Meet Me at Sunset (Evening Island)

by Olivia Miles

  But it wasn’t just this house that was lighter now. It was her step. Her heart. She had a chance now, not to prove herself to anybody, but to do what she’d always wanted to do. To paint. To follow her heart. To live her dreams. To be happy.

  She walked into the kitchen, wanting to be around her family, thinking how different it all was just a short time ago when she could hear every creak, every shift in the house, because that was the only thing keeping her company. When each room was dark before she entered it to turn on a light. This house needed life.

  And she…she needed to live.

  Hope was at the counter, slicing apples and setting them on a plate for the girls, along with cubed cheese and carrot sticks. Through the window, Ellie saw Evan mowing the yard. Bless him!

  “Is everything okay?” Hope asked.

  “I was just thinking how much I’m going to miss you all,” Ellie said. They had an entire day of fun planned, a picnic on the beach, a Sunday night bonfire with marshmallows and everything, just like the old days, but she couldn’t stop thinking that this time next week, she’d be somewhere else.

  “You’ll be back,” Hope said with a reassuring grin.

  Ellie breathed in that thought and nodded her head. Her sister was right. But then, Hope was always right. And try as they might to change themselves, for better or worse, they were exactly who they were, and who they always were, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

  From the kitchen table, Rose spilled milk and Victoria started to cry and then, seeing Victoria cry, Rose started to cry, and then Hope was dashing for a dish rag and wiping it up and Gemma was trying to grab her pages from the table before they got wet and muttering something about just needing a few minutes to finish one chapter, and Ellie could only stand back and take it all in.

  Really, this house may be large, but they weren’t the same young sisters they had been all those years ago and there was only room for one of them here now.

  And that was just as it should be.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Hope

  Monday, it rained. They stayed inside, reading old magazine and pouring over Gran’s albums, and later moved outside to the porch to play cards. Ellie won every hand. She’d clearly been busy up here on the island, even if they hadn’t realized it at first.

  But Tuesday was a bright, sunny day, and Hope and Evan decided to take the girls up to the North Shore Beach, away from town, and away from the cottage. Away from the inn or any chance of running into John.

  She hadn’t seen him since their meeting at the inn, when she’d told him she’d give him an answer soon on his offer. But his offer wasn’t just a professional one, even if that wasn’t directly spoken. If she stayed on the island, and took the job, then this—this family life she had with Evan and the girls—would be over as she had come to know it. She’d be starting a new chapter, the life she thought she wanted, maybe even the life she had always wanted, if she’d ever dared to ask herself what that was, exactly.

  She owed John an answer. And she owed Evan one, too.

  He hadn’t said when he was leaving the island and she hadn’t said when she was either. It just hung there, unspoken. Like a lot of things.

  “You’re awfully quiet,” Evan said, coming to sit beside her. The girls were happily playing in the sand a few feet away. Every once in a while they stood to gather rocks to decorate the castle they were making, that looked more like a few lumps and hills than a royal residence.

  “Just thinking.” She dragged a finger in the sand, finding it hard to look him in the eye.

  “This is a beautiful place,” he said, almost pensively. “Why didn’t we ever come here before?”

  She gave him a long look. “Our lives are busy. There was never any time.”

  He nodded. “I know what you think. I heard what you said that day, after the girls’ party. I know you think I’m not present when I’m home, but I guess it’s because I always thought you liked being in charge of everything with the girls and the house. So I let you do it.”

  “Oh please!” Hope said, but as she looked at him, she realized that it was true. It wasn’t a lame excuse to get out of being less than helpful. And she did like things a certain way.

  “And the truth is that you’re better with them than I am,” Evan said, frowning a little. “You know the times that I tried to put them to bed, they kept saying they wanted you. That I read the stories wrong. That you did it right.”

  Hope felt something in her heart thaw a little. This was the first time she was hearing this.

  “And that time you went to that party and I had to get the girls dinner? They refused to eat what I made. They said it was gross, that you’re a better cook. I got so fed up that I took them out for fast food.”

  She had to hide her smile. She didn’t have the heart to tell him that the girls had told her all about their trip to get french fries and burgers the next morning.

  “Well, I’m sure they loved that,” she said, sliding him a smile.

  “They love you, Hope.” Evan pulled in a breath. “And I do, too.”

  She blinked, not knowing what to say, not even sure what she felt. She was so caught up in the strange imbalance of their relationship—of their lives—that she hadn’t stopped to ask herself if she really still loved her husband, because wasn’t that what it all came down to?

  “I could have helped more,” he said. “I should have helped more. I should have been there when you asked me to come home when you were sick. You’re just…so capable that I figured you’d be able to handle it. But I should have come home. I should have made you the priority, not my client. Because you are the priority, Hope. You always were. You always will be. You’re…you’re my wife, Hope. But you’re more than that. You’re my life.”

