girl?” He asked quietly.

Nora took a shuddering breath. “No.”

“Honesty’s the best policy.” There were tears
in his eyes when he pulled away, and Nora felt her own tears
bubbling up in response.

“She’s—she’s gone,” she stuttered, finally
giving into her grief as tears started to pour down her face.

Wordlessly, Carl pulled her into another
embrace, and Nora broke. She sobbed against his chest until she
felt like a sponge that had been left out in the sun to dry, and
then, hiccupping, lifted her face.

“What would I do without you?”

Carl gave her a weak smile. “Same thing I’d
do without you; nothing good.”

Nora kissed his cheek and took a deep breath.
“Thank you for being here. I don’t think I could have got through
all this alone.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I’m
sorry you had to go through this at all.”

They broke apart, but Nora hung onto his arm
as they walked away from the grave. At the gate of the graveyard,
her eyes spotted a familiar, tall form in a charcoal suit, and her
steps quickened without her planning it. Carl followed her eyes and
tipped his head toward Kingston.

“Is that the guy?”

Nora lifted her hand to wave, hoping that
he’d wait for her, but Kingston turned and walked away. Nora’s hand
fell limply to her side. “Yes. But he’s acting so strange today. I
don’t know what I did.”

“He came all the way out here for you,
though, sweetie. That’s got to count for something.”

Nora hesitated, but then she looked up at
Carl. “You really think?”

“I really do. And besides, funerals aren’t
exactly fun. He probably doesn’t know how to act, so that’s why
he’s being weird.”

Feeling guilty, Nora looked back over her
shoulder at her mother’s grave. “This really should be the last
thing on my mind.”

Carl stopped and looked at her. “You know
she’d want you to keep living your life, Nora. That’s the best gift
you can give her right now.”

Nora nodded slowly. “I think maybe you’re
right.”

Carl flashed a grin. “I’m always right. Now,
didn’t you say there’s more lasagna back at your house than anyone
can eat? Let’s find your dad and go have some lunch.”

Nora forced a smile. It felt strange to be
discussing normal, everyday things like food, but Carl was right:
she wasn’t through mourning, but she also wasn’t ready to stop
living.

God, he felt like an
idiot.

When he’d rejoined the midnight runners after
his trip to Texas, Nora hadn’t been there, but Kingston had been
too busy plotting out what he wanted to say to PB the next time he
saw her that he hadn’t really noticed. And then, the next night,
when Lynne told the group in a low voice that Nora wouldn’t be back
for a while because she was in Pennsylvania, dealing with the loss
of her mother, Kingston’s heart had ached a bit. He’d approached
Lynne to see if she had any ideas of things they could do to offer
Nora a bit of comfort or support, and she’d surprised him by
telling him that she was planning to go down for the funeral.
Kingston immediately agreed to go, but now he wished he hadn’t
bothered.

When he spotted Nora at the funeral home,
somber but still so sweet, he’d done a double-take. Gone was the
runner with the slicked back ponytail he’d gotten used to; soft
brown hair hung around her face in waves, and Kingston realized
with a jolt that there was a perfectly good reason the girl had
reminded him of PB…they were one and the same. He’d given her a hug
before the funeral, but he’d barely had a chance to process his
realization when he was hit with another bomb.

The girl he’d been obsessed with for weeks
was already taken.

Kingston didn’t think much of the other guy,
either; spikey blue hair and piercings were things to play with in
high school or never, in his opinion, but Nora seemed totally
smitten with the stranger. She clung to his hand through the
service, and later, at the gravesite, Kingston watched her come
completely unraveled in another man’s arms.

And good Lord, it hurt.

He returned to New York feeling angry,
betrayed, and ridiculously depressed.
How could she do that to
me?
He wasn’t sure what was worse; that she’d strung him along
when he started talking about the barista, or that she’d been with
somebody all this time and he’d never even had a chance.

That’s what you get for believing in love
at first sight
, he told himself firmly when he was back at the
office.
Never again,
he vowed, throwing himself into his
work with deliberate focus. He reasoned that if he filled his head
with figures and profit margins, there wouldn’t be any room left
for Nora.

He was wrong, but it didn’t matter. Even if
he couldn’t shake her from his thoughts, he resolved that he could
at least cut her from his life.
There have to be plenty of
places in New York to buy a decent cup of coffee without getting
your heart broken in the process.

Nora stayed with her
dad for another week, but day by day, the shock that had been with
him since the hospital began to wear off, and he almost seemed like
his old self again. There wasn’t a lot to do at the farmhouse,
other than clean a bit; she and her dad had decided they would
postpone sorting through her mother’s things until the summer. Nora
figured he still felt too raw to go through that, and she wasn’t
sure she was ready to sift through clothes and jewelry, either;
sorting her mom’s things and figuring what to keep and what to get
rid of felt too personal, too final, and Nora was glad to wait.
Finally, her dad insisted that she go back to New York, and even
though she felt a pang of guilt over leaving him alone, she had to
admit that she’d been missing her life.

