by Wendy Wax
For a moment she considered pushing him over the side of the balcony. It wasn’t that far. He might even survive.
“I have been absolutely miserable and it was just a ploy?”
He brightened. “How miserable were you?”
She slugged him in the arm. It hurt. “I don’t believe this!”
“Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures,” he said. But seconds later the smile flickered out. His tone turned serious. “Aw, hell, Avery. I love you, and I’ve been miserable, too. More than miserable. I’ve missed you so much it hurts.”
She froze for a moment as his words sank in. Her own heart leapt as his lips quirked. “And desperate measures call for . . .”
“Truth!” She automatically shouted the name of the game their families had played together when they were children. On the count of three each person had to say something true.
“All right,” he said. “Category?”
“About the building,” she said. “One, two . . .
“You’re the only one I want to work on this building with,” she said at the same time he said, “There’s no way I’m going to let anyone besides me work on this building with you.”
They laughed. Okay. It was a start.
“Category?” he asked.
“Riley Hancock.”
He counted them down.
On three she shouted, “I bet she couldn’t even drive in a nail!” While he shouted, “She couldn’t spell ‘construction’!”
They both laughed. A laugh that unclogged her throat and began to mend the hole in her heart. “Category?” she called out.
He looked her in the eye and said, “Marriage.”
She held his gaze, swallowed. “All right. One, two . . .” On three she closed her eyes and said, “I love you and I’m ready to get married.” He said, “I love you and we don’t have to get married.”
She opened her eyes. “Did you mean that?”
“Did you?”
She snorted. “This is unbelievable. I finally agree and you don’t want to get married anymore?”
“That’s not exactly what I said,” he countered. “And I’m starting to remember why I always hated this game.” He grinned.
“This isn’t funny.”
“Actually, it is.”
“All right,” she conceded. “It’s a little funny.” All she knew was she could breathe again. And they were not only talking to each other, they were laughing.
“So, I think I have an idea,” he said. “A compromise.”
“I’m listening.”
“You agree to marry me at some mutually agreed-upon time in the future before we require walkers and still have our teeth. And I give you this.” He pulled a small jeweler’s box out of his pocket and opened it. The emerald-cut diamond glittered in the afternoon light.
“But . . . that was your mother’s.”
“Yeah.” Chase smiled. “She would have wanted you to have it. And Dad insisted.”
Her vision blurred as he lifted it out of the box. Elaine Hardin had mothered her when her own mother had not.
The first tears fell as Chase sank down on one knee and reached for her hand. “Are you good with this?”
She nodded. “Are you?” Tears of happiness slid down her cheeks and dropped into the sawdust-strewn concrete as he slid the ring on her finger.
“Hell, yes,” he said beaming. Rising to his feet, he took her into his arms. “I can’t wait to get started here. In the meantime, you know how I react to the smell of sawdust.”
She smiled as he nuzzled her ear, bent to kiss his way down her neck to the sensitive hollow at her throat. It was a smell that never failed to stir her.
“The only thing that could turn me on more right now is if you had a hammer in your hand,” he murmured. “Or you weren’t wearing anything except your tool belt.”
She laughed even as she continued to cry, but he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t seem to hold on tight enough. His kiss was deep and drugging.
“You’re going to have to stop crying, though,” he said, finally lifting his mouth from hers.
“I know.” She nodded and sniffed, but the tears continued to flow. When she smiled she could taste their sweet saltiness.
“After all,” he said, tucking her under one arm and pulling her against him. “We’re going to be working on this place soon. And everybody knows there’s no crying in construction.”
Epilogue
It was almost April. The sky was a bold and beautiful blue decorated with wisps of white clouds. It was their first sunset at Bella Flora since Kyra and Dustin had moved back in, and they intended to make the most of it.
“Do you think she missed us as much as we’ve missed her?” Maddie asked as she followed her daughter down the central hallway and into the kitchen.
“Are you kidding?” Kyra asked. “I’m pretty sure I heard her sigh with relief when Dustin and I carried our stuff in. Now I just feel her smiling.”
“Well, it was nice of Troy to move into the pool house,” Maddie said as she unpacked the Ted Peters smoked fish spread and began to spread it on crackers. “And she doesn’t look any the worse for wear or a lack of female occupants.”
