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“I would’ve been named Kyla Jane, so I’m Kyle Jane instead, and Jolie is Jolie Jane. It’s my mom’s middle name, too.”

“Kyle Jane. I like that. I’m Melinda Marie. All my sisters have the same middle name, and Mike is Michael Mitchell.”

“They love those Ms, huh?” Kyle laughed as the waiter approached.

“Can I interest you, ladies, in any dessert tonight?”

“I think we’re good,” Kyle smirked at Melinda.

Melinda liked the sound of that and the look of that sexy smirk on Kyle’s face. When they left the restaurant and walked hand in hand back toward Melinda’s apartment, they were silent again for most of the way, and Melinda realized she’d never had that before. She’d never had someone she could have this kind of silence with, the kind where it was comfortable and not awkward or weird.

“I think I’ll do it,” Kyle said eventually.

“Do what?”

“Watch the video of my grandma. I think I want to hear her voice. I’ve gone through everything at the house, and I didn’t see any old videotapes. She had an old computer, but I don’t think that got much use, and I don’t know whathappened to her phone. Maybe she had some recordings on that, but I don’t know.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Melinda replied.

“I might want to take it back with me and have Jolie watch it, too. I know she’s not as interested in the whole thing, but now that she knows the truth, and not some lie my mother told us for years, she seems like she might want to read the journals and learn more about what happened; our grandmother’s life and how it was a struggle with our mother.”

“When you go back? After the renovations?”

“Yeah. Before she left today, Myra said they could be done sooner than she originally thought. I picked out some stuff she had in her warehouse. I think you’ll really like it.”

“Stuff?”

“Flooring and windows. Hey, do you want to help me pick out furniture, though? I don’t know; the cheap stuff is fine, I guess, but it doesn’t exactly fit with the history of the house. I understand why she had it, but if I got better furniture, higher-end stuff, I could charge more for the rentals.”

“True,” Melinda said, swallowing as they turned onto her street. “Sure. I’ll help.”

“I’m talking nicer bedroom furniture, for the most part. The downstairs wasn’t bad, so I thought I’d start upstairs and work my way down. Maybe we could pick out some things for outside, too. A couple of chaise lounges sound nice. And that table is great, but the umbrella should probably be replaced. Should we just go to a store, though, or hire someone? I was thinking about getting an interior decorator, but I don’t know how to do that.”

“It’s your house, Ky. You should do what you want.”

“I know. But I wanted to do this withyou.”

“Why? You’re renting it out, right? It’s not like we’d be spending time there.”

“I guess you’re right, yeah,” Kyle said, sounding disappointed.

Melinda knew she’d done that to her, but she didn’t havethe heart right now to try to turn that disappointment around by offering to go furniture shopping for a house she’d never live in with a woman who might be leaving sooner than they’d both thought.

“Want to get some beignets?” she changed the subject.

“Sure,” Kyle said.

“And maybe stop by some of the artist displays in the Square?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Kyle replied, but her tone was different now.

Melinda squeezed Kyle’s hand, and they passed by her apartment and headed toward Jackson Square, where they got beignets and coffee to-go before they just walked around aimlessly, taking in the palm-and-tarot readers who set up their tables at night.

“Come on. It’ll be fun,” Kyle suggested as she nodded toward one woman who was sitting by herself, awaiting her next customer.

“If you want to,” Melinda replied.

Kyle sat down in front of the woman, and Melinda stood off to the side, thinking about how much she wished Kyle would just stay here. She obviously loved the city, and that love seemed to be growing the more she experienced here.