Her dad dropped her off at the train station,
and Nora clung to him a minute longer than usual. “You’re sure that
you’re okay?” She asked, looking intently into his eyes.

He nodded. “Every day gets a little better.”
He paused. “I miss her, peanut, but I can’t just curl up and die.
Marjorie wouldn’t want to think that either of us let her death get
in the way of our living.”

Nora nodded, wiping a tear away. “I know.
Carl said the same thing at the funeral.”

“That’s a good friend you’ve got there,” her
dad said fondly. “I’m glad you’ve got somebody you can rely
on.”

“I just wish I didn’t live so far away.”

He shrugged. “Don’t worry about me, kiddo.
I’ll keep trucking along, doing what I’ve always done.” He winked
at her. “Maybe I’ll finally learn to cook.”

Nora laughed. “You’ve got enough leftovers in
the freezer to last awhile, but I think that’s probably a good
idea.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “I love you, daddy.”

“Love you too, peanut. Now, get back to
work!” He gave her one last squeeze, and when Nora boarded the
train, she took a seat by the window facing the platform and waved
until her dad was out of sight.

Life settled into a dull rhythm after that.
Nora started to get the hang of managing Books and Brew, and
although Laurel was still nasty whenever they had to work together,
she didn’t come in late or pull any other stupid stuff, and Nora
wondered idly if the other girl had put their fight on hold to
allow Nora time to grieve. Secretly, she wasn’t sure the grieving
would ever stop; she wasn’t overwhelmed with tears again like she’d
been at the funeral, but sometimes Nora would look up from what she
was doing at odd moments and suddenly remember that there was a
hole in her heart.

She kept running, growing closer to the
members of the group who’d come to her mom’s funeral, but the
midnight runs weren’t as fun as before. Kingston had stopped
showing up, and although Nora wanted to ask Lynne if she knew what
had happened to him, she couldn’t quite work up the nerve. Still,
training for the half marathon every night and spending most of her
waking hours at the coffee shop kept Nora busy, and as long as she
was busy, at least it felt like she was living her life. She’d
almost convinced herself that she
was
living, but deep down,
a little voice whispered that she was just in a holding
pattern.

After a month had passed, the sharp winter
weather slowly started to give way to spring, and Nora signed up to
run the New York Half Marathon the very last day that registration
was open. A few of the other members of the midnight running group
had signed up ages ago, and Nora was excited to see them that night
and let them know that she was going to do it, too. She watched the
clock the entire time she was at Books and Brew, counting down the
hours until she could share her news with people who would
understand how much it meant to her, and because she was so
distracted, she didn’t notice when Kingston walked in.

He cleared his throat at the counter, and
Nora pulled her eyes away from the clock, a customer service smile
plastered on her face. Her smile slipped when she saw the Texan,
though, and her heart started to pound. She hadn’t seen him since
her mom’s funeral, and she hadn’t admitted to herself until that
moment how much she missed him.

“Haven’t seen you in a long time,” she said,
the words popping out before she could think.

He nodded, but instead of his familiar smile,
his face was politely blank. “I need to know something,” he said
without preamble.

Nora shifted forward nervously. “Okay.”

“Were you planning on letting me keep making
a fool of myself on the runs, or were you ever going to tell
me?”

Her eyebrows drew together. “Tell you
what?”

He rolled his eyes. “Nora, you let me go on
and on about you, and you didn’t say anything. I feel like an
idiot!”

Her thoughts raced to keep up.
Does he
mean that I was the girl he was talking about?
Her breath
caught, and she started to smile. “But…I didn’t know you meant
me!”

“How could you not? I even said you reminded
me of her.” He shook his head, his expression stiff.

Nora bit her lip. “I wasn’t sure—“ she
stuttered. “I mean, why would someone like you be interested in
me?”

“But then to find out that you were probably
laughing at me the whole time,” he said, his eyes sparking, “that’s
what really hurts.”

Nora shook her head. “I wasn’t laughing at
you,” she said softly, “I just couldn’t find a way to tell
you.”

He looked past her at the menu. “It doesn’t
matter. I’ll just have a coffee, to go.”

Confused, Nora rang him up. “But now that you
know it’s me---did you—I mean—” she floundered, trying to figure
out if he still thought about her at all.

Kingston took the cup she offered and handed
her a crisp ten dollar bill. “Keep the change,” he said, his voice
brittle. “And I hope you two will be happy.”

“You two?” She echoed, more confused than
ever, but he had already walked out of the shop.

Her impulse was to run after him, to grab him
on the sidewalk and figure out what he was saying once and for all,
but she had a line of customers waiting, and Laurel was still on
her break. For a moment, Nora bit her lip, hemming and hawing, but
finally, she turned to the next person in line and rang him up
methodically.
What the hell just happened?

Her strange conversation with Kingston was
still on her mind when, hours later, she made it to Central Park
for her nightly run. Walking up to Lynne before things got started,
Nora pushed her self-consciousness away and asked, “Do you know
what happened to Kingston?”