Chapter 14 Green Fields and Expensive Cups
Eloise sipped from her water bottle that had fresh squeezed lemon and cinnamon, an old anecdote for a tickly throat, which she'd woken up to under the peach tree.
That morning she'd awoken to a kik-kik-kik sound, but as she raised her head and rubbed the moon dust from her eyes she wondered if the sound had been in her dreams. Staring up through the branches of the fifteen-foot red haven peach tree she counted the small bunches of ripening peaches and when a morning breeze, especially chilly, wove through it, she caught just the slightest hint of what these peaches would offer later in the season.
She'd come inside to find Ursula pressing down fresh coffee and pulling eggs with spinach and sundried tomatoes off the stove.
"Morning, little mermaid," she said.
Many mornings of coming inside with sleep lines on her face and a blanket hanging over her like a cape, and still Ursula did not ask why.
There were some things, some topics, even the closest of friends sensed were covered in shadows and ghosts that needed a kind of delicacy that only came with time and space.
And that was something she had always loved about Ursula. Between the two of them, Eloise was more likely to push a subject, and sometimes not carefully enough to not also push the person.
"Morning, pretty sea witch. It's cooler today."
"Mmm. I think we have some storms coming in the next few days."
Eloise felt a deep pang in her chest and twisted her neck to look outside as if she could foretell what was to come. But she knew. It would rain on one day in particular. Because it always did.
When the sound of ceramic sliding over wood grabbed her attention she looked at the pumpkin mug of dark-roast coffee and saw Ursula's green eyes of softness and knowing. She could smell her friend's scent bloom like a vanilla bean's syrupy grit being scraped into warm milk.
"I'll be okay," she assured her.
She could feel Ursula's hesitation but she nodded and said, "Okay."
The coffee was smooth and strong, with a hint of spice.
Cinnamon, she thought and smiled. In college, she and Ursula had discovered how a pinch of the grated spice could bring the grounds to life on the tongue.
Though, back then they used a ten-dollar coffee maker that had a habit of burning the coffee.
"Alright, Bess's game is at nine. I'm going to head over to Jenson's place and go with them. Want to come with us?"
"I'll meet you there. I have a date." She waved a hand as Ursula opened her mouth. "But it's at the game so I won't miss Bess."
She frowned. "You have a date this morning?" She looked at her phone. "It's seven in the morning. What kind of date is this?"
"Taylor the detective is adamant about me going on a date with a guy he works with. I said no. And then I said yes, but at Bess's soccer game."
Ursula laughed, leaning over the island, her ghost mug clasped between her slender hands. "I think one of my favorite things about you is that you have no qualms about not making things easier for everyone else."
"You like that I make life difficult for people?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, not difficult. Just...I think, especially as women, we're taught to clear the debris for everyone else so that they can get to us easier. But you don't. And honestly, I think that you've created a lot of peace in that. I've always admired that."
Her words were honey. Eloise leaned over and kissed Ursula's cheek. "I love you. I'm going to get ready. See you there with your hunky man," she said as she took her mug of coffee into the bathroom to shower and sing to an old playlist.
She met Kelsea at the field where girls were shedding thin jackets and kicking around black and white balls trying to warm up. Her fleece-lined denim jacket was a welcome comfort in this chilly air.
"What's up, coach?" She handed Kelsea an almond poppyseed muffin.
"I heard you are having a date at a high school soccer game on a Saturday morning," she replied with a cute smile.
"Ursula?"
"Mhmm. I think our friend is excited to see you happy in a relationship." she took a bite and groaned. "Thank you for this. I woke up late. So tell me about this man willing to meet you for an early morning date of watching soccer."
She shrugged. "I know nothing about him other than he works on the Salem Police Department, and is apparently willing to have a first date in these circumstances."
Kelsea laughed shaking her head. She had on athletic wear and her blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail with a baseball hat.
She had that soft, youthful skin of someone in their twenties.
As Eloise had gotten to know her and her story, she'd felt a kinship with the young woman.
The man she'd had an affair with had left an aching shame in her, and she'd been a staple at The Lost Souls House, her own soul a little wandering and wounded.
