The way she said my name, so gentle and a little sad, reminded me of the last time we’d spoken on our own. She’d called me after my miscarriage in January. While no one else had known what to say to me, she’d told me the one thing I needed to hear: She understood. Turned out she’d lost a baby too, before Rose’s niece was born.
“I never thanked you,” I said softly.
Her eyes lifted. “What on earth for?”
“For bein’ there for me after I lost my babies. We weren’t really friends, yet you were the one person who actually made me feel like I’d survive it.”
She grabbed my hand and squeezed. “It’s a sisterhood, albeit a sad one. I knew how much you wanted those babies.”
My miscarriage hadn’t just sent me reeling; it had also led to the end of my marriage. The doctor had removed one of my fallopian tubes with the ectopic pregnancy and said the other tube was hopelessly scarred from my previous multiple STIs. I was lucky to have gotten pregnant in the first place, and it was unlikely to happen again. I’d hidden most of my past from Ronnie, and it turned out he couldn’t handle being married to a slut, especially one who couldn’t give him babies. He’d run off a week later and I hadn’t heard from him since. Now I just wanted to serve him divorce papers and be done with the man, but no one knew how to find him.
“You know there was a reason we weren’t friends before,” she said. “I was jealous of you.”
“Jealous of me?”
“You replaced me in Rose’s heart.”
My eyes flew wide. “No, Violet! I—”
She squeezed my hand tighter. “Stop. I missed my sister, but it was my own stubborn fault. I chased her away. You’re a good friend to her, Neely Kate.” A tear fell down her cheek. “I asked you to meet me here because I need you to make me a promise.”
I nodded, fighting my own tears. “Of course.”
“You don’t even know what it is yet.” She grinned even as more tears fell. “If I’d known this dyin’ thing could get people to agree to just about anything, I would have started tellin’ people I was dyin’ years ago.”
I started to gasp, then laughed instead. Turned out honesty was a new trait Violet was trying on for size now that she was dying. “I think I like you, Violet Beauregard.”
“I like you too, Neely Kate Rivers.” She placed her palm against mine and laced our fingers together. “Which is why I want you to promise me you’ll always be there for my sister.”
“I love Rose. Of course I will.”
She shook her head, tears streaming now. She squeezed my hand tighter. “No. I mean till death do you part. You’ve been more of a sister to her than I’ve been lately. You two have a bond that she and I never had. She’s gonna need you more than ever, Neely Kate.” Her voice broke. “She’s been through so much in her life. So. Much. The things Momma did to her …” She started crying harder. “I can’t stand the fact that I’m leaving her alone.”
I pulled her head to my shoulder and wrapped an arm around her back, feeling every rib through her thin shirt. “You put that worry to rest, do you hear me?” I whispered fiercely. “She’s not alone. I won’t let that happen and neither will Maeve, or Joe, or Jonah, or a whole host of other people. We may not be her blood kin, but we love her just the same.” I grabbed her face between my hands and stared into her eyes. “You hear me? She’ll never be alone.”
“I’ve asked her to do something hard after I die. I need you to stand with her then.”
My heart skipped a beat. “What have you asked her to do?”
“She doesn’t know what it is yet. It’s in my will.”
“What do you want her to do, Vi?” I pressed.
She shook her head. “No. All in good time.” She released my hand and leaned back in her chair, looking exhausted. “I know she’s seein’ someone. Do you know who it is?”
I hesitated, caught off guard. “Why do you think she’s seein’ someone?”
She gave me a look that suggested I was a fool. “Because she has that glow a woman gets when she’s being adored by a man and is gettin’ lots of sex. Do you know who it is?”
“I… uh…”
She waved a hand. “Never mind. You don’t need to tell me. I’ll find out soon enough on my own. I plan on peerin’ over the edge of heaven and spyin’ on all y’all. I’ll find out who it is then.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
“I’d like to get to know you better before I die,” Violet said, turning serious. “I know it’s a morbid way of puttin’ it, but it’s true. I feel like I wasted time I could have spent bein’ your friend too. But maybe you’d rather not make the effort seein’ as how I don’t have much time left.”
If I hadn’t known she only had months to live, I would have been warier. Violet was a manipulator in her own right. But what purpose would it serve now? Call me a fool, but I believed that she was trying to make amends. “Don’t go bein’ all pouty,” I said with a grin. “Tryin’ to guilt me into bein’ your friend.”
She grinned back. “Is it workin’?”
“You had me at dyin’, Vi,” I said, my breath hitching. “Of course I’ll be your friend.”
“Help me up. I want to show you something.”
I stood and offered her a hand. “What is it?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“Now you sound like my granny.”
Violet took my hand and I pulled her to her feet, surprised she weighed next to nothing. “Hopefully I don’t look like your granny.”
“No. She has more hair than you do.”
Violet burst into laughter and then started coughing.
Maeve had stuck close to the register after her customer left, giving Violet and me space to talk, but she made a move toward us now with worry in her eyes.
Violet held her hand up and forced out words through her coughing fit. “I’m fine.”
Maeve stayed in place, but her worried look stuck around too.
“I’m fine. I’m not dyin’ yet,” Violet said, then took a deep breath without coughing. “I’m takin’ Neely Kate out back.”
“Okay,” Maeve said, though she didn’t look like she thought it was a good idea.
Violet walked without assistance, which was a one hundred percent improvement over her condition a couple of weeks ago. Rose had practically had to carry her around. We went out the back door and she led me into the greenhouse where all the shade loving plants were kept.
“Do you know what these are?” she asked, pointing to a flowering plant.
“Impatiens,” I said in confusion. From her dramatic declaration, I’d figured she wanted to show me something important, not a bunch of plants.
“That’s right. Can you plant them in the sun?”
“No,” I said slowly, drawing out the word, “they like shade.”
“They do like shade, but you actually can plant them in the sun if you want to.”
“Vi… maybe we should go inside.”
“Don’t be a whiner, Neely Kate, and listen to what I’m teachin’ you. If you’re gonna work with Rose, you need to know this. I won’t be here, so you need to take my place and help her. Impatiens can go in the sun, but you need to work your way up to it. If you just plop ’em in the sun, they’ll dry up, but if you introduce it to them slowly and give them a lot of water, they’ll acclimate. What else can you tell me about impatiens?” she asked. “Do you need to deadhead them?”
I blinked. “No…?”
“That’s right. They clean themselves up quite nicely, something I hope Mikey learns to do sooner than later,” she said about her two-year-old son with a grin. “Now, what else do you know about them?”
“They like lots of water.”
She grinned. “That’s right, but if they wilt, they tend to bounce right back once they’ve had a good drink. One more thing—some of the older women like to call them touch-me-nots. If you don’t know what they’re talkin’ about, they’ll turn right around and walk out the door. How about over there?” She pointed to some begonias. “What are those?”
She spent the next half hour grilling me over flowering plants, peppering in questions about my personal life.
“How are things goin’ with Joe? I hear he’s datin’ the cupcake shop owner.”
“Dena,” I said, trying to keep the hostility out of my voice. “I don’t want to talk about her.”
“Is Joe still keepin’ you a secret from the world?”
I gaped at her. “Did Rose tell you that?”
“No, Joe did just the other day.” She gave me an ornery grin.