Dance Away with Me - Susan Elizabeth Phillips Page 0,46
relaxed Tess, but the mood at the Broken Chimney seemed to have changed. Maybe it was only in her imagination, but customers who had once taken time to chat were now in a rush. It took a visit from Courtney Hoover for her to understand.
The would-be Instagram queen appeared at the counter, her face freshly polished with her trademark opalescent glimmer powder; eye makeup applied in a kaleidoscope of vanilla, rose, and plum anchored with a perfect smoky liner. “I heard you were back.”
“We’re out of mocha,” Tess lied. “Cocoa bean shortage in Brazil.”
“Bummer.” She curled her fingers around her ever-present cell phone displaying maroon hard nails with tiny crystals embedded in the tips. “I’ll just have a doughnut then. I haven’t posted a food shot in a while.”
Tess picked up the tongs. Phish had added a new doughnut choice in the almost three weeks Tess had been gone, and Courtney pointed toward the chocolate-frosted Long Johns. “Let me have one of those.”
Tess wondered if Ian knew about the Broken Chimney’s Long Johns. “How’s your Instagram feed going?” she said, to deflect her thoughts.
“I’ve been posting more videos. Video’s the way to go.” She tapped the top of the display case. “Not that one. The one on the left has a shinier glaze.” As Tess put the more photogenic Long John doughnut on a plate, Courtney dropped her voice and leaned forward. “You should know, Tess, that everybody’s talking about you.”
“Oh?”
“I’m just being honest.”
During the hours Tess had spent after Trav’s death numbing herself with reality TV, she’d learned one thing. Whenever someone said they were “just being honest,” they really meant they intended to be cruel.
Courtney pulled out her wallet. “A lot of people think what happened to Ian North’s wife is suspicious.”
Tess’s breath hung in her chest. She should have been prepared for this. “Bianca wasn’t his wife,” she said carefully. “She was his friend. And an amniotic fluid embolism is a lot of things, but it’s not suspicious.”
In the background, The Dead began singing “Brokedown Palace.” Courtney’s nails looked like crampon tips as she spread her hand on the countertops. “I’m only being honest, Tess. As soon as she dies, you and Ian North move in together. People notice something like that.”
Tess slapped Courtney’s five-dollar bill in the cash drawer and counted out her change. “I’m taking care of the baby. That’s all.”
“Right. That’s why you’re here now.” Courtney deposited her cash in her wallet, shouldered her purse, and slithered off to the front window with her doughnut, where she posed, neck tilted, hair extensions snaking down her back, Long John dangling above her parted lips. #DoughnutBlowJob.
Tess plunged a pair of dirty mugs into the sink, berating herself for getting sucked into Courtney’s venom. Phish must have known a lot of people in town had turned against her, but he’d been afraid she’d quit if she found out ahead of time.
Her phone pinged. She gazed at the screen. Wren lay curled adorably in her nest on Heather’s yoga mat, a tiny red bindi painted between her eyebrows. Don’t worry. The text read. Organic ketchup.
Tess was falling in love with Heather. At the same time, her arms felt empty. She couldn’t wait to throw off her apron, get away from the condemning stares, and reclaim her baby bird.
A few of the after-school crowd tumbled through the door. Unlike the adults, they were happy to see her. Ava Winchester was the last to arrive. “Tess! You’re back!” She grabbed a girl Tess hadn’t yet met and pulled her toward the counter. “Tess, this is Gabi.” Gabi had a chubby round face, curly red hair, and green, assessing eyes. Leaning closer to the counter, Ava lowered her voice. “Gabi’s on the spectrum.”
“You didn’t have to tell her that,” Gabi protested.
“How else is she going to help you if she doesn’t know all the facts?” the ever-practical Ava said. One day, Tess decided, Ava would make a kick-ass social worker. If she didn’t get pregnant first.
“Gabi needs to talk to you about you-know-what.”
Tess didn’t ask what Ava wanted her to talk to Gabi about. She already knew. “I’ll be happy to talk to you, Gabi. But only if you want to.”
“She does.”
“Don’t push her, Ava.”
“You want to talk to her, Gabi,” Ava said earnestly. “Really. Tess is cool.”
Tess didn’t feel cool. She felt as if she were in over her head.
Tess distracted Ava from the uncomfortable Gabi by asking her what she would name her future children, if she had any.