Chapter 14 Elyse
ELYSE
Eighteen holes of golf at Tuesday's Ladies League went by quickly with Grace.
We chatted about Jenna's bakery, Paige's book launch, the new book Grace was working on, and Sarah's son who had drawn a fish on her wall with a Sharpie marker that week.
As we pulled up to the cart barn, our phones dinged with a text message at the same time.
Cat: Meet here after close?
Sarah: Sure! Let me get a sitter. Assuming my mom will be there.
I heard Grace chuckle beside me.
"Right. Like I need more decorating tips from a first grader."
Grace: I'll be there.
Jenna: Holly and I will be done by then. I can have her finish up the frosting while I run over.
Paige: See you then!
What's the meeting about?
"Do you know what this meeting is about?" I asked Grace.
She slid out of the golf cart and unstrapped her clubs from the back of the cart. "Cat's got something up her sleeve, I'm sure."
I am certain of that.
When I got to Cat's Bites, everyone was already seated around the U-shaped booth where we usually gather.
That was not a good sign because it meant they had gotten there earlier and probably spent that time talking about whatever the meeting was actually about.
And considering I was the last one to arrive by design, I knew right off the bat that the meeting was about me and that Cat had already shared her concerns with the group.
It was an intervention.
"What's up, ladies," I said as I sat down in my usual spot at the end of the table across from Cat. She put her foot up on the booth along my right leg, as she usually did, but that time it almost felt like I were being locked in.
"Not much," said Grace. "We just wanted to get together to chat about a few things."
"Oh really," I said. "A few things like what?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jenna squirming in her seat at the curve of the booth next to Paige, who was looking everywhere but me. Sarah reached her hand out and patted my leg.
"Just keep in mind that we love you," she said in a low voice.
My suspicions were confirmed.
Cat cleared her throat before she began speaking.
"I'm sure you know why we're here," she said.
"I don't. Why don't you fill me in? Seeing as you all got here before me, there's obviously a lot to talk about."
"Well, we'll start with how distracted you have been with the group."
"So this meeting is because I'm on my phone too much when we're together?"
"No, that's not it," said Grace. "But it is a symptom of the larger problem."
"Which is what?" I asked.
"You know what it is," said Cat. "You're moonlighting as a private investigator and putting yourself in danger.
Drew is very concerned. And he's reached out to me because he's at his wit's end and doesn't know how to handle this.
He's very worried about you. And frankly, we are too.
You're going to get yourself in a situation that you can't get out of.
A situation where you could get hurt. You could get mixed up with someone that isn't thrilled about having their picture taken or having their secret outed or having their marriage ruined. "
"Well, I'm not the one ruining their marriage," I said. I looked around at the rest of my friends sitting around me. Grace and Sarah were nodding their heads while Paige and Jenna were looking down at the table.
"Well, no, but you could potentially be the catalyst for the end of their marriage. That by itself could upset someone very much if they found out who provided the information that got them into so much hot water."
"I don't understand how my involvement is what ends their marriage.
Their behavior is getting them in trouble.
Not me. I'm just making sure that their wife has all the information she needs to make the right decision.
And here's another thing. Sometimes, try as I might to find something to the contrary, he's not up to anything at all.
So either way, I'm giving a woman peace of mind. "
Sarah adjusted her headband and then placed her hand on my forearm. Normally I would appreciate the connection, but that day it just felt like another way to keep me in place while they decided how I should live my life.
"All of this is out of love and concern," she said in a low, measured tone. "I hope you know that. We don't want to upset you, but we don't want to see you get hurt either."
I looked around the table. Jenna was now nodding her head, as was Paige. Grace looked like she was gearing up for her part of the lecture. And Cat was looking directly into my eyes, as if she could transfer her worry without having to say a word.
"Listen," I said, "I'm being careful. I am not wearing anything that would identify me. I am far enough away that no one can see me taking pictures. I am never communicating in any way that could identify me. I am using an anonymous email account."
"But you're not using an anonymous Facebook account, are you?" asked Cat.
"Well, no, I'm using my account for the initial contact. That's how they're finding me."
