judge. What, Mimi? Yes, of course it’s a sleepover.”
Was it? That was news to Angela. But she was glad her friends would be there for the night. Everywhere she looked inside her house, all she saw was Brice. She was desperate to make the beach house her own. Making new memories with her best friends would help. And if that meant she had to sacrifice sleep, so be it. Plus, she’d been thinking about getting rid of Brice’s stamp on her life. For so many years, she’d been his sidekick. It was time to begin forging her own way. As she stared out the kitchen’s French doors that led to the lanai, she began to get an inkling of one thing she could do. It was crazy. And she’d need her friends to help her. They made her strong. She needed some strength in her life right now. What she didn’t need was that horrible hammock Brice had insisted on putting on the lanai a few years back. In fact, she had a whole beach house full of Brice crap she no longer had use for.
“Let’s swim for a while, ladies. Then, we’ve got work to do.” Angela grinned and dove headfirst into the pool.
Angela’s friends dotted the front yard when she knocked on Jesse’s cottage door. She wouldn’t have bothered him at such an hour, but she noticed his lights were on. He’d been gone for the evening—apparently to his Mama Grace’s house for a fish fry, but his Jeep was in the drive.
Jesse opened the door and pulled a set of readers off his nose. “Angie? Is everything all right? Are you feeling okay?” Concern creased his finely lined features, more so when he cast a glance behind her and saw the collection of furniture on her front lawn and the parade of her friends carrying various pieces.
“I’m feeling great Uncle Jesse.” She made a display of raising her hands and spinning in a circle. “I’m feeling free.”
He scratched his chin. “I realized earlier you were having an all-night shindig with your friends, but I never imagined you ladies arranging the yard to look like a living room.”
She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “What, this? I’m done living my life by Brice’s rules.”
“Is that a fact?” The smallest of smiles grew on his face. He approved. That much was evident.
Angela’s cheeks were flushed, she could feel the warmth even in the cool night wind. “I’m sorry for bothering you.” She looked around him deeper into the cottage—he hadn’t invited her in. Of course, he still looked mystified by what she and her besties were doing.
There was an awkward silence as he watched Jenny and Mimi carry out another end table.
Angela pointed into his house to a reading nook where a thick law book sat with a yellow legal pad bookmarking the center. “A little light reading?” she asked.
Jesse nodded, but didn’t look where she had pointed. “I’ll admit it. I’m a diehard reader through and through. I could be entertained by a phonebook or the dictionary.”
“Oooooh, the dictionary,” she said with wide innocent eyes. “Wait until you get to the M’s. It’s all mystery, murder, and mayhem.”
Now it was Jesse’s turn to point. “Is that—are they carrying your couch?”
“Uh,” Angela uttered and turned just in time to watch Ginger, Jenny, and Mimi drop the couch in the yard. “They sure are.”
“Has the furniture done something to offend you? I’m sure we could talk this through.”
“That’s just it, Jesse. The furniture offends me.”
He nodded. Cleared his throat. Looked a bit like someone talking down a person in the midst of a nervous breakdown. “I heard a few screams and hollers followed by splashes when I got home from Mama Grace’s house earlier. Figured you all were spending the entire evening in the pool. I also figured your friends for hot tub sitters, not pool swimmers with their fancy hairdos and all. One ought not make assumptions,” he said.
“Very true, Uncle Jesse. Now, as to the reason for my late-night visit. I need the keys to the tool shed.”
“Good gracious, girl. You’re not after the chain saw, are you? I draw the line at mutilating perfectly good furniture.”
Angela laughed. “No. Nothing like that. I just have to take that horrible eyesore of a hammock apart to get it through the lanai screen door.”
“So, you really are tossing out all your furniture?” He slowly stepped onto his porch. In front of the couch, a trail of pieces decorated the lawn