Chapter 17 #2
The tables had been lined with cloths, and hand-lettered labels were propped at every empty spot on the table, each one waiting for the dish it had been promised.
Aspen stepped up beside Maddy and bumped her shoulder. “You haven’t said anything about the throne.”
Maddy looked at the throne. It was a tall chair with a beach umbrella zip-tied to one side and a square of purple fabric stapled across the seat. “It’s a lifeguard chair with a curtain and an umbrella.”
“It took me ninety minutes.” Aspen’s face fell.
Maddy looked at it again. She tried to find the compliment in there somewhere. “It looks... sturdy.”
Aspen considered this, and a satisfied little smile crept back onto her face. “I... will take it.”
The first car turned into the lot above the dunes. Maddy could hear doors and voices. Beside her, Aspen had gone still.
“Okay.” Aspen wiped both palms down her shorts. “That’s Lena and Grace. My boss and my best friend. So just—be—”
“If you say be normal, Aspen—” Maddy didn’t let her finish.
“I was going to say be yourself.” Aspen’s eyes were still on the approaching women. “They’re going to love you. It’ll be fine.” It came out fast, less like she was telling Maddy and more like she was telling herself.
Aspen’s thumb was tapping lightly against her thigh. She was nervous—and trying very hard not to look it.
Maddy had been so focused on her reunion with Noa and the Reyes’ that she really hadn’t put much thought—or any thought really—into the fact that she would be meeting Aspen’s best friend and boss today, and that it should be something to possibly be nervous about.
Maddy didn’t really care whether some yoga instructor and wellness clinic owner approved of her. But Aspen clearly did.
“Hey.” Maddy waited until Aspen looked over. “I’m very charming when I want to be. I do this for a living.”
Aspen breathed out a laugh through her nose, and a little of the tension went with it.
Four women came down the sand in a loose pack.
Two tall teenage girls out front, both of them built like they’d definitely be getting recruited for collegiate-level volleyball or basketball, then a woman who could only be their mother—five-ten, a short blonde bob, eyes that swept the whole setup.
Behind her came a very petite woman with dark hair carrying a glass bowl with both hands, and even from twenty feet Maddy caught the way her whole face was already aimed straight at her and lit up like a Christmas tree.
That must be the best friend.
“Everyone.” Aspen gestured towards Maddy as the group arrived in front of them. “This is Maddy. Maddy, this is—”
Grace stepped in front of Lena. “Grace, hi.” Grace reached out and took Maddy’s hand in hers and held on, eyes locked, beaming with warmth. “Wow. I feel like I’m meeting a celebrity.”
Maddy didn’t quite know how to take that. “...Because I work in Hollywood?”
Grace’s eye flicked towards Aspen and back. “Sure. Let’s go with that. Anyway, it is so good to finally put a face to the—” a tiny pause, “—to you. You’re even more—wow. Hi.”
“Hi.” Maddy laughed. So Grace knew. Whatever Aspen had told her best friend, it had clearly not been the abridged, just-helping-her-mom-with-PT version of events.
Maddy honestly couldn’t decide whether to be alarmed or a little flattered at Grace’s enthusiasm.
She had probably already given them a ship name. Maspen?
Damnit, now Maddy gave them a ship name.
“This is quite the setup.” Lena’s piercing blue-green eyes had gone to the laminated grid Maddy had taped to the lid of the nearest cooler, mapping which drinks lived where.
She studied it for a moment, then looked at Maddy with what appeared to be genuine respect.
“You labeled the sparkling waters by flavor.” Her lip tipped at the corner. “I didn’t think anyone else did that.”
“Well, there are nine flavors.” Maddy lifted a shoulder. “It seemed irresponsible not to.”
Lena’s mouth curved into a full smile. “Finally, someone who appreciates structure.” She shot a playful look at her daughters. Lena put out a warm, dry hand and shook Maddy’s once, firmly. “Lena. It’s good to meet you.”
