“Properly, yeah, that’s been apparent for some time.” Elisse waves her hand by way of the air. “What, do you want him again or one thing?”

“I don’t know.” I shrug a shoulder. Perhaps I can really get them off the scent of Blake. The thought of reliving our kiss—of getting to inform them about his very candy, very noble “rejection”—makes my abdomen twist. Or possibly my intestine simply doesn’t like this sushi. I push my half-full plate apart and seize my Food plan Coke as a substitute. “He’s good sufficient.”

Chloe purses her lips. “I assumed?—”

“Perhaps I ought to give him an opportunity.” I imply, I don’t need to, however my pals don’t must know that. Though, maybe I actually ought to. Perhaps I’ll find yourself with somebody like Thomas. In any case, he’s an excellent man. Sincere. A self-made businessman. And he loves Hallmark Seashore identical to I do. To my data, he doesn’t ever plan to go away. Not that I can say that out loud with out elevating suspicion. So I am going for the catch-all that can describe Thomas’s primary enchantment. “There’s nothing improper with him.”

“A ringing endorsement if ever I heard one.” April shakes her head at me, then laughs virtually hysterically. “There’s actually zero chemistry between the 2 of you.”

“Perhaps chemistry isn’t all it’s cracked as much as be.” Oh no. Now my decrease lip is definitely shaking. Cease it. Cease. It. However my lip doesn’t hear, and now my complete chin is becoming a member of within the enjoyable. Argh.

I flip my head away from my pals, permit my gaze to absorb the individuals strolling the boardwalk beneath the place we sit on our raised decking. I don’t know any of them. They’re all in their very own worlds, Air Pods in or head down and strolling someplace with function.

I wouldn’t slot in right here. I wouldn’t belong. The one place I belong is Hallmark Seashore. It’s the one true dwelling I’ve ever recognized, the place the individuals are a consolation and a balm to my spirit—besides in these moments after they flay me open with their directness. However even then, I do know it’s as a result of they love and care about me.

My fingers slide round my torso, the comfortable gown calming my shaking fingers.

And a tear leaves my eye and makes a trek down my cheek.

Earlier than I do know it, Mare has moved to my chair and is squishing me so she will be able to sit beside me. April’s reaching her hand throughout the expanse between us, squeezing my arm. Chloe and Kelsey plant themselves on the underside half of my lounge chair, tipping the entire thing barely their manner.

After which Elisse squats between me and my view of the ocean. She takes my cheeks between her fingers gently. “Lucy,” she says, the tease all gone. “What’s happening?” Her phrases are candy and comfortable and so very un-Elisse. At the very least on the floor. Below-the-surface Elisse is strictly this—standing between me and all of the methods I attempt to conceal the reality from my pals—and from myself.

These pals of mine make me face the lemons of life. Perhaps it’s not doable to disregard the ache, to only merely make lemonade like Mama stated. But when there are lemons, I can belief that these women will sit right here and peel each, biting into them and tasting their bitterness proper together with me.

Mama may not be right here, however these women are. They’re my household, and so they aren’t going anyplace.

Elisse releases my face and sits again on her haunches, ready patiently. She’s not budging.

I inhale sharply, launch slowly. “I did a extremely silly factor.”

“All of us do silly issues,” Mare murmurs as she leans her head on my shoulder, and I ponder if she’s pondering of Donny.

However there’s a distinction between being fooled by a con artist and willingly strolling right into a state of affairs, figuring out precisely what you’re entering into—and doing it anyway.

“I…” I pinch the bridge of my nostril. “I let Blake kiss me.”

And that thought is all it takes for extra tears to lastly launch.

Although they’re not saying something, I can virtually hear my pals’ concern, the questions they’ve (one in all which is whether or not they should throat punch Marilee’s brother from this existence). Somebody fingers me a serviette, and I exploit it to dab away the wetness cascading down my cheeks.

And I inform them all the things.

Once I’m completed, spent emotionally and bodily from the reliving of all of it, I zero in on the strain of their fingers holding me, stroking my ankle, squeezing my elbow. They’re anchoring me right here, letting me be myself. Accepting me. “Thanks,” I handle to whisper. “Thanks guys for loving me, even once I’m a large number.”

“Are you kidding, Lucy?” That’s April, my feisty cousin. “Have you ever met me?”

All of us chuckle, and it breaks a few of the stress.

“Can I inform you one thing?” Elisse is all seriousness once more, and it makes me sit up straighter. I nod. “First, I feel you’re taking an excessive amount of on your self with the restaurant. It’s manner past your job description, and in the end, it’s Winona’s job to ensure her restaurant is flourishing.” At my mouth opening to protest, Elisse holds up her hand to cease me. “I imply, be at liberty to proceed with the marketing strategy if you wish to. However don’t let the success or failure of it outline whether or not you’re a success or failure.”

I inhale a trembling breath. “I simply really feel like I’ve by no means actually achieved something earlier than. I’m surrounded by all of you with these fabulous and large goals, and…I don’t know. I simply really feel insufficient. Like I must be doing extra.” Oh, that damage to confess. There’s a hollowness in my abdomen that feels uncooked, reduce. “Serving to out Winona type of felt like one thing larger. A much bigger function, I suppose. However I’m failing at it.”

“Belief me, you don’t must have massive goals to attain one thing, Lucy.” That’s Chloe, and I do know she understands greater than most. “And you probably did one thing for me that no one else ever did. You noticed deeper. You noticed me. And also you welcomed me into your city, into your life with out reserve. I don’t suppose you perceive how uncommon that’s.”

My different pals nod alongside, squeeze, hum.

“I agree with Chloe,” Kelsey says. “However I do marvel…” She bites her lip, as if afraid to say the improper factor. She doesn’t need to damage me, however possibly I want to listen to what she has to say.

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