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“I’m already prepared for this entire night to be about me,” Sage deadpanned. A couple of the women laughed, and even Sage could admit she was ready to talk about Ty.
“In fact,” Joy said, and Sage’s eyes flew to hers. She shook her head, but Joy had already started to speak again. “Sage brought the food and baked it for me.” Tears filled her eyes, and Sage hadn’t been expecting that.
Silence poured into the room, and then Bea said, “That’s so quintessentially Sage.”
Her eyes volleyed over to the other blonde woman now. “What do you mean by that?”
“I mean, Sage.” Bea wore the warmest, brightest smile as she moved over to Sage and linked her arm into hers. “That you always know exactly how to take care of all of us.”
“I’m not that much older than any of you,” she said crossly.
“No,” Bea said. “But you do take really good care of us.” She looked around at the others. “Doesn’t she, ladies?”
“Yes,” Cass said softly.
“I agree,” Bessie said.
“Always,” Lauren said, and Sage’s heart started to swell then.
Joy moved into her and hugged her, and with Bessie practically doing that on her arm, Sage felt loved and valued. With these women, she felt seen and whole and appreciated. “Thanks, guys,” she said as they all piled into one big group Supper Club hug.
As they started to break up, Joy said, “She’ll tell us what she bought and baked.”
Sage surveyed her friends and said, “I kissed Ty a couple of weeks ago at this amazing luau. You guys, he’s amazing, and while we’re both going pretty slow, I feel—he makes me feel like I’maliveagain.”
She swallowed, her throat sticking together far more than she’d like. “I feel more like myself—or this new woman I’m trying to become.” She nodded, really needing some of that wine about now. “Thelma and I are also going to be living apart again. She’s—been through some hard things, but we’re both ready. I’m going with Ty on Sunday to look at a new place for me, and she’s gone to see several places already. She’s—” Her throat closed, and Sage took a breath and swallowed again.
“She’s found somewhere, put in an offer, and it’s been accepted. She’ll probably move out in five or six weeks.” Sage nodded, all of her news now out. Thankfully. She felt like she’d kept it bottled up for a long time, and then someone had grabbed the bottle and started shaking it. So when uncapped, everything had just come gushing out.
“Wow,” Lauren said. “I’m going to start, because everyone else is gaping still.” She grinned at Sage with all the smugness of someone who’d successfully snuck a handful of cookies out of the jar. “You kissed Tytwo weeks ago, and we’re justnowhearing about it?”
Cass turned and opened the wine, thepop!from the cork really echoing through the small house. Then Bea said, “Yeah, I’m going to need more details on this luau.”
“I was there,” Bessie said. “It’s beenkillingme, keeping this to myself.”
“You were there?” Joy roared, spinning toward her. “And we didn’t get a text?”
Sage grinned at her friends and took the glass of wine Cass handed her. She swirled it and took a sip, sighing into the liquid as it coated her tongue and throat. “All right, all right,” she said among all the bickering going on. “Can we at least get food before Lauren tells us why she’s so tired?” She moved over to the food. “I got three lasagnas and a big Caesar salad. Italian sausage.” She pointed to one lasagna. “Ground beef. Chicken alfredo.”
Joy got out a knife to cut into them, and wine glasses went around as the talking started up again, and Sage’s suspicions about Lauren only doubled when she didn’t take a glass of wine.
Oh, how she loved Supper Club.
14
Lauren Williams glared at Sage while the others grabbed plates and forks and napkins. She liked the buffet-style of Supper Club too, though she’d done a fully served sit-down dinner once, back when they all lived in Sweet Water Falls, Texas.
Sometimes, Lauren had snatches of that life that she missed. She couldn’t believe it, because she had an ex there who’d been no good for her that she’d gone back to a few times. Her job there had turned out to be one big ball of fraud. And all of her friends were now here.
But still, sometimes Lauren missed the big Texas sky, because it didn’t feel the same in Hilton Head.
At the same time, she wouldn’t trade the life she’d been building here with her husband, Blake, and his son, Tommy. She’d never been married before, and there had definitely been some challenges in merging her life with two others. Two males, one of whom was fifteen years old.
Not only that, but Blake’s ex-wife had found herself in a terrible predicament, and she’d needed somewhere to stay in an emergency. That “somewhere” had turned out to be Lauren and Blake’s house, and Jacinda had stayed with them for seventeen days before she’d been able to sort through everything and find her own place.
Ty Parker had helped with that, and that was another reason Lauren couldn’t look away from Sage. She did seem different, but Lauren couldn’t put her finger on why. Sometimes Sage showed up to Supper Club in wigs or with a new hairdo, because she’d had some downtime at work.
If there was one thing Lauren knew about Sage, it was that she didn’t like downtime. She seemed very busy at her salon, and she walked her big dog every morning, and she always came when any of them needed anything. She’d been a steady and trusted friend for a long time now, though she was almost a decade older than Lauren.
