The Cliffside Inn

by Jessie Newton

  “AJ is in a meeting,” Eloise said. “She said she’d be done in twenty minutes.”

  “I can wait twenty minutes,” Kelli said. “Parker won’t be done with school until three-thirty.”

  “The twins can go home alone,” Alice said quietly.

  Eloise didn’t have children she needed to be anywhere for, and Kristen nodded with the others. “I’m happy to have you here as long as you want to stay.” She moved toward the small table in the corner. “If we pull this out, we can all sit around it.”

  Kelli got up and got the job done. Kristen told Eloise to get a couple more folding chairs from the bedroom, and a few minutes later, they all had a spot around the table.

  The silence pressed down on them, and Kristen squared her shoulders and looked around at her girls.

  “I’m so glad you’re all here,” she said, the emotion gathering in the back of her throat.

  Alice reached over and took Kristen’s hand, giving it a squeeze. Gratitude for her girls filled her, and Kristen shook her head.

  “I’m getting old, ladies.” She gave a light laugh. “How’s the shrimp?”

  Before anyone could answer, Alice blurted out, “Frank is having money problems.”

  Kristen calmly put her shrimp in her mouth while Kelli demanded, “What?” and Eloise said, “How is that possible?”

  Alice looked at Kristen, her eyes wide and afraid. “I don’t really know if he is or not, but he put my monthly deposit in my account earlier this week. Then, the next morning, he took it all back out, plus some of my money.”

  “He can’t do that,” Eloise said.

  “I got it all back,” Alice said, her hands pressed flat to the table in front of her. Kristen had seen her do this before when she was trying to control something she absolutely couldn’t.

  “I called the bank and removed his access to transfer into or out of my account. But that means we have to work out how he’s going to pay his child support and other things in the future. I’ve called him six times, and he hasn’t called me back.”

  Eloise looked from Alice to Kristen, the message clear.

  The question screamed through the cottage. What should she do?

  Kristen didn’t know. She’d never been divorced. She picked up another shrimp and swiped it through her pool of cocktail sauce.

  “Have you done any digging?” Kristen asked calmly. Alice was exceptionally good at digging for information. “You have contacts in New York City, don’t you?”

  “I called Susan,” Alice said. “She said she’d look into things, but she’d extraordinarily busy, and I haven’t heard back from her.”

  “This could be nothing,” Kristen said. “When did this happen?”

  “Tuesday night to Wednesday morning.”

  She’d said nothing at their luncheon on Wednesday, and when Kristen met Eloise’s gaze, that was the conversation they had.

  “So it’s only been a few days,” Kristen said. “He could be busy in court.”

  “I’m almost to the point where I’ll have Ginny text him and see if he responds.” Alice shook her head, her eyes falling to the vegetables she’d put on her plate. She hadn’t touched them. “I don’t want them to worry, though. If he can’t pay the alimony and the child support, I can’t—I won’t be able to stay in that house. I can’t pay my car payments. Everything would change.”

  “Kristen’s right. You don’t know any of that yet,” Kelli said.

  “I have less than a month to figure it out,” Alice said, and her voice pitched up on the last few words. She took a deep breath, and Kristen watched her compose herself in two seconds. Maybe less.

  The woman was tough as nails. She’d get through this, even if Frank never paid her another dime.

  “How is your practice going?” Kristen asked.

  “Decently,” Alice said. “For how long I’ve been out of things, and for the size of Five Island Cove.”

  “Perhaps you won’t need Frank.”

  “I would have to move,” Alice said. “That house is enormous, and so is the mortgage.”

  Eloise shifted in her seat, but she said nothing.

  “Moving isn’t the worst thing ever,” Kelli said quietly. Alice’s attention shifted to her, and her expression softened.

  “Of course it isn’t, Kel. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply it was.”

  Kelli lifted her chin to face Alice, and she smiled. It was wobbly, and a bit off-center, but it was there nonetheless.

