He was moving into the Mexico Beach house?
“I’ll go with you,” she blurted.
“And leave your dad and Sharon here all alone? I thought you could use some alone time with them before the wedding. To get to know Sharon better.”
His explanation about wanting to go to the Mexico Beach house seemed completely reasonable, thoughtful even, but in the almost year they’d been together, they’d never slept apart. The idea of him not being here when she got home from work… She missed him already. Which was ridiculous. He hadn’t even left yet.
“How long will you be at the beach house?” she asked, gingerly making her way out of bed. She needed to shower and get with the program.
“Like I said, just a few days. I thought maybe one night this week we could say good-bye to the house. In style. I’ll even cook dinner.” His dark eyes got that smoky look in them that she instantly recognized, and she was flooded with relief. She knew him well enough by now to know exactly what “in style” was code for.
#
“So you’re skipping out on Bunco this week to have good-bye sex with Steve?” Pilar asked, taking a sip of her mocha skinny fake-milk latte (with the real sugar added).
It was Monday morning at The Bistro and Kitty had dropped by to have an impromptu powwow with Shea and Pilar. Frida had brought them their coffee and bagels and had decided to join them in a table near the back facing the gulf.
“Just good-bye to the house,” Kitty said, careful not to let her temper get away from her. “Not good-bye to us.” She’d been avoiding Shea and Pilar ever since last week’s disastrous Bunco night, but she couldn’t keep the news of her father’s wedding from them for long. Or from the rest of the town, either.
“Tell me it isn’t true,” Betty Jean Collins had said, grabbing her by the arm the second she’d walked in The Bistro door this morning.
Kitty liked Betty Jean the way you liked sesame seeds on your bagel. They were there for a purpose, but what that purpose was she didn’t know. Then of course, there was the way they got stuck in your teeth… “What isn’t true?” she’d asked.
“That your father is getting married before you!”
“It’s true,” Kitty had replied.
“I heard your man already moved out. I hope you aren’t mad at me about the card.”
Kitty had been about to set Betty Jean straight about Steve “moving out” when the last part of her sentence struck home. “Card? What are you talking about?”
Betty Jean had blinked. “Never mind. Just remember, if it wasn’t me, it would have been someone else. A man like yours…well, I guess technically he isn’t yours. But a man like that isn’t going to stay available for long. Gotta go now!” Then she’d scrambled back to join the rest of her group at their table.
It was official. If men were from Mars and women were from Venus, then Betty Jean was from a different galaxy all together.
“I had the weirdest Betty Jean encounter just a few minutes ago,” she said to the girls. “Well, weirder than usual anyway.”
Pilar, Shea and Frida all gave each other guilty looks. “What kind of encounter?” Frida asked cautiously.
“Something about giving Steve a card. And she knew Steve had moved into the Mexico Beach house, which is strange, because how on earth did she find out about that?”
Pilar put her coffee down with a sigh. “I’m afraid everyone knows, Kit.”
“Everyone? What do you mean?”
“Viola saw Steve put a suitcase in his truck and then she mentioned it to Gus, who told her that Steve is staying at the Mexico Beach house. From there it spread to the rest of the Gray Flamingos, and then of course I knew from you, and then—”
“Never mind,” Kitty said wearily. “You’re right. Everyone knows.”
Shea shook her head. “You can’t keep news like that a secret in Whispering Bay.”
“He only moved into the house so he can do some work on it before the inspection. He has some really lovely pieces in there that aren’t part of the sale and he’s going to remove them and replace them with other fixtures. Like this gorgeous sink in the kitchen that he bought in Milan. He’s taking that out to put it…well, you know, in another house someday.”
This was met with silence.
“Honest. We’re all good,” she said. “You should see how much work he’s doing for Dad’s wedding.”
“Speaking of which, I met Sharon,” Frida said, perking up. “She and your dad came by early this morning for coffee and muffins and she invited us to the ceremony.”