Page 30 of Ten Beach Road

An hour later, she stood in the driveway watching all three trucks disappear. Chase had not seen fit to share any information with her, but she didn’t need him to. He could be as big a jerk as he wanted as long as she didn’t allow it to stop her from finding out what she needed to know. Avery smiled, glad they had Bella Flora to themselves again and even gladder that she now had a plan of attack, a way to deal with the infuriating Chase Hardin. She and Chase could have their own version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

By the end of the day, Madeline felt like she had when Kyra was four and Andrew just born and she’d first discovered what the word “exhausted” actually meant. Avery had braved the mass of junk crammed in the detached four-car garage and retrieved two ladders and what looked like an assortment of antique tools. The ladders had allowed them to reach crown moldings and the salon’s coffered ceiling and almost all of the hanging light fixtures, which put Madeline up close and personal with more cobwebs and their occupants, both living and dead, than she ever wanted to see again.

Nicole, who had been assigned to re-mop all of the upstairs floors, had not yet made it to the front stairs when they broke around one o’clock for lunch.

“I’m going to be dusting, wiping, and mopping in my sleep tonight,” Madeline groaned as she carried the pitcher of sun tea she’d made to the kitchen table and swiped at a cobweb that hung down over her forehead.

“I wouldn’t care what I was dreaming if I was actually asleep.” Nicole reached for the bag of chips. “To think I wasted all that money on a personal trainer when I could have turned my biceps into quivering masses of jelly pushing a mop.”

“I know what you mean,” Avery said. “I can hardly move my arms and I’ve only taped up about a tenth of a percent of the missing and broken window panes.” She bit into her sandwich. “I had no idea I was so out of shape.”

After a brief negotiation, they gave themselves twenty minutes before forcing themselves and each other back to work. By the end of the day, Madeline would have given everything she owned—not that that was much of anything at this point—for a filled pool to dive into.

For the last half hour before quitting time, they worked in the back, righting and scrubbing bird droppings from the concrete picnic table and its half-moon benches and sweeping, bagging, and carting away the rubble from the pool deck. There was plenty of groaning and complaining as their overworked and stunned muscles and joints protested the abuse, but the day was warm and balmy and the sun sparkled off the blue green water like diamonds strewn across the slight swells.

At six thirty P.M. they quit and by tacit agreement gathered to watch the sunset. Nicole brought out the plastic glasses and a chilled bottle of pinot grigio. Avery followed with a plate of Cheez Doodles.

“Really?” Nicole asked when she saw them.

Madeline bit back a smile at Nicole’s pained expression.

“Really,” Avery replied as she sank down into her aluminum beach chair and scooted it a bit to maximize her view of the sun suspended over the water. “If you need something fancier, feel free to create it.”

Nicole pinched two doodles from the plate before passing their hors d’oeuvres to Madeline. “I may just have to do that,” she said.

“And I’m going to add a blender to our acquisition list,” Madeline said as the sun began its descent, leaching the color out of the sky and turning it to the palest blue gray. “Sunsets like this practically demand a frozen drink, maybe even with an umbrella in it.”

They watched the remainder of the show in silence. When the final wisps of pink had disappeared completely, Madeline offered her “one good thing.” “I think we’ve made real inroads in the fight against dirt and grime. And I think Bella Flora is grateful.” She smiled at Nicole.

“All right.” Nicole nodded and thought for a moment. “I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not, but I’m beginning tolikethe ‘eau de chemical’ scent Bella Flora’s wearing. At least compared to the smells it’s starting to mask.”

Madeline nodded and she and Nicole turned to Avery, whose fingers and lips were now coated a distinct Cheez Doodle orange.

“Well, I have two good things today.” Avery’s tongue swiped around her lips, presumably in an effort to get the last of the cheese. “Number one—we’re short on bathrooms but there’s a whole Gulf right there just waiting to be soaked in, if anyone wants to go for a swim with me.” She hesitated briefly before smiling broadly. “And despite some very real temptation, I did not buy a weapon or try to do Chase Hardin in.”

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