AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 15
Hope looked at her two friends. They were sitting on the turquoise beach blanket that she had spread on the sand, the ocean breeze playing with their hair. Naomi, Hannah, and Roni’s kids ran back and forth, bringing water in their colorful buckets and filling the hole they dug in the cold sand.
She had initiated this early autumn picnic at the beach because the days were still warm enough, if you didn’t go in the water. The sun wasn’t as blazing, but with their freckled skin, she made sure both she and the girls wore long sleeves and hats.
“Maybe he could come later,” Libby suggested with a shrug.
“No, he said they’d be all day,” Hope replied.
“Doesn’t it bother you that he lives on the same street as his ex and spends so much time with her?” Roni asked pointedly, as always, removing a strand of black hair that flapped her face.
“Veronica,” Libby muttered. They only ever used Roni’s full name in anger or joke. “Of course it bothers her, or we wouldn’t be talking about it.”
“No, it’s okay. We can talk about it,” Hope said. “None of it bothers me that much. It’s okay for the stage we’re at, but … going forward … I guess then it would …” She didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she stretched and handed Naomi her yellow plastic shovel. “The girls know him as a teacher, not as my boyfriend. It’s too early. We haven’t given ourselves that title yet, and we haven’t even slept together.” She lowered her voice at the last part, although the kids were two feet away and way too busy to pay any attention to the three of them.
“Yeah, what’s up with that? You’ve been seeing each other for some time,” Roni said before biting into an apple.
“Nothing’s up—”
“Yeah, I bet,” Roni cut in.
Hope nudged Roni with her elbow. “Don’s dad jokes are contagious?”
The three of them laughed.
“Shit, I should be more careful,” Roni said, laughing. “I don’t want those to rub off on me.”
Hope pushed back her straw hat. “We only get together once a week. I think we’re both okay with taking it slow. I mean, we meet almost every day at school, and with his ex and all the issues they have with Mason, it’s just too complicated. And, to be honest, I’m not feeling it … yet.” She sighed. “But he’s a great guy, so …”
“So it’s worth trying,” Libby said, handing Hope a cold soda can.
“Yeah,” she expelled. It was true, but the more time they spent together, the more alone she felt. She began wondering if he was ever going to get over Linda. They had been together since high school. While her own divorce had been painful, she had initiated it. And it wasn’t Eric she struggled to get over; it was the failure.
“D’you guys have a wedding date in mind yet?” Roni turned to Libby.
“We’re thinking May. We’re more focused on finding a house, to be honest.”
“I saw Jordan the other day,” Hope said, jumping on the opportunity to gauge some info without directly asking. “He said he was meeting with a realtor.” She felt bad for lying to her friends by omission. She hadn’t told them about that kiss or about the fact that Jordan Delaney occupied more space in her thoughts than he should, and that all her efforts to bash him from there had been futile so far. And as they hadn’t mentioned him since she had begun seeing Chris, she hadn’t brought him up, either. Now that she had, her palms turned clammy.
“Yeah, he has to move out of the beach house soon. He’s spending more time in D.C. these days, anyway, coming and going. I don’t know what’s up with that. I think he’ll go back there eventually.”
It made sense. Yet, Hope’s stomach clenched with a sudden twinge.
“Poor Avery,” Roni scoffed.
“I don’t think they’re a thing,” Libby said. “I poked around, but he knows how to divert the conversation.”
“He’s a politician, after all,” Roni commented. “Words are their weapon.”
“But he’s one of the good guys,” Libby said.
“Mom, I decided what I want to be for Halloween.” Hannah appeared next to Hope, sand sprinkling from her clothes and over her mother. “I want to be a jellyfish.”
“Sweetie, what about that unicorn costume we saw on Amazon?” The girls were big on unicorns.
“Mom, people underestimate the jellyfish. I want to be a jellyfish.”
“You’ll be whatever you want to be, sweetie,” she said before Hannah ran to join the other kids.
