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Rhiannon rummaged in her purse for her phone. She tapped the screen, and up came a few pictures of a chubby-cheeked toddler with Rhiannon’s same auburn hair. “Teddy.”
“But…” Lenna took a moment to collect herself. Their relationship was in the past, maybe she’d remembered incorrectly? But no.No.
“…How old?” she finally asked.
“About two.”
Two?Rhiannon mysteriously left town two years and four months ago. Why wouldn’t she have told Lenna she was pregnant? Lenna would have been ecstatic for her.
“Teddy’s the best,” Rhiannon went on. “But, I mean, it hasn’t been all rainbows and unicorns.”
Lenna’s mind was spinning. “Areyoumarried?”
“Me? Hell, no.” At least that was consistent, anyway. “I live at this compound, actually. Full of women.Onlywomen.” She crossed her arms. “Remember how I was always talking about that idea? I finally found a place!”
“Whoa.” Rhiannon sounded so happy. “That’s great. When did all this happen?”
“Been there for almost as long as Teddy’s been alive. Exactly what I thought it would be. It’s so weird—you always think actually living your dreams won’t live up to your expectations. But in this case, it totally did.”
“How did you find it?” Lenna asked—trying not to sound skeptical. As delighted as she felt that Rhiannon was living her dream, she doubted these types of communities advertised on reputable websites. She imagined flyers in shops that sold crystals and jade vaginal eggs.
“The universe called me there. It calls all of us. Well—people who need to go. People who are lucky enough.”
“That’s…wild,” Lenna said diplomatically. It was exactly the answer she expected. “Did you go there after, um, leaving LA?”After I got you fired.
“Not exactly,” Rhiannon said, averting her gaze. “There was some time in between here and there.”
Was Rhiannon deliberately being cryptic? And surely this was the moment that Rhiannon would call Lenna out. Say she knew what Lenna had done and that she hated her guts.
Instead, Rhiannon lazily opened the menu. “So I’m thinking about the burrata salad. Sounds good, right?”
“Teddy!”
The child’s name snaps Lenna back to the present. She’s on a mountain now, and Rhiannon’s kid has run up the beginning path. He’s trying to negotiate up a steep, rocky divide.
“Wait for me.” Rhiannon walks faster, Jacob’s legs dangling at her waist. Jacobstillisn’t crying. “Mommy will help you.” She takes Teddy’s hand. “There we go!” she whoops, guiding him up the rock.
They start up the path. It’s uneven, but maintained almost as well as a national park. “Taking care of the hiking trails is one of our duties at Halcyon,” Rhiannon says. “We clear out weeds, dropped branches, that sort of thing.” They pause to observe the reddish rock, then the vistas. The desert stretches out in front of them, endless. It’s like looking into eternity. Lenna’s heart slows. For a moment peace feels possible.
Then she turns and looks down at the property below. The women and children scurry. One of the mothers and her child walk into a greenhouse. Other kids are splashing in a makeshift pool formed out of aluminum. Lenna spies one of the women in the yard. She fills a trough with hay, the muscles in her arms working efficiently. Lenna has forgotten her name, but she was one of the boisterous, friendly ones. Not Melissa—or Naomi, certainly—but another. When she sees them, she waves. Rhiannon waves back.
“Which one is that?” Lenna asks.
“Amy. You met her.”
“Right.” Lenna skirts around a boulder. “Oh. After Jacob’s nap, I met Melissa’s twin sister.”
A grimace passes across Rhiannon’s face and then subsides. “How’dthatgo?”
“She got kind of mad I confused her for Melissa.”
Rhiannon shrugs. “Those two are interesting together.” She pauses, as if considering saying something. “I think Naomi hates that her sister had a baby while she’s still trying. They both wanted kids. She doesn’t want to be stuck in an aunt role.”
“Maybe she’d be happier somewhere else, where she isn’t constantly reminded? Do she and Melissa have to stick together?”
Rhiannon gives her a strange look but then turns away.
“What?” Lenna asks.
