“Uh, Cadence,” she said, pushing her sunglasses up on her head in a way that made her long, dark hair flow in ripples down her back. “Have you been robbed?”
“I would be sticking my tongue out at you right now, but I’m afraid I would drop this canvas if I tried,” Cadence threw over her shoulder.
“Okay, okay, let me help you, you nut,” Diana said with a laugh. She dropped some items over on the desk, although Cadence couldn’t see precisely what they were from behind thepainting, then came over to help Cadence lower the large frame safely to the floor.
“Thanks,” Cadence said, brushing an errant lock of hair out of her face. She liked her new haircut, now that their friend June had helped her take it out of theyikeszone, but she did sometimes miss the ease of throwing it back in a long braid and calling it a day.
“So, uh, what’s going on here?” Diana asked, waving a hand around the space.
“Ugh, I just didn’t like the way it read when you first come in, you know? Does that sound crazy?”
“Absolutely not.” Diana crossed back to the desk, then turned to reveal that one of the things she’d brought with her was coffee for each of them. “I totally get it. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve done something like that with the store…”
Diana, like Cadence, had been born and raised in the little town in Massachusetts, although the three years between them meant that they hadn’t been friends as children. They’d grown closer as adults, especially as they both managed small businesses. Diana was also pretty much Isabelle’s favorite person in the world. Cadence’s daughter had been known to wax poetic about how “cool and pretty and nice Auntie Diana is, don’t you think, Mom?”
Cadence, for her part, agreed wholeheartedly, although she would have added “stylish” to that list of descriptors. Like now, Diana looked effortlessly chic in wide-legged linen pants, which she’d paired with a navy silk sleeveless button-up shirt and a chunky gold necklace that looked like rope.
No doubt it all came from Diana’s boutique, which was a treasure trove of great finds. Cadence had more of an eye for fine art than fashion, but every time Diana gifted her with something, Cadence found that it immediately became one of her most-worn items.
“Well, if you don’t think I’m crazy, then I’m going to go with not crazy,” Cadence concluded. She waggled her coffee. “And not that I’m not psyched to see you or grateful for the pick me up, but what brings you in today?”
Diana turned back to the counter, then lifted a hardcover book. “Book club read,” she said. “I picked up a copy for you when I grabbed mine. And let me say this: Eleanor cannot open up her store quickly enough for me.”
Their friend Eleanor Ridley had moved to Magnolia Shore earlier in the year after divorcing her husband. When she’d realized that the house she’d purchased had more space than she needed, she’d decided to turn much of the downstairs into a bookstore. The renovations were still in progress, although they’d sped up since Eleanor had started dating the local hardware store owner, Garrett Wilder.
When Cadence and her friends had more or less adopted Eleanor after she’d arrived, they’d started a book club that ran out of Eleanor’s soon-to-be shop. All the members of the club were waiting for the grand opening with bated breath. They were tired to driving out of town to buy books.
“Oh, you’re a hero, Di!” Cadence exclaimed. “I should have gone out to get it last week, but then Izzy had a play date and things just got away from me.”
Diana waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. You’re busy. Being a mom is busy!”
There was a tiny note of wistfulness in Diana’s voice, but from the way Diana looked away, glancing down at the book in her hand, Cadence knew Diana didn’t want to talk about it. Her friend had recently dipped her toe into online dating, and though Diana hadn’t yet had any luck, Cadence was hopeful for her. Running the boutique had kept Diana so busy that she’d neglected her personal life in the past, but her desire to have a family of her own had lit a fire under her recently.
Even so, Cadence understood needing a break from the tough stuff, so she let Diana change the subject.
“I was reading reviews,” she said, tapping the glossy dust jacket, “and it’s supposed to be really good. Funny, but also twisty? I kept seeing the term ‘genre-bending’ being tossed around, so I think we’re in for a wild ride with this one…”
It wasn’t polite, she knew, but Cadence found her mind wandering back to the gallery setup. She needed a focal piece. That was the way she’d always designed, with one central showstopper. Normally, she’d put it front and center so that it was the first thing people saw when they walked through the door, but what if she tried something different?
“Hello! Earth to Cadence.”
Cadence jolted back to the present, then gave Diana a sheepish grin.
“Sorry,” she said. “My mind got to wandering.”
Diana gave her an assessing look. “Is this about Tyler? How’s that going?”
Cadence felt a flare of irritation, but as she knew it wasn’t really at Diana, but more at the situation overall, she made sure she swallowed it down before she responded.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe this is just another distraction. Because… well, it’s notgoinganywhere. We’re separated. We are very specifically not going anywhere together.”
Diana looked sympathetic. She seemed to be choosing her words carefully.
“It just seems like it’s taking a toll on you,” she said. “And you know the only thing I want is for you to be happy, right?”
“I know.” Cadence did. It just felt so wearying to be this sad and to feel like there was no direction to it. There were only so many times she could say,yes, this is still terriblewithout feeling like she should be doing… something different. Anything.
She shook her head. Thiswasthe something different she was doing. It was the only thing she had figured out to do to end that endless, wretched tension between her and Tyler.
