The All You Can Dream Buffet (37 page)

“Me, too. You have no idea.” He stroked her hair. “We’ll take it one day at a time. You have things to work out. So do I.”

Ginny nodded silently, willing time to stop so that she could stay here in this moment with Jack for a couple of thousand years.

But all too soon he had to step around Willow and find his clothes. Ginny watched him dress—underwear, then jeans, shirt, and socks. He sat down on the banquette to put on his shoes, the tie strung around his neck, and she wondered sharply, fiercely, if she would ever see him again. “Whatever happens, Jack, I want you to know that this mattered to me, okay? A lot.”

He finished putting on his second boot and walked over to her. “Whatever happens,” he said, bending down to kiss her, “I love you, Ginny Smith. You woke up my world.”

She smiled. “Be careful.”

“I will.”

She forced herself to stay where she was, calling Willow to keep her company in the cold and empty bed. Every cell in her body buzzed with satiety, as if he’d poured some honeyed elixir into her body. She laughed at the thought, covering her mouth and pressing a hand between her legs. She supposed he had.

She supposed he had.

Exhausted, she fell asleep like a child in an enchanted forest, the last thing in her ears the fading sound of his big truck driving away down the road.

Somewhere just before dawn, Lavender awakened suddenly and completely. She’d fallen asleep fully clothed, too tired to even slip out of her shoes.

Now she got up, feeling strangely alert and bright, and peered out the window to see that there were still people in the garden, talking and laughing beneath the big willow. From here she couldn’t make out who they were, but there was music playing, one of her old favorites, “Wang-Wang Blues.” She and Ginger had learned to swing dance at some point and loved every chance they got to show off their skills.

Intrigued and feeling so refreshed, she padded down the hall and through the kitchen. Things were piled helter-skelter, the food put away but dishes still waiting for morning. She’d insisted. Plenty of time for all that tomorrow.

The music drew her, and she wandered outside. A pack of dogs chased one another around the perimeter, dashing away from people who tried to catch them. One of them raced toward her and she said with glee, “Rome!” but he raced too fast to be sure he really was the dog of her heart.

A little dizzy, she paused, feeling disoriented. Was she dreaming? A woman approached her, a woman with long red hair and smiling eyes. “Come sit down,” Ginger said. “You look pale.”

“I’m fine,” Lavender insisted. “Better than I’ve been in days.”

“Still,” Ginger said. “Let’s sit.”

And now that she’d agreed, Lavender realized how out of breath she was, how very uncomfortable she felt, that wretched indigestion returning to ruin what was such a very nice dream.

The dog came padding back, just as Rome always had, bringing her a slobbery ball. “It
is
you,” she said, and gasped as a roaring train pushed upward through her chest.

“It will only last a moment,” Ginger said, holding her hand.

And it was a moment, a long moment, while Lavender traveled through the length and breadth of her life, seeing herself at four and at nine and twenty-two. She saw her strong, middle-aged self striding through the world, saw her heartsick self when her nephew died and she came back to the farm. She saw it all, outlined with love, every precious minute of it, and then the pain left her.

“There now,” said Ginger. “We’ve been waiting.”

Jubilant dogs were suddenly flipping and leaping, and Rome licked her fingers. Lavender scrubbed his side and let him kiss her face, and she walked forward, with Ginger and her dogs. She spied her mother, and her friend Reine, picking flowers, and, finally, there was her nephew Glen, who’d died too young, too soon, and broken all of their hearts. He looked well, hale and hearty.

“Well done,” he said, and hugged her.

Ginny awakened to the sound of her phone buzzing angrily in a circle. She’d been asleep for only an hour or so, and she wondered who was calling so early. Naked, and remembering happily why, she padded over to grab it off the table where she’d left it last night. The number was a Kansas one she didn’t recognize, but she decided she ought to take it anyway. Bracing herself for an irritable Matthew, she punched the button. “Hello?”

“Thank God,” said her mother. “Do you ever answer your phone?”

“We were celebrating my friend’s birthday last night, Mom.” She rubbed her face. “I don’t carry my phone all the time. What’s up?”

“Take a deep breath, honey, because I have bad news.”

A pang stabbed her right through the heart. “What?”

