"Most things do."Rose leaned a hip against the counter."You got people here?"
"No."
"Family?"
"Four children."Sunny replied."No.No husband.He died.Three years ago."That was the safe, practiced version.The one that left out everything.
Something moved across Rose's face.Not pity, Sunny would have walked out of here without ever looking back in response to pity.
No, that was ...recognition.
"You’re a widow with four little ones.How old are they?”
“Ten, seven, seven, and three.Girls at each end, twin boys in the middle.”
Rose was quiet a moment.Then, "You're going to want to hear about the WoWS."
"The what?"
"Worn-out Widows Sisterhood."Rose said with the quiet pride of talking about family."Eight of us here in Cobbler Cove.We all lost our men in the same fire.It’ll be five years in August.My husband, JB, was the fire chief.We women have been holding each other up ever since.”
Something let loose inside of Sunny that had been tied up in a tight, hard knot for a very long time.This woman understood.
Rose said, “We learned that the only person who knows what it is to bury a husband and have to get up the next morning, feed the kids, pay the bills, and keep holding it together is another woman who's done it.”She looked at Sunny, levelly."You've got the look of one of us.I'd know it anywhere.I’ve seen it in the mirror too many times to count."
Sunny's instinct, the one that had kept her and four children housed and fed for three years, was to look for the catch.There was always a catch.She had learned that down to her bones.People who handed you something for nothing were, in her experience, the most expensive people in the world.
She turned this one over and couldn’t find the seam.
"We get together every few weeks.Check in with one another, help one another with any problems we’re having, and just talk.We used to get together to cry, and sometimes we still do, but we do more laughing these days.We’re having supper tonight, in fact," Rose said."My house, six o'clock.Bring the kids, we have a herd of children running wild most times and four more won't make a dent.We’ve got kids about the age of yours as well.”
Rose must have sensed her skepticism because she added, “You'll feel better around people who've stood where you're standing.Even if our whacky bunch isn’t your style, you'll have had a hot meal and a night out, and there's no harm in that, either."
"I wouldn't want to impose ..."Sunny started.
Rose cut her off briskly with, "Here.Let me write down my address."Rose scribbled on the back of a blank receipt and slid it across the counter on top of the bill.Sunny glanced down and saw the order had been marked PAID in Rose's hand.
"Six o'clock.Don't make me come find you,” Rose said firmly.
Rose's house was a big house that looked just lived in enough not to be imposing.Every light was on downstairs, and it sounded from the driveway like a riot was in progress inside.
Sunny had barely gotten Chloe unbuckled from her car seat before her other three kiddos were absorbed into a stampede of children that came around the side of the house at speed.They gathered up Presley, Harris, and Jenson without breaking stride, the way a lake takes in water from a river.A tall, teenaged boy strolled after the pack with the casual bearing of a herding dog who knew his business.
Sunny headed for the front porch, and Rose stepped outside to greet her.
"That's Jack following the pack," Rose said, drying her hands on a dish towel."My son.He watches the kids on WoWS nights.Keeps the casualties down to something a small ER can handle."She called out to him."Jack!There are four new ones.”
Then to her, Rose said, “Tell Jack their names and he’ll introduce them to the others when they slow down for a minute.”
“My oldest is Presley.She’s ten, almost eleven.The twins are Harris and Jenson.They’re seven.And this one is Chloe.She’s three and bites when she gets mad.You might want to warn the other kids.Although it’s usually only the twins she chomps on.”
The teen grinned, and he looked just like his mother when he did.“Got it.I’ll introduce Presley to Makayla.She’s eleven.And there are a couple boys about the age of yours.I’ll hook them up, too.And as for you, Miss Chloe, Lily’s only one year older than you.She likes stuffed animals.Do you like those?”
Chloe looked up at him in wide-eyed admiration.“Uhh huh.I like unicorns.”
“Ahh.Then you’ve need to meet Olive.She’s five and obsessed with unicorns.She’s a twin, too.She has a twin brother named Owen.”
“And Jack," Rose started as seven women piled outside onto the big, wrap-around porch carrying tall glasses of iced tea and lemonade sweating in the June warmth.
