The style wasn’t exactly to her taste, but it was furnished and clean. It could’ve been a lot worse.
She unpacked her suitcase, then pulled a book off a skinny shelf decorated with spider plants and crystal hippos. All of Great-Aunt Penelope’s books featured women in shoulder-baring nightgowns clutching shirtless, windswept men. They made her sensible A-line skirt and eggshell blouse feel too tight. Cordelia considered herself well read—it was part of her job, after all—but she didn’t often indulge in romance. She didn’t like to feel things.
A few chapters in, she found herself wondering how one managed to make love on a horse without falling off. She jotted down a note to research later.
As she stood up to stretch her limbs, the sound of high-pitched laughter drew her attention. She’d opened the window to let in some air, and the scent of sun-warmed tar and chlorine wafted in on a gentle prairie breeze. She peeled back the curtain to get a peek at the pool party.
Three older women sat on striped beach recliners, sipping cheap margaritas from comically large glasses with pineapple wedges and bright-blue paper umbrellas. She recognized Daisy, who wore a pink polka-dot bikini. She had her curly blond bouffant tied up with a black checkered handkerchief. Despite her wrinkled skin and sagging jowls, she had a youthful glow about her. As if she approached the world like it was still fresh and new.
Daisy chatted with a red-haired woman who looked to be inher sixties. She wore a no-frills black one-piece and styled her hair like Lucille Ball, but she had the face of an accountant. Cordelia liked her immediately. She reminded Cordelia of the cranky old women who yelled at the library staff for shelving a gardening book in the true-crime section even though they hadn’t come in seeking a gardening or true-crime book. Her favorite patrons. Cordelia had nothing but respect for those who appreciated order and lacked social shame.
The third woman, somewhere in her late sixties, kept her dark-gray hair cut short and wore a floral bikini with a matching swim skirt. She sat slightly off to the side, keeping her own company. And though the other women included her in conversation, she didn’t do anything other than nod or shake her head in response. If she hadn’t opened her mouth to take a drink from her margarita, Cordelia might’ve wondered if she had a jaw condition.
She hadn’t intended to join the pool party, but when Daisy caught sight of her in the window, Cordelia had no choice but to wave back. It was her first day here. The last thing she wanted to do was come off as unfriendly to the residents she was hoping to negotiate with. Closing the curtain, Cordelia released a long-winded sigh, then went into the bedroom to change into her bathing suit and sun hat.
Chapter Four
CORDELIA’S SANDALS SLAPPED AGAINST THE BLACKTOP AND SHE SHIFTEDher gait to stop the offending noise from drawing any more attention. Her bathing suit was plain blue, with a bow that tied across her chest. It looked nice against her pale skin, but suddenly felt too loud next to the red-haired woman’s even plainer black.
“Yoohoo! Over here!” Daisy waved her hand wildly as she spotted Cordelia opening the gate to the pool area. “We’re so glad you could make it. Belinda Sue thought you’d need more time to get your bearings, but I told her you had a real friendly way about you and that you’d be down here in no time. I mean, who can resist a pool party? Am I right?”
“Lord, Daisy, let the poor girl catch her breath before you hit her with all of you.” The red-haired woman in the black suit stood and offered her hand. She had a firm, dry grip. More proof that this was Cordelia’s kind of person. “I’m Belinda Sue, and this here is Arline.” She nodded to the woman in the floral suit, who just nodded back without speaking.
“Nice to meet y’all.” Cordelia bent her knees and tipped her chin as she greeted them. A semicurtsey to show her respect to her elders. “I hope y’all will have a little patience with me as I figure out how things work around here.”
“Of course, dear.” Belinda Sue patted the plastic chair besideher, directing Cordelia to take a seat. “Feel free to ask us anything you’d like to know.”
“Thank you for your hospitality.” Cordelia drummed her fingers on the armrest of the plastic beach chair as the three women stared at her expectantly. She didn’t like having that many eyes on her at once. It felt like being watched by a spider. “Have y’all lived here long?”
Belinda Sue frowned, as if she’d been expecting another question. “I suppose we have. Daisy and I arrived in eighty-six and Arline joined us in eighty-eight.”
“Eighty-nine,” Arline said. Her voice creaked like it didn’t get a whole lot of use.
“Eighty-nine,” Belinda Sue repeated.
Cordelia was as confused as a goat on Astroturf. Surely these women hadn’t been living in a motel for this many decades? Why hadn’t they gotten apartments? She’d assumed they’d formed a little retirement community here, but this was something else altogether. They must’ve come here when they were fresh out of high school.
“I’m sorry.” Unused to so much fresh air, Cordelia coughed and patted her chest, which Daisy took as a sign that she needed a drink. And though she’d never been much of a drinker on account of her personal history, Cordelia thought a little liquid courage might not hurt in this situation. She took the dressed-up glass of liquor and punch Daisy passed to her and drank deeply. “Are you saying y’all have been renting rooms since you were teenagers?”
Daisy shook her head enthusiastically. “We weren’t quite teenagers, though it’s sweet of you to think we look that young, but me and Belinda Sue weren’t allowed to start until we were twenty-one. Arline might’ve been a bit older, maybe thirty. We don’t know for sure. And don’t bother asking, she’ll never tell you.”
“What do you mean by allowed to start?”
“That was Penelope’s rule. We had to be old enough to have figured out some of life before we could be one of her girls. She had a funny way about her, but it all made sense in the end.”
Cordelia wasn’t sure how much of life they’d had figured out if they’d chosen to live in a motel for the bulk of their lives, but she’d grown up with enough judgments from strangers to know when to hold her tongue on other people’s personal business. Still. The odd way Daisy phrased it, that she started here, made it sound more like a job than a living arrangement.
“You... work here?” Maybe they were part of the staff. House cleaners and bookkeepers and whatever else a motel required to run. But that only left three vacant rooms and a staff of three for three rooms seemed a little excessive. But then again, by Cordelia’s standards, everything was a little excessive.
“Of course, dear.” Belinda Sue gave her a look similar to the one Daisy had given her when she first arrived. Like Cordelia’s brain was made of ink and she couldn’t dot ani. “All of us are working girls. Didn’t Arbuckle explain it to you?”
“I bet he didn’t.” Daisy giggled and bounced a little on her beach chair.
Cordelia’s shoulders stiffened. She’d been the butt of plenty of jokes growing up and didn’t care one bit to be set outside the loop. “I was told the Chickadee was a local institution and that’s about it. If I’m missing something, I hope y’all can fill me in.”
“Dang it, Arbuckle. No-good, useless son of a gun,” Belinda Sue muttered under her breath. “Here’s the thing.” She gave Cordelia a tight smile that didn’t fit the natural contours of her pinched, agitated face and folded her hands in her lap. “The three of us are the last of the chicks, working girls, here at the Chickadee. Everyone else has either passed on or moved away to other towns, other jobs.”
“The younger generation all got themselves webcams now,” Daisy said.
