Page 84 of One Small Spark
“I’ll show you sometime.” Despite the teasing from the book club ladies, I like the sound of spending an afternoon making bread together. There’s a lot of downtime in the process. I’m sure we could find things to do.
We eat for a while in comfortable silence, punctuated by festive music and a dozen voices talking around us.
“So the wedding venue at the lodge was your idea, huh?” she says.
“No, Leo’s just the king of exaggeration.”
“I’m starting to see that. And you’re fine with whatever’s going on between him and Charlie?”
“I’m staying out of it.” Hard to do when he’s not shy about his interest in her. He regularly texts me, fishing for advice I don’t give. “But I would be okay with it if she wanted to be with him. He’s a good guy.”
“Charlie doesn’t seem like she’s going to make it easy on him.”
“I endorse this.”
She stabs at a noodle on her plate. “I wish I could retire at thirty-two.”
“I hear that.” We can’t all be NFL heroes. Then again, all the broken bones and surgeries that finally made him give up the sport weren’t a breeze. “What would you do if you could?”
“Easy. I’d go to New Zealand.”
“Really?” I don’t know what I pictured her answer being, but I can see that for her.
“I’ve always wanted to go. They have so many gorgeous beaches, and they’re all so different. One where the sand is littered with tiny little seashells you can dig your toes into. Another one that’s all this thick, volcanic residue that’s so soft and spongy, it’s like you’re on another planet. Classic beaches with palm trees and gentle surf. And there are a bunch that have natural hot springs so you can dig your own hot tub right on the beach.”
Her eyes are bright, her voice a little higher than usual as she describes it. I love her enthusiasm. I want to wrap this moment up like a gift to open again and again.
“Sounds kind of outdoorsy,” I point out.
“I maintain that sitting on a beach on a beautiful island country isn’t the same thing as riding a bike a hundred miles over a mountain or sleeping in a tent with bears.”
“If you say so. I’ve heard they have a few non-beachy thingsto do, too.”
She makes a sour face at me. “I’ve made it clear how I feel about doing things.”
I chuckle. “You’re right. It was wrong of me to suggest. It sounds like you’ve thought about this a lot.”
“It’s at the top of my bucket list.”
“Why haven’t you taken a trip yet?” Not that it would be easy for everyone, but she’s obviously eager to go.
Her excitement deflates like a sad party balloon. “I planned to. It just didn’t work out.”
I wait, unsure if she’s going to tell me more. I want her to open up to me, but it’s not the kind of thing I can get by pushing. She would push right back.
“Hope and I were going to go after college,” she says. “We saved up, had ideas for where we would stay and everything. But then Tess got pregnant with August, and I couldn’t justify a big vacation from the bakery when we were all adjusting to life with a newborn. I was going to go when he got a little older, but then the diabetes stuff happened, and it felt selfish to take that much time for myself.”
I want to tell her it’s not selfish to need time for herself, but for now, I listen.
She sighs, drawing invisible circles on the wooden tabletop. “Now everything’s settled with August, and we finally have more help at the bakery. I could get the time off. But everybody’s paired up. A girls’ night is one thing, but a girls’ vacation across the ocean? Not happening. I could go alone, but I’d rather be with a friend.”
Offering to take her to New Zealand sits on the tip of my tongue. I wouldn’t even care if the only thing I saw there was Wren in a swimsuit on endless beaches.
Actually, that’s starting to sound like the ideal itinerary for any trip.
It’s probably too soon to start planning international vacations together. Even if I’m ready to grab my passport and board a plane with her at my side. But I might have an acceptable compromise.
“Have you been to any of the hot springs around here?” I ask.
