Lost Along the Way(43)

“Oh please, you can’t feel those things and you know it. You already told me that, remember?”

“The skin on my stomach and arms is real! Of course I can feel it!”

“Hey, aren’t you Jane Logan?” the barista asked.

“I thought the Hamptons were known for being discreet. Can you please keep your voice down?” Jane begged.

“Wow. You really do get recognized, huh?” Cara asked, slapping at Jane’s sweater with small white napkins in a completely unproductive attempt to dry her off.

“I told you. I know you think that I was exaggerating, but in this case, I assure you, I’m not.”

“What are you doing here anyway? I’m leaving. All I wanted to do was get tea and something to eat for the road.”

“We don’t want you to leave,” Jane said.

“What we?” Cara asked. “I’m sorry I left you there, but Meg made it very clear that we were not a welcome surprise. I shouldn’t have come. I should never have let you talk me into any of this, and now I have to go home and try to explain the note I left for Reed. Do you have any idea how he’s going to react when he sees that? I don’t know what I’m going to say to him, but this was a colossal mistake.”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with him,” Meg said quietly. Cara turned and finally noticed Meg standing in the corner. Meg quickly bit her upper lip, trying to keep herself from saying something else she’d regret. They’d done enough of that for a lifetime. She fidgeted with the lavender scarf wrapped around her neck and shoved her hands inside her back pockets.

“I didn’t see you there,” Cara said.

“How’d you think I got here?” Jane asked. “You were supposed to be my ride and you ditched me. It’s like being at the homecoming party in eleventh grade all over again. I’m still mad about that, by the way.”

Cara ignored Jane and spoke to Meg instead. “I’m sorry to just show up out here and expect that you’d want to see me. I thought . . . I don’t know what I thought. I don’t know that I was thinking at all. I’m sorry.”

“Jane told me what’s going on,” Meg said. She removed her hands from her pockets and chewed her nails.

“She always did have a big mouth,” Cara said. “Stop biting your nails.”

“In my defense there were extenuating circumstances that allowed me to spill your secrets. Primarily that I basically forgot how to drive and needed a ride to come find your ass. But if it will make everyone feel better to hear me say it, fine. I have a big mouth. Is that why no one will tell me what is going on with you two?” Jane asked.

“I didn’t know about your mom, either,” Meg said. “I’m really sorry you’ve been dealing with all of this. I liked to think that everything was perfect with you, you know? I always thought that you had everything you ever wanted. It made it easier to stay away.”

“I have exactly zero of what I really want. But in all the years of wondering how both of you’ve been, not once did I expect to hear that you left Steve and secluded yourself on the tip of Long Island. And I never thought that the white-collar division of the FBI would target Doug or that Jane would need to be medicated to leave the house. So things didn’t turn out how any of us expected them to, I guess.”

“Hey. I don’t need to be medicated. I just prefer it that way,” Jane said. “There’s a difference. I want to be clear on that.”

“I don’t want you to go back home, Cara,” Meg said. “At least not tonight. Jane is going to stay with me—”

“I thought you were going to make me take the train?” Jane asked.

“Enough, Jane!” Meg snapped, which she instantly felt bad about. She glanced at the girl behind the coffee counter, who was staring at Jane with morbid curiosity, and smiled apologetically for raising her voice.

“Anyway, I’d like for you to stay too, Cara. We could all catch up a little. Maybe it’ll be fun.”

“Sure, it’s been a barrel of monkeys so far,” Jane added. She removed a bottle of pills from her bag, popped two into her palm, and swallowed them dry.

“Are you sure? Because I’ll be okay if you want me to leave,” Cara said.

“I’m sure. Come back to the house. Please,” Meg said. She meant it.

“Maybe just for the night,” Cara said.

“Do you have wine at your house? If not, there’s a liquor store across the street, and we are so absolutely going to need booze for this. I’ll run and get some as long as one of you gives me money. My funds are a little low these days,” Jane said. “This will be fun. It’s long overdue.”

“I have some, but I’d have bought more if I knew you were going to be there, Jane,” Meg teased.

“So I take it you guys know each other?” the barista asked. Meg didn’t like that the barista was so interested in their conversation, and she kept her fingers crossed that she wasn’t going to call the press two seconds after they left to relay the entire conversation she’d just overheard. If anything deserved to be kept private, this was it, but then again, they probably shouldn’t have had the conversation at a coffeehouse in the Hamptons to begin with. Meg should’ve just let them into the house and talked to them in private.