Eloise had immediately been pulled toward her and many afternoons were spent in the living room, both with a novel or Eloise flipping through cookbooks and Kelsea typing up an article, always smelling of beach rain and lilacs.
After Kelsea had shared a little of her story after practice, she'd begun opening up more with Eloise.
When they'd walked among the graves one night, Kelsea had unloaded her secrets, her inner pain, and self-loathing; brick after brick was laid out on the cool, spring ground of the graveyard under the clear moon.
It had been the second time Eloise had felt the spirits there, and that time had felt like a soft promise of keeping Kelsea's pain where she left it.
The next morning Ursula had come in through the back Dutch door with a bunch of out-of-season lilacs in her hand and put them in a milk glass vase where all three of them drank coffee and Kelsea gave the bouquet grateful glances, knowing that they were the fruit of her offering something to the earth and letting go.
And now she smelled like that bouquet, fresh and full of life.
She'd taken on more freelance work lately.
Watching her blossom and start the arduous task of healing a wound she had caused herself was something Eloise envied, the way she had left her grief there on the ground and walked away, allowing the world to bury it and make something new and beautiful out of it.
Would she ever be able to do that?
She knew how to create the space for Kelsea to heal, but for herself, she believed she never could.
She pulled cool air into her lungs shaking the thoughts away and made her way toward Ursula with Jenson's arm around her waist across the field.
"Hey Brawny man," she greeted with a smile. He gave her a side hug and she felt, as she did every time with Jenson, that this was a warm man who loved well. The amount of times that she had thanked an unseen force for bringing him to her best friend was uncounted but many.
"Is he here yet?" Ursula asked looking around. She was in loose jeans, tennis shoes, and a green pullover sweater with her black hair pulled into a long ponytail.
"Not that I know of," she said easily. "I don't even know what he looks like."
"Oh, I think I found him," Ursula's excitement was effervescent and Eloise followed where she was looking, and something caught in her throat.
A man, of average height, dressed appropriately in joggers, tennis shoes, and a thick pullover was walking toward them.
What made something catch inside of her was that he wasn't alone.
Detective Taylor White was with him, standing a few inches taller, in a similar outfit to the unnamed man who she assumed was her date and he was horribly handsome in a baseball cap. Why did he have to come?
"Ladies," Taylor said, his blue eyes carefully glancing over Eloise before he nodded to Jenson as they clasped hands in a friendly hand-arm shake. "Good to see you, Jenson. I saw the updates your crew did on the library you were talking about the other night. You're an artist."
Jenson nodded with a smile, that pride that swells but doesn't bloom too large for a man of humility.
"I appreciate it. How's the SPD going? The new chief up to the job?"
"We'll see. He has his own way of things. Going to miss Tennyson."
"Tennyson was the reason I joined the force," the still unnamed man said. He turned to Eloise then and reached out a hand. "I'm Ivan." His voice was nice.
"Eloise," she replied. His handshake was firm. Too firm. Like he had taken a class on how to own a boardroom with a handshake and passed brilliantly.
"Eloise, Ivan joined the force about a year ago. Eloise is taking over the coffee shop for Shellee until she's back. And don't tell Shellee, but the coffee is better now." He was careful not to look directly at Eloise for more than a polite moment and she felt it.
Ursula bumped her shoulder lightly and Eloise saw her friend's apple cheeks lift in a proud smile.
"Well, nice to meet you, Ivan."
"Want to walk a bit?" he asked and she joined him, waving to their small group as they left them behind. It felt a bit staged, like a scene in a movie, or perhaps how it felt in high school when you broke away from your gaggling group of girlfriends with a guy you liked.
She took a sip of her water and they stopped as the referee blew the whistle to start the game. Girls were ready with their warlike faces and stances firm.
"So is one of those yours?" he asked.
"One of the players? No," she said with a laugh. "Bess is a regular fixture at the house, though. Love the kid. Don't tell her I called her a kid," she said quickly thinking of rolling eyes and teenage annoyance directed at her.
"So what's it like living in that house?"
She looked at him. He was handsome, in a particularly bland way. There was nothing off-putting about his face, but there was nothing striking and she worried for a moment that she would forget what he looked like the moment this date was over.
"It's like finding a place that was waiting for you to get there," she replied thoughtfully.