THAT SUNDAY, BISKY focused on cleaning up after the church luncheon. She wasn’t going to think about the fact that she hadn’t seen William all of yesterday, nor that he hadn’t come to services today.
Sure, he’d come to church on his own last Sunday, had stayed for the lunch. That didn’t obligate him to come every week, did it?
She wiped down the last of the long tables. It was actually good he hadn’t come. For one thing, she’d been on cooking and cleanup duty and wouldn’t have had time to spend with him. If he’d even wanted to spend time.
For another thing, she’d agreed to stay and help get the church gardens ready for flower planting. That might take up all afternoon.
He could have helped.
But why should William help? He wasn’t really connected in this town. He was here temporarily.
And he’d thought it was a mistake to kiss her. He’d apologized for it.
That was over.
At least, probably. The trouble was, she couldn’t help remembering. Couldn’t help touching her mouth when she remembered the feel of his lips on hers. Couldn’t help the squiggly feeling in her stomach when she thought about how his broad back had felt beneath her hands. Couldn’t help the way her heart warmed when she remembered how he’d held her on his lap, as if she were a precious treasure and a desirable woman, all at once.
She’d brought an old T-shirt and sneakers for gardening, so she put them on and went outside and got to work hauling wheelbarrows of mulch while the men argued over how to work the old rototiller and the other women went ahead and turned over the soil by hand. They had flower beds in front of the church, but in back, they cultivated a big garden for church members and community folks in need. It was one of Bisky’s favorite service activities to do for the church. She wasn’t much for committees and arguing over budgets, but she was strong and liked to be outside.
The dirt smelled good. Kayla was here, and Mary, and when Bisky took a break, she sat down beside them. They were pulling early weeds in one of the flower gardens.
“I’m surprised you’re here,” she said to Mary, because Mary attended the Catholic church in town.
Mary smiled up at her. “I like your church’s activities, and there’s no reason I can’t do both. Besides, sometimes I have to escape Kirk. He’s terrific, but overwhelming.”
“I wish I had someone overwhelming,” Kayla said, and then slapped her hand to her mouth. “Did I really say that? I don’t even mean it.”
Bisky and Mary looked at each other. “It’s okay to have mixed feelings about men,” Mary said. “Lord knows, they warrant it.”
“Agreed.” Bisky didn’t want to say more. Mixed feelings definitely described how she felt about William right now. She loved her old friend, but the new version of him roused feelings in herself she didn’t understand, didn’t necessarily like. Warm, tender feelings that could make you weak, soften your shell like a just-molted blue crab, the most vulnerable of creatures.
Behind them there was a squeaking sound and heavy breathing as Primrose Miller came along the path on her new, bright red motorized scooter. “Doesn’t that look pretty,” she said, leaning back in her seat to survey their work. “I sure do miss gardening. I used to love it.”
That made Bisky feel ashamed for her occasional desire to avoid Primrose and her gossip. “I remember your flowers from when I was a kid,” she said. “Mom always said you had the prettiest roses on the Eastern Shore.”
Primrose flushed and smiled. “Thank you, dear. Your mama used to walk you by to look at them, when you were just a little girl.”
The memory tightened Bisky’s throat. “I miss her every day,” she said, which was true. Her mother had succumbed to cancer at sixty, without much of a fight. Bisky was pretty sure her mother’s speedy death had to do with the fact that she didn’t want to go on without Bisky’s father.
“That William Gross used to walk by, too,” Primrose said. “In fact, if I’m not mistaken, you and he ran through my flower beds a time or two, trampled things down.”
“I remember throwing a ball that landed in them,” Bisky confessed. “William took the blame. Said he should have caught it, and we both tried to straighten out the flowers.”
“I remember. It was hard to be mad at the two of you, you were such a cute pair.” Primrose frowned. “I always thought you’d end up together. Wondered if he’d come back to town for that purpose, actually, but...” She trailed off.
Bisky glanced at Mary. She kept quiet about her programs and the backgrounds of the people who made use of them, and in Primrose’s case, that was a good thing. She shot Mary a smile to show she wouldn’t spill any secrets about William and the reason he’d come to Victory Cottage.
