The Cottage on Nantucket

by Jessie Newton

  “I’m on my way.” Tessa returned to the cottage and hugged her sister.

  “Let’s spend the day downtown,” Janey said. “It’ll appear normal, and we can figure out what to do without the constant threat of Riggs overhearing.”

  Tessa nodded, because she didn’t want to make any big decisions right now. She exchanged phones with Janey and went into her bedroom to pack a few overnight items into her oversized purse. They didn’t want Riggs to think they wouldn’t be at the cottage that night, but leaving with their purses shouldn’t cause any alarm.

  Ron called again the moment she closed the door behind her, and Tessa sank onto the bed with a sigh. She hadn’t spoken to him in a few days, as every time she’d called, he hadn’t answered. She thought about that as she realized he’d called three or four times in the space of only a few minutes, and her heart blipped out fast beats as she swiped on the call.

  “Hey,” she said, some measure of relief in her voice. Ron could have some maddening moments, but he’d always been her anchor in life’s storms. “Sorry. I was out on the beach.”

  Ron didn’t say anything, and Tessa pulled the phone from her ear to check to make sure the call had gone through. It was still connected, the clock on the call ticking up second by second.

  “Ron?”

  “Tessa.” He sounded like he’d been hurt, and panic struck her right behind the lungs.

  “What’s wrong?” She jumped to her feet, wondering if she had another compartment for whatever had happened to Ron. “Are you okay?”

  “I have to tell you something.”

  “Okay.” Tessa couldn’t wait another moment, and she wanted to rage at him to spit it out!

  She took out a pair of clean shorts and a sleeveless blouse with blue and white stripes. Folding them, she said, “Ron, I’m in a bit of a hurry. Sorry to rush you, but—”

  “I’ve slept with someone else,” he blurted out, and Tessa’s voice died right there in her throat.

  Her vision blurred again, moving to the horrible whiteness, then that darkness, and all those rainbow colors. She didn’t know how to breathe, and a horrible wheezing sound filled the bedroom she wanted to burn to the ground.

  She wanted to rewind this whole day and go back three months to when Mom was still alive. Then she wouldn’t have to know anything about Mom’s past. Anything about Riggs Friedman. Anything about Janey not really being her full sibling.

  She wouldn’t have to face the collapse of her core family and the sisterhood she’d relied on for so many years.

  She wouldn’t have to listen to her husband sniffle and admit that he’d been seeing someone from his firm for the past five years, and he simply couldn’t keep living two lives.

  He finally finished talking, and Tessa hadn’t interrupted him a single time.

  “Say something,” he finally said, and Tessa’s fury knew no bounds.

  Instead of screaming, throwing her phone, and bursting into heartbreaking sobs, she simply drew a breath and hung up on her husband.

  Then she opened the door and went down the hall, where Janey stood in Sean’s arms, receiving comfort from him.

  “Ready?” Janey asked as she turned toward Tessa.

  Tessa wasn’t sure what would come out of her mouth, as she hadn’t quite compartmentalized everything the way she needed to yet. So she simply nodded and followed the happy couple out the front door.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  “Five years.” Tessa stood at the huge floor-to-ceiling window, the glass separating her from the world outside. She reached out and touched the pane, the warmth from the sun seeping into her palm. Funny how something she could see right through could hold the heat at bay, keep the wind from coming inside, and protect her from rain.

  Of course, it wasn’t raining today. Not in the middle of July, on a gorgeous island in the ocean.

  Tessa breathed in Nantucket, the cobblestone streets, the duned beaches, the meticulously pruned privets that bordered the homes on the island. She held the charm of the ocean, the joy the breeze always seemed to have, and the brilliance of the blueness that existed everywhere around her right inside her lungs. When she exhaled, the place did not leave her soul.

  Mom had loved this place, and Tessa completely understood why.

  “Five years,” she said again, pulling her hand from the glass and folding her arms again. She almost felt like she existed outside of her body, as if her mind and physical form had somehow separated, and she was looking down on herself from an awareness that existed above. “What am I supposed to do now?” she asked.