"Exactly, and if they don't delete those messages, then what?"
I understood her point, but it was a risk that I was willing to take.
"I will give all of this some consideration," I said. "No promises, but I will think about what you all have to say."
"I would think hard about it," said Cat. "Drew is very upset and very worried, and I would hate to see you jeopardize your relationship over something that really doesn't concern you."
Grace chimed in next. "And we understand where you're coming from, Elyse. It's not that we don't. But you can't change what happened to you by not letting it happen to someone else. It doesn't change the past. All it does is jeopardize your future."
Leave it to the romance author to be melodramatic.
"Again, I appreciate all of your concern," I said. "But I don't really feel the need to discuss this any further. I appreciate what you're trying to do, and I understand. And let's just leave it at that, okay?"
"Okay," said Paige and Jenna in unison. They hadn't spoken a word since I sat down, and it was very clear that they felt extremely uncomfortable with this whole situation.
From what I had heard from Paige, she'd had a few interventions of her own when she was struggling to get her feet under her after her kids left for college and her husband left for his physical therapist, so I didn't suspect that she was all that comfortable being part of someone else's intervention.
Jenna didn't relish being in anyone else's business, period.
"Paige," I said to change the subject, "your book launch party is coming along beautifully. I got your cookie order in to our local famous baker," I said and winked at Jenna. "She's doing larger cookies with your book cover on them and smaller cookies to match the theme of your book."
"I'm so excited to see them," she said, finally speaking up. "What else are you making, Jenna?"
"Well, we wanted to leave the second thing up to you, so if you want to come in this week, Holly and I will have some options for you to choose from."
"This is so exciting," said Sarah. "Now we're going to have two famous authors in the group."
"I don't know about famous," said Paige, "but it will feel amazing just to have this book finally published."
"Just wait," said Grace. "You're not going to be able to stop with this one. Once I published my first, the next three were published a year apart. I was getting up early every morning to write, and I was having such a great time with it."
"What was your favorite part of the process, Paige?" asked Cat. She looked a little more relaxed once the focus was off of me.
"I really liked the editing. Probably because I do so much of it for work, it comes second nature to me, but once I understood how my brain operates and that I needed to plot out my books very thoroughly, the writing became a lot easier.
So I think you are right about having the bug.
I've been having a lot of ideas come to me at strange times. "
"I keep a little notebook in my bag," said Grace.
"That way I can write down the ideas as they come to me.
And if I can't get to my notebook quickly, I just put them in the notes app on my phone and then transfer them later.
I have a huge file of ideas on my computer.
I could probably play a spin the arrow game to pick the storyline for my next book or close my eyes and point. "
"That might be a neat idea," said Jenna.
"How are you doing with book eight?" I asked Grace.
"Oh, you know, one step forward and two steps back, two steps forward and one step back until I finally type 'the end.' And I'm working through an issue with one of my characters I had originally thought I would kill off."
The group gasped collectively. Grace did have a penchant for killing off people in her romance books.
She said that it upped the tension because her regular readers knew that someone was going to die, but never knew who it would be.
But she always used the trauma to push her love interests closer together.
And it added a little bit of a mystery as to who was getting the axe.
"I thought it was going to be one person all along until another option presented itself. So I had to go back and rewrite parts of the story to make it work. But things are back on track."
"Well, that's a relief." I chuckled. "Except for the person who is now in your crosshairs."
"They'll never see it coming," she said. We all laughed.
"And Sarah, have the kids managed to stay healthy over the last couple of weeks? I know you were saying the flu was going around at their school."
"So far, so good. We've had one round and that's been it so far. Fingers crossed."
"Well, on that note, I need to get to work." I got up to head to the bookstore and saw Adam walk into the cafe. "Oooh lala," I said, winking at Jenna who turned a lovely shade of crimson.
"We are going for a walk on Honeymoon Beach. Nothing scandalous."
I bumped her shoulder. "Yet."
"You're incorrigible," she said. But I knew the sparkle I saw in her eye when she looked over at him. I felt that same sparkle when I looked at Drew, even after twelve years.
I needed to find a way to get his sparkle back.