“Well, he’s alive, but your husband was in a car accident. He’s in the hospital.”

“What?” Grabbing the blanket off the bed against the chill, she wrapped herself up. “When? What happened? How badly is he hurt?”

“Last night,” Ula said. “He wrapped his car around a telephone pole and broke his legs. He has a concussion, too, but they say it isn’t serious. The legs will take a while to heal. You need to get home right away.”

A sense of resistance—actually a sort of terror—enveloped
her. If she went back, would she be snared? “I don’t—I drove here, Mom. It will take days.”

“You’re his
wife,
Ginny Smith. You have an
obligation.
Use some of that cash of yours to buy a plane ticket and get yourself back here today.”

“What about Willow?” The panic, the resistance, swelled until she thought she would choke. “My Jeep and my trailer? I can’t just leave them.”

“Your friends will look after things for you, won’t they? You can fly back in a month or two if you have to, or hire somebody to drive it back.”

No, no, no, no, no.
“Mom, we’re getting divorced. I can’t do this.”

“Ginny May Smith, if you don’t come back here, I swear by all that is holy that I will come out there and drag you home by your hair. You have a responsibility.”

And for no reason she could name, Ginny knew she would have to go, that somehow this was her punishment for cheating. Her lungs squashed down until she nearly fainted from lack of oxygen. “Fine. I’ll call you with the details.”

Willow had awakened and now came over to sit in front of her, focusing kindly eyes on Ginny. She hung up, with tears streaming down her face, and opened her laptop.

She had never flown in her life, but she had often arranged for Christie to come home from college. She discovered that she could fly to Wichita at two o’clock. With a sinking heart, she paid for the ticket and packed up some of her things.

Then Ginny got down on her hands and knees with her dog and hugged her tight, crying as if she were going to jail for years and years.

She showered and dressed, then headed over to the cottage to make a pot of coffee and get some breakfast going for everyone.
Willow trotted along beside her, blissfully unaware that she was about to be left behind. Fresh tears ran down Ginny’s cheeks at the thought.

So close, she thought. She’d been so close!

In the kitchen, she measured coffee and poured water into the coffeemaker, eyes still leaking tears. Her body reminded her of the way she’d spent the night, and she sat down at the kitchen table to write a note to everyone. She needed to make sure someone could look after Willow until she got back. She would drive the Jeep to Portland, she supposed, and leave it in the airport parking lot.

She felt exhausted, the one hour of sleep not nearly enough.

She called Matthew’s phone, but there was no answer, as she had supposed would be the case. If he’d been in an accident, the phone was probably still in the car. He always plugged it into the cigarette lighter, worried about running out of power. She hung up and called her daughter.

Christie answered on the second ring. “Mom! I’ve been worried that you didn’t pick up! Did you get my messages?”

Ginny shook her head. “I haven’t checked them yet, but I got the news about your dad. Are you going home?”

“I can’t, Mom, but please keep me posted. Grandma made it sound pretty bad last night. He was in the car for two hours before anyone found him.”

“I didn’t hear that part. Where the heck was he?”

“Out on County Line Road.”

“I’m flying back this afternoon,” Ginny said, to reassure her daughter that her father would be all right. Her voice came out airless, weary. “I’ll let you know.”

“You sound depressed.”

“It’s complicated,” she said, unwilling to burden her daughter. “I’ll call you, okay?”

“Okay. Love you. Safe travels.”

As the coffee brewed, Ginny walked to Ruby’s camper and knocked but got no answer. Next she went to Valerie’s trailer and knocked there. Val answered with crazy hair and wearing a bathrobe. “What’s up, Ginny?”

“I have to go. My husband was in an accident, and I have to fly home. I’m leaving my trailer and Willow, but I need to find Ruby before I leave.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Val came down the steps and hugged Ginny tightly. “I wish you didn’t have to go. Damn it.”

Ginny hugged her hard, trying to keep her tears contained. “I’ll call you, okay?”

“You’re coming back, right?”

“I’m leaving my dog. I have to come back.”

“Good move,” Val whispered. “Don’t let them get to you. Just be you.”

“I will. Take care.”

“Yeah.” Val stepped back and wiped tears off her own cheeks with long dark fingers. “Sorry, but I’m going to miss you.”

