“You know what? You’re in the South now, Lizzie, though some folks don’t think Florida qualifies. Anyway, you can call me Miss Wanda, if that’s okay with your mother.”
“Miss Wanda.” Lizzie giggled.
“The little girl down the road just calls me Wanda, but she knows me real well. Maybe you’ll know me that well pretty soon, too.”
“What’s her name?”
“Olivia. Olivia Symington.”
“I know her! She’s in my class. We’re friends!”
“Well, if that don’t beat all.”
Dana smiled her thanks. “She’ll really enjoy those. Store-bought’s nothing like the real thing.”
“I bake when I’m upset, and I bake when I’m happy. It’s good to have somebody to give my cookies, too, although mostly I bake pies.”
People were still straggling in, and the Stutzes were now at the front, conferring. Dana wished they would get moving, but they were the kind who seemed to feel larger when they made other people feel insignificant. She was afraid the meeting would drag on and drag on as they postured, and she hated to think how Lizzie might handle that. Lizzie took matters in her own hands, at least for the moment, and went to the restroom.
Wanda leaned closer and lowered her voice. “I talked to my landlady. There’s an empty house in our little development. More of a cottage, really. Concrete block, little rooms. Nothing fancy, that’s for sure, but the setting’s pretty, and Tracy—she’s the landlady—has had some work done on it, so it’s tight and sound enough. There’s just one bedroom, but there’s another room one of the renters used as an office. Used to be a laundry room. Might be it’s big enough for a single bed for Lizzie. A lot bigger and nicer than anything at the Driftwood Inn, anyway. Best of all, it’s not far from the water, and, well, there’s Olivia. Lizzie would already have a friend.”
Dana wondered if prayers really could be answered. When she’d asked Wanda about houses on Palmetto Grove Key, she had not expected a hit. And not right there. Not just down the road from Wanda herself. For a moment she pondered this news, afraid to speak. Then reality intruded.
“I…we don’t have much money. And we don’t travel with much in the way of furniture. I’m…I’m not sure we could swing this.”
“There’s furniture there. Nothing to crow about, but sturdy enough. And I can tell you the rent’s probably cheaper than your motel. You’re paying, what? Three, maybe four hundred dollars a week? Tracy’d charge you less, I’m certain. And the last long-term renter, old man name of Herb, did a little handyman stuff to offset some of his rent. Maybe you could, too.”
“I can paint, but I can’t repair much.” Dana glanced at Wanda. “I love to garden. I’m a whiz with a shovel. I could do some landscaping.”
“I doubt Tracy would care whether anything was growing or the place was all gravel and sand, but you could ask.”
“She really said we could look at it?”
“Better than that. One of our neighbors, Janya Kapur, is having the whole gang over to dinner tomorrow night, and you and Lizzie are invited.”
Lizzie arrived back at that moment and heard the invitation. “We’re going to somebody’s house for dinner?”
“One of my neighbors,” Wanda told her. “And your friend Olivia will be there, too.”
“Oh, wow! Can we go, Mommy?”
“But this Janya doesn’t know us,” Dana said. “I mean, it seems awfully presumptuous.”
“Not so much. See, we all got to be friends. I’m still not sure how it happened, but I think they’d all expect to meet you. Tracy and Janya and Alice—she’s Olivia’s grandmother. We’re what they call a community, and the last couple of renters didn’t fit in. Now that won’t stop Tracy, push comes to shove. She’s got to keep body and soul together, after all, and that rent helps. But she’s like the rest of us. Somebody who fits in would be best. I think you’d fit nicely.”
Dana heard the subtext. If she passed this test, she would be allowed to rent the house, but she would also be expected to be part of their little circle.
Dana made certain never to be part of anything. Yet how could she refuse? This gift was heaven-sent. And Lizzie? With a friend already in place? Her beloved daughter who had put up with so much, more than she would ever even remember?
“You can come see the house and figure out if you like it enough to rent it.