“I was surprised to see him with a woman yesterday,” Primrose said now. “Tiny little blonde thing. Never saw her around town before.”
Bisky studied Primrose’s face. Was she making up stories?
“Oh, yeah, I saw them too,” Kayla said. “I wondered who she was.”
Bisky’s heart lurched, which was absolutely ridiculous. There was no reason to feel strange that William had been seen in town with another woman. It wasn’t as if he and Bisky were dating or had any obligation to each other.
Mary bit her lip, and Bisky could tell she knew something about the woman. Her stomach started to churn. She’d eaten too much at the church luncheon, maybe.
“So I asked around,” Primrose said, her voice excited with the news she had. “Turns out she’s his ex-wife.”
Bisky had to move, had to get away from Primrose and the others. She stood and started shoveling mulch into a heap in the flowerbed.
It was good that Mary and Kayla were able to get Primrose onto a different subject, because Bisky was busy thinking. Thinking as she worked, which was always the best way. Giving herself a good talking-to, as Mom had always encouraged.
Men were more of a sideline, at least in her life. They weren’t the main thing. Her needs for warmth and companionship got fulfilled by her woman friends and the men she worked with, and most of all, Sunny.
Sunny won’t be around forever.
She stopped that thought right in its tracks. Sunny was an independent girl—woman, really—and would move on to live her own life, though God willing, they’d always be close.
So William had kissed her. No big deal.
He was hanging around with his ex-wife. Again, no big deal.
It was all fine. Bisky emptied the wheelbarrow in record time and went back for another load and tried to put enough energy in her step to cure the ache in her heart.
ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON, Sunny flopped down on Kaitlyn’s bed and regarded her two friends, Kaitlyn and Venus. Music blared from Kaitlyn’s speaker and the air reeked with perfume spray.
As usual these days, Venus and Kait were trying on clothes. “After this, will you do my makeup?” Kaitlyn begged Venus. “You’re so good at it.”
“At your service,” she said. “I’ll do yours too,” she offered Sunny.
“Sure,” Sunny said, surprising herself.
Kaitlyn’s jaw dropped, but Venus smiled. “You have to get ready for when Caden comes over,” she said.
Sunny sat upright. “He’s coming over? Why?” She narrowed her eyes at Kait, then wiped the angry expression off her face. Did Kaitlyn like him? Did Venus?
“She invited him for you, idiot! We know you’re crazy about him.”
“I’m not crazy about him! I don’t get like that!”
“But wouldn’t you like to know him better?” Venus asked. “We saw how you looked at him.”
If she was looking at Caden weirdly, she needed to stop. No way would she moon around about boys, the way her friends did.
“I don’t know if he’ll even come,” Kaitlyn said. “I just figured...because I invited Marcus, too, and it would be good to have another boy.”
“And I’ll be the fifth wheel, as usual.” Venus let out a windy sigh.
As Kaitlyn punched at her phone to change the music, Venus beckoned Sunny over to the mirror, which they’d set up by the window for natural light. “Hair back,” she said, handing Sunny a scrunchie. “Good heavens, girl, you need to stop being out in the sun all the time, you’re brown!”
Sunny shrugged. “A lot of people pay for this kind of tan,” she said, echoing what her mother always said. Although Mom had gotten more careful with sunscreen lately.
Sunny was glad Venus and Kait had invited her to hang out. They were all getting along better for whatever reason.
Venus was just getting ready to apply the facial masque she said Sunny desperately needed when the doorbell rang. The dog barked, and there was the sound of Kaitlyn’s dad talking to someone, and then heavy footsteps tromping on the stairs. A rap on the door, and Caden and Marcus came in.
“Keep that door open,” Kaitlyn’s dad called up the stairs.
“Dad!” Kaitlyn rolled her eyes. “You’d think I was twelve.”
“I heard that,” he called.
“I just love your dad,” Venus said. “He’s adorable.”