Ginny kept her eyes wide. “Don’t get me going again.”

“Check Noah’s cottage for Ruby. She was very chummy with him last night.”

At this, Ginny grinned. “Well, good for them. Both of them.”

“And you,” Val said, squeezing her hand.

Ginny shook her head. “I can’t talk about that right now.”

“All right. Go, do what you need to do, and get back here.”

But when Ginny got back to the kitchen, Ruby was there, eating peanut butter toast. “Did you spend the night with Noah?” Ginny whispered. “I went to your place and—”

“Yes,” Ruby said, “but not like that. I fell asleep when we were dancing and he carried me down to the cottage. Sweet, right?”
She ate her toast. “Did you also see that
Liam
was here last night? He flew from New York to talk about the baby!”

“No way!” Ginny poured the coffee she was desperate for and stirred in two heaping spoonfuls of sugar. “What did you say?”

“I told him to come back today. He said he couldn’t, so I guess that’s that.” She eyed her toast. “But I think I might be over him.”

Ginny sipped her coffee—super hot, super strong, super sweet—
and a fleeting memory of Jack ran over her eyelids, down her neck. She swallowed the memory away. “Really.”

“I kept hoping something would bring us back together, you know, but when I saw him last night, I felt nothing. Like,
nothing.
” Ruby shook her head. “It was weird.”

“That’s good, though, right?”

“It’s great!” She smiled. “And what about you and Jack! I saw you take him back to your Airstream, you wicked woman.”

“I can’t talk about that right now,” Ginny said for the second time in ten minutes, and hot tears streamed down her face, copious and unbidden. “I have to go home.”

Ruby leapt up. “Oh, no! Was he mean to you? Did you not get along? What happened?” She put an arm around Ginny. “Tell me.”

Ginny dropped her face into her free hand, overcome. “It’s not Jack,” she said. “It’s Matthew. He got in an accident and I have to go home. He’s in the hospital with broken legs.” Grief, as enormous as the ocean, poured salt through her. “I hate it.”

“You don’t have to go, Ginny. You can stay. Make a stand.”

She shook her head, still crying, the tears dripping through her fingers to the floor. “I have to.” She wiped a sleeve over her face. “Will you take care of Willow for me? I’ll try to get back in a couple of days.”

“Of course. Take as much time as you need. Maybe I can sleep in your trailer, too. Mine’s kinda cramped, actually. Would you mind if Ninja Girl comes, too?”

“Not at all.”

“All right, so what can we do to get you ready? Want me to drive you to the airport?”

“Would you?”

“Absolutely. Let me grab Noah, too. He knows where things are. And then you don’t have to pay all that parking for the Jeep.”

Ruby was the one who finally found Lavender, sitting beneath the willow tree in the grass. When they’d returned from dropping Ginny at the airport and Lavender still hadn’t come out for breakfast, Ruby went to check on her. The bed was empty.

“She’s not there,” Ruby said, coming back to the kitchen. “Maybe she’s walking the perimeter.”

“I’ve been in the kitchen since you guys left,” Valerie said, shaking her head. “She would have had to fly.”

“Where are the dogs?” Noah asked. “They’re usually wherever she is.”

“I haven’t seen anybody but Willow this morning.”

Noah looked pale. “Let’s go look around.”

He headed for the meadery and the lavender fields, while Ruby checked the shop and the vegetable garden, and it was only as she was wandering the back way up the hill that she spied Lavender, still dressed in her silvery dress from last night, leaning against the willow tree, looking toward the valley. The dogs were in a half circle to her left side, some sleeping. One leaned on her leg.

Ruby said, “Oh, thank goodness. We were so—”

And then she realized that Lavender was unmoving, too still to be sleeping. She knelt beside the old woman and touched her cheek. It was cold. “Oh, Lavender, I’ll miss you.”

But it was a good death. The best.

She went to find Noah, so they could decide what to do.

Ginny was afraid she would be nervous, flying, but she fell asleep within five minutes of takeoff on the first plane and slept until they touched down in Dallas. But changing planes freaked her out, especially when she discovered that the airport was gigantic and filled with so many people. She’d never been anywhere with such crowds in her life, and there were so many different
kinds
of people, in so many different kinds of clothes, speaking more languages than she could begin to name.