“Hello! I think we picked the perfect day!” Viv was bright, her smile genuine, her joy hard to contain. She had a dark secret that soon she feared would overtake everything again. So today, she would not let it. Today, they’d be the five Sandbar Sisters.
“Oh, I swear, I did such a good job on your hairdo. I wish my hair would do that too!” J.J. said as she assessed the sassy hairstyle Viv now rocked, thanks to J.J.
It was all floppy layers in front and stacked in the back. There was shape and style now. Viv really had let it go before she came back to Irish Hills.
“I’m loving it,” Hope said. And she ran a hand through Viv’s do.
“I think you might have too much curl for this,” J.J. said.
Hope’s hair looked as strong as she did. It was iron mixed with snow mixed with the old dark chestnut.
“Don’t change your hair. If I had your color, I’d be letting it fly all the time,” Viv said.
Viv looked at her other friends. Goldie was still highlighting her hair, as was Libby. Goldie was California blonde, and Libby’s auburn hair was her calling card.
Meanwhile, Goldie had spied Viv’s bag of goodies. “Okay, what’s that?”
“I made a kaftan for each of us. I refuse to worry about how I look in bathing suits or, God forbid, shorts, and from what I hear about Siena’s sales, I’m not the only one.”
“No kidding, every summer, Old Navy is the best place for me to get shorts and tees, and then poof, all of a sudden, I look terrible in that stuff. The shorts are too short, and the tops are, so, I don’t know, what’s the word? They just don’t work!”
“Old Navy has nothing for us, love,” Viv said.
“Right? My girls are shopping at Forever 21, and there are zero places for me,” Hope weighed in.
“That’s because we need high-quality fabric, we need better fit, we need three-quarter length sleeves, we aren’t twenty-one, and we need our clothes to do the work.”
“I need you to go with me to the store,” J.J. said.
“Well, for now, here’s a kaftan I made with your adorableness in mind.” She handed J.J. her little gift bag and then passed out the rest.
“Ooh, is this the name? I love it!”
“Yep, Viv and Breathe, my new label.” But Viv air quoted the word label. She wasn’t in this for the branding or business. She was in it for joy. Maybe it would be a nice reminder to her friends, after.
Each kaftan that she’d made had a similar shape, but Viv had custom designed the length and the colors for her sweet friends. Goldie’s matched her golden hair with a golden metallic shimmer. If Elizabeth Taylor could rock a kaftan in her marriage to Richard Burton, Goldie Hayes would rock one on her ponton, The Cleopatra. J.J.’s was a vibrant tangerine with turquoise trim. Hope’s was cobalt blue with silver accents, it set off the silver in her hair. And Libby’s was a passionate purple.
“Purple? Are we sure redheads can wear purple?”
“I’m now in charge of your wardrobe, and you can wear purple.”
“Befits a queen!” Goldie said dramatically, and it was true that was what Viv had been thinking when putting together the kaftan for Libby.
Her friends admired their new kaftans. They thanked her, modeled them. Viv loved each unique piece. This would never work on department store shelves. The individual crafting of the garment was the fun of it for her.
The Sandbar Sisters gathered their stuff and walked out to the dock.
Between the dock and the pontoon and the peddle boat, Libby had everything they needed.
“Do you have some SPF 30?” Hope asked.
“Are you kidding? I have SPF 5,000. I don’t spend all this money getting my skin the texture of baby butt and then fry it out here.” Goldie handed Hope a high-end bottle of sunscreen.
“I don’t care what you say. My legs look good tan,” J.J. said. She’d kept the kaftan on but hiked it up.
“Tan fan looks better than white fat, remember that?” Viv said. “That was our philosophy, remember?”
“Back when we weren’t fat,” Hope pointed out.
