Pacey hummed out of the room and down the hallway to his brothers’ bedrooms.
“Love you, baby,” Ada said as she watched him disappear.
“Boys, we’ll head to Gram and Pop-Pop’s in twenty minutes,” Grayson said with a raised voice, leaning out of the doorframe. A scatter of small okays lifted through the air. Grayson came back into the room and sat next to Ada on the bed.
“I’m so sorry I’m hungover. I have a lot of stuff to get done today,” Ada said to her husband. A bad mood would creep up like an itch if she strayed from her schedule.
“You’re fine, just a lightweight. Ease up on yourself.” Grayson was naturally like this—laid-back, flexible—the exact opposite of who Ada was. It was why they worked; when she spun, he was still.
He was wearing a short-sleeved button-down with anchors on it, a pair of peanut-butter khaki shorts, and black flip-flops. He had plans to take the boys to his parents’ to grill out and swim for the day. A few of his friends were bringing their kids too. Ada appreciated how much Grayson took the boys and let her have time to herself. She had girlfriends whose husbands had never changed a diaper or given their children a bath. Grayson had been hands-on with their boys since day one, and while Ada didn’t set the bar so low for men that she thought the smallest things deserved praise, she was exceedingly thankful for how good of a husband and father he was so she could keep her worries to everything else in life.
“Will you be gone most of the day? I will,” Ada said. She was up now, walking to the bathroom. She heard Grayson get up from the bed and follow her. She sat on the toilet and looked at him leaning against the counter.
“Probably. We’ll connect later. It’s fine.”
“Did you see how Kasey and Silas were last night? Roses and Caro were excited about it. I don’t know how to feel.”
Ada stood and washed her hands, continuing the conversation with Grayson in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. Four little feet pattered in the hallway—two of the boys were running and laughing. Usually, she’d remind them to be careful if they were getting too rowdy, but today she pretended like it wasn’t happening.
“It’s been a long time for them. Maybe too long. I don’t know what I think, since I haven’t thought about it much, honestly,” Grayson said.
“What happened with him and that woman who worked at the bowling alley or the bookstore? Was it the bookstore? Did she work at both?”
Grayson shrugged.
“Y’all don’t talk about this stuff?” Ada said with a mouth full of toothpaste.
“I mean, sometimes we do. Not all of it, though. You know I love to mind my business,” he said.
“But…he’s your brother,” Ada said. She spit and returned the toothbrush to its cup next to his.
It drove her crazy thinking there could be something potentially important about Silas’s life going on and Grayson wouldn’t know because he minded his business. It was his brother! Whether they wanted it or not, they had some shared business!
“Kasey’s engaged, though. I mean, right?” Grayson asked. He scratched at his beard, crossed his arms. He was watching Ada suds up her face with her expensive LunaCrush cleanser. She splashed it off and her sinuses ached. Grayson handed her a soft bamboo washcloth.
“Well, yeah, right. But! She and Silas have fifteen years of unfinished business, and it’s so weird she’s finally back here after all this time anyway. I don’t feel like I know anything about what’s going on.” Ada dried her face and leaned against the counter too, patting rose toner on her forehead and cheeks. Swiping it across her neck, tapping it down her nose. She’d exfoliate her face in the shower, finish her routine. She was in her lacy pink bra and panties, and although the AC was on full blast, she could tell how hot it was outside already. The morning sun slanted through the window and onto the tiled floor, warming her bare feet.
“Are you going to ask her about it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I should mind my business,” she said to him quickly. She kissed him and left the bathroom.
“Maybe,” he said, turning off the light and following her.
She slipped her arms into the coolness of her robe and tied it closed, stepped into the hallway on the hunt for their boys so she could properly tell them good morning and goodbye before getting in the shower.
*
In her orange-slice sundress, Ada stopped by a crowded Plum Bakery for a tray of strawberry-lemonade thumbprint cookies, and by a packed Plum Eats for eggs, plain pancakes, and toppings to put together the pancake board. Then she drove to Caroline’s mansion off Main. It was down a small side street not far from the pink house Ada’s parents still lived in.
Mansion is what she, Rosemarie, and Kasey called it sometimes, but not to Caro’s face. Ada had grown up in a huge house, and the house she and Grayson lived in now was about the same size as Caro and Trey’s, but somehow it was different. Ada felt bitchy and judgmental for thinking it, but it was true. The Foxberry family had old money like the Plums, but the Plums weren’t flashy or gaudy. The Foxberrys behaved like new money, and of course, since Caro was new money, it made sense that some of what she did was over-the-top. It wasn’t the fountain out front or the fairy garden statues by the pool or Caro’s brand-new white SUV with tan interior. It wasn’t when Caro drove Trey’s sports car around town either. It was just a feeling.
That feeling returned in full force when Caro opened the front door for her.
Now Ada was inside the mansion scooping the scrambled eggs into a crystal bowl. Caro stepped next to her holding a black velvet box and opened it, revealing the glossy luster and glow of a pearl necklace. Ada took it.
“I was talking about how Tom gave Daisy a three-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar pearl necklace in The Great Gatsby, and I guess Trey got jealous,” Caroline said, smiling. Ada watched her and waited for the smile to reach her eyes. When it did, Ada smiled back at her. “I mean, obviously he didn’t spend that much, but I’ve never had real pearls. I was telling Kasey that yesterday because she had her pearls on.”
“It’s beautiful, Caro. So beautiful. What are you going to wear it with first?” Ada asked with wide eyes. She tilted her head and looked at the necklace one more time before handing it back to her. Caro put the box on the kitchen table and pulled the cookies from the bag.
“Probably jeans. Girl, you know me,” Caro said. She giggled and shook her head. “It embarrasses me when he does stuff like this, but obviously I love it. He says I’m two-faced about it, but that’s a little harsh. I mean, I love nice things and like being pampered, but I grew up in a trailer with my grandmother and, like, look at this.” She motioned at the sea-monster-sized chandelier hanging above them, the humid bottle of Veuve Clicquot on the counter.
“Right. I mean, I get it. Being spoiled suits you—it does. You deserve it,” Ada said truthfully. Caroline was a natural sweetheart, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to change that. Her mom was trash, her daddy was trash, but her grandma was an angel, and Caro got an angel heart from her.
“I’m sure he felt like an asshole for being so mean to me yesterday…and the day before yesterday.” Caro said the last part under her breath, taking her time transferring the cookies to the tray. “So pretty. Who made these?” she asked, perking up again.