But it’s been awful watching her retreat into being a shell of the person she was while living under the cloud of missing her best friend in the entire world.
“Grey!” she says. “You’re back. Sabrina was just telling me how kind you were to save their family from massive debts by buying this quaint little café from them. Without telling me.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask.
Her eyes twinkle. Theytwinkle. She hasn’t twinkled in so long. “Making friends.”
“Sabrina’s the biggest gossip in this town,” I blurt before I can remind myself that I like being on her good side. “Don’t tell heranythingyou don’t want anyone else to know.”
Everyone in the room cracks up.
Everyone.
Including Zen. And Mimi.
“Sweetheart, when you’re my age, you won’t care who says what about you either, including people who have seen you naked.”
And now I’m picturing Sabrina naked.
Beneath me.
On top of me.
Sideways and upside down and in a bedroom and on the beach and against a tree.
Fuck.
“But don’t worry,” she adds. “I’m not telling anyone anything about my favorite grandson that they can’t find out with a simple internet search.”
Sabrina props her cheek on her fist, one-handing a steaming mug of coffee. “Your favorite, hmm?”
“Such a sweet boy. He was a surprise ten years after his next-closest sibling, and the poor thing got the short end of every stick. Tired parents, the family trust fund running low—”
“How did you get here?” I interrupt. Zen’s been with me practically nonstop. They didn’t go get her. They couldn’t have. They didn’t have the car.
And they didn’t say Mimi was coming.
They would’ve told me that Mimi was coming.
“I walked,” Mimi says dryly. She sips coffee, then closes her eyes and sighs with deep satisfaction. “That isdelicious. Where did you say these beans are from?”
“Honduras,” Sabrina answers. “We don’t serve them here, which isn’tmychoice, but when you said you loved coffee, I broke into my home stash for the best stuff.”
I look at Zen, but they seem to be actively avoiding making eye contact with me.
“Zen—” I start, but Mimi interrupts me.
“Grey, you need to serve these beans here.” She sips and sighs again, and it doesn’t matter how wrong this is or who told whom what.
She lookshappy.
For the first time in over a year, Mimi doesn’t have a cloud of sadness and gloom hovering around her.
“Whatever you want, Mimi,” I force out around an unexpected lump in my throat. “When did you get here?”
“Last night. I stayed at that hotel at the airport, and Sabrina’s friend Theo drove all the way over to pick me up this morning. You know. The naked knitting one. Isn’t that sweet of them to make arrangements for me?”
Sabrina’s friend Theo picked me up.
