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“She wants to do things herself,” Sage interjected. Everyone looked at her, and she pushed her hair out of her face. “Sometimes.”
Silence filled the house, and Sage didn’t like that. She looked around at everyone, wondering how to explain her emotions with words. They didn’t seem to exist, and she sighed. “Some days, I don’t want to be alone. It’s so powerful, I feel…defeated. So lonely. Other days, I can’t wait to get home to just Gypsy, and whatever meal I want, and a few hours of peace and quiet. I don’t have to ask anyone what movie to watch, and no one makes fun of me because I don’t like bacon, and I get to do whatever I want.”
“I mean, yes,” Cass said. “But it’s sure nice to have a date to the movies, and someone to bring you orange juice when you’re sick, and someone to worry about you when you don’t show up for a party.”
Sage pulled in a breath and glared at Cass.
“It was Ty who first noticed you were gone,” Cass said. “Ty who was on his phone incessantly, calling you, texting you, calling Thelma, calling the salon. He was so worried, Sage.”
“I know,” she said quietly. Just like she knew intellectually that she’d like a partner to come home to in the evenings, and her brain knew Ty wasn’t anything like Jerry, and she knew Ty had started to fall for her.
Now, she just had to convince her heart about everything.
“Sometimes it just takes time,” Bessie said, and Sage really hated that answer. She’d been told that when she’d first filed for divorce too, that it would take time for her to go through the trauma of the loss and then she’d start to heal.
That in a year, or two years, or five years, she’d be in such a different place. She’d feel so differently, so good, so…whole again.
But Sage hadn’t been super traumatized by the divorce. Her life had gone on almost as usual—except she didn’t have to share a bed with Jerry and she didn’t have to worry about what he’d eat for dinner.
So of course it wasn’t going to takeheras much time as it took others.
“Wyn has needed more time,” Bessie said, drawing Sage’s attention again. She spoke in a quiet voice, and Sage knew a little bit about Wyn’s ex-boyfriend, but not as much as Bessie, obviously.
“She needed time to heal all the way. She needed time to make sure she wanted to get all tied up with another man, though Douglas is literally the best there is. He’s perfect for her, and everyone who looks at them can see it.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” Thelma said.
“Yeah,” Sage threw back at her. “Me too.” Their eyes locked, but Sage softened quickly. “I didn’t mean that.”
Thelma reached for her watermelon granita and took a spoonful. “I know. And I’ve actually started thinking about…calling this guy who asked me out.” She swallowed hard. “Maybe.”
“I needed time after West died,” Cass said. “My girls needed more time than me.”
“Oliver needed time,” Bessie said.
“I needed time to come to terms with leaving Texas,” Joy said. “And that’s not even something like what you’ve gone through, Sage.”
“I hate time,” Sage complained. She looked around at everyone, feeling more at a loss now than she had before dinner had started. “And why isn’t anyone eating? This is Supper Club. We can eat while we talk.”
Some of the tension broke, especially when Lauren said, “I wish I had more time right now, because this baby is coming really soon, and I have no idea how to be a mother.”
“Oh, you’ll be great,” Bea assured her, turning to pat her hand. “Is that your summer worry?”
“I think it’s more like a whole-life-worry,” Lauren said, shooting Sage a knowing, teasing look.
Sage laughed, and that got everyone else to lighten up too. She still didn’t have a plan or a blueprint or a list to follow in order to make sure she didn’t hurt or lose Ty. Maybe the answer really was time, and Sage determined she better figure out how to use the time she had in the best way possible.
26
Ty pulled up to Sage’s and looked over to the passenger seat. He’d brought flowers, which felt a little cheap in the moment, as he’d never brought her flowers before. But one of her sons had come to visit from Texas, and Ty couldn’t help feeling like he better make a good impression on the man.
Sage had told him not to worry about her children, but Harry hadn’t had an easy time with Cass’s at all. So, sighing, Ty swept the flowers into his hand and got out of the car. Dallen would be here for a week, and that included the upcoming Independence Day celebration on the island.
Ty had been busy this summer, but he always took time off for the Fourth of July. It was one of his favorite holidays, and now that he spent more time with Sage, her friends, and their husbands, he planned to sit with them at the park for the concert and fireworks.
He went to the door and rang the doorbell, then twisted the knob. It turned easily, and he entered with, “It’s me, sweetheart.”
“We’re outside,” Sage called, and that shouldn’t have surprised Ty. She’d said her sons were super outdoorsy. They both worked on a farm in the Sweet Water Falls area, but they didn’t own anything themselves. Ty knew next to nothing about being a cowboy, but he could see a bonafide one through the glass at the back of Sage’s house.
