Page 108 of Hot Tea & Bird Calls
Nothing and no one could guilt Skye out of this bliss.
Falling in lovefit. It actually fit her life.
Past holiday visits from Cosmo’s family meant her being wrangled into doing Zola’s thick hair, and now she appreciated those moments more, nodding down to the wig fully twisted into the curlers without a single howl from the mannequin head. She sipped from her portable glass tea infuser bottle—one of the presents Celene gave her on Tuesday. Celene bought a pair and they’d been a nice addition to short walks or lounging on the deck.
“Come give this a look,” Skye called out, rolling her tongue into a mouthful of oolong, fig, and rose petal. A floral treat to go with her chill mood. Regardless of a snippy patron or delivery person who almost knocked down a display, Skye shrugged it off. On Thursday, Zander cautiously asked if she hid whiskey inher tea bottle, and Skye snorted so hard, he definitely took it as a yes.
In a poufy long skirt and an off-the-shoulder top, Thalia took half a minute to circle the mannequin with a critical eye. However, this wasThalia; she gave Skye a smile, wide and effusive. “Sublime. I’ll leave it like that until Sunday afternoon. Larkin just agreed to barbecue. This is gonna be the best.”
“You’re invited to the cake testing, you know.” Happening tonight for June and Zinnia’s wedding. The event itself would be set up on their gorgeous, sprawling property. And Zinnia wouldn’t budge on splurging on the biggies—the cake, catering, DJ, her dress.
The couple sorted the ring stuff out on their own, but Skye graciously accepted tasting all the fancy cake samples. Larkin and Thalia turned it down, leaving it a double date with Celene coming along.
“Cake, hmm,cake,” Thalia mused, as if it were a novel concept. “Chocolate, vanilla, coconut. It’s all the same.”
“That’s not remotely true.”
“I’ll close the shop,” she went on as if Skye spoke nonsense. Then, as if it weren’t obvious, she sneaked something into Skye’s back pocket. Thalia patted her butt, giggling. “That’s moonstone. Keep it with you.”
If Thalia weren’t her great-grandmother reincarnated, she’d definitely been a squirrel.
Skye retrieved it to whistle at the stone’s pearlescent appearance. “What’s it for?”
“Intuition. Helps you make sound choices.” Thalia lowered to the conspiratorial tone she donned whenever it came to minerals. “It strengthens emotional connections and bonds.Lovebonds.”
Suddenly hot, Skye yanked at her collar. “Got it.”
“I sneaked some in your bag, too. For extra potency.”
“Can’t wait to spot them. Oh—” In a flash, she scurried out of the room, dug into the aforementioned bag, and came back to hand Thalia a paper sack. “Wild mulberries, attached to nothing baked.”
The way Thalia’s eyes rounded, she knew what would follow. “Did you forage them with Celene? Am I eating true love berries?”
God, Yielding really could’ve used some Thalias when Skye was younger. She confirmed the questions with a bashful smile, as the connotations attached to a double date for wedding stuff began to sink in.
With a final furrowing of fingers through the mannequin’s twists, Skye left. She had a girlfriend to pick up.
Quinn and Ramona got married.
Twenty minutes before Celene boarded Skye’s SUV for their cake-tasting date, she’d been rustling up fallen branches from her yard, stepping her heels warily through the soft earth after rainfall. She and Nadine had been FaceTiming about the usual: family. Namely, Byron and Maxine, Nadine’s mother.
Mid-vent, Nadine swept a hand over her mouth in a very unlike-her gasp. “Oh, shit. Celene.”
Celene listened to Nadine read a social post about Quinn and Ramona eloping, sharing the photo of the two of them brandishing sparkly rings, smiles blinding and unbridled as they’d been at Elise’s wedding. Other photos featured them posing with Tara and her husband, along with whom she could guess was Ramona’s sister and the sister’s girlfriend.
“How are you taking this news?” Nadine betrayed a precariousness in her voice, faint at the beginning and end. “I’m here.”
“I know.” Celene pondered for a moment. She glanced at the pile of sticks she’d created as though they’d tell her how she felt.
Honestly—she knew how she felt, but questioned if it was enough.
“Who was I engaged to?” Celene asked, a branch snapping under her foot. “Like, honestly. When we were together, I knew I’d have the lion’s share of wedding planning because marriage didn’t excite her. Quinn would smile politely through it, maybe name some generic ideas, but I just assumed...”
Nadine had been working at home today. She fell onto her couch with a sigh, raking her hair off her face. “Everyone’s their own person, but let’s keep it a stack. We all change depending on who we’re into. Your Quinn and Ramona’s Quinn are?—”
“Diametrically opposed?”
“Yes.”
