Summer at Oyster Bay: A gorgeous feel good summer romance

by Jenny Hale

  At least with Charlie gone, she didn’t have to try to avoid him. Long past his flight, he hadn’t contacted her anymore, and she knew he was back in New York. Perhaps, by not getting in touch again, he was trying to make things easy on her. She needed to make a clean break and get him out of her mind. The only problem was that she’d fallen hard, and she couldn’t deny the heartbreak that she felt without him.

  Emily pulled into the parking lot and tried to clear her head. She saw Libby with a big smile on her face, standing at the entrance with two cups of coffee. She’d been there, waiting for her every day for the last week. As Emily walked up, she handed one to her.

  “Can you see the construction at all yet?” Emily asked after thanking Libby for the coffee. She took a sip and let the warmth spread through her. It was a balmy, sunny day, but she felt cold on the inside after seeing the house.

  Libby shook her head. “They haven’t knocked down trees yet on this side. I know they’ve started, though. I already have invoices for materials from the architects.”

  Emily took a deep breath and let it out.

  “Try to get your mind off of it.” Libby said.

  “It’ll be okay,” Emily told her friend.

  “It’s a go for the regatta by the way,” Libby said, her eyebrows raised in excitement.

  “Oh, that’s fantastic! Now I can immerse myself in the planning of that.” Before she knew it, the summer would be over. She’d be waist deep in paperwork and planning, Rachel would probably be back to work, and Gram would be in sunny Florida. How things move along…

  Emily still wanted everyone together, happy, sitting on a back patio somewhere like they had when the summer began. At night, she thought a lot about Papa. Last night, she’d dreamed of him. He’d sat down next to her on Wiley’s pier, the water completely obscured by fog. He didn’t talk; he just held her hand while she tried to see the bay. The more she tried to see it, the more he squeezed until they were hugging out of nowhere. She was her younger self again and she could feel the cotton of his cardigan against her cheek. She took in the familiar smell of him, the strength in his protective arms, and her fear melted away.

  Emily’s phone rang in her handbag, pulling her from her thoughts. Libby offered a quiet wave, allowing her to answer the call. It was Rachel.

  “Hello?” Emily said, waving goodbye to Libby as she passed by the front desk and headed to her office.

  “I have some great news!” Rachel said.

  “You got the job?”

  “Yes! Oh, I’m scared and excited at the same time!”

  “I’m so happy for you!” She closed her office door, sat down, and turned on her computer.

  Then the line went silent, and she realized that her sister’s delight was for show. She thought she heard a sniffle. “Jeff doesn’t know if he wants to be with me anymore. He stayed with Jason last night.”

  “What? That’s ridiculous,” Emily said, frustrated. She knew how perfect Jeff and Rachel were for each other, and she just couldn’t face them splitting up. “How can he give up on all those good years that you’ve had? Just because you want to live your own life and do something that makes you happy? It makes no sense at all.”

  “Ridiculous or not, it happened. And the worst part was this morning when Clara asked for her daddy. I didn’t know what to tell her.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I told her he went to work early. I can’t lie to her indefinitely.”

  “Rach, you have to do what is right for you, and Jeff needs to support that. I can’t believe that he isn’t. He’s always supported everything you’ve done. And I know that this might change the way in which you go through life, but it shouldn’t change whether or not you go through life together!”

  “It’s simply not what he wants for his family.” She got quiet and Emily allowed the silence. “I just always thought he was perfect for me. I guess I was wrong.”

  “I’m coming over,” she said. Emily had already gotten up from her desk and was fishing in her bag for her keys. Rachel needed her.

  “No, no. Stay at work.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “It won’t solve anything if you come. It’ll just disrupt your day.”

  “Then disrupt it. Who cares? It’s just work. You and Jeff are family and we need to figure this out.”

  “Well, we won’t figure it out right now. Go back to work and I’ll call you if anything changes.”

  Emily was frustrated, but she knew that it was something Rachel and Jeff would have to work through. “Life doesn’t end up the way we expect it to, does it?”

  “Not at all.”

  “When do you start?”

  “In two weeks.”

  “That’s awesome. You’ll be great! I’ll be here if you need me.”

  “Thank you. Well, I should be going. I just wanted to tell you the news. Have a good day at work.”

  Emily said her goodbyes, settled in at her desk, and then scrolled through her emails. There was nothing new—no requests for tours, no inquiries regarding facility rentals. She checked her phone. Nothing there. She even searched online for property listings for her and Gram briefly, and there were a few hopefuls she made a note to call. It was a slow day, and she didn’t want a slow day. She wanted to be overwhelmed with work so she didn’t have to think about everything. She picked up her office phone and decided to begin planning the regatta.

  She set out scribbling down initial plans. With every idea, she felt more energized, more focused than she’d been in a long time. She was in her element. This was what she was meant to do. She searched for possible vendors and advertising options, she scouted locations in Clearwater where she could begin the race. As she planned, she imagined all those beautiful sailboats gliding past the inn. How stunning it would be.

  By the time she left work, Emily had made a sizeable list of things she’d need to work out for the regatta, and she was feeling accomplished.

