Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
June tugged down the way her scarf was wrapped around her face as she entered Juniper Café, sucking in a lungful of coffee, sugar, and butter… all combined into utter perfection.
Her high spirits from the night before had not yet faded, Benjamin was at a play date, and June had a paperback burning a hole in her pocket. Plus, there was coffee. And pastries.
Really, it ranked pretty high on her list of ways to spend a great Saturday morning.
And she was in luck, because things were destined to get even better.
No sooner had June unpeeled herself from her winter layers and ordered a coffee—and one of those cinnamon rolls that were basically as big as her face and oozing with icing—than a voice caught her attention.
“Hi, June!”
She glanced over. “Cadence, hey!”
Cadence’s smile was revealed by degrees as she too unwound a massive scarf from around her head and face. It had been particularly blustery this morning, although the shining sun and crisp blue skies had drawn half the town out of doors anyway.
“Good morning,” her friend said, coming in to wrap June in a hug. “Are you here by yourself?”
June chuckled at the very mom-like question. When you were the parent of a small child, especially a single parent like June, it was hard to go much of anywhere without your miniature counterpoint.
“He’s got a playdate,” June explained. “And yours?”
“It’s ‘Dad and Izzy day.’ They’re doing some sort of nature walk.” Cadence shivered at the mere idea of hiking in this weather, but her husband and daughter were both big outdoorspeople. They wouldn’t let a little thing like freezing temperatures stop them.
The two women got a table, and Cadence dropped off her things before heading to the front to order a chai tea latte and a cranberry scone.
“I feel like I’m playing hooky,” Cadence said with a laugh as she took a sip of her drink. “Like you and I are ditching out on gym class right now.”
“Cadence Meadows, you never ditched class a day in your life,” June accused with a laugh.
“Oh, like you did?”
June smiled at the memory. “Keith and I did once,” she admitted. “Only once, mind you. I don’t even remember why we skipped, but we got caught immediately. Luckily, it was a first offense, so we got off with a stern warning,” she said with a laugh.
“You daredevil,” Cadence teased.
Cadence took a bite of her scone, hummed happily at the taste, then spoke again.
“I didn’t get a chance to ask you last night,” she said, “but I’ve been meaning to ask. How are you feeling with this new health stuff with Benjamin? I can’t believe it was diabetes! Logically, I know it’s something that kids can get, but I tend to mentally associate it with older people…”
June nodded. “Yeah, his doctor said that’s a common perception. It’s also part of why we’re going to a specialist. His general doctor didn’t see enough cases to feel confident, but we really like the pediatric endocrinologist we’re with now.”
“Good,” Cadence said, nodding in relief. “Having a doctor you can trust is huge.”
“Absolutely,” June agreed. “I mean, the whole thing is already hard enough, you know? I’m so, so grateful that it’s something manageable, obviously, but it’s a huge adjustment. And Benjamin is still getting his groove back.”
“Which is stress on you,” Cadence said. “Kid feels sick, Mom worries.”
“Exactly. And I think I’m driving him a little crazy with the hovering,” June confessed.
“He’s such a sweetheart, so I know he knows I was worried, but I can practically see him thinking ‘Mom, I’m not a baby anymore!
’ ten times a day.” She pulled a face. “When I stayed home from book club last week, he was a little huffy about how he could do things himself.”
For a few minutes, the two women caught up on the events of the previous book club meeting.
“Just in time to get me ready for this week,” June said with a laugh. “Although…”
She pulled her book from her purse, which was the title they were meant to read for this week’s book club meeting. Her bookmark revealed that she was less than one quarter of the way through the book.
With a sheepish expression, Cadence pulled her own copy from her tote bag. Her bookmark was even less far into the text than June’s was.
“Oh, yeah, well guess how far Miriam is… or how far she was, when she was done babysitting for me last night?”
“Ten pages from the end?” Cadence joked.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Cadence,” June said, pausing for effect. “She was completely done.”
They both laughed. In the six months or so since they’d started their book club, Miriam had revealed herself to be far and away the fastest reader, week after week.
Miriam always brushed off the observation, saying it was because she was retired, but since she was involved in seemingly every aspect of Magnolia Shore life, June wasn’t sure that retirement actually translated into more free time in Miriam’s case.
For a while, Eleanor had been firmly in the second-place position, but ever since she’d opened her bookstore at the end of the summer, she’d been kept hopping by the success of the new business.
The rest of the group, busy professionals and some of them parents, all tended to have to cram a little bit toward the end of each week.
“Every time I try to sit down and read this week, Izzy has something she needs me to see,” Cadence said.
“Honestly, I don’t know how you manage to get any reading done.
I remember how impossible it was to do things when Tyler and I were separated and Izzy was with me.
It was like I never had a moment to sit, let alone read. ”
Cadence frowned briefly at the memory of her separation from her husband.
The two had struggled with infertility for years, and their pain over their inability to conceive a second child had driven a wedge between them.
