Read Online To the Sea (Follow your Bliss) by Deirdre Riordan Hall - Free Book Online Page B

Summer too. When we were young,
despite your desire to stay on dry land, you were the embodiment of freedom.
You didn’t have a curfew, wore whatever you wanted, well they were hippie
hand-me downs, but you never had to wear loafers or pleated skirts. In our
teens, you always just seemed so free to me. And you’re my best friend.”
    Tears
of love, burgeoning, endless, soulful love for Nicole slid from Kira’s eyes.
    “Life
goes on,” Kira commented letting each syllable penetrate her inner world. The
truth of it, like a warm breeze, started to rattle away the bits of doubt that
had been plaguing her.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
    Chapter Nine
     
    On
the unusually cold spring night, Kira and Nicole arrived at the large office
building on Beacon Hill that housed Ambrose, Roeder and Associates.
    Arranged
next to big banks of windows, were several lounge areas with overstuffed tweed
chairs, tables, and exotic potted plants. They debated waiting there, but then
Kira pointed to a coffee shop around the corner from the elevator.
    “Hmm.
Should we wait here, what if the women see us and bolt in the opposite
direction? Or by the coffee shop, less likely to make a scene, you know, if
they’re nuts.” She wiped her sweaty hands on her pants and unbuttoned her coat.
“I’m not doing my best thinking. I want to get this over with.”
    “You
can rely on me for logic and reason,” Nicole said. “Anyway, they’ll be looking
for Jeremy, not two women,” Nicole reminded her. “How about the chairs by the
coffee shop? That way it’ll be private, but still within ear shot of other
people, less likely for a Real Housewives of Boston kind of scene.”
    Kira
agreed and Nicole sent out six texts that each read,
    Meet
at the coffee shop at 9. Don’t be late.
    Kira’s
stomach fluttered as she tried to distract herself with a magazine found on one
of the tables. At least with Blain she knew to expect a nasty earful; her
imagination raked at her with unknowns. Kira checked the time on her phone.
    8:56.
    “Think
of this as public service. Maybe they’ll think twice about getting in the car
with a drunk driver. It could’ve been any one of them,” Nicole said.
    8:57. The big glass doors whooshed open. Two women, one wearing a fashionable blazer
with a sequined-cami beneath strode in, the other with her hair in a ponytail
and jeans arrived just behind her. With the confident air of women meeting a
lover, they each walked to the coffee shop.
    8:58 .
Kira’s mouth went dry.
    8:59 .
The younger one, in jeans, upon not seeing Jeremy waiting for her, ordered a
tall cappuccino. The other woman looked impatiently at her cell phone. Jeremy’s
vibrated in Nicole’s purse. She showed it to Kira.
    Where
the hell are you? –V
    It
was nine o’clock. Go time.
    “Viveca,”
Nicole said softly. She nodded in the direction of the woman in the blazer who
stabbed at the keypad of her phone. Jeremy’s vibrated again.
    I
don’t have time for games. Get here within five or I’m leaving. -V
    “She
means business,” Kira said after Nicole showed her the text. “The others have
five minutes then. I don’t want to do this twice.”
    Nicole
nodded.
    Just
then another pair came in, a brunette wearing a plunging dress and the other,
possibly the Brown student— the closest University listed on the website aside
from Harvard. Kira assumed that since they just sent the initial email out
earlier that day, all the women had to be local.
    She
watched them eye each other. She wondered if it was suspicious that there were
six women, including Nicole and herself, all in their twenties, waiting around
an office-building coffee shop after hours. Another woman stalked in, wearing
stilettos. The five minutes Viveca offered were almost up. She paced irritably.
Finally, the last girl came in, looking appropriately bewildered.
    Without
thinking, Kira called out, “Jeremy.”
    She
didn’t want to go