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Ty arrived in front of her, his thumbs flying over his phone. “You don’t like bacon, which I so don’t understand, but whatever.” He smiled at her. “Different strokes for different folks. I got you the sausage one.”
“With the jalapeno jelly?”
“Adding the jalapeno jelly now…” A few more taps, and done. Ty looked up. He didn’t ask her if he could kiss her again. He simply leaned down and did it, taking her into his arms and somehow moving her over to the couch and shooing the dogs off of it so he could kiss his girlfriend.
20
Another Thursday went by, where Ty showed up on Sage’s doorstep, ordered breakfast from somewhere, and then kissed her until it arrived. They laughed and talked, and Sage could admit he’d reintroduced some spark into their relationship. She hadn’t even realized it had gone out, and every morning when she first woke, she wondered if she’d been more of a problem in her marriage with Jerry than she’d originally assumed.
Her thoughts ran in circles this Thursday morning too, a healthy dose of worry in there as well. Could she become the woman she wanted to be?
“Why does the house matter so much?” she wondered to the ceiling, to Gypsy in his dog bed in the corner, to the barely-there dawn light, to herself.
She wasn’t sure, but she felt like she’d been in a holding pattern, that she was being held back by a thick layer of plastic wrap, and she wouldn’t be able to move forward until she left this apartment behind.
She needed to leave this stage of her life and step into a new one. She’d seen Bea do it after her divorce by cutting her hair and taking a vacation by herself.
Maybe Sage needed to do that.
She’d seen Cass heal and move forward after her husband’s death by finally taking the vacation she’d been planning for the two of them once they became empty-nesters.
Maybe Sage needed to go back to something she’d planned to do with Jerry that hadn’t been realized.
She’d seen Lauren reinvent herself after almost being indicted by the FBI, losing her job, and moving twelve hundred miles without a plan at all. She’dmadea plan for herself, and while Sage had never really needed one of those, right now she did.
She’d watched Joy wrestle within herself about where to live, and why, and who to be with. She’d taken bold steps—in the middle of the school year—so she could find her own brand of happiness.
She and Bessie had watched them all, and they’d taken the big step of moving to Hilton Head too. Then, Bessie had confronted all her fears, opened a bread bakery, and started dating again. In only three more weeks, she’d marry Oliver, and their next chapter would start.
Maybe Sage needed to start outlining the next chapter, at least.
Her phone buzzed, and she reached for it to silence the alarm. The clock read seven-thirty, and that sent alarm through her until she remembered she’d canceled her morning walk with Ed and the dogs today, because—
She sat straight up. “Today is the day.”
She was moving today.
The next chapter startedtoday, and Sage still had no idea what should be in it. What she wanted to write in it. What the plan was.
She rolled out of bed and got dressed. She started packing up the things she’d been using to live since she’d packed the last box last night—toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, her pajamas, her bedding.
She took that out to her car, along with Gypsy’s box of essentials that she used every single day. Then she wouldn’t have to dig through her belongings to find what she needed to have somewhere to sleep and to feed her dog.
“Come on, buddy,” she said to Gypsy as she re-entered the apartment. “Let’s go for a quick walk, and then we have to go get the moving truck so we’re ready when the boys come.”
Ty and his friends were so much more than boys, and Sage thought about him every step and for every second she took Gypsy down to the water’s edge and then back.
Thelma arrived just as Sage returned to the apartment, and she asked, “Ready?”
Nerves ran through Sage, and she grabbed onto her sister and pulled her against her chest.
“Oof.” Thelma took a moment to return the hug. “Hey, what’s wrong? I’m never the one to comfort you.”
Sage had had to be the strong sister since the moment their mother had died, when she was only twenty years old. She’d never really burdened her siblings with her insecurities and problems, but her emotions swelled and overflowed. She sniffled as she said, “What if this house doesn’t have all the answers?”
Thelma pulled away and searched her face. “Sage, of course the house doesn’t have all the answers.”
That so wasn’t what she wanted to hear. Irritation fired through her, and Sage fell back a step. “I’m ready to go.” She wiped her face and turned in a full circle, trying to remember where she and Thelma were going.
