Page 39 of Gulfside Girls
Faye sighed. “I think you’re selling yourself short, but I hear you. You’re not happy there. Can we make this deal? You give it your all, like I said, finish out the year as best you can. And we put this on the table in the spring. I’ll listen to the things you’re thinking about doing, and you’ll, well, you’ll just try.”
Sawyer shifted on his feet; his blond shank of hair flopped over his eye.
She reached over and brushed it away.
“Okay. Deal. But this spring, no big drama if I want to drop out.”
“No big drama. But you need to try.”
“Fine. Fine.”
Her phone buzzed. It was work. She picked it up. “Yeah, no. Yeah.” She hung up.
“You have to go in?”
“Mandatory overtime, yes, I do.”
Her son rolled his eyes. He knew if work called, Faye would answer. She never felt guilty about that. It was how he had nice clothes, that skateboard, and that game system. But right now, she wished she could sit with him a little longer, maybe order a pizza together.
But work called. And she answered.
She was about to put her phone in her bag, when it vibrated. A text from Ali. A picture of the cutest little lime green house popped up on her phone.What the heck?
She read the text:
Staying here tonight. We own it, lol. Wish me luck. The roof leaks and the mosquitos are as big as chihuahuas.
She sent a thumbs-up emoji and went to the plant.Well, at least it wasn’t snowing, Faye thought as she drove.
Sixteen
Ali
It didn’t take long for Ali to have her Jeep packed again. She was ready to make her home for a day at the Sea Turtle Resort.
Didi greeted her and directed her to park her Jeep around a little corner. “This way, the palm trees will shade your car a bit! And our guests can park.”
Ali smiled and wondered what the older woman meant by guests, as she still hadn’t seen any.
“Oh, yeah, the cottages are empty, but I do have three at the Inn.” Didi pointed to the structure next to the pool.
The pool looked gross to Ali. A sign with a turtle and a cartoon bubble announced that it was closed.
Thank goodness, Ali thought. It did not look safe.
“Jorge needs to call our guy, Silvio,” Didi told her. “He’s been so stubborn about doing it all himself.” She added that Jorge was taking a little nap. “You know he had a hip replacement, which is not supposed to take this long to recover from, but then there was a problem with the oil in the joint of the thing they put in. Anyway, THAT had to be fixed, and he battled an infection. Iwas really scared there for a bit. But anyway, that was at the end of the season last year. We thought he’d be ready to go for this season, but well, he’s not quite back to normal yet.”
Ali knew what it was like to deal with an aging man, one used to doing it all on his own. “Ha, I get it, my dad was like that the last few years. Not that it’s the last few years for your husband, but I’ll tell you, it’s hard to get a man like that to release control of the things they’re used to doing.”
“Amen, you understand!”
Ali smiled at Didi. “So, can you give me the lay of the land, if that’s okay?”
“Yes, yes, do you want to go to the hotel first?”
“Okay.”
They walked the path around the pool and into the hotel section of the Sea Turtle. There was a charm to the building, and at only two stories, it was tiny compared to what she’d seen up and down the Gulf.
