Page 88 of Gulfside Girls
“I supposed this was what your life was supposed to look like before Bruce Kelly walked up to us on this very beach.”
“He broke up the Gulfside Girls.” Joetta smiled, and Belinda took her hand. Joetta’s smile was hollow. There was something dark behind her summer eyes now. Something that Belinda could never fix. “Look at that gorgeous sunset.”
Belinda looked out to the sun, yellow with an orange ring around it. The clouds were white, and pink and then purple closer to the horizon. The sun dipped into the water.
“Quite a Grand Finale,” Joetta said.
Belinda would help Joetta rebuild. Whatever it took, she would be there for her baby sister.
“Or maybe it’s a beginning.”
Somehow, they’d figure out a way to be there for Joetta’s girls. Whether Bruce Kelly wanted them to or not.
Thirty-Five
Didi
Present Day
Things were looking up. Ali had announced with little fanfare but with a firm commitment that she was going to stay and make a go of it at the Sea Turtle. Didi was overjoyed. It was an answer to a prayer.
She wanted this place to stay, to endure. She and Jorge had made so many memories for so many families, and now Ali would do the same.
Ali had every right to sell. And most would. But that soon-to-be ex-husband and the visit from Faye had helped Ali see what Didi had seen from the beginning.
Ali Harris was meant to be in this place at this time. Didi was so happy about it that she could barely stand it.
It had been nearly forty years since they’d made the offer to Bruce Kelly.
Didi thought back to the desperation she’d felt when her baby sister was thrown out of the girls’ lives. They’d hatched a plan to sign this place over to the girls in hopes that it would enticeBruce. It didn’t. Later she hoped they were building some sort of nest egg for the girls, or a college fund.
But Bruce had never let it be. Not once. And life had moved on.
Belinda Bennett had married Jorge Rivera, and he’d called her Didi from the start. A shortened from of Lindy, which guests at the country club had taken to calling her when she met Jorge.
Now, everyone called her Didi.
Seeing Ali made her heart ache and also leap with joy. This was that sweet little girl, all grown up, strong, beautiful, and the spitting image of Joetta.
When Faye showed up, Didi almost spilled the beans. It was all she could do, not to say it. Not to tell them everything.
But she’d stopped herself. How did you tell someone something that big? And would being honest mean she’d have to say goodbye to her nieces again? She’d barely gotten over it the last time; no chance she could do it twice.
Ali’s arrival had come at the perfect time. Jorge and Didi could still do the work, but not as fast and not as well. Ali had shown them how she could bring the Sea Turtle roaring back to life. Her niece was supposed to be there, now and forever. It was more than she could ever dream of, but also more than she could reveal.
Didi was getting the linens from the washer to the dryer when Ali burst into the office.
“Did you know about this?”
“About?”
“I found out that the original owner of this place was Joetta Bennett. Joetta Bennet was my mother.”
Didi looked at the papers that Ali had printed out. She knew full well what she was looking at. She knew full well when those papers were filed. And just who filed them.
All Didi had ever wanted was in front of her. The little girls she knew but left behind were here. Well, two of them had been. Bruce was no longer in their way. But how could Ali ever forgive her? How could Faye understand what they’d done? Didi blamed Bruce’s cold stubbornness and Joetta’s alcoholism, but she shared blame, too, in this secret.
Didi looked at the paper that transferred this property to the Kelly Sisters. From the Gulfside Girls to the Kelly Sisters. She knew exactly who owned this place then and now. She was the management company. Her delay tactics were exactly that.