Kyra smiled. “Shocking, isn’t it?”
Nikki and Bitsy arrived with the ingredients for strawberry daiquiris. Soon the whir of the blender drifted across the hall from the Casbah Lounge. Avery joined them in the kitchen with the requisite family-size bag of Cheez Doodles and a bag from a local gourmet shop. The engagement ring Chase had given her sparkled on her finger.
Soon the food was plated and the daiquiris blended. They carried their sunset snacks and drinks out to the loggia and settled around the wrought iron dining table. The breeze off the water was gentle and cool. Boats moved slowly through the pass. Above and beyond it birds rode unseen jets of air, the caw of gulls mingling with the low whine of boat motors.
“Wow,” Nikki said as she began to fill everyone’s glasses. “Where did the caviar and toast points come from?”
“I brought them in Deirdre’s honor,” Avery said. “I hope wherever she is she knows about Chase and me.”
“I’m betting yes,” Maddie said as they began to fill small plates. “And I’m equally sure she’s thrilled about it.”
Avery reached for a Cheez Doodle. “Jeff said that he and my dad always thought we’d be a good match. I did have a brief crush on him as a teenager, you know, before he became such a pain in the ass.”
Kyra laughed. “Funny how sometimes the biggest pains in the ass can turn out to have such nice stuff hidden inside.”
“That’s for sure,” Nikki agreed. “If you’d told me when special agent Joe Giraldi was using me to try to catch my brother that he’d end up being the father of my children, I would have said you were out of your mind.”
“Ditto,” Maddie said. “Remember how obnoxious Will was when we landed on Mermaid Point?”
“And then there was Bertie, who looked so good and turned out to have a rotten center,” Bitsy said.
“Almost nothing has turned out the way I would have written it,” Maddie said. “You know, if we were in a novel and I was the author.”
“There’ve been a lot of plot twists and things we didn’t see coming, all right,” Kyra said. “I remember the first time I saw Bella Flora. When I was pregnant with Dustin and still thought Daniel was going to come and carry me off on his white horse.”
“Yes, well, that would have been a shorter story,” Nikki said. “More like a fairy tale.”
“Speaking of the dark prince, what have you heard about the film?” Bitsy asked, taking a sip of her daiquiri.
“They managed to finish without Dustin,” Kyra said. “And honestly, at the moment that’s all I care about. I don’t think Dustin will be hearing much from his dad until they at l
east get through the first cut.”
“Do you remember the first time we saw Bella Flora?” Nikki asked. “She smelled like a locker room full of moldy bathing suits. And she didn’t look much better.”
“She was in horrible shape,” Maddie said. “But Avery fell in love with her at first sight, and John Franklin kept trying to get us to see beyond the dirt and grime.”
“If we’d had the muscle or the money to tear her down, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now,” Nikki said quietly. “I was so furious at the time I considered pulling her down with my bare hands.”
“And if she hadn’t been so horrible, we would have sold her.” Maddie smiled and raised her glass. “I think that’s tonight’s first good thing. To Bella Flora. If we’d been able to tear her down or sell her, our lives would have been completely different. We probably never would have even gotten to know each other.”
“To Bella Flora!” They clinked and drank.
Maddie felt Bella Flora’s thick plaster walls hunched protectively behind them, sensed her approval. They had brought her back to life and she had done the same for them. No matter what came next she would forever be a part of their story.
“I have a good thing to toast,” Bitsy said. “I’ve reached an agreement with the current owner of the former Y and I’ve already retained a company to design and renovate. Half that company is sitting here right now.” She nodded and raised her glass to Avery. Once again they toasted and drank.
“Which brings me to my good thing,” Avery said as Nikki refilled glasses all around. “Chase and I were approached by Netflix. They were looking for a husband-and-wife team to do an original renovation show. We convinced them to go with an engaged couple and their merry band of friends who renovate a historic YMCA.”
“I’m taking it that we’re the merry band?” Nikki asked.
“I sure hope so,” Kyra said. “Because Troy and I already had an initial conversation with them to pitch the newly formed Singer Matthews Productions as shooter/producers, and we assured them that the former cast of Do Over was going to be a part of it.”
Kyra raised her glass. “To Netflix, the Y, and the merry band. My good thing is that we’re finally going to get to do the Do Over we originally intended.”
