“Okay,tinybit of an exaggeration there.” Shea held her thumb and forefinger a scant distance apart.
“Yeah, okay,” she admitted, her tone begrudging. “But she blames people like me.”
“She blames people like you who create goals and lives that are phony and unattainable.” When Cherry met her eyes, she added, “That’s not you anymore, is it?”
One determined head shake. “It’s not.”
“Do you miss her?”
“God, yes. More than I can even explain.”
“Then talk to the woman.”
“Okay. Yeah.” She texted one simple word.Absolutely.
The gray dots bounced, and the next message surprised her.What time are you out of work tonight?
“She wants to know when I get out of work.” Slight panic set in, and her heart began to pound in anticipation of what that meant.
Shea voiced it. “She wants to talk, like, now.”
A steadying breath. “Probably better that way. Maybe she just needs closure.” That thought made her sadder than she even expected.
“Or maybe she doesn’t, Little Miss Darkness and Gloom.”
With a scoff, Cherry texted back that she was off for the day and was free anytime. Ellis answered quickly. Cherry’s head snapped up and met Shea’s gaze. “Oh my God, you were right. Now. She wants to meet now. Oh my God.”
“That’s okay because you’re ready for that.” Shea’s voice was soft, her eyes kind.
A calm settled over her. She inhaled, exhaled slowly. “I am,” she said, not even having to think about it.
Their gazes held across the room, and Cherry felt suddenly energized. Suddenly confident. She could feel Shea’s love and her own confidence in the moment bolster her, and she sat up a little straighter. She texted Ellis back that she’d love to meet her, and they set up a placeby the lake. With a glance down at herself, then a look back up, she asked, “How do I look?”
“Like the coolest, strongest, kindest woman I know.”
Again, Cherry felt her eyes well up, and her voice broke as she said, “Thanks, Shea.” She ran a finger under her eye. “Also, stop that. You’re gonna ruin my makeup.”
They stood together, and Shea held her arms open. Cherry walked into them, and they hugged fiercely. When the hug ended, Shea took Cherry’s face in both hands and looked her right in the eyes. “You got this?”
Cherry nodded, feeling astonishingly sure of herself. “I got this.”
“Yeah, you do. Now go get the girl.”
* * *
It hadn’t gotten any cooler, of course, as it was now midafternoon in the middle of July. The sun was blazing, and the humidity made Ellis feel like she was walking through water, her skin covered in a sheen of perspiration, her hair a frizztastic mess. Maybe she should’ve asked to meet Cherry someplaceinside. That would’ve been smart.
“Now’s a good time to think of that,” she muttered to herself as she shook her head and walked along the lakeshore. But then the sun gods smiled on her, and she noticed an empty bench in the shade of a large oak tree, set back from the beach area, closer to the playground. Picking up her pace, she hurried to it before anybody else could snag it, and she sighed with relief as she sat down, the temperature noticeably cooler out of the sun. She sent Cherry a quick text letting her know exactly where along the lake she was, then slid her phone away and focused on breathing.
She was nervous.
There was no denying that. No way around it. She smoothed a hand over her hair and tried to focus on the kids that were shrieking with childhood joy on the nearby playground, swinging or sliding or spinning. And then there were the kids running into and out of the water, the gentle waves from the small lake teasing and chasing them as they squealed with delight. She flashed back to when she and Michaela were young, and their parents took them to a cottage in the Thousand Islands for a week one steamy summer. It was a hell of a long drive,but totally worth it. They’d played every single day in the water, having races and daring each other with handstands and flips off the floating raft that was anchored far below. Ah, to have that innocence again, no worries, no dread, no anxiety or stress about what was to come. She exhaled on a sigh.
“Well, that’s an ominous sound.”
Cherry’s voice tickled her from behind, and then she was there in front of her, the sun behind her as she looked down at Ellis through her sunglasses and grinned, and somehow—Ellis couldn’t explain it, or even begin to explain it—her world was suddenly righted. Like it had been slightly tilted, crooked, and when Cherry arrived, it straightened out, everything balanced and perfect once again. How the hell did she do that?
Pulling herself together quickly, she gave a small laugh. “I was just remembering what it was like to be that.” She pointed at two little girls in matching pink flowered bathing suits—clearly sisters—picking up shells from the edge of the water and showing them to each other.
