"I destroyed it. I destroyed his whole castle."
"He'll rebuild. Walk."
They didn't stop until they were out of sight. Sophie looked back.
"He definitely saw that," Sophie said.
"Like, definitely."
"Stop."
"Peripheral vision," Brittany said, and Sophie bumped her so hard she almost fell.
Around eleven, Max and Lily volunteered for the Wawa run. Carrie handed over her card, and they headed back toward the house, their voices fading as they crossed the dune.
At the shoreline, Jen stood just inside the break, the water barely to her ankles. She'd said she needed to cool off and walked down ten minutes ago, and she was still there. Not watching the water, not looking at her phone. Just the tide around her feet and her arms crossed over her chest.
Lori had her eyes closed, might have been asleep. Olivia had her book open but hadn't turned a page in fifteen minutes.
The hoagies arrived. So did Jen, finally back from the water, dropping into her chair without a word.
"So." Carrie unwrapped hers and looked around at the group. "How is everyone? Actually."
A seagull landed on the cooler. Nobody moved fast enough. It grabbed a chip bag and was gone before Jen could get a hand up, wings beating hard as it lifted off toward the dunes.
"That's mine," Jen said.
"Was." Carrie was already laughing.
A second seagull landed. Then a third. Jen lunged at them with her book and they scattered, screaming, only to circle back and land three feet away.
"They're organizing," Lori said.
"They're not organizing." Jen tossed a chip toward the dunes to lure them away.
Two more seagulls landed.
"You just made it worse," Carrie said, wiping her eyes.
"I panicked."
When the laughter faded, nobody jumped in right away.
"Tom's retiring," Meredith said finally, because someone had to go first. "Or thinking about it. He's been running numbers for six months."
"That's good, right?" Lori asked.
"It's fine. It's just—" She stopped. "He'll be home. All the time."
"Ah," Jen said.
"I love him. I'm just not sure I want to see him that much."
None of them flinched. They'd known each other long enough that the ugly truths didn't need softening.
"Richard used to work from home on Fridays." Carrie half-smiled. "I'd hide in the laundry room."
"That's not the same," Olivia said.