  The conversation stalled, and Kristen actually twisted to look over her shoulder. Robin should be here. Missing out on something like this would cause her great distress, and Kristen couldn’t help thinking that something must be terribly wrong at her house for her not to be here.

  Kristen finished eating and so did Eloise. She got up and picked up their plates, took them into the kitchen, and started cleaning up. Once that was done, she looked back at the other three women still sitting at the table.

  “Who’s going next?” Kristen asked.

  “Not me,” Kelli said instantly.

  “Kelli, dear,” Kristen said. “You called first. You clearly have something we need to know about.”

  She shook her head, and Kristen sighed. Kelli had never liked leading, and Kristen had forgotten how hard it had been to get her to share first, get on the boat first, or even lead the way to the deck on the lighthouse, which overlooked the ocean to the east.

  Alice had already shared her concern, and while there’d been no solution, the woman had eaten a little bit afterward, so she must’ve felt better.

  “I’d like to wait until everyone is here too,” Eloise said. “I was only planning to tell you, Kristen.”

  “Same,” Kelli said. “I didn’t know I’d need to be ready to share with everyone.”

  “Sorry,” Kristen said, not sorry at all. “You five need each other, even if you still don’t see it.”

  “I see it,” Eloise said, plenty of defensiveness in her voice. “I just wanted to get your opinion first, before I went to the others.”

  “My…stuff involves you,” Kelli said.

  Kristen met her eyes, alarm pulling through her. “Me?”

  Kelli pressed her lips into a thin line. “Yes.”

  “Well, let’s hear it.”

  “Not until Robin gets here,” Kelli said, leaning away from her nearly empty plate and folding her arms. She had regained some of her confidence in the past couple of months, and even if Kristen had had to hear through the grapevine about her marital problems, she still wanted the very best for Kelli. For all of her girls.

  The things she’d learned about Joel had severely shaken her, and she’d done a good job of hiding it from everyone. Sometimes she thought she might be deluding herself, but just the face that all of these women had come to her proved her point. They still trusted her. They didn’t blame her for the dastardly things her late husband had done to them, to their mothers, or to their families.

  Kristen still carried some guilt from that, and when it got really bad, she went up the path and past the picnic table. She went as far as she could get and still be on stable ground, and she shouted her frustrations and anger at her husband and the secrets he’d kept into the sky.

  The wind carried them over the ocean and far from her, and Kristen didn’t have to deal with those feelings, that betrayal, or the consequences of Joel’s actions for a while.

  She could chase them away, but she hadn’t been able to rid herself of them completely. Not yet, anyway.

  Thankfully, the water, wind, and sky never went anywhere, and they were excellent at keeping secrets.

  “I’ll tell AJ we’re waiting for Robin,” Eloise said. “It’s been longer than twenty minutes.”

  “I’ll call her again,” Alice said. “Just so she knows we’re waiting.”

  “Maybe she can’t come,” Kristen said, worry filling her now.

  “I’ll find out,” Alice said. “Because if she can’t, she should just say so. Th
en we’ll be able to get going.”

  Alice had never liked wasting time. Kristen watched her walk out the front door this time, and a part of her heart actually hoped she could keep her girls with her all afternoon. Once they left, she’d be alone again, and Kristen bore that burden more than she’d like.

  “AJ says to call whenever,” Eloise said. “She’s headed home for the weekend, because of a burst pipe. They evacuated her building.” She turned to Kelli. “How’s your job at the junior high? Do you ever see Billie?”

  The two of them started talking, and Kristen’s heart swelled. None of her other groups of girls had bonded the way Robin, Alice, Eloise, Kelli, and AJ had. Kristen often wondered what the difference was, and she always came back to circumstances.

  They’d simply needed each other at that specific time in their lives. She’d needed them. They’d shared things and gone through things together that couldn’t be replicated, though Kristen had tried with other groups.

  Alice slipped back into the house and said, “She wants us to wait, if we can. She’s hoping to be here in fifteen minutes.”

