Page 48 of Sea La Vie
“Gardening, huh?” she asks, and crosses her arms.
“Gardening,” I repeat.
“Come here.” She walks around from the bar and motions for me to follow her through her neatly kept, colorful shelves full of books. She turns around and smirks. “You’re so in love with her it’s disgusting.”
“I didn’t tell you why I wanted it,” I lamely protest.
She stops at a particular bookshelf and spins to face me, the tail of her oversized flannel whirling behind her, and props a hand on her hip. “You didn’t have to.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Do you think it’s a good idea?”
“I think Lainey doesn’t open up to many people about how she really feels,” she says. “I think she wants to paint the picture of having a perfectly happy life doing everything for everybody else all the time and nothing for herself. That’s who she is. But I think you see right through it, don’t you?”
I nod. “I want to do something for her for once.”
Eden narrows her eyes and cocks her head. “You’re alright, you know that?” She turns around and steps on her tiptoes toreach above her. She pulls down a hardback book with a green cover, then drops it into my hands unceremoniously. “This will get you started. Let me know when you’re finished with it and I’ll give you another.”
“Thanks, Eden,” I say. “Would you mind maybe not telling her about this?”
“Your secret is safe with me,” she promises. “Head down to Al and Miss Kat’s for some starters. Miss Kat grows some of the biggest Dahlias you’ve ever seen. You know those were her momma’s favorites, right?”
She grabs an ink pen from the mug beside the cash register then draws me a map on the back of my receipt. The rain has started subsiding and more people are moving around Water Street now. “Thanks again, Eden!” I call over my shoulder right as Lainey bustles in, her yellow raincoat leaving little puddles in her wake, and Midge dancing circles around her feet.
“This weather,” she mutters to herself. She shakes off her hood, then each arm, before finally realizing I’m standing there. “Oh, hey Tate.” She rocks back and forth on her blue rain boots and peers down at my bag. “Anything good in there?”
I quickly move it behind my back in a very suspicious way.Smooth.
“Nope.”
“Then…why’d you buy it?” she asks, attempting to peer behind me.
“He asked me to special order a book for natural remedies on constipation!” Eden hollers from behind the bar. Lainey’s bent down, unbuckling Midge’s leash from her harness.
“Seriously?” I mouth at Eden. She smiles brightly in return, then doubles over in silent laughter.
“Hey, what are you doing today?” I ask, Lainey, in an attempt to distract her from Eden.
“Not fishing, apparently,” she huffs. She runs a hand through her damp waves and trudges over to the bar. “I don’t know how we’re ever going to make it through this season.”
“Lainey Adams always finds a way,” Eden says and takes her rain jacket. She hangs it up on a hook by the register and immediately starts pouring Lainey a cup of the day's special. After she slides it over to her, she squirts some whipped cream into a cup and lays it on the floor for Midge who happily laps at it with her tongue.
“I don’t even want to think about it,” she says with a shake of her head. “The only good thing to ever come out of this crazy unpredictable weather is the sea glass.”
“Here, here,” Eden says with a lift of her own mug.
“Sea glass?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Lainey answers. “It’s glass that turns smooth after tumbling around the ocean for who knows how long. Some of it is old and comes from shipwrecks, some is from bottles that have been thrown into the ocean. It’s kind of hard to find on a normal, clear day around here, but after a storm, it’s pretty common.”
“Interesting,” I say. “I’m surprised I never found any when we were kids.”
“We can look for some,” Lainey says. “If you want, I mean.”
“I’d love that.” I look over at Eden who’s scurried down to the end of the bar, out of Lainey’s vision. She shoots me a thumbs up, a Cheshire Cat grin spreading across her face.
“The weather seems like it should be calming down enough for us to take the ferry over to Cape Lookout,” Lainey says. “We might be able to find some conch shells, too, but we’ll probably need to rent a Jeep to get to the side of the island that’s best for finding everything.”
“Sounds good to me.”