Sunny winced. She’d once made the mistake of describing old Rooker Smits as adorable, and her mom had yelled at her for fifteen minutes about respect and dignity and treating older people like people, not puppies.
Anyway, she wouldn’t have thought of Mr. Martin—a big former cop who took no flack from anyone—as adorable. But it was sweet how close he was with Kait and her sister. Sometimes, it made Sunny wish she had a dad.
Caden and Marcus hunched together over a video game, and Kaitlyn abandoned the other girls to join in. Venus decided to forgo the facial masque. Instead, she went ahead and put a little makeup on Sunny, then put her hair into French braids.
“How’s it going, staying here?” Sunny asked. Venus was living in the Martins’ spare room most weeks.
“It’s great. Better than that awful island.”
“Teaberry Island is cool,” Sunny protested. They went by it pretty often when they were fishing, and its quaint, two-street downtown was interesting. Only a few recluses lived there all year round, according to Mom. “Why’d your mom move there, anyway?”
“She needed to take a break. For her art.” Venus rolled her eyes and then squirted a little hairspray over Sunny’s head. “There. Perfect.”
Sunny studied herself in the mirror. Having her hair in a fancier style, wearing a little mascara and blush, did make her look better. Less like a kid or one of the guys.
“Thanks,” she said. “So you don’t like the island?”
“No way,” Venus said. “It’s totally boring. There’s nothing to do.”
Sunny felt like there wasn’t much to do in Pleasant Shores, either, but at least it wasn’t deserted and there were other teenagers. “Do you have any of your mom’s art? I didn’t even know she was an artist.”
“She left a perfectly good job to do pictures of dogs,” Venus said. She gestured at Kaitlyn’s wall. “Kaitlyn loves them, so I kinda permanently loaned them to her. I don’t want ’em in my room, but I don’t want to hurt Mom’s feelings.”
Sunny walked across the room to the pictures Venus had indicated, sucking in her stomach. Mom always said she shouldn’t slump, that slumping just made her look like a miserable tall girl, so she kept her shoulders back and tossed her head.
From the side of her eyes, she glanced at Caden. Was he looking at her?
He was. She blushed and hurried the rest of the way to the pictures.
She studied the first one and frowned. It wasn’t what she’d thought of as art before; it was more like a comic book version of a dog. Not a kids’ one, but not exactly manga, either. The dog portrayed looked a little bit like the one Mom and William had found, and Mom had brought home overnight.
She moved over to the next one. She didn’t recognize the two dogs there, but they were fighting in a kind of pit while men leaned over watching, leering.
“What’s with the dog pictures?” she asked Venus.
“Oh, Mom’s like an animal rights activist. In her spare time.” Again, Venus rolled her eyes.
“I’m out.” Caden put down his gaming console and walked over to where she and Venus stood looking at the pictures. “Hey,” he said, “isn’t that Peppy?”
“Maybe,” Sunny said. “You mean the dog kids were trying to get drunk, right?”
“Oh, yeah, that.” He looked down.
Wait a minute. Mom hadn’t named names of any of the kids she’d seen. “Were you there?”
“Uh-huh, but don’t tell anyone,” he said. “I sorta sneaked off.”
Just like he’d sneaked off when they’d found Muffin in the woods. She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s wrong, feeding a dog alcohol!”
“I wasn’t doing it,” he said. “I’m just...” He trailed off.
“You’re just what?” she asked.
“I’m just looking into things,” he said. Then he turned away and marched back over to where Kaitlyn and Marcus were still playing video games. They’d leaned closer to each other, so that now, their shoulders touched. “Marcus was there, too,” he added defensively.
Sunny threw up her hands. “You guys are awful.”
“Yeah,” Kaitlyn said, “but they’re cute.” She pinched Marcus’s cheek, and Venus giggled, and Kaitlyn was back to thinking her friends were complete idiots.
She, on the other hand, wasn’t so distracted by a cute boy that she forgot about the mystery they were trying to solve. Was the dog in the woods, the one these yokels had gotten drunk, somehow related to Xena and Muffin and whoever had hurt them? And was Venus’s mom somehow involved?