  Hope swallowed the knot that had wedged in her throat. He was saying everything she wanted to hear, and she wanted to believe him, so badly, but she just didn’t know if she could.

  “It’s easy here, on the island, to focus on the things that matter. To unwind, to not pick up a call from a client, or disappear into the living room to watch the game. The girls aren’t being run around all day, there aren’t playdates and class parties, and bake sales, and dishes to wash.” Well, there were dishes to wash because that dishwasher was still broken, she thought. But that was beside the point. “It’s easy to say all this now, Evan.”

  “But I mean it,” he said, holding her eyes. “I want us to do things like this. Take trips. Do you think I like travelling across the world with coworkers? I’m doing it because of you guys. Because I want to provide for you. Because I thought you wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.”

  “And I do,” Hope said, blinking. “I want to be with them. I just…”

  “You just needed a break.” He grinned. “I get it.”

  “Do you?” She wanted to know. She needed to know.

  “You’re so good with them, and they adore you, Hope. And I thought you wanted to take it all on. But now I see. I’ll be there more. And if you want to work, then work. I support your decision, Hope. I’ve never wavered from what we decided, all those years ago.”

  They locked eyes for a moment and a hundred thoughts flooded her at once. It was the same face she had looked at day after day for years and years. The same man who infuriated her. The same man who had been there for moments that mattered more to her than anything else ever could.

  The same man who hadn’t been there when she needed him the most. But who might. Or so he said.

  “I guess we’ve both struggled with finding balance in our roles,” she said. “I wanted to do it all. I wanted to take on the role of parenting like I did everything else. But, I could have included you more. And I could have taken more off my plate.” She eyed him sidelong. “I mean…the girls didn’t need a unicorn.”

  “Nah,” Evan said grinning. “They needed one. And you knew how to make it happen.”

  A smile of understanding passing between them.

  �
��Daddy!”

  Hope jarred to the right, seeing Victoria standing with a bucket, holding it up in the air expectantly. “We need your help!”

  Help. Yes, that was what Hope had needed, wasn’t it, even if she hadn’t directly asked for it, even if she’d maybe been a little too passive aggressive, taking it all on herself, and feeling resentful later.

  Evan grinned and said, “Sure thing!” and got to his feet.

  He took the bucket in one hand and Victoria’s hand in the other and joined Rose near the lakefront, where the water was lapping their toes. It was early in the season, and still cold, and it made Victoria squeal.

  She could have stood up and joined them, but right now, she preferred to sit back and watch.

  Her heart pulled tight as she watched the girls instructing Evan on how to create a proper moat, explaining in great detail that the princesses would need to get in and out of their castle for shopping trips, and that no, they could not take a boat, their dresses might get dirty!

  Evan played along, joked with them, teased them until they squealed in frustration and then began explaining again, more insistent this time, until Evan helped build the moat and a drawbridge.

  He glanced over at her, caught her eye and winked, and her breath caught in her chest. She wanted to capture this moment, hold onto it, remember it on the long, hard days when she felt weary and exhausted and started questioning her choice.

  She wanted to remember that this was how she felt when she was on the island. How she’d always felt, ever since she was a little girl. At peace. Happy. Fulfilled. Free of worry and pressure and expectation and the daily responsibilities that had defined her life for as long as she could look back, from the time that she was eight years old and had received a B in math and had to explain to her father when he got home why that grade had not been an A, and promised, solemnly, to do better next time.

  She would do better next time, she thought now.

  John was right about something he’d said to her. Everyone deserved a second chance. Even her.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Gemma

  Leo hadn’t been at the Taylors’ house since the night of the party, not that Gemma had been checking. Much. Still, every day, when the sun began to set over the water and she knew that he had not come by West End Road, her heart seemed to sink along with the sun, only to rise again the next day when she woke up in her third-floor bedroom, renewed with hope that today might be the day that he came back, and everything could go back to how it was.

  Only life didn’t work like that, and she’d been through enough to know it.

  You couldn’t go back. Even here, at Sunset Cottage, everything had changed from the last summer she’d been here with her sisters, when they were all young and innocent, when they hadn’t yet had their hearts broken or their dreams shattered. When time was on their side, spread out before them as vast as the great lake. When anything seemed possible.

  She wanted to get back to that place. She wanted to believe that despite everything, her future was wide open, full of great things waiting to happen. That there was another path for her, after the one she’d been taking had come to a dead end.

  She stayed in her room and worked through the morning. With her book due in only three days now, she was scrambling, but it felt good to pour her energy into something other than her heart. And it felt good to be here on the island, with the sunsets and the water right there, just a few yards away.

  Everyone was out, making the most of their last few days on the island, and Gemma had the entire house to herself. She could sit out on the front porch until they all came back. Or she could go down to the coffeehouse. Or out back to the hammock to read over some of her pages.

  She decided on the porch. It was the defining feature of this home, the gathering place, where so many happy memories had been made.

