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“Hmmm. She met Adrian in college,” Joel confirmed.
Joel and Rylan put their cans of beer on top of the cooler and got up when they saw Maude and Amberlynn carrying beach chairs and bags slung over their shoulders. After they were situated, they said hello to all of us. Amberlynn even touched cheeks with Beth, resulting in a surprised look flashing over Beth’s face.
My phone rang and when I answered it, I forgot that it was my general ringtone. Every person who had my number had a different ringtone.
“Is something wrong?” Beth mouthed as I said hello to the silent person on the end of the line.
I twined my fingers with hers to let her know that I was all right.
“This is the last fuckin
g time I am gonna pick up your calls. You wanna be a pussy and not speak up? Fine, but it’s a wrap.”
***
Bethany
“How’s summer treating you?” I asked Denise as I handed her money to pay for my gas. She hadn’t seen me as I was nearing the store; she’d been looking at herself in her compact mirror. For a second, it looked like she was incapable of speaking, but Louie, the manager of Oscar’s gas station, scowled, and that was enough to make her lips move. The dread that I felt coiled the pit of my stomach was not as strong as it had been earlier this morning. A month and two weeks ago, I would’ve held my head down like I had when I’d been here with Chase. But I suppose after my experiences with Cassidy and having time away from here, I knew that in most situations, I’d given others the power to control how I felt about myself. And from the day of my arrival at Paloma’s Edge, Denise hadn’t entered my thoughts once. She was insignificant to me.
“Fine,” she said in a chipper tone. “Didn’t think you’d come back,” she added when Louie began opening boxes with items that needed to be shelved.
I took my change from her. “Why wouldn’t I? This is my hometown.”
“If I had a guy like the one I seen you with, I wouldn’t let keep him out of my sight, or some other woman might just snatch him up,” she said in an innocent tone.
“Denise!” Louie shouted at her. “Apologize to Beth, or this verbal warning will be a written one.”
I walked back to the counter and shook my head. “It’s okay, Louie,” I assured him. “She’d be wasting more of her vocal cords than she does on a daily basis.”
“No, getting cheeky isn’t tolerated at Oscar’s.”
I snapped my gaze to her unevenly drawn eyebrows. “Cindy did a lowdown thing. She is doing a lowdown thing, with a lowdown married man. Women always get judged harshly in these situations. They’re human. They’re both adults. And they’re responsible for their affair. I’ve lived here all my damn life. I’ll come and go whenever I want to.” I twirled around and stalked to the door. When I pushed it, I stuck my head out so she’d reach over the counter, and she met my eyes. “And it’s best you keep my boyfriend out of your mouth and worry about your own. Thinking about someone else’s guy is first trait of a home wrecker.”
***
Mariska had asked me to come into her parents’ house when I parked in front. I’d told her to tell them that I said hello. They didn’t like that I was one of their daughter’s best friends. I didn’t think they’d change their tune in the near future, so I hadn’t expected Mrs. Landry to welcome me inside. A morir soñado and buttered jelly toast were on the table.
“How are you doing?” Mrs. Landry asked with the same lilt to her voice that Mariska had. If Mariska took after her mom twenty years from now, few people would believe that she was in her forties.
“I am doing well. How are you?”
“If Mariska went to college at Jefferson I’d be happy as a clam, but life seldom affords you what you want.”
“If I were locked up in my room all day and night, then you’d be happy,” Mariska said “And that ain’t happenin’!” She walked into the open space of the kitchen and kissed me on the cheek. “Tell me if I made the morir soñado okay.”
“If you were locked up in your room all day and night, you wouldn’t meet your future husband. How could I be happy about that?” she asked rhetorically and tilted her head at me. “You look well, Beth. You take care.”
I smiled at her. “Likewise.”
Mariska curled her mouth ruefully as her mom exited the kitchen. I gulped down the morir soñado and sent her an approving nod. “Sorry I left you alone with her for long. I had to tinkle.”
I waved my hand at her as I bit into my toast. Mrs. Landry hadn’t seemed like she couldn’t wait to get me out of her household like she had in the past. I guess she wasn’t worried about my having a wandering eye, because Mr. Landry wasn’t here. She thought that Cindy and I were one and the same. I surveyed the kitchen and viewed Pete’s drawings on the refrigerator, but I didn’t hear any sounds.
“Where’s Pete?”
“At a play date.”
“At someone else’s house?”
