“Yes, of course. I’m just feeling out of sorts because the plans I had for our little artists’ colony here in Wyndham Beach are getting all mucked up.”
“No applicants?” Maggie asked.
“Too many applicants. Excellent prospects and nowhere to put them all. Which means I have to choose among them, and I just can’t.” Emma took a sip of her margarita, then took another. “I hate to be the one who has to shatter someone’s dreams. They’re all worthy.” She waved her hand as if to dismiss the subject. “I’ll think of something.” She turned her attention to Liddy. “So have you heard from Jim?”
Liddy shrugged. “Not since he left last week. It made me so sad to hear him say how much he loved me and wanted to try again. I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I can’t get past what I felt when he left me.”
“You can’t change the way you feel, Lids. Your life, your call,” Emma pointed out.
“I did make the call. I’ll always have feelings for Jim, but I need to move on. Which is just what I told him.” Liddy’s grin spread slowly. “Just before Tuck pulled into the driveway.”
“Way to make your point,” Maggie said. “So let me guess. Jim drove off in a huff, and Tuck carried you inside, and you spent the rest of the afternoon in a sex-induced coma.”
“No, he drove me to work. But Jim did drive off in a bit of a huff.”
“Better he should know the truth.” Emma sipped her drink. “You still make the best margaritas in New England.”
“Thank you. I do, don’t I? Guys, I have another announcement. A small one, but still . . .”
“What? You’re giving up your house to run off to Shelby Island and live with Tuck,” Maggie suggested.
“No, but that may be on the table at some point. More immediately, I have an appointment tomorrow at Making Waves.”
Maggie and Emma looked at each other, then back at Liddy.
“What for?” Maggie asked. “Manicure?”
“Facial?” Emma guessed.
Liddy grabbed her braid and held it up. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I had my hair cut? Or how many miles of split ends I have?”
Maggie glanced at Emma. “This can’t be the real Liddy. She must be a pod person.”
Emma nodded. “Let’s look in her basement. I bet the real Liddy is down there.”
“I understand your skepticism, but I’m serious. I’m long overdue. Like, years overdue.” She dropped the braid on her chest, then looked down at it hanging there. “I will probably miss it, but it’s time.”
“When is this momentous event going to take place?” Emma helped herself to a few more grapes.
“Friday afternoon at two. Felicia is blocking off a full hour for me.”
“Has she seen how much hair you have?” Maggie asked.
“She has.”
“So how much are you having taken off?”
“I told her I want enough left to make a decent ponytail.”
“What brought this on?” Emma asked.
“I just feel like the hair—the braid, the big fat bun—is part of who I used to be but maybe not so much who I am now. I’m starting my life over, on my terms. I’m a different person now. I want to look like someone who’s turned a corner in her life and moved on to better things.” Liddy stared into her glass. “Does that make any sense?”
“It makes total sense, but you’ll always be Liddy. You can’t change your personality, and that’s what we’ve loved about you for so many years. Cutting your hair won’t make you a different woman,” Emma said.
“But it will signal that I’m a changed woman. There’s a difference.”
“I get it. I think whatever makes you feel the way you want to feel when you look in the mirror—I’m all for it. But Emma’s right.” Maggie shook her head. “You’re not going to change who you are.”
“Well, I am a businesswoman now, you know. And I have a boyfriend. I think. Maybe.” Liddy looked at Maggie. “Was it yea or nay on the term boyfriend? Did we ever decide?”
“What were the options? Gentleman friend? Sounds like an old man. Tuck isn’t old. And we already agreed lover is TMI,” Maggie said. “Age is only a state of mind, my friends.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Liddy raised her glass and clinked the rim with Emma and Maggie.
“So. You and Tuck, huh?” Emma said.
“Yep.”
“Never saw that coming,” Emma admitted.
“Why not?”
“Wild island boy, town girl.”
Liddy laughed. “I’m afraid he’s not really all that wild. But he is an island boy. Did I tell you he took me to the island?”
“No! When?” Emma exclaimed.
“Yup. I met his dad, who isn’t doing well, by the way. Tuck said yesterday the doctors don’t expect him to last much longer. He has the option of moving him to the hospital, but Tuck thinks the trip would kill him. Besides, he said his dad wants to die on the island and be buried at sea, and that’s the way it’s going to be.”
They tossed around the benefit of being dropped into the ocean far out at sea, or cremation versus traditional burial. When they realized how morbid the conversation was, they opted for a new topic.
“Brett and I are going to Maine to see Joe and the kids this weekend,” Maggie told them. “Joe’s son Jamey’s last soccer game is on Saturday, and he invited us to come.”
“Wow, that’s progress. I remember when Jamey didn’t even want to meet you or Brett,” Liddy noted.
“He’s okay with us now. He’s bonded with Brett because of the sports thing, and he tolerates me because he wants Brett around. But I’ll take it. Grandkids I never knew I had? Yes, please.” Maggie smiled. “And they’ll be here in a few weeks, because Grace has been texting Joe about her house. She wanted the opinion of an engineer, so she’s sent him pictures, plus sketches of the old floor plan versus the new one. He wants to check it out before walls start coming down. Plus I think she wants Joe to meet Linc.”
“Gracie and Linc Shelby? What’s happening there?” Emma was obviously surprised.
“Oh, there’s something brewing. She hasn’t said a whole lot. But as always with Grace, it’s what she hasn’t said that’s the tip-off. She spends a lot of time at her house after she leaves the bookshop. She says she just likes to keep up with the progress on the renovation. From what I’ve seen of Linc, he seems like a really nice guy. But I worry that . . .” Maggie seemed lost for words.
“That he has too much on his plate between running his father’s business and raising his sister’s children?” Liddy filled in the blanks.
Maggie nodded. “He’s taken on a lot. Obviously, he’s an exceptional young man to step up the way he has for those children and to work more so his father can work less. I just don’t know if he has anything left to give to a relationship. Grace has had a few rough years. I’d hate to see her get involved with someone who can’t give her what she needs emotionally.”