Here we were.
“Hi,” Ryan said, looking down at Estrella from his considerable height in comparison, even with Essie being rather tall. “I’m Ryan.”
Looking him up and down with her piercing eyes, she nodded once and smiled back. “I’m Essie. Welcome.”
With a twist on her heel, she turned around back down the hall, a flare of her long blonde hair guiding us with her.
Ryan looked at me, leaning his head close so as not to be overheard. “Does she live here or something?”
“No.” Or, at least, not yet.
A heaviness settled in my stomach as we followed her back.
“Since when has Lu ever not been the first one here?” Faith asked by the time we were just outside the cozy kitchen. Her voice held a tinge of pride. “I feel like I should earn some sort of prize.”
“Because you are usually always the last.”
“Turning over a new leaf,” Faith said.
“Right before they fall.” Ana snorted.
Her head lolled over her shoulder as she watched us enter.
Ryan, for the first time, remained a step behind, as if prepared to use me as a sort of makeshift shield as we came across the group of women looping aprons around their bodies with limp bows hanging in the back.
The kitchen was lit still by the sun cresting in the wide windows that showed off the backyard. Plants draped from the tops of cabinets. The glass windows showed the many different thrifted items inside. Today, however, what was most notable were the carefully allotted ingredients laid out in front of each of them, along with the plethora of Pyrex bowls, which Gertie had accumulated in all colors and patterns.
“Look who’s arrived.”
“I would’ve been earlier,” I muttered, glancing back toward Ryan. I took a step to the side, as if to present him and his reddening cheeks while also heading toward the peg that held the aprons. Mine that I always wore—a classic ’50s number with yellow ruffles—was still there. “Someone made me late.”
Ryan lifted a hand in greeting as he glanced toward Faith. “Hi again.”
“Hi there.” Faith’s gaze pulled away from him and back toward me. Her voice turned a bit quieter, as if no one could hear her quite clearly. “You actually brought him.”
I nearly scoffed. “After you invited him, you mean? Yes, I did.”
Flipping my apron over my head, I reached for one of the final few. Blue-and-white checkerboard, it was embroidered at the bottom with springtime pastel flowers.
“Do I look pretty?” asked Ryan, holding on to the two ties on either side.
“Absolutely dashing.” Reaching out, I took the ties from him, letting them loose around his hips before I tied it in a perfect, fluffy bow in the back. “Still ready for this?”
“More than.”
“Oh, so Ryan is going to be crafting today?” Ana asked, her voice low, as if we couldn’t all hear her anyway. “Trèsinteresting.”
I rolled my eyes.
“How are the stones working for you from yesterday?” Faith piped in, standing as she approached the counter with the rest of us.
Everyone—except for Gertie, who slipped inside like she had always been there—sat at the small table against the wall.
“So far, so good,” Ryan admitted. “I don’t feel anything yet though.”
Faith tied her own apron in a prim knot in the center of her back. “You’ll know when you know.”
Celeste paused in the doorway. Lips parted, as if she was about to say something, she raised her light eyebrows instead. Her silence lasted long enough that Essie squeezed by and took her place at the end of the long worktable.
