“I know. It probably sounds odd,” Katrina said. “But hear me out. Many of the other Salt Sisters and I know what it’s like when a husband cheats. We understand the pain in our very bones, in fact. And as a wise woman once told me, nobody ever really knows what to say to someone with a broken heart. But sometimes all we need is someone to sit with us and listen to us talk. Sometimes all we need is a glass of wine and a bit of conversation.”
Ada was genuinely touched by Katrina’s offer. Katrina probably felt just as complicated about Ada as Ada felt about her. But maybe Katrina recognized that Ada didn’t have friends to speak of. Well, she had Marilyn these days. But Marilyn was a hermit, either playing piano at the jazz club or at home.
“I’ll think about it,” Ada said to Katrina. “But I should tell you. Ours is a strange relationship. I don’t want to cross any boundaries with you. I don’t want us to have a strange dynamic, if only because we started out as therapist and patient.”
Katrina raised her hand. “I’ll be open to communication of all kinds,” she said. “Tell me how I can be a better friend to you. Tell me how we can make this work.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
It was two years after Katrina’s first-ever therapy session, two years after everything in Ada’s life had exploded. Ada was forty-five years old. Eager to get the day over with, she got up early, glanced at the family calendar, and made notes to herself for the day ahead. After that came a thirty-minute yoga workout, followed by Icelandic yogurt and strawberries. Outside, it was a bright blue June day. Ada was grateful for the sun shining on the white sands.
Kade got up at seven thirty, stretching his seventeen-year-old limbs over his head as he prepped for running camp. He was clumsy, as though he wasn’t used to being this tall. He broke a coffee mug and cleaned it up himself. Ada didn’t have to say a thing.
Olivia came down a few minutes later, moody and fifteen years old and ready to embark for Shakespeare camp yet again. She was headed straight for a theater major—and the pain that awaited her on stage, surely. But Ada could do nothing to stop it.
Ada adored her children. She knew they’d be gone sooner than later, and that, like Hannah, they’d jet into the world and make something of themselves. In fact, Hannah was spending the summer in the city, interning at a linguistics institution. Adaand Peter were so proud of her that they often cried about it on the phone or over an occasional glass of wine at either of their houses. Hannah hadn’t even had time to come home for a visit after sophomore year finals.
Ada said goodbye to her kids and headed to the office, her heart thudding with apprehension. When she arrived, she found Natalie in a state of frantic distress, her face blotchy.
“I’m sorry!” Natalie cried. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me.”
Ada hugged her tightly and said what she’d said over and over again the past three months. “It’s going to be okay. Your new job is going to love you. You’re the best secretary I’ve ever had. You’re going to change their lives!”
But Natalie had been brokenhearted ever since Ada had announced she was closing her therapy practice. “I still don’t understand why,” she’d asked a few weeks ago.
But Ada was done with being a therapist. Over the years, she’d realized that she had no real advice to give anyone, that she’d lost her passion. Perhaps because of this, she was causing more harm than good.
More than that, she’d realized she could make a living in the arts. Finally, she’d discovered something that filled her soul up.
That morning and afternoon, Ada met with a few patients for the very last time, then packed all her belongings into boxes and loaded them into the back of her car. She helped Natalie bring her things to the office down the road, where Ada met all of Natalie’s new colleagues and gushed about how instrumental Natalie had been for Ada through the years. By the time Ada and Natalie left, Natalie was glowing.
“You like it there,” Ada teased. “Admit it. You already think it’s better than my office.”
Natalie gasped. “That’s not true!”
But Ada had seen the way Natalie spoke with some of the other employees, many of whom had young children and happy husbands, as well as sailing hobbies. They’d probably celebrate holidays together. They’d probably become a close-knit family.
“I’m going to miss you, Nat,” Ada said, drawing her into a hug. She thought,You were my only family for many years.But it felt a little too sad, so she didn’t say it.
It was five thirty when Ada changed into a black dress and traipsed down the steps of the jazz club to find Marilyn in the midst of an all-out solo for nobody. Ada smiled, watching as Marilyn’s hands whipped up and down the keys. Passion was stitched into her face. When she finished destroying the keys, Ada clapped wildly and whistled loudly. Marilyn turned and put her hands on her hips.
“That was for you? Just you?” Marilyn teased.
“I know! I didn’t deserve it,” Ada admitted.
Marilyn frowned and checked her phone. “You’re not singing tonight.”
“Nope.”
“But tomorrow?”
“Yep.”
Marilyn gaped at her. “Then why are you here on your night off?”
Ada laughed. “Can’t a girl come say hi to one of her dearest friends?”
Marilyn rolled her eyes. “I don’t like what this island’s done to you. You’re too soft.”
