Read Online Dress Me in Wildflowers by Trish Milburn - Free Book Online Page B

p.m.?
    She passed under the green traffic light and veered around the curve that led to the apartment complex and on to Catawba Park, one of the positives the area had going for it. After the fall leaf season, June was her favorite time of the year here. There was something magical about how the mountaintops turned bright pink with rhododendron. She’d walk through those vast expanses of pink and feel a sense of calm, a calm that was nowhere to be found this evening.
    Farrin didn’t even have to signal when she turned into the apartment complex. Most of the windows here were dark as well. It appeared many of the residents were still older and went to bed early. How in the world had Janie Carlisle ended up here?
    “It’s 312,” Janie said. “Go to the end and turn right.”
    Farrin followed the directions. As soon as she turned the corner, she saw the number 312 illuminated on the end building to her left. She pulled into a parking space marked with the same number. After cutting the engine, she glanced over and Janie appeared even paler. Perhaps it was the glow of the fluorescent light on the side of the building. To avoid trying to determine how sick Janie was, Farrin looked in the rearview mirror to watch Kurt park in a space in the opposite row marked “Guests”.
    Janie took a deep, slow breath as if to calm whatever it was inside her that was making her so ill. Farrin had done her duty, but for some reason she didn’t open the driver’s side door and escape to Kurt and Tammie’s car. Instead she sat and waited for Janie to say something. Perhaps “I’m sorry I was such a bitch in high school” or “I feel awful that I ruined what was supposed to be the best night of your life.”
    She doubted if Janie spoke in the next few minutes, it would be any long-overdue apologies. No, it’d more likely be, “Oh God, I’m going to puke.”
    The seconds of silence stretched until Farrin had to look over at Janie again. She turned at the same moment a tear escaped Janie’s eye and coursed down her cheek.
    Janie swiped it away and took another deep breath. “Thank you for driving me home. I appreciate it.”
    She actually sounded genuine.
    Farrin nodded, unable to voice the “You’re welcome” that would normally come as a response to the thank you. Nor was she able to ask Janie if she needed help to her door and into her apartment.
    The cool night air perked Janie up a bit as they both stepped from the car. It also brought Farrin back to her senses. She slammed the car door, mad at herself for aiding Janie so easily.
    Janie stared at the stairs to the second level. “Can you—”
    “No. I’ve already done more than you deserve.” Farrin stalked toward Kurt and Tammie’s car. The core of human decency within her screamed for her to go back and help Janie inside, to make sure she was okay and didn’t pass out only feet from her front door. But bitterness won out over decency in the end. She wasn’t proud of it, but there was no changing the ugly truth.
    Farrin slid into the back seat of the car, a newer and nicer model than Janie’s. She couldn’t shake the sense of having slipped into an alternate reality.
    To add to the sense of the unreality was the fact that Drew Murphy had tried to strike up a conversation with Farrin like they were old friends and had asked her to dance.
    She almost believed none of this was real and that exhaustion had finally claimed her, causing her to fall asleep atop her work. Maybe she’d wake up at any minute in her New York home and swear not to work so much if the result was such strange and disturbing dreams.
    The lack of questioning from Tammie surprised Farrin as the blocks between the apartment complex and Faye’s house slid by. With each house they passed, Farrin expected her friend to ask, “What was that all about?” Or remind her of Janie’s many cruelties. She wasn’t sure she could respond when the different parts of herself were warring inside her head like