They clinked and drank as the sun hovered over the gulf, its reflected brilliance shimmering beneath it.
“If we toast too much more, someone’s going to have to carry me inside,” Kyra said.
“Tell me about it.” Avery slathered caviar on a toast point and popped it into her mouth. “I’m starting to think Deirdre might have known what she was talking about. This caviar business isn’t half bad.”
Maddie joined in the laughter and sighed with contentment. The temperature had begun to drop but the warmth of friendship was better than any blanket. They had Bella Flora and each other to guard their backs. And one more good thing to toast. “I think it’s your turn, Nikki. Do you want to tell them or should I?” Maddie looked at the woman who had evolved so dramatically since the day they’d all first pulled up in front of the neglected house that had become home in all the ways that mattered.
“All right,” Nikki said. “I’m happy to announce that Maddie and I have already reserved space in Bitsy’s building for a vintage clothing and designer consignment shop. I’m going to handle the buying and she’s going to focus on organization and staffing. That way I’ll have time for Joe and the girls and she can travel when she wants.” She raised her glass. “To good things!”
“To good things and great people to share them with!” Maddie added as the puddle of red sun oozed into the gulf and leached the last bits of color from the sky. “Most of all, to our friendship. And to getting to live right here on the best beach ever!”
They sat and talked in the gathering dusk, their faces alight with excitement over all that lay ahead. If this were, in fact, a novel, the author might be tempted to type “the end.”
But Maddie knew that the journey they’d so unexpectedly begun together was far from over. It was just time to turn the page, so a new chapter could begin.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
At the beginning of the book, Madeline Singer, Avery Lawford, Nicole Grant, Kyra Singer, and Bitsy Baynard are living at the Sunshine Hotel and Beach Club. How do they each feel about the fact that Kyra has been forced to rent out Bella Flora? Is it harder on some of the women than others?
Madeline is an amazing mother and tends to nurture everyone around her. Is there a Madeline figure in your life? Maybe your own mother or someone you met later in life who offers you sage advice in difficult situations? Madeline often struggles to put her own needs before the needs of others. Do you identify with her feelings of being torn between her loved ones and finding a career path of her own? Do you agree with the choices Madeline makes in the novel?
Avery wonders if she can trust Chase again after his emotional betrayals in the past. Do you understand her reluctance to enter into a relationship with him again? Do you believe people deserve a second chance? Is love between two people enough to overcome any relationship difficulty?
Do you agree with Kyra’s decision to let her son Dustin act in his father’s movie? What does Kyra learn about Daniel Deranian’s and Tonja’s parenting skills while she and Dustin live on the movie set? How does Kyra change as a mother throughout the novel? How do her feelings toward Daniel and Tonja change?
Nicole is struggling with motherhood. Why do you think she wants to prove she can look after the twins on her own? Does society put pressure on women to be perfect mothers? Do you think Nicole is a perfectionist? What does she learn about mothering in the book? How is it similar to or different from what Kyra discovers about being a parent?
Nicole’s body changes after giving birth. Do you understand why she struggles to come to terms with her new shape? Can you identify with her insecurities?
Bitsy has the opportunity to get revenge on her husband, who stole her fortune and ran away with another woman. Do you agree with how she punishes him? In the course of the book, Bitsy learns how hard divorce and abandonment can be on women and children. How has Bitsy changed since she lost her fortune?
Maddie, Avery, Kyra, Nikki, and Bitsy are a close group of friends who offer each other enormous support throughout the book. Do you have a similar circle of friends or one friend you can always count on? What makes your friendship so strong?
Which woman’s challenges—Avery’s, Kyra’s, Maddie’s, Nikki’s, or Bitsy’s—resonate most with you? Why?
Photo by Beth Kelly
Wendy Wax, a former broadcaster, is the author of thirteen novels, including Sunshine Beach, A Week at the Lake, While We Were Watching Downton Abbey, The House on Mermaid Point, Ocean Beach, and Ten Beach Road. The mother of two grown sons, she lives in the Atlanta suburbs with her husband and is doing her best to adjust to the quiet of her recently emptied nest. Visit her online at authorwendywax.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/authorwendywax, and follow her on Twitter @Wendy_Wax.
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