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“Charlie heard an ice cream truck.” Ginny rolled her eyes and went right back to her phone. Her fingers flew over the screen, and she wore a small smile that told Alice she was texting Ray.
“Ginny,” she said. She placed her own phone face-down on the picnic table. She took a deep breath of the clear, pine-scented air and looked at her daughter. It took Ginny several seconds to finish her conversation and focus on Alice. “You’re not staying up too late talking to him, are you?”
Ginny blinked. “Charlie tattled on me.”
“He couldn’t sleep last night.”
Ginny practically growled. “Yeah, well, he’s talking to Mandie day and night.”
Alice wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn’t. Charlie and Mandie had dated for a while, and yes, Alice knew he still liked her. They talked a lot, and Robin and Alice had decided their children were adults, and they could figure things out on their own.
“Besides,” Ginny said. “It’s not Ray anyway. I was actually texting Emily.”
Alice could find out simply by holding out her hand. That would be a silent request for Ginny to put the phone in her palm so Alice could see. Instead, she said, “How’s she doing?” Ginny’s best friend had been living with them for the past few months, and Alice had seriously considered bringing her on this trip. In the end, it hadn’t felt right, and since Emily didn’t want to be alone in the house, she’d gone to stay with Laurel.
“Okay,” Ginny said with a sigh. Something troubled her, but Alice didn’t ask. Ginny would usually volunteer the information when she was ready. Almost a full minute passed in silence, the two of them looking out toward the woods that bordered the cabins. “Mom?”
“Yeah?” She looked over to Ginny, who continued to gaze at tree trunks and who knew what else.
“Were you scared to go to college?”
“Terrified,” Alice said with a smile. “Excited too. But yeah, scared. Everyone is. It’s normal.”
“Charlie doesn’t seem to be.”
“Charlie shows his nerves in different ways,” Alice said. “That’s all.”
“Dad asked us if he could help us move in,” Ginny said next.
That brought Alice’s attention away from the forest. “Oh?” She’d tried to be as neutral as possible when it came to her ex-husband. “He asked both of you?”
She nodded. “In our twin text thread.”
“You don’t talk to him a lot, do you?”
Ginny shook her head. “Not really. He seems to be texting more lately, though.”
Alice didn’t like that, because Frank didn’t do much without some sort of motive. Something in it for him. “He can come help you move in,” she said. “He’s your father, and he probably wants to see where you’ll be living.”
Knowing him, he’d probably leave with a college-age date. Alice pushed the poisonous thoughts from her head. After all, she didn’t have to deal with Frank Kelton on a daily basis anymore, and she had a wonderful, loving husband who didn’t cheat on her.
“Okay,” Ginny said, “I’ll tell him.”
Alice’s phone chimed and Arthur said, “We got you pineapple sherbet,” at the same time. She took the frozen treat from him, gave him a smile, and then looked down at her phone, expecting to see more of the conversation about the wedding.
Robin had sent a few more pictures of the centerpieces and décor for the wedding, but this message wasn’t about the wedding.
It had come from Kristen and she’d said,I went walking with Theodore Sands this morning, and…he held my hand.
Alice gasped, her fingers dropping the popsicle in favor of her phone. She needed to be in the cove right now for an emergency meeting of the Seafaring Girls and all the women they’d added to their fold over the past few years.
This washugenews.
I wasn’t going to tell anyone, Kristen said to the empty chat. Alice couldn’t believe no one had responded in the time it had taken her between messages. Perhaps they were all as stunned as she was.
At least not for a while. But I don’t know what I’m doing.
I need help.
