Chapter 31
I satout the front of the shop with Lily and Sara while the kids played on the beach. The sea breeze made today’s heat bearable. This heat wave had lasted for three days. The days were stifling and swimming was a constant relief.
“Ethan came to the shop yesterday for bananas,” Lily said. “He said he was making dessert for you all.”
“Oooh that’s sweet,” Sara said, twirling her blonde plait.
“He made us all banana splits. The kids loved them.”
It was the best banana split I’d ever had. But I guessed it was like sandwiches, they always tasted better when someone else made them.
“Where’s Ethan today?” Sara asked.
Why did she want to know?
“Working on his report at the office. He said it was easier to use two screens.”
“That makes sense,” Lily said. “He told Jack the other day that Bailey was helping him by reading out figures and noticed that something looked strange. They looked at the data together and Ethan realised he’d written a number down wrong.”
I couldn’t believe Ethan told Jack about it. I can still remember Bailey glowing when Ethan told him it was a good pick up.
Sara nodded and smiled. “He told me about it too.”
Ethan hadn’t told me he’d seen Sara. I glanced at her sideways. “When did you see Ethan?”
“The other day.”
“What other day?”
“Why do you care?”
“I was just curious.” I leant back in my chair.
“Nothing more, just curious?” Lily asked with a smirk.
I huffed. “Everyone knows everything in this town, but I didn’t know that he’d seen Sara. I was curious. That’s all.”
“Uh-huh.”
I ignored her and looked at Sara, inviting her to tell me more, like maybe why Ethan had visited her.
“Anyway, he was telling me how Bailey was smart enough to pick up that mistake and then he was telling me about Rose and how he loves the new words she comes up with.”
I loved it too.
“I took credit for that. I told him she hated learning her sight words at school, so I made a deal with her—for every ten she learnt off by heart I would give her a bigger, more impressive word to learn.”
She took the credit? It wasn’t just her. I was part of the deal too. I’d persevered with Rose day after day, week after week. I bought her book after book about mermaids until she was the best reader in her year. Just because Sara came up with the idea didn’t mean she should get all the credit.
Wait, what did it even matter who got the credit? Normally, I celebrated Sara for what she helped us achieve. And now I wasn’t? It was all of us who contributed, and especially Rose who did the hard work and fell in love with words. The fact that Ethan noticed and appreciated it made me feel all warm inside. Max wouldn’t have appreciated Bailey pointing out a mistake. And he wouldn’t have appreciated Rose and her aptitude for being the centre of attention.
“Jasmine?” Lily said.
I glanced between Sara and Lily. What question or comment had I missed?
“Have you bought Ethan a Christmas present?”
“I got him something small. I didn’t want anything big or heavy because he has to take it all the way back to the States.” My stomach dropped and weight lingered there.
“What did you get him?”
“I’m not telling you. You can’t keep a secret to save yourself Mrs Did the Coffee Smell Good.”
I looked down at my hands. Why did the realisation that Ethan would be leaving make me a little sad? Friends leave all the time. And that’s all we were. He was here for his research, and we were living together, pretending to be more than we were to protect the children.