Page 80 of Ten Beach Road

Twenty-six

In the late afternoon the sunbaked sand was toasty between Maddie’s toes, the breeze a warm caress on her bare skin. She walked toward the pink castle walls of the Don CeSar soothed by the rhythmic wash of the tide and the erratic caws of the gulls, trying to draw the beauty of it inside, willing it to alleviate the worry and panic that she’d felt churning inside ever since she’d issued her ultimatum to Steve.

Tilting her face to the sky, she tested the smile she’d kept plastered on her lips, and knew that if she’d been a sailboat that smile would have been at half mast. A part of her would have liked to simply keep walking north from Pass-a-Grille, to St. Pete Beach, and on to Treasure Island, from one sandy beach to the next all the way up into the curve of Florida’s panhandle. Instead, she turned and headed back toward Bella Flora where her responsibilities lay, hoping she could corral her thoughts and worries; had she gone too far? Was she right to bring up divorce? Was there some other way she’d missed?

Kyra was the first to accost her when she got back to the house. The others were getting ready for sunset. Kyra had her hand out.

Maddie saw her daughter staring expectantly at her, but had missed what she’d said.

“Mom?” Kyra said, clearly irritated.

“Hmmm?”

“Your keys. I’m going to a movie at the Beach Theater. Can I borrow them?”

“Oh. Sure.” Maddie walked to the kitchen to retrieve them. The fact that it didn’t even occur to Kyra to invite her should have hurt, but it was barely a pinprick. She was far too numb to feel the sting.

Maddie watched Kyra leave while Nikki and Avery bustled around the kitchen, getting ready for sunset. She saw the looks they sent each other and knew she wasn’t behaving even remotely like herself, but then her self had never been contemplating divorce before.

“Come on, Maddie,” Avery said. “I made you your own personal bowl of Cheez Doodles. And we’ve got those cute little cocktail hot dogs in buns you bought at Sam’s Club.”

The blender whirred. “Strawberry daiquiris coming right up,” Nicole added. “It’s just the three of us tonight.” Nicole poured the first glass and set it in front of her. “Take a sip and come on. We don’t want to miss the show.”

Maddie took a long sip of the drink, letting the iced strawberry slide over her tongue and down her throat. Out on the pool deck she sank into her orange neon–strapped beach chair and rested her elbows on the short aluminum arms. By the time Nikki and Avery had arranged the snacks and poured their own drinks, Maddie had finished hers. She held her empty glass toward Nikki.

“Goodness, we’re thirsty tonight.” Nikki refilled her glass to the brim.

“That’s an understatement.” Maddie felt as if she could drink a Gulf full of daiquiris and still be thirsty for more.

Avery raised her glass toward the setting sun. “Well, I think we should toast having the air-conditioning up and running. And our second bathroom. Even if I do have to share it with Deirdre. Who, by the way, owns more makeup and beauty products with the word ‘antiaging’ on them than Nikki, which I didn’t think was possible.”

Nicole laughed. Maddie managed a small smile. “To the air-conditioning and the bathroom,” they said. “And to Alfred, the King of Chrome.”

“And to Maddie,” Nikki added. “Who needs to tell us what’s wrong.”

In the fading light, Madeline looked out over the sea oats and the jetty. It was hot and muggy, the breeze off the Gulf thick with heat and salt. “Let’s just say I’d be pretty hard-pressed to come up with one good thing tonight.”

A Cheez Doodle crunched nearby and Avery lifted the bowl as if it contained an offering from the gods. Maddie had no appetite.

“Is it Kyra?” Nicole asked. “Because I think she should be grateful she has a family to turn to. I could have a talk with her if you like.”

“Thanks.” Maddie tried to picture what that talk would be like. “But she’s just a part of it. Everything feels completely out of whack. Especially my relationship with Steve.” She hadn’t had a real conversation with him in so long she wasn’t even sure they still had a “relationship.”

“When do you think he might come down?” Avery asked. “Is it hard for him to get away?”

For a moment Maddie thought about making up some excuse, trying to change the whole sorry topic. But the concern in her partners’ eyes demanded her honesty.

“No,” she said. “It’s hard for him to get up off the couch.”

For a moment she wasn’t sure if she’d actually said it out loud. A look at her partners’ faces confirmed that she had.

“Is he sick?” Avery asked tentatively.

Maddie sighed. Setting her empty glass down, she wrapped her arms around herself and stared down into her lap.

“In a way,” Maddie said. “He lost his job last fall and he hasn’t been the same since he told me in March.”

“You didn’t know?”

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