“Mama’s or Lily’s,” Tessa said as she cleared her throat, dislodging the sorrow trapped there.
“Well, I don’t have much, but you let me know if you need anything. We have a twin bed in Bert’s room if you need to use it. He’d love to have company to build new block cities with,” she said with a grin. “He would think he’d won the jackpot having an assistant builder.”
“Thanks, Laney. I appreciate the offer.”
Laney reached over and gave Tessa’s hand a squeeze. “Drinks are on the house today. The kitchen is about fifteen minutes behind schedule, as you can imagine. Want your usual?”
“We’re going all out today, Laney,” Lily said. “Bring us two orders of waffles with heaps of butter and a stack of bacon and two orders of biscuits with extra gravy, please. And probably a wheelbarrow to roll us outta here when we’re done.”
“And two pairs of sweatpants?” Laney asked with a smile.
Lily chuckled and said, “I like the way you think.”
Tessa dragged her last piece of biscuit round and round her plate like a buttermilk race car zipping through gravy. She popped it into her mouth as she eyed the half-eaten waffle on the plate in the middle of the table. She pointed at it with her fork.
“If I eat the rest of that, I will probably explode.”
“I actually thought you might explode two biscuits ago,” Lily said. “Especially after that fourth cup of coffee, which, by the way, has given you an eye twitch.”
Tessa reached up and rubbed her left eye just as her cell phone began to ring. She dug her hand into her purse, grabbing a pack of tissues, a tube of ChapStick, and a notebook before locating her cell. “It’s Mama,” she sighed as she answered the call. “Hey—”
“Tessa Marie Andrews, I have been calling youfor hours. Are you okay?”
“Yes, ma’am, I’m alive—”
“Are you still at the condo?” her mama interrupted. “Lily called to tell me you were okay. Thank goodness someone had the good sense to tell mesomething. I’ve been pacing around here, making your dad crazy, haven’t I, Clayton?”
Tessa heard her daddy’s rumbly voice in the background. “Mama, I’m okay . . . I think. But we’re not at the condo anymore. I’m at Scrambled with Lily—”
“We’ve heard horror stories about the condition of the homes around Jordan Pond. How’s the condo? Is it okay?”
“No, ma’am.” She exhaled. “The place is a disaster.”
Tessa described the state of her flooded condo and choked down more tears. Somehow talking to her mama made her feel vulnerable and childlike. By the end of the conversation, she dabbed at her eyes with a napkin. When Tessa ended the call, she asked Lily, “Do you mind dropping me off at their house?”
Before Lily could answer, Tessa’s phone rang again. This time it was their best friend, Anna, calling from Wildehaven Beach. Anna had just seen the news about Jordan Pond, and knowing Tessa lived on the water, she wanted to know if she and Eli needed to come to Mystic Water to help. Tessa didn’t know exactly what she needed at the moment—other than a good cry—but she promised Anna she’d call back when she was settled in at her parents’ house. Tessa dropped the phone back into her purse.
She pulled out her notebook. These days Tessa kept meticulously numbered lists to ensure she didn’t make bad decisions. The lists kept her life under control, because in the past, Tessa’s impulsive decisions resulted in more heartache than she wanted to admit. Two and a half years ago, after falling—even briefly— for Anna’s now boyfriend and being one of the main catalysts that caused Bea’s Bakery to burn down, Tessa no longer trusted her own judgment. When making big decisions—or any decisions these days—Tessa preferred to have at least three people agree on a correct course of action before she took it.
Tessa started a new page with the headingWhat should I do?Then she wrote the numbers one through five down the left side of the page. She looked up at Lily. “What should I do?”
“Don’t eat that waffle. I just washed my hair, and I don’t want you exploding all over me.”
Tessa groaned, but beside the number one she wrote,Don’t finish waffle.
Cecilia Borelli walked over to the table and motioned for Lily to scoot over. In her late fifties, Cecilia still wore her black hair in a wavy, shoulder-length style. She and her husband, Harry, had moved to Mystic Water two years ago from New Jersey to escape the brutal winters. But they couldn’t decide where to start their new life, and Cecilia swore she and Harry had blindfolded themselves and thrown a dart at a map on the wall. The green dart had lodged itself into Mystic Water, Georgia. The two of them had been a great fit right away. With Cecilia’s business acumen and baking skills combined with Harry’s cooking talents, Scrambled had prospered and become a staple in Mystic Water.
True to her Italian American upbringing, Cecilia never let anyone leave without ample amounts of food and hugs. She placed a plastic-wrapped quiche on the table. Then she reached over and patted Tessa’s hand. “Laney told me your place is flooded. Where are you going to stay?”
“My parents’ house.”
Cecilia frowned. “You’re too old to move back in with your parents. My boys were out at eighteen.”
“I don’t plan to move home permanently,” Tessa said, feeling defensive. It wasn’t as though she was returning home because she’d run out of money. “As soon as the water recedes, I’m going to see what can be repaired at the condo.”
“People are saying it’s going to take a couple of weeks before proper repairs can be made to the places that are salvageable,” Cecilia said. “And I heard the houses around Jordan Pond are anythingbutsalvageable.” She pushed the quiche toward Tessa and dropped a pair of keys on the table. She pointed toward the ceiling. “Why don’t you move into the apartment upstairs, free of charge. It’s completely furnished, and no one is using it. It’s tough to move back in with your parents. Believe me, I know. After Paul was born, Harry and I moved in with his mother for a few months, and we nearly killed each other—his mother and me. It’s not easy going home after you’ve been out on your own.”
Tessa glanced at the apartment keys, and her defenses relaxed. “Oh, Mrs. Borelli, that’s very generous, but I couldn’t impose.”
