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But then I thought about Murphy, who would be coming to live with us in two more days, and that was the last I thought about infertility for a long time.
The ladies were talking a mile a minute, not about the book they were supposed to have finished reading, but about the storm and what happened with Murphy. And a couple of them were talking about Frank and me, knowing full well I was standing right there.
But they hadn’t heard the latest gossip yet.
Mama K took a seat in the middle of the group, looking at ease around a bunch of women she’d never met as she pulled her knitting project from her bag and grabbed her needles and a green ball of yarn. Small towns were the same everywhere, I supposed.
“Oy!” I shouted. “If all you wanted was to talk smack, you could’ve done that on the phone. I thought we were here to finish talking about the damn book club book.”
“Keep your pants on, Sam,” Billie said. “Nothing juicy ever happens in this town, so when it does, we have to talk about it.”
Aislinn snorted. “This is coming from Billie Acker Cade. The queen of Wisper gossip herself. As if.”
“When in Rome,” Billie replied with a smirk.
Phil and Cal were in a corner, whispering to each other.
“Um, Phil, Cal, sorry to interrupt, but can we get started?”
“Hold on,” Carly said, pointing a finger at them. “At the last meetin’, y’all two were glarin’ daggers at each other, and now you’re best friends? What gives?”
Abey rolled her eyes, shaking her head, clearly in on their secret. She was in on mine too.
“Nothing ‘gives,’” Cal said. “Phil and I had a chance to talk things over. That’s all.”
“Well,” Carly snarked, “are you gonna fill the rest of us in, or what?”
The two women looked at each other, and Cal shrugged.
Phil sat next to Aubrey. “I’ll tell ’em, Cal. You just rest.”
“Are you sick, Cal?” I asked as she took a seat next to Phil.
“No, I’m perfectly fine. This is not a big deal at all.”
“What’s not a big deal?” Aubrey asked while Juni and Daisy nodded next to her.
“Some years ago,” Phil said, “Cal and I had an argument. She claimed her lemon chess pie was better than mine. Now, my pie had been winnin’ contests for years, so I mighta challenged her on that, and I ain’t too proud to say I mighta been a little rude about it.”
“Yes, and I was a”—Cal lowered her voice—“I was a B-word about it.”
Juni looked back and forth between Cal and Phil, with her mouth open and a dumb expression on her face. “Seriously? That’s what your feud was about? Pie?”
“Oh yes,” Cal said. “It’s a very serious subject.”
“Exactly,” Phil agreed.
Billie added, “You ever heard that expression, ‘show, don’t tell’? I think you’re gonna have to bake us some pies so we can weigh in on this. Next TikTok lesson, I want pie.”
“Ach, Billie.” Cal adjusted the charm bracelet on her wrist, her long nails clinking against the metal, but then she sat back and smiled at her friend.
“But how did you resolve the argument?” Juni asked.
“Well now,” Phil said, “we just talked it over.”
Abey snorted under her breath.
“Something you wanna share with the class?” Billie asked.