  Kristen nodded and pointed to the couch. She and Alice sat side-by-side, and Alice leaned her head against Kristen’s shoulder the way she had as a sixteen-year-old.

  Kristen patted her leg and said in a voice no one else could hear, “Alice, you’re a strong, capable woman and an excellent mother. Whatever is happening with Frank, you’ll be able to weather it.”

  “Thank you, Kristen,” Alice whispered. “Thank you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Robin worked not to slam the coffee pot down onto the burner. She needed a minute to cool off, but Alice had called twice now, and she just wanted to go.

  “I’m just saying that you’re always headed off somewhere,” Duke said.

  “Always?” Robin asked, trying to keep the sarcastic bite out of her voice. Trying, and failing. “That’s not true.” She turned around and faced him. “Number one, I have clients I have to meet with. Number two, I like to work out with weights, and that requires that I go to the gym. Number three, Alice, Kristen, and I have been getting together for weeks for lunch. It’s one day a week, not everyday, and that never bothered you before you went to Alaska.”

  Nothing she’d done had bothered him before Alaska. The things she’d been worried about when Duke had left Five Island Cove seemed to be coming to fruition right before her eyes. He was short with the girls in the morning before school. They’d only been going for five days, and while Duke had driven them almost every day last year, Robin had taken them all five days this week.

  Praise the Lord that his boat would be back on Sunday evening. If it wasn’t, he might be out on the street until it arrived, and then he’d be living on it.

  He’d been home for two weeks, and while Robin sure did like having him in bed with her—and showering with her and making love to her whenever their eyes happened to meet—she needed space too.

  “I’m going to the lighthouse,” she said. “Alice has called twice, and they’re all there, and there’s something going on.”

  “It’s Friday,” he said. “I thought we’d get the girls and go get fish and chips.”

  “Mandie has a drama meeting after school,” Robin said, something she’d told Duke at least four times that week. “After that, she’ll probably go out to Rocky Ridge to see Charlie. That’s what she’s been doing on weekends.”

  Duke frowned and rubbed one hand down his beard. “I don’t like this Charlie boy.”

  “Yes, you do,” Robin said. “You just don’t like Mandie dating any boy.”

  “Do you?”

  “No, I do not,” Robin said. “But I dealt with it all summer while you were gone, and you’ll just have to get used to it.” She turned to get her keys out of the drawer. “Jamie is done at two-forty.”

  “I know.”

  “Okay,” Robin said, infusing some semblance of brightness into her voice. “Great. I’ll call you and let you know when I’m done. We might still be able to get fish and chips.”

  She was sure they would, because Kelli had an eight-year-old she wasn’t going to abandon that day. Alice had kids too, and Eloise would want to spend her Friday night with Aaron.

  There would be plenty of time for fish and chips, as Robin had told Duke twenty minutes ago.

  He jumped up and intercepted her as she started for the door that led to the garage and the minivan that was only a few miles away from a complete break-down.

  “Robin,” Duke said in that smooth, sexy tone that would allow him to get his way. “I just miss you. I want us to have date nights.”

  “Then you should ask,” Robin said. “I go over all of our schedules with you constantly.” She put her hands on his chest and fiddled with the collar of his shirt. That usually helped her get her way. “You knew about Mandie’s meeting after school, or you should’ve. I’ve told you multiple times this week. I tell you everything. If you want to go out with me—and baby, I want that too—then you should ask me. I want to be asked. I want you to at least pretend like you’re courting me.”

  Duke ducked his head, and Robin wrapped her fingers around the back of his neck. She pressed her forehead to his and swayed with him. “I love you, Duke,” she said. “If you want a romantic date night with me, let’s put it on the schedule.”

  “Tomorrow?” Duke asked, planting his hands on her waist and pulling her closer.

  “Tomorrow night is fine,” Robin said. “Now kiss me and don’t sit around here and brood.”

  Duke kissed her, and he sure did try to persuade her to stay home with him. Robin broke the kiss despite the tingling in her bones. “I’ll call you later.”