“Mom respects a system. It’s basically her love language.” The older girl had the flat, deadpan of someone who’d inherited it directly. “I’m Ava.”
“Zoe.” The younger one said while eyeing the net and the cornhole boards like she was already calculating angles. “Mom, can we play a round—”
“You don’t want to peak in warm-ups, Zoe.” Lena cut in, like she’d given this exact note many times.
“I’m not going to peak, I’m going to prepare.” Zoe looked genuinely offended by the suggestion.
Ava hooked a thumb at Lena. “Mom has a whole strategy.” She turned to Lena. “Which you still haven’t told us, by the way. So when do we get the rundown?”
“Later. We don’t even know if we’re on the same team yet, and I’m not giving away my secrets.” Lena playfully pinched Ava’s side and then set down a tray of churro bites, cut into identical two-inch pieces.
Maddy looked at the churros. “Did you make these yourself? The symmetry is impeccable.”
“Yes.” A flicker of a smile. “The trick is a serrated knife and a refusal to rush. Even when sticky-fingered teenagers are impatient to taste test them.”
Grace held up her glass bowl. “And I brought a cashew crema.”
Bunny descended on them like a hawk who’d spotted movement. “Oh dear, you can just place that right here.”
Grace set the bowl down. Bunny adjusted it and plucked a pre-lettered label from the lineup, and stood it up beside the bowl. The label read, in gold calligraphy: GRACE’S SPIRITUALLY AMBITIOUS CASHEW CREMA.
Grace read it and then shot Bunny an exasperated look. “It’s not spiritual, Bunny. It’s good for your gut.”
“It’s aspirational, darling, and that’s a compliment.” Bunny gave the bowl one last nudge into alignment and clapped her hands at the beach at large. “Labels, everyone, find your labels—your dish name has been calligraphied, your spot is waiting.”
Maddy caught Aspen’s eye and lifted one eyebrow. Aspen bit down on a smile.
Then Maddy heard a voice she hadn’t heard in fifteen years come rolling down the beach. “No way. Somebody tell me that is not Maddy Sterling, standing on this beach, like she has the nerve.”
Maddy turned around.
Noa Reyes was coming across the sand in red board shorts and a white muscle tank, a tray balanced in one hand, and a grin Maddy would have recognized in the dark from a hundred yards away.
Behind her, stranded at the edge of the sand, a tall blonde woman in an enormous floppy hat had stopped to take off her heels and was having a complicated time.
Maddy lifted a hand in an awkward wave. “Hi, Noa.”
“Hi, Noa. Fifteen years, and I get a hi, Noa.” Without breaking her stride or checking whose hands were available, Noa shoved her tray sideways into Aspen’s chest and took Maddy’s face in both palms, turning it left, then right, conducting an inspection.
“I was hoping you got ugly as karmic punishment, but nope. You look incredible. What is it? Sleep? Money? A procedure?”
“Clean living.” Maddy kept her face straight.
“Lies.” Noa’s grin didn’t move, but there was a new wattage running behind it that hadn’t been there fifteen years ago, and she clearly knew exactly how good it looked on her.
Maddy studied her properly. In high school, Noa had been one of the tallest girls in their class at five-foot-nine, and back then the height had sat a little awkward on her, all lanky limbs and clumsy feet.
Now she looked like she could be on the cover of a magazine with her sharp features, lean muscle, and unwavering confidence.
“You’re really here.” Noa’s voice dropped for a second, and she shook her head like she didn’t quite believe it.
“I’m really here.” Maddy replied softly.
“Alright, enough of that sentimental shit. Disgusting.” Noa let go of her face and stepped back, charm reassembled. “I have a lot to say to you, but we’ve got all weekend, and I’m going to lay it on you in installments.”
“Can’t wait.” Maddy said only half-sarcastically. She deserved whatever Noa wanted to lay on her, and she also wanted Noa to get it all off her chest so there would be nothing left unsaid and they could move forward.