EPILOGUEEPILOGUEAtoast,” Jane said, lifting her champagne flute and smiling, “to Ellie’s first anniversary.”
“Here, here,” Linda and Grace echoed. AH four of us clinked our glasses, and I took a sip of the ice cold champagne. It fizzed its way happily down my throat.
Had it really been a year since I’d moved into the house on Woodlawn Avenue? I beamed at the other three women as we guzzled our champagne.
“Don’t let me forget,” Jane said, setting her flute down on the table. “I’ve got a couple more business cards to pass on to you. Both of them sounded really interested in Your Better Half.”
“Thanks. But if you keep sending me clients at this pace, I’m going to have to hire more people.” I was learning every day how enjoyable—and how difficult—it was to run your own business. Besides myself, I now had three other divorced women on the payroll, all of whom I’d met through Red Hat functions. Most months it was nip and tuck, but Jane had assured me it would take a good five years to get myself firmly established. In the meantime, I was working very, very hard and loving every exhausting minute.
“I have good news, too,” Linda said. “Well, not good news, exactly, but a good opportunity.”
“For me?”
Linda nodded. “Adele Greenway’s husband just got transferred to Raleigh.”
My breath caught in my throat. Adele was Linda’s co-chair for the Cannon Ball and heir apparent to chair the following year.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I am, too,” Linda said. “Adele’s great. So I’ll need someone just as wonderful to fill her shoes.” She paused. “What do you think, Ellie? Would you be willing to do it?”
Linda’s offer was every social aspiration I’d ever dreamed of, wrapped up in ribbon and handed to me on a platter. But one thing I’d learned in the last year was that it was okay to say no.
“Would it be all right if I gave it some thought?” I didn’t want to offend my friend, but I knew since she was truly my friend, she’d understand.
“Okay. But only a few days. If you don’t think you can do it, I need to find someone else.”
I leaned over to give her a hug. “Thank you, Linda. You know that just being asked means the world to me.”
She returned my hug and then we both sat back with a laugh. “Champagne makes me maudlin,” she said, wiping back a few stray tears.
Grace tapped her spoon against her water glass. “I have an announcement to make, too.”
My breath caught in my throat. Grace’s lawyer had been meeting with the DA off and on for several months, trying to convince the powers-that-be not to press charges.
“As of today, I’m a free woman,” Grace said. “The District Attorney has decided to be merciful.”
Relief flooded through me, and I leaned the other way, this time to hug Grace. “I’m so glad.” I suddenly felt lighter than air.
“It was never your fault, Ellie.” She patted my back reassuringly. “Oops.”
The brims of our hats had bumped against one another. I reached up to straighten the enormous conflagration of ribbon and feathers on my head. I now had enough hats of my own to make a claim at being a true Red Hatter. Not as many as the others, of course, but given time, I’d give them a run for their money.
“Okay, ladies,” Linda said. “Enough of the mushy-gushy stuff. Let’s play cards.”
“Now, Ellie,” Grace said, leaning toward me. “Tonight, we’re going to teach you how to respond to a takeout double if your opponent passes.”
I laughed. “Wait a minute, Grace. I have something to say, too.”
The other three leaned toward me in eager anticipation. “You’re getting remarried?” Grace asked with excitement
“No, no. Jim and I are doing fine, but we’re not that far along yet.” I smiled, though, thinking of the weekend before when Connor and Courtney had both been home from college. Connor had stayed with Jim at the house in Belle Meade, and Courtney had bunked with me on Woodlawn Avenue. The kids’ happiness at seeing Jim and I together once again, even if we hadn’t made any commitments for the future, had been an extra blessing.
“Then what is it?” Jane asked.
“Look, I don’t want to seem ungrateful.” I stopped, took a deep breath for courage, and then continued. “But I think it’s time for the lessons to stop. I think it’s time for me to take responsibility for my own hand.”
The other three exchanged looks, and for a moment I was concerned. Then they all three burst into laughter.
Linda began to deal the cards. “Of course, Ellie. All you had to do was ask.”
And it was true. Since the day Jane had arrived on my doorstep with that heavenly pound cake, these three women had responded to my every request. And that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
“You open the bidding,” Grace said, nodding at me.
My fingers trembled a little as I scooped up my hand, fanned it out, and began to count my high card points. Three. Seven. Eleven. Fifteen. Nineteen. Twenty-three. It was all I could do not to hyperventilate. Balanced distribution. An obnoxiously large number of high card points. It was the hand of a lifetime, and one for which they’d been preparing me for a year.
“Two clubs,” I said calmly without inflection, struggling to keep a straight face while my pulse raced through my veins. It was an opening bid that meant I’d hit the jackpot.
And I had, thanks to the Queens of Woodlawn Avenue.