Renee
It was weird having them sift through the remains of Aunt Ellen’s life. She’d completed her own pass through it all, and that was hard enough. This felt more invasive. But her aunts were being relatively respectful, even if there was an air of hunger to their hunting.
She had closed Bartholomew in a bedroom with her stuff and a “do not enter” sign on the door. He was glad to stay hidden. Normally, he was fine with new people, but it was as if he could sense that today was different.
He’d really come around to her being there in the house as a roommate, and she had grown fond of him as well. He always followed her for food in the mornings, but he would also stick close after he ate to keep her company while she drank her fancy coffee.
“Thank you for this,” her mother said.
Renee patted a stool beside her. “I might have been the closest to her, but she was still your sister. Theirs, too.”
Her mother declined the seat. “I have to go soon. I have a showing in half an hour.”
“Did you find something you want?”
“Just this.” Her mother opened her purse on the counter and pulled out a tacky pair of panda earrings.
Renee laughed softly. “They’re perfect.”
There was a knock at the side door. Renee shouted, “Come in!”
Ben and Felicia entered the kitchen, arm in arm and giggling about something. Renee loved when they all hung out. She’d always been so grateful whenever her two favorite people were in the room together.
“Ben,” her mother said. She had never been Ben’s biggest fan, but then again, she didn’t really like much of anybody.
“Hello, Mrs. Benoit.”
“Mom, this is Felicia. She’s my friend from Baton Rouge.”
“Hello, Felicia.”
“Hi, Mrs. Benoit. Nice to meet you.”
Her mother gave her an appraising once-over, and Felicia seemed to pass inspection. “I’d better be going. It was good to see you both.”
Renee stood. “I’ll walk you out.”
“No need,” her mother said. “Enjoy your company. I’ll let your aunts know I’m leaving. They should be done soon, as well.”
Ben and Felicia said goodbye as she left, and Renee let out a sigh. Things had been better between them these last few weeks, but there was always an added weight whenever her mother was in the room.
“How’s it going?” Felicia asked.
“Weird, right?” Ben said.
“Very weird,” she said. “But it’s been a good distraction, at least.”
She’d told Ben and Felicia that morning all about her conversation with Jessica the night before. They were upset by the turn of events—they really seemed to like Jessica—but they fully supported her decision to back away.
Jessica had texted asking to talk, but Renee didn’t answer at first. After two more texts from Jessica, Renee said no, she couldn’t talk it out. Not because she was busy with her family. She just couldn’t. Her mind hadn’t changed at all. They needed this break.
It had been a shock to hear about Jessica’s ex. It had been an even bigger shock to hear that Jessica hadn’t shut that down immediately. But she guessed it made sense. They had a life together. She needed time to process. Time without Renee.
She’d been right to be worried about getting into a relationship with anyone. Renee thought it would be different with Jessica, but all relationships are messy. She knew that. She just had to extricate herself from this mess before it got ugly.
“How are you holding up on that front?” Felicia asked.
“As good as I can. Trying to spend my day thinking about other things.”
“Oh, yeah?” Ben said. “What things?”
After not sleeping that night—a combination of her conversation with Jessica and the overstimulation from the celebration—she switched her thoughts to focusing on something else that morning.
“I think I want to stay.”
Ben and Felicia looked at one another, both finding no explanation on the other’s face.
“What does that mean?” Ben asked. “Stay a little longer after the estate sale? Do you have more to settle up here that you need to stick around for?”
“No,” she said, then quickly corrected herself. “Well, yes, there will be more to do for months, probably. But that’s not what I mean.” She took a deep breath before saying the thing she’d finally landed on that morning. “I want to stay in Oakview. For good.”
Both of their eyes widened, and they looked at each other again, then back at Renee.
“What changed your mind?” Felicia asked. “Because there’s a lot going on right now.”
“Yeah, a lot,” Ben said. “Isn’t there some rule about not making big decisions during a crisis?”
“I’m not in a crisis,” she said. “And this has nothing to do with Jessica.”
“Then what does it have to do with?” Ben asked. “You’ve been pretty adamant about not staying up until now. Despite my best efforts.”
“I’ve actually been thinking about it for a couple of days. Ever since your little ‘fall back in love with Oakview’ day.”
He grinned. “So it worked?”
“The sense of community really got to me. Everyone going out to help Mrs. Jade was something special.”
“And let’s not forget the donuts,” Ben said.
“The donuts were definitely a bonus,” she said.
“This place has all the things I still love. All the places. I feel closer to Aunt Ellen here. And the people are turning out not so bad, either. Mom was a big reason I didn’t want to be here.
It was just too much bumping into her and dealing with her.
But she’s… different. We aren’t going to be buddies or anything, but I don’t dread seeing her now. ”
“And work?” Felicia asked. “I know that was a concern for you.”
“That will be the trickiest part,” she said.
“I think I can make it work. I need to do more advertising no matter where I live. But I think I can schedule office hours a couple of days a week and work the rest of the time from here, making allowances for any surveillance I have to do in the city. I can do a lot from here.”
“Well I, for one, am thrilled with this news.” Ben wrapped his arms around her and squeezed.
Felicia took her turn to hug her. “If you’re happy, I’m happy for you. I’ll selfishly miss seeing you as often.”
“We’ll arrange lots of lunch dates when I’m in for work,” Renee said. “And Ben and I will still make the random evening out there. Maybe we can schedule a monthly thing.”
“I’m in,” Ben said. “So what about the house? Are you keeping it?”
“I’m not sure yet,” Renee said. “I still need to have the estate sale and clear a bunch of this stuff out either way. But I don’t know. I still don’t feel like I deserve it, you know?”
“Of course, you deserve it,” Felicia said.
“Yeah, your aunt wanted you to have it. This is absolutely yours if you want it.”
“I guess,” Renee said. “It is a lot of house for one person, but it would be easier just to stay here.”
“You at least have a place to stay until you decide for sure if you want another place or not.” Ben looked toward the hallway, then back at Renee. “Wait, does this mean you can keep Bartholomew now?”
“It means I can,” she said. “And I might. The big guy is growing on me.”
Ben hugged her again. “I’m so excited for you.” Then he pulled away. “But what about the thing with you know who? Won’t that be hard to be here if she makes a certain decision?”
Renee sighed. She’d given this part a lot of thought, too.
“I’ll be okay with it. Oakview isn’t that small.
It’s not as if we’d bump into each other at the grocery store every week or anything.
It’ll hurt like hell to see her, but I can’t let that factor into my decision.
I have to do what’s best for me, regardless of what Jessica does. ”
“Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought,” Felicia said. “I love this for you.”
“Me, too,” Ben said. He looked over her shoulder. “Are they almost done?”
“I think so,” Renee said.
“Good, because I think we should go out for a celebratory Sunday afternoon cocktail before Felicia has to leave.”
Renee smiled, grateful to have a little more time with her friends. Her rocks. Her perpetual cheering section. “Sounds perfect.”