Ava nodded. “During aragingthunderstorm that knocked out the electricity and the phone. So, I was alone in the dark, expecting my parents home in a few minutes that became several hours, with no way to contact them.”
“At twelve?” Regan’s eyes were wide. “Yikes. I’m so sorry. You must’ve been really scared.”
“I hid in my closet the whole time.”
“You poor thing.”
“And I wet my pants.”
“Oh God, that’s horrible. I’m so sorry.”
Ava turned her head to meet Regan’s gaze and saw nothing but sympathy there. At the same time, it was as if she’d been in some kindof trance and just been snapped back to reality. She covered her eyes. “Jesus, I don’t know why I felt the need to tell you all that.” She felt the red crawling up her neck and settling into her cheeks, the hot shame making itself known.
Regan squeezed her leg once, then pulled her hand back, as if sensing that the touch was no longer welcome. “Hey, like I said, no worries. I’m a vault.” She turned an imaginary key in front of her closed lips and mimed tossing it over her shoulder. Then she pointed at her laptop screen. “Wanna focus on this instead?”
Grateful, Ava nodded, and they got to work. The next rumble of thunder was loud but didn’t seem quite as nerve-racking, but she wouldn’t let herself dwell on the fact that maybe it was because Regan was so close.
Nope.
Not dwelling. At all.
* * *
When Regan glanced at her phone and saw that it was almost six in the evening, she did a double take. Holding up the phone, she nudged Ava with an elbow.
Ava looked up from her notes and gasped. “Oh my God, how did it get so late?” Her head snapped to the side so she could look out the window to see that though the storms had eased, it was still gray and gloomy out. “Maybe because it’s been so dark all day.”
“And we’ve had our noses stuck in our laptops for hours.” She rolled her head around on her shoulders, and her neck gave a loud pop that had Ava’s eyes going wide.
“Is that gonna fall off now?”
“What?” Regan asked.
“Your head. Should I brace to catch it?”
“I mean, feels like maybe…” And at that, her stomach gave a loud rumble. “God, I’m freaking starving.”
“Same.”
By unspoken agreement, they set their laptops and notes aside and worked their way off Regan’s bed, stopping to stretch. More of Regan’s joints made noise.
“I hate to tell you this,” Ava said as she grabbed her hairbrush off her desk and ran it through her dark hair, “I think you might be falling apart.”
Regan snorted a laugh as she walked around with one shoe on. “Story of my life.” She bent to look under the bed for the other, found it, and put it on. “Ready?”
Down in the dining room, they met up with the other four women seated at the table, two bottles of wine open.
“There you are. We were about to send somebody up to get you two.” Vienna was pouring and looked expectantly at each of them.
They both nodded, and Regan pulled out a chair, then collapsed into it. Ava sat next to her.
“We lost track of time,” Regan said.
“Easy to do in this weather,” Paige said.
Vienna set the filled wine glasses in front of them, then took her seat. “So? How does everybody feel about tomorrow?”
Murmurs went around the table, everybody nodding or shrugging. Regan couldn’t resist teasing Maia, so she said, “I mean, I’ve had my idea done for hours, considering the massive advantage I have.”
