“Can I ask how you ended up living with them?”
Daisy smiled. “I bet you think it was when I came out, right? Nah, my parents didn’t care about that too much. I was just being an asshole, honestly. I was seventeen and I was kinda getting in trouble, and Mary called up my mom and just said she thought I needed a change of scenery. It was going to be a week or two, but I stayed six months. And she was right, because now my parents and I are fine. And it’s not like I won’t take care of them when they’re old, but that’s not why they had me. People who have babies don’t go, ‘Oh, welcome to the world, little one, I’m glad you’ll be able to clean out my garage when I’m dead.’ I don’t think most people have practical reasons for having kids, they just want them. Besides, who says kids are going to take care of you when you’re old anyway? Who says you won’t still be taking care of them?”
“I have to tell you, Daisy, you are a lot smarter about all this than I was when I was in my twenties.”
“It’s just different. Life is long, et cetera, amen. I go for balance. That’s why I drank some of Melody’s green juice this morning, but now that I’m here, you know what? I’m definitely getting the pancakes.”
Chapter Fourteen
Laurie and Nick waited in his car, down the street from Sea Spray. The air was hot and salty, and they rolled down the windows just so they could breathe. “What time is it?” she asked as she saw him look at his phone.
“It’s 6:18,” he said. “Two minutes.” He rubbed one hand on his thigh.
“You don’t have to come in with me, you know,” she said. “I can do this myself.”
“We decided,” he said simply.
When they were seventeen, Laurie had gotten her first speeding ticket while driving her mother’s Toyota Camry home from June’s house. Convinced her parents would ground her for life or simply gaze upon her with disappointment forever, she had agonized for fully two days before she could bring herself to tell them. When she did, Nick had sat in his car in front of the house while she did it, just so she would know he was there. She got a stern but easily survived talking-to and agreed to pay the ticket herself, and then she pulled the curtain back on her bedroom window and gave him a thumbs-up, and he drove off.
Laurie listened to the birds, the occasional car going by, and the sound of her heart in her ears. “I’m nervous,” she finally told him.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.
“Well,” she said, “I’m almost forty and I’ve never been part of anything scandalous, so I guess it’s about time.”
Nick looked at his phone again. “Okay,” he said. “6:20.” Just a moment later, his phone pinged, and so did Laurie’s. There was a text from Daisy addressed to the two of them and to June.
I’m ready, it said.
Farther down the street, June’s hand, easily recognizable from her bright red nail polish, emerged from the passenger-side window of a pure white Cadillac and gave a thumbs-up. The Cadillac pulled away from the curb, crept down the street, and turned in to the front lot at Sea Spray Antiques. When it was parked, the driver’s-side door opened, and a petite woman in her eighties emerged. She wore a bright blue dress and carried a purse that looked like a slice of watermelon. Her hair was an arresting shade of blue. She went up to the front door, then disappeared inside.
“Do you think this is going to work?” Laurie asked.
“Of course. You’ve heard how it goes when she starts asking questions.”
“I probably haven’t heard it as much as you have. She’s not my grandmother.”
He nodded. “Believe me, you have nothing to worry about. She’s been training for this her whole life. She’s going to eat lunch off this story for the entirety of her remaining days.”
It took about another two minutes to get the next text from Daisy. It was similar to the last one: He’s secured. Ready.
“Okay,” Laurie said. “Let’s go.” They got out of the car and shut the doors as quietly as they could. They walked a wide path around the back of the building until they found the parking lot where the rear door wasn’t quite closed, but was instead resting on a brick. Nick moved the brick Daisy had put there and opened the door, and they stepped into a small, dark passage with an employee bathroom and several stacks of dusty boxes. “Oh God,” Laurie whispered, grabbing Nick’s arm.