Secrets in Summer(73)

Susan and Willow came down through the arbor and across her yard, both of them whispering and giggling.

“Hi, Darcy!” Willow cried, flinging her arms around Darcy and hugging her.

“What’s going on?” Darcy asked.

Willow pulled Darcy by the hand to the patio. “Sit down. We have something to tell you.” She glanced at Susan. “You first.”

Illuminated by the gentle lights, Susan’s face was soft, glowing. “I have a job in the yarn shop!”

Unable to wait for Darcy’s response, Willow blurted, “And I’m babysitting her boys!”

“Wow!” Darcy had scarcely spoken when her cellphone buzzed again. Looking down, she saw it was Mimi’s number.

“What are you all doing down there?” Mimi asked, without her usual polite greeting preamble.

“Come join us,” Darcy replied. To Willow and Susan, she said, “Wait. Mimi’s coming.”

Willow jumped up. “I’ll go help her.”

“Where are your boys?” Darcy asked Susan.

“Asleep. I’ve enrolled them in a summer day camp. They love it, and they’re put in different sections, separated for the day, which is good for them. They fall asleep the moment their heads hit their pillows. I wish I’d thought of this earlier in the summer.”

“Hello!” Mimi called out. She came across the grass with her arm around Willow’s shoulders for steadiness. In the radiance of the little lights, she looked amazing, like a woman stepping out of the past.

“What are you wearing?” Darcy asked, stunned by the older woman’s plunging silk nightgown and magnificent silk wrapper thickly embroidered with a flamboyance of colorful birds.

Mimi chortled. “Fabulous, isn’t it? It was my mother’s. She was a clotheshorse, and I always coveted this, and now I have it. I don’t often get a chance to wear it.”

“Damn,” Susan swore. “I sleep in an old stretched-out T-shirt of Otto’s.”

“Me, too,” Darcy said. “Well, I don’t mean I sleep in one of Otto’s T-shirts….”

Laughing, Mimi leveraged herself into a chair. “You young women can make a T-shirt look like a stripper’s costume. At my age, I prefer silk and lots of it. Now. What were you gossiping about? I saw you from my bedroom window.”

Willow and Susan rapidly repeated their news.

“But if the boys are in a day camp, when does Willow babysit?”

“In the late afternoon,” Willow said.

Susan added, “For three hours. From four to seven. That’s a quiet time for Merry Wicks—she’s the owner—but people do come in from time to time, especially on cloudy days. I give her a chance to do errands and eat a proper meal. She returns and keeps the shop open until nine. It’s amazing, how people find the place, even though it’s not in the center of town.”

“And I’ll bring the boys to my house,” Willow added. “Because we’ve got the trampoline and the badminton set there. If it’s raining, we’ll play some of the games stored in our cupboards.”

“But won’t your mother mind?” Mimi asked. “Three rambunctious youngsters—so much noise?”

“I checked with Mom, and she’s cool about it. Dad’s up in Boston all week, so Mom said she’ll go shopping, that will only take her a hundred hours, or drive out to some beach and have a long walk and enjoy the island.”

“Of course, she won’t always have the boys at her house,” Susan cut in. “Otto can take his laptop to the library, so if Henry or George or Alfred want to play at home, Willow can watch them there and they won’t be a bother to him.”

“We can always walk down to Flock so the guys can say hi to their mom,” Willow said.

“I’m guessing the shop will be boring to them and frankly, three boys in a yarn shop is not a mix made in heaven,” Susan said.

“What does Otto think of you working?” Mimi asked.

“I thought he’d object. It’s not like we need the money. But he understands—who better?—my desire to escape my darlings, and my need to do something adult.”

Mimi set her eagle eye on Willow. “And what do your parents think of you spending all your time with old ladies and children? They must want you to make some acquaintances of your own age.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “I met an ‘acquaintance’ my own age when I first got here, Mimi. That didn’t work out so well. Ask Darcy about that sometime. But anyway, I’m happy at the library, and I enjoy the boys. I think they’re the totally right age for me this summer.”