Chapter 20 #3
for being awestruck—lightning, fireworks, bells and whistles. She experienced an absolute cacophony of sensations.
“I remember,” Lee said.
There was something acutely painful about how every sweet memory of Lee’s was tainted by her own preoccupation with Cody.
She braced herself for his response.
“We were discussing various plans for the paper, and the topic of comics came up. There was one guy who was obnoxiously loud
and opinionated. He had been like that the whole meeting. I was trying to talk about making an original comic rather than
using syndicated ones, because that’s what I had done for my high school paper, but I couldn’t get a word in.”
Thora chimed in. “And I told that guy he needed to shut the fuck up and let other people speak. I didn’t even have something
to say for myself. It was obvious that it needed to be said.”
“Honestly, you’re pretty lucky you were allowed to work on the paper at all. That guy was part of a long Townsend legacy.”
“And he became editor-in-chief, like all his forebears. We learned to get along. You came up to me afterward, with your terrible
haircut, to thank me.”
Lee ran his fingers through his hair, the loose curls that suited him wonderfully. “I had a ponytail in high school, which
was pretty counterculture for my school. My mom encouraged it, of course. Then one of the girls on my floor said it needed
to go—the same one who said I needed to ditch the name Leaf! I let her cut it. I fear it may have been a prank.”
Thora liked that terrible haircut. It was like a secret handshake, that there was someone else not interested in fitting in
with the wealth and power that surrounded them at Townsend.
“Meanwhile, you were at the meeting wearing . . . a business suit?” Lee added.
Thora hung her head. She’d thought that meeting was going to be more like an interview, and quickly figured out what was going
on. But she couldn’t exactly do a costume change.
“I didn’t know how things worked yet.”
“You were playing with your necklace the whole meeting.”
Whenever she slid the chain of her necklace, she could feel the zip of the links as they buzzed against the key. It always calmed her to think of the home she had at Juniper.
“That’s enough of that,” Mack cut in. “Jade wanted a cute story and now it’s getting a little sickening. Don’t spoil my dessert.
What’s dessert again?”
“I want more of the cute story,” Jade protested.
Lee brought out a big bowl of chocolate mousse, with accoutrements including whipped cream, Luxardo cherries, and chocolate
shavings.
“Let me tell you about the first time we went to Devil’s Cauldron, then,” Thora suggested.
Thora regaled them with the tale of the first time she showed Lee her tits, making him blush to the roots of his hair while
Mack and Jade howled with laughter. The four of them polished off the bowl of mousse, fighting over who would run their fingers
around the inside to get the last of it. Mack eventually picked up the bowl and sprinted off with it, Thora in hot pursuit
behind her. Mack handed the bowl to Lee as she ran by. Thora stopped and gave him an assessing look. Then she flashed her
tits; it was the only thing to do. He gave her the bowl, but not until after he had taken one last swipe of the mousse for
himself.
As they drove back to Juniper, the atmosphere in Lee’s truck was electric. Thora felt like they had figured their shit out.
She cared enough to try to understand, as did he. They hadn’t made any plans for how they were going to continue to see each
other, but it didn’t feel urgent.
He knew where to find her. He was obviously going to be back as the work on Woodhill House progressed, and she didn’t need
to see the big picture at this moment. She needed his hand in hers, and it was. She felt aglow, like she had metamorphosed
from a larval stage into a more mature one. There was still room for growth, but this felt amazing.
Thora loved the way you could get glimpses of Juniper as you came up the snaking driveway. At night, the bits of light that
poked through the trees gave the feeling of seeing fireflies, knowing you were in the presence of magic but also something
real and natural. This was her home.
Lee parked the truck behind Thora’s Jeep, and they walked around the back of the house to the kitchen, depositing leftovers
in the fridge.
Maybe that ringing of the bell had cleared the air, like a sound bath at a yoga studio.
Lee must have felt it, too. “I think we should give the Bell Room another try.” If he was feeling that brave, she could join
him there. So what if a bell rang? It was only a sound.
She had a Christmas Eve feeling about her as she changed out of borrowed clothes and into pajamas. She wished she had something
sexy to wear that Lee could unwrap like a present. She’d never owned such a thing. She could become someone who did. Everything
was available to her now.
She went to the bathroom at the end of the hallway to brush her teeth and do skincare, when a strange skittering noise drew
her attention.
A rattlesnake, coiled up in the antique copper bathtub, threatened to strike.