Before Hope can respond, Tommy’s voice comes back on the phone.
“Okay, thank you for letting me speak to everyone. That was helpful,” Hope says, pandering to him.
“Uh-huh,” says Tommy.
Realizing that’s all she’s going to get from Tommy, Hope continues. “When I spoke to Sylvie, she had a good idea. She thought perhaps some food would be helpful. Maybe some beverages.”
Tommy gives a littleheh, hehsort of laugh and says, “I can think of a beverage I’d like.”
Hope ignores him. She thinks of the last negotiation. They’d sent in pizzas. The suspect had agreed because his children were getting fussy, and probably because he was hungry too. It was to be his last meal as a free man. She thinks of the letter Alex told her about just a few hours ago, an honor bestowed when she has felt anything but honorable. She had done good that day, but it had all been forgotten the moment she returned her father’s call.She forces herself to focus on the here and now rather than the past.
“Why don’t I have some pizza and bottled waters sent in?” she asks.
Tommy’s voice perks up a little. “You can do that?”
“I’ll have to go through some approvals, but I think we can make that happen. Why don’t you ask the ladies what kind of pizza they like, and I’ll call back in a few minutes?”
Tommy agrees, then hangs up without saying goodbye.Some people, thinks Hope,have no manners.
Chapter 25
Inside the post office, the women comfort Blythe while Tommy is focused on his conversation with Hope. They get her a paper towel to wipe her face, pat her shoulder, and murmur consolations to her. All the while, Blythe keeps a tight grip on the package she fought to get back.
When Tommy ends the call and turns around to speak to the women, everyone already knows what he’s going to announce because Sylvie told them. “They’re going to send pizzas in here,” he says, acting like it was all his idea. “And waters.”
Sylvie can’t help but wish Blythe would’ve gotten in a good, hard kick to his gonads while she was rolling around on the floor with him.
“So what do you like on your pizza?” Tommy continues. “I’m supposed to find out and let the girl know.”
The girl, Sylvie thinks,has a name. Her name is Hope.But she doesn’t say that aloud. Instead, she says, “I really shouldn’t have pizza. It gives me acid indigestion.” She makes a show of looking at her watch. “Especially if I eat it this late in the day.”
Tommy frowns at her. “That’s easy for you to say. You already had something to eat.” He points at the basket, still toppled on its side.
“No one stopped you from doing the same,” Sylvie retorts.
Tommy waves his arm in the direction of the basket. “There’snothing in there I want to eat. Not when I can have pizza.” He makes a dismissive motion in Sylvie’s direction. “If you don’t want it, you don’t have to eat it.”
Nadine speaks up. “Well, I’m not eating dairy.” She crosses her arm over her stomach. “It hasn’t been agreeing with me lately.”
Tommy looks at her quizzically. “Since when?”
“Since none of your beeswax, Tommy Harrell.”
“Well,” says Blythe, hurrying to interrupt lest a marital spat get them all off track. Her stomach is already rumbling at the thought of pizza. She hasn’t eaten since her trainwreck of an engagement dinner last night, where she only picked at her food. “I’m vegetarian,” she tells them. “So I can only do veggie toppings. If there’s, like, even the oil from a pepperoni on the pizza, it’s a problem.”
Morrow speaks up. “I have to agree with the others. I’m on a diet. And pizza is definitely not on it.” They all nod in sympathy. They have all been on a diet at one point or another.
“Perhaps they could send something else?” Morrow asks. “Something everyone could enjoy? There’s a good deli in Calabash.” She gives a little laugh. “It’s called Calabash Deli, actually. They have lots of salads and sandwiches and—oh!—they make the best soups.” She places a finger on her temple. “I need to think about what today’s soup special is.” She looks at the other women, who all look riveted by the prospect of soup. “They change it every day,” she explains to them.
Tommy, who has been shaking his head since they all began speaking, has had enough. “It doesn’t matter what the soup special for today is! This isn’t DoorDash! It’s the Sunset Beach Police Department offering to send in some pizzas! Geez!” He runs both hands through his hair and closes his eyes.
As she watches him Sylvie thinks,If we asked him nicely right now, I bet he’d let us go.She opens her mouth to do so, but beforeshe can get the words out, he opens his eyes. “I’m telling them cheese pizzas. No toppings.” He looks at his wife. “You can pull the cheese off if you need to.” There is a gentleness underneath his words, a softening of his face as he speaks to her. He says nothing, Sylvie notices, about anyone else’s aversions. But then again, none of them are the wife he’s desperate not to lose.
Chapter 26
Tommy answers eagerly when Hope calls back. The talk of pizza has made him hungry, which is good. She will not send the pizzas in right away, Hope decides; she will let the hunger grow. People will do almost anything if they get hungry enough. She recalls a Bible story from her Sunday school days, a stiff dress that itched and patent leather Mary Janes that pinched and the story of Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of stew. There are many kinds of hunger, Hope thinks, many kinds of birthrights for sale.
“I’ll place this order and start making the arrangements to get the pizzas to you,” she tells Tommy. “I’ll also get some bottled waters. Anything else?” she asks, not expecting a response.
