Mia stared at me as if I’d sprouted gills. She searched my face, seeming to gather her thoughts, and I braced myself for whatever she had to say. I needed to be here for her, to listen, even though it was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Not because I didn’t care about Mia, but because I knew it would be painful for both of us. We’d had enough pain this year. How would talking about it make it better?
Just as I thought she was about to speak, Mia’s expression hardened, and she shook her head. “I feel fine.”
So this was going well. But I could feel Beth telling me to try again.Fine, fine, I thought to Beth.
“Do you... want to talk about anything?”
The muscles in Mia’s jaw twitched. I tried to keep my face neutral, but inside I was withering. I hoped she couldn’t see how uncomfortable this was for me.
“No.” She plucked a petal from a hibiscus blossom and let it flutter to the ground. “I don’t want to talk.”
“Great... Not that you don’t want to talk. Great that you don’t have to... that you’re fine, I mean.”
Mia’s expression was stony, and it was like looking in a mirror at my younger self. I remembered being sixteen and angry. And I’d been so angry. At myself, at Mom, at Dad too, sometimes. Most of the time I’d been able to keep it in, and after a few years that anger had cooled. But it frightened me, seeing it in Mia. I knew how anger like that could tear you up inside.See?I thought to Beth.This is why I didn’t want to do this. I’m supposed to be the distraction.
I was relieved when Kitty and Greyson returned. They skipped around the patio humming theX-Filestheme song.
“I take it your dad talked to the event planner,” I said.
“Yes, he did,” Greyson replied, stopping mid-skip. “And she saidof coursewe could stay. I’m pretty sure she has a crush on my dad. Thereare alotof women who look at him like this.” She opened her mouth and fluttered her eyelashes as she pretended to drool, then clamped her mouth shut again. “Obviously I couldn’t see her, but her voice sounded exactly like that.”
I hoped my voice didn’t sound like whatever the equivalent of that face was. “Are you sure these women aren’t having strokes?”
“Maybe they’re having strokes because they’re in love with him,” Kitty said, winking at me.
I ignored Kitty and turned to Greyson. “Did your dad say what day?”
Greyson scrunched her forehead. “Right. Sorry. I forgot. He wants to know if two weeks from tomorrow is all right. At least I think that’s what he said. He wasn’t sure if you wanted to do it during your staycation—well, he didn’t call it a staycation, but I think he should’ve. Anyway, the castle doesn’t have events that night, and Dad says there’s no charter the next day.”
It wasn’t as if I had any plans besides hanging out with Mia and Kitty. “Two weeks from tomorrow it is, then.”
Twelve
Two weeks later, Mia, Kitty, and Greyson piled into my car, and the four of us watched seagulls fight over a piece of bread in the condo parking lot as we waited for Nina to arrive. Alex had already left for Miami to get a drink with a friend (the flirty event planner?), so our mini road trip down to Coral Castle was to be a girls-only affair. Kitty and Greyson narrated the seagull fight as if they were sports announcers, making Mia and me laugh so hard we were wheezing.
When Nina finally appeared, she yanked open the passenger door and hurled herself into the seat. “You’re not allowed to have fun without me,” she said.
“Only ten minutes late. That’s pretty good for you,” I said.
Nina sighed. “I amsoready to have you back at work, Josephine. I’m tired of cleaning toilets all by myself.”
I’d enjoyed the time off with Mia and Kitty, and Greyson too. The girls and I had spent our days traipsing around South Florida. Interspersed between beach days, we’d gone window-shopping on Worth Avenue, visited the turtles at the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, and taken an airboat ride through the Everglades. Alex joined us on his daysoff. But when he had to work, he’d find us as soon as he returned home and listen to the girls describe whatever adventure we’d had that day. The five of us—six if Nina dropped by—ate dinner together every night, sometimes at my place and sometimes at Alex’s. Our evenings were loud, messy, and filled with laughter. I tried not to think about how this was temporary. How it would all go away once the girls were gone.
Nina rolled down her window and slapped the roof of my car. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
“You’re the one who was late, and besides, we’re eager to find out which of those seagulls will become the featherweight champion of the condo.” My gaze dropped to Nina’s waist, where something shiny caught my eye. “What isthat?”
Nina grinned at me, looking even more hyped than she’d been a moment ago. “What, this?” She pointed to the pink-sequined fanny pack strapped around her waist. “It’s my fun bag.”
“Your fun bag.”
“Yes, my fun bag.”
“Do I even want to know what’s in there?”
Nina rattled the contents of the fanny pack. “Tampons and Dramamine. In case you can’t fall asleep. The Dramamine, not the tampons.”
Mia poked her head up beside Nina. “Did you bring it?”
