Chapter 2 #4
“I talked to Joe this morning,” Janey’s cousin Laura said. “P.J. is doing well and off the ventilator, which is a huge step forward.”
“And how is Janey?” Grace asked.
“Recovering slowly, but doing better every day,” Laura said. “The doctors told her she needs to take it very easy for a month or so until she’s fully recovered. She lost a lot of blood.”
“She’s so damned lucky to be alive,” Stephanie said. “They both are.”
“No kidding,” Laura said. “I can’t even think about what happened without feeling like I’m going to break out in hives or something.”
Grace patted Laura’s arm. “It’s better if you don’t think about it.”
“Imagine your ex-fiancé saving your life—and your child’s—the way David saved them,” Stephanie said. “What a crazy scenario for all of them.”
“Thank God David was right there when she had the emergency and knew what to do,” Grace said.
“Seriously,” Jenny said. “A stroke of luck for sure.”
Maddie and Sydney came into the room and greeted the new arrivals. “Sorry to be such a basket case today,” Maddie said. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. “I feel like such a jackass for bawling all over you guys. Blame it on the hormones.”
“No apologies needed,” Laura said. “We all have those days. I feel like all I do lately is cry and puke. It’ll be a miracle if Owen shows up for our wedding.”
“Oh, shut up,” Stephanie said, laughing. “He can’t wait to marry you.”
“I can’t imagine why. I’ve done little more than breed and puke since he’s known me.”
“Apparently,” Sydney said dryly, gesturing to Laura’s rounding belly, “you’ve done a few other things, too.”
Jenny cracked up laughing along with the others and helped Hailey as she made a huge doughy mess of the roll she’d chosen from the table.
“I’m so sorry to dump and run,” Maddie said as she took a seat on the floor next to Jenny and Hailey. “Have you gotten to eat yet?”
“We’re doing just fine, aren’t we, Hailey?”
“Mamamama.” Hailey dropped the doughy mess on the floor and reached for her mother, dragging handfuls of wet bread into Maddie’s hair.
“Wow,” Jenny said. “She moves fast.”
“Why do you think I require two showers per day?” Maddie asked, cuddling her daughter close.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Today is about Syd. I feel terrible making it about me.”
“You didn’t. We all support one another. It’s what I love best about living here.”
“Yes, we do,” Maddie said. “And we’re so glad you’re here with us.”
“I am, too,” Jenny said, humbled as always by the genuine friendship she felt among this group of women and the men they loved. “So have Tiffany and Blaine resurfaced yet after their big day?”
“I heard she was seen briefly at the store yesterday,” Maddie said. “My mom and Ned asked to keep Ashleigh and Thomas for another night to give the newlyweds some more time to themselves. They can’t go away this time of year, so I guess they’ll take an official honeymoon in the fall.”
“You know,” Jenny said, “we never got to have a shower for her because the whole thing happened fast.”
Maddie’s eyes widened with interest. “You’re right!”
“Who’s to say we can’t do it after the fact?”
“Absolutely no one, and how funny would it be if we bought her a bunch of stuff from her own store?”
“Hilarious! I’d be happy to have it at the lighthouse. We could do it out in the yard.”
“Did the lawn finally get cut?”
Jenny felt like her face lit up like a neon sign at the mention of grass cutting. “Just today, in fact.”
“Hey, you guys,” Maddie said to the others. “Jenny just had the best idea. How about a bridal shower for Tiffany, complete with stuff from her own store?”
“Oh yeah,” Stephanie said. “I’m digging that.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon on Syd’s back porch, planning the shower for the following weekend while enjoying the sunshine and company of good friends.
Syd’s dog, Buddy, was in the middle of everything, as was Hailey.
While they all took turns holding Holden, the laughter and conversation never lagged.
“God, I needed this,” Grace said as the party finally broke up around five. “I feel like all I do is work.”
“Welcome to summer on Gansett,” Stephanie said. “I’m off to the restaurant for another wild Saturday night.”
“Oh, I forgot,” Grace said. “I’m supposed to tell you that Evan and Owen are playing at the Tiki tomorrow night, and they want us all to come.”
“We are so there,” Abby said.
Everyone else agreed they were long overdue for a group night out at the Tiki Bar. They hadn’t done that yet this summer.
Most of them had plans that night with their husbands, fiancés or boyfriends and were off to shower and change.
Jenny remembered what it was like to have a regular Saturday-night date and missed being half of a couple.
But she certainly didn’t begrudge her friends their hard-won happiness.
Each of them had been through the fire to get to where they were today, and they deserved all the good things life had to bring them.
However, as she drove away from Syd’s house, Jenny couldn’t help but be a tiny bit envious of what they had to go home to when she was on her way back to the empty lighthouse for another night alone.