The words hung between them, honest and unadorned.
Maggie felt something shift in her heart.
“I miss companionship, too,” she said slowly, apparently unable to stop a lifetime’s worth of true confessions. “Not romance. Not…that. I miss having someone to talk to. To laugh with. To plan with.”
Jo Ellen’s smile softened. “You mean me.”
Maggie met her gaze. “I mean you.”
For a few heartbeats, neither of them spoke.
“You know,” Jo Ellen finally said lightly, though her eyes shone, “we could become life partners.”
Maggie snorted.
“I’m serious!” Jo Ellen insisted. “We’re good at this partnership. We finish each other’s sentences and fight over the remote and we never hear what the other one said unless we’re in the same room.”
“And you bang dishes.”
“You don’t understand computers,” Jo Ellen volleyed back.
“And you snore!” they exclaimed in perfect unison.
“Basically, we’re already married,” Maggie said. “So, we should just live together in Destin.”
Jo Ellen practically jumped off the bench. “You mean it? In the apartment over the garage? On the beach?”
“Assuming my kids don’t sell it out from underneath me, which I totally gave them permission to do.”
“Maggie!” Jo grabbed her hands. “I do have grandchildren in Ithaca, but they’d come down a lot. And honestly, don’t you think Kate’s going to give up Cornell to marry Eli?”
Maggie choked. “I don’t know, but I’m not letting that color my decision.”
“Ourdecision,” Jo Ellen corrected. “You and me, getting old together, helping each other through, taking road trips and long walks and…oh!” Her eyes filled, proving she was the softest, most tear-prone human alive. “Please say yes! Don’t make me get on one knee, Mags!”
They laughed, but beneath it ran something real, something solid. Maggie felt it clearly now—the comfort, the steadiness, the quiet joy of knowing she would not be navigating the rest of her life alone.
“Time goes so fast,” Jo Ellen murmured as they rose and their joints gave a soft protest. “So, let’s make the most of what we have left.”
Maggie squeezed her hand. “Together.”
“I can’t wait to get home,” Jo Ellen said excitedly as they walked. “To Destin, I mean.”
“No more spying?”
“Once more at lunchtime tomorrow. Let’s see if he leaves. If not, we’ll call him innocent.”
Maggie agreed and they headed home, passing the two girls on their jog.
“Hey, Class of ’69,” the blonde called as they passed.
But the other girl, Avery, waved and blew them a kiss. “You two are gorgeous!” she called.
“Yes,” Maggie called. “We certainly are!”
They linked arms and strolled together like a couple of co-eds with their whole lives ahead of them.
The beach was quiet early in the morning, before umbrellas bloomed like loud flowers and music played and kids ran around with footballs and Frisbees. That’s when Tessa took Olive for their “jewelry hunt”—also known as looking for shells.