  But she wanted to share her good mood with someone. She wanted to talk about nothing and everything, and she knew just the person she wanted to speak to. Emily took out her phone but then put it back in her bag. She wouldn’t let herself call him. It was clear by his silence that he’d made his choice.

  Twenty-Five

  “They’re starting to clear the land from this side,” Libby said as she looked out the great window in the entrance to the inn. “I can see them lining up just out of sight of the guests.” They’d been watching all week.

  Emily shuffled up beside her, her heart pounding a hundred miles an hour. There was a considerable amount of acreage between the clearing of the farmhouse and the inn, so, even with those trees gone, it would probably take a few weeks before she could see the fate of her old house.

  She was glad to be leaving work to take Gram to the doctor. She didn’t want to have to think about Oyster Bay—it brought her back to all that sadness. If she thought about it, just like when she’d lost loved ones, it would pull her back into that grief. She wrapped up the last few items she had on her list for that morning, said goodbye to Libby, and headed out into the sunshine.

  As she got into her car, Emily checked her phone. To her complete surprise, she saw a text from Charlie:

  I still miss you.

  She stared at it, the thrill of knowing he missed her swallowing her up. She couldn’t move; she was frozen with the phone in her hand. She missed him so much she couldn’t stand it, but he’d gotten everything he wanted and it was at her expense. He hadn’t shown her anything to prove that he would ever consider her feelings.

  She decided to wait to text him back, unsure of how she wanted to respond. She dropped her phone into her bag and started the car.

  “Your tests all look good, you have a normal EKG. But you’ll need to continue the medication I prescribed,” the doctor said to Gram as Emily stood with her in the small exam room.

  “That’s fine,” Gram said with an uncomfortable smile. Was she just as worried about being
far away from them as Emily was?

  “I’d take it easy for the next few months,” the doctor said as he read something in her chart. Then, he flipped the papers over and slipped them into a folder. “Do you have any questions for me, Ms. Tate?”

  “None at the moment,” Gram said.

  “Well give me a call if you feel anything unusual—shortness of breath, or any side effects from the medication. Otherwise, you’re shipshape.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  As quickly as he’d entered, he exited, leaving Emily and Gram to collect their things and head back out to the reception area.

  “I found a couple places we could check out if you decide to stay,” Emily said as they walked through the double doors leading to the front of the building.

  “Well…” Gram walked through the door, leaning heavily on her cane, as Emily held it open for her. “I’m not sure about living in Clearwater if I’m not at Oyster Bay. I just don’t feel like I belong anywhere else. But I don’t want to leave you girls.”

  They entered the lobby, the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Emily was sad that Gram couldn’t imagine living here without Oyster Bay, but at the same time, she liked that Gram felt sentimental about it.

  They walked outside, the blue sky above them full of pillow-like clouds. One slid in front of the sun, giving relief from the intense rays. “I wish you’d stay. I couldn’t believe it when you said you were moving to Florida. It was such a surprise.”

  “Life is full of surprises. Enjoy them.”

  “It’s hard to sometimes.”

  “Hello?” Emily said into her phone as she walked the aisle of the supermarket, browsing for something to make for dinner that night.

  “Hey,” Rachel said.

  Emily was so glad to hear her sister’s voice. She worried about her. The last time Emily had called to ask about Jeff, Rachel had said he still hadn’t been home, and Clara was crying more at school, making Rachel worry about her choices. But today, it was clear by her voice, her sister didn’t want to talk about her problems.

  “Have you been by the farm?” her sister asked, something nervous in her voice.

  “No, why?” Emily had stopped driving past the farmhouse because she wanted to move on with things, but Rachel’s question made her wish she had. She should’ve taken in every single minute of the view of the woods because soon it would probably be a parking lot.

  “You need to go see it right now,” she said urgently.

  “I don’t want to.” She wasn’t far from it at the moment; she was only a few minutes’ drive from there.

  “When I saw it, I couldn’t believe it. I know it’s hard to go back, but you have to see what they’ve done.”

  “It’s not the same, is it?”

  There was a long silence. Emily hung on the sound of it, not wanting to hear an answer for fear it would be the wrong one. Then, her fears were confirmed.

  “No.”

  “Why won’t you just tell me?”

  “Because I think you need to see it for yourself.”

  Emily could hear the sniffle in her sister’s words and she could tell that she was crying. What had Charlie done? “Okay, I’ll go,” she said, feeling her chest tighten with anxiety. She didn’t want to go, but Rachel’s insistence had made her curious, and she’d see it eventually anyway.

  She got off the phone, left the groceries in the cart, and ran outside to get back into her car. As she drove, the wind in her hair and the radio on low, the announcer chirping away, completely unaware of the heaviness that surrounded her, she tried not to picture what Oyster Bay had become. Flashes of pavement, new construction, barren land with only cookie-cutter landscaping, the natural trees all gone, the shoreline immaculately shaped. She cranked up the radio and took in a deep breath, her hands shaking.

