the sessions had ended quickly, even though Wanda had begged him to continue.
“Did you schedule the appointments on your own?” she asked. “Or did somebody notice you’re not all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?”
“I did. Wasn’t getting very far very fast alone.”
She realized how earthshaking this was. Like any man, Ken hated to admit weakness. And asking for help? She wondered just how bad things had gotten. Now Ken was actually admitting it to her. For what purpose?
“Hang in with me,” he said, not looking at her.
She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to feel. A rush of sympathy? A wave of love? She only felt numb. Too much sympathy and too much love had hit a brick wall called Ken Gray, bounced back and spilled all over her.
“I’m not going anywhere. Not yet anyway.” It was the best she could do.
“I know it’s been hard.” He got up.
“Kenny, it’s been hell.”
“I wish it could have been different.” He whistled, and Chase stopped sniffing under the closet door and bounded around the bed to join him.
“The woman from last night. She’s okay?” Wanda asked.
“We talked him into letting her go. Then he put his gun down and came out, and we took him away. It felt good. Seeing something turn out right.”
Man and dog left together. Wanda wondered if something really had changed in their tacky little cottage by the gulf. She was afraid to hope.
According to the tourist literature, Cargo Beach, like Palmetto Grove, had once been a working port, with warehouses and commercial docks, run-down watering holes and cheap vacation rentals. Unfortunately for industry, the beach stretching away from the commercial center was white-sugar sand and the water was shallow enough for easy swimming. Cargo Beach had been a tourist mecca waiting to happen.
Now the town looked like somebody’s fantasy of a Caribbean vacation. Pastel shops lined brick streets, with palm trees in planters and sidewalk cafés blasting reggae music. Wanda and Janya wandered a couple of blocks, and as they started back toward Janya’s car, Wanda was pretty sure she had seen as many tacky Florida souvenirs here as she had in all of O-Town.
“You kind of feel like doing the limbo on every corner, don’t you?”
Janya looked behind her, as if she were worried they were being followed. “I was afraid if I forgot to smile, someone would come out of a shop and insist.”
“It’s like Disney World, only this is supposed to be real.”
“I think it must have been different when Alice came here with her husband.”
The mention of Alice made Wanda sad. Wanda and Janya had talked about Tracy’s discovery at Alice’s cottage. None of the women knew what to do. The story of the beautiful pineapple tablecloth was too sad to contemplate. Wanda couldn’t bear to think Alice was descending so quickly into dementia.
She tried to perk up. “Well, it’s dinnertime. We can drive over to the Sea Breeze, eat some food and see if anybody remembers Herb.”
“I like Palmetto Grove better,” Janya said.
“Do you think you’ll stay there?”
“The city is kind to business, and Rishi gets tax breaks. So yes, I think we will be there for some time. Do you think about going back to Miami?”
“My life is a work in progress.”
They got into the car and rolled down the windows so the heat could escape. They were three blocks down the road before they could stand to roll them up again and let air-conditioning fill the car.
Janya drove like a pro now, and Wanda found she could stop teaching. She wasn’t sure she wanted to maneuver through downtown Miami traffic with her friend, but here on the open road she could pay attention to the scenery.
As they drove, the landscape changed. “Cute” was replaced by “real.” Funky one-story motels with rusting jungle gyms and No Vacancy signs missing a letter or two. Convenience stores fronting postwar housing developments. Mom-and-pop dry cleaners next to chain video rentals.
She was watching for addresses now. “You can see why a funky old bar called the Sea Breeze wouldn’t fit so well where we were. Not unless they hired a marimba band, and served mojitos and pastel corn chips. But we’re in different territory here. And there it is, just up ahead.”
The Sea Breeze was almost two miles from the center of town. Wanda had seen a million places exactly like it. Pale green shingles covered cinder block, and neon signs in the window advertised Budweiser and Miller Lite. The roof of a concrete patio along one