  “Okay,” he said, and he released her. Robin stepped out into the garage and hurried around to the driver’s seat of the van. Thankfully, it started, and she got on her way to the lighthouse.

  Her shoulders held tightness in them she couldn’t roll out, and she wished she could’ve left the moment Alice had called. She hated missing out on conversations, and Alice had said there was something happening at Kristen’s cottage, and they all wanted her there.

  She’d been in the middle of the argument with Duke, and she hadn’t been able to simply run out.

  She exhaled as she pulled into the parking lot, and she hurried up the sidewalk to Kristen’s cottage. She knocked as she opened the door, and she said, “I’m here.”

  Alice sat with Kristen on the couch, and Eloise sat with Kelli at the dining room table.

  Alice got up quickly, and she gave Robin a hug. “You’re here.”

  “I’ll call AJ,” Eloise said.

  Kristen got up too, and Robin embraced her too. She smiled at Kristen and turned to hug Kelli. “What did I miss?”

  “I’m the only one who’s said anything,” Alice said. “It’s nothing yet, but Frank put my monthly money in my account this week, and then immediately took it back the next morning. I’ve called him a bunch of times, but he hasn’t returned any of my calls.”

  Robin listened while Alice spoke, and Kelli interjected several times about how Alice had cut off Frank’s access, and that they didn’t really know anything yet.

  “I’m so sorry,” Robin said.

  “What kept you, dear?” Kristen asked.

  “Ohhh,” Robin said, her breath elongating the word. She could barely put into words her frustration. “Duke’s home, and his boat isn’t. That should sum it up.”

  “He’s driving you crazy, isn’t he?” Kristen asked with a knowing smile.

  “He thinks I’m spending too much time at the inn, or at lunch with my friends, or heaven forbid, with my clients.” Robin rolled her eyes, and she really got going.

  “I tell him about our schedule about ten times a day, and he still acts like he doesn’t know. He doesn’t listen to me, not even a little bit.” She drew in a deep breath as if she’d start again.

  She met Alice’s eyes, and all of Robin’s complaints dried up. Pure horror and guilt h
it her like a load of bricks right in the chest.

  “It’s fine,” she said. “We’re just adjusting to him being home with nothing to do.”

  “You got used to running the roost,” Kristen said.

  “Yes.” Robin cleared her throat and looked at Eloise.

  Eloise, who was in love with Aaron Sherman, a man who would treat her right and take good care of her, but was a little gun shy to pull the marriage trigger again.

  Kelli, who’d recently separated from her husband, because he wanted a polyamorous relationship. Talk about a man who didn’t listen to the needs of his wife.

  Robin recalled the thought, because she didn’t know Julian at all. She only knew Kelli’s version of Julian. But Robin knew that Kelli had told Julian she didn’t want that type of relationship, and he hadn’t yielded what he wanted for her.

  Alice, whose husband had been cheating on her for years, and had tried to reduce what he had to pay for in the divorce, and who had now started some financial trouble.

  Kristen, whose husband had died four months ago. Robin knew she was lonely. She knew she missed Joel, despite the secrets that had come out and caused ripples in all of their normal lives.

  Foolishness wove through her, increasing with every moment that passed. “Anyway,” she said. “What else do we need to talk about?”

  “I have AJ on the line,” Eloise said, turning the phone around so everyone could see AJ.

  Robin faded into the background, her throat still too narrow to swallow properly.

  AJ, who’d been dating for three decades and just wanted to find someone to love and someone to love her.

  Robin had never felt like such an idiot. Nothing seemed to be going right today, and she took a moment while everyone said hello to AJ to press her eyes closed and take a deep breath.

  Be present, she thought. Be supportive. Listen. Be ready to help.

  Nothing that was happening at the lighthouse today had anything to do with her. She hadn’t shown up with a problem she needed help with.

  “I’ll go next,” Kelli said. She drew a deep breath. “I really came to talk to Kristen, because I’ve been doing a little digging into Zach.” She paused, specifically looking at Alice, who’d given her a lot of flak about her half-brother.