“Thanks, Jess. I wanted to tell you right away, but…”
“But we weren’t talking. It’s fine. Thanks for letting me know now.”
As she hung up the phone, her euphoria faded. She hated this space between them. And she missed him. It was crazy because she was the one who’d wanted that space, who’d asked him for it, but now she resented it. She still wasn’t ready to change things between them, but she didn’t have to like it, did she? She was a complicated mess of contradictory feelings. What else was new?
With a sigh, she gave Moon another pat, and then snuggled down into the couch to watch her show.
Chapter Thirty-Three
When Rita pulled her truck into her cousin Cathy’s driveway a week later, she was exhausted from a day on her feet at the café. Cathy had called in sick, so Rita had brought over a bowl of chicken and dumplings left over from that day’s batch. It wasn’t exactly chicken soup, but it was close enough. And she knew for a fact that Cathy loved chicken and dumplings.
She knocked on the door and waited in the cold, her breath white against the dark, icy air around her. The front light was on, so she stood bathed in its pool until the door was pulled open and Cathy beckoned her inside.
“I don’t have much of a voice,” Cathy half whispered. “But come on in and take a load off.”
“I brought chicken and dumplin’s,” Rita said, keeping her distance. “Sorry I can’t get too close. I don’t want to catch this thing, whatever it is. You sound awful.”
Cathy shook her head. “You don’t want it, I can tell you that. It’s not so bad as it sounds, though. I feel okay—I just don’t have a voice.”
“I’m glad you feel okay. What have you been up to today?”
“Been binging daytime soaps. It’s been a minute since I watched those things, and you know what?”
“What?”
“All the characters are still the same, so I could just pick right up where I left off.” She laughed, and the laugh turned into a cough.
Rita slapped her on the back. “That’s the beauty of those shows. Come on—I’ll dish us up some dinner. I’m famished.”
“You’re a gem.”
As Rita poured chicken and dumplings into two bowls, Cathy set the table. They sat down together to eat. Rita kept thinking about how much their relationship had changed over the past couple of years. She’d had a hard time connecting with Cathy for much of their lives. The affair between her mother and Cathy’s father had probably played a role in that. But now that all of those secrets were out in the open and Rita had given Cathy a place at the café alongside her, the two of them got along well for the most part.
“What are you thinking so deeply about?” Cathy rasped.
“Did you know that we used to call you ‘the ice queen’?”
“What?” Cathy’s brow furrowed deeply. “The ice queen? What does that mean?”
“You know, because you were so cold toward us. You used to say passive-aggressive things, like barbs that you’d fling at us. Or maybe like icicles.” Rita chuckled to herself over the old moniker.
“Who called me that? You and who else?”
Rita thought for a moment. “I don’t know exactly. I guess Jimmy started it. Then my kids and I kept it going. It was a family…” She stopped when she saw the look on Cathy’s face. “We didn’t mean it as anything more than a joke. It was lighthearted.”
“Really? Lighthearted?” Cathy sat back in her chair, nostrils flared. “That’s pretty mean, Rita. To know that all those years, you were saying those things about me. And Jimmy too…” Her voice broke.
Rita panicked. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean anything by it. I thought you’d find it funny. You know, how you and I have a much better relationship now. That kind of thing.”
“Do we? I thought we’d always had a good relationship.”
Rita tipped her head to one side. “You did not. Don’t lie now.”
“Okay, we’ve had our ups and downs. But that hurts my feelin’s.”
“Well, I’m sorry. I wish we’d never said it. Does that make you feel any better?”
Cathy huffed. “I guess so.”
