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“Italy,” Bea said, returning to the dining room.She wouldn’t look at anyone as she picked up Joy’s plate, and then Sage’s.“But that doesn’t mean I need to leave town.I really am okay.”
“Then be okay on the beach,” Joy said, shrugging one bony shoulder.“Cass, where’s her computer?”
“Donotget out my computer,” Bea called.
Cass got up and dug through the fiesta napkins, taco maracas, four rolls of crepe paper in the most hideous shades, and the list Bea had used to put together tonight’s supper.Of course, she thought with a smile.
The slim, silver machine came out from underneath the junk Bea had piled on top of it, and Cass sat at the head of the table, everyone else getting up to gather around her.She looked at Bessie, who said, “South Carolina, Cass.Hilton Head Island.It’s gorgeous year-round.”
“Hilton…Head…” she said, typing it in as she spoke.
“My sister can’t go with me,” Bea said in one last desperate attempt to change their minds.But it was five to one now, and even Cass didn’t think she could sway the group to something else at this point.
“You don’t need Lori,” Cass said.She pointed to the screen and then looked at Bessie.“Look at that one.”
“It’s perfect.”
“No, it’s not perfect,” Bea said from down on the other end of the table.She planted her fists on her hips.“I’m not going to South Carolina.”
“It’s on your love list,” Sage said, moving out of the pack and down the length of the table.“Why don’t you want to do it?”
“I do,” Bea said.“I just didn’t… They’re just crazy ideas.”
“No, they’re not,” Lauren said, straightening from where Cass had clicked on the cottage rental and was now scrolling through the pictures.
Two bedrooms.Two baths.Twice what she needed, but it didn’t matter.The price fit, and the cottage faced east, so Bea could sip her morning coffee on the balcony while the sun came up.She could take a walk and get lost in a new place.She could go visit historic sites around the island, and Cass clicked on “things to do” on the listing.
“This is perfect,” she said in a quiet voice while Lauren told Bea that of course the items on the list were crazy ideas, but they’d bring Bea joy and love, and she deserved both.She was perhaps a little more brusque than Cass or Bessie would’ve been, but Sage stood nearby, and she could soften any of Lauren’s harder blows.
“Look at the history on Hilton Head.”Cass looked up at Bessie, who grinned like they’d just found a hidden stash of their favorite candy.Cass kept hers in a secret drawer on the side of her nightstand, and Bessie lived alone and didn’t have to hide anything from anyone.
Her son had gotten married last year, and his wife was about to have a baby.Then Bessie would have to put up everything she didn’t want ruined, and Cass envied her for that.For the reason why she’d have to baby-proof her home.
None of her three children were married, and of the two old enough to date and explore that option, only one had a boyfriend.Sariah had always been the more social of Cass’s twin girls.The one child—her son, Conrad—left at home had a girlfriend Cass actually wished he wouldn’t, so she felt like she was striking out with each of the three of them.
“Dates?”Bessie asked.
“It’s Thursday,” Cass said.“What do you think?Could we get her out of here on Sunday?”
“Only after church,” Bessie said, leaning closer and pointing to the calendar.
Joy leaned in too, saying, “Monday morning, Cass.I can get her to go.”She straightened as Cass clicked on the calendar, and she went down the table to where Sage and Lauren were now going over each item on the list and challenging Bea as to which one she’d do first.
Cass looked at Bessie, pure excitement zipping through her.It felt so much like electricity, and Cass realized in that moment how very dull her own life had become.Perhaps she could stand to make a list like the one Bea had fastened to her fridge.
“When is Meredith’s performance?”Bessie asked.
“April eighteenth,” Cass said without consulting anything.She spoke to Bea every single day, either on the phone, in person, or via text.She knew when her daughter’s concert was.“She’s graduating on the twenty-first.Bea wanted to go for the concert and stay for a couple of weeks.She probably already booked a hotel there…”
She clicked over to the tab that had Bea’s email on it, glancing down the table.Bea met her eyes, resignation there.Cass gave her a bright smile and said, “I’m looking at your email to see when you’ll be in Austin, okay?”
“Fine,” Bea said, which caused the other three women at her end of the table to erupt into cheers.
“I’m getting out the second pitcher of margaritas,” Sage said, practically skipping her nearly fifty-year-old body into the kitchen to get the drinks mixed up.
Lauren returned to Cass and the computer as Bessie said, “It’s a bed and breakfast in Austin, Cass.Search for that.”
She didn’t need to search, because the only thing Bea paid as much attention to as she did her lists was her calendar.Sure enough, her stay in the bed and breakfast in Austin clearly stood out on the calendar, stretching in a bright blue line across almost two full weeks.