  With a glass of lemonade in one hand and her notebook in the other, she pushed out the side door of the kitchen onto the porch, looking out over the water as she rounded to the front.

  And there he was. Standing outside the front door, wearing khakis and a button-down shirt, not the usual jeans and T-shirt she had grown used to. His expression was wary. His eyes unsure.

  “Leo.”

  She swallowed hard, catching herself. She had wished for this moment, just as she had wished at first that Sean would change his mind and come back. But unlike with Sean, a part of her, however small and however hard she tried to deny it, had thought that it might just happen.

  That she hadn’t been wrong about Leo. That maybe, just maybe, she’d been right.

  “Sorry to startle you. I was just about to knock.”

  She nodded, wanting him to say more. “If you were here to mow the lawn, I’d tell you that you were too late.”

  “I’m not here to mow the lawn,” he said.

  She swallowed hard. Gathered her wits. Told herself it didn’t mean a damn thing. That she shouldn’t open herself up to disappointment. But then, that’s what she didn’t want to do. She had closed herself off for too long. “I can see that. You’re all dressed up.”

  He gave a bashful grin as he looked down at his shirt. “Yeah, I was thinking about something that was said at the party. About how there isn’t a lawyer here on the island. And I was thinking about something else that was said that night, too. Something you said, about not turning my back on things that made me happy.”

  She blinked, trying to understand where he was going with this. “Are you going back to your old career?”

  “In a sense,” he said. “I still want to open the stables, but I rented out a storefront in town. A law office, I suppose you could say. Actually, I rented out your sister’s studio. It was my grandfather’s idea. He seems to think that place has a special purpose. Helps lost souls find their way.”

  Gemma grinned. “You could say that about this entire island.”

  He sank his hands into his pockets. “So Ellie’s really moving out then?”

  “Of the studio?” Gemma nodded. “She’s going to travel. I think it will be good for her, to see the world, to experience new things, and meet new people.”

  “So you guys are on good terms with everything then?” he asked.

  Gemma grinned. “We are. This house was a lot for Ellie. I think she was afraid to let go of it, but now she’s ready to embrace the next phase of her life.”

  Leo nodded slowly as he thrust his hands into his pockets. He looked over at the lake and then back at her. “So I’m too late then.”

  She blinked. “Too late for what?”

  Leo took a step toward her. “What you said the other night really sank in, Gemma. I had a rough go, and I felt let down by a lot of people. And for a while it was easier on my own. I like it here. Really like it. And I like the work I’ve been doing. But…”

  Gemma felt her breath catch.

  “But I was denying an entire part of myself. And I wasn’t being fair to myself. Or you.”

  She stared at him, not sure of what to say, or if she could even speak.

  “I spent so long trying not to think about my ex, trying to push aside any feelings that I had for her, that I didn’t even realize that my feelings had changed, and that the person I was pushing away wasn’t her.” He looked at her steadily. “It was you. And…the way you made me feel. It was a feeling that I didn’t think I’d find again and honestly, didn’t really want to.”

  She nodded. She understood that much.

  “Being here…it’s made me see that my old life was never going to work for me. Even if I’d kept the ranch instead of my brother, things still would have fallen apart with my girlfriend. I can’t blame him. Or her. She just wasn’t the one for me.”

  Gemma’s heart was pounding as she looked up into his eyes, daring to believe that he felt the same way that she did.

  “The truth is that I like it here. I’m able to be myself. Now I can even think about practicing law and running my own stable, something I couldn’t bala
nce before. And I’ve found someone who likes me just as I am.”

  She nodded, because it was true, every word he’d said. “Just as you are.”

  “Look, I’m not good at speeches. And I’m not good about talking about my feelings either. And I’m sure you could have said all this a lot better than I have.”

  She shook her head. “You’re not a character in one of my books.”

  But he had been the inspiration.

  “Besides, what I write is fiction. This is real life. And it’s messy. And it’s complicated. And it’s far from roses and sunshine. But right now, it’s pretty damn close.” She met his smile, feeling her heart fill with joy.

  “What do I have to do to convince you not to sell the house?” he asked.

  She looked at him in surprise. “We’ve decided to keep it.”

  There was a pause as he digested this. “You did?”

  She nodded. “Some things are worth holding on to, even when times get tough.”

  “They are.” He looked around the porch, from the chipped paint on the posts to the worn whitewashed floorboards. He seemed to want to say something, but took a step backward instead. “Well. Tell Ellie to give me a call when she gets back to town then. I’ll see what I can do about some of these repairs on my free time.”

  Now Gemma grinned. “Oh, it’s not Ellie who will be staying on the island.”

  He looked at her, his brown eyes deep and steady, as if he knew what she was about to say. Maybe even hoped for it.

  “I’m staying,” she said. She’d reached the decision easily, so easily that perhaps the idea had been in her head all along. “There’s nothing for me in Chicago anymore.”