Page 76 of Marriage is a Shore Thing
“What now?” Joanna asks, unable to tamp down her growing grin.
This is the part I’m not quite sure about. My fingers subconsciously twist my silicone ring. I want to explore a real relationship with Van, but I don’t really want to take this off. Idon’t want him to move out. I don’t want anything to change, which is probably incredibly selfish of me.
I just… I like the little life we built together—even if it’s not real.
I like hearing his velvety voice singing those obnoxious love songs downstairs while I get ready in the mornings. I like that we can talk about an upcoming boxing match and the latest celebrity gossip with equal enthusiasm. I like dinners with him on the patio with Stella, Prunella, and Hank quietly going to roost.
“I don’t know.” My shoulders bunch as my gaze drops to the table.
Joanna’s hand settles over my fidgeting ones. “When you decide, let me know. Until then, your secret is safe with me.”
The moment is soft and nurturing and everything I wished I’d had forso manyyears. I flip my fingers and squeeze hers, meeting Joanna’s warm gaze. After a shared smile, a thought occurs to me. I want to show Joanna the same care and support she’s always shown me.
“What about you?”
Her freckled forehead crinkles. “What about me?”
“You’d said that you’d been having a hard time lately.”
“Oh…about that.” Joanna’s cheeks pink as she averts her eyes. “This all made me realize that I’d been worrying too much about everyone else’s lives and not putting enough focus on my own. So”—she takes a huge breath and lets it out in a rush—“I’ve decided to start dating.”
“You have?”
One of the things we bonded over when I moved to Wilks Beach was our mutual distrust of men. But things have definitely changed for me, so maybe…
Joanna picks at her cuticle, suddenly looking half her age.
“There was this boy—” Her sentence breaks off with a short laugh. “Well, he’s a man now. We knew each other in high school. I always thought he was sweet, but he was so shy. I didn’t think he was interested. Anyway, dozens of years and two divorces later, he’s taking me out on his boat next weekend.” She flaps her hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this nervous for a date. I mean, I haven’t worn mascara in years.”
A smile curls my lips as I lean forward, excitement sparking down my forearms. “Can I help you get ready?”
Joanna looks up, her shoulders dropping from her ears. “I would love that.”
I’m mentally curating Joanna’s ideal eyeshadow palette when I leave ten minutes later, so I don’t notice Cade rounding the neighbor’s large hedge until her bubble-gum pink hair nearly flies into my mouth as we collide. Her arms are over her head as she…
Is she taking a picture of the sky?
“Sorry,” I tell her when we separate. “I was in my head.”
Cade laughs. “I’malwaysin my head. Hey, check this out.” She shows me the image on her camera app. “Doesn’t that cloud look like a rhinestone cowboy hat?”
“Uh…”
The picture on her phone looks like a regular white cloud to me. If I squint, itmightbe considered hat shaped.
Cade lifts her chin skyward, grinning ear to ear. “Oh, now it’s a turtle.”
I don’t glance up, taking her word on it.
“I’m actually glad I ran into you, because I wanted to talk to you.”
Surprise flashes in Cade’s blue eyes, but she quickly schools her expression, slipping her hands into the pockets of her short purple overalls.
“What about?”
This is something that’s been bugging me since that first planning night, but being new to real friendships, I wasn’t sure how to handle it. In my old world, exclusion and limited access were as common as spray tans and forced smiles.
I’d known that Vivian had asked Summer and Nick to join the heist, because Nick pouted when Summer shot it down. When Summer explained she didn’t want them lying to her police officer brother for the rest of their lives, Nick took it as a sign she planned on keeping him around. But I should have talked to Cade sooner, and it shouldn’t have taken literally running into her to make me realize just how wrong excluding her was.
