Page 52 of See You Next Month

Isabella held her phone where Marti could see it. In the photo, Kelsey was standing between the girls. Dana was taking the selfie and had her arm outstretched while Emma stood on the other side of Kelsey, pointing at their shirts. The smile on Kelsey’s face reminded Isabella of the selfies they took while on the beach. She had told Kelsey to look into the phone and to imagine smiling at her girls or someone she loved. Who are you smiling at, Kels?

“Is that Kelsey in the middle?” Marti asked.

“Yeah. Her daughters look like her,” Isabella murmured.

“Where’s their father?”

“Mom!” Isabella snorted.

“What? I’m just asking. Is she divorced, like you?”

“No. She had both her girls via IVF,” Isabella replied.

Marti raised her brows. “How brave.”

“She is,” Isabella said, staring at the pictures.

“What was your favorite part of the trip?” Marti asked.

“Mmm, let’s see,” Isabella said. “We usually took a nightly walk along the beach.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Oh, and there was this bar we loved over on St. John. We became friends with the owners,” Isabella said.

“Show Gran the pictures of the boat, Mom,” Gus said.

Isabella scrolled through her pictures while giving her mother a brief summary of the things they did.

“Is that the bar you liked?” Marti asked, looking at a picture of the patio at Peaches.

“Yes, that was Christmas Day,” Isabella said. “They weren’t open, but invited us to join them for the afternoon.” She pointed to Carmen and Sylvie. “That is the CEO of the resort and her wife.”

“Tell me about Kelsey,” Marti said. “You’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”

Isabella smiled. “Yeah, we are.” She paused for a moment, thinking, how to describe Kelsey… “She is very thoughtful. We met when she helped me with my luggage at the airport. We had no idea we were going to the same resort and ended up having dinner together that night.”

“This is some undertaking, going back there every month,” Marti said.

“I know. There’s no one I’d want to do this with but her. Kelsey’s so much fun and we’ve become friends. She’s also really good with the website.”

“You’re really good at what you do, too,” Marti said.

“Thanks, Mom,” Isabella replied with a smile.

“Tell me something else you liked,” Marti said.

“Um.” Isabella furrowed her brow and thought back to all the activities they did, but one in particular came to the front of her mind. “We danced,” she said softly.

“Danced?”

“Yeah, the bar played music and everyone got up and danced. It was fun.”

Isabella could feel her mom studying her as she asked, “Did you dance with Kelsey?”

“I did.”

Marti nodded and continued studying Isabella.

---