“Kase and I call that one Beau Bramford Pie,” she said. The air was heavy and humid, like they were inside a mason jar. A storm would be blowing over the hills soon, and Caro couldn’t wait for the relief. It hadn’t rained since Angie died, and Caro needed Goldie to be washed clean. She wondered if it was raining in New York where Kasey was. Caro worried about Kasey being lonely already and was sad for Silas being left behind. She wondered if he’d try to go find her or if he’d be too hurt.
“Wait. Do you really call it that?” Beau asked.
“We do. We were talking about you when I made it for the first time.”
“Well, thank you. I’ve never had a pie named after me before.”
“Aha, a first timer…so you’re not a virgin anymore,” she said. Hot damn, these things were pouring out of her mouth with the smoke.
“Look. You’ve done a good job of not getting me into trouble,” he said, tugging at his earlobe. It was his tell when he was feeling shy. Caro had noticed it a long time ago—first when a customer would catch him at the counter and say something kind, then later when he and Caroline started smoking together on their breaks. She noticed Beau was looking at her in a different way now too. Like she was a woman. She wasn’t in high school anymore. She was still seventeen, but she was almost eighteen and she wasn’t a baby.
Mateo was the only boy she’d ever had sex with and that was only a couple times. What she wanted was to have sex with Beau. Didn’t matter when. Now? On her eighteenth birthday? A year from now? Whatever! She’d been obsessed with the idea from the moment she laid eyes on him, and she thought about it every night when she was going to sleep. He was the kind of guy who made her feel more like a girl, and those were the kinds of guys she liked. She imagined the two of them having sex in his truck. Her, smacking her hand against the steamy glass like Kate Winslet did in Titanic. Could he guess what she was thinking about? Maybe if she blinked Morse code?
“Beau—” she said with a lot of breath, letting her eyelashes flutter.
“So, I have a surprise,” he said at the same time. “Since Myrtle’s in Alabama visiting her brother and can’t be here to do it herself, she told me to give you something. Hang on.” He got up and jogged inside the diner. Caro watched his cute little butt. The air smelled like rain.
When he came back, he put a brown envelope on the table between them.
“What is this?” Caro asked, touching it. She French inhaled again and put her cigarette out.
“You’ve gotta open it up to see. Don’t make me do all the work. I’m the one who went in there and got it for you,” he said.
Caro picked up the envelope and pulled out the slip of paper inside. It was a check from Myrtle’s Diner to her in the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars—the exact amount she needed for pastry school. She gasped and asked Beau what it was again.
“Someone who wants to stay a secret gave you the money. We were gonna give it to you as a graduation present the night of the ceremony, but I told Myrtle to wait a little bit after I saw you in the alley. Figured I’d let you sober up first. Then Kasey’s mom and everything…it’s been rough, I know…and I was gonna wait until later tonight when we were closing up, but I can tell you’ve been crying, and I know how much you miss your friend already, and I thought this would cheer you up, is all. You can go to pastry school in Adora Springs without worrying about the money, and you can focus on the next dessert you’re gonna name after me,” Beau said, smiling at her.
“Someone gave me this money? Just like that? Do you know who? Is it Louie and Pete? Please tell me who it is, Beau.” Caro kept staring at the check and blinking to make sure she was reading it right. That she wasn’t adding zeros that weren’t there. That she wasn’t hallucinating—it really was her first and last name on that line. Things had been so dark lately it felt crazy and stupid to let in all this light.
“Miss Myrtle’s sworn to secrecy. You wanted a fairy godmother, girl. Now you got you one,” he said.
“This can’t be real,” she said, shaking her head.
“Oh, it’s real, Muffin Mix. We can run right down to the bank together and put it in your account if you want.”
“Is that what I should do?” she asked. She’d never seen a check for this much money in her life. She should call her grandma and tell her before she did anything. She told Beau that.
“All right. Call Miss Mimi and then let’s go prove that the check is for real American dollars,” Beau said. “We’ll take my truck so we don’t get soaked.” He glanced up as a fat raindrop smacked the table. Beau looked at it, then at her, still smiling with his whole face like he was the one whose dream was coming true.
2019
29
Rosemarie
Rosemarie had never 100 percent believed that Kasey’s mom died in a boat accident, but Kasey’s story hadn’t budged over the last fifteen years, and none of the girls dared bring it up to her. So, when Kasey finally admitted that Roy had threatened to kill them if she ever told the truth, all the blurry puzzle pieces fell into place.
Kasey also told them Roy died almost exactly a year ago in Bluewood, a hundred miles away. Liver cancer. His mother found her online and contacted her, let Kasey know Roy left the farmhouse to her. His mother also told her that she had him buried in the small cemetery near the property where Angie was buried too, but Kasey had never been to either of their graves. Kasey knew Roy only left her the farmhouse as a fucked-up thank-you for never telling anyone the truth about what he’d done to her mom, and it was the one good and decent thing he’d done with his shitty life. It’d taken Taylor getting married for her to decide to come back and go step inside the house for the first time since that night her mom died.
They were still sitting in Ada’s minivan outside of the hospital. Kasey apologized for keeping everything secret for so long, but Rosemarie stopped her.
“You did what you had to do, Kasey. That was too much put on you. You’re an amazing, strong woman, and I will pinch you hard if you say sorry one more time,” Rosemarie said, pretending to squeeze Kasey’s arm.
“You’re an amazing, strong woman, and so are you, Ada. I literally can’t imagine my life without y’all in it. You’re my family, and I don’t have another one. Even when we’re apart, y’all stay right here,” Kasey said, touching her heart.
“Oh, I love you so much,” Ada said, taking Kasey’s face in her hands and kissing her mouth. “Kase, we all thought part of the reason why you left was because you were mad at us for not killing Roy that night. For not making it happen.”
“No! Why in the world would I be mad at you for something like that? We were teenagers! Teenage girls planning a murder!” Kasey said.
“Well, now let’s be grown-ass women planning a murder,” Rosemarie said.
“Wait. Seriously? Last time—” Ada started.
“Last time we didn’t know what we were doing, and this time we will,” Rosemarie said.
“And this time we would definitely all be tried as adults, and my boys would have to come visit me in prison,” Ada said.