Page 32 of Happy Trails & Honey Pots

“I didn’t say?—”

“No, I know. It was probably Mrs. B.” She closed her eyes as she exhaled. “Or no, what was I thinking? It was Sunday.”

“Sunday,” I repeated, not understanding the significance.

Her lids opened, and she looked at me. “Sunday nights are mahjong nights.”

“Oh.” I still wasn’t following.

“That means Caroline Shaw, Anna May Birch, and Sonja Rojas were all there. Ms. Shaw owns Pretty in Peach, a hair salon. It’s the gossip hub of Firefly Island.”

“Right.” Now, I was up to speed. I’d heard about Pretty in Peach. Apparently, there was some serious beef with another establishment in town. Thankfully, there was only one barbershop, so the men of Firefly Island did not have to take sides in the battle of the beauty salons.

Zoe sighed. “It doesn’t matter, um, thank you for coming out here.”

“It’s beautiful.” I looked out over the ocean, but I wasn’t talking about the view of the landscape. Zoe James was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my life. Not just herouter beauty; it was an inner confidence, a strength that had been forged out of pain and suffering that she had, which was beautiful.

“Yeah, it is.”

There was a deep well of sadness in her voice that broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

“Do you come up here a lot?”

She cleared her throat. “I used to. Um, this was mine and Austin’s place. But I still come up here when I want to be close to him or if I want to think or be alone. Or in this case, not be seen by anyone.”

I felt honored that she’d trusted me to share this place with her, even if it was only out of necessity because she didn’t want prying eyes on us.

“The reason I asked you to come up here is because there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

“Um, AJ found out that his friend Kendall is going to be auditioning to be a young me in the movie.”

I waited for her to say more.

“So, is that true?” she asked. “AmIgoing to be in the movie?”

“Oh, sorry, yes.” It never even occurred to me that Zoe wouldn’t know that she had a pivotal role in the movie. “The first act of the movie is going to be you and Austin’s story. Everyone I talked to, all the men in his squad, everyone here in town, Walter, Harlan, Dawson, Mrs. B, the Comfort brothers, they all said that you were all that mattered to Austin. You and AJ. I honestly feel like I can’t tell his story without including you.”

She pulled her knees up to her chin and looked out over the water. I watched her, wondering if that was going to change her answer. Was she going to decide she didn’t want the movie to go forward?

“If you’re uncomfortable with?—”

“No, it’s fine.” She took a deep breath and rubbed her hands up and down her bare arms.

In the few minutes we’d been sitting on the lookout spot, the sun had fallen even lower beneath the horizon, and the wind had picked up. The temperature had probably dropped by ten degrees.

I unzipped my hoodie and placed it over her shoulders.

“Oh, no.” She shifted away from me. “I don’t need?—”

“Please. Take it. I always run hot.”

Her eyes locked with mine, and a faint blush spread on her cheeks. I hadn’t meant for my statement to come out sounding suggestive, but I think that’s how she took it. To be fair, that’s how anything I said around her felt. When I was with her, everything was suggestive. I lowered my arms back to my sides, leaving the hoodie wrapped around her back.

“Thank you.” She put her arms through the sleeves and cleared her throat. “AJ actually wants to audition to play his dad, you know, when he was younger.”

“That’s amazing. He doesn’t have to audition. He can have the role.” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of that. AJ was a little younger than Austin had been when he saw Zoe in the library. He was thirteen, about to be fourteen, and AJ was eleven, about to be twelve. But AJ was tall for his age. He looked older. He would be perfect.

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