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changed
between them. They were no longer dipping their toes into the water and seeing
what happened. Her heart raced and her throat tightened. She took a deep
breath, staving off the panic waiting on the wings to rush in. I will not
become the things that happened to me in the past. I will move on and be happy.
This is a huge step, but nothing I can’t handle. Her heartbeat slowed and
she cherished the victory. She was nothing like the woman who’d retreated to
lick her wounds.
    Taking a deep breath she
calmed herself. I’ll go into this with a level head. Everyone had
secrets. It was just a matter of time until they came out. Her thoughts turned
to Joey. I’ve known that girl all my life and she never said a word. Suddenly
her best friend’s attraction to rebels made sense. Her thoughts shifted to her
own mother and her stomach bubbled. An old-fashioned woman left alone to raise
a child, she had a very narrow view on the type of man she wanted for her
daughter. Her mom thought a good job, strong family ties and dependability
equaled happiness. If she only knew how wrong she was.
    Brushing away unhappy thoughts from the past, she moved
toward the bedroom to get dressed and shower to go in to work for the afternoon
shift. Humming to herself, she dressed in a pair of black slacks, a white tank
top and her favorite black polka dot cardigan. Despite the heat outside, the
library was kept at a chilly temperature. She added a funky silver necklace
with turquoise squares for a pop of color and got into her car feeling like a
million bucks. Embracing the exceptional mood, she turned her Mp3 player to the
Beastie Boys and sang along.
    * * * * *
    Exhausted from a day on her feet and not enough sleep,
Juliette made her way toward her car. The library had been packed by kids
working on a term paper. It happened in spurts that way throughout the
semester. She approached the car and froze. Tiny purplish-blue flowers with
yellow centers were strewn across the hood of her car. Narrowing her eyes, she
looked around the empty parking lot. There was no sign of anyone, and all the
other cars were untouched. The name of the flower eluded her. She wanted to
place this on Shooter but it didn’t feel like him. Nothing that man did was low-key. Maybe they were on other cars that left earlier.
    Walking closer, she looked for signs of a flyer or a note.
It wasn’t unheard of for churches to hit their parking lot, maybe this was a
new gimmick? A really, really creepy one. Blowing a stray strand of hair out of
her eyes, she brushed the flowers off, keeping one to look up that night on Google.
Unlocking the door, she slipped inside, locked the car and shoved her keys into
the ignition. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She didn’t like odd
occurrences. Her trust in the basic goodness of humanity had been shattered, so
she always thought the worst.
    She turned the engine, threw the car into drive and sped
from the parking lot. “I can’t let this make me go off the deep end. If I call
the girls panicking it’ll look like a back slide,” she said out loud, talking
herself down. “It doesn’t mean anything. I need to calm down and wait things
out.” Satisfied with her short-term plan, she relaxed. Too wound up to head
home, she took a detour and headed for her mother’s house. The only child to a
single parent she felt responsible for a portion of her mother’s happiness.
She’d worked two and three jobs to keep them both fed and put her through
school, so Juliette went out of her way to visit at least once a week. Not that
it was a complete chore. She loved her mom. They just had very different views
on how she should be living her life.
    She pulled up in front of the ranch-style white house with
hunter-green shutters and smiled at the brilliant displays of flowers arranged
around the large oak in the front yards and in the flower beds in front of the
walkway. A yellow beautification from the community group stood out among