We arrive at the classroom marked “36” and round the corner in the room that’s already almost full. It doesn’t look like there’s any sort of seating arrangement or silent agreement that certain seats are saved for some considering it’s the first day of school, so I follow Teeny to a seat at the far end near the windows.
“Thanks for walking me to class,” I say in a low voice, leaning in her direction.
She smiles with her teeth exposed, and the two front teeth stand proudly in the middle of her smile. “No problem.”
CHAPTERFIVE
Teeny
NOW
“This is so much betterthan playing in dirt,” I comment, leaning back in my beach chair with a deep sigh. “I think I’m going to be digging soil out of my nails for a week.”
Grace reaches for her plastic tumbler filled with ice and something of the wine variety. “You’re such a good daughter,” she says. “I would’ve hired someone to do all of that.”
“And waste money on something us adult children could do? Have youmetmy mom? I would never hear the end of it.”
Mina, whose ears perked up the second Sadie said “beach” back at my parent’s house, laughs from my other side. “I think she’d disown you.”
Sadie and her best friend, Lauren, frolic at the water’s edge, a mere fifty feet ahead of us. She’s tossing a tennis ball for Grace’s border collie as he barks and jumps to catch the ball midair. A bubble of laughter and amusement slips through my lips when Buster tackles Sadie to the ground and slathers her face with kisses.
I shift positions, stretching my back from the achiness of being slouched over weeds and tulip bulbs. And I’m pretty sure I experienced some level of a heat stroke after spending four hours in my mom’s backyard with gardening gloves on and a hand trowel gripped in my fingers. After an appreciative pat on my back and Sadie’s promise to be back next week to make good use of my parents’ pool, we left to spend the latter half of our day at the beach.
Mina stands from the spot on her large blanket and joins Sadie out in the water, Buster greeting her with giddy recognition for another friend joining the party.
“So, this ex-boyfriend of yours,” Grace throws nonchalantly after a moment of silence now that Mina’s out of ear shot. “What did he want to talk to you about?”
“I don’t know, and I honestly don’t care.” I gave her the Cliff Notes version of my encounter with Everett and his pleas to hear him out as soon as she arrived at the beach while we unloaded and Mina and the girls lathered themselves up with sunblock.
Grace’s small knowing smirk turns into a disapproving frown at my flippant remark. “But he’s going to be here for the wedding?”
“Looks like it.”
“Leo’s going to have a field day when he finds out.”
I shrug.
“You know, I think this is where I pass onto you some of my divorced woman wisdom,” she comments, throwing a cheeky smile in my direction. “Entertain it.”
“Entertain what?”
She flings a hand in my direction, clarifying nothing and making her words sound off handish. “The ex-boyfriend. See where it goes, and if it turns into a little summer fling…voilà!”
“What?” My head rears back at the absurdity of her suggestion.
“It could be fun.”
“And dangerous,” I tell her. “You don’t want me to get meddled up in that mess again.” She chuckles, laughing off the residual hurt from her own divorce last year after five years of marriage. “Is that what you did? Rekindle an old love?”
“Rekindle is a bit of a strong word,” she answers. “More like…recharge and release.”
I can’t help a small giggle, and it feels good. It feels freeing to be able to laugh a little at myself, at the heap of muck that is my love life, and the collision of my present and my past.
Grace looks at me over the curve of her sunglasses. “How messy was it?”
“An absolute massacre.”
Mina’s phone trills from her blanket, and when I peer down at it, I see Josh’s name flash on the screen.