  Tessa didn’t worry about money. Ron had supported her and their family for almost twenty-five years, and she knew she’d get alimony. She also had more money now due to her inheritance. Heck, she had a paid-for house on Long Island. She could get a job somewhere nearby and live a simple, single life.

  Is that what you want?

  The thought ran through her mind, unbidden.

  She suddenly connected to Janey, though her sister had chosen to stay in The Harbor Gull, in the room Sean kept for his firm’s clients. Tessa hadn’t been able to get a room in the same hotel, but she had found one only half a block away, with four charming restaurants between them.

  The sisters had joked that they’d eat at all of them over the next few days as they stayed downtown and dined, shopped, and sleuthed behind closed doors. Tessa had separated from her sister with the brightest, best smile she’d been able to produce, and she’d escaped to this suite on the fourth floor of The Sandbar.

  She needed a holiday, and she reminded herself as she stood staring at the swirling sea and sky that she was on a holiday.

  Not only that, but Ron was supposed to be on Nantucket in less than two weeks’ time. She did not want him here, and as she stood and watched the unrelenting waves as the white tips of them kept rolling on, she actually felt part of her heart harden. Just seize right up, with a wall going around it to protect her.

  Five years, her brain wailed at her. Ron hadn’t closed himself off from Tessa. She’d detected no change in his behavior whatsoever. He didn’t stay weekends in the city when he shouldn’t. There were no charges on their credit cards that indicated he’d been buying gifts or staying in hotels.

  “He didn’t need a hotel,” she said. “He lived in one during the week.” She shook her head, the foolishness cascading through her now. She should’ve known. How could she not know?

  Janey was right. Tessa was so naïve and so inexperienced. She’d dated here and there in high school and college, but Ron had been her first serious boyfriend. The only man she’d ever been intimate with.

  She cinched her arms tighter, trying to keep the memories and emotions inside. Contained. Controlled. If she did that, she’d be fine. She could make a plan and execute it. She was very good at making plans and carrying them out.

  Knocking sounded on the door behind her, and Tessa turned toward the noise. She sniffed, realizing a bit of water had started to leak out of her eyes. She reached up quickly and wiped her face, sighing out heavily as she ran her hands through her hair.

  “Game face,” she coached herself. “Get your wallet out, Tess. You need new clothes to get through the next few days. And you can eat whatever you want while you do it.”

  Determined with her two-step plan—major shopping therapy and eat every buttery, fried thing she could find—she headed for the door. She expected to see Janey standing there, wearing something fabulous that would establish her as one of the rich socialites that lived on Nantucket full-time, and holding a fruity drink.

  Instead, a man who looked close to her age looked up from the ground. He studied her with a dark-eyed gaze, his hair the color of the rich earth she dug through to plant her flowers. He seemed to spend time in the sun, as his skin had a healthy, tan glow, and he wore clothes that hadn’t come from just any department store. No, his dark slacks and short-sleeved shirt screamed professional, and the color of his shirt mirrored the summer sky. He wore
a tie loosely knotted at his throat, but it didn’t seem to go with the rest of the package.

  It was too wide at the bottom, and while Tessa had once thought any color could go with blue, she now knew differently. This black and white checkered thing did not fit with the rest of this man’s ensemble.

  Thinking him to be a manager at the hotel, she asked, “Can I help you? Did I leave something somewhere?” She’d only had her purse, and it currently rested on the bed in the suite. Because of the bulging population on Nantucket in the summer months, the only room Tessa had been able to find near Janey had been a two-bedroom suite. She didn’t mind, and Ron could foot the bill for her. She’d never have stayed somewhere like this without asking him first, but that was before the conversation she’d had with him only forty minutes ago.

  “Are you Tessa Simmons?” the man asked, his voice low and rolling through the vowels in such a way that indicated he wasn’t from the Northeast. He didn’t have the harsh accent or the crassness she heard in some Bostonians, New Yorkers, or Jersey folks.

