"Ohmygosh, theRob. The Rob who drugged you and tried to get the town to go on a witch hunt after you to protect his ancient relative's dark dirty secrets? "
"That's the one."
"You're so cool," Eloise commented. "My best friend in the middle of a witch hunt like a badass. You're my hero."
Ursula laughed and laced her fingers with Eloise's to pull her along.
The woman set the box down on the ground where two spotted chickens immediately started pecking through it. The women were all talking and asking questions. Then the tall blonde,who looked like she could be Barbie herself, saw Ursula and gave her a look that said,there you are. Their embrace spoke of a connection that Eloise could understand, especially after hearing stories of what this woman went through.
She had on light pink chino pants that fit her long frame perfectly with a darker pink blouse and her blonde hair up in a flouncy ponytail.
"This is Eloise."
When recognition lit the woman's eyes Eloise felt warm and then she was engulfed in a hug that wrapped the scent of English roses and sun-warmed clean clothes around her. She pulled the smells into her lungs and held them there feeling like she could stay in them for quite a while.
"You were missed," she said to Eloise. "This woman here," she nudged a smiling Ursula, "showed me grace like I had never experienced before and she talked about you in the way of a lost love," she said, her blue eyes honest and sweet.
"Well," Eloise said, "Jenson may be sexy, but I know which parts to talk and stay silent through during a movie. And," she held up a finger, "I would help her bury a body."
"I really do love having that in my back pocket," Ursula nodded.
"That is soulmate kind of love," Jessica said with her wide honest smile.
"She spoke of you highly and with love. It is so nice to meet you." Eloise leaned in toward her. "Also, you look like a real life Barbie in the best way. Your outfit is fabulous and your hair is doing that perfect swoopy thing and it sounds like your ex could be a villain in a book," she said it all with a smooth hand gesture.
Jessica laughed, her blue eyes twinkling. "I like you already. If we're complimenting hair, yours is the most incredible color." She reached out and lightly touched a softly curled strand. "I bet hairstylists have tried and failed to bottle this," she admired.Then she leaned in further with a low voice. "And my ex was for sure literary villain material."
"I will find an authorimmediatelyto do him justice," she winked and Jessica laughed again.
Eloise smiled, both at her easy camaraderie concerning her ex-husband and the compliment. She'd always found her hair to be troublesome. Kind of brown, kind of red. It was like an old penny and she was never quite sure what to do with it.
"You and I will definitely get along," she grinned. "Wait, you're the friend Crystal needed to check on and I got the impression that there was some cheering up to do?"
Jessica turned a conspiratorial smile to Ursula who also had a question on her face then stepped back and put her hands together. Crystal joined her, wrapping an arm around her waist and the women quieted their conversations, the only sounds were the pecking chickens.
"I'm moving back to Salem," she announced and cheers went up. She waited and then said, "And Rob is getting remarried."
Silence filled the yard. Even the chickens stopped, sensing the depth of the moment, the vertiginous nature of her words announced to a small group of women unsure how to respond. A spring breeze rustled around them as the sun slid behind a pink-rimmed cloud.
"It's a good thing," she finally said with a perfect smile. "Crystal had the idea to celebrate it, get out any bad juju, and release whatever darkness was left behind from that man, and who better to do it with than the women of The Lost Souls?" She picked up the box and pulled out a crown with pink jewels getting the appropriate oohs and ahhs from them all.
"He's already getting married?" Jen's incredulity was strong.
"Are you even divorced yet?"
"As of one week ago," Jessica said with a white and glorious smile. "He had a mistress in Marblehead for the last eight years.One of many." As she said it her blue eyes found Kelsea, who looked small, tentative. Eloise wasn't sure what passed between them, but she realized that Kelsea had been holding herself apart from the rest of them, lighting candles, helping Crystal with the table and food.
"We are good at celebrating," Tilly said as she took one of the crowns and placed it on her dark head. Her black hair with the blonde-tipped balayage was now violet at the ends and her red cat-eye glasses had been exchanged tonight for the lightest purple pair.
"We're also really good at hexing," Jen said bending for Jessica to place a pink crown on her gorgeous head. Her hair was in long, thin braids trailing down to the middle of her back. "Say the word and we will hex your ex. Just ask Sulphur the house raccoon. "
Jessica tipped her head quizzically and as Bess took her crown she explained how Jen had hexed herself.
"We do not hex anymore," Ursula said as a reminder as she straightened her pink crown.
"Which I am firmly against," Eloise announced. "I would love to hex someone and feel that it would be a service to the community." Ursula and Tilly gave her raised eyebrows. "Creed Lawson?" Eloise posed.
A collective sound of voices agreeing with her filled the air as they all took seats around the resplendent table.
