“Stop following me!” Frances shouted at her from the twenty or so feet she’d managed to get ahead.
“I won’t.”
Frances halted her stride and whipped around. “Stop, Edie. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Why not?” Edie asked. “What more could you possibly have to say?”
“Because I’m having a pity party, table for one. I feel like a fucking moron and I’m on steroids and I can’t guarantee I won’t deck you.”
Edie sighed. “I’m not worried about that. I can still take you. And I brought you a jacket.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Frances said, turning back around. “Did you bring a pair of kid gloves, too?”
Edie jogged to catch up to Frances. She looped her arm through hers and pressed the jacket to her chest. Frances snatched it from her hand, shook her off, and stabbed her arms into the sleeves of the jacket. “Cut it out. I’m fine.”
“Yeah, you look and act totally fine.”
Frances rolled her eyes. “What do you want?”
“To talk to you, obviously. Look, I know I let you down, but guess what? Not nearly as much as I let myself down.”
Frances shook her head and began to walk, albeit at a normal pace. “I’m over it, Edie,” she said. “Water under the bridge. I just … I probably should have gone to my son’s house and let him put me in some kind of care home and waited to die. But I really wanted to see you all again, and I was so bored, and I came up with this stupid idea. Ridiculous! Insane! And it’s a bust, and now it feels like I’m losing you guys all over again.” She sniffed, then ran her fingertips under her eyes.
“You’re not losing us,” Edie said. “Let’s sit,” she said, gesturing to a bus stop bench.
“Skinner said not to hang out on this street.”
“You’re on steroids. I’m not worried.”
Frances tried not to smile, but she couldn’t keep from it.
“Also, I owe you a huge apology,” Edie said.
“Yeah, I know. But no, you don’t. It really is water under the bridge, Edie. It’s not like I’ve been sitting around all these years mad at you.”
“Still, everything you said was true. I broke us up in the most horrific way, all for Simon. I was a coward. I should have just told you how I felt. That I didn’t want to go through with it. And when he found the jewelry and figured it out, I panicked.”
Frances leaned her head against Edie’s shoulder. “I don’t blame you for falling in love, Edie. I know how important a family was to you. It sounds like you’ve got a great one.”
“I do,” Edie said softly. “Even Simon. I mean, yes, he’s a cheating ass. But there has always been something between the two of us that is unbreakable. He knows about me, and he still loves me.”
“I’m not going to take the time now to try to convince you how freakishly codependent that is, so okay. The truth is I would never have known Nick if we hadn’t ended.”
Edie took Frances’s hand in hers. “He was a good one, huh?”
“The best.” Frances’s eyes shone with tears. “I miss him so much.”
The two of them sat on that bench, staring at the trash skirting down the street on a night’s breeze. The flashing of neon lights against a dark skyline. “I wish I’d figured out a way to have Simon and you guys, too,” Edie said. “I missed you all and I hated that you weren’t there for the big moments in my life. Like having my kids. God, you should have heard me wail with the first one. And the grandkids. Not to mention the awards I’ve won for my gardening. You would be terribly impressed.”
Frances laughed softly. “Well, you missed out on my stellar pickleball career.”
They continued to sit in silence for a few minutes more. “So …” Edie said at last. “Cancer, huh? That sucks.”
“Balls,” Frances agreed.
“I hate to ask, but—”
“I don’t know. A few months at best. Although this week it has felt like a few weeks. Or even days.”