  Where Tessa would’ve just said yes before, the past few weeks had changed her. She’d changed so much that she hesitated and asked, “Who are you?” instead of confirming her identity.

  “I’m Landon Allen,” he said. “Attorney-at-law.”

  Tessa’s eyes widened as they dropped to his shiny shoes. Had Ron filed for divorce already? What was the point of him calling her then? Did he not want to work through anything?

  Did she? Would she forgive him? Could she?

  “Okay,” she said, not sure what else to do or say.

  “If you’re Ms. Simmons, I have a copy of a complaint that’s been filed against you in the state of Massachusetts.” His perfect eyebrows lifted, and Tessa supposed that indicated another question as to who she was.

  “I’m Tessa Simmons,” she said.

  He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a tri-folded piece of paper. “Don’t shoot the messenger.” He extended the paper toward her, and Tessa took it. “You have a good day now.”

  Tessa felt the smooth paper beneath her fingers, but it felt so, so heavy. Landon had already walked away when she regained control over her thoughts. “Mister Allen?” she called, and he turned back to her. “How did you find me?”

  The whole point was to lay low. She’d been at the hotel for all of fifteen or twenty minutes.

  “You used a credit card, ma’am,” he said. “I just landed on the island, and my secretary called me.” He smiled at her, and he surely devastated women with a grin like that. Dimples and everything. “You saved me a trip out to the Point, though I hear it’s beautiful out there.”

  “It is,” Tessa said automatically. She shook herself. She wasn’t single, and she wasn’t going to be friends with this man.

  She fell back a few steps and let the door close between her and Landon Allen. She twisted the deadbolt and returned to the huge window. Using the natural light, she read the complaint.

  Minerva, Lyons, and Aleah Martin had sued her for the intellectual property belonging to Dennis Martin, aka DM Martin.

  The house on Long Island was not listed, nor was The Hotel Benjamin. The bank accounts Janey had cleaned out in the city were likewise absent.

  Tessa frowned, wondering if she’d get four separate lawsuits. Would three more men come knocking on the door of this hotel room, able to find her so easily because she’d used her credit card, with similar papers, charming smiles, and sophisticated clothes?

  “So what if they do?” she asked herself. She’d been expecting this, and while her first call would normally go to Ron, this time, when she lifted her phone, it was to call Sean Masterson.

  She could’ve contacted the lawyer Mom had used to file her original will and trust with in the city. But he didn’t know about the addendum, and Sean did. Mom had been dealing with him on all of these extra things, and he was local, available, and familiar with the situation.

  “Tessa,” he asked breathlessly. “Are you okay?”

  Tessa paused, her mouth open. A frown pulled at her eyebrows as she asked, “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

  “We’re coming to you,” he said, definite anxiety in his voice. “Don’t leave your hotel room. I’ll explain when we get there.”

  Chapter Forty-Four

  “Is this legal?” Tessa asked, kneeling in front of Janey again. She pressed the cold, wet cloth to her sister’s skinned knees. “People can’t just run over each other, even on a bicycle.”

  “She claimed it was an accident,” Sean said, but he hadn’t stopped pacing since he and Janey had arrived five minutes ago. Janey had been hobbling, weeping, and bleeding from both knees.

  Tessa glared at the wounds on her sister’s knee, though she’d cleaned up plenty of injuries just like this over the years Ryan had grown up. “So she just ran into you?”

  “Yes,” Janey said. “Another woman came to help me, but the moment I sat up, she gave me this.” Janey fisted a paper in her hands, and Tessa knew what it was without looking at it.

  She’d been sued too.

  “So Aleah hit you with the bike,” Tessa said, looking at Janey as she nodded. “And you think it was Minerva who gave you the complaint.”

  “I think so,” she said. “Based on what you’ve said she looks like. I met Aleah in the city when I went to The Hotel Benjamin.”

  Tessa groaned as she got to her feet. She washed out the cloth in the kitchenette sink and handed Janey another tissue. She held it to her second knee, and Tessa picked up the box of bandages Sean had gotten from the front desk.

