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“How about you and I ht, the real world doesn’t exist It’s just me and you, and whatever happens next”

“One night,” he echoes slowly, his dark eyes glittering with lust in the diht

“One night” I pro hiainst me

Closer, closer, and then we touch His , a rush like nothing else I slideinto him as I--

RING RING!

The loud shriek of le awake, groping blindly for my bedside table

“Hello?” I yawn

“Noelle, sweetie?” My mom’s voice comes loudly “Were you still asleep?”

The lights from roan, falling back into the warm pillows “Of course I’m still asleep”

“You said you were getting an early start” Her voice is brisk and slightly out of breath I can just picture her on the tread out a quick couple ofdrive, you should be on the road already Although¸ I don’t understand why you can’t fly doith us all tomorrow”

“You know I can’t fly”

“Won’t,” she corrects s for that Two pills, and you’ll be so out of it, you won’t notice the heights”

“I don’t want to be out of it” I roll over and try to blink awake “I’ll be fine, ives me time to think”

“Well, if you’re going to be there early, you can help with the arrangeirl in the shop didn’t sound like she knehat she was doing Would you double-check at the church, too?” she adds “And we all have to head straight back to the airport after the service, but if they want to hold soht”

“Uh huh”

“I have to go, I’s up

I wish I could sink back under the covers anddreaht there in the middle of the street…

Except it’s not a dream

It’s been three days since I et his surname, or barely any other information, but for those few blissful hours, it felt like I knew hiether, the kind you reave hi my phone ever since

But he still hasn’t called

I let the memories melt away and stuo take a shower I wish I were a stranger to early- crazy hours right now: I’m usually at my desk by 6:30, and not hoe, and every new associate has to h Survival of the fittest; to the victor, the corner office

I just wonder if I even want it anymore I’ve spenta frustrated itch, like this isn’t the life I iined for rind I dress in so and a ther a car in New York City is a , it’s the only way Besides, I told Mo It’s the one tinore aze out the windshield, and just let my mind wander

The world is still silent, the sun rising as I head out of the city and onto the highway It’s over ten hours to North Carolina, and I settle back, relaxing: the radio on, breeze whipping through the open s As thethe trip My happiness fades

Grandma Olsen

Nana to randmother,” she’d wink from her spot in the kitchen of her old-fashioned diner “The rest of you can call me Nancy”

But I called her Nana from the time I was a toddler, and somehow, it stuck Every other summer ere kids, my parents would take us to visit her, down in the so tan on the beach,trouble, but I loved nothing more than to sit up on the counter in her steamy kitchen and watch Nana bake

It was a sight to behold Muffin pans oozing berry juices; cake tins scented with lear and cinna whipped into airy peaks You never knehat she would whip out of the oven next, but it would always be delicious I spent my summers with flour in my hair and buttercream smeared around my mouth, until my parents decided that they couldn’t be away fros and I were packed off to sleep-away ca tennis, and cos loose in the cabin

My time in Beachwood Bay became sandythose old-fashioned envelopes in the ht her how to Skype Her hip started giving her problems a few years back; Dad wanted her to move up to the city with us, but she refused That old beach town had been home to her all her life, and she wasn’t about to leave just because she took a little longer to get down the stairs She sold the diner, and bought a big house out by the beach instead, turning it into a B&B with the best breakfast in the state I always ot in the way The last tio She made roast beef and a vast cake, studded with nuts and candied fruit, served under a huge fir tree to an assorted cluster of guests, faood food, just the way the holidays should be