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He got up and toddled toward her, talking nonstop She scooped him into her arms and carried him into the bathroo a Xanax, she waited to feel better Soon, the sharpness of her pain would dull

Talking to Noah about nothing, she took him into the kitchen and made dinner When it was finished, she bathed him and read him stories until he fell asleep in her arms

When she’d put hi roo on her finger

“To to take coive us their answer Maybe it’s in the ht now”

A knock at the door startled her She had been so deep in her thoughts—dreams, actually—she hadn’t heard anyone drive up Before she could even stand, the door opened, and Aurora stood there, backlit by the glow frohts

“Enough,” Aurora said, closing the door behind her

“Enough what?”

“Get dressed We’re dropping Noah off with Richard and we’re going to the Outlaw”

Aurora crossed the roolitter of the early nineties; in their stead, Aurora had y pants and T-shirts Cropped hair, now dyed reddish brown, fraave her a pixie-like look “You can’t keep going on like this It’s killing you, Vivi You’re just tranquilizing yourself to get through the days”

“And your point?”

“My point is that you have to get back on the horse Or at least the barstool I won’t take no for an answer, and you knohat a bitch I can be”

Vivi Ann didn’t want to go to the Outlahere all her old friends would stare at her sadly and try too hard to be friendly They all thought she should have let Dallas go by now, “moved on,” and it bothered them that she hadn’t Fashion and e, but not Vivi Ann Her life had paused Still, the thought of another night spent alone, staring at nothing and reood, either

“If you can’t do it for yourself, do it fora little “Richard is hardly talking toa little crazy I need to laugh,” she said quietly “And I know you do, too”

Vivi Ann saw the truth Aurora was hiding, or hadn’t faced Her sister’s brown eyes were dark with the sorrow that cae

There was plenty of sorrow to go around these days, it seemed