Belinda walked over to Joetta’s matching jewelry box. Her pearls and their Grandma Esther’s teardrop earrings were in Joetta’s stash.
“Why didn’t you pack the jewelry?”
“It’s so old-fashioned. I hate it all.”
Belinda scooped up the little treasures and added them to the ones she’d brought in.
“What in the world?”
“Here’s the cash in my piggy bank. And take my jewelry. I don’t know how much it will get you, but it’s real, so it has to be worth something.”
“He has a job, an apartment, and a car, we don’t need to?—”
“—Joetta, you don’t know what you’re getting into. And maybe he does have all the things you’ll need, and you love him and all that. Just consider this your shower gift, then. But don’t tell him you have it. Just put it in this bag with your makeup. It’s for an emergency.”
“You’re such a good saver.”
Joetta did as Belinda instructed. She also took the money and put it in her favorite purse.
“I have to go.”
Joetta and Belinda looked into each other’s eyes. They’d barely spent a day in their lives apart. And now Joetta was moving away. She was going to have a baby. And she was marrying that man who, if Belinda was being honest, scared her a little. If for no other reason other than that he was so different to them.
Belinda pulled Joetta into her arms. She hugged her hard. “We’re always going to be the Gulfside Girls.” They put their palms together and did a quarter turn.
Belinda knew that they would likely never be those girls again.
And things were going to change forever.
Nineteen
Didi
“Jorge. You’re not supposed to be doing this.”
Didi found her husband with a garden hose and a push broom.
“The pool deck needs hosing off. That’s not hard to do.”
“No one is using the pool, Jorge, not right now.”
Didi tried to grab the broom, but Jorge flicked the water from the garden hose at her.
“Hey!”
He stood his ground. He was a foot taller than she was and surprisingly stronger than he’d been in the last few months.
“I’m serious, Jorge, you don’t have approval.”
“The doctor said to start doing what I had the energy for. I have the energy to hose some things down. I’d be careful if I were you. You’ll be getting an outdoor shower. Though I see you’re darn good at dodging. Remarkably good.”
Didi put her hands on her hips. “What do you mean?”
“Takes a lot of work to evade a simple question, and you’re doing it like it’s a sport at the Summer Olympics.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, look, serving me up the innocent face. That’s one of your cutest faces.” Jorge gave her a wink, and she shook it off.
