Second Chances in Lavender Bay (The Lavender Bay Chronicles #3)

54. Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-One

A fter chemotherapy finished, there was a month break before Angie started radiation treatments. Although she still wasn’t one hundred percent, the fact that the chemo was completed gave her a definite boost. The first radiation session had taken the longest as they’d tattooed her with markers on her breast and underarm to mark the area to be irradiated.

With Tom’s help, she’d sourced a truck for her summer venture. She left it up to the staff to come up with a menu. She and Tom spent evenings together knocking ideas back and forth. Melissa’s year at culinary school had served her well. She continued to run the café efficiently and to create delectable baked goods, which allowed Angie to rest and take care of herself.

Radiation treatments were Monday through Friday for six weeks, starting at the end of March. They didn’t take as long as the chemo infusions, and she was usually in and out. Her mother’s ride roster was running full throttle, and her rides reliably appeared to take her where she needed to go.

She stood at the kitchen table and ate a banana quickly, something to settle her stomach. As she threw the peel into the bin, there was the toot-toot of a car horn from her driveway. She glanced at the clock; Edna was right on time.

Quickly, she pulled on her winter hat and a coat with a hood as it was misting out. As she walked out the door and locked it behind her, she double-checked her pockets for her gloves.

Edna’s boxy light blue 1984 Chevy Impala sat idling at the end of the driveway.

When Angie tried the passenger-side door, it was locked. The elderly woman, with some difficulty, undid her seat belt and leaned over to unlock it. Angie opened it and got in as Edna buckled herself back in.

“Good morning, Angie.”

“Hiya, Mrs. Knickerbocker.”

“How are you feeling, dear?” Edna asked.

“Okay.”

Hands on the steering wheel in the ten-and-two position, Edna looked in her rearview mirror as she slowly reversed out of the driveway, the back end of her car hitting the pavement as she did so.

She never drove over thirty-five miles an hour, even when she got out to the highway. It was as if she were on a leisurely Sunday drive out in the country. She spoke the entire time, but never took her eyes off the road. There was a slight mist, and the slow, hypnotic movement of the windshield wipers made Angie drowsy.

“I’m delighted your mother called me to give you a ride for your treatment,” Edna said. “I do want to help. You know I’ve been coming into Coffee Girl since it opened.”

The truth was, every time Louise ran into Edna, the latter pestered her to include her on the roster. To appease her, Louise added her name, but not before running it by Angie first.

“I heard through the grapevine that you’re seeing a lot more of Java Joe,” Edna said.

And there it was. It was true, of course. The previous night, she and Tom had gone to the movies, Angie’s first time going to the theater in years. Despite Edna’s obvious nosiness, Angie was amused. She might have to make him a sandwich board to wear around his neck saying “My real name is Tom.”

“We’ve become . . . good friends,” Angie said, not wanting to reveal too much.

“Ha! I knew it,” Mrs. Knickerbocker said triumphantly. “That’s how these things start, you know. Friendship. You just had to catch up with him.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can tell by the way he looks at you that he’s quite smitten.”

“You can?”

“Since day one.”

“I never noticed,” Angie said.

Edna snorted. “How could you? You’re too busy giving him a hard time.”

“Am I?” Although she knew it was true. Had she known on a subconscious level that he found her attractive and was interested in her? Is that why she’d been rough on him? To discourage him because she had a failed marriage in her past and had no time for romance?

“You know he’s a wonderful man,” Edna said.

Angie was discovering that, but decided to keep it to herself. “He’s been very nice to me while I’ve been sick,” she admitted. But she wasn’t about to start picturing herself marching down the aisle with Tom waiting at the other end.

“Be kind to him,” Edna said softly. “That kind of man only comes around once in a lifetime.”

As Angie tucked this piece of advice away, she couldn’t help but wonder if the elderly woman was speaking from experience.