  With Janey’s knees cleaned up and taken care of, Tessa sank onto the couch beside her. “I guess I got off easy then.”

  “What do you mean?” Sean asked. He took a seat on the couch across from the sisters, his dark eyes wide and probing. “Why did you call?”

  “I got served with a lawsuit too,” she said. “But I had a lawyer simply knock on my door.”

  “A lawyer? Who?” Sean demanded. He gripped his phone and looked down at it.

  “Landon Allen,” Tessa said, frowning as Sean started to tap in the name. “You don’t think he was a lawyer?”

  “No,” Sean said. “I think that was Lyons Martin.” He glanced up briefly, nowhere near long enough to make eye contact, and went back to his phone. “Why would the Martin sisters stage this elaborate scene to knock Janey to the ground, but send their lawyer here?” He shook his head, his expression growing darker and darker. “Did he say which firm he was with?”

  “No.”

  “There aren’t any Landon Allen’s within three hundred miles.” Sean looked up, his frown smoothing out. “Lyons Martin, however, is an attorney.”

  “He said he was an attorney-at-law,” Tessa said.

  “I think it was him.” Sean turned his phone toward Tessa, and the man sat on the screen, smiling out at everything and everyone, in a very professional headshot. “Was it him?”

  “Yes,” Tessa said.

  “Lyons Martin.” Sean sighed, his shoulders releasing as he relaxed. “Okay, so the three of them are here, and we know they’re willing to inflict hurt on you two.”

  “Can I see that?” Tessa gently took the paper from Janey’s fist. She opened the paper and smoothed it against her lap. She read quickly, and said, “They’re suing you for the house on Long Island and The Hotel Benjamin.”

  “That makes no sense,” Janey said. “I don’t own those things. You do.”

  “They don’t know that,” Sean said quietly, bringing Tessa’s attention to him. He looked from her to Janey and back. “They don’t know that,” he said louder. “And you’ll be able to get that lawsuit dismissed easily. They sued the wrong person.”

  “Why would they split it?” Tessa asked.

  “Maybe because I went to the hotel,” Janey said.

  “But I went to the house.” Tessa refolded the paper and set it on the armrest next to her. She looked out the window, her thoughts drifting for a few moments. “Can y
ou get it dismissed?” she asked Sean.

  He sighed and nodded. “I’m sure I can. You two have to understand that I don’t spend a lot of time in courtrooms.”

  “You can, though, right?” Janey asked.

  “I can,” he said. “I’m a licensed attorney in the state of Massachusetts and the state of New York.” He heaved another sigh. “I just don’t do a lot of cases like this. I help people with their estates and tiny legal disputes here on the island, usually over land or property.”

  Perhaps Tessa would be better off getting someone more familiar with defending someone in a probate case. Her thoughts pinged around, unable to settle onto any one thing. She wanted to call Ron, but she absolutely would not. He had not tried to call her either, nor had he texted, and she needed to be alone to figure out what to do about him.

  “Okay,” she said, standing up. “I’m going to stay right here in this room for the next few days, and I only brought a single change of clothes.” She walked into the bedroom to collect her purse. When she returned to the sitting area, neither Sean nor Janey had moved. “I’m going shopping and to lunch. Who wants to come?”

  “Shopping and lunch?” Janey asked, her eyebrows up. “Seriously, Tessa?”

  Fire roared through Tessa’s bloodstream, igniting her anger and resentment. She worked hard to tamp it back before she breathed it all over everyone in the room. “Yes,” she said, nearly barking all she’d heard tumble from her husband’s mouth. “We can either sit here and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can talk about what we’re going to do while we find a cute blouse to wear to dinner tonight.”

  She gripped the straps on her purse. “I’m choosing the blouse.”

  Janey got to her feet gingerly, taking extra time to find her balance. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll come shopping.”

  “Great,” Tessa said, glancing at Sean, who also stood.

  “I’m going to go back to my office and see what I can learn about these complaints.” He picked up the wrinkled paper from the armrest, and then the one Tessa had tossed on the coffee table.