“You’re welcome. Have fun at the bake sale.”
I waved as I headed out the door, so glad that she looked and sounded better than she had last night.
When I reached Doveport center, I drove a little further and pulled into Doveport High’s parking lot. This whole part of town had the oldest buildings, all pretty structures made from red brick and different pretty-colored siding. But the school was especially lovely, at least now that I wasn’t going there anymore as a student or parent, with huge iron gates and buildings that never seemed to change, surrounded by green fields and large trees.
Turning into the parking lot, I pulled my eight-year-old Honda into a spot between a shiny Range Rover and a sleek Beemer. Most people would’ve felt a little intimidated by all of the expensive cars in the parking lot, but not me. In this town, the options were either to get used to all the wealth or feel smaller and smaller as a person until I disappeared. I’d decided, a long time ago, that I’d see all this rich stuff for exactly what it is: not all that important.
As I got out of the car and grabbed the bag of professionally packaged cookies—thank you Tilly—I heard my name. Already. Sigh. That was one thing I had always hated about small-town life, someone knew you, everywhere you went. No such thing as anonymity.
Making my face as pleasant as I could, I glanced in the direction of the voice and spotted Juniper and River. The Wildflowers sisters were part of the infamous Fascinators. No surprise there. They’d been popular in high school, with completely different grades and cliques, but still popular. It only made sense they were still cool in our forties.
“Beth! Bethany!” River called out again as she and her sister rushed toward me.
I closed the car door and stared at the sisters with the large tote hooked on my arm, scrambling to think of a reason they would possibly want my attention. I’d gone to school with them. Both had always been dressed in flowing dresses with beads and sandals. Their parents biked everywhere and fed them only organic and vegan foods. I’d kind of always figured that was just who they were, a family of typical hippy-types, but they’d changed a lot since high school.
As we all did.
At least, River had. Now, she looked like she belonged in New York City rather than our sleepy little town. Her hair was cut to just above her shoulders, straightened with jagged edges like some kind of model. It was streaked with varying shades of blonde and then darker brown underneath. She wore a lot of suits; today’s a maroon one, and always paired them with some smart high heels, which click-clacked against the pavement of the parking lot as she made her way to me.
Juniper, on the other hand, hadn’t changed all that much. Yeah, her shoulder-length hair was varying shades of gray now, but she wore comfortable clothes like she was about to head off to yoga. Today, it was black leggings and a gray sweater that hung off one shoulder. Both women were in good shape, both smiling at me as they closed in, but opposites, for sure.
I faced them full-on and smiled as they reached me. “Yeah?” Oh, Lord. I sounded like I just escaped the turnip truck. “I mean, what can I do for you…River?”
She nodded to the tote and asked, “Are those your mama’s cookies?”
Laughing nervously, I said, “They are.” It was times like this that I was glad my baking was better than my cooking. “Tilly helped by packaging them up. I think she outdid me.”
Another nervous laugh escaped me. Even though I’d gone to school with the sisters and most of the others in their little exclusive club, I didn’t talk to them much. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them or them me, we just didn’t share much in common. They’d always been polite to me in public but never called me over for drinks or anything.
It was okay. I preferred staying at home and to myself anyway. A social butterfly, I was not.
“How is Tilly?” Juniper asked as she peeked inside the tote, inhaling. “Mmm. They smell so good.”
I was sure my cheeks colored at her compliment. “Thanks. Yeah, Tilly is good. She isn’t feeling well, or she would’ve come with me.”
“Well, tell her we missed seeing her.” Juniper shared a look with her sister that I couldn’t decipher.
Then River said, “I was wondering…”
“Wewere wondering,” Juniper corrected.
River chuffed out a breath. “Right.Wewere wondering if you’d like to join us for our bi-monthly bunco night at Esther’s tonight.”
They didn’t even bother to explain who Esther was.Everyoneknew who she was. Esther Kincaid-Winchester owned the big house at the center of the Winchester cul-de-sac, and she seemed to be in charge of the Fascinators, along with several businesses in town.
These were women I’d only seen in passing, no matter how many classes we had together all those years ago or functions I’d spotted them at, none of the Fascinators had ever invited me to any of their events. But now they were asking me to a game night at Esther’s place? I’d either come up in the world, the universe was taking a strange hiatus on its usual enforcement of my bad luck, or I’d made friends without trying.
“Um, sure.” What else was I supposed to say?
“Great. It’s at seven tonight.” She smiled and nudged Juniper who smiled, too. “See you there.” Then, she did the cool gal finger-wave, and off they went.
Mind reeling, I headed to the cookie table and dropped them off with a group of younger women, the PTA moms who organized the bake sale every year.
They beamed at the tote of cookies as one of them, I didn’t know her name, took them from me. “Thank you so much. Your cookies always sell out.”
“You’re very welcome.” I gave them a wave and headed back to the car. I wasn’t hanging out at the sale today, because I wanted to get back to spend a little time with Tilly while she was home.
The thought of Tilly made me realize that I couldn’t go to bunco night if she was still sick. Could I? Did I need to cancel? I’d accepted the invite quickly, not thinking about my parental duties even though Tilly was practically an adult. That didn’t make me any less concerned about her.
