Tracy really couldn’t stop smiling. Life was filled with surprises, and some of them were good ones.
Somebody tapped on the door, and Wanda went over to let in Alice and Olivia. “Well, lookie who’s here!”
Alice held up a bottle of champagne. “A celebration.”
“We got pop in the back for you, Olivia,” Wanda said, taking and admiring the bottle.
“I wish Lizzie was here,” Olivia said, shrugging out of her backpack.
“Don’t we all.”
Tracy knew Olivia was saddest that Lizzie and Dana were gone. One minute she’d had a best friend, the next, Lizzie had disappeared without so much as a real goodbye. But Olivia had too many other friends to be lonely for long. At the end of youth camp she had been voted Most Congenial Camper. Olivia, like Lizzie, was a survivor.
“I’ll just pop the cork,” Wanda said, taking the champagne into the kitchen.
“Quick,” Tracy said in a loud whisper to Olivia. “You have the present?”
Olivia’s eyes were shining. She unzipped her backpack and pulled out a rectangular box wrapped in gold foil, with a copper-colored ribbon and bow.
“Ooh, pretty,” Tracy whispered. “Did you do this?”
Olivia nodded. “Janya helped.”
“You two are an artistic team.”
Olivia’s gaze darted to Janya. “She wasn’t feeling very good.”
Tracy turned hopefully to her friend. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Not what you are thinking.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need. We are young, and the doctor is optimistic. In the meantime, I am enjoying my time alone with Rishi, who comes home early every night.”
Wanda came out of the kitchen with the champagne and exclaimed at the gift. “Now, that’s something special, I bet.”
Alice held it out. “Go ahead and open it.”
Wanda handed Tracy the champagne. “I don’t have any fancy glasses here, but water tumblers will do.”
Olivia scurried behind the counter to get some, and Tracy poured as Wanda picked endlessly at the ribbon.
“For Pete’s sake, can’t you just slide it off?” Tracy asked.
“I don’t see any Pete in these parts. Not anymore.”
“I think it’s weird he left when Lizzie and Dana did,” Olivia said.
“An odd coincidence,” Tracy agreed.
Wanda finally managed to get the ribbon undone. She tore off the paper and lifted the top from the box. Inside was a pie server with an ornate Waterford crystal handle. Wanda’s Wonderful Pies was engraved on the blade in flowing script.
Wanda clutched it to her chest. “It’s fabulous. Like something out of Graceland.”
“Ireland,” Tracy said. “Close enough.”
“It’s too pretty to get chipped serving up pie all day.”
“Maybe here, but not at home when we come for dinner.”
Everybody hugged her in turn, and afterward Tracy passed around the champagne.
“Just one more thing,” Wanda said, “before we toast. I got something in the mail today that we can toast, too.”
She put her glass down, but Tracy noticed she didn’t relinquish the pie server. She went behind the counter and came back waving a postcard in the air.
“Who is it from?” Janya asked.
“First, where. From Seattle. This funny-looking thing on the front? That’s the Space Needle.”
“And—it—says!” Tracy demanded.
“Not a lot, as a matter of fact,” Wanda said. “But just enough. I’ll read it to you.” Wanda made a point of pulling her glasses lower on her nose and moving the postcard exactly the right distance away. Then she cleared her throat.
“We’re having fun. Wish you were here.”
Wanda looked up from the card. “Pete.”
A moment of silence followed as everybody processed that. Then Tracy lifted her glass. “To Wanda,” she said. “And many more pies in the future.”
“And to Pete, Dana and Lizzie,” Wanda added. “May they always be happy.”
Tracy silently added, “And safe.”
All the women lifted their glasses, even Olivia.
“So you think they left together? Do you think they’ll come back?” the girl asked after everybody had taken a sip. “If Dana and Lizzie are with Pete, maybe they’ll all come back and live here again.”
Tracy knew honesty was best. “I don’t think so, honey, but maybe someday Lizzie will write you.”
Wanda finally relinquished her new gift and set it carefully back in the box. “You know, that does bring up a good point, Ms. Deloche.”
“And that is?”
Wanda cocked a brow in question. “You got an empty house now. Just who are you going to rent to next?”
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