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“You’ve never said that before.”Frustration filled Bea.She definitely had to tell Cass about the trip now.She would never want to surprise her best friend with a “blind date” trip to the place she’d been planning to take her now-deceased husband.
Bea’s stomach rolled, and she sank into the dining table chair she’d been sitting in earlier.“Maybe I should just plan to go somewhere else.”
“Well, I’m in,” Harrison said with a groan as he got to his feet.“I need a break, and I don’t have to start on the Thompson project until the middle of June.”He drained the last of his water and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin.“Thanks, guys.Bill me for what I owe.”
Bea flipped a page in her notebook.“I’m changing all of it,” she announced.
“Come on, hon.”Grant got up too.“Don’t do that.Just talk to Cass and see what she says.”He came to the table too and put his palm over the notebook.“I don’t want to lose you to another list-making marathon.”
She looked up, trying to read his expression.“I do not go on list-making marathons.”
“How many of those pages are filled?”Harrison asked, coming to her side and peering down at the notebook.Grant laughed as he withdrew his hand, and Bea quickly snapped the covers together so they couldn’t see how many pages she’d written on.
“None of your business,” she said.She stood and waved the notebook between them.“Thisis why the trip will be amazing.”Fire filled her chest, but she wasn’t really angry.She knew she made lists; she loved them.“If y’all aren’t interested in an amazing, pre-planned trip, fine.I’ll go with Cass by myself.”She stepped past Grant, giving him an eyebrow-raise that said,You better stand up for me, buddy.
“Come on, Bea,” he said.“Don’t march out.Of course I love your lists, and I’m totally all-in on this amazing, pre-planned trip.”He followed her as she left the kitchen, her notebook tucked against her chest.“I just don’t want you to start over.”He touched her arm, and she turned to face him.He searched her face, and Bea found love and pleading in his eyes.
He had done and said exactly what she’d hoped he would, so she softened.
“Just call Cass and ask her,” he said.“Then you’ll know if you need to start over or not.That’s all I’m saying.”
“All right.”She nodded and looked past him to Harrison.“And you’re in, no matter what?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.“I won’t question anything on your list at all.Just happy to tag along.”He’d obviously gotten the message not to make fun of her lists too.
She grinned at him and then Grant.She threw her arms around him and hugged him.“This is going to be so great,” she gushed.“Now, I just need to go call Cass…”
She bustled out of the living room and into the small office she and Grant shared.The first thing she did was cross off the top item on her list—she’d confirmed with Harrison.But a new task got added, one that made snakes coil around the knots in her stomach.
Call Cass and tell her about the trip to the Everglades.
“There she is,”Bea said as Cass came past the security checkpoint.Bea tipped onto her toes and waved, but her best friend didn’t see her.“She looks thin.”
“She looked like that at Christmas,” Grant said.He tucked Bea closer to him.“And when you went for Supper Club in March.And now here in May.”
“I think she looks thinner,” Bea said.Worry ate through her, but Cass had spotted her and Grant, so Bea hitched a good ole Southern smile on her face and waved even harder.
“She sees you,” Grant teased.
Bea lowered her hand, because Cass had broken into a jog.She hadn’t wanted to text or call her about taking the trip to the Everglades, because it seemed like an in-person conversation.However, now that Cass stood in front of her, Bea didn’t have the words.
She stepped away from Grant and into Cass’s arms, the two of them laughing and laughing.“Oh, it’s so good to see you,” Bea said.
“Sorry the flight was so delayed,” she said.“I guess there was someone rowdy on the previous flight, and they got delayed coming in from Tennessee.”
“It’s fine,” Bea said.
“Yeah,” Grant added, which caused Bea to move back from Cass.“This worked out great, because Harrison drove us so we didn’t have to park.”He beamed at Bea like this was great news, but her insides had gone a little icy.
“Harrison?”Cass asked.
“Yes.”Bea looped her arm through Cass’s.“Which claim are you at?”
“I don’t know.”Cass started to look around, and Bea shot Grant a dark, dangerous look.He gestured at her tohurry up and ask her, because Bea’s time had run out.
She had no more excuses.
“Cass,” she said, her voice pitching up.
