Chapter 31 Bonfires and Peaches #3
"Pass it around, sugar," Jen said. "And speaking of writing," she made a show of pulling out a newspaper from where she had kept it tucked under her wooden adirondack chair and spread it out like a father at the morning kitchen table in the early morning light.
She cleared her throat as everyone took sips of the bottle, everyone with the exception of Bess- though she reached for it- passed it around and listened.
"Deep friendship is tangled legs on the couch. Forgoing the plates and eating like ravenous raccoons from a glass cake stand. It's lighting lilac and vanilla sea salt candles on the screened-in porch while the spring sky waters the earth, the light pitter-patter the only conversation needed.
It's not having to ask, 'what do you need?
', because you know she needs a book, then a trip to the flower shop with coffees in hand and taking in the glory of nature together.
It is never-ending conversation and the fierce belief that they are the best and most magical person, then reminding them by simple measures.
It is the place where you know you can rest and guilt isn't even an inkling.
Rare words of, "I love you", are needed because it is shown so unabashedly with a handful of blushing peonies and sitting across from each other at the coffee shop sharing a piece of lemon meringue pie.
And when you do stop and have to say those three words it is because you're overflowing with everything-the love and the magic of it all. "
All women smiled, some wiped their eyes, most congratulated Carol on an article written so beautifully that Jen called it cavity-inducing in the best possible way.
And Ursula laced her fingers with Eloise's and they shared that look, the one only soulmates know of. It is rare, this look, and it can say everything that a woman would ever need to hear.
"Who needs men?" Kelsea asked raising her glass of honey wine.
"I don't know," Eloise said with a secret smile and Ursula bumped her shoulder.
"The right one is delicious," Ursula said.
"I definitely don't," Jen joked and reached out to clink her glass with Kelsea's.
"Yeah, been there, done that," Tilly said raising her glass and added, "got the divorce to prove it. I think I am good for now."
Everyone stopped, mid-toasting, all sound disappeared as if someone had hit the pause button.
"I'm sorry, what?" Jen asked, her eyes wide, dark eyebrows raised.
Ursula and Eloise gave each other a wide, shocked look that they then turned to Tilly where all attention was held with rapt attention.
"Have I never mentioned that I was married?"
"Tilly Firefly Nguyen," Jen said.
Eloise's head snapped back and she shook it. "I'm sorry, your middle name is Firefly? How did we not know this? Wait," she shook it again like an adorable dog. "You were married? I am...spinning. There's so much spinning."
"We could not think of anything scandalous about you the other night to tell Cassidy," Ursula said.
They'd need to explain that one later as they got curious looks. Eloise waved a hand at them. "We're all messed up and we'll talk about it later, but don't pretend we aren't." She pointed to Tilly who was sitting there with a smug little smile on her pretty face. "Back to this breaking news."
Tilly leaned forward, and like a magnet, pulled every woman forward in their seats as she started her secret, sad story with her dear friends.
With every word and every shared emotion, sadness, anger, astonishment and relief, they wove a deeper friendship around that fire.
That was the way with women; the more of their hearts they shared, the more that they belonged to each other and became more themselves.
"Alright. Can we all just agree that we're a witch coven now?" Eloise asked again.
"Darling, of course we're a witch coven. No need to get your hat in a twist," Crystal replied with a wave of her hand.
"Seriously, she's like, ageless, right? She's definitely a witch," Eloise said softly out the side of her mouth to Ursula who nodded. "Wait, do vampires exist?" she asked the group, sitting forward.
Laughter rang out. "Why is that always the follow up question when talking of the existence of witches?" Jen shook her head with a bright smile.
"I feel like it's a natural question," Eloise defended.
"I asked the same thing. Must be natural," Ursula replied, remembering what felt like long ago revelations with a long ago new life.
"Of course vampires aren't real," Kelsea finally said. "Tilly and I would know. We love vampire lore."
"Exactly," Tilly said.
"Actually," Bess spoke up, her word drawn out and a little unsure.
When all pairs of eyes swung to her in question the girl with the baby raccoons now sleeping soundly all over her told them something that had been bouncing around in her head for weeks; she took them back to that night she'd come to The Lost Souls House to crash with Ursula and Eloise only to find Cassidy Parker had broken in.
She told them about the magic that had stopped her breathing and her heart and then what, or who, had brought it back.