Page 43 of Play to Win
“So true.” They were good days. Despite everything that had been going on around town, she’d had good times with Sunny.
“You ever think about coming back for good?” Camy asked after finishing her three cookies and taking a long gulp from her lemonade.
It was as if she’d reached right into Portia’s mind and pulled the thoughts that had been floating there in these past few days out for dissection. While Portia had been content to keep those thoughts tucked carefully away.
“Sunny’s not planning to come back,” she said and then shrugged. “So it’s kind of foolish to wish for old times to return.”
“Before my mom became really sick, she used to say that everyone in town was shocked that Sunny had stayed here as long as she did. She certainly wasn’t like any of the other women in town,” Camy said.
Portia shook her head. “No. Sunny always said the mold was broken, burned and buried after she was created.”
They both chuckled.
“That’s fine. I kinda think their time has passed anyway. You know, my parents, your parents, Sunny and a lot of the other old farts around here. It’s our time now. We’re the next generation and we should be making our mark in Providence.”
Portia wondered if Camy knew that she sounded like a politician in the making. “I believe I’m making my mark, just not here.”
“Even now, after you and Ethan have had the chance to get close?”
She should’ve seen that coming. Camy didn’t mince words. If she wanted to know something, she asked the question.
“I’ve only been back in town for three weeks,” Portia started.
Camy immediately interrupted. “You’ve known each other all your lives.”
“Not intimately,” she countered.
Camy chuckled. “Well, everybody in town knows the two of you are just about living together. And I for one, am happy about it. My brothers and their friends have gotten the short end of the stick long enough. It’s time they started to find real happiness.”
“But they all left here and found good careers. What happened to bring them back?” Portia asked the question she hadn’t been able to bring herself to ask Ethan.
Camy snagged another cookie and looked thoughtfully as she took the first bite. “Life, I guess. I don’t know all the details about the others, but I know that Del and Lance’s situations got blown out of proportion pretty quickly and before either of them knew it they were right back here, the place they’d longed to escape from. If you ask me, it’s fate. They all belong here, the next generation as I just told you. It’s our time.”
The conversation drifted to plans for a weekend trip to National Harbor where Camy and her girlfriends would continue to extend their hospitality to Portia. They could shop, see a show and hit the casino. Of course drinking would be included, a fact that made Portia laugh because she wasn’t the best at holding her liquor. But it was nice to make plans like that. It was nice to consider herself a part of a group of friends. It was nice and it was scary as hell because once again, it all hinged on Ethan.
Ethan, who’d acted very strangely this morning and hadn’t contacted her all day.
