Page 17 of True North

“Oh, honey. Your energy is all off.” I cracked one eye open as Mom walked into the sunroom, waving her hand in front of her face and frowning like she was clearing a particularly foul odor from the air. “It’s all sticky and dark.”

I blew a raspberry past my lips and peeled the other eye open, finally deciding to give up the ghost on meditation. “You think I don’t know that, Mom? I’m trying to fix it, but nothing I do is working.”

She reached into the pocket of her kaftan and pulled out a couple raw crystals. “Here, hold these. They’re fully charged and I just cleansed them for you. Black tourmaline to help ground you against the heavy and unwanted, and amethyst to promote calm.”

I took the crystals and held them tightly in my fist as my eyes fell closed once more.

Just as I was sinking into a state of clarity, someone started pounding on the front door and ringing the doorbell incessantly. “Oh, come on!” Slamming the crystals onto the floor, I smacked my palms down on my knees and let out a string of curses that would have made a sailor blush.

My mother raised her perfectly penciled brows at me as I shoved up from my cushion and shot to my feet, but thankfully I didn’t say a word. I didn’t know who the hell was at the door, but I was geared up to give whoever it was a serious piece of my mind when I whipped the door open and found my girl posse standing on the other side.

Lennon, Dakota, and Phoebe all looked way too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for ten in the morning. “What are you guys doing here?”

Lennon bugged her eyes out like that was the most ridiculous question to be asked in the history of ever. “Are you kidding me? You haven’t been answering your phone all morning,” she said, her voice raising higher until the last word was basically a shriek.

I’d been avoiding my phone all morning, and nothing was going to change that any time soon. I put that bitch on silent, then stuffed it into my bedside drawer for good measure. “It’s . . . upstairs,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest defensively.

Dakota’s hands went up in shock. “I’m sorry. But did you or did you not go home with the man of your dreams last night?” Damn it. Somehow, in the midst of the dumpster fire that had been my morning so far, I’d totally forgotten about calling Lennon in a panic from North’s bathroom last night. Of course she’d spill the beans to the rest of them.

“This is prime gossip time for you and your girls, i.e., us,” Phoebe stated dramatically.

Dakota pointed in her direction in agreement. “And she used i.e., so you know she’s serious.”

Clearly done with my evasiveness, Lennon pushed her way past me and into the house, the other two right on her heels. “We brought coffee from Daily Grind and pastries from Al’s,” she called as I trailed behind the three of them to the kitchen. “You’re going to sit, eat, and tell us everything,” she bossed.

“Morning, girls,” my mother greeted from the stove as we piled into the room. My friends took their time placing kisses on my mother’s cheeks and giving her gentle hugs. “I just put the kettle on. Would any of you like a cup of tea?”

Phoebe hopped up on the stool beside the one I’d just plopped down. “Appreciate the offer, Ms. M., but we’re here for a different kind of tea.” The only one in our crew who was married (so far) turned to face me and waggled her brows. “Spill. And don’t leave out a single detail.”

That sting returned to my nostrils at the same time the burn behind my eyes relit. I sniffled, trying my hardest to fight back the tears that were threatening again.

Lennon, never one to miss anything, clocked the watery, red gaze and the way my nose was probably still red from my earlier crying jag, and all her good humor melted away.

“Iris, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

My head shot up at the venom coating her worlds of that last sentence. “What? No! Of course he didn’t hurt me.” I shook my head. “At least, not like that. If anything, I’m the one who assaulted him.”

Concern etched across Dakota’s brow. “Honey, what are you talking about?”

I pulled a breath in through my nostrils before blowing it steadily past my lips. My mother turned, cupping her mug of tea in her hands, and gave me a gentle smile and encouraging nod. With her reassurance, I dove into everything that had taken place the night before. From walking into Toni’s and summoning up the nerve to talk to my crush for the first time, to the night we shared. Minus the details, much to Phoebe’s dismay. Finally, I closed the story out with this morning and the utter embarrassment at discovering he didn’t remember a single second of it.

By the time I finished, I felt like an old dishcloth that had been used and rung out too many times.

“Oh, sweetie.” Phoebe leaned into me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. A second later, two more sets of arms entered the fold, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself wrapped in a tight ball of sisterly love. Mom stood off to the side smiling, knowing that the kind of magic women provided to other women was exactly what I needed to help mend my tattered heart.

Thankfully, the heaviness that had melted from my chest at that hug stayed gone when we finally broke apart. “First off, you did nothing wrong,” Dakota insisted with a vehemence that had my back shooting straight. I wasn’t the only one with an ugly past. When Dakota finally returned to Ashland nearly twenty years after she’d left it, she’d done it by leaving behind an abusive relationship. Unfortunately, the asshole wasn’t as ready to let go as she was and tracked her over multiple states.

But that was over now, and she was living the happy, shiny life she deserved. All my girls were. I’d hoped after last night I was on the road to having what they did. Turned out, I wasn’t so lucky.

“If North Hastings is half the man you think he is, and I think he is too, then he knows you didn’t do anything wrong.”

I flipped the top on the pastry box on the island and pulled out a maple bar, shoving a bite into my mouth. “I know that,” I mumbled around a mouthful of sugar and fat. I swallowed it down with the chai latte my girls brought me from the local coffee shop before speaking again. “Logically, I know I didn’t do anything wrong, at least not on purpose⁠—”

“Or at all,” Lennon stressed. “Tell me something. If you knew he was shit-faced, would you have gone there with him?”

“Or course not!” I answered with indignation.

“Exactly. Because you’re a terrific person.”