  The drive seemed to take forever, the roads stretching out before her, seemingly endless. She’d taken a different route to work every day, coming in from the other side, but even the longer route hadn’t seemed as long as this. The closer she got, however, the slower she drove. She wanted to savor the last few moments before the image of new construction on her papa’s land was burned into her consciousness forever.

  When she finally arrived, Emily pulled her car up alongside the main road that ran in front of Gram’s old property, and she had to close her gaping mouth. At the end of the drive, still covered in trees, right at the street, was a very familiar blue BMW and Charlie was leaning against the back of it, his legs crossed at the ankle, his hands propping him up. He was grinning from ear to ear.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, after getting out of the car. She shut the door and walked up to him. “You’re back from New York?”

  “I never left. I’ve been overseeing the construction. Take a walk with me?”

  The construction on the other side hadn’t taken down the trees completely, so she had no idea what she was about to see. She didn’t know what to expect, but she couldn’t squash the feeling of hope that he’d saved Papa’s house, even though she knew that would be ridiculous. It was just wishful thinking, her hopes already feeling crushed.

  “Close your eyes,” he said as they walked down the drive toward where the house had been. She took in the smell of pine, briny air, and seawater—this place had a scent all its own and it overwhelmed her as she walked blindly toward it.

  “Are you going to show me that you’ve left Papa’s house exactly the way it was and you aren’t going to build on the land after all?” she guessed as she stumbled along the rocks in the drive. He caught her and steadied her.

  “No,” he said, causing her confusion.

  “Have you started building then?”

  “We’re finished.”

  It all made no sense, and the walk was so long that the anticipation was killing her. She couldn’t wait to open her eyes, but as they walked, hand in hand, his fingers caressing hers, she didn’t want their little walk to end either.

  “I’m glad to see you,” he said.

  She tried to answer him but she couldn’t talk.

  He chuckled.

  “Okay. Open your eyes.”

  She stared at the structure in front of her. It was Oyster Bay, but it was some kind of heavenly version of it. The bright white siding shone in the sun, the porch—completely repaired and painted to its original form—now full of rocking chairs, deep green ferns hanging in the open spaces between the posts and pots of red geraniums lining the stairs like they had when she was a child.

  “How did you know it used to look like this?” she asked, barely able to get the words out. Her skin prickled with the emotion of it all.

  “I saw it in your photos.”

  The old walkway with her handprints was still there. The yard was full of grass again, sodded in thick green, making her want to walk in it to feel the cool under her feet that she’d felt as a girl.

  “Would you like to see more?” Charlie asked, leading her around back.

  Emily nodded, unable to speak for fear that she’d start to sob. Was this what Rachel had seen? Was this why she’d been crying? They walked along the side of the house where the old sea grass still was. When she got to the back of the house, the tears finally came.

  Papa’s shed was there, but it was completely repainted and restored to its original form, and beside it, his boat sat along the edge like some sort of nautical landscaping, the seat with the tackle box painting like a little bench while the rest of the boat was full of pots with yellow and white wild daisies. The entire back yard was bright green—more perfect grass—all the way to the beach where Charlie had kept the small hill and the wild grasses to prevent erosion. As she let her focus fall on the yard, the old tractor path through the woods was now gravel, lined with sandy-soil shade-loving plants to make a natural border.

  Charlie was watching her, his happiness undeniable, and she could hardly stand to look at him. She wanted to throw her arms around him and thank him for this, but she still
wasn’t sure what was going on—she’d seen the clearing of the trees beginning from the inn’s side—and the emotion of seeing it all was overwhelming.

  “Let’s take a look at the patio,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her gently toward the area where the patio and the screened porch were.

  She gasped as she walked up the steps. The entire back of the house had been transformed. The porch had been restored, the paddle fans whirring, and there were more ferns and rocking chairs. The newly whitewashed staircase fanned out at the bottom level, which contained more potted plants, wrought iron furniture, and a bright red patio umbrella.

  “I hope you don’t mind. I made some repairs to the roofline on this side and lifted the patio up a few feet,” he said as they stood together facing the house. “Because”—he turned her around—“now you can see the entire bay.” She clapped her hand over her mouth, her chest heaving up and down. She wiped the tears that were falling freely now. Just past the fire pit, her little spot on the bay was still there. The beach, that powdery sand, still there.

  But better than all that was the lone chair—Papa’s chair—in its same exact form, sitting empty, facing the bay just as Papa had placed it. How did he get all of this?

  Her eyes couldn’t stay still long enough to focus, but she could almost make out, against the pier, a little, wooden fishing boat like her Papa’s tied to the post, bobbing in the water.

  “I got you a new boat. This one is yours. There are brand new fishing supplies in the shed. Would you like to see the inside of the house?” Charlie asked, her emotion clearly affecting him. He cleared his throat.

  “Yes,” she said in nearly a whisper.

  They walked the few steps to the back door and Charlie let her enter first. The old counters and the sink that lined the back wall had all been renovated—everything was like new. The kitchen table was there, the floors still rustic planks of hardwood, now perfectly even. She opened a cabinet, marveling at the beauty of the knobs now that they were shined—the cabinet was full of hand-painted wine and margarita glasses. She looked over at Charlie.