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“No,” Billie said, her voice panicked. “El, I need you here right now.”
“Okay,” Eloise said, alarm pulling through her. “Why?” She glanced over her shoulder to the other women in the room. She could easily slip out and no one would know. She headed for the door as Billie’s stressed breathing came through the line. “Take a breath, Billie. What’s going on?”
“I can’t breathe,” Billie said, her voice pitching up. “I just kissed Cameron Gillman, El. In this super-cute cave.” She squealed, and Eloise very nearly went deaf.
Eloise’s heartbeat had started to sprint in her chest, and as she went outside into the heat and humidity, she slowed. “You called me in a panic because you kissed a boy?”
“Not justa boy, El,” Billie said in the special voice she used to let everyone else know how stupid they were. “Cam Gillman.”
She grinned into the blue sky. “Wow, Billie. I guess he really did like you all this time.”
Billie squealed again, and Eloise laughed with her. She’d gone to Sweethearts with a boy named Luke Howard, and Eloise knew Billie had liked him too. He’d cooled off after the dance, and Billie wasn’t sure why.
Eloise didn’t know how to explain boys to Billie, and she still talked to Luke and hung out with him sometimes. “I hate to bring this up during such an exciting time,” she said. “But what are you going to tell your dad?”
Billie’s giggles dried right up too. “Now you know why I called in a panic. I need a plan, El. Cam asked me if I could go over to his house this weekend. He has a pool and a theater in one of those huge houses on Rocky Ridge.”
“Just the two of you?”
“He said it could be a date. He’d take me to lunch, and we could swim and watch movies…” She let the words dry there, hanging on the line, and Eloise knew how teen boys would finish that sentence.
“Oh, honey, I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said. Aaron would flip his lid, because he knew what Cam had really invited Billie to do.
“Why not?” Billie asked, always so innocent. Always trying to be more grown up than she really was, though she was extraordinarily mature for her age.
Eloise exhaled. She loved Aaron’s girls as if they were her own, but she was ill-prepared to talk about a lot of the challenges teenagers had to face these days. “Billie, he wants to have sex with you,” she said as quietly and as gently as she could. “That’s why he invited you to his house.”
Billie said nothing, and Eloise hated that she had to be the one to make something she was excited about into this. “He said his parents will be there.”
“I think this one goes to your dad,” she said. “And we both know what he’s going to say.”
Billie exhaled too. “He’ll want to come with me to the house, interview the boy, meet the parents.”
“Yes.” Eloise couldn’t deny it, and truth be told, she wanted to do all of those things too. She certainly wasn’t going to put Billie on the ferry by herself to get to Rocky Ridge, to go to some boy’s house whom she’d never met before. “Billie, are you—do you want to sleep with him?”
“No,” Billie said instantly. She exhaled right after. “I’m so stupid.”
“No, you’re not,” Eloise said quickly. “He’s a popular, good-looking boy. All the girls love him, including you. It doesn’t make you stupid.”
Billie sniffled, and Eloise wished she wasn’t two islands away, having this conversation. “What do I tell him?”
“First, it’s not your job to make sure he doesn’t feel bad,” Eloise said. “Second, this is where having a Chief-of-Police-father comes in really handy. I think you can come up with some reason why you don’t want your dad coming along on your ‘date’ at Cam’s house…”
Billie actually giggled again, but Eloise still wanted to wrap her in a hug and hold on tight. Tell her to hold onto her youth and her innocence for as long as she could. “Thanks, El.”
“I love you, Bills,” she said.
“Love you too.”
The call ended, and Eloise drew in a deep breath. She then let her fingers fly across the screen, first texting Billie.You should tell your dad about this tonight.
Then she texted her mother.I love you so much, Mom. I don’t know how you raised teenagers, and I apologize for any worry and grief I caused you.
Neither of them answered her right away, and Eloise went back inside to the air conditioning, the long list of tasks to be done for the wedding, and all of her biggest supporters. If she needed help with Billie or Grace, she didn’t have to look any further. Both Robin and Alice had raised their kids to adulthood. Kelli, Kristen, Laurel, and Jean would listen to anything Eloise wanted to vent about.
AJ would remind her that no one could be worse than she’d been as a teen. Eloise rejoined the people at the table she’d been at, flashing a smile at Tessa, and then listening to AJ talk to Matt about something their baby was doing at home.
She was right where she wanted to be. Life wasn’t perfect, but Eloise wanted to live it anyway—right here on Five Island Cove. She looked over to Clara, standing there with her mother, and Eloise hoped she’d find the perfect place for her too—right here on Five Island Cove.