The separation had been painful, but it had proven positive for the couple, as it had helped them clarify what really mattered as well as given them a sort of fresh start.
In any case, the two were as giddy as newlyweds since their reconciliation. Every single member of the book club had, at one point or another, caught Cadence and Tyler sneaking off for a quick smooch. It was absolutely adorable.
“Audiobooks,” June said, winking as though she was confiding a secret. “I listen to them while I’m cleaning houses.”
“Genius,” Cadence said with a laugh.
“I went with the paper version this week, which is why I’m behind,” June said.
There was a mystery component to this week’s book, so the two women took a few moments to debate who they thought was going to turn out to be the culprit.
It was particularly fun, since neither of them knew the answer yet, which was a different point of view than what they normally experienced at book club meetings.
It was so much harder to remember theories after you had learned if they were correct or not.
They hadn’t gotten far with their actual reading when June’s phone rang in her hand.
She grimaced when she saw that it was her insurance company calling, then spared a little bit more grimacing for the fact that she was the kind of person who had her insurance company’s phone number saved in her contacts.
It made sense, given how much she had been calling them recently, but it was still an unfortunate reminder of how chaotic her life had become.
She gestured to Cadence that she was going to duck outside to take the call; her friend nodded and shooed her away.
June stepped out, holding her coat closed with one hand while she answered.
“Hello?”
“Good afternoon, Ms. Caldwell, this is Donna from the billing department at Northeast Health Insurance Limited. Is this a good time?”
“Yes, it’s fine,” June said, even though her fingers were already growing stiff with the cold. Her breath plumed in front of her in big clouds. “What can I help you with?”
“This is just a courtesy call to let you know that we have a bill that is overdue,” Donna said in kind, patient tones that nevertheless suggested that she knew she was the bearer of bad news.
Even though June herself had braced as though for impact at the words, she had enough wherewithal to spare a sympathetic thought for a woman whose entire job was probably giving people information that they absolutely did not want to hear.
“I see,” June said, closing her eyes briefly. “I’m not at home right now. Can I see the bill and pay it through the online portal?”
“Absolutely,” Donna said. “I’m just alerting you to the fact that you are two weeks away from a late fee being applied to your account. Since nobody wants that, I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“I appreciate it,” June said with a humorless little chuckle. “I’ll get right on paying it.”
I wonder how? The question, fortunately, did not make it past her lips.
Donna bid her a polite goodbye, sounding relieved that June hadn’t tried to argue with her or shout at her.
Despite the cold, June took a grounding breath before going back inside.
With fingers that were more than halfway to numb, she navigated to the app for her insurance company on her phone, and boy, did she dislike that she was also a person who had downloaded and regularly consulted the app for her health insurance.
She felt a lot worse, however, when she went to the billings tab and found that she owed…
“Oh, boy,” she breathed. That was… substantial.
She couldn’t stand out in the cold any longer, so she went back inside, even though she knew that Cadence would immediately detect her decline in mood.
Indeed, Cadence’s bright look of greeting descended into a frown as soon as she looked closely at June.
“Is everything okay, honey?” she asked.
June put on a brave smile. She knew that any one of her friends would offer to help her out financially if she needed it.
But, while June wasn’t too proud to accept help if she truly needed it, especially if it was for something that improved Benjamin’s life, she didn’t think that things were quite at that level yet.
“It’s just always something, you know?” she said vaguely.
Cadence offered her a sympathetic look that suggested she did not think that June was telling the whole truth, but that she also understood that June didn’t want to talk more about it.
“I’ll let you get away with that one,” she said, “as long as you let me remind you that I and the rest of the book club are here for you if you need us. Any time. Any place.”
June smiled, because that did genuinely make her feel a bit better.
“I know,” she said. “And it really will be okay. It’s just… all this medical stuff is an added strain on the budget. I’ve always made ends meet, and I still will, but…”
“It’s hard,” Cadence filled in for her.
“It’s really hard,” June agreed.
“But you’re not alone,” Cadence added, her tone suggesting that she was slipping something in sneakily.
Her friend’s efforts at guerilla kindness made June laugh. Yes, things were hard. Yes, Benjamin’s diagnosis was scary. And yes, muddling through without Keith made it all harder and scarier.
But she wasn’t alone. That part was true. And the friends that she had were the best friends in the whole wide world… in June’s totally unbiased opinion.
“Okay, let’s talk about something better,” June said, because moping wasn’t going to change the numbers after the dollar sign on that bill, but it would make a difference in the way her day went. “Which of the love interests do you think the heroine should end up with?”
She waved the book they were both reading in illustration.
“Oh, Derek, obviously,” Cadence said, referring to the protagonist’s ex-boyfriend who had suddenly reappeared in town.
“What?” June asked. “Are you nuts? It should be Jared!” This was the handsome town doctor.
Cadence made a sound of shocked disbelief, and the two of them debated for a cheerful quarter of an hour, during which June felt her troubles fade into the background far enough that, for a little while, she could forget that they even existed.