Chapter 42
FORTY-TWO
“Everyone has secrets. It’s figuring out which ones need to be told that’s the hard part.”
—excerpt from the unpublished memoir,
Darling, I Must Say by Gloria Hayes
“What are you doing?” Mae asked as she leaned over my lounge chair.
“Nothing.” I hastily tucked the phone under my thigh. “Thanks for inviting us over.”
“It wasn’t nothing. You were looking at houseplants.” Mae plopped down in the chair next to me. Her enormous red sunhat matched her red polka-dot bathing suit. It had a 1940s pin-up girl feel to it. I was kind of jealous. My bikini was predictably black.
“I can’t keep houseplants alive,” Ellie said, on the other side of Mae. She sat up and pulled her sunglasses down her nose. “I once killed a cactus. Forgot to water it. Do you know how long you have to forget to water a cactus before it dies? Months. Months and months.”
“But you’ve done a very good job of keeping Oliver alive.” Mae gestured to the pool. Hallie squealed as the boy in question, Ellie’s nine-year-old son, dumped a whole bucket of water on her head.
“Good point.”
Mae applied another thick layer of sunscreen, the third in an hour. But she was a redhead and the sun loved her. “Are you thinking of getting a houseplant?”
The woman would not be distracted when she wanted answers.
Over her shoulder, Ellie pointed at Mae and mouthed, Tell her about school.
I pressed my lips together and shook my head quickly.
“It’s not for me.” I grabbed Mae’s bottle of sunscreen and smeared it on my legs.
Ellie nodded. Just do it. You’ll feel better.
Mae turned and held her hair up. I began coating her back. “Oh, who’s it for?”
No, it’s not a good time, I mouthed over Mae’s shoulder.
Ellie rolled her eyes and lay back in her chair.
“Abe. It’s just a thank you for going to the wedding. That’s all.”
That was exactly what I’d been telling myself when I began researching houseplants. It wasn’t because I wanted to learn about what Abe was passionate about. Or that I found it sweet when I caught him singing to them. He had big feelings about those plants.
I had the idea to get him one for our movie friend outing thing.
As a thank you for the wedding and the movie.
Something special. But some of these plants were more expensive than all four years of my college education.
There was an orchid that was over two hundred thousand dollars, and very old bonsai trees could go for over a million.
“For Abe?” Mae asked in disbelief.
“He likes houseplants.” I flipped onto my stomach. “He sings to them.”
“He sings to them? Abe?”
“Honestly, I want to find someone who loves me like he loves his plants.”
With a snort, she lay back in her lounge chair. “Okay, you don’t have to tell me who the plant is for.”
I lifted my head. “It’s really for Abe. He’s a plant daddy. He’s got a whole room dedicated to them.”
“A plant daddy?”
“That’s kind of hot,” Ellie said. “It’s unexpected, sure. But clearly he is a guy who likes to take care of things. I do like a man who pays attention. Very attractive.”
She was not wrong.
Mae shrugged. “I don’t see it.”
She wouldn’t. Mae was many things, but ruthlessly practical was number one.
She had her moments of whimsy, but they were rare and thus special.
They came more often with Chris in her life but her default setting was always sensible and realistic.
It had made her someone I could lean on as a kid.
She always knew what to do, no matter the situation.
“Kind of an intimate gift, if you think about it,” Ellie said.
“No, it’s not,” I said quickly.
Ellie lowered her sunglasses and shot me a knowing look. “Okay, if you say so.”
I was ready for this conversation to be over. Time to change the subject to something less controversial. “Do you want to hear about my time in the slammer?”